Beautiful Day

Today, TGD and I went to the nicest 50th anniversary party. It was held outside, and while it was a casual affair, it felt elegant and special.  I had the best grilled chicken I think I’ve ever had. YUM! The afternoon went really quickly, a good sign we were having a great time.

KristenLoescher and two girls are here. It’s such a treat to see them, even if it is only for a few hours. (They are spending the night and leaving tomorrow. Why am I  blogging if she’s here? She’s off visiting someone else, now.) I am jealous she gets to see Jessica tomorrow. I’d stow away in the car (probably to her delight–a second driver!), but there is too much here to do.

We head over to my mom’s after church on Sunday for a picnic and community fireworks. My mom went all out in the food prep department. You must realize that we are not a gourmet family. We have been known to use leftover Halloween napkins for Christmas Eve dinner. (Which I find quite funny)  But, for this picnic, my mom cut cheese into patriotic stars and made red, white, and blue Jello and even more! It’s more than I ever do (which anyone who has come to my house can attest. I’m great with soda and chips, but not much in the way of elegance).

Today we got our trampoline! After six years of hard use and faithful service, our old trampoline died. Everything was broken, ripped, and bent.  I asked our neighbor who never uses her trampoline if we could buy it. It was agreed. The only “problem” was that our houses are about .5 miles apart.  We didn’t want to take the trampoline down and reassemble it. What to do?

Partially Broken Things

Our camper kitchen
(I also like to be organized.)

And who came to visit us in the night and found only unopened canned mandarin oranges not in the van? Perhaps he can just attack the B’s cooler or the W’s…

Sunday morning before church, I went out to put the week’s chemicals in the pool since we’d be leaving after church for the camping trip.  We have a bit of a ditch on one side of the pool (three inches?).  I slipped on the side of it and caught two toes in the strap of my sandal as it was wrenched off. Yes, these were the SAME TWO TOES I broke before the camping trip last year! I don’t believe they are broken, but it’s been six days, and they still ache.  It didn’t keep me off my feet while camping, though! 

There is a lovely, wooded trail which circles the perimeter of the Crooked Run campsite at Prince Gallitzin State Park.  I (with two others) got to “hike” this trail several times; ride a bike here and there; discover that I do like Diet Coke, eat many, many, many s’mores; stand in refreshing, yet icky, water; play pinochle and Taboo; and break my camera.

I took the advice of one of the camera men and got some isopropyl alcohol and dripped it around the dial.  After a few dumps, the dial turned–much effort needed–but it turned.  The test pictures I took looked fine. I also took TGD’s suggestion and bought a new camera as well.  Now, what should I do? Head on my dream trip with a camera which might break down again or “waste” the money on a new camera?
 
  

What I Did Last Week

I feel as if I should write a fifth grade composition. I can hardly believe that I didn’t write an entry for a whole week!  Perhaps you were a bit glad, eh?  So, let’s see…what happened this week?    [insert long silence]    Uh… Is anyone else like this? When someone asks me on a Monday, “So, what did you do this weekend?” I immediately resemble a stammering deer in the headlights. I have absolutely no idea what I did just 24 hours ago. However, two things stick out pretty well from this week and both were on Thursday.

Thursday was one of those wonderful summer days: hot but not too sweaty, sunny with patches of clouds, and a place to go with lots of fun. I loaded up the kids and two spares and headed to the ill-named Del Grosso’s Amusement Park.  I had $6 off coupons for all of us, so we got ride all day and waterpark tickets for $10. It turned out that it was DARE anit-drug day, so any child under 18 who signed an anti-drug pledge got a 10 cent soda (usually $1.75) and a free pass for the day!  Wow! We can go back again for free! 

A funny side story about the drug pledge: one of my kids said to me, “Mom, how long will this drug thing last? A year?”   I looked sideways at said child and said, “Why, are you planning to start snorting coke soon?”  I still don’t know why this child would worry. Then, the next day, Little Miss asked a similar question. This led to a discussion of drug possession charges and more.  I found it funny that all the COPS watching they’ve done with their daddy didn’t already provide them with this information.

But, back to Del Grosso’s!  We were a fun bunch (Kroekers, B’s, Mc’s, Smurfs, F’s, and more) and stayed until the bitter end (9:00) when they closed the park. Even though I had taken a Dramamine, I still avoided the spinny rides.  I did the ferris wheel, bumper cars, Crazy Mouse, and train.  All the rest–not worth it! I’m such an old woman.

The second memorable thing happened on the way home.  I was taking one of the spare children to his house. I missed the turn to his road, backed up, and turned down the road. However, I failed to back up quite enough. When I turned, I hit a pile of dirt. This caused a puncture in the air conditioner, bending of supports, and some other miscellaneous things.  The car is still driveable, but it was still almost $2000 worth of damage! I have not had an insurance-involved car thing since I was 16 years old.  Oh, the shame.

