Thursday, December 9, 2010: 10:10 a.m.

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "Subbing in high schools tends to be pretty easy because the kids are more or less self-sufficient. During this job, most of the class involved the students working independently while I sat and read or tried to plan my life. No complaints."

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "IU's Sample Gates is my favorite part on campus. I'm too busy to really think about the holidays, but the wreathes remind me that I'm going home soon!"

Maggie (Austin, TX): "This morning I was on a super secret mission picking out a Christmas present for my mom before we met for lunch. This awesome 4 foot tall, azul colored chiminea is gonna look so great on her patio. I loving giving presents at Christmas!!"

Saturday, November 27, 2010: 10:10 a.m.

Megan (Bloomington, IN): I usually have traditional Thanksgivings in Louisiana (except for those few times I spent them in Chinatown/China...), but my Thanksgiving in Indiana was the first time I've had traditional food with creative twists!

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "I had a reallllly late night the day before Thanksgiving, so the following morning was slow. Fortunately my big Thanksgiving meal wasn't until late afternoon, so I didn't have to make things like pumpkin pie and roasted Brussels sprouts until later in the day. I spent most of that morning wandering around the house in an 'I went to bed too late' stupor and lying in my bed."

Maggie (Lake Charles, LA): I spent Thanksgiving this year back home in Louisiana at my brother's house. I was really happy to go home and take a break from Austin/School life, even if I felt guilty for not doing much homework while I was away. I did work on a group powerpoint presentation while I watched the Saints dominate the Cowboys! Who Dat!!

Saturday, November 20, 2010: 10:10 a.m.

Maggie (Austin, TX): "Gumbo and vanilla tea: brunch of champions. Today marks the beginning of the 2 week crunch before classes are over and finals are due - that equates to not enough time for anything, and drinking lots of caffeine. I cannot wait to go home for the holidays :)"

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "Today began as cold and foggy. It's a good thing I have hot chocolate, music, and colorful leaf decorations!"

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "I work at a local independent bookstore on Saturdays. It's a fun job, and when business is slow, I can read or do homework or whatever I want. This is my view from the register."

Wednesday, November 17, 2010: 10:10 a.m.

Maggie (Austin, TX): "I've started wanting to do crosswords again lately, so I decided to pick up The Daily Texan to see how difficult it was. Lets just say I needed some help after not getting too far. It was still fun to do the sudoku for the day and take a quick break from work."

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "I'm convinced that my school's building (SPEA) has the ugliest exterior on IU's campus, but I really like how the inside has an open center where people can come together to study and talk. It's like a real collaborative SPEA community!"

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "I spent most of Wednesday in the library working on a classroom management plan for school. It has a lot of different parts, so I made a checklist for it. It's really not that exciting. And by the time this picture is posted, it still won't be done."

Wednesday, November 10, 2010: 10:10 p.m.

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "I read through some articles about Chinese climate change laws for my group's paper, which will compare US and Chinese climate change laws and policy. Naturally, I volunteered to write the Chinese section of the paper!"

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "That lovely fuchsia stuff in the bowl is none other than beet hummus. So delicious. My friend made it and we ate the entire bowl between the two of us while sipping tea (decaf, of course). It was a lovely way to spend a Wednesday night."

Maggie (Austin, TX): "I've been very busy these past few weeks with work and group projects and research papers so much so that my roommate claims to not recognize me anymore. This Wednesday night, I was on campus with my group working on our Culture Audit assignment way past 10:10pm. Here's the view from where I was sitting..."

Saturday, November 6, 2010: 10:10 p.m.

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "Last night at around 10:10, I tried to get my roommate's dog Molly to play with me. However, clearly molly wanted to go outside and kept staring at Natalie until she let her out!"

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "I failed to bring my camera to the wine and cheese party I attended on the night that the other girls took their pictures. My picture from the following morning is reminiscent of that night, however, as I refilled a water bottle yet again... I guess I let my night dehydrate me a little bit."

Maggie (Austin, TX): "This weekend was my department's big semester program, The CHANGE Institute. 40 undergrads voluntarily attended and together we talked about social justice issues in current events (The Dream Act, Muslims in America, and the recently publicized LGBTQ bullying and suicides). My pic is of some of the buttons we gave to our students as tokens to remember to be the change they wish to see in the world."

Saturday, October 30, 2010: 10:10 p.m.

Maggie (Austin, TX): "Lone Star is the national beer of Texas - just ask any billboard you see around Austin, and they'll set you straight. Halloween was lots of fun with my friends and the aforementioned national beer by our sides. I acted like Julia Child all night, telling everyone what I'd be cooking later on. This little house party was a nice break from school work, but now its the last month of the semester, eek!"

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "I went to see Shreveport Opera's production of Don Giovanni. I grew up going to symphony concerts and operas all the time, but I had never seen this one. I loved it a lot. I had to take this picture a little after 10:10, immediately after the opera ended, because I couldn't just mess with Mozart. Brilliant."

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "Saturday night I went to see the opera Little Women. I honestly was not a fan of the show - the music was too strident, the plot was slow, and the songs were too reflective and repetitive. My friends and I went home and watched the movie to make ourselves feel better. At least we got to dress up and see the cool building!"

Thursday, October 21, 2010: 10:10 a.m.

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "I intern 10 hours a week at a youth development nonprofit in Bloomington. The place is always full of games, positive attitudes, dedicated staff, and FOOD! I saw these trendy pumpkins when I arrived this morning, and I'm pumped about the Halloween Party it's throwing next week (and all other Halloween parties that I'll attend)!"

