Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Rambling
Where to start?
My husband. He got an 'A' and and 'A+' for grades for his second half of summer session. The 'A' would've been and 'A+' too, except his professor didn't know she could give that for a grade. That professor, who's been a huge supporter of Erik in his return to college, officially got her doctorate today. Hubby went to her dissertation defense today and she passed. Yippee for her! Yippee for Hubby!
Hubby and I went shopping all day yesterday with Hubby's parents. Shopping takes a lot of thinking and a lot of walking. It's exhausting. Hubby's parents treated us to outfits for our upcoming trip to Atlanta. Aren't they sweet? Hubby looks fabulous in a suit, even though he isn't used to one and doesn't think so. (Trust me, he is stunning, knock-your-socks-off gorgeous. I don't think I'm biased on this in the least.) I got a couple of cute dresses and two smart, splashy jackets to go with them - all from Coldwater Creek. My biggest sticking point is shoes. I think I'm going to end up taking three pairs - THREE PAIRS! - with me on the trip. Good heavens, that's a lot of shoes for one trip. I'd like to get by with two, but I have to have the right combination of color, style, and comfort for the particular outfits. (Listen to me! Kvetching about fashion! Something strange is going on. I never kvetch about fashion.)
In other news, the children are getting ready to go back to school soon. Eldest Son finished his summer job last Friday. We went out to eat to celebrate. Daughter is back to practicing flute and readjusting her bedtime. She and Eldest get their schedules tomorrow. Youngest Son is probably not too keen on going back, but that's because he's never quite fit the system. We have to nurse him through it. He's still not happy that he no longer has recess now that he's in middle school. He has quite the cadre of friends and recess was their time to pal around.
I'd like to welcome Joanne of Poppy Seed Heart back to the blogosphere. She has posted a most thorough description of her baby's birth experience. So heart-warming.
My husband. He got an 'A' and and 'A+' for grades for his second half of summer session. The 'A' would've been and 'A+' too, except his professor didn't know she could give that for a grade. That professor, who's been a huge supporter of Erik in his return to college, officially got her doctorate today. Hubby went to her dissertation defense today and she passed. Yippee for her! Yippee for Hubby!
Hubby and I went shopping all day yesterday with Hubby's parents. Shopping takes a lot of thinking and a lot of walking. It's exhausting. Hubby's parents treated us to outfits for our upcoming trip to Atlanta. Aren't they sweet? Hubby looks fabulous in a suit, even though he isn't used to one and doesn't think so. (Trust me, he is stunning, knock-your-socks-off gorgeous. I don't think I'm biased on this in the least.) I got a couple of cute dresses and two smart, splashy jackets to go with them - all from Coldwater Creek. My biggest sticking point is shoes. I think I'm going to end up taking three pairs - THREE PAIRS! - with me on the trip. Good heavens, that's a lot of shoes for one trip. I'd like to get by with two, but I have to have the right combination of color, style, and comfort for the particular outfits. (Listen to me! Kvetching about fashion! Something strange is going on. I never kvetch about fashion.)
In other news, the children are getting ready to go back to school soon. Eldest Son finished his summer job last Friday. We went out to eat to celebrate. Daughter is back to practicing flute and readjusting her bedtime. She and Eldest get their schedules tomorrow. Youngest Son is probably not too keen on going back, but that's because he's never quite fit the system. We have to nurse him through it. He's still not happy that he no longer has recess now that he's in middle school. He has quite the cadre of friends and recess was their time to pal around.
I'd like to welcome Joanne of Poppy Seed Heart back to the blogosphere. She has posted a most thorough description of her baby's birth experience. So heart-warming.
Labels: baby, children, clothing, grades, husband, parents, poppy seed heart, school, shopping
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
We Can't Always Be Prepared
The Virginia Tech tragedy has been playing non-stop on our television. Tonight, on the CBS News, I saw photos and heard the stories of some of the victims. It moved me to tears, especially the story of the professor who was a Holocaust survivor who got shot while attempting to save his students.
