The New Math

Tonight I was helping Alison with her homework. She had a worksheet of math problems to do, I think it was about 25 problems, all division. At first I told her to do the problems and I would help her as she needed it but I wanted her to get an answer for each problem before helping to get the right answer. She actually did pretty well.

However there were a couple of problems that she got wrong. When I started to help her she said to me that she had to do it a particular way, a way called the partial quotient method. I remember Sarah being taught something like 3 or 4 different methods for getting the correct answer, but they were all long, complicated, and just generally more of a hassle than it was worth. I tried to show her that the traditional way of doing long division is both easier and faster, but she threw a small fit saying they HAD to do it that way.

I find it funny that the schools teach such stupid methods for finding solutions to rudimentary math but yet, once they get to middle school, they teach the traditional methods. Sarah has even said she doesn't know why they ever taught her the way they did when she was in grade school, because it was all pretty much useless. She was just like Alison, she had to do it one particular way, but once she got to 6th grade it was one way, and that was it. Hopefully I can get through to Alison. Maybe I'll talk to her teacher and see if she minds me teaching her the real way to do math.

Kitty Stress

I don't know if I have mentioned it since I haven't been making regular entries as of late, But last November after Gizmo passed away, we went to the humane society and got a bonded pair of cats. Their names are Phoebe and Samson.

We had a few issues when we first got them having to do with litter boxes. After a bit we solved that problem, but recently we have noticed another small issue... licking. Phoebe is licking everything. She has licked a couple of small spots on her coat completely bare. If that isn't bad enough, she sill sit in the chair, or on the couch, and lick the leather. Or... as we have recently discovered, sit on the foot of our bed and lick the footboard, the handworked, Amish footboard. It feels as if someone took some fine sandpaper and rubbed the wood removing the finish. I'm not quite sure how to fix this just yet. I am searching the world wide interwebs looking for suggestions. When I get it solved, I'll post the results.

Springtime Ritual

It is time to repeat the spring ritual of raking/de-thatching the lawn. With the warm spell we have had, I wasn't sure how I would able I would be to get up all the thatch since things were starting to green up so much. I spent about 4 hours Saturday and another four hours on Sunday getting up all the dead grass and leaves from the winter. I only ended up with about two bags of grass, twigs, bark, and branches, which is about 1 bag less that I normally have. I also wanted to make sure I had it finished since this year, we are paying to have fertilizer applied. I figured that for what it would cost me to get fertilizer to put on the grass, I could pay someone to do it and then not have to worry about when I could do it. Hopefully this will be the first step to trying to reclaim my lawn from the clover and dandelions, and other weeds that have slowly taken over.

I also start feeling my age when I do yardwork, especially when I rake thatch. This year though, I was smart and wore work gloves to keep the blisters off my hands. But I can't do much about the sore muscles, other than making sure I do more to keep my muscles loose and in shape.

Also in doing the raking, I noticed quite a few low spots in the lawn, as I always do, when I was doing the back yard, especially around the new fence posts. I will need to get a few bags of top soil and seed and with any luck I'll have the spots built up for the summer. Then again, it may be one of those things that I just never quite find the time to get done this year and will gnaw at me all summer long.

Red Seed Time Again

With the warm weather and raking also comes the part of spring I loathe most, the little red seed husks falling from the maple trees. They just get everywhere, especially tracked into the house. And, while raking, I had to remove the downspouts on the garage. One was packed solid with them. It was about a six to eight inch sleeve of wet seeds. I think that it's almost over though, which is good and bad. Good that the seed will stop dropping, bad that in about 2-3 weeks we'll be coated in helicopter seeds.

Caught a Cold

Just when I was starting to get back into writing things on a semi-regular basis, I end up taking a little bit of a forced break. I have been feeling under the weather this week, I think I picked up a head cold from someone at work. I started feeling sort of crummy Monday night, spent Tuesday and Wednesday with a low fever and my head all congested. All I wanted to do was sleep when I got home from work. I am finally feeling a little bit better, though I still have the congestion in my head and now also in my chest, but at least the fever is gone. Just in time for the Marquette game tonight, which is good because I plan on watching the whole thing. The Badgers already lost, which was a bit of a downer, but then Michigan State lost too, so MU has to win. We're down 36-30 right now at the half, but Jae Crowder got in foul trouble early. I am hoping the second half will make it worth staying awake.

