June 7 2010

June 7 2010

Teaching Link of the Day:

Biology Day

Adventure of the Day:

First day of Summer School with my One-Room Schoolhouse:

1 kindergarten girl, 2 boys, 2 3rd grade girls, 2 4th grade boys, 1 5th grade boy, 1 6th grade girl, 1 8th grade girl.

Thoughts of the Day:

Some supplies are better off distributed at the time of the activity and not in individual's boxes.

Boxes should be better labeled with names and such.

I burned my hand on a pan on the stove cooking the agar for the bacteria cultures. Review kitchen safety with students doing kitchen projects.

4 cups of water to 4 tbs agar is WAY too much for 14 petri dishes. I recommend 1/2 cup to 1/2 tbs per 10 dishes. I put cherries and apples from lunch into the remaining gelling agar and it's kind of bland--much better with lime juice or something under it. Texture is better than Jello.

Room fans and paper do not mix.

Long rolls of paper across the table are awesome for students to do group projects.

Cheek cultures are best taken when kids are in a line and things are prelabeled.

Prelabel stuff. It may get the younger kids to learn how to spell their name, but reduce their workload on the other end, then.

Have lots and lots of water available. Juice is nice but not as effective as water. Set your own cup somewhere where you will remember its location, and somewhere between workplaces so you can grab a drink as you go by.

Letting the older kids debate something as simple as "What makes it alive?" is good enough to keep them busy while you work with the littlest ones on name writing, and giving the littlest ones some rulers and having them trace the rulers and "measure" things is enough to keep them busy while you join the discussion.

If you have a one-room schoolhouse planned for any reason, do not expect to stop moving for the duration.

Remember to ask the quieter kids to answer specific questions sometimes instead of just throw questions out there.

I do not want to run a classroom for a living.

I had fun. I can't wait until next week.

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June 2 2010

June 2 2010

Thought of the Day

The following is an article I wrote for the personal finance blog right about the time I stopped writing for them. I never submitted it and it's never been published. I've been hoarding this article for a year, and it's time to let it out into the world. Unfortunately, the topic of the post is as relevant today as it was a whole year ago. Oy!

It's a monster out there. I have created a monster, just for the sake of frugality, of keeping a few extra dollars in my own pocket, I now have something I can barely face. When I must, and I know that day will come, I will dread it.

The story goes something like this: My husband hates recycling. I've been trying for years to turn recycling into something that is natural not only for me but for him. Different bins, different locations, different methods. Certain things we recycle and certain things we don't. I manage to keep up after him, but it's still an ever-present thing.

About a year ago a coupon book came in the mail advertising five cents more a pound for aluminum. This peaked his interest and gave us some direction. It's pretty easy to drive some aluminum cans to a place not a whole mile away. We started saving our aluminum. Instead of hauling it to the curb with the recycling we have to pay to have picked up, we figured we could offset that cost by taking the aluminum downtown. It turns out, we are not very prompt people. Our pile grew. We added to that the full bag of crushed cans my mother-in-law accumulates in a month. And our aunt's aluminum. Bags came home and overflowed a box. A big, wooden box.

One day I loaded up the car to take them down to the metal recycling place. Before I took off, I decided to call around and make sure the coupon which came in every coupon book was the best deal. It wasn't, and the recycling place with the best deal wasn't open that day. So I waited. The next day was not convenient. Nor the next. Then the kids and I went (in the car without the aluminum, the seats in that car were all taken) to the recycling center for a field trip. I learned that the aluminum prices are greater during the winter. I came home and removed the cans so we could use the car again, and waited for winter.

Unfortunately, with winter came snow, and buried my bags of cans. As spring approached, I was faced with a big, wet pile of aluminum cans. All for a few cents a pound more, I'll have to spend several hours of a day to rebag, dump, and reload all my cans.

Is it really a small price to pay? Is it worth it?

I start to wonder --as the idea of going out there and "taking care" of my aluminum recycling haunts me-- if there are more things I am doing for the sake of saving money that are really just causing me stress and extra work. It is not pleasant to hoard. What is it? My quiet desperation to revive my xeriscape and kill my weeds every summer? The piano that isn't tuned because I don't own the tools? The sacks of things to fix in my basement because throwing them away and replacing them is out of the question?

It would not cost me any more to put the cans on the curb with the rest of the recycling, but it will cost me time and gas to load them up and drive them down.

Tomorrow is recycling day. I can't...let...go...

