Worry All Around

Worry 1: My parents and my nephew are driving up here tomorrow from SC. Ernesto is scheduled to hit them in a couple hours, and their driving path, unless they change it drastically, will take them north along the projected path of the storm. I need to call them now.

Worry 2: (far more minor) Tae Kwon Do testing is just 6 hours away, and, with little to distract me, I am a wreck. It's mostly because I had a really bad class yesterday - nothing was going right. I know: confidence, focus, and all that.

Die Popups Die!

Well, I figured it out. My tagboard was causing the popups. So that's gone for good, and as a side benefit my HD is looking a lot cleaner and happier now. It just took a couple hours to do it.

Because of this change I decided that I would open up comments on this blog to all rather than limiting it to Blogger accounts only.

Oh, it's just a thrill a minute at The Slightly Mad Housewife Rides Again!

Goin' on a Wild Spyware Hunt

I'm not scared,
Got my gun,
My slingshot,
My rubber band,
And my bubble gum.

Uh-oh, do you see what I see?

SPYWARE.
Evil spyware.
Computer-wreckin' spyware.

Can't go over it,
Can't go under it,
Can't go 'round it,
Gotta go through it!

(if you didn't get the above it just means you didn't spend enough time away at summer camp as a kid, so don't worry LOL)

As per the previous post I decided to go spyware hunting to see if I could get rid of those nasty pop-ups that come up with my page, courtesy of my long-time nemesis ValueClick. So far I've run Ad-Aware, Spybot-Search and Destroy, and Ewido (in that order). Each of them came up with about 50 items, which I immediately dispatched, including ValueClick stuff from the latter two programs, but to no avail. I'm absolutely stumped.

Grrr. Back to the digging...

A Message Primarily Directed To But Not About AZJade

Hi babe! Normally I'd do this through emaiil, but it's got some info that other readers might want to see. Come visit more often - I miss you! (Curse those busy real and virtual lives you have LOL).

OK. Blogger Beta is the latest and greatest blog management and editing tools for Blogger. The thing is, it states explicitly that if you switch to using the beta the change is permanent. And it's a *beta*, not a finished product, which means:

Ooooh! Cool new features! Ooooh. New bugs.

Sometimes these things are worth the bother, sometimes not.

Now about those damned pop-ups. Yes, I know. Ugh. I have to keep my pop-up blocker on all the time or it's just maddening. I clear out my system about once a month with Ad-Aware, but it's not picking up everything, or I'm picking up the script over and over again from someplace in my usual Internet rounds. I suppose I should try digging it out again, but I'm happy to take suggestions. Please, oh God please, help me out here people!

Victory!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I got a pre-K slot for Zipper at Rascal's school! So *ahem* it bears saying again:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

We had to take a morning slot, so it's not ideal, but it's a lot better than the shenanigans that I would have had to go through to make things work at the other school.

Unfortunately, it means getting up 20 minutes earlier, because pre-K starts before the elementary classes, and for the same reason, I have a very minor dilemma because the elementary students are not allowed in the building until 15 minutes after pre-K starts. So I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to do with Rascal in the interim. You can be sure that we do not want to be standing outside the school every morning once the weather starts turning to typical Buffalo wintry crap.

But I'll take it! Oh, that is such a load off my mind...

Guest blogging

Apparently one of the biggest issues all creative activities suffer from is the eventual diminishment of the creative muse when repeated deadlines are required.

Thus, I bring you the guest blogger.

So, this is Ironwolf here, guest blogger.

I'm going to blog about something so esoteric, that perhaps I will never have to endure the agony of compositional writing again. After all, I write all day at work. Why would I want to guest blog? Because my sweet S.M.H. asked me to, that's why.

So...topic...electrical consumer product technical compliance service providers. (esoteric, no?)

In my business, we are a priovider of technical consulting and compliance services. We manufacture nothing. We (supposedly) get paid by providing consulting, and independant evaluation.

No one wants to pay to have people tell them things. The internet makes it all free. To paraphrase Billy Idol's Cyberpunk "All information should be free;it is not".

