A Heart Warming Thing

With this crazy busy world we are in it sometimes feels like people forget to care about their fellow humans. Working at the toy fund I see people caring about people they don't know on a daily basis. One thing that really touched me was a boy who sent in the money he recieved for his Bar Mitsvah (I know I miss spelled that) so we can buy toys for needy kids. I was just so impressed with this kid with being so caring about people he doesn't know. Growing up I remember many friends being excieted about the wonderful big thing they were going to buy with their Bar Mitsvah money. The fact this kid didn't do that and put others first is just so wonderful. I hope his parents are proud of him.

Test

This is a test just a test if this was a accual post you would be reading some drivel.

Busy life

Well I have been busy. Too busy but it has been a good busy.

Horse Girl has really taken off with her reading. She is only a year behind right now. She is more advanced in math then we thought she surprised her teachers in being able to to do algebra. Her speech causes people to figure that she doesn't understand things. This test she took on the computer proved otherwise. So things have been good with her.

History Girl hit some speed bumps at the beginning of the school year and it caused us to really pin her down to get her work done and she now is doing a lot better. She got placed in Advanced Math this year and she has been holding her own which pleases me.

We had Thanksgiving yesterday and there were 13 people in our small house, but it was nice to be able to together. I have been working at a charitable toy fund again this year and it really makes me thankful that my family is doing as well as it is doing. Fly Guy had a couple deaths in him family this year, but even with that we are doing well....at least compared to many people in these crazy times. I am thankful for such a great husband, a loving, but crazy family and awesome friends especially the August Moms who listen to me and help me when needed.

For me the next 20+ days will be all out reading stories about how hard this year is for people finacally. It is hard reading it day after day 50 - 100 stories a day. If you want to check out this song by Johnny Cash. It is a song version of some of the stories I read every day. Hmmm....let's see a depressive personality, reading depressing stories during a season a lot of people fall into a deep depression....doesn't sound like a good combo. The fact I help get toys to well over 7000 kids every year is the only thing that keeps me going some days between October and December.

So I might not post again until the new year. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyful Kwanzaa and Festive Yule and good whatever other holiday I am forgetting.

Omnivore’s Delight

I took this from Tales from the Testosterone Zone
I was worry about doing it because I admit I am fussy when it comes to food....in fact I am not really an omnivore....I eat fish and sometime poltry, but that is it when it comes to meat type things. I don't do coffee...tea is my thing....well really herbal tea...or the correct name tisane is my thing. I also rarely drink alchohol....I do drink mead, but that is about it. I am not as adventurous as a lot of people so I thought I would have a ton I wouldn't be willing to try.

The rules:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht - Had it many times when traveling in the USSR, won’t touch it in the US
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari - love it
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi - have trouble with indian food I puff up so will not do
15. Hot dog from a street cart - there used to be a great hot dog vender in Portland, served kosher hot dogs and he would blow a Shofar...I miss him
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - very common up here in Maine blueberry wine and dandilion wine
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes - My parents grow them
22. Fresh wild berries - I live in Maine home of the wild blueberries and wild strawberries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - maybe not a whole one but I would think about it
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava - Love it
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas - one of my favorte snacks
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - Hello once again I point out I live in Maine you can’t swing a dead lobster without hitting some New England Clam Clowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi - see number 14
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat - see number 14
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more - Not like I haven’t had the chance Fly Guy has had plenty of good single malt whiskies floating around the house
46. Fugu - I would be tempted, but most likely my sane mind would kick in as with the Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel - eat it and realize I don’t like it and then I try it again and don’t like it...so I won’t eat it ever again because I keep trying it to make sure I still don’t like it
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut: don’t get the big hype about it
50. Sea urchin - Fly Guy tried it a couple time and just the smell and techture turned me off
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer - see #14
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal - gross
56. Spaetzle - I have never tried it, but will be trying it in November
57. Dirty gin martin
58. Beer above 8% ABV - another thing I had in the USSR, but don’t do in the US
59. Poutine - haven’t had it but would like to
60. Carob chips - People who don’t like carob, are normally who view it as a chocolate substitue, carob is something that needs to be it’s own thing and once you get to that point carob is good.
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads - someone needs to be threating to hurt a friend or family member before I am willing to eat
63. Kaolin - no idea what this is
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis - might try if I am touring Scotland after having a bottle of Whiskey
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini: Of course....it was the first thing I had when I was in the USSR they also had caviar served on boil egg halves which I didn’t like as much
73. Louche absinthe
74.Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill - might be in the same catigory as the Sweetbreads
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong - I don’t like it I think this is the one that smels like burning tires
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict- Not Eggs Benedict with ham, but with veggies and seafood :-9
83. Pocky - love Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse- never ever ever
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam never have had it and never will
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor - rather have my lobster striaght up
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Ok I have voted....now leave me alone

Fly Guy and I are going on vacation the week of Election Day, for the cool honeymoon we never really had. (We went camping on our first honeymoon and it rained the whole time so we went home early. At least we know now that our rainy honeymoon wasn't a sign of a bad marriage to come.) So being good little American Citizens we got our absentee ballot and I have filled it in and it is already to go to the City Clerk's Office.....I might just drop it off rather then mail it in order to make sure it gets there safely. So any way...I have no voted. I don't care to hear any more political ads or anything like that. Just leave me alone.

Happy Berth Day Once Again

Last night the Red Sox made it into the playoffs once again. I am glad for it, but I am not counting on anything. It is never good to be cocky. I swam for a swim team who had not lost a swim meet since before I had been born. When I was 17 swimming on the team we lost our first swim meet. Between that and being a Red Sox fan for a good part of my life, I know a loss could come out of anywhere so keep quiet, stay modest and keep your head down. ;-)




On a different topic, but related to the Red Sox....have I have said how much I like Jonathan Papelbon. I think the world would be a better place if people took a lesson or two from him. He takes his job very seriously. He gets upset with himself when he knows he could have done better and didn't for what ever reason. So those are two nice things. The last thing that makes me like him is when he is not working he knows how to let go and celebrate/relax. He has danced to raise money for the Mike Lowell Foundation, he has lip sinced for rain delay entertainment, he has danced for Red Sox Nation in his underwear, and he wears a kilt. What is not to like. :-)

Remembering

Today is a day of remembering. It is easier when the sky isn't the same as that bright blue sky that it was in 2001. I remember that it was History Girl's third day of Kindergarten. I remember dropping her off she loved going to school. I remember it recycling day so the bins were out front and I went out to get them after the truck came by picking up the recycling. Horse Girl who was 18 months old at the time had fallen asleep on the living room floor, so I log on the the computer and talk to a friend who at the time lived outside of NYC. She told me to turn on the TV. I am grateful that Horse Girl took a long nap that morning so I could follow the news. I started watching right after the first plane hit, and Horse Girl napped long enough that I got to see and hear about all the other planes. I remember the first tower collapsing and thinking about all the people still in the building...then thinking about how NYC skyline that I always knew has changed permanently....I didn't realize then how true that was. I remember wanting to go get History Girl from school, but didn't because that was irrational desire. I knew we were in Maine and more or less safe, so I left her in school....that was before I found out two of the terrorists stayed the night on the other side of town and they flew out of the airport that I use when fly in and out of Portland. I also remember how quiet the everything was. We live under a flight path to the Portland airport so I normally hear a plane or two every hour, but the next few days there was just disturbing quiet. I remember my father coming to visit the next couple evenings. Since he works at a newspaper those days were very stressful for him and he needed to relax.