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May 31 2010

May 31 2010

Thought of the Day
Courtesy of XKCD


(Hover over pic for original title text)

My definition?: A nerd is a well-rounded geek. A geek is someone versed in a particular field or set of related fields.

Hence, I was always a band geek, a lit geek, a math geek, an internet geek, a grammar geek, a chemistry geek, a biology geek, and I always ended up at a table alone because of it, being that I never shut up about anything because there wasn't a topic I could stay on for long or that would stump me, making me Queen Nerd, as my mother called me, or "The Biggest Purple One In The Box" as my sister called me, or "The Annoying One" as everyone else called me.

I'm careful to distinguish between Geek and Nerd. Geeks don't know as much, but are invaluable in furthering my own knowledge.

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May 28 2010

May 28 2010

Thought of the Day

The interwebs are buzzing about Facebook: May 31 is Quit Facebook Day, apparently.

A few thoughts:

Being On Facebook:
If you spend more time on Facebook than you do in front of the TV, kudos. You have more of a social life than the couch-potato generation. I like to see social web-works grow and TV shows get the boot. People talking to people is awesome.

Facebook Privacy:
If you think Facebook has privacy issues, maybe it's you. You choose what you post on Facebook. If it's private, keep it to an email. If it's okay to be public, list it. Just because Facebook asks you to fill out a field does not mean you have to type something into it.

If you are worried about Applications sharing your information, don't use the applications. How many people have the Snowball Fight app still? It's the middle of May, and Snowball Fight is using your information for whatever it wants, because you said it could. Weigh fun against privacy, please.

If you insist on listing things and using applications, learn to adjust your privacy settings. Who cares what the default is? I don't even know any more. Every time I log in I check the privacy settings to make sure it is doing what I want it to be doing. If you're a parent of a minor, do it for your kids.

Photographs and Privacy:
Speaking of parents of minors, why post pictures of your children on Facebook? (or MySpace, or anywhere?) Every picture of my children I have is locked up for limited visibility, or of the back of their heads. Don't jeopardize your children's future privacy for your own fun and entertainment. If a friend of mine posts a picture of my kids, I make sure I'm not tagged on the photo, so that no one can see that monster belongs to me anyway.

Most people don't look at pictures of your kids, anyway. Or of your drunk nights out. People look at what their interested in: If they haven't seen you in ages, they want to see how wealthy you are, what's your car? your house? the interior of your house? your job? Sometimes people respond to shock value, like "That's a BIG dog!" or "You let your kids do WHAT?" They also like to reminisce, "That picture was 20 years ago! I can't believe you still have that!" (which I'm not sure why that is so unbelievable. People are pack rats.)
The Internet and Privacy:
When was the last time you did a websearch for yourself? What information about you is available from other sources? Did you set up a Yahoo! profile page some time ago and have forgotten? Did you know that anybody can look at county records of your house? How about online newspapers: have you ever been quoted, have a marriage, birth, or death listing for you or your family? Had a picture printed? All that is available online, too. And in libraries. Ever have a landline? Most landline numbers and their owners from the past 10 years or so can be found online.

And all of that is for free. If I really wanted to, I could find out much, much more about you by dropping a bit of cash.

And that's only just the start of a search. If someone were after your children, they could use county records of where you live to determine where your child goes to school, and then the school website to find out when school is in session. They could even find out what the names of the teachers your children have, having found their birth announcements in the newspaper online and knowing their likely age and grade.

Are you afraid?
Are you afraid of what people can find out about you from your Facebook page? I've determined a girlfriend of a friend had still been talking to her ex fiance. I've determined where's she'd likely to be on a Thursday night between 6 and 10. I knew what income bracket her family was in, her graduation year, the school she was attending and a narrow field of likely classes she'd be in. And that was before I ever met her. How? Because she didn't take control of her own information. She let it all hang out.

Are you afraid of what people can find out about you from the Internet? I've found a friend I haven't seen in 12 years, know when he got married, that his wife won the raffle at a church, and that he works somewhere that gave him an employer-based email account. I know where he lives, what his phone number is, his wife's name, and his email address. He has no internet presence, no social networking. It wouldn't be his thing.

I don't hack, I just search savvy. The internet makes the world a small, small place, and all your friends a little creepier.