Anyhow party A may hire us to see if party B did everything they need to have to have legal compliance. Party B trys to fake their way through things saying ..."oh yes, we have everything, just could you tell us if this particular line in our instruction manual would be acceptable as requred by the federal regulations for unintentional radiating Class B digital devices." Well of course I can...but I won't. This isn't a charity. The real problem is Party B never did their compliance homework, and they're looking to have us help them out (by giving answers one at a time in the emial. If you did your compliance work, you'd have the answers already. Or to sum up with the punchline:

One would expect one's certification lab to provide one one's needed compliance information completely. And if one's certification lab does not so provide, one would suggest they change compliance providers.

Hire us...a la Jerry McGuire "Show me the money!"

Rant over. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog. (Poor S.M.H. - Husband's job can get dreadfully dry sometimes !)

Verizon Please Come Visit

it seems like everywhere I am bombarded with ads for Verizon DSL. And yet every time I visit their web page I see it's not available in my area yet. Please, please stop the full page ads, you're only taunting me!

I am *so* desperate for high-speed internet, but I do not want to pay the atrocious amount for a cable modem through Time-Warner (formerly Adelphia). Help please!

BTW, has anyone tried Blogger beta yet? Is it worthwhile to switch?

Random Thoughts of the Day

I went to Jester's Cap, a gaming store in Lancaster, last night with the family. It may surprise some of you, but I haven't been in a gaming store in 10 years. It felt like...home. And they seemed to like having the kids there, which is doubleplusgood (or maybe it would be more appropriately geeky to type it as ++good) in my book. So I indulged my current metal fetish and bought some more Sisters Repentia for my Warhammer 40K army-in-progress and a mini with a vague resemblance to my current D&D character. Ironwolf, for his part, couldn't resist picking up a set of brass dice. Oooooh....shiny....

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It's more fun to drink tea from those little Chinese teacups that only hold 1-2 oz. rather than regular teacups, and it's way more fun to drink sake from the little sake cups, and it's more fun to eat mini marshmallows than regular ones (except roasted, of course). Why is smaller more fun?

*******************

Does Tori Amos get weirder and weirder with every album she puts out? Doesn't matter, of course - I like weird!

*******************

It seems weird to me that while I'm trying (not very hard) to lose some weight, that I own 35 cookbooks.

*******************

I've been daydreaming about the upcoming NHL season for about six weeks. But I am not looking forward to that nasty new diseased slug Sabres logo, and you can be darn sure I'm not going to buy any piece of merchandise with that logo upon it!

*******************

My favorite part of Star Wars: Battlefront II for the XBox is the Instant Action mission where you get to hunt Gungans (it's even more satisfying than hunting Ewoks).

"Meesa gonna die!"

That's right you bastard Jar-Jar clone, eat hot blaster fire!

Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight?

I'm 92% bred, born, raised, and still livin' here by choice Buffaloian!

