Honors Breakfast

Yesterday, Alison had what I hope to be the first of her Honors breakfasts at North.  I think that there must have been about 200-250 kids there from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.  We sat with a couple other friends of Alison, but she didn't want to talk too much.  There were a lot of her other friends there too.  I wanted to get a picture of her, but she was being cranky about it. 

I offered to take her picture with a friend or two if that would get her to do it, and she thought that would be cool.  Well a couple of friends turned into about 15, and then everybody's parents were taking pictures, even someone from the school.  Now I wasn't about to wait in line to take my child's picture.  In addition, some of the parents were just rather rude about it.  That is the problem with taking pictures with your phone.  Having to zoom in and out with one hand, while holding the phone up, and out in front of you.  I swear, people who use their phones as the family camera just annoy me.  Then, add in the people using tablets as their cameras, and you can imagine the complete cluster that was going on.  And all because I wanted to have one picture. Luckily, Kris was able to get Ali's picture once she got back.

The guest speaker this year was a reporter/radio host from one of the local radio stations.  He used to do stories on one of the TV stations, I don't think he does them right now on a regular basis, but he may fill in a little bit.  Apparently, he had a couple of daughters who went through our school system.  Who knew?  Anyway, I thought his speech was very good.  Hopefully Alison was paying attention.

Feelin' Like A Geezer

Today had to put my foot down with the girls' music.  Now normally, I am pretty lenient on the kind of music that they listen to.  I don't like it, but just because I don't like a particular style of music doesn't mean that no one else can listen to it.  I try to let the girls find their own style.  And believe me, there is some stuff that I hear coming out of thier rooms that just drives me insane.

Well I was in Sarah's room to help her with some math and she had her music playing, rap music (which I don't much care for in the first place), when I heard some of the lyrics.  Quite frankly, it is the kind of stuff that would get a movie an R rating.  And it isn't like it was a one time thing.  The clown was saying it over and over and over.  That was it for me.  I made her get rid of it.  

I thought back to when I was in high school and the kind of music I listened to, and I don't recall any language like that.  I asked Kris and she agreed.  Yeah, the music was loud and obnoxious and hacked off my parents, but the worst thing that the lyrics of the songs talked about were drinking, and partying all night long.  Maybe there would be a song with some innuendo, but that was what it was, innuendo.  It wasn't the explicit descriptions, dropping f-bombs left and right.  

I feel like an old geezer who is yelling at the kids for playing their yeah-yeah records too loud.  In that respect I maybe showing my age.  But in another respect, I just don't see the point.  I remember in HS one of my teachers saying something about the language that is used in some songs.  A real artist has a point to it, to try and convey an idea, or a message.  It is an important part of the overall work.  But to just cuss, and offend for the shock value of it is not art, it is just that, to shock, and nothing more.  That kind of "music" really has no redeeming value. 

Anyway, now Kris and I are going through the music on the girls' ipods, and we are making them get rid of the music we don't approve of.  I would have never thought that I would be "censoring" my children's choice in music, but then again, being a parent in 2014 isn't the same as it was 25 years ago.

Driving Progress

Sarah has her first driving lesson with the official instructor this weekend, Saturday to be exact.  I have been letting he drive around town whenever I need to go someplace, like the grocery store, or to go check on Kris's dad.  She is getting better.  I think she is getting more comfortable behind the wheel.  Her turns are getting a little better but she still needs to work on her speed control.  She tends to speed up and then slow down, speed up and slow down.  I think it will come with practice.

I took her out yesterday and let her just drive around town for about an hour and a half.  I even took her out on the country roads where she could get up to 55, and took her through a roundabout.  I figured that with all the stupid roundabouts the state has installed (is that the right word) lately, she needed to know how to go through them.  I asked her and she said that it was something that they didn't teach in driver's ed.  Maybe I'll think about taking her out on the highway soon.  I noticed one other thing too.  She tends to drift in her lane.  We start on the left, then go all the way to the right, then back to the left.  I'm not sure how to handle that yet.  We'll see what happens after her lesson Saturday.

