Four Feet More

This morning, while Jeff was out on his run, I dismantled the dang Christmas tree. The kids helped me haul the pieces back into the garage, where we shoved them back into the box. It's not a pretty put-away job, but at least it's done.

Jeff's birthday was this weekend too, on Saturday. We put his gifts under the tree and his cards in the branches. It looked a bit festive, if I do say so myself.

Strange post title to have in February, isn't it? Well, I have a confession. Our Christmas tree is still up. Wait! Before you get all disgusted with me, let me explain. On January 2nd, I took down all the Christmas decorations while Jeff was out with some clients. I even took down the ornaments. However, tackling the 9 foot artificial tree was a job I just wasn't feeling up to doing on my own. So, when Jeff got home later that day, I asked him if he could take down the tree, and naturally, he said yes.

That was 39 days ago. And yet the tree still stands. At this point, it's become an issue of stubbornness with me. I'm interested to see just how long that tree remains in our living room, and whether or not I will cave in and take the dang thing down! This week, there was some progress, however. Jeff unplugged the tree, so it no longer clicks on at 5pm, warming us in it's cheery (if no longer seasonal) glow until 10 pm.

If I didn't hate Valentine's Day do much, I'd probably drape pink and red hearts over the tree. Perhaps I can find some of those egg ornaments for Easter?

The past couple of weeks have just flown by! In between work and the kids, a few other things have occurred which are worth mentioning.

• I am sick. AGAIN. Darn, germy kindergartners. The upside is that all this coughing is giving my abs one heck of a workout! The downside is that I have no creative energy at the moment, which means you get this: a bulleted list of the marginally interesting things that happened since my last post.

• My nephew Tyson turned 1 year old last week! We went to his birthday party last weekend, and hoped to get a photo of him with cake all over his face. However, he just daintily dipped his fingertips into the frosting, keeping very clean and tidy, so I finally told my brother to push the piece of cake in Ty's face. Which he actually did! After a moment of stunned silence, Ty thought it was fun and began smiling through the layers of blue frosting covering his cheeks and mouth. Photos were taken all around.

• I received notice of new budget cuts coming to our school district next year. Proposed cuts include 105 teaching positions (in Elementary Ed), P.E. for elementary students, the elimination of class-size reduction in all elementary classes, custodial services, etc. The list goes on and on until $35 million is cut from the budget. *sigh* Looks like it's going to be another summer of uncertainty for me.

• And, to end on a high note, I finally finished my Rosamund's Cardigan! I got the pattern from Interweave Knits' Fall 2009 issue and used worsted weight yarn purchased from Knit Picks online. There are a few problem areas in the finished sweater (which probably would be eliminated if I blocked it), but overall, I'm happy with the results! Now, on to my next project (whatever that will be...).

I saw these online and kind of had to have them. They'll go nicely with the matryoshka plates my friend J9 gave to our family for Christmas.

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=873473&navAction=jump&search=true&parentid=SEARCH_RESULTS

What do you think? Cute, huh?

Actually, I don't think this will be my last impulse buy of 2009. I just read that Season 1 of "Glee" was released today. Heading off to Target now....

What follows are some completely unrelated bits of information which I will attempt to link together with creative segues:

First off, I finally finished my February Lady Sweater! I had set it aside but rediscovered it this summer, when I began working on the sweater with the goal of having it done in time for Fall. The garter-stitch top was easy, but the lace pattern for the body and sleeves gave me a bit of trouble. In fact, I had to rip the dang thing out 6 times before I got into the rhythm of the pattern. Watching T.V. while knitting certainly didn't help, but towards the end of the sweater, I was able to do both. Here is the finished result:

I actually made clothes for myself! I think I may do it more often (especially since I won't leave my sweaters lying on the playground to be trampled by hundreds of children, as Vika and Eamon do). I'm still not sure about the length of the sleeves - they seem like they should be either longer or shorter. But I don't have it in me to rip them out and finish them again, so I think I'll leave them this way for now.