Almost Done

Sarah had an orthodontist appointment after school today. He asked Sarah if she wanted her braces off. Of course she said yes. It was only supposed to take two years, so Sarah is really ready to get them off! But after a little over three years, she will finally be done with molar bands, and wires, and rubber bands. So it looks like in a month they'll finally be off, then she'll have to make sure she wears her retainer.

TV Upgrade

Kris and I had finally had enough of out television. We bought it about three years ago and purchased the "protection plan" for it at the time. After a little more than a year, it developed a dark spot on the screen, a shadowed area. At first it wasn't too bad, but it gradually got worse and worse. We decided enough was enough and went to buy a new TV.

We had been shopping online last year, and actually had gone to Best Buy last year. At the time we were looking at a Sony Bravia but we decided to wait for a little while. So when we went this time, we were looking at the models they had online and had pretty much decided on the one we wanted. But when we started looking for the model we had decided upon, we came across the same Sony Bravia model we were looking at last year. It was clearanced for about 55% off the original price. I told teh salesman, that was the one I wanted, because at that price, I could have got a soundbar to go with it for the same price as the one we had gone in planning on purchasing. Unfortunately, the salesman came back and told us that we couldn't buy the Sony since they were all sold out, and they couldn't sell the floor model until they got another one in to replace it (I assume the new models). So that sort of sucked. Personally I don't think they should have the model out there on the sales floor unless they plan on selling it. But it is what it is, and we just went back to plan A and got the one we were originally planning on getting.

I got it home and set up, and boy... what a difference in the picture. I think this one was a good choice. It'll be nice for watching sports, that's for sure. I can't wait for baseball season to start.

Back Online

Hooray!  The new modem is hooked up and we are back online and have phone service again.  The technician got here and took one look at how I had things hooked up and asked me “where is the incoming line?”  Which is what I was wondering.  There are two plugs coming in from the phone line that go into the modem, or are supposed to be.  But I showed they guy the installation instructions and it said to disconnect them.  I had everything plugged in the way the instructions said, and I was trying to convey that to the person in India last night, but I wasn’t getting my message across (which is why talking to technical support halfway across the globe sucks).

The technician simply plugged in the lines after lengthening the plugs a bit and then we just needed to wait for the setup process to complete.  I even showed him the instructions I had, and he said he had never actually looked at the instructions for any of the “self-install” setups, but the ones I had were definitely not correct.  I didn’t even need to call the 877 number that they had on the instructions to activate it

After about 15 minutes our service was restored.  The technician went out to check the lines once we were sure all the phones were working and I had internet service on all the computers.  When he got to the house he said he ran some test on our line before he came to the door and saw that our service had been interrupted about 5 times since midnight.  We had a similar problem a year and a half ago and it turned out some squirrels had chewed through some lines and that was the cause of the service lapses.  He said he was going to go run his tests, and we might lose our signal for a few minutes while he was testing things, but it wouldn’t take long. 

When all was said and done, he said that there were wet lines, or something like that, and that he would need to put in a request for line service.  They would be out in a day or two and take care of fixing the lines.  So for now, I think we have things running again.      

More Modem Issues

When I got home from work today, I thought I would give hooking up the new modem/router another shot.  I spent another half an hour unhooking things and hooking up the new modem.  I brought Kris downstairs with me to have her verify that I as following the instructions that were sent with the modem.  Once again, it didn’t work so I took to calling AT&T technical support, which I was trying not to do because I usually have a hard time either understanding them, or having them understand what I am saying.