Time To Make The Donuts

In Ali's homeroom, the kids take turns bringing in treats on Fridays for the class.  It was Alison's turn last week, and since it was Valentine's Day we thought it would be good to have her bring in heart shaped donuts from Dunkin' Donuts.  So Kris went in a week before and placed the order for them.  She scheduled them to be picked up the night before so that we didn't have to get up early and go get them before school started.  

Unfortunately, the night before, Kris went to pick them up and they weren't ready.  The woman working there couldn't find the order.  So after a little bit of haggling and calling of managers, Kris was told they would be there first thing in the morning.  I told Kris I would go as soon as I got up and get them.  I was supposed to ask for the manager and she was going to give us a refund.  

So I got there just after 5:00 AM and asked for our order.  It took a couple of minutes, but they brought them out for me, but no one said anything about a refund, so I figured Kris must have heard things wrong.  I brought them out to the car and backed out to leave.  The problem was that there were no lights in the parking lot and I couldn't see while I was backing up.  I ended up backing into a post, or whatever the posts are that are put on the sidewalks, sort of like a barricade.  So now I am mad!  I knew I messed something up but I wasn't about to sit there in the parking lot like a dope and check it out.  

As I was driving home, Kris sent me a message and said that Dunkin' Donuts had called and said I should come back for my refund.  So I went back and got my $8 or whatever it was.  I don't remember exactly how much, I was too mad about my car.  The manager did apologize and said that they had the order written down for the 14th, not the 13th, even though the receipt we had when Kris ordered the donuts said a pick up time of after 5:00 PM on the 13th.  On top of that, it turns out that I cracked my rear bumper cover, which is not cheap.  All because they couldn't get the day right when they took the order.  If they had, I wouldn't have a cracked bumper.  So now I need to go find out how much it is going to cost to get it replaced. 

Another Day, Another Couple Inches of Snow

Well, it is another day, and that means another couple inches of snow.  I think of the 13 days in February so far it has snowed something like 8 or 9 of them so far.  And of course it is just enough to make it have to be cleared away, but not enough to fire up the snowblower.  I am really getting tired of the snow and winter.  I need to go back and look, but this has to be one of the coldest, snowiest winters in the last few years. We had one winter a few years ago where it snowed something like 22 of the 28 days in February.  We still have half the month to go, but I don't think it's going to be much better.  I really can't wait for Spring to get here!

Death Wish

It is time to admit that I have some sort of death wish.  Why you may ask?  Well it is because as of about 9:00 yesterday morning, Sarah has a license to operate a 6000 lb. chunk of steel. 

(excuse the crummy photo, all I had was my cell phone, it was bright, and only about 3 degrees outside so my hand was a little shaky)

That means that I will have to start having her drive on a regular basis to try and get a little experience behind the wheel, which also means a lot more grey hair and taking my life in my hands when I take her out on the road. 

She has a tendency to want to stay as far to the right as she can, so we end up driving half in the parking lane from time to time.  I haven't taken her into any real traffic yet, and it is a good thing too.  Going straight isn't that difficult for her, her big problems seem to be in turning.  When the road bends, we end up (in my opinion) going to fast into the turn, especially when there is snow on the road (since we are all out of salt).  Then, when she needs to turn, either from a driveway out onto the road, or making a 90° turn at an intersection, we come to almost a complete stop and then go through the turn at about 3 mph.  Tonight, we almost clipped an orange plastic post where there was some construction (from a broken water main) because Sarah wasn't turning the wheel back fast enough.  If it gets nice out this weekend, maybe I'll go and try to find someplace she can practice out of traffic.  Either way, it is going to be a long next six months.