You know you're from Buffalo (or surrounding area) when:
[X] I call them "chicken wings" not "Buffalo wings."
[X] I drink Labatt Blue or Molson Canadian
[X] To me, Jack Kemp is a quarterback not a VP candidate.
[X] I eat Mighty Taco not Taco Bell.
[X] Its snow, I don't freak out the second I see white flakes.
[X] I enjoy Ted's Hot Dogs, Aunt Rosie's Loganberry, Bison Chip Dip and Chiavetta's Chicken. Sponge Candy, Orange Chocolate, Sahlens Hot Dogs, and Weber Mustard.
[X] I know how to pronounce SCAJAQUADA, CHEEKTOWAGA and DEPEW.
[X] I call it pop, not soda.
[X] I drive over 70 mph on the Thruway and pass on the right.
[X] I like to order beef on "weck", and are always surprised when someone doesn't know what "weck" is.
[X] Its a sucker-not a lollipop.
[X] I call them sneakers not tennis shoes or running shoes.
[X] 4am is an early night out.
[X] I lived through Wide Right, , No Goal & The Forward Lateral
[X] I live in the 2nd largest city in NY.
[X] We have around 3 months of true summer, 2 months of spring, 2 months of fall, and 5 months of winter (part of oct, nov, dec, jan, feb, part of mar)
[ ] I still have last year's ski tickets hanging from your jacket
[X] You are amazed when people are excited to go see Niagara Falls
[X] Lake Effect snow means you will still have class, you will just be waiting a little longer at the bus stop
[X]I am proud the Bills are New York State's only football team
[X] I hate the Miami Dolphins.
[X] I call them subs not hoagies or heroes or bombers!
[X] We dont valet park unless there is absolutely no other choice.
[X] I have been threatened to be sent to Father Bakers if I dont behave.
[X] You can pronounce Weinstein correctly on the first try.
[ ] Its the Hamburg Fair not the Erie County Fair. [ShadowAngel's side note: it's definitely the EC Fair, not that stupid "America's Fair" thing!]
[X]You consider J.C. Penney to be a relatively upscale department store.
[X] Its UB - not SUNY at Buffalo, Amherst
[X] I think nothing of crossing an international border for Chinese Food.
[X] I have a favorite Greek restaurant.
[X] I no longer like Dominik Hasek
[X] I know which pizzeria is a reputed Mafia front.
[X] I bake with "soda" and drink "pop".
[X] I have gotten into fights over Anchor Bar vs Duff's (chicken wings) and Tops vs Wegmans (supermarkets)
[X] Not only do I know what it is but I look forward to "Dingus Day
[X] The rest of the country is snowbound in the worst blizzard but I still have to go to school.
[X] I have gotten frost bite and sunburn in the same weekend.
[ ] I watch Canadian television, just so I can see United States network shows an hour or two earlier.
[X] I go to Niagara Falls for the outlet shopping, not the world wonder.
[X] I slam on the brakes and slow to a crawl whenever I see the "Village of Kenmore" sign.
[X] When speaking, "the" precedes the number or name of any highway (The Scajaquada, The 33, The 290)
[X] I live in a town where there is some kind of FEST somewhere, every weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
[X] You can hold an entire conversation on the best place to go for wings, a fishfry or pizza.
[X] You not only know what the terms "snowbelt" and "lake effect" mean - you use in everyday conversations.
[ ] You live within 1 mile of a bowling alley.
[X] When you stop and ask for directions ... you expect to get them.
[ ] You keep the snowplow on the front of the truck year round.
[ ] You can compute a wind chill "factor"
[X] You have not been on the "Maid of the Mist" - unless you had out of town company.
[X] You call them "Pilot Field" and the "Aud" - no matter what the signs say.

multiply by 2.
thats your percentage

Hurry, Fix Your Science Textbooks!

Pluto is no longer officially a planet under the definintion of "planet" adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). See the full story here.

Initially on Aug. 16 there was proposed a broader definition of the word "planet" which would have raised three more satellites to the status of planet (including Pluto's moon, Charon), but after much debate the new proposal was adopted.

Too bad my Science News magazine came yesterday with an article about the original proposal and arrived at my home about 3 hours after I heard about the final decision...

ShadowAngel Tries the Back Door to Fixing The Pre-K Situation

I've come up with an idea on how to resolve Zipper's Pre-K schedule problem. Pre-K orientation is next week. Zipper's orientation is a few days after the orientation at Rascal's school, so I'm going to show up at the orientation at Rascal's school to try and make a trade directly with the parents there (or at least I'll and enlist the teacher's help).

I figure that with 40 kids between the two classes at Rascal's school I should be able to find somebody in a position where they would be happy to switch with me. Wish me luck, ok?

Rampant Capitalism 101

After tkd today (I got my last tip, and Master Chong was really happy with my form yay!) a few of us were hanging out in the parking lot talking. Good times, UNTIL the topic changed to finances.

There was one gentleman in the group, a white belt, who proceeds to lecture the three women present about his big money-making plans selling this IPod-related software that he wrote (never mind that the software is probably illegal from his description), and how he's making several hundred dollars per week selling video games on EBay, and how he's done stuff like buying sunglassses super-cheap from China and reselling them for a nice profit here. He tells us about his savings account with over $100K in it (just plain rude, if you ask me), and how he's going to buy land in Nevada because there's oil and gold there (whatever).

Well, I'm ok with most of this, even encouraging some of the discussion, but I was starting to get really angry with him. At one point I go over to one of the other students, who is a college student, and reassuringly tell her that this guy isn't really trying to dissuade her from going to college. Which, then, he immediately proceeds to do. Excuse me? Since I'm still trying to be nice, I make a little joke about how he shouldn't be trying to indoctrinate her, but he's still going on and on.