This was the first 9-11 that I didn't have flashbacks of the events of that day. I think it is because school started early this year. For the past 7 years I have tied the start of school with the events of 9-11-2001. The year Horse Girl started Kindergarten was really bad because there was a lot of thing that were just like when History Girl started Kindergarten that brought back memories.

This evening I read "The Man Who Walked Between The Towers" to Horse Girl. I like the book because it is a nice tribute to the twin towers that is overwhelmingly sad. Horse Girl asked me why the towers weren't there any more and I told her and we talked for quite awhile. She really has an amazing amount of empathy for people and she really showed it when we talked.

Tales from the Testosterone Zone, asks "Where were you on September 11, 2001? How has it affected your life?" Well I answered where was I. How it has affected me....well I am not sure. It has affected how I view back to school. It has made air travel much more of a pain then it ever was before. It helped me discover how much I like train travel....so much more civilized. I used to watch the news, now I read about it because it is easier to walk away if it gets too overwhelming, though it is a lot harder to read the news for me because of my LDs, but it is just better for me now....so I feel like I am not as well informed about things as I once was, but now with RSS feeds I feel like that is changing quickly.

So that is my where and how.

Finally the cliff hanger is over

I have posted about the Red Panda before. The last episode on May 17, 2008, left a huge cliff hanger....well today was the first episode of the season. My whole family was up and listening to it by 8am. :-) I could said it was worth the wait. ;-) Just in case someone else cares here is the link to the episode and here is the link to Decoder Ring Theatre. Their shows are well worth it.

First week of school done

Well Horse Girl and History Girl completed their first week of 3rd and 7th grades.

History Girl got placed into advanced math, which is awesome because to me it is a sign that other people besides me have seen the change in her attitude with regards to school. What she loves about her schedule this year is that even though PE is more or less required every other day of school, her schedule was so they couldn't fit it in the first semester so she got a waiver out of it. Maybe some parents would be upset about that, but I find school PE to be a waste of time if you have an active kid. Both of my girls are active kids. History Girl does the swim team. She walks miles to see historical buildings. PE or at least the PE at History Girl's school doesn't teach her athletics that she can use her whole life. It is stupid games that force the kids to compete against each other. History Girl is like me...she is fairly good at swimming...a sport she can do until she is 127 years old. She won't be playing mush ball or flag football when she is that age. So I think it is great that they couldn't fit PE into her schedule....I wish that I could figure out how she could make it not work for the rest of her schooling.

Horse Girl has this great teacher. I have worked with her for the last two years. Since I work to cover recesses and the lunch room and do paperwork for teachers so they don't have to and she was working as an Ed Tech, we got to know each other well. She has two kids....her oldest is in 5th grade. She taught for 10 years and then became a stay at home mom for 8-9 years and came back to work as an Ed Tech, then this 3rd grade teaching spot opened up and she got it. So this is the first time having her own classroom in 11 or 12 years. She is so excited. I love her attitude it is just wonderful. She and I have talked about Horse Girl's needs and we have been exchanging email daily.

Horse Girl's teacher told me about how Horse Girl advocated for herself, which lets me take a deep breath and relax. I think the fear of all parents of kids with LDs is that they will never learn how to advocate for themselves. It is something they need to learn to do and earlier the better. I didn't get the hang of it until I was in 8th grade and one of my teachers kept refusing to let me have the support that I was suppose to have. This was long before ADA so things were different, but I had an awesome Special Ed teacher who helped me advocate for myself. I have been trying to teach Horse Girl how to do it herself, so I was just so happy when she was able to.

Horse Girl's teacher requires the kids to record all reading that the kids do at home. I explained to her that Horse Girl does three different types of reading at home and what ones qualified as recordable reading. Horse Girl reads stuff at her reading level to work on her reading skills. We read to her and have her help us read and that reading is between her reading level and her comprehension level. The last type of reading Horse Girl does is at her comprehension level and we do that by buying books from Audible. The books from Audible are audiobooks that we download and put it on her iPod so she can "read" them. The benefit of the audiobooks is several she is able to improve her comprehension level, which for kids with reading LDs can be nearly impossible and can cause a kid to permanently get stuck at a level much lower then they should be at. Also the audiobooks help improve her vocabulary, there gets to be a point that a kid slows down their increasing vocabulary though what they hear around them and they increase their vocabulary through the written word and for a kid who has trouble reading means a small vocabulary. Lastly it lets Horse Girl know and be able to talk to her friends about the books that are popular in her peer group. Last year it was the Magic Tree House series, which are too hard for Horse Girl to read herself, but on audiobooks she "read" nearly all of them. This let her be able to talk to her peers about the books....sort of what people do at boring cocktail parties. :-) So audiobooks helps Horse Girl with those things. I was so pleased that Horse Girl's teacher agreed that Horse Girl can count all three type of reading on her reading record.

So I have been pleased with how well this first week has gone. My fingers and toes are crossed that things continue to go well.

Just counting the days

Just counting the days....school starts for the girls on Tuesday. They have fought and argued and pinched and all those fun things until I am really looking forward to them being in school all day.

Yesterday we celebrated the end of Summer by going to a local amusement park. We had a great time. Horse Girl has been nervous about rides since she begged us to go on Tower of Terror at Walt Disney World after we told her how scary it was. History Girl and I worked on Horse Girl to get her to ride some different rides and it took sometime, but she was willing to ride everything by the end of the day. We also had an old time photo taken where you get dressed up in an old style. We dressed up as female outlaws from maybe the 1920s...it is hard to tell when because Horse Girl and History girl wanted two different style of dresses. But I think they will remember the whole day as a good time.

another quiz

I stole this quiz from Trees and Flowers and Birds...she got the same result....maybe that is why we get along so well. :-)

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

NFPC - The Artist

Nature, Foreground, Big Picture, and Color

You perceive the world with particular attention to nature. You focus on what’s in front of you (the foreground) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the colors around you. Because of the value you place on nature, you tend to find comfort in more subdued settings and find energy in solitude. You like to deal directly with whatever comes your way without dealing with speculating possibilities or outcomes you can’t control. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You are a down-to-earth person who enjoys going with the flow.

What sort of Olympic sport are you?

All I want to say to this is "No duh!" I could tell them that. I was either triathlon or swimming. ;-) Love the extreme stuff...love pushing myself....so no duh!

You Are Triathlon

In one word, you are simply amazing. Super competent, super driven, and super skilled - you bring a lot to the table. You rise to any challenge, and you enjoy challenging yourself.

What Olympic Sport Are You?