The show that kept distracting me from the lace rows in this pattern is one Jeff and I recently discovered called "Firefly". We got it on Netflix in order to alleviate our "Star Trek" cravings (that movie will be released on DVD in November), and were pleasantly surprised. The show is on DVD because it was canceled after one season, which is a huge shame, really. "Firefly" is a SciFi Western, which despite the contradictory nature of the genre, is actually a lot of fun. My favorite lines from the show so far: "Well, my days of taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle." and "Your mouth's talking. You might want to do something about that." I would love to use that last line in my everyday life, but I think it would make my kindergartners cry.

Speaking of my students, have I mentioned that 3 of my kids have life-threatening food allergies? Well, two of those kids had allergic reactions last week, and it kind of freaked me out. Fortunately, I didn't have to use the epi-pens stored in the classroom, but it still was pretty scary. I really feel for their parents, having to deal with this on a day-to-day basis. Hopefully we'll get through the year with the epi-pens still unused, and all three kids happily going off to terrify a first grade teacher next Fall!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tonight Vika and I were treated to a home theatrical, courtesy of Eamon. In a very dignified voice, he asked us to come see the President in his room. Then he quickly ran to his table, set down his light saber (sheathed in a gold, plastic scabbard to make it look more old skool) and banged his gavel (a light saber handle) to gain our attention. In a loud, clear voice, he spoke into a microphone (made of another light saber handle) and began telling us about money.

He pointed to a penny and said, "This money has Lincoln Log on it. It's one cent."

Then he took out a piece of paper and said, "These are the important rules that Lincoln Log wrote."

1. Keep people safe
2. Make sure no one really dies that much.
3. Don't say bad words, like "You're a loser!"
   

Next, he proceeded to show us the "Obama money," which wound up being a sticker with a picture of a whale tail on it because "Obama doesn't have money yet."

He began to tell us about Obama's rules, but became distracted by a green plastic crystal from his make-your-own light saber kit, which apparently was not where he thought it should be. After putting it away he stood up, and with a flourish of his hand sketched an elegant bow, thus ending his performance.

It was interesting, to say the least.

His presidential lesson also made it quite clear that the boy has entirely too many light sabers.

This morning, I received a notification in my e-mail that a person named "comcastcares5" had commented on my last post offering assistance in solving my problem. I was thinking about e-mailing him when the phone rang. It was Comcast. Finally, someone was calling to help me fix this mess!

"Hello!" I said, "Is this Comcast?"

The terse voice on the other line said, "Yes it is Ma'am. How are you going to pay?"

"Excuse me?" I asked. Wasn't this the person whom the Comcast Office said was supposed to call me to sort things out? "Where are you calling from?" I asked the agent.

"This is Collections Ma'am." She then explained that my account was past due and that our service had been discontinued. "WHAT???!!!" I shouted, getting really fed up. I explained to her that we had yet to receive a correct bill on our account and that I had been trying for a month to get this corrected.

Her response: "You still need to pay your bill Ma'am."

"But I haven't ever received a correct bill!!!!" I screeched. "The bills say different amounts and accounts each time! How am I supposed to know what to pay, and why didn't the lady at the Comcast office tell me any of this yesterday???!!! Don't you guys talk to each other???!!!"

I mean, really. They're a telecommunications company - can't they communicate better?

The agent responded, "I believe we do Ma'am. Now how did you want to pay your bill?"

At this point I asked her to clarify the charges for me. It seems the discrepancy in her amount and the amount I was told by billing on Friday was due to late fees that had been applied. I protested that it was ridiculous that we were being charged late fees on bills that had been sent to the wrong address and that had incorrect information on them. I also reminded her that I've been trying to get a correct bill for nearly a month and insisted that she remove the late charges.

The agent agreed to credit the late fees to my account, and I paid what I hope was the correct amount for July. I also learned that the $390 one-time service fee had been dropped. The agent then tried unsuccessfully to "reinstate service" for the account. She became confused when the system wouldn't let her reconnect service, and even more befuddled when I said that our service was working fine and had been all day. I explained again that the problem might be because there are 3 accounts open under our name at 2 different addresses. Then I asked her which account/address I had actually paid. Was it our neighbor's service that was disconnected, and did I just pay his bill for July?

