Ok, my real vacation hasn’t happened yet.  In a few weeks, I’ll go traipsing around Glacier National Park and explore all that Montana has to offer.  But for the last month or so, I’ve been teaching an electrical engineering class for high school girls as part of the Women’s Technology Program. It was great fun.

Popular consensus was that learning to solder was the best part of the class. Man, if you want girls to feel empowered, just give them a hot iron and tell them to go melt metal. It works really well.

What did we solder? Jewelry. We’re girls.

(Well, we also soldered some heart-shaped circuits… because we’re girls who like things that light up. See here.)

I didn’t want to be left out of the fun, so I made some jewelry too. I thought about where I would wear jewelry made of wire and resistors. I’m going to be in a wedding in August, so first I thought I would make blue earrings to match the bridesmaid dress that I’ll be wearing. Then I thought that the bride wouldn’t really appreciate that.

So I thought some more. And finally made these.

Where will I wear such hideous, tacky earrings? My 5th reunion is coming up next spring. I’ll fit right in with this guy.

Photo is courtesy of the Princeton University Alumni Association. And some awesome dude in the class of ‘42.