Ignore this thread!

[Wheres Toto]

I have a parent who I chat with a bit because we're both involved in 4H.   Her email has her maiden name, which is somewhat unusual and I recognized.   So I asked if she was related to a couple people I used to know.  Turns out she's my high school boyfriends niece.  

ETA:  A blast from the past booya

Edited April 28, 2023 by Wheres Toto

[Junie]

Good Morning!

Happy Friday!

Glorious Second Sleep!

Also, no idea what's going on yet. 😉

[Wheres Toto]

Have a situation? incident?  Don't really feel it elevates to that level but I'm still dwelling on it.  

I had a parent call me this morning.  She wasn't mad, just wanted to give me a heads-up about something.  Her son is in a robotics class I taught yesterday and felt he was left out of a game they were playing.   A couple older kids were kind of directing a couple games of sharks/minnows and red light/green light.   I was watching from the back of the room, this was basically a time for them to get a feel for how these robots work, how they move, etc before we move on to more complicated maneuvers and programming, so fairly undirected, and some played the games, some didn't.   Her son is new to the class group, switched from another day to do robotics.  The rest of the group, except for one other kid, have all been together most of the year.  

I watched the recording from class for a little while (I have cameras with sound) and at one point one of the older boys did say to him "you aren't playing and can't just jump in as a shark".    Looks like they were in the middle of a round that the student had not been playing and he wanted to jump in.    He did a mix of playing and not playing, although I didn't hear anything else to indicate he wasn't allowed to play (the kid who made the first comment is quite loud and it wasn't hard to hear what he said).   

In talking to the parent, I told her I would definitely address it with the group next week.  I was watching from the doorway and it didn't seem anyone who wanted to play was left out (I didn't hear the above comment at the time, but at times I was helping kids reconnect their robots), but that I would talk them all. 

So, I'm definitely going to say something to the group about making sure anyone who wants to play can, the older kids not dominating everything and making sure the younger kids have some say (age range is about 9 to 12, some of the younger kids are pretty quiet/shy but it doesn't appear that the one whose mom called is), etc. although the undirected thing will get less and less as they learn more.

So, is there anything else I should do?   This kind of thing doesn't come up much but robotics is a class that has more unstructured time than most due to the nature of having to actually play around with the robots to really learn how they work.      

[Ellie]

14 minutes ago, Wheres Toto said:

So, is there anything else I should do?    

No.

[Ellie]

Laundry day. But also, sadly, a funeral to attend. A couple older than Mr. Ellie and me (which is getting harder all the time, to be older than we are, lol); the dh retired, gosh, 7 or 8 years ago, and they sold their property--many acres of Texas prairie--and had planned to travel. But then he started having heart issues, so no travel for them. A couple of years ago the dw got cancer--I have forgotten what kind--which was "cured" but then came back, and she passed away last week. Her funeral is today. 😞

[Wheres Toto]

14 minutes ago, Ellie said:

Laundry day. But also, sadly, a funeral to attend. A couple older than Mr. Ellie and me (which is getting harder all the time, to be older than we are, lol); the dh retired, gosh, 7 or 8 years ago, and they sold their property--many acres of Texas prairie--and had planned to travel. But then he started having heart issues, so no travel for them. A couple of years ago the dw got cancer--I have forgotten what kind--which was "cured" but then came back, and she passed away last week. Her funeral is today. 😞

I'm sorry for your loss.  

[Jean in Newcastle]

1 hour ago, Wheres Toto said:

Have a situation? incident?  Don't really feel it elevates to that level but I'm still dwelling on it.  

I had a parent call me this morning.  She wasn't mad, just wanted to give me a heads-up about something.  Her son is in a robotics class I taught yesterday and felt he was left out of a game they were playing.   A couple older kids were kind of directing a couple games of sharks/minnows and red light/green light.   I was watching from the back of the room, this was basically a time for them to get a feel for how these robots work, how they move, etc before we move on to more complicated maneuvers and programming, so fairly undirected, and some played the games, some didn't.   Her son is new to the class group, switched from another day to do robotics.  The rest of the group, except for one other kid, have all been together most of the year.  

I watched the recording from class for a little while (I have cameras with sound) and at one point one of the older boys did say to him "you aren't playing and can't just jump in as a shark".    Looks like they were in the middle of a round that the student had not been playing and he wanted to jump in.    He did a mix of playing and not playing, although I didn't hear anything else to indicate he wasn't allowed to play (the kid who made the first comment is quite loud and it wasn't hard to hear what he said).   