At this point the agent began looking at our accounts a little more closely and said, "Oh, this is all messed up!" "Yes it is" I replied. "And I need it fixed TODAY."

"I need to transfer you to Billing so that they can help you."

"NO!!!" I shouted. "DON'T! The Billing Department told me to go to the Comcast Office to get it fixed, and the Comcast Office redirected me to Credit and Collections, and now you're sending me back to Billing!!! I'm getting the run-around, BIG TIME."

The agent said she would see what she could do and put me on hold. By this point, I was ready to spit nails, so I punched out a quick e-mail to Mark (comcastcares5 who commented on my last post). As I was typing, a woman named Diana came on the phone and told me she was getting in touch with a supervisor to sort things out. Slowly I began to relax and feel a bit more positive.

And then my call was disconnected. Lovely.

I finished up my e-mail to Mark (including the part about being disconnected) and gave him my home phone number. Then I sat and waited for Diana to call me back. But after a while I began to think that she might not call, so I picked up the phone and dialed 1-800-COMCAST, pushing all the necessary numbers to try and get back to a live person in the Billing Department. A woman came on the line and began asking me for my account info. As she accessed my account, I could tell that she was trying to make sense of what she was seeing. "It's a mess, right?" I asked. She kind of laughed and I said, "Look, I was just on the phone with a supervisor but got disconnected. Can you please put me through to someone who can help?"

BEEEEEEP - the other line rang, and it was a call from Philadelphia.

"Are you in Philadelphia?" I asked the woman. "What?" she replied, sounding confused. "Are you in Philadelphia? I have a call on the other line and I'm wondering if it's the Comcast supervisor calling me back."

"Well, Ma'am, I don't know. I'm in Wisconsin!" Perfect.

"Can you hang on a minute?" I asked, and then switched over to the other line to see who was calling.

Lo' and behold, it was comcastcares5, Mark! I quickly greeted him and then asked him to hold while I hung up with the agent on the other line. When I switched back over, Mark again apologized for the trouble I was having and said he had contacts in my area who could help out. He said he would have someone give me a call today to address the issue. "When can they call me?" I asked. The question seemed to catch Mark by surprise, but hey, I have things to do, and I can't really hang around the house all day! Mark asked, "Where are you located?" (which I found a little strange since he said he knew contacts in my area) I told him we were in California, and when he started speaking again, I heard a strange, high-pitched noise, and we were disconnected. *sigh*

BEEEEEEP - another call coming through on the other line.

Since Mark got disconnected, I switched over, and was surprised to hear Diana's voice. "Diana!" I exclaimed with joy (this was all starting to get a bit amusing to me by now), "I was just on the other line with Mark, but we got disconnected!" "Oh, don't worry about that." she said, "We've been working all this time to solve your problem and..."

BEEEEEEP - Philadelphia on the other line

"That's Mark" I said, "Can you hold please?" She said yes, and I switched back over to Mark. "Mark! Diana's on the other line! She's trying to sort things out." He said, "Take your time," but I didn't really want to have him hanging around waiting, so I said that was OK, I would try to fix things with Diana and e-mail him later.

When I switched back to Diana, she said that the other accounts had been closed and that my account was now current. "Which account would that be?" I asked. After all, it could be any one of the three. She confirmed the account number that I had thought was correct all along (Yay me!), and assured me that the late fees would be reversed and that I would receive correct bills in the future. "I sure hope that's true this time!" I replied, and Diana laughed. I was only half-joking.

So, hopefully all's well that ends well and the problem truly is fixed this time. If not, I'm sure you'll be hearing about it.

What I've been going through for the past month with Comc@st not only is extremely irritating, it is almost surreal. I mean, how could a company's customer service be THAT bad? Well, it takes a lot of hard work, let me tell you, and Comc@st has gotten it down to an artform.

The saga began when we were notified by our homeowner's association that June 30th would be the last day that they would be covering our cable costs. If we wanted to continue our service, we would have to set up an appointment with Comc@st to have our account transferred over. No problem. We made an appointment and the cable guy came out on July 1st to transfer our service. There were a few glitches with our TiVo, but otherwise the set-up went smoothly. When we signed the paperwork, we noticed that they had the wrong address down (it was actually our neighbor's address, and that house was currently vacant). So we changed the address on the paperwork, the cable guy wrote a brief note and we initialed it. Problem solved, right? Wrong.