Some Links:
Get your Facebook Privacy Back: ReclaimPrivacy.org
The Mesa County Assessor's Office webpage: Online search for properties and their owners
Simple place to type your name and see what comes up: Search
Mesa County School District: Listings of all the schools, hours of operation, and links to teacher pages
Mesa State College Student Directory: Search
Simple phone book search: SuperPages

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May 22 2010

May 22 2010

Thought of the Day:
"The Pledge of Allegiance, a debate in small bites."

Pledge History: Written by the NEA's* chairman for the 400-ennial celebration of Columbus Day 1892.
I say: For the nation's schoolkids to feel patriotic for the European's hostile takeover of the continent. Great note for the pledge to start on.

*NEA: National Educational Association

Part 2 Pledge History: The original 1892 wording was "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Oct 1892 "to" was added between "to my Flag and ^ the Republic."
I say: I'm a linguist, and I can't find purpose for that second "to," unless we're trying to separate the Flag from the Republic.

Part 3 Pledge History: "My" changed to "To" and "Of the United States of America" in 1924 because the American Legion and the DAR* thought it was better.
I say: I like to think of it as MY flag. Personally patriotic. But being specific of which flag is good. Specificity is good.

*Daughters of the American Revolution

Part 4 Pledge History:The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal benefit society, campaigned for the 'under God' addition to the pledge, with no comma separation from the 'one nation', making our patriotic symbol a prayer. This passed in 1952, during the Cold War, the same year we exploded our first H-bomb.
I say: Congress in 1952 must have thought God likes H-bombs.

Part 5 Pledge History: The current pledge is recited "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."
I say: Do we really need to be redundant naming the country of the flag and then again our allegiance to the Republic? And do we really need to continue to suggest our nation can (could, tried to) disband by saying it is "indivisible?"

Part 6 Pledge History: A Republic is generally defined as "not a monarchy," or more specifically, "governed by the impact of (at least some) of the people."
I say: How many people who recite this pledge can name the congressperson partly responsible for 1 of 3 parts of every national law's passage? How many people vote for anything other than President, such as those people who govern us? Why is the President treated as a king?

Part 7 Pledge History: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag..."
I say: Why are we allies with a FLAG, a symbol, an inanimate object, something that is not immutable, as we've seen over the past 234 years, where we've added 37 more stars to it? What if they've added a star to the flag since the last time I said the pledge? (ask people since Utah, 1896) Do I suddenly become UNallegiant? What is it really that deserves my allegiance?

Part 8 Pledge History: Prior to 1892, a philosopher argued that American political tradition was built on 'equality, liberty and justice for all'. The word "equality" was left out of the pledge because some NEA members were against equality for women and African-Americans.
I say: Every day our pledge stands by that bigotry.

Part 9 Pledge History:The pledge has changed. The pledge is likely to change again.
I say: "I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the servicemembers who fight beneath its Flag for Equality, Liberty, and Justice for all." I left out God re: equality for religious choice. I left out Republic and Nation re: no need to be redundant (USA). I left out indivisible re: again, redundant (United). I added equality. I added mention of those people that keep this a Republic. I shifted allegiance to the Nation, not a symbol. I expanded the realm of "for all." I am an ally of my nation and of the people fighting for which it stands. That is what I pledge.

What is your suggested modern pledge?

QuestionsView Results

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May 10 2010

May 10 2010

When really bad things happen to my friends
people who are close to me
I feel really, really terrible.

Everyone is a piece of me
and their pain is my pain
and it's weird.

People are used to living isolated
with their pain and their fears
while the world spins around them.

I am not that way.
I am not much without my friends.
I am just a bit. A little bit.

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May 9 2010

May 9 2010

I want to share all the things about today
But I don't have pictures so you will just have to imagine it all with me:

I hosted Mother's Day here at my house,
with 10 people I re-arranged the tables and chairs in my house to fit everyone
with the kids they sorted the rest of the toys I found hiding behind the bed
with Flyin' Roosters or Hooters as previous suggestions I had Husband barbecue up some wings
and concoct some buffalo sauces
with his delight in all things hot sauce, he barbecued up some crab legs
I sliced the rabbit food
I served on my purple place mats from our wedding
with red napkins from christmas, or maroon napkins from the matching set that was GiGi's (another mother we miss)
and on yellow plates handed down from Granny
The salad was fruit: strawberry, banana, orange, pear and mango. I chopped up what I had around.
I set out chips and salsa while we were waiting. We decided the salsa was not spicy.
We ate so much food
The buffalo sauce was decided to also be not hot
but it burned my lips and made my nose run and definitely made me happy
Everyone was stuffed
Only the kids and I ate the ice cream cake leftover from my birthday for dessert. Everyone else stayed stuffed.
My son got in trouble for throwing things.
My daughter got in trouble for not minding her own business.
My nephew decided a dark, long-sleeved shirt would suffice in the heat of the afternoon, in the sun.
My niece played guitar. And got antsy. And played guitar some more.
My husband cooked food and I prepped the other dishes and the table.
My mother-in-law brought me a hen-and-chicks.
My sister-in-law made that ice cream cake, which is the most awesome ice-cream cake ever imagined.
My brother-in-law wore a shirt that was not black.
My aunt-in-law gave out hugs from her daughter on the East Coast who called during dinner.

When things wound down the kids and I ended with a game of bingo and the adults discussed music and parts of music.
Then I sat down and uploaded pictures for my own mom.

As lemons for the crab dripped down my scraped knuckles and cracked calluses and scratched hands
and as oranges refused to be removed from their peels so I ate them
and as the knife sliced through banana in a mocking "this is overkill" kind of way
and the pit of the mango proved a formidable foe

the one person I was not prepping for was my own mom
I only get one, I only have one, and whether or not anyone actually remembers Mother's Day for anything other than florists' deliveries and stamped and wrapped card stock from Hallmark, she has made all the difference

and as I caption all the pictures as I upload them and after I load them and send her the email, after she has gone to bed, I'm sure
I see the faces of the creatures that gave me that title, the name "Mom"
as they evolve over the course of a year in one slideshow
and know that I am the only mom they get, too
their own mom
and whether anyone remembers Mother's Day as something more than giving mom a nap or a pedicure,
I get to make a difference

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April 29 2010

April 29 2010

Thought of the Day:

For a restful night's sleep, don't break this rule

A) never accept a client you had a hard time working with before because they complained about your rates, back when your rates were half what they are now, even for barter

B) especially if they expect you to cut your old rate in half for one of their own clients which you will be working for at the complaining client's house
C) instead, refer them to someone who either doesn't know what their work is worth, someone whose work is worth a quarter of your rate, someone so starved for work they don't care what they get paid, or someone who doesn't do this for a living.

posted after 2 hours and 40 minutes of lying awake in bed agonizing over how the meeting with my complaining client's client will go as they learn that there is no way I am improving the quality of life for less than what they pay for childcare. I am not a babysitter. Why do people think they can pay tutors what I pay my niece to watch my kids?!

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April 18 2010

April 18 2010

According to all my lovable Facebook friends, this is the weekend for bubbles. An extraordinary number of friends have chosen to update about bubbles this week, friends that don't know each other and live on opposite sides of the continent, friends of different backgrounds and with different life paths. Today I celebrate the universality of bubbles.

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February 9 2010

February 9 2010

Thought of the Day: If you work at home or teach at home it's probably because you like the freedom and flexibility. Don't forget that: if you want to play hooky, for goodness' sake, go skiing! Guilt-free! This is exactly why you have the job you have.

Sometimes, it's good to have that reminder.

Random Fact of the Day:
Dividing by zero is our ace in the hole.

Food of the Day: Girl Scout Cookies are in and I didn't have to sort them. She did a good job of that all on her own, post-its and total due and all. If you ordered cookies, expect them soon!

Show of the Day: I love the episode we watched today: there was no telling who the killer was until very close to the end of the show, no dramatic irony, just worried anticipation that the protagonist would be revealed to be correct, right?

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January 28 2010

January 28 2010

Thought of the Day: I'm ready for July.

Random Fact of the Day: Unless you're going to eat at a large chain restaurant or bar / brewpub, you will not find anywhere to eat after 8 pm in this town. What's up with shutting down on a Thursday night?

Reading of the Day:

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January 26 2010

January 26 2010

Granny Square of the Day: So I've been interested in how my scanner "sees" my yarns. I wanted to see what it would do with VHS tape. I am kind of disappointed, I guess I expected a more stark black and white due to the shininess of the tape. WOO experiments.



Reading of the Day: I finished the book I will send for my Book Club (mentioned in the Thought of the Day January 4th). It's taken me nearly a month to do my part in sending my chain letters and the book. I had to pick a book to read as I had already given away all the books I've already read (that I am going to give away. I will likely not gift my copy of Moby Dick or The Woman in White, or Pamela, or...) Anyway, I hope the reciepient enjoys it. It is a good story.