I put up with it for a couple more minutes, but sensing that this monologue was never going to end I broke up the little group for the evening.

Sheesh. Let me tell you, I would have been ok listening to this for a few minutes, nodding politely, and everybody goes on their merry way, but he was so damned *insistent* upon foistering his value system off on everyone else present.

HELLO!!! LIFE'S NOT ABOUT HOW MUCH MONEY YOU CAN ACCUMULATE BEFORE YOU DIE!!!

As soon as I get the opportunity I'm going to talk to the college girl about it, reassure her that the path she has chosen is legitimate and all that. Honestly, she shouldn't have to put up with someone ramming their philosophy down her throat before she's had the time to build up a proper cynicism and a secure sense of self.

You Mean It Didn't Go "Smash"?

In the category of lucky things that happened to ShadowAngel...

I knocked over my wine glass yesterday as I was going to wash it - from the counter...into the bottom rack of the dishwasher. Eeek! The glass landed securely between the prongs of the lower rack, entirely unharmed.

I am thanking my lucky stars for that one, because it would have been awful cleaning out broken glass from the dishwasher.

btw, I know I've been remiss in my blog reading in the past week - my apologies, but things had been crazy with VBS and the picnicky weekend and my mom in town. Got to get back into the swing of things...

Stupid Music Files, or Why the Heck Don't I Leave Well Enough Alone?

I've found that my ITunes library is an absolute mess, with incomplete song information, lots of duplicate songs, and the like. This is partially because I have music spread in different places on my hard drive, and also because a certain percentage of my music was obtained not quite legally or as independent artists (such as goofballs like me making music on the side) without album info (and sometimes even without artist names). The latter mess is only about 10-15% of my entire collection.

So I've been cleaning up directories, and consolidating files, and importing some of my CDs that didn't make it into ITunes before. It's all such a mess. I don't know why I'm bothering with this. After three hours of fiddling and fussing I still have about 250 songs that I don't quite know what to do with yet. Some of them are from compilation albums, some are strays that I don't know where they came from, a few are duplicates I haven't weeded out yet, plus a lot of simply badly labeled files that I have to sort out artists and titles and albums. it's going to take a couple more hours to process them and then rebuild the ITunes database.

And all this because I want my file structure to look pretty. Honestly, if I put as much effort into cleaning my house I'd have a much neater domicile than I do.

A Beaver Island Weekend

My family and I pretty much spent the entire weekend over at Beaver Island State Park in nearby Grand Island. Both Master Chong's (my tkd school) and Ironwolf's employer had their picnics in the same park on the same weekend. Heck, I was surprised they weren't in the same shelter!

I didn't go to Master Chong's picnic last year, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well-run their event is, particularly since it brings over 1000 students, family, and friends. There was staff supervision for parking and at the playground, plus an ambulance on-site. We didn't stay long enough for the games (due to the chilly, rainy day) so I can't tell you much about that. But I can say I've never seen so much food in one place in my life! mmmm...Korean beef...

The next day was my husband's company picnic. They always do a nice job with it, with lots of activities for the kids and lots of door prizes. We spent about half our time there out on the beach building in the sandcastle building contest. It was a coooool castle (by my inexpert castle-building standards, anyway). Too bad the only picture we have is a cell phone pic that Ironwolf won't send to me. :-( Thankfully the rain held off but it was cold again.

But tell me, what is it about these sort of gatherings that is so exhausting? I'm absolutely drained (partially because I feel a sinus infection coming on) by this weekend of goofing off!

Yet Another VBS-Related Post

I assume you're sick of these by now, but it's basically a full-time job for the week, and I'm too tired to do much else following.

BTW my shoulder is doing much better though I'm still trying to be gentle with it during the two classes I've gone to this week.

Once again I'm annoyed with my coteacher. I asked her to prepare one thing for today - the introductory material for the day, which fills about 10 minutes. Just before the start of the day she comes to me whining that she doesn't understand what she's supposed to do, or what sections from the teacher's guide to pull the material from.