A week later, a new neighbor moved in to the previously vacant house and brought over a Comc@st bill that had been delivered to him. Sure enough, it was our account, but they had the wrong address. Complicating matters further, we received another bill for a different account at our address (the previous account from the homeowner's association). We tried to fix this address and billing mix-up with Comc@st over the phone, but they recommended that we go into their regional office to straighten it out. Since we had just purchased an HD TV and needed to upgrade our service anyway, it wasn't too big of an inconvenience to drive to the office and request assistance. We talked to the service lady at the desk, and she assured us that the address and billing problem had been solved.

She was mistaken. A week later, we received another two bills, for both our address and our neighbor's address, and one of them now said we were past due (this was the homeowner's account which had been closed on June 30th). Meanwhile, our new neighbor has been unable to set up his cable service because Comc@st already has our account listed at his address! I called in again and this time spoke with a very nice lady who assured me that the problem was now cleared up and we should be receiving correct bills in the future.

Then she promptly canceled our service.

By this time, I was ready to commit mayhem. Our phones, internet and TV were down and I could only call Comc@st on my cell phone. Which gets terrible reception in the house. So I kept getting disconnected with the Comc@st guy. At one point he said, "Ma'am, I'm having trouble hearing you," which prompted me to shout into the receiver, "That's because you canceled my dang home phone!!!!" Fortunately, I had been cut off by that point and he didn't hear my outburst. After 45 minutes shivereing outside in the cold night air (the only place I could get good cell reception), the Comc@st technician had reinstated my service temporarily and scheduled a cable guy to come to our house on Friday to "verify the equipment" and correct the address.

Friday came along and Comc@st called at 12 pm to confirm the appointment. I did so and verified that they were coming to our address, and not the neighbor's. The service person assured me that it was our address and that the technician would be here within the half hour. 20 minutes later, I see a Comc@st van pull up and a technician go to the neighbor's house. "Effin-ay!!!" I yelled as I ran down the stairs asking Jeff to redirect the guy to the right place (I was not in the right mood to speak to him in a friendly manner). Jeff asked Cable guy if he should be at our address, but he just gave him a blank look and mumbled something incoherent. Then he hung out in his van for about 15 minutes and drove off. When I called Comc@st an hour later to see what had happened to our service guy, they said that the order had been closed. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!! I explained, as calmly as I could, that the guy had gone to the wrong house and that they needed to get another technician here TODAY to fix this problem. Around 3 pm, a different cable guy showed up with no idea what he was supposed to do. After Jeff explained the job to him, he verified the equipment, corrected our address and drove away.

When I spoke to a technician on Friday, she said our current balance was $54 and that she would send us a new bill with the correct address immediately. Well, today I got the bill. It is for $449 and includes a $390 one-time service fee. After a brief temper tantrum, I called Comc@st again to find out what the hell was going on. I explained to the poor technician that we have been trying to fix this problem for a month now and that instead of getting fixed, it seems to be getting more and more mixed-up!!! Then I asked her if we still had two accounts under our name and why we were being charged a $390 service fee.

An audible gulp could be heard on the other end of the phone and the woman timidly said, "Ma'am, it looks like there are now three accounts under your name."

"WHAT???!!!" I exclaimed. How could this be???!!! Apparently, the first Comc@st guy who came out on Friday set up a new account under our name at the neighbor's address. That's what he was doing as he sat in his van for 15 minutes. And apparently we were charged $390 for this service.

So today, I am ready to kick @ss and take names! I'm heading down to that Comc@st office with our three accounts in hand to get this mess straightened out once and for all. Wish me luck, because the way things have been going, I think I'm going to need it!

It's too bad I don't have a brick wall nearby. I think banging my head against it would be easier than dealing with Comc@st's "customer service."

***** UPDATE *****

Just got back from the Comc@st office, where I had to wait in a long-@ss line and was again given a blank look by the "customer service" representative. She said she could not help and that there was no supervisor on duty to assist me. She then took copies of my bills, wrote a note and told me that "Credit and Collections" would be contacting me within 48 hours to clear things up.