Thought of the Day: I get paid to be a writer and editor. That's awesome. It's a great job. Sometimes I forget. I just go through my day all routine-like, never really noticing that everything I have I have always wanted. Not many people get to say that.

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January 23 2010

January 23 2010

Thought of the Day: The best advertising campaign ever: Call the Nestle Hotline at 1-800-295-0051. When asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish, wait quietly for about 10 seconds. Listen to all the options. Choose one, but if you don't choose #4 you should come back later and listen to all the options in menu #4 before making a selection.

Word of the Day: Slashdot (Effect): This is what you experience if you call the above number and get a busy signal. It means that the popularity of the fun traveling around the internet is creating a call volume too heavy to connect you. Whee!

Adventure Continued of the Day: It was my daughter's basketball game: She was a cheerleader! It was really fun to watch. Their routine was to Ice Ice Baby, which was funny because last night she could only remember it was a song something about "baby."


Granny Square of the Day: I always feel I need to make a finished edge for my granny squares. I have no idea why. I like how the variegation came out on this one, organized on one side and sporadic on the other.
Radio Show of the Day: Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! I love to get my news from comedy shows. It's exponentially more informative than actually listening to the news. Or I just pay attention, one of the two.

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January 21 2010

January 21 2010

Teaching Links of the Day: Puns & Puns & Puns
Print up homophonic puns (defined below) and some sticker labels with the "real" word. Have the student cover the pun with the matching sticker. This should strengthen the connections between the different ways to spell a sound. When a reader pays attention to the sound structure of a word they are more likely to recognize those structures when they read.
"Homophonic puns use like sounds but with different spellings and meanings. This is also referred to as polyptoton. Examples of homophones are scent and sent, jeans and genes, waive and wave, and buy and bye."--from link below

New Sidebar "Pun of the Day" =>

Granny Square of the Day:
Today was a Red day. My morning shirt was red. My gussied-up-for-teaching sweater was red. My scarf was red. And the color I coincidentally chose from my dresser of yarn is also red. Quite not on purpose. It's a thinner yarn and I used a disproportionately large hook, as I tend to do. I think it's a wool, or a wool blend. It was very nice to work with. My scanner made it look orange. It is very red, instead.

Show of the Day: We just got to the episode with the homemade automatic shotgun today, and look, it's on the cover. I wonder if he keeps it through the rest of the season, or if it was just the coolest thing they could find to put on the boxed set. It is definitely cool.


Thought of the Day: People act like you're not around when they talk to others. It's frustrating. Is nothing private? No wonder small towns have that "small town" feel. People will talk anywhere around anyone.

Development of the Day: I'm down by a student, maybe two. It's a bummer. I love to work with my students; losing them for any reason other than success is frustrating. How am I to ever become good at reaching goals when I'm not giving the opportunity to reach them?

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January 18 2010

January 18 2010

This day in History:




Wouldn't it be nice to be the Graphic Designer for the Google logo on holidays? I think that would be an awesome job.





Teaching Link of the Day: The Vase has Two Faces
Draw a Vase with Two Faces. It's fun and weird, and deceptively simple. It's also cool to see what the imagination of a kid will produce with this exercise.


Thought of the Day: Twitter is worth it even if you only follow Weird Al. I promise. It's a moment of hilarious sunshine every once in a while.

Food of the Day: Orange Juice. 9 oranges = 24oz juice.


Granny Square of the Day: You know those jokes about grandmas who knit on and on forever? I just couldn't stop with this square. The yarn was so nice to work with and it looked so good. I finally did a chain around the edge to end the endless rounds of granny square stitches.

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January 17 2010

January 17 2010

Thought of the Day:
She said, "Ever wonder if your guardian angel has gone out for a smoke?"
I said, "I'm always hoping there are more than one, and that each have different interests in mind. On really rough days, I see the "two angels arguing on my shoulder" with all of them, and of course no one is really paying attention to me on those days."

Granny Square of the Day: I made this from four tiny balls of leftover string, and ran out of the fourth color. I guess I've learned to check length for suitable usage rounds.














TV of the Day:

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January 16 2010

January 16 2010

Teaching Link of the Day: Public Library Events Doing an activity led by someone else--especially for a homeschooler, can make a difference in what is learned from it.

Random Fact of the Day: January 16 marks the end of my Holiday/Birthday Season. Next up: Life as normal as I know it.