I spent a good 20-30 minutes with them trying to explain what I had done and what kind of lights were lit up on the modem.  The guy I was talking to (somewhere in India I suppose) was giving me instructions and nothing was working, so after a good hour to hour and a half, He said he couldn’t do any more and was going to put in a service ticket for me, and that a service tech would be here Saturday between 12:00 and 4:00.  That is what I was really trying to do in the irst place, because I could have told the guy that following the instructions I was given wasn’t helping.  So check back tomorrow to see if we have phone and internet service.  

AT & T Sucks

Our new phone/tv/internet portal got here yesterday.  However, AT&T lists the time and day that I can install it, which was yesterday after 8:00 PM.  Kris said the customer service rep told her to wait until the next business day to install it, so I had to wait until today.  Well I spent 45 minutes trying to hook it up and didn't have any luck.  I followed the instructions to the letter and while it powered up, I never go the dial tone I was supposed to.  And I couldn't activate it for the TV and internet service until I could call to do so, which is hard because THERE IS NO DIAL TONE!

In the end I got frustrated and hooked the old one back up, so at least I can watch tv and type out my frustration on here.  Maybe I'll try again later tonight or tomorrow, but right now I just don't have the patience for it.

Phone Problems

Monday night when I got home from work I was told we were having a problem with the phone.  The caller ID displayed on the TV screen when a call is incoming, but the phone itself doesn't ring, and there is no notice of a missed call, or if the person calling left a message.  So I picked it up and there was a busy signal, nothing more.  I was on the phone Sunday night when it dropped on me.  I assumed it was the U-Verse signal that was interrupted, and I finished the call on my cell phone.  But I think that was the point where things stopped working.

So Tuesday morning, I called the technical support for U-Verse from work.  The customer service person wanted to troubleshoot things with me.  One problem though, I was at work.  She asked if there was anyone at home that she could talk to in order to troubleshoot it, so I gave her Kris's cell phone number.  The problem was that Kris was just getting ready to take Alison to school.  So they weren't able to diagnose the issue.  They called back once she was home from driving Ali and they ran some sort of diagnostic and determined it was a "modem problem".  The solution to the problem was to send us a new wireless router.  The good thing is that we still have TV and internet service, but we are without a phone.  I suppose it's fine since no one ever really calls anyway, and we have our cell phones.  But if you have tried to call in the last three days and didn't get an answer, now you know why.

Happy Birthday

Saturday was Kris's birthday.  I won't say how old she is, as that would be rude.  But here is a photo of Kris with the girls and her cake:

It was sort of crummy for her to have to work on her birthday and having to deal with the problems she has been having with her back, but at least once she got home she was able to just relax.  Happy Birthday Krissy!

Taking The Day Off

I took the day off on Friday for Kris's birthday, since she was working on her birthday today.  I try to save a couple of vacation days every year to take off on Kris's birthday, or the girls' birthdays, and I thought I would go take her shopping while the girls were at school and she didn't have to deal with whining, or fighting while she shopped for herself.  Unfortunately, our day was spent at the doctor due to her back issues the night before.

She has been having some severe back pain since January, the result of what the initial exam determined to be a herniated disc.  She got some pain medication and anti-inflammatories, from the doctor and then got a muscle relaxer from the occupational health nurse at the hospital.  This time around though the doctor gave her a shot of some heavy duty anti-inflammatory.  Then they did an x-ray on her back as a precursor, I think, to have in MRI done.  The good thing is that the shot seemed to have helped out enough so that she can at least move now.  So the rest of the day was spent on the couch resting so that she was able to go to work on Saturday.

Not a very good way to spend the day off.

Cheer Showcase

Thursday night was Sarah's final cheer event for the year, the annual cheer showcase.  Unfortunately, no one other than Sarah was there.  I got home from work and Alison had a stomach ache, and generally wasn't feeling well.  And Kris had called earlier in the afternoon to let me know that she was in excruciating pain.  Her back was acting up again, and she couldn't move.  So when I got home, I had to make sure she was taken care of, and Ali was ok, so I didn't get to go see Sarah.  Sarah said it was OK, but Kris and I still feel bad.

So tomorrow it looks like we'll be heading back to the doctor to see if there is anything that they can do to relieve the pain.