F@%$#%@K!!!!

School's been out for a week now, and finally I feel as if I'm beginning to relax. That anxious feeling that I have to grade papers or prepare lesson plans is gone and I'm getting into the rhythm of being home with the kids during the day. A few updates from my summer so far:

• I may be a Trekkie. I saw the new Star Trek movie on Mother's Day (and again since then), and absolutely loved it. I've always been more of a Star Wars fan than Star Trek, but I enjoyed the movie so much that I've begun watching episodes from the original series on Netflix. And let me tell you, they are HILARIOUS (probably not intentionally so, but that's besides the point). Seriously, if you have some time, you should check them out. "The Enemy Within" from Season 1 has some especially smashing acting from William Shattner (and I mean that literally) as well as an extraordinary space dog (some poor mutt in a shag carpet with dixie straw antennas).

• Lately, Vika is asking me to do her hair "like Uhura's" and Eamon wants his hair to be like Bones'. So I may be making my kinds into Trekkies too. Poor things. They don't really stand a chance. I'm making them into geeks already!
  

• Tomorrow we are going to see the King Tut exhibit in San Francisco. My parents visited it in San Francisco back in the 70's, and I remember as a child looking through the King Tut picture book they bought, amazed at all the treasures and the story of the boy king. I tried to see the exhibit in Chicago a couple years back, but tickets were sold out. So we bought our tickets for this one way in advance and are planning to take the kids (I hope they aren't bored out of their minds). We're going to see the exhibit on the same day as the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, so I hope it's not too crazy there. Nevertheless, I don't think we'll take public transportation. Seeing a grown man with his bare bottom peeking out of backless leather chaps is not an image that the kids need to have burned into their brains at this young age. ;)

For your enjoyment, and in honor of the occasion, I give you King Tut. Have a great weekend!

On the last day of school (which was Wednesday - YAY!), I agreed to watch another teacher's pet walking stick, Sharpie. In his brief life, Sharpie has suffered a lot of trauma, and... well... to make a long story short, he now only has 5 legs.

But Sharpie's a little trooper, and I agreed to "bugsit" the stick, thinking it would be fun for Vika and Eamon.

I was wrong. Vika immediately tipped over Sharpie's enclosure, dumping his log and lettuce everywhere. Luckily, he was clinging to the grate at the top of his pen and didn't really seem to notice. But ever since, I've been a bit stressed about injuring (or killing) the already disabled insect. I've put him up on a shelf, out of reach of both child and cat, and am just hoping for the best.

This morning, as I went to check on the insect, I saw what appeared to be a shriveled up, quite dead, stick bug laying on the log.

"Oh my God, I killed Sharpie!" I cried out, panic setting in and plans quickly forming in my mind of where I could find another five-legged walking stick to replace this one.

When I opened the lid to investigate, there was Sharpie, hanging from his usual place on the grate, wondering what all the fuss was about.

Apparently, walking sticks shed their skin. So, the shriveled up bug was actually an old epidermis my little friend no longer needed.

Friggin' insect!

I realize you did not move in under circumstances that would have predisposed us to a long and lasting friendship. The previous inhabitants of your house, S and her two daughters, were good friends of ours and frequently invited us over for some excellent Indian food. Sadly, due to these tough economic times, they lost their home and were forced to move out. Our whole family was saddened by this turn of events, but I assure you we did not hold S’s loss against you.

What we do hold against you however, is the unwarranted use of your car’s horn.

Why must you honk your horn repeatedly throughout the day? And not just once, but in three short bursts: Beep! Beep! Beep! I know that this is probably your car alarm sound, but why must you activate it so often? Are you checking to make sure that your car is still there? Because, really, you could just look out your window and get the same results without disturbing any of your neighbors. What I find even harder to understand is why you go outside, look at your car, and then press the alarm button (Beep! Beep! Beep!), before walking back inside the house. Do you need to make sure the alarm still works? Because it was working fine 10 minutes ago when you last activated the triple horn, and I don’t think much has changed since then.