Tonight, I watched episode 2 of The Brontes of Haworth, prepping myself for my trip (in TWO weeks!).  We spent a lot of the day packing for our camping trip.  (Well, I packed when I was not driving 45 minutes one-way for the insurance guy to inspect the van and then shopping for groceries. TGD and the boys packed all day.) 

I shall be MIA for about a week. Make sure you miss me and say things like, “Oh, where oh where can she be?” even though you know.

When was your last car wreck?

Lydia Indeed

I’ve not been a very good blogger lately. But, I did get all my math writing done. Huzzah and Hoorah and all sorts of other happy exclamations!

This week looks to be fun–hot days in the pool, replacing zippers on our tent, eating strawberries, sending those portfolios to the school district, and going to Del Grosso’s Amusement Park. Yes, it really is called “Del Grosso’s.” It used to be called “Bland’s Park.”  Which name is less appealing for an amusement and water park, do you think?  Do you know of any other less-than-aptly named places?

Can I Hear an “AMEN!”

Last night, I finished the second of three sets of math writing things. These were the most annoying math writings I’ve ever done. Statistics on immigration and racial diversity–oh, the agony! What took forever was looking up statistics and info on the internet. (In case you’d like to see what on earth I wrote, the previous entry contains one-fourth of a lesson. To look at it, it looks like very little work. But the internet searching and coming up with appropriate statistics and a tie-in article really took a lot of time. Praise God for a wonderful husband who helped me out by searching the net with me and giving me great ideas!

Now, I have five more articles to write, due Monday. These are much easier as I am NOT writing about statistics and immigration! These lessons are on forensics and rates and ratios. I’ve got one 100% done and the rest between 30% and 75% finished. 

But, for now, we are going to change our clothes and drive an hour and a half to a barn dance! The parents of our friend TB (not the contagious kind) host a barn dance every year.  It’s a potluck supper and square dancing. I’ve wanted to go for years, but this is the first time we are going.  I rarely get to dance, and as TGD will tell you, that might be a good thing.  (Bobby and Sissy we are not) But, for the most part, I can square dance. And, it is so much fun!

Have you ever square danced? What’s you favorite dancing? (Did you know who Bobby and Sissy were?)

Just in case you were wondering, this is page 1 of one of the lesson sets I just finished. Pages 1 and 2 of the lesson had a similar format: an article full of facts, some sort of data, and several questions. The article had to be written at a fourth grade reading level.  Page 3 was a  section on reading comprehension and “metacognition”–thinking about how we read and process information. The fourth page was a graphic organizer to help the students organize data and more questions about problem solving.

Give Me Your
Poor…

A famous statue sits in New York Harbor.
This statue, The Statue of Liberty, was given to the United States by France in 1885.  For many immigrants to the USA, Liberty Island
is a symbol of freedom. However, Ellis Island was their “door” to the United States.

From 1892 to 1954, twelve million immigrants came
through this Federal immigration station. When a ship arrived in New York’s Harbor,
passengers would get off. Some immigrants would take another boat to Ellis Island. There they would have a medical exam.
Doctors would do a “six second physical” to check for sickness. Officials
would examine the immigrant’s papers (such as his identification). If the
person were in good health and was not a criminal, in three to five hours,
the person would be allowed to enter the United States. Only 2% of
immigrants were not allowed to enter the country.  If the person had a contagious disease which
would make many people ill, he was not allowed to enter. If an immigration
inspector thought the person had no way to work to support himself, he was
also not allowed to enter.

Many people immigrated to New York City, giving it a varied racial
makeup. The list shows the largest 16 counties in New York State.  Next to each county is the percentage of
population which is black.

Kings County
- 38.3%
Queens County
- 21.1%
New York County – 19.8%
Suffolk County – 7.8%
Bronx County
- 42.5%
Nassau County
- 11.3%
Westchester County – 14.9%
Erie County
- 13.6%
Monroe County
- 14.7%
Richmond County – 10.8%
Onondaga County – 10.2%
Orange County
- 10.2%
Albany County
- 12.1%
Dutchess County – 10.2%
Rockland County – 11.9%
Oneida County
- 6.1%

Read the article.  Then, answer the questions.

1. Make a box and whisker plot of
this data. What are the median, upper quartile, and lower quartile? [Median = (11.9 + 12.1)/2 = 12; upper quartile = (14.9
+19.8)/2 = 17.35  ; Lower quartile =
10.2%]

2. What observations can you make
about the data as shown in the box-and-whisker plot, especially about the
outliers?
[The median
is quite far from the highest values of the data set.]