There are all sorts of questions about why students weren't notified and the school locked down after the first shootings. I think that it's natural for people to think about how the further shootings could have been prevented, but two hours (the amount of time between the first shootings and the first notification) is not a lot of time to figure out what happened, try to find the suspect, and compose a response that tells everyone what happened. There has also been talk of how other schools can prepare for similar situations. While this, too, is a natural response - we all want our children safe - we cannot possibly prepare for the various permutations of a mind that has gone awry. We cannot prepare for every possible disaster. What we can do is realize that whatever gets thrown our way, we will find the best way to cope while we are in it. We are remarkable in our adaptability and ingenuity.
My condolences to those touched by this incredible tragedy.
There are all sorts of questions about why students weren't notified and the school locked down after the first shootings. I think that it's natural for people to think about how the further shootings could have been prevented, but two hours (the amount of time between the first shootings and the first notification) is not a lot of time to figure out what happened, try to find the suspect, and compose a response that tells everyone what happened. There has also been talk of how other schools can prepare for similar situations. While this, too, is a natural response - we all want our children safe - we cannot possibly prepare for the various permutations of a mind that has gone awry. We cannot prepare for every possible disaster. What we can do is realize that whatever gets thrown our way, we will find the best way to cope while we are in it. We are remarkable in our adaptability and ingenuity.
My condolences to those touched by this incredible tragedy.
Labels: condolences, disaster, preparation, safety, school, shootings, virginia tech
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Someone Else's Convenience
How often in life do we do things for the convenience of other people? I was thinking about this in relation to my youngest son. He has a scattered organizational sense and teachers are forever trying to get him to remember to bring things home for us to sign. Ostensibly, they are trying to teach him how to be responsible and organized, but really, it's more for their convenience in that this is the organization that they prefer. My son has one teacher whose organizational style matches his. This teacher requires that all handouts stay in a folder in the science room; nothing goes home with the kids. This works extremely well for our son. No bothersome papers to remember.
Thinking about this topic reminds me of a phrase I've heard many times the last few days - "U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President." Barring the vaguely sexual connotations of this phrase, in essence what the White House is saying - and most often they are saying it in order to convince us that they did nothing wrong in firing U.S. Attorneys for political reasons - is that U.S. Attorneys are there for the President's convenience. Frankly, I didn't give U.S. Attorneys much thought until this, but it seems to me that they are actually supposed to be serving for the convenience of the U.S. public. I guess it's my bad for making the assumption that our government should be serving us.
So, given those two examples, whose convenience do you serve? Is a service you chose? Is it a service you enjoy?
Thinking about this topic reminds me of a phrase I've heard many times the last few days - "U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President." Barring the vaguely sexual connotations of this phrase, in essence what the White House is saying - and most often they are saying it in order to convince us that they did nothing wrong in firing U.S. Attorneys for political reasons - is that U.S. Attorneys are there for the President's convenience. Frankly, I didn't give U.S. Attorneys much thought until this, but it seems to me that they are actually supposed to be serving for the convenience of the U.S. public. I guess it's my bad for making the assumption that our government should be serving us.
So, given those two examples, whose convenience do you serve? Is a service you chose? Is it a service you enjoy?
Labels: convenience, organization, president, school, service, son, u.s. attorneys, white house
Thursday, March 01, 2007
More Snow
We are making up for lost time in Minnesota. After a winter practically devoid of snow, within one week we've gained inches and inches. Last weekend we got fourteen inches. Between yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we're expecting another foot or so. My shoulders certainly feel it. I'm soft from not having to shovel before this, so lifting pounds and pounds of snow is giving me a workout I'm not used to. I swear I spent more time outside than inside today. I've been trying to shovel every so often so I don't have to try to move mountains of it all at once. 'Round about three o'clock this afternoon, I collapsed on the couch with my Wired magazine in a funk of white-hot exhaustion. I wasn't a happy camper for a couple of hours. My kids, on the other hand, were delighted. They were released early from school. Yippee!