So, maybe you do have OCD. I can understand that and even sympathize with the anxiety you must feel when you do not hear your car go “Beep! Beep! Beep!” However, is it possible that you could confine your OCD to civilized hours? Honking your horn at 11:30 pm on a Sunday evening is bad enough, but doing it again at 1:25 am is just plain excessive. For goodness sake, I’m trying to sleep and your car is parked almost right below my bedroom window!

Please, I beg you, stop activating your car alarm, unless you are getting into or out of your car. If this reckless use of a car horn persists, I may be forced to commit automobilicide. Or at the very least, do a covert horn-deactivation mission in the middle of the night. Of course, with my luck, I’d be under your car, fiddling with wires when you came out to check your alarm (yet again) and would probably wind up deaf or seriously injured as a result. Could you please just save us all that trouble and cease the honking? On behalf of myself and all your neighbors, I’d like to thank you in advance for your kind attention to this matter.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Crap. There you go again…..

I was driving home from work the other day, and a song came on the radio that I secretly love. I immediately rolled up my windows so that no one else would hear the music coming from my car, and covertly sang along during the times I was alone on the road. A part of me was disappointed that it wasn't dark out because then I could sing a long to my heart's content and no one would notice!

This got me thinking about my "guilty pleasures" - the things I love, but really wish I didn't. I like to flatter myself that I have better taste than this, but apparently, I don't. Then it occurred to me that I am 35, for crying out loud, and really should just get over it. I mean, at this point my "cool cover" has pretty much been blown, and it's not like I have anything to lose, right?

So, here's my list of guilty pleasures. Feel free to mock me at will. I can take it. ;)

Songs:

• "I want it that way" by The Backstreet Boys I'm not a fan of boy bands in general. They are too manufactured and pretty for my taste. But there is something about this song that makes me want to turn up the radio and sing along every single time.

• "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears. Despite all the insane head-shaving, child-endangering antics of recent years, I still love this song.

• "Date Rape" by Sublime. The title of this alone makes we want to hate it, but "Date Rape" is the song that got me into Sublime back in college. It's so wrong, but the way the victim takes control and the rapist gets his due, all to the tune of upbeat ska music, is brilliant.

Books:

• Lisa Kleypas' "Wallflower" series. I know they are trashy romance (or as we joking refer to them in my house - "throbbing member" books) but I still enjoy them. And I'm happy to say that the words "throbbing member" or "creamy thighs" are not used once in any of these books.

Movie:

• "A Knight's Tale" with Heath Ledger. From the opening scene where medieval peasants and nobles are pounding out "We Will Rock You" at a jousting match to the celebration dance where the knights and their ladies get funky to "Golden Years" by David Bowie, this movie makes no attempt to stay true to period. Usually this bugs me in a film, but "A Knight's Tale" makes it work in some strange way. Plus, Paul Bettanty as Chaucer has some of the best lines ever. (Ha! Didn't know that Geoffrey Chaucer used to follow around jousting tournaments as a herald, did ya? Or that this is how he got the idea to write "The Knight's Tale" in Canterbury Tales. See, "A Knight's Tale" taught you something new. Even if it's not true.)

TV Shows:

• "Survivor" - It's been on forever now, and things play out in familiar ways each season, but I still find the interactions between contestants highly entertaining. Except for Coach, who's been on this season. Every time he speaks, I feel irritated and want to hurl my remote control at the TV! Yet I can't look away. I want to see him get called out so badly that I keep watching.

• "I love the 80's" or "I love the 90's"or any retrospective show on VH1 really. I generally start watching these shows as "background noise" while I'm cleaning, but soon I am sucked in and cleaning only during the commercials. Nostalgia does it to me every time.

There they are. Just a few of the things that I am embarrassed to admit that I love. What are your guilty pleasures?

It’s been a long week. Within hours after getting home from “Wicked,” I was struck with a fever and chest congestion. The fever lasted for 2.5 days and I am only now starting to get over the cold. I stayed home for much of last week, in bed recovering. But, during that time, I made a few interesting observations.

The first is that daytime T.V. absolutely stinks. Truly, there is nothing on. If it wasn’t for the Masterpiece Theatre miniseries of “Jane Eyre” I had on DVD (thank you Netflix), I would have gone insane.

