After taking some time away due to a busy work schedule, I've come back around to the next step in our project. With the concept now established, the room cleared of junk and the inspiration in place, we added something new to the mix: a bassinet.

Pink, fluffy, your basic fru-fru. With lights and music and...a vibrator? Yeah, it vibrates. Loudly. That'll need some adjusting...

It's cute, though, especially with the Hello Kitty pillow we bought. This of course, won't stay in this room. We just keep it here to keep Robbie from using it as some sort of raisin/Cheerio/sippy-cup storage unit.

Gather the elements

Looking over the calendar, I noticed that at least half of the artwork was seasonal in some way or another. Not much generic stuff to work with, but I found enough get me going. I had originally planned to just sketch the art ON THE WALL, and go back with paint and finalize it. As it turns out, that would've been the worst approach ever.

Well, we turned in the take-home test, and all I can do now is cross my fingers. Not only did I not have it done until fifteen minutes before class started, but I hadn't even finished the chapter homework.

And yes, we've already dove headlong into Chapter 4, which our professor promised us would be even more gruesome. To put it in his terms, "the internal surgery of speaking Spanish is about to get a whole lot more complicated."

At this point, I'm doing good to memorize things. The actual learning will have to come later.

However, there is one break in the torment. The Houston Museum of Fine is currently holding an exhibition, The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico: Treasures from the Museo Franz Mayer. And besides all of the historical and cultural importance that it carries, there's also another good thing about it. With one written paragraph on each of the areas of the collection, we can make the equivalent credits of a test grade for the class. It's just too good to turn down, I say.

Returning from Spring Break is never easy, but it seems even more difficult when you've got other things on your mind. That and I'm dog tired.

We got our third test back and I made a 90. Whoopee.

I haven't even figured out where we left off yet, and the class is already plowing through the next chapter. Damn.

We also received our next test... to take home... and we haven't even finished the chapter. That alone should say something about how hard things are getting.

This week's classes passed without much fanfare. Here's the quick run-down. We ate at Don Carlos, conveniently tucked away in the depths of East Houston. The dinner was expensive, enough that I had expected great swaths of food to be laid before me. All I got was chips and salsa for about an hour.

We arrived first, picked our seats and proceeded to wait. Our professor arrived next and sat conveniently across from us. The rest of the class? Well, some showed up late, others not at all. With a party of thirty-plus on a Monday night, the service was less than spectacular. The whole evening probably wasn't worth the money, but it was interesting to see everyone outside of the classroom environment.

And of course, no one really learned much, but I'm thinking maybe that wasn't the point.

More lessons on adjectives and forms of verbs, more studying pronouns. The strain is becoming unbearable! I don't even remember enough about what we did in class to write about it. All I can remember is that our teacher made it a point to ask someone to ask me what I eat for breakfast.

Student 1:"¿Que comes en la manana?"
Me: *searching for the words*
Teacher: "¿Comes menudo? �Comes juevos? �Que comes?"
Me: "Como cereal."
Teacher: *a bunch of stuff that amounts to "what kind? what flavor?"
Me: "Uh, whatever. I don't know."
Carol: "Come Captain Crunch!"
Student 1: "Rice Krispies!"
Student 2: "Cheerios!"
Student 3: "Froot Loops!"
Teacher: "¿Que? ¿Captain Krispies? ¡Bah! ¡No es cereal!"
Me: "I guess."

Our next test is coming up soon, and I'm sure it's gonna be a killer. I'm so not ready for the next chapter.