The Police

Fly Guy and I went to see The Police in concert on August 4. Yes we saw them last year, but I needed to see them again before they went off in their own directions. We drove down to Long Island, New York to see them at the Jones Beach Theater, which was a great place to for a concert. The water was on three sides of the stage. So three of my favorite things all together.....The Police, the ocean and time one on one with Fly Guy. I can tell that Fly Guy truly loves me. He drove History Girl to Girl Scout Camp 8+ hours round trip and then he drove us to the concert because he knows how much I hate driving in CT and NY. So he did all this driving because he loves me and he knew how much I wanted to see The Police in concert one more time.

Update on Horse Girl

Just a quick update on Horse Girl. I greatful for the suggestion that people gave me and I have filed them away because I know I am going to have Horse Girl at loose ends at some point again sooner or later. It seems that Horse Girl needed time away from school work and time with horses. She normally has 1 hour or so with horses every week. Horse riding camp she had 20 or so hours with horses over the week. We also decided that we would have her take a break from school work for the week. An hour of one on one speech and 5 hours of one on one reading every week when other kids (read big sis) are sitting around not doing much except for hanging out with friends, watching TV and playing Webkinz. (and in the case of big sis walking to historical houses. :-) ) So week off from school work and and week with horses seems to calm Horse Girl. So all is good. School starts in three week and extended year services are done for the Summer so Horse Girl and I will work together for the next three weeks to keep her on top of her game, but not so much that she freaks out again.

History Girl

I need to post this about History Girl. This happened last week, but I have been too busy to post. This explains why she is called History Girl and not something else.

Well one day last week History Girl and her best friend were hanging out and asked if they could go wander around. I said yes as long as she took her cell phone. We live in Maine and non-custodial child abdution is unheard of so History Girl has a lot of freedom. It is the major reason we live in Maine rather then some other place. I get a call from History Girl at about 2:30pm saying that her friend's mom will drive her home at 4:30 or so. I asked her where she was. I hear in the background her friend trying to get her to lie. She tells me the truth that she was in Portland....less then 5 miles from our house. I tell her no problem I am glad she told me the truth, but I rather she had told me before she went across the bridge. Now...what do you think might cause two 12 year olds to walk that far. If you said shopping....you would be wrong. History Girl wanted to go to Victoria Mansion. It is a historical house in Downtown Portland.....Portland has a lot of historical houses, but Victoria Mansion stands apart in that it has all the original furniture also, so it is very much like stepping back in time. So any 12 year old who wanders off to go tour a historical house....deserves the name History Girl.

I has to be the pink hair

Well all my friends are reporting their scores and they are all low scores except for Somewhere in the Suburbs. I personally don't know many 1930s wives with a streak of hot pink hair and who go barefoot 95% of the time. I don't cook well and I am terrible with keeping up with the housework. It has to be because faithful and true to my husband and tries to learn about his work and help him when possible.

78 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Duck, duck, goose

I took Horse Girl to feed the ducks this afternoon. I have always felt that Horse Girl has a way with animals that most people don't., but this is her biased mother talking. I have been to this pond many times before and the ducks are friendly, but not overly so. These ducks would walk right up to Horse Girl sitting on the ground and head butt her and look like they wanted her to pet them and walk right up to her...they all but walked onto her lap. She would sit and talk to the ducks making sure they all got some bread making sure none of them went without. It was very cute and I wish I had my camera.

Horse Girl

I don't know what to do about Horse Girl. She is clearly having problems and has been for a few weeks. I think it is related to her sensory issues, but I am not sure. I think she is sensory seeking right now, but our normal way of dealing with that with brushing and mini trampoline don't seem to be working. She is fidgeting and leaning on people all the time. This is causing her not to be able to get her work done at the Dyslexia Center or during the extended year services at the school. I have had three of her teachers talk to me about it and I have no idea what to do.
She even has been having nightmares lately. She is tossing all over her bed and crying out. I have no idea what is going on with her.
We are taking her out of the EYS and the Dyslexia Center next week so she can go to Horse Camp. I am hoping doing something more physical will clear up whatever is going on with her. Then she will go back for one more week at the Dyslexia Center. Then 3 weeks before school starting. Those weeks we will do a few thing at home in hopes that she doesn't lose ground, but trying not to over work her.
I think part of the problem is the fact Horse Girl is a bit of a perfectionist....which is something she gets from Fly Guy. Being a person with learning differences and a perfectionist is a hard combo to live with. She so wants figure things out and she gets really frustrated about it. She started crying today at the Dyslexia Center today because she feeling wriggly and that and having trouble keeping her mind on her work and it wasn't working for her today. This all made her cry. Her teacher felt bad because she hates it when Horse Girl cries because Horse Girl only cries at the Dyslexia Center when she is upset with herself.
I don't know. I need to figure out what to do to help Horse Girl. I hope a week at Horse Camp does the trick.

Update on drums

Well I have been talking to the people at the local drum shop and they put me in contact with someone who would be me a good drum instructor for both Horse Girl and myself. So I hope that works out. We are still working things out. So I will post updates as things go on.

Not original

Well I guess I wasn't the only person who thought that singing the praises of Decoder Ring Theatre on Canada Day. Here is a link to another person who did the same thing in the "Review of The Red Panda Adventures - Season 3" So here to me not being original.

Drums

Horse Girl told me this morning during our driving around this morning that she wants to take up drums. This isn't the first time she has asked to do this. My response has always been the same. The school offers drum lessons in 6th grade so she could take lessons then. Then she said to me she was going to have Pop-Pop (Fly Guy's Stepfather) buy her a set of drums because he promised her a First Communion gift the next time they saw each other. My mind started whirling with thoughts.

You see I love drums...when I listen to music I hear the drums and everything else is extra. One of the reasons I love The Police is because Stewart Copeland has no equal when it comes to playing drums.

I took drum lessons in school, but my parents being who they are and not knowing what they doing with regards to helping their LD kid get what she needed in school...listened to the music teacher who said that I couldn't possibly play drums because of my LD. I kept fighting them on it and a year later then all my peers started drum lessons at school. I had no support at home. My parents would only pay for my sticks...I didn't even have a practice pad I had to fake it with a Frisbee. I had to push myself to practice...with my brother they had him sit down 30-45 mins everyday at the piano and they watched over his practice. My drum instructor clearly didn't think I would make it...plus I was older then the other kids in the lesson so I got pulled out of a different part of class rather then quiet study time...I got pulled out of math and when they did word problems I got a D- because a dyslexic and word problems just sucks and I wasn't in the class for them. So my parents said I had to give up drumming because clearly it was affecting my school work. Ever since then I have wanted to take up drumming again and get a teacher who doesn't give a damn about my LD or even better doesn't even know I have it.

So the idea of Horse Girl getting a set of drums just makes my heart sing. It would be a step closer to what I would like to do. Horse Girl said that maybe she could get Pop-Pop buy a whole set of drums. I told her you only really need one drum to start with and that way you can get a better quality drum and slowly build up a drum kit. She said that makes sense, but she would want a cymbal also. I told her we might be able to work that out. :-)

Horse Girl and I were stuck in traffic with me and I put on some Police and she air drummed with me. I will have to see about lessons for her. She has the benefit of a mom who knows what she is going through and knows the words to say to tell the doubters to just shut-up. So maybe she will go farther with drums then I did. That would make me happy.

