It's Friday. No Content Here.

Wanna know what the chocolate was used for in a science project? Well, first Impera made some instant vanilla pudding:

She also used a long-handled spoon to shape the melted chocolate chips:

This morning, she combined the two parts:

And that's how you recreate this:

Tectonic plates. Sweet!

I thought it would be cool if she pressed down on the plates during her presentation to show earthquakes, and if she had left a hole in one of the pieces (say, Hawaii), then she could have shown an erupting volcano, too. But no. The wiggly-jiggly is enough. Other kids used things like edible peanut butter playdough (may I just say, "eww, gross"?) shaped around a half an orange, all placed in a round bowl (bowl = the crust) to represent the layers of the earth (may I just say, the combination of orange with peanut butter playdough sounds even more gross?)

On a separate note, for Valentines I downloaded some pdfs from The Toymaker. From the Valentine page, I made celtic boxes for Impera and Trixie and the magic box of hearts for the Consort. I then filled the boxes with chocolate truffles and little heart notes. If you have some cardstock and a color printer, then go take a look at the fun paper crafts Marilyn Scott-Waters offers on this neat site. Why didn't I share this with you earlier in the week? Because I wanted to keep my valentines a surprise, and I'm a bad blog friend that way. Don't count on me to tell you about a fabulous prize online until after I've had a chance to register first, and maybe even win. 'Cause if you don't register, that would increase my chance of winning by 0.000000034%, and every little bit counts.

Don't worry. I'm doing penance. Today I have to clean up the office, which over the past few weeks has morphed from a working office to a pig sty. Think I'm joking?

Think again.

PS: I've found the bestest time to go to the university gym. Not at 8:30 a.m., because that's when the diehard sporty-types go (this is a college campus, so these are considered the "early risers"). Not at 10 a.m. because that's when the people who recognize the importance of balancing a good exercise regimen with a good sleep regimen (and who have wisely not scheduled any morning classes) go. But at 12:30 p.m., the machines are mostly free, and the place is populated with profs, who are, of course, my age group. Although, because I know these people socially, some of them want to chat. But let me tell you, when I'm walking backwards up a hill on an elliptical machine, there's no breath left for chatting. I admit I've told one to shut up (kindly) when he wanted to start a conversation. Dont' they realize I'm listening to my rave mix on my iPod? I can barely hear them, anyway!