In talking to the parent, I told her I would definitely address it with the group next week.  I was watching from the doorway and it didn't seem anyone who wanted to play was left out (I didn't hear the above comment at the time, but at times I was helping kids reconnect their robots), but that I would talk them all. 

So, I'm definitely going to say something to the group about making sure anyone who wants to play can, the older kids not dominating everything and making sure the younger kids have some say (age range is about 9 to 12, some of the younger kids are pretty quiet/shy but it doesn't appear that the one whose mom called is), etc. although the undirected thing will get less and less as they learn more.

So, is there anything else I should do?   This kind of thing doesn't come up much but robotics is a class that has more unstructured time than most due to the nature of having to actually play around with the robots to really learn how they work.      

Sounds like a good plan. It also sounds like the younger boy might have some problems with social skills and didn’t understand the importance of waiting to jump In between rounds. (Not a major thing but a nuance. ). 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Weed whackers Unite! 

[Susan in TN]

5 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Sounds like a good plan. It also sounds like the younger boy might have some problems with social skills and didn’t understand the importance of waiting to jump In between rounds. (Not a major thing but a nuance. ). 

Yeah.  This can be tricky because the older kids may not think of saying, "hey, how about you can be a shark/whatever as soon as we start the next round" or whatever.

[Susan in TN]

Good afternoon/evening!

I'm pooped.  I was scrambling to get dd16 checked into her appointment with the foot surgeon in their online portal and get the picnic lunch ready before leaving for the field trip.  But we finally got everything together and had the road trip.  The field trip was fun, though really geared toward younger kids - but we did some geology rock study and gem mining and went in a boat into a cave river and did some geocaching.  Then drove the 2 hours back home.  
    
Dd16's appointment went well.  Thankfully they don't think they'll need to put a pin in.  They numbed her foot, put the toe back into place, and gave her a new splint.  The doctor said she should be able to swim in a couple weeks, which means she should be OK for the scout trip in a month. Whew.  She has a scholarship audition tomorrow morning and a choir concert in the afternoon.  Imma make her do nothing on Sunday.  Day of Rest!

Coffee!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Day 223 loop with Juliet 

[Susan in TN]

Dd16 is working on ribbon design for her crutches to match her dress for the tutorial's high school formal, lol.

[KrissiK]

iTired. Busy day. worked all day. Met a family at this tiny Mexican …. cafe thingie. i wouldn’t really call it a restaurant. i drove past it twice and still couldn’t find it. I had to call my student and she had to talk me there. and it’s in the town I live in. i can’t believe i didn’t know it was there. the menu was in Spanish. The people working there spoke Spanish. i had no idea what to order so i told my student to get me what she was having. it was really good. whatever it was.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I went to a little Greek cafe. I asked the owners if they were from Greece. Nope! Mexico City!  

[KrissiK]

And I survived the AFSA. That place just keeps getting worse and worse.

[Ellie]

Tonight's hula is He Mele Inoa O Kalakaua, which is the chant that the "He Mele no Lilo" song was based on in the movie, "Lilo and Stitch." Mark Ho'omalu arranged and choreographed it for the movie.

 

[Susan in TN]

Good morning!

I need to make a couple phone calls this morning before we leave for scholarship auditions.  Sigh.

Coffee!

[Wheres Toto]

Morning, Happy Saturday.

I'm going to an Earth Day event with 4H today.    I'm bringing an activity to make seed balls, and a couple samples of recycled projects we made in club.    It should be a fun but long day.   

Tomorrow I have to go back in to work and finish cleaning up from Thursdays 4H meeting.  We painted recyclables to be planters and I basically cleaned up not at all.  I meant to do it Friday after class, but I was hungry for lunch so I ran out and got food, and then after eating I was just very tired and blah (no I didn't eat a healthy lunch, big mistake) so I did some but then went home.    I want to do at least the worst of it before my cleaning person comes Monday morning.  I don't want her to quit on me.  🙂 

[Susan in TN]

I made one phone call - starting an insurance claim for the car I scraped in the parking lot on Tuesday.  I tried to call the medical lab customer service number but they are not answering.  I guess I'll try again Monday.

[KrissiK]

Good Morning!!!

COFFEE!!~D

Saturday!!

Busy, busy!! We have to help my mom get her freezer cleaned out and the stuff moved to our freezer. She was going to keep it out at the farm, but we decided that with the renter and all, it would be too much to try to put an electric meter up so they wouldn’t be paying for her electricity. So, now… we store her stuff until she can get a smaller freezer for her new place.

Tonight we go to a second wedding (?) for DH’s nephew. They got married once at a small ceremony at the coast several months back.  Anyway, i don’t exactly know what to expect tonight.