BTW a couple weeks ago my mother told me she was sorry that she didn't stick up for me in school more or in a better way. She said she always wanted to believe what the teachers told her and she just followed along. She sees me question the Horse Girl's teachers all the time and check to see how Horse Girl is doing, so she feels like she didn't do as good a job as she could have. I told her she didn't know any better, she was doing what seemed right at the time, just as I am doing what seems right at this time. I am not sure what I would do if I didn't have the Internet and could research things deeply at home. I don't have time to spend a lot of time at a library doing research. Plus I have the benefit that my mother never had, I have traveled this road that Horse Girl has traveled and I know the words that made me feel better when I was discouraged and I can talk to Horse Girl about how it took me forever to read and now I am reading all the time. So that is a major thing my mother just never had and never will have, so my relationship with Horse Girl, her school and her teachers will always be different then my mother's relationship with me, my school and my teachers.

Musings

I have talked about how dyslexics look at the world differently and think about things differently and I was thinking about something while driving Horse Girl around which made me stop and think...wonder how many people actually think about these things as they go about their day to day lives.

Before I share what I was thinking about driving around I want to share a couple other times my different ways of thinking about stuff helped solve a problem.

First thing was when we moved into this house the previous owners left a old concrete column laying on the ground by the back stairs of the deck. I hated that thing and talked about getting rid of it. Everyone one I talked to talked about how heavy it was and how hard it would be to cart it away. Well I thought about it for a bit and came up with an idea. I dug a hole beside the column and under it a bit and rolled it into the hole buried it and covered it with sod. Nobody can tell that it was ever there. It was lucky I figured it out because a month later Horse Girl fell off those steps and her head would have landed on that column

Second thing was we were refinishing our living room floor. We pulled up the old carpet and there was something stuck on the floor. It wouldn't sand off, it would slowly chisel off, but vary slowly and risked damaging the floor. Once again I thought about it a bit and decided to heat up the area with an iron and then try to remove it. It came up with no problem at all and no damage to the floor.

Ok...now we are at the point about what I was thinking about when driving Horse Girl around this morning. Well I got to thinking about teleportation and the invention of it.

I thought about how people are mostly space and it is the electro-magnetic forces that cause us to feel solid...well not just people everything. If we were able to stop the electro-magnetic forces then we would be reduced to the size of a pinhead, but if we did that the pin would be affected also so it would be smaller also. So I kept thinking about all this and trying to figure out if this had any value with regard to teleportation. Then I got side tracked and started thinking about dimensions.

First I wondered why is time viewed as the forth dimension? Shouldn't it be a 0th dimension, you can really only naturally go in one direction, you can't back up, so it seems to me that it would be a zero dimension....a dimension, but with less directions the the others so zero. Then I got to thinking about the other dimensions.

Ok......1st dimension is a line. Then the 2nd dimension is a square. Then the 3rd dimension is a cube. Then the 4th dimension if it isn't time would be another shape, that we can't understand because of our 3D thought process.

There could be 4D objects all around us, but we can't tell because we see things as 3D. Because if you are 3D world and you look at a ball you would see a sphere. If you were in a 2D world you would look at a ball and see a circle. If you were in a 1D world you would see a line. So in our 3D world we might be looking at 4 dimensions (or more) and only seeing them as 3D because that is all we can see it as.

Then I dropped off Horse Girl so train of thought was lost again. Then started thinking about how freaky it is when you really think about all the space between the electrons, neutrons and protons....to look at things that look and feel solid and know there is a ton of space there. Then I got home and had to get the laundry started and so my mind went elsewhere again. :-)

With all this does it surprise you when "crazy" ideas I tell them it might be true, but we don't know now. Like Horse Girl was talking to me about how horses talk to each other in horse language. I know most parents would say that the horses communicate, but don't have a language. How do we know that 100%? Are you a horse...has any human been a horse? So we don't know 100% horses may have a language with words that we just can't see, hear or understand. Who knows maybe Horse Girl will break that code.

I just know in High School biology the teacher kept saying that all living things are carbon based. I kept asking was he 100% sure. Couldn't there be living things on another planet based off a different element? There is a whole bunch of elements with the same bonding capabilities as carbon....Star Trek took the idea of silicon life form and ran with it for one episode. Then there is the argument that there is only so many planets in the world that they think can support life because of tempture and water variations. Who says life has to be just like us...maybe there is a life form that doesn't need water but liquid nitrogen and likes it very very cold. This could be why my biology teacher was pleased when I stopped taking biology courses in favor of physics and chemistry. :-)

Closing one's mind to other off the wall possibilities could easily prevent people seeing stuff that is right in front of their face.

So that is all I mean about thinking about things differently and why I think a good number of scientist and inventors are dyslexic. They just have a different way of looking at things.

Ramblings

I really have a hard time with Summer. Yes I don't like the heat...for Pete's sake I have lived in Maine for most of my life so of course anything over 75 is a bit toasty for my tastes. What I don't like is the craziness and all the driving I need to do....here is the schedule for most days with some small changes on some like Speech is only Monday and Tuesday so the rest of the week we can leave the house 30 minutes later:
7:30am - 8am Speech Therapy
8am-9am Learning Center which is about 15 minutes away from where speech therapy is
9am-2pm Camp which is 20 mins from where the learning center is.

So I really feel the need to invent teloportation, but I don't even have the vaguest clue where to start.

Today when I was in the waiting room at the Learning Center I got to talking to another mom. Since the learning center is just for kids with dyslexia we have a lot in common to talk about. I am so glad Horse Girl doesn't go to the school district this person's kid goes to.

First of all one of the teachers told her that dyslexia doesn't really exists. Then a few weeks later tells her to have her son tested for ADHD. Ok...so dyslexia does not exists and ADHD does?!?!?! Huh? Is it because a kid can be medicated with ADHD? What is the difference between the two in this teacher's mind....inquiring minds would like to know.

Second of all this school department that this boy goes to denied him special ed saying he didn't qualify. Ok....so some schools can be really hard to deal with to get kids the services that they need. Well months later she gets a letter from the state wanting her to review the quality of the special ed. that her son was getting at the school. Turns out that the school told the state they were giving the boy special ed services when they denied them. I really hope this mom does something to this school department....of all the way to get extra money this has to be one of the lowest. I hope it was just an honest mistake, but with all the horror stories I have heard who know what the case is.

Hearing stories like that sometimes makes me feel guilty about how easy we have it when it comes to services. At our school I really feel like we are a team that works together well to get Horse Girl what she needs and we bounce ideas off of each other and try new things and we really work together. I really wish that more schools dealt with special needs like our school. Well we can always dream.