*If* she had asked me beforehand - a couple weeks ago when she got the materials, or even the day before, *or* if she had actually paid attention to me when I was doing the introductions, she would have known what to do. But no, can't ask the questions until 10 minutes until showtime, can't pay attention to what I've done to get an idea of what to do...

I asked her to do ONE BLASTED THING.

But no, I ended up having to do it on the fly. *sigh*

Maybe I'm being un-Christian, but I'm really starting to not like this woman anymore.

Oh, as far as the sheep thing goes... well, most of the kids got the idea, and actually ended up making something that vaguely looked like sheep, although a couple just turned their pages into a solid mass of cotton balls with googly eyes glued on them.

They're really good kids - though let me tell you, they are HIGH ENERGY! I've been conking out every afternoon.

So tomorrow's the last day, but immediately following I'm hosting most of my (more immediate) extended family at my house because my mother is up from SC for a couple days. So tonight along with all the VBS stuff I have to get ready, I also have to clean my house and get some food prepared. It's gonna be a long night...(thank goodness I bought some Monster energy drink (lo-carb of course) to get me through tomorrow (caffeine junkie that I am))...

Why Am I Surrounded By Yahoos?

So instead of reading that horrible understatement of the year (see last post), I decided to ask the kids how they think the Jews would have felt. Their response?

"SAD!"

Oh, man.... LOL

OK, regarding the subject line: So today in class I had the kids making hand sheep. Here's a representative sample made by me this evening, and never mind my lack of artistic skill:



I gave my co-teacher the task of making the children's handprints (by painting their hands and pressing on a piece of paper) while I was in charge of washing up the painted children down the hall.

As I'm leaving the room, I notice that my coteacher is making the hand prints with the fingers all together. No... spread the fingers apart, it's supposed to be 4 legs and a head....

A little later when I'm almost done washing up little hands my teenage assistant comes to me with one of the sheep with cotton balls glued on.... one at the end of each finger. No.... umm...sheep's bodies are fuzzy, not their noses and feet...

Ugh. [ShadowAngel looks skyward] Maybe it's my fault for not being more specific.

Most of the kids couldn't finish them today anyway because the paint was still wet. Therefore, my example piece shown above. I made an example of tomorrow's project too because I can't trust my co-teacher to be able to figure it out.

I Can't Do It, I Just CAN'T!

Please don't make me read this to the children tomorrow during the Bible story:

*ahem*

"The Jewish people were sad when they heard that it was the law for all of them to die."

Hello! Can you say "understatement of the millenium"! They were sad. How watered-down can your theology get? LOL

2 Days Down, 3 To Go

VBS is in full swing. My class went from 12 kids to 16 to the final count of 18. I swear to you, I do not know how teachers do it!

Things are going ok, I guess. My co-teacher couldn't be there Monday and she'll miss part of tomorrow because of other commitments, and, to be quite honest, she was pretty darn useless today. I'll cut her some slack for being 7 months pregnant and never having done VBS here before, but honestly, my teenage helper did a lot more than she did.

*sigh* That's ok. I figured that I would have to shoulder almost all of the load this year.

I was a little unhappy that at the end of Monday I was informed that the director managed to secure a guest speaker after all, and that she would take up a block of time today. Two little problems with that:

1) We have our schedule blocked out in 20 min. increments, and she put the speaker into a spot crossing but not wholly encompassing 2 of those time blocks, which left me with two 10 minute periods to fill for which I didn't really have plans.

2) Because of the late notice on the speaker, I had to cancel my existing lesson plan for the day almost entirely. I spend money (a little) and time (a lot) planning and preparing for these things, and I hate it when all my effort is wasted like that. I'm going to push one of the activities to tomorrow, but that means I'll be out of sync with the lesson of the day.

That being said, most of the kids are very sweet, and most of them are well behaved, and I've only had to comfort about 5 or 6 crying kids per day. :-D It really is fun.

I did have the unfortunate experience of bringing my class down to the craft area as the 3 - 4 -year-olds were readying to leave to find that Zipper had an accident and left a big ol' puddle on the chair one of my class's kids was about to sit on. Of course I don't have extra clothes for Zipper, and of course I have to clean up my kid's mess (I suppose it's only fair). *sigh*

It's still not as bad as the famous "bean up the nose incident"! LOL

Almost Time For That VBS Fun

Yup, Vacation Bible School starts tomorrow. I'm fairly well prepared, but I'm not so sure that anyone else is! I was at church for four hours today decorating and getting things ready, but nobody else has any decorations or anything in their rooms. OK, whatever then...