The second observation, as this post title suggests, is that cats don’t like black olives. Jeff loves making pizza from scratch. And since Friday was his birthday and I was too sick to really do anything special for him, he made a couple of pizzas for the family. Salami and black olive, and this Italian dried beef and black olive (both were excellent, BTW). While cleaning up the dinner dishes, I missed a little ramikin of black olives, which were left sitting on the counter overnight. Our cats, little scavengers that they are, couldn’t help but investigate these curious black orbs and attempt to eat one. What I found in the ramikin this morning was an olive with the impression of cat teeth on either side. The other 3 olives were left untouched. I smiled as an image of Oona (our tabby and the most likely culprit), eagerly picking up the olive with her teeth came to mind. I could just imagine a look of feline disgust come over her face as she opened her mouth and let the olive fall back into the bowl, discarded as unworthy of consumption. After finding and eating half a poppy-seed muffin the other day, the black olive must have been quite a disappointment for her.

The final observation made this week is that my son can relate anything to "Star Wars." Anything. A mundane conversation about something that happened during our day will prompt him to say, “It’s like in 'The Clone Wars' when …” or, “That’s like what happened in 'Star Wars' when….” This morning, Eamon was going on and on about something and Jeff made his standard “That’s neat Eamon” reply. Eamon then said, “I hate when he does that.” I looked at him and asked, “Oh, really?” To which the boy replied, “Uh huh! It’s like in 'Star Wars, Episode 2,' when Obi-wan tells Anakin to stop and he doesn’t, and Obi-wan says, ‘I hate when he does that.’” God help me, am I raising a future Star Wars Convention attendee? Is he going to start dressing in Jedi robes and learn how to speak Huttese? While I think it’s great that the boy is so passionate about “Star Wars,” I’m thinking we may want to begin directing his attention to other areas as well.

My mom has a subscription to People Magazine, and when she's done reading an issue, she usually sends it my way. We've got a stack of them set aside for "bathroom reading" (which used to freak out one of my co-workers from Stanford), and the other day, a recent issue started an interesting discussion in our house.

Vika went into the bathroom, and a minute later she yelled from behind the closed door, "Mama! Ask me anything about the Obamas. Like how many kids they have...what they wear.... anything!" After a moment of wondering what could have prompted this Obama trivia session, I replied that I would be happy to discuss the First Family with her when she was done "doing her business." She answered that she was already done, so I opened the bathroom door to see her sitting down, reading a People with the Obamas on the cover. Ahhh... So that's what started the whole thing. Only now, she didn't want to discuss the Obamas. She had turned the page to find a picture of the "pregnant man."

Which, as an aside, kind of bugs me. I mean, he wasn't born a man! He's a woman becoming a man. Furthermore, if you felt so strongly that you were meant to be a man, and were going through a sex change to make this happen, wouldn't the whole maternal, I-want-to-be-pregnant thing go along with your former status as a female? I just don't get it. It seems like some way for this person to get an awful lot of publicity, and I hope he has plans to step down from the spotlight and give his child a chance to grow up without people treating her like she's part of some freak show.

But I digress. Vika was looking at pictures of the pregnant man and becoming very confused. How could a man have a baby in his tummy, she asked. I told her that he had been a woman who felt that she was born the wrong way and was having doctors help her become a man. At this point, Vika emphatically stated, "Well I know I was born the right way!" But then she got quiet and her little brow furrowed. "I hope Tyson was born the right way," she said after a moment. I went on to explain that people being born the "wrong way" was very rare. Most people who are born girls are supposed to be girls, and most people who are born boys are supposed to be boys. With a nod, she put the People away, smiled and exclaimed, "I sure can learn some stuff from magazines!"

Oh, brother.

Since I'm still getting over my cold, and feeling too lazy to write anything of substance, I thought I'd post a few fun things that were sent to me recently by friends.

The first is this Geek Soap, which you can buy on Etsy. J9 sent me the link, and I think it would be perfect for Matte (who proposed to Cathy wearing a "geek" T-shirt). Be sure to read through the entire product description.