Not Quite The End

Since all the cheer competitions are over for the year, I thought we would just have to finish out the basketball season and Sarah's career as a cheerleader would be over.  I say that only because of the tumbling requirements that the varsity cheer squad has and knowing that Sarah is not very good at tumbling.  Her coach this year must have said something to her about trying out for varsity cheer next year, hinting that she thought Sarah could make it.  So now Sarah has changed her mind, and she is going to plan on trying out for Varsity cheer later this spring.  I suppose I don't  blame her.  If I knew I had a chance at making the varsity, I would be giving it a shot as well.  Hopefully she'll make it.  But that will mean more work for us again....  volunteering for meets, driving to and from practice, fundraising, etc.  

I don't know exactly when the tryouts are for Varsity, though I do know it it later this spring, in May maybe?  Kris knows.  So now I don't know if Sarah will be doing tumbling stuff to get ready for tryouts or what.  But like I said, I hope if she decides that she wants to do it, she takes it seriously and gives it her best shot.

One Week To Go

Well, in a week from today there will be one more person with a driver's license in the house.  Sarah can get her learner's permit on Monday.  Right now I am planning on taking her first thing in the morning to go and get it, though the more I think about it, I may do it later in the day.  I think it will depend on Sarah's school schedule and what classes she may be missing.  I was going to go into work late, but maybe just taking the day off will be easier.

I have been giving her some practice "off the books" and she is really in need of getting some time under her belt.  She is very jerky on the brakes and she needs to learn to control her speed a little bit.  I think she also needs to stay focused on the road.  There was one incident where she was going down the road (I have been sticking to side streets to keep her out of any major traffic) and a car was coming from the other direction.  She decided she was going to pull over and wait for them to pass.  Because you know when she actually has her license all the other cars will just pull over for her, or she can just pull over and wait until it is only her on the road for her to get where ever she is going.  It makes me leery of actually taking her out into traffic when she finally gets her license.  I think I am in for some more grey hair very soon.

JV Cheer

Yesterday Sarah's JV cheer squad ended the 2013-2014 season of competition in Brookfield.  They ended on a high note taking first place of the six teams in their division.  They were in the small division this time whereas they have competed in the large divisions in just about every other competition but their first one of the year.

I have to say their routine this week was pretty tight this week, and I only saw one small flub, though I have no idea what I am looking for when it comes to judging.  And truthfully, I didn't think they would have won.  I thought maybe second, third place at the worst.  It was pretty exciting to see their reaction when they announced the second place team and they realized they had won.  In fact, they ended up beating the team that won the state competition two weeks before in the JV Small category.  At state, the Falls was in the large JV division instead of the small, though I don't think it would have helped them.

It was a good way to go out as a JV cheerleader.  Good job Sarah, we're proud of you.

 

Unfortunately, the one picture that turned out Sarah had her head turned.  There was another parent there who was hogging the photo taking and was acting as if he had never seen a digital camera before (that's his big head just to the left).  I was too nice to tell him, hey buddy move it!  

This was the other one I was able to get, but I was holding my camera up above all the other people, and my hand must have been a little shaky, because the picture is a little blurry.

This is just a reason for me to get a good SLR camera with a telephoto lens.  Then I could have just stayed in the stands and gotten just as good of a shot.

Winter Sludge

One of the things I hate most about winter are the piles of sandy sludge that build up on the underside of the car while driving through the snow, and then end up falling off in the garage.  It seems like every other day I am scooping up three or four shovels full of sludge and dump them out in the street.  So today when I got home from running a couple of errands, before parking the car in the garage, I decided to get the shovel out and scoop out the sludge.  

I made the mistake of trying to get it all in one shovel which resulted in my straining my already strained back.  I had done something to it a week and a half ago, I don't know if it was sleeping wrong, or what, but it felt like a pulled muscle.  After taking ti easy for a little over a week, it was just about back to normal.  Then I had to try lifting about 50 pounds of snow sludge with one arm in a shovel.  That was a mistake.  Hopefully it isn't that bad and I if I just lay low for a day or so everything will be ok.