My co-teacher showed up and dropped a couple things off, but she was obviously very upset. She didn't want to talk about it and left almost immediately. I'm worried about her - she's 7 months pregnant, just lost her job, and I understand she's having some marital problems.

Even so, the show must go on. In the last couple days the number of students in my class (4- and 5-year-olds) has gone from 12 to 16. Oh joy. So, despite the fact that I switched grades this year, I, once again, for the 6th year in a row, have the largest class of all the VBS teachers. Except that they're all younger this time.

Needless to say, any posts that I put up in the next five days are going to be filled with exhaustion-derived madness.

On a side note, I've had to take most of the last week off from tae kwon do because I pulled a shoulder muscle. I really, really hope that it gets better soon because I feel the calendar ticking off the days until testing day on the 31st. And I could really use some practice.

Got the Pre-K Blues

I've been avoiding blogging about this in hopes that I could get the situation changed, but at this point there's not much hope. Also please forgive any irrational outbursts that may occur - I found myself thinking about this situation this morning and getting really angry about it.

Zipper was lucky enough to get a spot in the school district's Pre-K program this fall. (Sadly, Rascal lost out on the Pre-K lottery two years ago, but never mind that now.) I was particularly grateful because there were a particularly large number of applicants this year, due to the 9/11 baby boom (I hope all you elementary schools are ready for what's coming next fall!), and resulting in a waiting list of >60 kids.

I was even happier to hear that the district managed to get the additional funding so that they could have a pre-K class in my son's elementary school (as opposed to having to go to one of the other schools in the district).

So imagine my dismay to find that Zipper was assigned not to his elementary school (which I can see from my front door), and not to the second closest school (still within reasonable walking distance for the little guy, although across two major roads), but to the third closest school.
Which I will have to drive to - it's too far away and across a highway.

OK, now this wouldn't even be a problem except that Zipper is let out at 3:00 PM, and Rascal is let out at 3:05 PM. What the hell am I supposed to do? I have to drive to get Zipper, because the district doesn't provide transportation for pre-K, and it's ridiculous for Rascal to take the bus because the bus stop is farther from home than the school is!

Now, hear me out, I've thought of some of the possibilities of how to work this out:

1) Rascal walks home from school. It's not far, obviously. But I can only trust him to cross the street safely about 90% of the time, and he has to cross two streets with no crossing guard. Traffic is heavy for our neighborhood at that time because of school dismissal. So I have to trust that all those drivers are paying attention all the time for when my son is not. Yeah, right. Paranoid mom estimated chance of Rascal being hit by a car sometime during the school year: 10% (No, there's no scientific basis, leave me alone!)

In addition, of the approximately 60 children that "walk" home from school (about 40 of them get chauffered by mommy or daddy), there are only 5 or 6 kids that walk home by themselves, by my best estimate, with half of them living directly across the street from school, and all but one being 9 or 10 years old (the single younger child walking with his older brother).

I'm not stupid, I'm not crazy - I've observed these trends. And my son is *6*. And do you know what I see? A 6-year-old, walking by himself, mostly along a road where lots of other kids are being picked up by parents, and to an unlocked house without an adult within view makes him the number one and perhaps only reasonable target for someone to pick him up, heaven forbid.

Sure, the chance is small. But I know there are at least 25 registered sex offenders in my town, and my son would be easy pickings. No, this is not an option.

2) I get Zipper from school early, thereby disrupting the pre-K class's end-f-day preparations, and then rush over to Rascal's school to get him. (most likely option) Now, Zipper's school lets out at 3:05 as well, so in order to fight for a parking spot among the throng there (and to get out again!) I'm going to have to be *very* early getting him. And then I'm either going to have to fight for a parking spot at Rascal's school, which is downright silly because I'm going to have to park almost as far away as my house, (or farther! remember, there's gong to be an extra 20 or so pre-K kids that need to get home that weren't there last year!) or I will have to go home, drag Zipper out of the car, and walk to Rascal's school to meet him. Oh, joy. Especially in the winter.