Granny Square of the Day: Whaddya Know, the radio program I listen to on Saturday Mornings, gave, as a prize to the first quiz winner, an alliterate gift from the Pink People or Pink Program or something and it stuck with me. At least, the Pink part did.

Thought of the Day: The only thing I want in life is to spend it with him, and any other achievement is just gravy.

Show of the Day;

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January 14 2010

January 14 2010

Teaching Link of the Day: Basic Geometry


The kid says, "I think these lessons were too easy for me." So we watched the above videos. Now she knows more.


Introducing:
Granny Square of the Day:
Explanatory Link Over in the Today! Margin=>
I'm going to do a Granny Square a Day! Well, maybe not EVERY day and maybe even not very MANY days, but I am going to participate on whatever level I can. Here's today's: black acrylic and Sugar n'Cream salt and pepper print



Movie of the Day:

Thought of the Day: Geometrically Similar Polygons are like Shrinky-Dinks.



.

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January 11 2010

January 11 2010

Random Fact of the Day: Today's Date is the number 30 in Binary, and is also a palindrome. 011110. It goes to follow that 010110 is the number 22 and 011010 is the number 26, and that 012210 is a palindrome. It would be most awesome if the word palindrome was also a palindrome, but it is not.

Teaching Link of the Day: Bowling Math
Thought of the Day: Letters to the Editor

The billboard says: “Cherish Life: Born and Unborn.” Among the “born,” of course, we must include children who are abused or neglected, right? And probably those who do the abusing or neglecting, too, as well as snotty-nosed, loud-mouthed kids running around being annoying or disruptive and sullen teenagers, naturally. Plus folks with tattoos, too much make-up, or sloppy attire. Or people who are as big as a barn or as thin as a wisp. And alcoholics and addicts.

Other lives to be cherished would be the poor, those without health insurance, and highly paid corporate folks who raid our paltry savings to give themselves obscene bonuses. Without a doubt it includes socialists, Republicans, Democrats, people of faith (all faiths, Christian and non-Christian), and the agnostics and atheists, too. Can’t forget soldiers, journalists, law-enforcement personnel, auto mechanics, fire and disaster workers, bankers, supermodels, medical workers, peace demonstrators, teachers, grocery clerks and librarians.

Respecting and cherishing life also ought to include the elderly (even if they drive too slow or smell funny), bicycle riders (ditto), SUV drivers, those with physical or mental disabilities, the wise and the foolish, people we love, homosexuals, all politicians (even if we disagree with them) and even non-human life — like our dogs and cats. Also among the born are Oprah, Rush and Jay Cutler. Keep on cherishing!

I’m sure you get my drift and I hope you all have lots of categories to add to this very incomplete list. However, if you want to omit anyone, then I don’t think you can truly claim to “cherish life.”

NANCY TIERNAN

Grand Junction

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January 9 2010

January 9 2010

Teaching Link of the Day: Dry Erase for Preschoolers
Many times we draw something for little ones to color or to watch, but it also goes that they should draw on their own as they're observing. If you use a dry-erase board as tall as your preschooler (less than 4' should do) then they can participate in a face-to-face drawing experience.

Today, we drew a truck. He drew the tires and we discussed what should be in the bed of the truck, and drew those things. *Erase* We drew a Bulldozer. He guided my drawing line-by-line verbally and with gestures. He indicated four wheels, a top, and a scoop at the front. Then he filled the scoop with rocks. It took him a very long time. *Erase* We drew a house. He drew the roof. He drew the door. It was more of a window. We talked about what a door was, and found one in the house. He drew a door on the ground. It was a bit short, but we worked it out. *Erase* We drew colors like a rainbow. They were mostly the same four colors, and one sweeping line had a flaw he had to black out intensely in one spot. I reminded him we could erase. *Erase* We drew lines and swirls of colors. He ran away.

Game of the Day:

The board is missing, the die is missing, two legs are missing, and a tongue has been chewed to oblivion. It does not function as a game, though it has the title and appearance of a game. I have hereby demoted the remainder of the game to Potato Head status. (I was just reading about Pluto. It seemed an appropriate analogy.)


Thought of the Day: You know who your real friends are when shit hits the fan and they're there to help scrub up the smelly, gag-inducing mess. And tell you that the stains don't really show.

Show of the Day:

I do not understand this show. No one's character seems to be consistent from episode to episode.

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