The Little Girl Who Hated Reading

Posted on | September 1, 2010 | 2 Comments

Is It Really Almost September?

Posted on | August 31, 2010 | 2 Comments

Today a couple of us at work were amazed that it’s already going to be September tomorrow.  How is that possible?  Have I really been at my “new” job for 10 months?  I guess it’s not so new anymore.  It still feels new, though.  I still refer to it as being new.  My 10 months being unemployed seemed interminable compared to the last 10 months of solid employment.

The kids have now been in school for a couple weeks and it’s a lot more work this year than last year.  Cootiegirl’s teacher is “tough” (as tough as a 2nd grade teacher can be) and poor CG is not enjoying herself much.  She LIKES her teacher, but she hates the homework.  Add in the fact that she’s not a strong reader (in fact, the report we received today shows that she’s dreadfully behind in reading skills), which is not helping.  All my attempts to get her to read phonically this summer have been for naught, and I fear that she’ll continue to fall behind this year.  Tonight I wrote a nice, long email to her teacher explaining CG’s history with reading and asking for resources to encourage and aid CG in her advancement in reading skills.

As for Cootieboy, I’m not worried so much about his reading as his ability to listen in class.  He has been written up for not listening just about every day since school started.  I’d like to tell myself he doesn’t listen because his teacher is not challenging him, but I think he’s not listening simply because he wants to have FUN, not sit in a chair and listen to his teacher.  In his computer class he received high marks for listening, though.  But that’s because he thinks computers are fun.  Tonight as he went to bed I told him that he needs to listen and pay attention to more than just his computer class, but to EVERYthing – we’ll see what happens.

Still obsessed with “Doctor Who.”  I’m down to my last few David Tennant episodes.  I’m devastated that the time of the Tenth Doctor is so close to being over for me.  It’s funny though – watching all these episodes so quickly, I’ve noticed one thing.  In almost EVERY episode he says, “I’m sorry, I’m SO sorry.”  It’s hilarious and makes me think there HAS to be a Doctor Who drinking game out there in the world, and that deserves three drinks every time he says it (a quick hunt shows that yes, there are tons of Doctor Who drinking games, although I didn’t see a reference to “I’m sorry, I’m SO sorry,” which is surprising).

Why yes, we DO still have a fish aquarium – thanks for asking!  Unfortunately, it’s not doing well and I think that once these last four fish kick off it’ll be the end of it.  We’ve had it for two years and none of the original fish are still alive.  I’m down to my last corydora catfish and since they are schoolers, and he doesn’t have a school, I predict he’ll die from loneliness in the next few days.  At that point I’ll have three tetras left.  They will get to live out their days without any hassles.  I just hope I have all females so I don’t have a tank full of fish fry.  So far I haven’t had to worry about that, but you never know.  In any event, once we have no more fish, I’ll dismantle the aquarium and take back that section of the TV room.

Tomorrow the next White Elephant notice goes out.  We’ve already got 17-18 official “yes” responses.  Yes, it’s the party of the year, people.  And I can’t wait!

It’s So Shiny and Fingerprinty

Posted on | August 29, 2010 | No Comments

We got the new laptop sometime last week, and in a word: it’s awesome.  Truly spectacular!  It’s a Toshiba Satellite running a Windows 7 platform.  There was a slight learning curve going from XP to 7, but once I clicked around for a few minutes I was able to find everything and figure out how Windows 7 was laid out.  The inlaid mousepad is VERY sensitive, but I just need to go in and find the settings and switch them out so that just HOVERING over the mousepad doesn’t make it think I’ve actually clicked something (seriously, it’s THAT sensitive). The keyboard keys are quite large – pretty much the same size as a regular external keyboard. It also has a full-sized number keypad as well. VERY nice since I dislike most laptop keyboards because they are so small.

The Satellite came with a trial of Microsoft Office 2007, but was only loaded with Microsoft Works.  So I turned in a couple gift cards and bought Microsoft Office 2007 (Home and Student version) for $67 and free shipping.  That’s really where the learning curve came in – it’s a LOT different from the 2000 version we have at home and the 2003 version running at work.  The whole new “ribbon” layout was frustrating as I created a few sample documents to familiarize myself with it, but since I’m a Microsoft Office junkie, I was up and running relatively quickly on that as well.

The machine is nice.  The reviews were all right – the fingerprints on this thing after a couple minutes are heinous.  But seriously, that’s the only thing I can complain about.  The sound card is decent and the video quality is amazing (I played music, YouTube videos, Netflix streaming and an external DVD to test both sound and picture).  I was hoping we could get a Blu-Ray laptop, but those were too expensive.  However, the regular DVD still looked fantastic on this thing.