3. What is the mode of this data
set?  [10.2%]

Another Perk of Blogging

I just finished a wonderful visit with LadyoftheManse and her family.  I met her through Homeschool Blogger, and now she is a Xanga Lady, too.  We had never met or spoken before, except via blogs and email.  I think both of us were a tad nervous that the other would turn out to be some sort of axe-murdering weirdo, but thankfully, neither of us were!  (Although I will not rule out other types of weirdo when it comes to yours truly.)

I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with her, live and in person, about all sorts of topics.  Her children and Little Miss hit it off very well, and I enjoyed quizzing her husband about Great Britain.  They didn’t seem to mind that I fed them a supper of lukewarm pizza at soggy Halfmoon park for Gockle’s baseball party and toasted cheese and leftover pizza for lunch the next day. How can one not appreciate a family like theirs? All in all, it was a delightful time with delightful people.  (Excepting the black eye her son will have from a Frisbee.)  Huzzah for blogs! One gets to meet the loveliest people that way.

I’m working hard on this math writing project. I have a Friday deadline for one set. (I didn’t get the templates to start working until LAST night!) Currently, I’m wracking my brain for a third activity related to a census, averages, and small numbers. The small number part is the tricky one.  Plus, I have people coming for supper.  Now I sound like I’m complaining. NO!  I had a refreshing visit with new friends, I get to visit with friends this evening, and I have a paying job.  Plus, there are peanut M-n-M’s in the house.  But not for long….mwah ha ha!

What’s your stress food?

EDIT– I LOATHE statistics!  I hate, despise, and just plain old can’t-stand-’em.  Yes, I’m complaing now.

Waiting Is Fun!

Today I thought I’d start Round Two of math project writing. But, there was nothing to write! The outline of “magazine articles” was not done, so I could not begin to write those. The project magazines for which I am to write student guides were not written either, so I couldn’t write those. What’s a girl to do? Well, this girl went out and had some fun!

TGD and I went out to lunch. (Gockle, who was having a rough day came along as well.)  We chatted about our family trip to England January to May 2008.  Perhaps you have not heard about this trip. TGD has a “sabbatical” the Spring 2008 semester. We are planning to head to Cambridge, England, for that time so he can do research at the Newton Institute there.  I’m planning a whole bunch of touring with the children. We got word today that the Newton Institute will pay generously, so we should have our rent and food in England covered!

After lunch, I took Gockle to buy an Airsoft gun. It’s one of those things that boys run around and shoot each other with. It’s got “soft” BBs.  Said gun is now confiscated for the next 24 hours since someone didn’t practice good gun safety, but I digress.

When I got home, there was still nothing waiting for me in my inbox, so I decided to walk with LW.  We had a nice, yet sweaty and thirsty walk. The gypsy moth caterpillars here are horrid. When you walk through a wooded area, it sounds like rain because of all the caterpillar poo falling down. Some of the oak trees are totally leafless. Nasty buggers.

Around suppertime, I got an email. “Can you and another writer do the outline?”  You bet!  A seven minute phone call from Los Angles, and the outline was mostly hashed out. (Call me Mrs. Efficient!)  Out the door to a church softball game. The weather was excellent. The team played not-so-well. I’ve seen them play amazingly well, but tonight was just not their night. (TGD was three for four, though. That’s my man!)

Home again to a bowl of ice cream.  No outline in my inbox. I decided to write a “magazine” article anyhow on forensic science in history.  So, I don’t feel that I’ve done nothing today. (Yes, I believe that sentence to be grammatically correct! )

Here’s a fun quiz. If you take it, do tell “who you are.”  Would you have pegged me as Lydia?

t

You scored as Lydia Bennet, You are highly sociable and love to party! You’re a bit silly sometimes, though–be careful about what you let yourself in for… Lydia Bennett 85% Elizabeth Bennet 80% Mr Bingley 65% Charlotte Lucas 60% Jane Bennett 60% Mrs Bennett 55% Mr. Darcy 50% Mary Bennett 45% Lady Catherine de Bourgh 45% Mr. Collins 45% Mr. Wickham 35% Kitty Bennett 35% Mr Bennett 25% Which Pride and Prejudice character are you most like? created with QuizFarm.com

P.S. Libby K is much better and appears to be all better.

Hmmm…

LibbyK has the stomach flu. She proved it to me tonight at 11:35 pm.  I have a bunch of work to do for math projects this week with Wednesday and Friday deadlines.  LadyoftheManse and her family are coming to visit on Wednesday.  Oh, what havoc could be wrought by this miserable, vomitous mass? (Drop. Your. Sword.)

In happy news–church, church picnic, baseball game, travel book on England purchased, 4-H banquet, finished first set of math writing, off to bed!

What’s you short list of happy news?

Strawberry Day

Now, crickets are chirping. The ceiling fan hums quietly, and the black satin sky begs to be draped over my eyes. What a wonderful strawberry day.