In the midst of all the shoveling, our furnance decided to quit working. I put on my geek hat and tried turning the switch off and on a couple of times. I opened the front panels and checked to make sure the wires were all attached. Then, I called my dad. He asked if the ventilation pipes for the furnace were blocked. Sure enough, when I went outside to check, the air intake pipe was completely covered (with snow, what else?). When this happens, or when the balance between the intake and exhaust pipes is upset, the furnace has a safety switch that keeps the furnace from turning on. As soon as I cleared the pipes, she fired up. There you have it, your furnace maintenance tip of the week.
In the midst of all the shoveling, our furnance decided to quit working. I put on my geek hat and tried turning the switch off and on a couple of times. I opened the front panels and checked to make sure the wires were all attached. Then, I called my dad. He asked if the ventilation pipes for the furnace were blocked. Sure enough, when I went outside to check, the air intake pipe was completely covered (with snow, what else?). When this happens, or when the balance between the intake and exhaust pipes is upset, the furnace has a safety switch that keeps the furnace from turning on. As soon as I cleared the pipes, she fired up. There you have it, your furnace maintenance tip of the week.
Labels: dad, exhaustion, furnace, geek, minnesota, school, shoveling, snow, winter, wired
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Empathizing with Al
I'm putting two and two together, here. Having watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, I see how long he has worked to bring global warming to humanity's conciousness, and still he is met with skepticism (mostly by big-moneyed interests). I know just how Al must have felt for all those years that no one was listening to him.
In my post called Eighty-nine Dollars, I talk about field trips scheduled by our school district. What with all the field trips, fundraisers, and class fees, our public school is nickel-and-diming us to death. It's an issue I've been dealing with ever since our children started school. When we were on the PTA of the elementary school, we urged those planning fundraisers to tell people that they could give a donation in lieu of buying high-priced merchandise. By accepting direct donations, the full amount given goes to the district. When purchasing merchandise, typically the company offering the stuff gets 50-60 percent of the proceeds. This is money that leaves the district and isn't used for our children. I have many other objections to fundraisers promoted by outside companies, like the fact that they get free child labor, take away from class time, and pull a pump-up swindle job to get our kids to participate by telling them they'll get prizes, which are junk. (Of course, the companies don't tell the kids the prizes are junk.)
Fundraisers are ostensibly done so that our children can take field trips. Here's where I get a little crotchety. When I was a kid, there was one big field trip that finished off elementary school for us. Because we only got one big trip in fifth grade, everyone looked forward to it. We did not have constant field trips throughout our school years. This trend has reversed, with each teacher seeming to make field trip decisions on his/her own. There is no input from parents (that I can see) on the necessity of these field trips.
Finally, with all the budget cuts our state has undergone, there no longer seems to be enough money to pay for classroom supplies. We have paid for vocabulary books, art supplies, shop supplies, and home ec (now called Family & Consumer Science) supplies, in addition to the garden variety school supplies required at the beginning of the school year. Perhaps some of that fundraising money could go into classroom supplies rather than into field trips.
Oh, wait a minute, that might actually be a sensible idea. I had another sensible idea along these lines, one that I emailed to our school board members. I suggested that the district create a clearinghouse for The Three F's, field trips, fundraisers and fees. Instead of having individual teachers plan field trips, they should be discussed at a district wide level and spread out among the various schools and grades. Fundraisers, which overlap each other and endlessly take place throughout the year, would be consolidated, too. As for fees, if classroom supplies are needed, the cost should be run through the clearinghouse so that the school board, parents and State Legislature have a true understanding of the cost of educating our kids.