Edited April 29, 2023 by KrissiK

[Junie]

Good Morning!

Happy Saturday!

Second Sleep, but still a little bit of a headache.

Not much going on today.  Maybe I'll clean something.

[Junie]

Oh, and I forgot to report that I put 200 wedding invitations in the mail this week. :svengo:

[KrissiK]

24 minutes ago, Junie said:

Oh, and I forgot to report that I put 200 wedding invitations in the mail this week. :svengo:

You get the prize, Junie. 🏆🥇

[Jean in Newcastle]

I came, I whacked, I conquered. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I sound like a mob hitman. . .   (I'm not, I promise.)

[73349]

I did some of the things (bank, library, food to Little Free Pantry, read a book on healthy eating).

DH is making dinner.

USPS allegedly has my package out for delivery for the second day in a row. We'll see what happens... Our regular mail already arrived, but boxes are often on a different truck. Our house is L A S T on the postal route.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Birdie never gets mistaken for a mob hitman. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Day 224 hike with Juliet 

[Susan in TN]

The children's choir concert was lovely as usual (cue the waterworks!).  They gave dd16 a chair to sit on so she wouldn't have to stand with her crutches.

This was my favorite of the concert.  This recording doesn't have banjo, though, which was a really nice addition.

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Susan in TN

[Slache]

I peopled.

[Renai]

On 4/28/2023 at 3:30 PM, Susan in TN said:

Good afternoon/evening!

....  She has a scholarship audition tomorrow morning and a choir concert in the afternoon.  Imma make her do nothing on Sunday.  Day of Rest!

Coffee!

Gymnast is deciding whether to stay in Prelude orchestra for another year, or audition for the next level up. If she practiced more consistently, I'd totally encourage her to go the next level up. She is capable of it. Especially if she practiced.

 

23 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I went to a little Greek cafe. I asked the owners if they were from Greece. Nope! Mexico City!  

The best Italian restaurant in town is owned by a Mexican chef. It's what he was trained in, like trained and worked under an Italian chef for many years. People were so skeptical when he first opened a few years (a Mexican surely can't cook Italian, he should open another of the billion Mexican/New Mexican restaurants/cafes/trucks we already have). Now, there are no doubts he has the best Italian in the city.

 

Today was a little busy. First, we started at Gymnast's dance rehearsal/stumble through this morning. It is an 11am to 4:30pm affair. I volunteered to help out there. We left 2.5 hours early to get to orchestra dress rehearsal and concert. I had dropped her off, then went home to get dressed and pick up the landlady and her car. Her car was dead. Dh did a quick pick up of his broken down car, and we arrived at the concert about 13 minutes before showtime. It was great!

Tomorrow is mariachi concert. She is so stressed about it. I think it stresses her to be the only trumpet player in her band. There was another player this year, but it seems she dropped out just last week. 😲 

Monday is a rest day. Tuesday and Wednesday she has work hours for dance dress rehearsal (9-5 and 10-5). Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are dance performances, morning and afternoon and/or evening. Sunday, we are on the train to LA.

I'm already tired.

[Jean in Newcastle]

25 minutes ago, Renai said:

Gymnast is deciding whether to stay in Prelude orchestra for another year, or audition for the next level up. If she practiced more consistently, I'd totally encourage her to go the next level up. She is capable of it. Especially if she practiced.

 

The best Italian restaurant in town is owned by a Mexican chef. It's what he was trained in, like trained and worked under an Italian chef for many years. People were so skeptical when he first opened a few years (a Mexican surely can't cook Italian, he should open another of the billion Mexican/New Mexican restaurants/cafes/trucks we already have). Now, there are no doubts he has the best Italian in the city.

 

Today was a little busy. First, we started at Gymnast's dance rehearsal/stumble through this morning. It is an 11am to 4:30pm affair. I volunteered to help out there. We left 2.5 hours early to get to orchestra dress rehearsal and concert. I had dropped her off, then went home to get dressed and pick up the landlady and her car. Her car was dead. Dh did a quick pick up of his broken down car, and we arrived at the concert about 13 minutes before showtime. It was great!

Tomorrow is mariachi concert. She is so stressed about it. I think it stresses her to be the only trumpet player in her band. There was another player this year, but it seems she dropped out just last week. 😲 

Monday is a rest day. Tuesday and Wednesday she has work hours for dance dress rehearsal (9-5 and 10-5). Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are dance performances, morning and afternoon and/or evening. Sunday, we are on the train to LA.

I'm already tired.