This is just nuts. If Zipper had been assigned to Rascal's school, I'd walk out the door at 2:55 PM, get Zipper, wait outside for a couple minutes for Rascal, and be home by 3:10. But no, I'm going to have to leave the house at 2:25 so I can get Zipper back home by 2:55 and to Rascal's school by 3:05 (Zipper's little legs take longer to get there). Nice, huh?

So the question is, why wasn't Zipper assigned to the pre-K class in his brother's school? Well, pretty simple actually, there's more kids living in that neghborhood looking for a pre-K slot than there are slots available. The district told me that priority was indeed to keep pre-K students with their older siblings if possible. Since there were too many kids asking for spots at both our first and second-choice schools, Zipper was bumped to the third-choice school (oh, which, btw is in one of the worse sections of town [not that bad though really]).

OK, so they have the priortization to match up siblings, but they don't seem to have a second order corresponding to the age or grade level of these siblings. Look, this wouldn't be much of a problem if Rascal was in 4th or 5th grade. By then he should be able to pretty much handle himself.

Heaven help the district here if my assumptions are wrong - I'm *assuming* that the district has placed the pre-K classes based pretty much on where they are needed (and where they have enough space, of course), and that my child is one of the few that gets screwed by the process. As it is I'm angry because one of the other moms in my church had her child at about 25th on the waiting list, and she finally ended up with a slot at either her first or second choice school (I forget which), which, btw, are the two schools that was my first or second choice. Yeah.

I'm inclined to complain to the district, but it's not likely to help my kid. I'd also need to be sure to get all my facts straight before I criticize their process - and maybe there isn't a good solution to the problems generated by this system. As it is, Zipper's on a waiting list to transfer to one of the other schools, but it's extremely unlikely at this point.

So a big congrats to the Ken-Ton school district! Two children, two bad pre-K experiences. A great way to start off a long relationship, if you ask me.

Nothin' Like Being Dumped on Your Butt Over and Over Again

First of all, big hello to Erik and Jason! Hope you enjoy your visits to SMHland!

BTW Mr. Mann (I can't help but give proper respect), yes, I'm under contract, and I'm over 30, but I'm pretty happy with my dojang and my overall experience there. Maybe I'll go into it in a little detail at some point if you are interested. I fully support your martial arts philosophy though - your ideas are unique and well-considered. Now you can jump all over the rest of this post. LOL

I got my third tip (for self-defense) in tae kwon do class Saturday, so it looks like I will definitely test for red belt at the end of this month. Actually, I haven't had much doubt that I was going to test, but I thought it was a little strange to get my tip Saturday because I didn't feel like I was quite ready yet. Make no mistake, I'm almost there, but usually Master Chong (the younger, not the Grandmaster) isn't the type to rush the promotions.

Through practice I am starting to get used to having my legs swept, and most of the time I'm falling more-or-less correctly, but on Saturday I was working with a fellow red stripe who used to be a black belt at a different school. At one point in the drill he grabbed my upper arm near the underarm and dug in really hard as he swept me. It left one hell of a bruise. So I repaid him by dumping him hard on the mat on my turn. :-)

Hey, it's not any fun if you don't get bumps and bruises once in a while!

Now if I could only get that spinning kick down (back to the barre again for me)...

It's That Time of Year Again...

{mood: sad 'cause I lost my Ebay auction *shrug*}
{listening to: a goofy little mix I made on www.ctcmix.com (give it a spin)}

Heaven help me, you are all going to think that this site is nothing but a "mommy" blog. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that there is decidedly limited appeal to reading about someone's children exclusively. Unless you're Grandma, of course.

So, yes, it's that time of year again... Vacation Bible School time!

whee.

This is my 8th year teaching, so I must get something out of it!

I'm stepping away from my usual post of 1st- and 2nd- grade teacher to take the 4- and 5-year-old class, and thereby avoiding having either Rascal or Zipper in my class (it's worked out badly in the past). But I'll have my niece in my class (almost as bad) VBS is a week away, and we are woefully unprepared. WOEFULLY.