Here's where I empathize with Al Gore. I have not received a single reply to my email. Of course I'm not foolish enough to think that my idea will be accepted as presented. It's still in sketch form and there'd have to be a heck of a lot of discussion for this to be implemented in a meaningful fashion. The point is that not one of the school board members so much as sent me a "Thank you for expressing your concerns," which means that they can pretend that my concerns don't even exist. No one has to do anything if there isn't a problem, right?
Cheers to you, Al, for your patience and thick skin.
In my post called Eighty-nine Dollars, I talk about field trips scheduled by our school district. What with all the field trips, fundraisers, and class fees, our public school is nickel-and-diming us to death. It's an issue I've been dealing with ever since our children started school. When we were on the PTA of the elementary school, we urged those planning fundraisers to tell people that they could give a donation in lieu of buying high-priced merchandise. By accepting direct donations, the full amount given goes to the district. When purchasing merchandise, typically the company offering the stuff gets 50-60 percent of the proceeds. This is money that leaves the district and isn't used for our children. I have many other objections to fundraisers promoted by outside companies, like the fact that they get free child labor, take away from class time, and pull a pump-up swindle job to get our kids to participate by telling them they'll get prizes, which are junk. (Of course, the companies don't tell the kids the prizes are junk.)
Fundraisers are ostensibly done so that our children can take field trips. Here's where I get a little crotchety. When I was a kid, there was one big field trip that finished off elementary school for us. Because we only got one big trip in fifth grade, everyone looked forward to it. We did not have constant field trips throughout our school years. This trend has reversed, with each teacher seeming to make field trip decisions on his/her own. There is no input from parents (that I can see) on the necessity of these field trips.
Finally, with all the budget cuts our state has undergone, there no longer seems to be enough money to pay for classroom supplies. We have paid for vocabulary books, art supplies, shop supplies, and home ec (now called Family & Consumer Science) supplies, in addition to the garden variety school supplies required at the beginning of the school year. Perhaps some of that fundraising money could go into classroom supplies rather than into field trips.
Oh, wait a minute, that might actually be a sensible idea. I had another sensible idea along these lines, one that I emailed to our school board members. I suggested that the district create a clearinghouse for The Three F's, field trips, fundraisers and fees. Instead of having individual teachers plan field trips, they should be discussed at a district wide level and spread out among the various schools and grades. Fundraisers, which overlap each other and endlessly take place throughout the year, would be consolidated, too. As for fees, if classroom supplies are needed, the cost should be run through the clearinghouse so that the school board, parents and State Legislature have a true understanding of the cost of educating our kids.
Here's where I empathize with Al Gore. I have not received a single reply to my email. Of course I'm not foolish enough to think that my idea will be accepted as presented. It's still in sketch form and there'd have to be a heck of a lot of discussion for this to be implemented in a meaningful fashion. The point is that not one of the school board members so much as sent me a "Thank you for expressing your concerns," which means that they can pretend that my concerns don't even exist. No one has to do anything if there isn't a problem, right?
Cheers to you, Al, for your patience and thick skin.
Labels: al gore, fees, field trip, fundraisers, global warming, idea, inconvenient truth, problem, school, three f's
Monday, January 29, 2007
Eighty-nine Dollars
I wrote a diatribe today. In fact, I started it with "Welcome to my diatribe." I'm very tempted to print the whole thing here on the blog, but I'm afraid most of my readers (that means You!) will get upset at the length of it. I know that when I'm blog coasting, I don't always have time to read a long post, so I dare not do that to you. Suffice it to say, my diatribe is about a couple of field trips that the school has planned for two of our children. The total cost of both field trips is $89, a sum that we can't really afford at the moment, and on principle, don't want to afford. Let's just say that it's pretty shameful for a public school to divide children into separate classes based on income and that we didn't have any say in whether this field trip was necessary to our children's cultural development. If you want to read the whole essay, send me an email at sootch@gmail.com and I'll send you a copy. 'nuf said. Now, I'm gonna spend a little time working on my current story.
Labels: blog, children, class, culture, diatribe, essay, field trip, income, school, writing