Maggie (Austin, TX): "Working as a graduate assistant means the university gets cheap labor from a student who will jump at the mention of free food. It also means I get to use this sweet Mac and have a shiny name tag and business cards. They even let me decorate my side of the cubicle (which I'm still working on doing)! It is, as you would say, legit."

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "A morning off meant that I had time to do things like make pumpkin pancakes and go for a lovely four-mile run. This is my post-run snack of a clementine and a rice cake with peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon."

Sunday, October 10, 2010: 10:10 p.m. on 10-10-10

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "I study Chinese a few times a week in order improve/maintain what I learned while in China, and I'm really excited about my new Chinese book! I'd much rather study this than stats, which makes my Chinese tutor very happy=) I'm lucky to have such a sweet tutor (she's a freshman with amazing English). Although IU has a large Chinese population, I don't want to be a creeper and speak Chinese to random students!"

Maggie (Austin, TX): "The Austin City Limits Festival was this weekend, and I went with my friend Jennifer, her husband, and a bunch of his Norwegian friends. The weather was great, the bands were on beat, and I had an awesome time discovering new sounds and dance moves while drinking countless Sweet Leafs. I didn't even get sun burned! After the long weekend, Jen happened to be in hanging in my apartment for the memorable moment. Happy 10.10.10 everyone, make a wish!"

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "My intention was to be in bed by about 10:10 on this particular night due to the fact that I had to be up and at a school very early the next morning. This plan didn't work out so well because I tend to procrastinate on everything ever. When I should have been getting ready to sleep, I was still at my school's library working on a lesson plan that was due the following day, trying to turn my written notes (minus the doodles of my name) into something typed and cohesive."

Thursday, October 7, 2010: 10:10 p.m.

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "Last I banged my head against some stats for a few hours. Statistics is a great concept, but learning how to do it is a lot of work (for example, if the average wait-time for a table at a restaurant is 20 minutes, I can calculate the probability that someone will have to wait 25 minutes or longer)! To comfort myself, I made some lime water! I got hooked on hot water in China, and I add some lime water to make it tasty/soothing. This may be me again tonight...no rest for the grad student!"

Maggie (Austin, TX): "Austin is known for its bars on 6th street, but I tend to gravitate toward more hole-in-the-wall beer joints with a jukebox and the occasional texas country house band. Don's Depot is an old dive down 5th with a dance floor and a caboose as part of the seating area. I think the best part of it is the ladies bathroom, painted up like a caboose'n'carnival wonderland, complete with a shag carpeted raised nook and pole where you can peek out over the whole place."

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "After a long day of a classroom observation, last-minute homework, substitute teaching, class, and my weekly radio show, all I wanted when I finally got home was some hot tea. So I put the kettle on and only had the energy to stand there and wait for my water to boil."

Saturday, October 2, 2010: 10:10 p.m.

Maggie (Austin, TX): "Austin has the largest bat colony in the US, with over 1.5 million bats just hanging out underneath the Congress Street Bridge. My friends Alex and Reed live right next to the bridge and invited my roommate Miranda and I to finally go see the bats, an Austin must. Post bats and after an amazing dinner, we hung around playing tiny instruments and hanging out with Alex's wall bat. Just another night in Austin."

Megan (Bloomington, IN):"Hello, live music! I went to my first show in Bloomington at the Bluebird, and now I want to go back every night! At 10:10, we rocked out to the opening band for Who's Bad, the Michael Jackson cover band. I wish that the Michael Jackson cover band had actually played at 10:10, but the opening band's guitarist was kind of cute!"

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA...sort of): "I drove an hour to Longview, TX to see a symphony concert. I'd been craving some culture and live music, so it was great to spend a Saturday evening with some Handel, Barber, Bartok, and Brahms. I sadly left my camera in Louisiana, so this is a cell phone picture of the interstate somewhere in East Texas on the drive home."

Sunday, September 26, 2010: 10:10 a.m.

Maggie (Austin, TX): "I'm a tea drinker now that I live in Austin, not really because Austinites drink lots of tea, but because I bought a cute red tea kettle and simply must use it as much as possible. It goes well with my back porch, a nice refuge tucked away in a friendly oak tree. I think I'll like this place."

Megan (Bloomington, IN): "This is my favorite section of Bloomington's bike path, because I can coast downhill and back up so fast that I feel like I'm flying. Bloomington is famous for its Little 500 bike race, and I'm excited to live in a city that's bike-friendly! Not only do the streets actually have bike lanes, but a bike co-op teaches bike maintenance and reuses parts from old bikes to reconstruct better ones."

Gretchen (Shreveport, LA): "The weather is finally cooling down here, meaning that I can run outside more! I did a little over five miles and finished around 10 a.m., so at 10:10 I was cooling down on the back porch, drinking water and still listening to happy music on my iPod. Lovely."

About Tinker Time

We're three friends, now in three different grad program across the U.S. (Austin, TX; Bloomington, IN; and Shreveport, LA). Starting this week, we'll keep in touch by photographing and posting our Tinker Time moments!

An Irish teacher at my high school used to say, "It's tinker time!" whenever it was 10:10. I've always liked this phrase, and we have chosen Tinker Time as our blog's unifying theme. The day of the week will vary, but this week we have chosen to capture Sunday at 10:10 am. Check back soon to see our lives!