I already had an inkling that the Greek restaurant owners might be from Mexico since they were speaking Spanish to each other. Most of our local Japanese restaurants are owned and run by Koreans. A local pizzeria is run by an East Indian family. As long as the food is good, I don’t see how it would matter. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I like learning new things. 

[Slache]

1 hour ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I like learning new things. 

My left leg is shorter than my right.

[Jean in Newcastle]

30 minutes ago, Slache said:

My left leg is shorter than my right.

I'm so glad that I can add that to my knowledge banks. 

[KrissiK]

Good Morning!!!

COFFEE!!~D

Sunday!!

Cburch⛪️

The “wedding” last night was ok. A little weird, but fine. as long as they were happy with it, that’s the most important thing. It was outdoors and my allergies started raging, so i got home and took a couple Benadryls. And now i am totally groggy. That usually doesn’t happen.

[Renai]

10 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I already had an inkling that the Greek restaurant owners might be from Mexico since they were speaking Spanish to each other. Most of our local Japanese restaurants are owned and run by Koreans. A local pizzeria is run by an East Indian family. As long as the food is good, I don’t see how it would matter. 

You would think it didn't matter. "People" made a big deal out of it. It was in the local paper. "People" can be so dumb.

[Wheres Toto]

Morning, Happy Sunday.

4H event yesterday was fun.  Not as busy as it might have been with the original plan to be outside, but not totally dead either.    Lots of seed bombs made, lots of people talked to.   

One of the other people working the booth brought her granddaughter and she was showing people how to make the seed bombs.  I also had one kid show up from my clubs so that was pretty neat.

One of the things I brought were samples of recycled projects we had made - recycled paper, planters made from various recyclables, and styrofoam recycled into figurines - 2 frogs and a lizard.  I was surprised that nobody knew you could do that with styrofoam.   It gave me the idea to bring that as one of my activities for fair.  I'll make a bunch of figurines ahead of time (they take a day or so to dry) and have them for kids to color.    We're also bringing robots and making a giant game board and probably doing the seed bombs again.   Only the seed bombs will cost me any money, except the acetone to melt the styrofoam.     I have three clubs plus my business that I'll have tables for, which is why the so many activities.   

[Wheres Toto]

Today I have to go do some cleaning at the science center since it's still a big mess and I don't want to completely scare off my cleaning person.    Then once I come home I need to do laundry because I skipped it last week and things are getting dire.  

[Jean in Newcastle]

48 minutes ago, Renai said:

You would think it didn't matter. "People" made a big deal out of it. It was in the local paper. "People" can be so dumb.

Well that’s stupid!  But I can see how “people “ can be stereotypical and dumb. But then I have been chastised for cooking Asian food for my own family because I am not Asian, so I have encountered it. Not that I listen to it….

[Slache]

My favorite sushi restaurant had Vietnamese owners, Mexican cooks, Korean waitresses and modern, American artwork.

According to the cooks it all just came together that way and it was a running joke that they were all secretly Japanese and said hello and goodbye in Japanese every day.

[Susan in TN]

1 hour ago, Renai said:

You would think it didn't matter. "People" made a big deal out of it. It was in the local paper. "People" can be so dumb.

  A good chef is a good chef.  I like food.

[Susan in TN]

Good morning!

I stayed home from church with dd16 (aka "Nine-Toes Molly") and dd20 drove everyone else to service.  No, actually ds18 drove everyone in the van because a police officer stopped dd20 on her way home last night for having an expired license registration tag and dd20 didn't want to drive.  It's very obvious who is driving on expired tags because TN has changed it's plate design.  I'm not sure what happened that we missed it.  Or maybe I did renew the tags but forgot to replace the plate, in which case it would be around here somewhere.  I will have to call in the morning.  At any rate, the officer went to check things and came back and told dd20 she was good to go. 🤷‍♀️ 

Anyhoo.  I finished the book for The Ladies of Grief Book Club which is this afternoon and started laundry and banished the goat.

Coffee!

[Junie]

Good Afternoon!

Happy Sunday!

I churched and iglesiaed.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We have eaten at Kung Fu pizza, which is run by a Chinese family. They have traditional Chinese and Italian dishes and some cross over fusion food. Their Sechuan pizza is surprisingly good. 

[Susan in TN]

I am helping ds18 fill out an online job application.  Hopefully once he gets this one done he can do others on his own.  I need more coffee.

[KrissiK]

4 hours ago, Susan in TN said:

  A good chef is a good chef.  I like food.

I concur!!

[KrissiK]

Susan for President!!

 

[KrissiK]

I churched. Now, i need to get lesson plans written for my home Ec class tomorrow.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Day 225 loop with Juliet