Reality Me

Student: Master, how am I to focus with so many distractions?
Master: A farmer does not catch his dinner by chasing all the chickens.

Have a look at these billboards in New Zealand picturing GW Bush and saying "Even Hell has its standards" and "Hell. Too good for some evil bastards." Apparently its advertising for Hell’s Pizza.

Have a peek.

…because the kids are excited to be off to school.

It appears I missed my happy thought yesterday. I wonder if not looking for a happy thought contributed to how unhappy I was yesterday.

My brother and sister-in-law have posted pictures from their visit including great shots from the horse show.

Tommy is off to school. 

Tommy’s bus arrives at 7:10am. Last year the bus and Tommy were very much in sync. As the year went on Tommy would be more and more difficult to wake giving himself less time to prepare. Often he would go to school without breakfast. We tried sending him with a poptart on the bus but it seemed like too much of a reward plus he makes such a mess that he’d have food all over him, his face and the bus. Ironically as his wake time became later and later so did the arrival time of the bus eventually moving from 7:10 to 8:00.

Noah’s bus arrives at 7:22am. I spent 3 years fighting to get the bus off of Northshore Drive, a busy 45mph road frequently traveled at much higher speeds. Last year the street sign marking their offical bus stop was knocked down by an out of control driver. The stop sat just over the peak of a hill and at a blind corner, most blocked by overgrown honey suckle, where cars zip into the neighborhood.

Noah is off to school. 

Last year the bus driver, a kind older gentleman, agreed to turn into the neighborhood and pick the kids up at a much safer intersection. Upon his retirement halfway through the year the battle ensued again with a young punk driver writing me up as a "belligerent parent." Several heated phone calls and two days later a new driver was picking our children up at the safe intersection. I am happy to report that this year it is listed as the official pickup with Northshore as the official dropoff which is fine by me since the door opens to toward the neighborhood. The Northshore pickup originally had them crossing in front of cars and the bus to load.

In the past years other issues with this bus had been eratic pickup times and sometimes ignoring the stop all together. Officially the bus can be 15 minutes on either side of the noted pickup time. At one point this bus arrived as early as 7am and as late as 8am. Schools starts at 7:45am.

This year the bus arrived on time and at the right stop! Here’s hoping for a hassle free school year!

Sarah is off to school. 

Last year was Sarah’s first year in middle school. Her stop was across Northshore, so I thought. I was bothered by her crossing Northshore but at first I would take Noah and her to Noah’s bus stop where I was watch over the elementary students. Her official bus time was the same 7:22 as Noah’s and since I could not be in two places at once I would let her walk up the block, cross Northshore and wait for her bus.

Over time I became uncomfortable with her crossing that busy road so I changed my route and would drive Sarah to her bus stop and drop her off. I’d then take Noah to his stop and stand watch over the elementary students. Soon another parent joined the watch.

Stories surfaced that a white pickup truck was cruising Northshore trying to pickup middle school girls a few miles from Sarah’s stop. I left the watch of the elementary stop to the other parents and have changed to being at Sarah’s stop. Occasionally I let her walk. Oh, I learned that her official stop is on our side of Northshore but all the kids like to gather together on the other side. The stop is down to Sarah and one other friend and I’m sure my presence has nothing to do with that.

Battle over. I started to help Amy. I put one thing in; she put in two. The neighbor was walking her dogs and Amy said, “I want to pet the puppies.” I told her that she could after the mess was cleaned up and she scooped up the clothes in 20 seconds flat. 

• Fight with a toddler.
• Clean desk.
• Reconcile accounts that have not been reconciled in 5 years.
• Phone interview.
• Install TurboTax for 2002.
• Make a business a website for free.
• Make another business a website for free.
• Write a specification.
• Make a low dollar website.
• Work on the house.
• Sales calls.
• Work on my own websites.
• Pull $2500 from thin air.

Ham 

So here I sit. Unable to go to my computer and work for need to stand guard over a bawling toddler. There she stands. Night gown pulled over her face as she forces tears, sniffles and sobs. Why do we do this? Because I came home from taking two of the children to their bus stops to find that Cathy and Evan had returned to bed while Amy woke and dumped clean clothes from the folding basket to the floor.

Angry. 

She’s gone silent. That means she is trying to sneak away from her responsibility. Responsibility at three?! Yes. All she had to do is pick up the clothing from the floor and put it back in the basket. What will power!

We are in a stand-off. If I help her am I teaching the wrong lesson? I certainly cannot let her go without picking up any clothing. She cannot have her cartoons.

For you privacy buffs out there and for those of you that don’t think our government is acting like Big Brother, have a read of this Williamette Weekly article. It’s four pages long with some redundancy but worth the time. If you find yourself starting to bail, skip to the concluding paragraphs on page 4.

Portland’s top brass said it was OK to swipe your garbage–so we grabbed theirs.

I’ve updated my template store at SIDesigns.com. So if you want a new look for your website or blog have a gander at the templates. You can also sign up as an affiliate.

Touch the puppet head

Ever wonder what the back of a smilie looks like? 🙂

Student: I have more than I can possibly do.
Master: Do what you must.

So I had this somewhat embarrassing email for which I was very thankul. I used to write very properly. I was one of those human dictionaries that could pop out a correct spelling of a word I’d never used. Create whatever reason you want – age, laziness, too much in my mind, whatever – my spelling and grammar have deteriorated. My resume has a line that reads:

· Writing: Well written, exceptional grammar, technical writing skills

And then it is followed with this line:

· Organizational: very spatial oriented, structured, can work equally well with hierarchical or abstract concepts and organization, 5 years practical experience in Software Quality Assurance and associated training compliment organizational skills

I keep my resume at the Perfect Job. It needs updating badly. Now I’ve always been hardnosed when evaluating candidates’ resumes for proper spelling and well formed sentences so I was quite surprised when someone took the time to send an email pointing out my horrid error of using "compliment" when I obviously meant "complement." I wonder how many times this was noticed and not mentioned.