The second is from a "See Dee" sent to Vika and Eamon by Michelle. This is by far the kids' favorite song (an a capella Star Wars/John Williams tribute), and they've been listening to it over, and over, and over again.... enjoy!

Since I've been prepping for 4 days worth of subs (I'm going to a teacher training Monday - Thursday), I find that I have absolutely nothing interesting to talk about. *sigh* What a sad state of affairs. I guess I could tell you the cute way Vika pronounces "asparagus" ("spasketius") or how proud I was of the calm way Eamon reacted to a kid who was yelling in his face, but instead I leave you with this: a motivational poster of Boba Fett - my favorite character from Star Wars (simply because he had a jet pack, and my 7-year-old self thought that was just the COOLEST).


Hope you all had a good weekend! Perhaps after being "GLADified" next week I'll have more exciting blog fodder.

Ever tried to drink hot tea after visiting the dentist's office and getting not one, but TWO novocaine injections? Well, don't. Trust me on this one.

I think I'll go wash the tea dribbles off the front of my vest now.

This week, I sent home notices for Parent-Teacher Conferences. The father of one of my students, who mainly speaks Punjabi, came in to my room this morning to ask about times when we could meet. I went to my calendar to check dates, and after I pointed out a few to him, he smiled and asked if he could have my calendar. My HARRY POTTER CALENDAR.

Naturally, I said "No." But he kept persisting. Finally I made it understood that I would not be giving him my Harry Potter calendar. I told him that I bought it at Border's, and thought maybe he might be able to find one there as well. Still smiling, he shook his head "No." Then he did the most unexpected thing: he asked me to go to the store and buy him a calendar! Positive I must have misunderstood, I repeated again that he could find a similar calendar at Border's.

This time his response was very clear: "You go and buy me one because I don't know my way around yet and I can't find this store." Does he think that purchasing items for parents falls in my job description under the heading, "Other duties as assigned?"

I'm sure this was a cultural issue - maybe the school that his son attended in India provided such items for their families? All I know is that it caught me completely off-guard and I wasn't sure how to respond.

After about 5 minutes of this back and forth, it became quite clear that he was not leaving my room without a calendar in hand. Finally, I remembered the Water District Calendar that had been given to me at the beginning of the year, and which I had hanging on the bulletin board. In a desperate attempt to get him to vacate my classroom, I pulled the calendar off the wall and shoved it into his hands. He smiled, said "thank you," and then left.

*sigh* I think I may have just set a very bad precedent....

Yesterday was Eamon's birthday party. It was a small affair with mostly family in attendance, but Eamon still made out big. Not surprisingly, nearly all his gifts were related to Star Wars. We're still recovering from the cleaning fest that was yesterday morning and the post-party cleaning fest that is today. So I give you this random little post until I can sum up the energy to write a post about Eamon's party and the new fashion trend he may have started.
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Quite often a friend or family member will call me and say something along the lines of, "We saw someone who looks just like Eamon will when he grows up!" Sometimes, they are way off base, and the person looks nothing like my son. But other times, I can see the resemblance as well.

Here are a few for your consideration. First, Eamon:

Next, the celebrity doppleganger candidates:

1) Clinton Kelly (What Not to Wear?) 2) Heath Ledger
















3) Peyton Manning. I've been told the resemblance only works if his helmet is on, but I give you two images to chose from anyway.















Which do you think is the best predictor of how Eamon will look when he grows up?

It's funny that I haven't gotten any of these calls for Vika yet. I guess she's just one of a kind!

How about your kids? Do they have any celebrity dopplegangers?

Remember the video I shared with you all about our trip to Disneyland in 2006? Well, you can't see it anymore because YouTube has blocked it. Apparently, Aly & AJ (or perhaps Disney) asked to have it blocked because the video features their version of the song, "Zip A Dee Doo Dah."

Really? Is this what the world of copyrights has come to? I'm not making any money off the video, and I bought the song, fair and square, off of iTunes. In fact, I would think that the video might give the Aly and AJ version of the song a little more exposure to people who hadn't heard it before. Heck, maybe people even bought the song as a result of my video!

*sigh* I wonder if any of my other videos featuring songs by recording artists will be blocked as well?