The screen itself is large, but the laptop itself doesn’t seem any bigger than our old one.  It about the same weight though – which makes sense since it has a huge battery (it has gotten about 5-6 hours of power per day).

All in all, I’m very pleased with our purchase.  What’s funny is that Denis has yet to use it.  He keeps using the old laptop (which is working again, miraculously enough).  As for me, I’ll never go back.   The Satellite rocks!

My New Fake Boyfriend

Posted on | August 27, 2010 | No Comments

We Have a Winner!

Posted on | August 25, 2010 | No Comments

We have a winner! The contest for Chantal Kreviazuk’s newest CD, “Plain Jane,” is now officially over! By the time I closed the comments on that giveaway post, we had a total of seven entries in the contest. This morning I used the random number generator at Random.org and it chose the #4.

So congrats to Audrey (acg@ (or twigerina@)) for winning the latest CD by Chantal Kreviazuk! I’ve sent you an email (to both email addresses that you provided with your comment) – so keep an eye out for it!

Artist: Chantal Kreviazuk
Album: Plain Jane Deluxe Edition
Release Date: August 24, 2010
Label: MapleMusic Recordsings

Official Site (which has samples of her songs):
http://www.chantalkreviazuk.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chantalkreviaz
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chantalkreviazuk
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/chantalkreviazuk

Thanks, Freddie!

Posted on | August 21, 2010 | No Comments

A long time ago we set up our laptop at the end of our kitchen table. Since the four of us use the other end of the table for family meals, we just left it there. Additionally, because I hate laptop keyboards, we had an external keyboard plugged in which also stayed there at all times. This area became a favorite place of Freddie the Freaky Cat to lie down during all hours of the day because (1) he could get his head scratched by whoever was working on the laptop and (2) he could feel the warmth emanating from the laptop power source while he took his naps while we were at work.

***Warning, this gets gross – stop reading now and flip down to the next “starred off” area (***) to move past the gross part. Seriously, you’ve been warned – don’t read the next paragraph***

A couple night ago we were all at the table eating dinner and I happened to look over at the laptop, only to find two relatively recently deposited piles of cat vomit – one on the laptop keyboard, one on the external keyboard.

***

“FREDDIE!” I screamed, the food in my mouth suddenly tasting like cardboard. “THAT’S DISGUSTING!”

So that Denis’s food, too, would taste like cardboard, I pointed out the mess to him.

We both immediately realized that our already dying laptop was most definitely murdered at that point. I hastily finished my meal and got up from the table so that I wouldn’t be next to it. Denis bravely cleaned up the mess and once sanitized he tested the laptop.

A few weeks ago I had discovered that the left side of the actual laptop keyboard didn’t work. But now the right side was a bust as well. When we plugged the external keyboard back in, we still got nothing – our laptop screen stayed on the login screen no matter what we typed.

When I started my new job (almost a year ago now!) I had taken in my own keyboard when the one supplied by my employer was determined to be crap. I told Denis I’d bring mine home to test whether it was our newly cleaned keyboard that wasn’t working, or whether the laptop was now junk and unable to function (much less acknowledge typing from an external keyboard).

Yesterday I brought home the keyboard, plugged it in with great hope in my heart, and was crushed when nothing happened. Zip. Nada. Bummer.

During my workday I had been realistic about our chances, and had done research on possible replacement laptops. I knew our budget was about $700 for a new laptop that would have all the options we wanted in a new laptop (read: high speed, large memory, long battery power, wireless networking, etc.). I narrowed it down to two laptops and sent off the info to Denis in an email.

Once we were both home last night we talked about the laptop situation again, and debated our next step. We were both in favor of one of the two laptops I had chosen, despite the fact it didn’t come with Microsoft Office. But since we can buy the suite at Amazon for $122 right now, it wasn’t that big a deal. The biggest “negative” in the hundreds of reviews I sifted through said that the outside of the laptop can get covered in fingerprints very easily.

Seriously? THAT’S your complaint? FINGERPRINTS? Who cares about fingerprints???

SOLD! We hopped online last night and ordered it. Fortunately, I’ve been diligent about building our emergency savings account over the past year, so we had the cash available to pay for it outright instead of insurring debt to get it. But still, it’s painful to watch over $700 (after taxes and shipping) leave your savings account in an instant. But I guess that’s what savings are for, right? Unexpected expenses.

The new machine? She’s going to be LOVELY.

And this time around we’re NOT going to leave her on the kitchen table 24/7. We’re going to put her away when we’re not using her.

Six Years…

Posted on | August 18, 2010 | 2 Comments