Getting ready for school (?)

I am officially at the end of my vacation. That's right, folks, Christmas is over; New Year's festivities are done and it's time to get back to work. Tomorrow I start teaching 2 courses (this will be a light semester for me).

Each class is at the highest level of our program; the majority of the students are heading off to regular college courses in September. It's my job to get them able to handle the oral components of college (presentation skills, understandable pronunciation, grammatical accuracy while speaking, being as close to native fluency as possible) and note-taking/understanding academic lectures. The fate of their academic careers in Canada rests in my hands. Not really, but it seems like it sometimes.

To prepare for this semester what am I doing this evening? I'm trying out my slow cooker! I mean, OUR slow cooker. Darren's brother & sister-in-law gave it to us for Christmas but it was quickly decided that it would be put to better use at my apartment.

I really do like cooking...to some extent. I love chopping vegetables and mixing stuff together. I like experimenting with ingredients (with some basis of what WON'T go together) when my cupboards are a little sparse. But I have little patience for watching food cook or ensuring it doesn't burn. Why didn't I get one of these machines years ago?

I'm hoping this becomes a fabulous time-saving tool for years to come and not something that I use for a time and then forget about. (...kind of like the breadmaker back in the 90s...) But even if the crock pot eventually finds a semi-permanent resting place under the counter, I'll at least have lunch for the next week!