History Girl heads to overnight band camp this weekend. She is every excited. I am excited because it is easier to pack for then Girl Scout camp. She will be staying in a college dorm, so no sleeping bag, no mess kit, no dunk bag, no packing each outfit in a ziplock bag to keep them dry.....sheets, French Horn, music stand, alarm clock and clothes....much easier to pack for.

Horse Girl and Camp

Well it seems that this happens once a Summer and this Summer it happened early, so I hope this doesn't mean it will happen again this Summer.

Well Horse Girl was teased about her speech. As I said this happens about once a year. Though it has never happened at this camp before. This is a camp that I tell all the other families with LD kids about, because it is a town run (so fairly cheap) camp that is very well organized and breaks the large camp into very small well run groups, so it is perfect for kids with learning differences. So I was surprised when Horse Girl told us about the teasing.

I went to the Assistant Camp Director this morning and talked to her about it. She said that they would have a camp wide talk about respecting each other's differences and stuff like that. So it seems she is taking it seriously. We also talked about how this is the first time we have had this sort of trouble at this camp and that I have recommended it to many families with kids with learning differences. She was pleased to hear I was so happy with the camp and it seemed that made her want to take care of this issue as quickly as she could.

I hate it when Horse Girl gets teased. Not only from the Mother Bear angle, but the fact that every times she gets teased she becomes unsure about her skills. Last night and today She was _VERY_ unsure about her reading skills. Her Extended Year Services reading teacher told me that Horse Girl was being very clingy this morning with regards to her reading and didn't want to take risks. Which is a shame because Horse Girl has been making great strides with her reading over the last few month. She is only a year behind her classmates now so that is great for her. I hope she can shake off these negative thoughts about herself and keep going because she has really been doing a great job and I have been so proud of her.

Here's to hoping that this was the one and only teasing situation this Summer and we can get it behind us quickly.

Some Podcasts to Celebrate Canada Day

I have been meaning to write about this for awhile but never got around it, but it seems the perfect way to celebrate Canada Day (well a day late...I was busy yesturday) I want to share my favorite export from Canada....well maybe export...it is hard to say what a podcast is.

It is Decoder Ring Theatre. It is a group of people who recreate old time radio with today's podcasts. They have three major series The Red Panda, Black Jack Justice and Deck Gibson.

Personally my favorite is The Red Panda, it takes place in the 1930s. The Red Panda is "Canada's Greatest Superhero" and his side-kick, isn't a 15 year old boy, but a 20-something woman, known as the Flying Squirrel she is described as a delicate flower who leads with her left, but her right is a doosy. She knows Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, and she boxes. She might be viewed as the brawn and The Red Panda the brains, but he can throw a mean punch also and she comes up with her own theories on crimes without problems. His secret identity is a wealthy bachelor in Toronto and she is his driver. The technology isn't from the 1930s and there is magic in their world. So it is like Sci-Fi, fantasy, mixed with a mystery.

The end of the last run 6 Red Pandas left us with a major cliffhanger. Normally I don't think twice about cliffhangers, I haven't been annoyed with them since Star Trek: The Next Generation, with Jean-Luc Picard and the Borg with "The Best of Both Worlds." The Red Panda cliffhanger has left me thinking about what will happen and how it will work out. Not something I have ever really done with a show in years.

Well Decoder Ring Theatre, talks about doing a "Five in Your Drive" membership drive sort of thing to increase the number of their listeners. Burn five of your favorite episodes to a CD to give to your friends. Well I find listing my favorite five here easier. I will link to Decoder Ring Theatre's website, but you can get the podcasts at iTunes also. So here they are, I hope you like them:

Devil's Due
Red Panda: Dead or Alive!
Deadliest Game
Merlin's Tomb
A Midwinter's Murder

Dream Vacation

I was thinking after doing the Flickr Mosaic about what would my dream vacation. There are vacations that I love doing like going to Disney World, but there is one major once in a lifetime vacation that is my dream vacation.

I would love to fly to Alaska and visit Sitka, Alaska. Visit the The Russian Bishop's House, which is one of the oldest intact Russian buildings in North America. Also I would have to go see the New Archangel Dancers. Also while in Alaska visit Kodiak, Alaska and see the Baranov Museum which has some great exibits on the collonial Russia period in Alaska. I would also have to visit Juneau, but most of the Russian heritage has been lost there. Except St Nicholas's Church, here is a better photo of it.

Currently there is no easy way to go between Alaska and Vladivostok so most likely I would need to fly, but there has been talks of a bridge between Russia and Alaska or a ferry. So if it takes forever for me to take this trip then who knows how I will get between the two places.

Then I would cross over to Russia and take the trans-Siberian railroad from Vladivostok to Moscow. Currently there is one company major company that deals with Trans-Siberian railroad tours....that I trust. Most of their tours go West to East, but I know I don't want to go West to East, I want to go East to West. Their only East to West tour starts in Bejing, but I would want to start in Vladivostok which is a different spur of the Trans-Siberian railroad, it is the origanal rail.

So start in Vladivostok then head to Lake Baikal, maybe have day at the lake and hanging out at the beach. Then head on to Irkutsk visit some of the museums and historical landmarks there. During both the Decemberists Revolt and the civil war after Bolshevik Revolution had major battles in Irkutsk, so plenty of Historic sights.

Then on to Yekaterinburg, a place I have always wanted to visit. It is the city the Last Tsar and his family were executed. The house they were executed in was torn down by order of Yeltsin. It is also where Gary Powers was shot down on May 1, 1960, to it played a major part in both the Revolution and the Cold War, it is a must see during this dream vacation.

Then off to Moscow....there are so many things I want to see again in Moscow, that I wouldn't know where to start listing them. I love Moscow it is clearly a city built up around a fortress. If you look at a map of Moscow, you see the Kremlin in the center of circular roads. I am not going to bother to retype the history of the Kremlin go see it here if you are interested. So Moscow grew like a tree adding more circular roads as it grew.

Then I need to see the Moscow Metro again....when I saw it in 1986, it was amazing. it was clean and wasn't like any subway I have ever seen before or since. It had carvings on the walls, paintings on the ceilings, and chandeliers. It also has these very very steep very fast esculators. I need to see how the Metro has handled these really rough decade or two.

I have to go see St. Basil's again, it looks amazing in photos, but in person it is awe inspiring. Then there is Cathedral Square with all the other amazing Cathedrals, it is where all the major events happened during the Tsarist period until Peter the Great moved the capital to St. Petersburg.

There is enough stuff in Moscow that I would loved to do that I could spend months there without a problem, but then I sill need to make it to St. Petersburg. To me there is only one way to get from Moscow to St. Petersburg and that is one of the daily night trains. I would pick the Red Arrow because that is the most famous one of the bunch....plus it was the one I rode when I was there 22 years ago. I remember being way too late it leaves around midnight and catching the train and getting into Leningrad the next morning and it was well run and my first train experance so there is a soft spot in my heart for it.