We've got a new person directing VBS - totally and utterly green, and we've changed the publisher of our curriculum (for cost reasons, I assume). And they got a late start on things this year - the director was writing out the daily schedule on the fly at the meeting today, which is something that should have been nailed down weeks ago. I haven't been able to schedule activities because I've been waiting on this. Oh, and I found out today that I have a co-teacher. That's good, but she hasn't seen any of the materials yet. We're meeting tomorrow to hammer it all out.

*sigh* It'll all be fine. *gripe gripe gripe*

Zipper Starring As...

Cowboy Vader! I figured it was a nice complement to the "gay" Darth Vader a couple posts ago...



Please note Rascal in the background, climbing up on the entertainment center again...grrr...

Up, Up, and Away!

You know that county invitational track meet that Rascal barely qualified for? Well, he won second place in the long jump! He jumped 5'4",a good improvement over the previous meet. I am proud of my little guy, but he was unhappy because he thought he could have done better.



Now, for full disclosure, Rascal got second place because, of the four competitors in his division, one didn't show, one fouled out, and the winner jumped two feet farther than Rascal. But, you know, sometimes life *is* about showing up!

Fun For Kids (and Grownups Too)

A couple of my favorite recipes from The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions by John E. Thomas and Danita Pagel:

Gooey Gunk

Solution A:

1 cup water

1 cup white glue

2 Tbsp. liquid tempera paint or 7-10 drops food coloring

Solution B:

1 1/3 cups warm water

4 tsp. borax laundry booster

1. Mix ingredients in solution A together in a medium bowl.
2. In a second medium bowl, mix the ingredients of solution B until completely dissolved.
3. Slowly pour solution A into solution B. Do not mix!
4. Roll solution A around in solution B 4-5 times.
5. Lift solution A out of solution B and knead for 2-3 minutes.
6. Store Gunk in an airtight container or plastic zip bag.

Super Sidewalk Paint

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
6-8 drops food coloring

1. Mix cornstarch and cold water together in a small plastic bowl.
2. Add food coloring and stir.
3. Repeat to create different colors of paint. Paint can be easily washed away with water.

Hoo Hoo Hoo!

Random told me about this, but I was so happy to see it for myself at Three Headed Dragon:

Watch What You Name Your Site!

Courtesy of Kristin's Krib, with thanks to Mike at Rambled Musings...
And a big hello to Kristin! Thank you - this is hilarious!

The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs
Attn: EntrepreneursEveryone knows that if you are going to operate a business in today’s world you need a domain name. It is advisable to look at the domain name selected as other see it and not just as you think it looks. Failure to do this may result in situations such as the following (legitimate) companies who deal in everyday humdrum products and services but clearly didn’t give their domain names enough consideration:

1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales: www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website: www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at www.gotahoe.com

Tae Kwon Do Update

I'm happy to report that I did get my second tip last week, and that I think I'm still on schedule to test at the end of this month.

I was sparring with one of my beltmates last week, a 14-year-old boy. Apparently he needed a reminder to wear his athletic support while sparring. Oops - sorry about that.

My friend Laura (yeah, the one you met last summer guys) was awarded Student of the Month today. I'm really happy for her - she's got some medical issues that have made tae kwon do challenging for her, but she works hard and never gives up.

And With a Small Leap of Embarassment...

Much to my surprise on Sunday we received a phone call from the coach of the Ken-Ton town summer track program that my boys had been doing this summer. Apparently last week we left the meet too soon, because Rascal captured the fourth place spot in long jump in his division, which means that he qualifies for the big county invitational today.

Doh! I feel bad now because we should have been there for him to get his award. As it is I'll have to see if I can get his 4th-place ribbon from last week.

So for the last couple days he's been practicing his jumps in earnest, which is much easier now because he doesn't have to wait in line with 100 other kids to get a turn to jump. With some suggestions and practice he's already improved his best jump by over a foot. (from 4'11" at last week's meet to 6'2" today). It's not really enough to be competitive, but you never know, he could surprise. In any case I'm proud of him for working so hard on it.

From the Edge of Exhaustion

Another night, another night without air conditioning. I'm tired of being blow-dried by the ceiling fan every night. I'm tired of gettting no sleep until 5 or 6 AM.

And I have a migraine, so I'm cranky, but never mind that.

At least it's a good time to catch up on the blogging.