The Little Girl Who Hated Reading
Posted on | September 1, 2010 | 2 Comments
awful reading scores she received back this week. I got a nice
response from her teacher this morning. Apparently the specific test
she took was a timed test, and CG stepped away to go the bathroom
during the testing period. Since the test timed how long a child
takes to finish the test, those 5-6 minutes going to the bathroom
skewed her score a bit. That’s slightly comforting. Only slightly. She also said that she has CG’s scores from end-of-1st-grade testing
and that at the end of the year CG scored appropriately for moving
onto 2nd grade. She assured me that she would conduct another
assessment with CG in the next week or so and let me know the results. Despite my hatred for sight reading of any kind, she said that she is
a firm believer in teaching both sight words and phonics together as
part of a balanced literacy approach. Color me highly skeptical. Lastly, she’s going to talk to the librarian at their school about not
allowing children to check out books that are above their tested
reading levels. This week CG brought home two books more appropriate
for 4th-5th graders. The teacher assured me that she’ll have her
students take their reading level information to the library and ask
that the librarian doublecheck upon checkout to ensure the children
are getting appropriate books. So that’s that. We’ll continue to work with CG at home to improve her
reading. I went through her bookcase last night and pulled out the
handful that I felt were at her current reading capabilities. Sadly,
there weren’t many (about half a dozen out of approximately 200
books). With any luck we’ll be able to turn CG from The Girl Who
Hated Reading into at least The Girl Who Begrudgingly Enjoyed It Every
Now and Again.
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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!
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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!
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My New Fake Boyfriend
Posted on | August 27, 2010 | No Comments
So I have a new fake boyfriend. His name is David Tennant. Never heard of him? Then you must not be a “Doctor Who” fan. But if you’ve seen the Harry Potter movies, you HAVE seen him – he played Barty Crouch, Jr.
I recently became a HUGE “Doctor Who” fan. Certainly not the old stuff – I tried to watch the old stuff and just couldn’t stand it. I even did a search to find the all-time favorite “Doctor Who” episodes as rated by fans, and after sitting through three of them I determined that most “Doctor Who” fans are very forgiving as to what constitutes good television. Then again, maybe back then (the show has been on for about 40 years) it did qualify as good television.
In 2004/2005 they brought back “Doctor Who” after a hiatus on the air, with the 9th Doctor playing the role. He was played by Christopher Eccleston, and I thought he was fabulous. But then at the end of Season 1, the Doctor regenerated, and we were left with the 10th Doctor. I was horrified. NO ONE could replace Christopher Eccleston in my mind – he WAS The Doctor.
Oh how wrong I was. It didn’t take long for Christopher Eccleston to become just another doctor, and David Tennant to become THE DOCTOR. Oh how I love the 10th Doctor! His rapport with his companion, Rose Tyler, was magical (more magical than Rose had with the 9th Doctor). Then his rapport with his new companion, Martha Jones, was just as good. I’m now watching the season with his fourth companion, Donna Noble, and while I’m not a Donna Noble fan (I adored Martha), I’m still a MASSIVE 10th Doctor fan. In fact, it’s due to David Tennant’s awesomeness that “Doctor Who” has officially replaced “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as my all-time favorite show. I NEVER thought that would happen. NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS. But it did. Thanks to David Tennant.
And so I decided it was time to shake up my Top 5 Fake Boyfriends list. David Tennant, the 10th (and best) Doctor, is now in my Top 5.
What is it with the Scots? I love Scottish actors/celebrities. To name a few: Craig Ferguson, John Barrowman (from “Torchwood”), Gordon Ramsay (another one in my Top 5), Ewan McGregor, James McAvoy (on the verge of becoming a Top 5) and now David Tennant. When I find out an actor I love is Scottish I squee in unexpected delight. Especially when I hear them speak in their natural accent for the first time (since some of these actors normally don’t use their natural accent when in a movie).
I have subsequently added a bunch of David Tennant movies/tv series to my Netflix list, and believe that he will sit unusurped on my Top 5 for a long time to come (I think the next one due for ouster will be My Main Man Michael Vartan if he doesn’t find a new project sometime soon). I don’t care if you don’t like SciFi, I don’t care if you have heard how bad “Doctor Who” was back in the 1970s – if you like good, fun, quality tv, then check out “Doctor Who.” Start with the 9th Doctor, and go from there.
I promise you won’t be disappointed. You’ll also become a massive David Tennant fan, just like me.
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Tags: christopher eccleston > david tennant > doctor who > fake boyfriend
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
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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.
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Six Years…
Posted on | August 18, 2010 | 2 Comments
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