Monday saw school canceled early. Yesterday the road conditions did not permit school and the children stayed home to play.Today, it is too cold for school. Even Lincoln Memorial University closed leaving the question "how will students living on campus eat today?" Perhaps we need to have some homebound lessons.
Category: Tommy
Why do we blog?
One reason I blog is for the memories. Some trackback spam caused me to re-read my post Such an inappropriate dad and that started my day off with a smile because that picture and Tommy’s statement show he far exceeded what The They ever thought he would do. Without the blog (and the trackback spam) that memory might have faded.
From the mouths of babes
Tommy, back from college for 9 days: "Dad, is it normal to have all the skin on top of your foot just die?"
From the mouths of babes
Tommy has returned from college for a 9 day Thanksgiving break. Noah is home from school. Evan is up from his nap. Cathy has taken Sarah and a friend to the movies.
Evan, raising one finger then another like a peace sign: "I have Noah at home. I have Tom at home."
Love and importance!
From the mouths of babes
Dad, excited to see Tommy calling from college: "Hello!"
Nothing
Dad: "Hello?"
background noise
Dad: "Tommy, you there?"
Tommy: "Tech support question."
Dad, of course, why else would family call me: "What is it?"
Tommy: "My friend’s computer boots but goes to a blue screen before getting into Windows."
Dad: "Does he have a warranty with someone?"
Tommy: "BestBuy but the nearest one is in Knoxville."
Dad: "Then he needs to find a way to get to Knoxville."
Dad: "Okay. Can you boot into safe mode?"
Tommy: "Same thing happens."
Dad: "Is this a desktop or a laptop?"
Tommy: "A laptop."
Dad: "Has this computer been dropped?"
Tommy: "Well, yeah."
Dad: "Go to BestBuy."
Evening is upon us – Football!
Bearden High School has a home game tonight. Sarah will be demonstrating her excellence. Last year we discovered it was neither cost effective or prudent to take the whole family so Cathy and I take turns going to the games to support the teamflags. Alright, usually Cathy goes. So tonight’s evening chaos is brought to you by Liquid Plumber, The BHS Band Boosters, McDonald’s, and the RedCross babysitting training. Participants in tonight’s chaos are Amy, Evan, Noah, and Dad. Absence from this evenings show is Tommy who stayed at the college to chill with his hommies, Sarah who when not flirting with Zak is spinning flags on the field, and Mom who is taking pictures of Sarah flirting with Zak. Mom shoves down a McDonald’s cheese burger and is out the door leaving Noah instructions to get the trash out of the kitchen then help Dad with Amy and Evan. Amy is told to help Dad with Evan. Mom leaves. Noah goes to the back of the house and plays video games. Dad blinks at the trash. Amy and Evan erupted into loudness contests. Dad tries to figure out how to divide time between refereeing Amy and Evan, working on the tub, and coding web applications. It’s quiet upstairs… too quiet…
My Sunday – a week at the University
I woke up this morning before everyone else and promptly began programming. As the morning wore on, Tommy’s departure time to return to school neared. His grandparents and Noah were to take him back to the University. Granny has not seen the campus and Noah was under the impression that it looked a lot like Hogwarts. I found a round tuit and decided to look at Tommy’s laptop which I’d been ignoring for work. LMU has 3 websites the students are required to use; a web-based email client (no pop3 or imap enabled on the exchange server which bites so I have been unable to setup GMail to check the Outlook Webmail), a blackboard (basically a portal by which professors can communicate with the students by posting assignments, slides, links, documents, etc), and a webadvisor (effectively a forum for the students to communicate as well as listings of groups, activities, etc on campus). The fourth website is a public calendar announcing events, activity schedule, and so forth. Tommy had looked at none of these. He had administrative e-mail a week old. He an assignment from a professor being ignored. And to top if off, I counted 30 hours of Internet gaming! Basically, if he wasn’t in class, he was playing games on the Internet. Two nights the gaming did not stop until 12:30am. I was beyond angry!
Now, in Tommy’s defense, this was first week of school, first week of not being under mommy and daddy’s thumb, first week of true independence. I am sure that many freshman behave this way. Also, Tommy has to figure out how to take in this new world which is overwhelming to him and a safe haven is his gaming. I simply fear Tommy falling behind and not being able to catch up.
So after a couple of hours of yelling, tears, and lectures, to which I am certain Tommy turned a deaf early early on, I installed some software to track his usage of ALL software, not just the Internet. (Thanks Tim!) I started to do some tricks to redirect certain gaming sites to education sites but really could not afford the time away from work so Tommy and I came to an agreement. At first the agreement was that the laptop would not go back to the University until he showed some seriousness about his studies; however, the laptop is a requirement of the university. We laid out some pretty clear expectations for Tommy and he is being given another chance. If he messes up, I will be severally crippling that laptop. Cathy will be spending this week on the phone with Tommy. I believe we also need to consider some serious NASA level check lists for Tommy. 1) Open eyes 2) Yawn (note: if yawn does not come from mouth, you could still be asleep, return to step 1) 3) Scratch 4) Sit up…
Of Grasshoppers
Student: It is so difficult to not yell when my blood is boiling.
Master: It is so difficult to listen while you are screaming.