Now with going to St. Petersburg the timing needs to be just right. I want to be there during the white nights. I need time to visit Tarskoye Selo.......hmm..I just realized that I can't narrow my list down to just a few places I want to visit there. Check out this virtual tour if you want to see why I can't narrow it down. I have to say Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, is my favorate city in the world. It is amazing. It is beautiful in a way most cities aren't...it is historical in a way I love. The major problem is coming to grips with the number of people who died while building the city for Peter the Great. About 300,000 people died building the city do to illness and lack of food and other things. So sometimes it is hard to balance the beauty with the horror. Also there is the amazing WWII history around St. Petersburg.

Oh one of the things I need to take a long time exploring is The Hermitage...I only had a day to see it last time and I didn't even make a small dent in it. I think at least a week would cover a good amount.

After all that I will fly home to Maine and take a long rest.

Flickr Mosaic

I had to copy this from One Feather Tail who copied it from Are We There Yet.

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food? right now?

3. What high school did you attend?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name.





1. Horcruxes para Squibs, 2. Happy Kiwi, 3. 2007 Lobster Bake 30.jpg, 4. The Photographer, 5. drew barrymore [for becca], 6. Ice music, a winter xylophone, 7. Girl on the Platform, 8. 57/366, 9. ST. BASIL CATHEDRAL, Moscow, Russia, 10. duck to duck to duck..., 11. Got milk?, 12. My First Computer

Panic

Today it hit me....Horse Girl will be in Third Grade in the Fall. To me Third Grade is where they start to use the reading, writing and math skills they have been working on since Kindergarten to learn other things. This caused me panic a bit. Normally I am the one who feels that everything will be ok with Horse Girl and things will be fine it will just take time. I am able to draw from my experience of being a kid with dyslexia. Though every once and awhile I worry. I am guessing it is what Fly Guy feels most of the time about Horse Girl...he listens to me and my experience and that makes him feel better, but he has no personal experience.

I told Horse Girl's resource room teacher I needed to talk and she was able to reassure me that we have support in place for her and she has placed Horse Girl in a classroom with other kids who also have learning issues and they will share an Ed Tech. I am glad to hear that she is sharing an Ed Tech with kids with learning issues...this year she shared one with a student with behavioral issues and I expressed concern at one point that I was worried how she would be preseaved by the teachers if she is always with this kid with behavioral issues. She also told me that Horse Girl could always come down to the resource room in the afternoon to work on homework or projects, if we were having trouble supporting her at home.

I realize I have high hopes for next year, because third grade is when I started reading. I didn't read at grade level until 7th grade. So I hope Horse Girl will follow in my footsteps and I am also scared that I have put too much hope into next year and I am going to be disappointed because things don't work out.

I am so glad the Resource Room teacher is always so wiling to make me feel better when I worry. It isn't often, but it happens and today was a big worry. She calmed me down and got me back to my normal state of being being sure everything will work out if given enough time.

Things

Things have been busy here so posting has been the last thing on my mind. School is winding down for the girls so I have been busy trying to take care of things at the school and I have been getting ready for Summer. Horse Girl is having trouble with the idea she does school stuff over the Summer and other people don't. I told her that it will help her make it to her goal of reading chapter books. It makes me sad when she says stuff about how she isn't like everyone else. I know she isn't, but it doesn't make it easy when she says it. I also have been working on over coming my fears of open water swimming, so that has been taking up a lot of time. Well it is time for me to get ready to go to a Girl Scout thing. Hopefully I will fine time to type more sooner rather then later.

The ABCs and XYZs of me

Stolen from my August Mom friends

The ABCs and XYZs of me

Accent: Some sort of Maine accent...but not Downeast Maine or northern Maine. I have to remember to not put an R sound at the end of idea and that parka doesn’t have an R sound in the end and fork does have an R sound in it.

Bra size: 36A a size that is hard to find

Chore I hate: Cleaning

Dad’s name: Thomas

Essential make-up: Green tinted mostorizer with sunscreen

Favorite perfume: Victoria

Gold or Silver: Silver

Hometown: Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Interesting fact:

Job title:stay at home mom/lunch aide/a little bit of everything

Kids: two kids

Living arrangements: Married with kids

Mom’s Birthplace: Portland, ME

Number of apples eaten in last week: 5 or so

Overnight hospital stays: I was in the hospital for about 10 days when I was 10 years old because of a car accident. My Dr. told my parent’s I nearly died, but I never felt that way. I have to say this event has had major effect on the rest of my life. It caused me to start swimming so I could build up my lungs again. I wonder why I lived all the time. There have been other events that made me wonder why I lived. Then I was in the hospital for the birth of both girls. In the hospital over night for another car accident. Overnight for a bladder infection during one of the pregancies because it was causing preterm contractions.

Phobia: Spiders

Question you ask yourself a lot: Why am I here? What the heck am I doing? Am I insane?

Religious affiliation: Marian Catholic

Siblings: one brother

Time I wake up: 5am when I am swimming in the morning and around 6:30am when I am not

Unnatural hair color: my natural hair color is brown. Currently I have a blonde streak just for fun...I have had a red streak, but that that fades quickly in the Summer sun.

Vegetable I refuse to eat: brussel sprouts

Worst habit: the fact I am a bit of a slob...there are so many wonderful things to do in this world why waste it cleaning

X-rays: More then I can count. Mostly to check to see how my lungs are doing, some to check for bone injuries

Yummy food I make: Linguine with white clam sauce

Zodiac sign: Aquarius

Back from vacation

This is just a quick post to say I am back from vacation. I thought I would give a quick update about what I read since I asked for input earlier this month. If you have been reading me for sometime you might remember this post last June. I finally got the Lord of the Rings on audiobooks. It is about 50 hours of listening. I haven't even finished the first book, but I understand so clearly now why these books are so popular. I will listen to them for awhile and ask Fly Guy a question or two. He has read the books many times....he can read all three in a week without a problem. :-P

It turns out that the version I wanted was not avalible on itunes or at audible.com, so I went with CD and this $10 portible CD player. Ripping the CDs onto my iPod just takes up too much room, so this way is working out well. It is a bit weird going back to using CDs and a CD player after a few years of having an iPod.

The other funny thing is I can't really handle not doing something with my hands when I am listening, because when I read I hold the book with my hands, but listening I feel like I am at lose ends. So I end up working on suduko puzzles when listening. Since we were on trains for 60 hours or so on this trip I had penty of time to listen and do my puzzles. :-)

A better update later. :-)

Looking for Fluff

I am going on vacation in a week or so and I was just thinking I need to bring a book or two to read. I don't do fluff books often. I think the last major fluff book I read was "The Secret Life of Bees" and that was 2 years ago I think......hmmm....that isn't totally true. I re-read the Wizard of 4th Street series by Simon Hawke less then a year ago. For the most part the books I read are biographies or historical in some way. Currently I am reading "Buried by the Times: The Holocaust and America's Most Important Newspaper" it is a good book, but I am finding I can't read it before bed. Since I can't seem to read it before bed it doesn't seem like it would be a good vacation book.
Fly Guy just gave me four great books....none of them vacation type books. Fly Guy has the ability to find some great books, but they are never fluffy books. He got me "The Russian Revolution & the Soviet State 1917 - 1921 Documents"(I can't find a link of this book on the Internet to link to so I can show it.), "Daily Life in Russia Under the Last Tsar", "All Stalin's Men" and "The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin From the interrogations of Hitler's closest personal aides". As you can see none of the four are fluffy vacation books. Fly Guy doesn't understand vacation books.
So what I would like people to do for me is in the comments here list some of your most favorite Fluff/Vacation book and tell me why you like it.