From the mouths of babes
Tommy, turned 18 today, and is signing his voter registration paperwork: "What is today?"
Mom: "What do you think today is?"
Tommy, irritated: "What is today’s date?!"
You mean tomorrow?! Btw, happy birthday Tommy!
Today Tommy turns 18! Hard to fathom. I blinked and he grew up. Tomorrow he heads off to college. Today I am frantically trying to impart all of life’s knowledge onto him and simultaneously trying to prepare his laptop with coolio tools of success (and teach him to use them).
Thus far, I have set GMail up as his email client (Outlook is forbidden on LMU’s campus because "it is responsible for spreading viruses"…uh…more on that later). GMail is checking his various POP accounts although I haven’t configured it for LMU’s student email yet. I assume that is possible but I could be wrong as it could be crippled to the point of only being able to use their own web client. World of Warcrap has been uninstalled along with several other related things that Tommy installed despite our prohibition. He tried hiding them from me by deleting the shortcuts from the Start Menu. Apparently Tommy thinks I’m a n00bish neophyte. Avast has been updated and is doing a thorough scan. Adaware and SpyBot Search N Destroy have been installed. Firefox has been updated to version 3 with the following Add-ons: Delicious Bookmarks, Forecastbar Enhanced, Adblock Plus, and Adblock Filterset.G Updater. I helped Tommy create a del.icio.us account (did you know del.icio.us is now delicious.com? YaaahoooooO$$$) and a Jott account. He has had some mad crash course style training on GMail, labeling, Inbox Zero, Delicious, and Jott.
Happy Birthday Tommy!
Update: All Windows Vista updates and patches applied. Skype setup. Palm Desktop setup. Added links to important websites. Installed Microsoft Office Professional 2007. Palm Centrino sync’ing with Gmail via IMAP. Flickr account (basic) created.
Rough start to 1st day of 5 kids 5 schools
Today we sent the 1st, 7th and 10th graders to school. Evan now has his grandmother’s defunct cell phone as a toy. It still has some juice so the screen lights up and the menus work. Last night when Cathy and I came to bed the crib was doing a flashy Close Encounters number. After silencing that visual alarm I set the phone by my bed. Well, apparently my mother-in-law gets up every day at 5am. At least, that’s when her cell phone alarm went off. I wanted to rise at 6 or 6:15. Never give yourself a choice! The secret to waking is picking a specific time and sticking to it. Also don’t do the easy the numbers; nothing that would be printed on a clock face. Wake at 6:01 not 6:00. Wake at 6:14 not 6:15 etc. I did wake at 6:00 without an alarm. And again at 6:07 when I stirred Cathy and decided today would be 6:15. I totally forgot the french toast and bacon I had wanted to prepare for their first day of school. At 6:54 Cathy kicked me out of bed and cursed me. We rushed Amy to readiness and at the last minute she decides on says she needs the restroom but could hold it until school. No way! We give her the time she needs and miss the bus by seconds. As we drive up the street, the bus is starting its turn onto Northshore Drive. Amy was not phased. She is simply jolly to be going to school.
Noah headed off in time very nonchalant. And Sarah is trying to carry far too much in one trip. Wet artwork, 3 flags, courier bag, and something else I cannot remember.
Good luck children! Have fun at school and learn much.
Oh, what of Tommy and Evan? They don’t start quite yet but to prepare Tommy for rising so early, he has to get himself up by 7am and be bathed and dressed else he loses computer privileges for the day. This morning he woke at 7am but his sister occupied the bathroom so he took advantage of the moment to sleep in his chair. Perhaps his time sound be earlier!
Update: Cathy points out that today went rather swimmingly despite the missed bus and I agree. "Rough" is relative.
Tonight’s Stalls
Tonight we began enforcing school time bedtimes to get everyone acclimated to the changes coming next week. Tommy has a "get up" time rather than a bedtime; he’s really on his own. Sarah will probably sneak Breaking Dawn in bed. Noah pulled a complete evasion by shooting off to a friend’s house for a sleep over. Amy fought hers hard jumping from bed to bed, having tantrums, refusals, screaming, and tearing up her sisters room decor. Evan pulled the "I gotta poop" stall and enhanced it with the "I need a bandaid" the moment he hit the crib. He turned on alligator tears for added affect but only scored about a 60 second delay with that one as opposed to a 20 minute delay from potential poo.
From the mouths of babes
Most popular thing heard the night before a Boy Scout camping trip [both boys]: "I can’t find my head lamp!"
Tommy goes to college in 3 weeks – maybe
Tommy’s financial aid is in jeopardy because the paperwork says Buttle not Tuttle.
From the mouths of babes
Tommy, almost 18: "Amy you can’t say that."
Amy, 6 years old: "Yes I can."
Tommy: "No you can’t."
Amy: "Yes I can!"
Tommy: "No you can’t! Quit it!"
Evan, 3 years old bouncing and chanting: "Amy, bebe. Amy, bebe. Amy, bebe."
Amy: "Evan, stop it!"
Evan, adds some sway to his shoulders and bobs his head: "Amy, bebe. Amy, bebe. Amy, bebe."
Amy, tearing up: "Make him stop! Evan’s calling me a baby!"
Oh how they slip down instead of rise up. Do the younger of the species always win?