thanks :-)

Sentance Meme

I Am… who I am and nothing more.
I Want… peace on earth and good will toward fellow humans, but if I can’t have that solar panels for my house would be cool. :-)
I Have… a wonderful husband who supports me in everything I want to do.
I Wish… I could read faster.
I Hate… cooking.
I Fear… drowning....isn’t that a funny thing for a swimmer to be fearful of? The idea of drowning either while in water or in my own fluids with lung failure just makes my skin crawl and causes me to panic.
I Hear… Horse Girl watching TV since she is home sick from school.
I Search... for anything and everything. I love doing research. I search for random things on the Web because I want something to read or do.
I Wonder… why I have survived.
I Regret… nothing. Every choice I have made has caused me to be where I am in my life and I like where I am. That doesn’t mean I want my kids to make the same choices I have made.
I Love… my family.
I Ache… in my heart. Days that I am dealing with my chronic depression my heart physically hurts and I wish I could just reach in a pull it out.
I Always… try to view things in a positive light.
I Usually… smell like chlorine.
I Dance… with my girls in the kitchen.
I Sing… in the car at the top of my lungs with my girls.
I Never… have gone to a topless beach.
I Rarely… understand the IRS.
I Cry… rarely. People think that a person who deals with depression would cry all the time. I don’t.
I Am Not… like everyone else....to quote The Kinks.
I Lose… my mind on a regular basis.
I’m Confused… about how to spell most words.
I Need…. a new swimsuit.
I Should be… doing laundry, cleaning the house and all the other drudgery that I hate.

Book review

On Feburary 8, 2008 I talked about the book I had just finished reading along with the book I just started reading. I just finished "The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Moat Famous Scientist"


Yes it took me well over a month to read it. I am a very slow reader. Which isn't a surprise because of my LDs.

It turned out to a really great book I am going to have to look deeper on some of the topics like Hoover being on friendly terms with Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler.

Einstein has always been a hero of mine since I was 11 or 12 years old. Reading more about him lately makes me view him as a greater man then I thought he was.

It seems that because of different reasons Einstein's political views have been lost to history. Only when Time Magazine named him "Person of the Century" did a lot of his political believes came out. Even that article just breezed over his political views.

Did Hoover and McCarthy win in the long run because biographers are nervous to prove that Einstein was part of a number or radical organizations that if alive Einstein would told people he was part of without a problem. Einstein felt that largest problem in the United States was racism. If biographers and media could right more about Einstein's eloquent anti-racism writing and searches without fear, would US citizens have a different view of racism since the worlds greatest scientist said these things.

Once I am done reading "Buried By the Times" (I might have to write about this book when I am done also. New York Times owned by German Jews and worked to get their family out of Germany during WWII, but didn't cover the Shoah in their paper.) I am going to have to go on to read "Einstein on Race and Racism" it looks like it could be a good book and cover some of the questions I have. There is a whole list of his writtings and speaches on racism in the back of "The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Moat Famous Scientist" I am not going bother to type them up here. Anyone who is interested now knows they are there and can go look at them themselves.

I know I should do goodreads.com, I haven't been able to get into it at all. I think it has to do with the fact when you come here and read my blog, you know about my reading and writing issues, at goodreads.com when I review a book I feel that I do not do the book justice.

Being a copy cat :-)

Other friends did this quiz so I had to do it too. :-)

I am an Iris What Flower Are You?

"You are a very sensual person. You like to experience all the sights, smells, tastes and textures the world has to offer. Ordinary be damned, because you want to do it all."

Gary Gygax

Gygax Memorial Cat" style="word-spacing: 700314px; font-size: 700314px;">
see more crazy cat pics

I know Gary Gygax died over two weeks ago, but I just ran into this today. I loved Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing games. I was upset by the death of Gary Gygax, but he will be remembered by geeks everywhere. ;-) I found out about D&D when I was in 8th grade...I think....it might have been Freshman in high school. It ended up putting me on the road to where I am now. I learned geeks could be fun, which caused me to hang around computer labs more which caused me to meet Fly Guy. Well that is all a simplification of the path, but more or less correct. :-)

Gifted and Talented and Learning Disabled

I have been reading a lot lately about what some people call twice-exceptional people. People with learning disablities and are gifted. Reading some of these research papers and journal articles about this subject is just freaky for me. It is like looking into some sort of mirror. I read about the typical traits for twice-exceptional people (I have trouble with term, but it could be from my self-critical part of me..which is a personally trait that is talked about a lot) and they hit my major personally traits right on. Then to read about how people who are both gifted and learning disabled and how they tend to deal with depression and be prone to suicide. I have always concidered my depression and suicidal thoughts to be a seprate issue then my learning disablity. Maybe that isn't the case. Since I have been having an emotionally down period the last couple of weeks reading these articles have caused me to think a little differently about my depression. I don't think it will cause me to change anything I do for my depression it just is making me think about it differently.

Gifted and talented

Horse Girl's school tests all the second graders for the Gifted and Talented program. When I was Horse Girl's age my parents were told I qualified for Gifted and Talented, but the teacher at the time didn't think it would be good for the G/T kids if I was in the program since I was special ed. Of course we all know special ed means you are barely functioning. Tell that to Albert Einstein (well he is dead so telling him would be hard), if I want to continue down the road of dead dyslexics John Lennon, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci.....if we want some live dyslexics how about Orlando Bloom, Tommy Hilfiger, Bob Weir, Greg Louganis....any how I was not allowed in the G/T program and it has been a chip on my shoulder my whole life. It might be why I pushed myself so hard. So when I got the notice that Horse Girl was being tested I had a flashback to my childhood. I emailed Horse Girl's principal right away and asked what sort of test was it and told her that I wanted to make sure Horse Girl had a fair shake at it. Fair is not necessarily equal. The principal had no idea what sort of test it was. To her credit she got on the phone and found out for me and she got back to me and told me it was completely non-verbal and it was a bunch of logic puzzles, so no accommodations needed. I don't know if Horse Girl will qualify or not, but at least I know I have done all I can do to make sure she will have a fair chance.

Baseball season

It is nearly the start of baseball season and I have bought a bunch of Portland Sea Dogs tickets and few Red Sox tickets.

Being a Red Sox fan it is hard to know what to think now. Normally this time of year it is ok to be positive, but in the back of your head you know they won't make it all the way, but this year. It is sort of a niggleing in the back of your head that since there hasn't been any major player changes that they might go all the way again. Shhhh...I didn't say that...can't jinx things you know. So Red Sox fans have no idea how to act or feel this time around we all want to think positive, but we know how that has hurt us in the past. The Red Sox may not be the loveible losers any more, but there is to much hurt still in the Red Sox fan soul to willing just be positive about things. So here is to being cautiously optimistic to this season.

So here is to a good season.

First things first wrapping up Movie Meme

I am not a big person on hints so to me either you know it or you don't. That is my basis on arguing for extended time on standerized testing for people who have learning difference so I can't change my view just for this Movie Meme. I gave people extended time now time for the answers. :-)

1. Dreyfus once wrote from Devil's Island that he would see the most glorious birds. Many years later in Brittany he realized they had only been seagulls... For me they will always be - *glorious* birds.


Is from "Harold and Maude" it is an amzing movie and it defined a large part of my high school years. Maude said this quote.

2. Johnny Damon, you got the sweetest ass in the league!

Is from "Fever Pitch" which is the best Red Soc movie ever made, plus it has Drew Barrymore in it need I say more? Viv says this...she is one of the people that Ben has made friends with because her season tickets are next to his.

3. Yes, and I'm the bastard son of a peasant. What does that have to do with anything?


Is from "Ever After" which is a Cinderella story with a twist, the fairy Godmother is Leonardo da Vinci. It is just a a refreshing look at the Cinderella story and it has Drew Barrymore in it. (yes I have a crush on Drew Barrymore. :-) ) This quote is said by Leonardo da Vinci.


4. Rambling Mom got this one correct. Arsenic and Old Lace.

5. He was their friend, and he betrayed them. He was their *friend*! I hope he finds me! Cause when he does, I'm gonna be ready. When he does, I'm gonna kill him!

Doc Thelma knew this one but couldn't say because she had already given one answer. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"

6. Doc Thelma got this one. "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" I just love this Star Trek movie I know it is not most people's favorate when it comes to the Star Trek movies, but it is mine.

7. A souvenir. I thought it'd be a good idea to have a duplicate, turns out I was right. I actually had to pay for the souvenir *and* the real one, so you owe me $35, plus tax.

This is from "National Treasure" my whole family loves this movie. I think it might be History Girl's favorate movie. I enjoy it and think it is well done, I am worried that they are going to ruin it with sequls though. This quote was said by Benjamin Franklin Gates.


8. Nicole got this one. It is from the "Wedding Singer" once again a Drew Barrymore movie....yes I do have a crush on Drew Barrymore, have you seen her Covergirl TV ads? :-) Almost enough for me to buy Covergirl make-up. ;-)

9. addittothelist got this one it is from "The Big Chill" I have always loved the music from this movie.

10. You see, their young enter through the ears and wrap themselves around the cerebral cortex. This has the effect of rendering the victim extremely susceptible to suggestion. Later as they grow follows madness and death.

Doc Thelma also knew this one but couldn't say "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" just the clasic Star Trek movie, no lover of Star Trek can make a list of movies without this one on it. :-)


I have to say I left off one of my most favorate movie quote ever. I will leave it here and see if anyone can figure it out.

"Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud."

good luck. ;-)

Movie Meme

I just had to steal this meme from Life in the Minivan Lane

Rules:
1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.
6. One movie guess at a time. Give people a chance to guess before you steal all of the awesome!


1. Dreyfus once wrote from Devil's Island that he would see the most glorious birds. Many years later in Brittany he realized they had only been seagulls... For me they will always be - *glorious* birds.


2. Johnny Damon, you got the sweetest ass in the league!

3. Yes, and I'm the bastard son of a peasant. What does that have to do with anything?

4. We were married today. We were going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Your brother tries to kill me. A taxi is waiting and now you want to sleep on a window seat. You can take the honeymoon, your wedding ring, your taxi, your window seat, and put 'em in a barrel and push 'em all over Niagara Falls!

Rambling Mom said... #4 is the poor newly married Mrs. Brewster (Elaine Harper) from Arsenic and Old Lace

5. He was their friend, and he betrayed them. He was their *friend*! I hope he finds me! Cause when he does, I'm gonna be ready. When he does, I'm gonna kill him!

6. Oh, him? He's harmless. Part of the free speech movement at Berkeley in the sixties. I think he did a little too much LDS.



Doc Thelma said...Capt. Kirk, from Star Trek IV

7. A souvenir. I thought it'd be a good idea to have a duplicate, turns out I was right. I actually had to pay for the souvenir *and* the real one, so you owe me $35, plus tax.

8. Not porno tongue. Church tongue.

9. They're either married or gay. And if they're not gay, they've just broken up with the most wonderful woman in the world, or they've just broken up with a bitch who looks exactly like me. They're in transition from a monogamous relationship and they need more space. Or they're tired of space, but they just can't commit. Or they want to commit, but they're afraid to get close. They want to get close, you don't want to get near them..
addittothelist said...#9 is from The Big Chill - the unmarried woman from the UofM group that wanted to have a baby. I can't remember the charactor's name, but can picture her. She had redish brown hair. (Close enough....her name is Meg.)



10. You see, their young enter through the ears and wrap themselves around the cerebral cortex. This has the effect of rendering the victim extremely susceptible to suggestion. Later as they grow follows madness and death.

Reading time with Horse Girl

Every night before bedtime I read to Horse Girl. Tonight we read one chapter out of "Little Town on the Prarie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder and then we read "Thank You, Mr. Falker" by Patricia Polacco.



After I was done with "Thank You, Mr. Falker" Horse Girl told me she likes that book a lot because it is like her. I told her I like it a lot too, but it makes me cry every time I read it. She asked me why. I told her that Mr. Falker is a lot like a teacher I had and the story reminds me of me and that teacher. She understood.

"Thank You, Mr. Falker" is about a little girl's journey though the school system with kids teasing her because she can't read and feeling dumb because she can't read. She starts hating school because of all this. Then she meets Mr. Falker when she enters 5th grade. Mr. Falker sees her as the bright kid she is. Asks the kids who teased her which one of them is so perfect that they can tease someone else. Mr. Falker ends up helping the little girl to read in the end.

Yes it could be a corny feel-good story, but the thing is the little girl in the story is Patricia Polacco who grows up to write these wonderful children's books. So it is really a very moving true story.

I like it also because it shows how important good teachers are for kids. I believe people have a calling to be teachers. You can tell the ones who are following their calling as soon as you walk into their classroom. Everyone has a teacher they know that they can say that about. To me if being a teacher is a calling, being a special ed teacher is something even more. It is something that a person really needs to be born to do. Yes you can study it and learn about it, but working one on one with this gentle soul who may already be hurting because they can't do what their peers can, takes a very special person. I had three special ed teachers growing up. Each and everyone of them would have done anything to help me become the best student I could be. I owe everything to them. When I see Horse Girl's special ed teacher I see the same traits in her as I did in my special ed teachers. I know because of what this teacher does for Horse Girl, that Horse Girl will remember her for the rest of her life.

I once tried to tell Horse Girl's special ed teacher about how highly I value special ed teachers and she started to tear up, so I stopped. I am not suprised because I know I tear up when I think about her and how she helps Horse Girl and when I think of the teachers who helped me.

Thank you, all the teachers who really make a difference.