Haley got back from her slumber party yesterday, and apparently didn't sleep at all (at least that's what she claims). She says that even after the other girls went to bed at 3, they snored so loudly they kept her awake. Who knows, it could even be true. So I fed her (the party was pretty last minute, and apparently they didn't have enough food in the house for all the guests) and let her hang out for a bit watching Ghostbusters. We made a deal that when the movie was over she would wash her hair (it was crazy tangled though I swear it was brushed and braided before she left the house!). She got in the shower and about five minutes later I heard the water turn off. But she didn't get out... I went to go check on her and found her lying in the tub trying to sleep. So I got her up and washed her hair and dried her off and sent her to bed. She made me promise to wake her up for dinner, because she was still hungry. But come dinner time, she couldn't be budged. She did wake up very briefly around midnight, but I explained that it was the middle of the night and that she needed to wait till morning to eat. I woke her up this morning at 8:30 and after 17 1/2 hours of sleep, she's in a much better frame of mind!
After breakfast we hopped in the car and drove out to Jed Smith campground. I parked the car and hauled our bikes off the back. We spent about an hour riding our bikes around the campground. This is a good place for a kid to practice because there's very little traffic and the few cars are moving slowly. She was very intimidated by her new bike (between buying it and our adventure she'd managed to talk herself into being quite scared of it) but by the end of our hour she was comfortable with using the brakes to slow down (as opposed to just stopping) and had even learned how to shift gears :) She still has some trouble getting started because she's a little short for her bike, but I think that'll get easier as she gets more confident.
Next we drove down to our favorite swimming hole and she changed into her swimsuit and played in the river. There were several groups there with young children, so Haley had some kids to play with. I sat on a very comfy rock and read and snoozed and hid from the sun. I let her swim for an hour and a half and then dragged her back on to dry land.
Now she's back in the tub and she's been there a while... But I can hear her splashing and playing with her toys. At some point she needs to wash her hair...
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Schroedinger's Computer
So on Thursday, Haley was invited to a slumber party Friday night. Last minute invitation. She was allowed to go, on the condition that she got her room clean first, which she did (more or less). During the cleaning we discovered that she had 2 copies of a book in the Pixie Hollow series. A whole series about all the faeries that live with Tinker Bell in Never Never Land. Very much a preadolescent girl thing. Convenient discovery, right before a birthday party! But then on Friday we couldn't find it! So we looked and looked. The last place I'd seen it was in my room when she brought it to me to show that she had 2 copies. So I looked everywhere. Haley was convinced it had gotten under my bed somehow. (That was where I eventually found my iPod!) I was more skeptical, but after we'd looked everywhere else in my room, I lifted up my mattress to check. My pillow tumbled down, my laptop slid a couple of feet, my water bottle tipped over (no big deal -- it was closed). And boy howdy did I have a lot of junk under my bed! But no faery books! So we looked and we looked, and finally, we found both copies sitting on her bookshelf. Aargh.
So we wrapped the presents and I dropped her off at her friend's house. I was a free woman! So before I settled down with my dinner of cheerios, ramen, and champagne I thought I'd surf the net a bit. But for some reason my laptop wasn't working. The power light was on, but the screen was black. I tried pushing buttons and clicking the trackpad... I looked down at the power cord: yup, it's plugged i-- And that's when I found it. The puddle. Oh, I thought blankly, that water bottle wasn't closed after all. Oh. Shit. Because my computer was sitting, plugged in, in a puddle of water. I unplugged it and yanked the battery. Water *ran* out of my computer when I tipped it over. So now it's sitting, drying out. Much like Schroedinger's cat, until I plug it in I can still pretend that everything's going to be ok.
The webpages tend to recommend letting it sit for 72 hours to (hopefully) dry out completely before trying to turn it on -- I guess that means I can keep hoping till Monday night :p
So we wrapped the presents and I dropped her off at her friend's house. I was a free woman! So before I settled down with my dinner of cheerios, ramen, and champagne I thought I'd surf the net a bit. But for some reason my laptop wasn't working. The power light was on, but the screen was black. I tried pushing buttons and clicking the trackpad... I looked down at the power cord: yup, it's plugged i-- And that's when I found it. The puddle. Oh, I thought blankly, that water bottle wasn't closed after all. Oh. Shit. Because my computer was sitting, plugged in, in a puddle of water. I unplugged it and yanked the battery. Water *ran* out of my computer when I tipped it over. So now it's sitting, drying out. Much like Schroedinger's cat, until I plug it in I can still pretend that everything's going to be ok.
The webpages tend to recommend letting it sit for 72 hours to (hopefully) dry out completely before trying to turn it on -- I guess that means I can keep hoping till Monday night :p
Friday, June 26, 2009
New Bike Rack
So my new bike rack arrived today. Yay! It's hinged so that it arrived in a fairly small box. Even after I took it out, Haley kept saying, "It looks so small. I don't think it's going to work." But then I started unfolding it and she said, "Oh wow, it's big!"
Anyhow, as you can see, it fits perfectly on my car :) The bottom feet are resting (lightly) on the bumper. I can open the hatchback while it's on, though it's a bit heavier.
This bike rack isn't officially recommended for the Prius, although you see it on Priuses all the time. Here's why: Everything is perfect except that the metal buckle part of the strap just happens to be in the worst possible spot -- right at the bend over the spoiler. So left to its own devices the metal buckle will etch through the paint. But a little bit of shelf liner stuck under the trouble spot (while not hugely attractive) should take care of that problem :)
Here's my bike on the rack. I can hulk the hatchback open, but it's a pain in the butt.
Here are both of our bikes, nose to tail.
As you can see, neither bike is actually touching the car :)
And I can even park my car in the garage with whole inches to spare!
But wait, you say, back up a minute... That's not Haley's bike! Alas, Haley's bike won't even come close to fitting on a bike rack. Also if we're going to be going up any hills she's going to need some gears. So we went on down to our local used bike shop. This bike was a little dusty, a little used, a little ugly, but it is in good mechanical shape. Then we looked at the price tag. For $20 it's fantastic :) :) :)
It's a little big for her. She has a little trouble starting and stopping, but on the plus side her knees aren't fully extended when she's pedaling. Plus she's growing really fast right now -- another inch or two and it won't matter :) I figure we can spend some real money on a better bike when she's done growing, but this should do her until she's my height :)
Anyhow, as you can see, it fits perfectly on my car :) The bottom feet are resting (lightly) on the bumper. I can open the hatchback while it's on, though it's a bit heavier.
This bike rack isn't officially recommended for the Prius, although you see it on Priuses all the time. Here's why: Everything is perfect except that the metal buckle part of the strap just happens to be in the worst possible spot -- right at the bend over the spoiler. So left to its own devices the metal buckle will etch through the paint. But a little bit of shelf liner stuck under the trouble spot (while not hugely attractive) should take care of that problem :)
Here's my bike on the rack. I can hulk the hatchback open, but it's a pain in the butt.
Here are both of our bikes, nose to tail.
As you can see, neither bike is actually touching the car :)
And I can even park my car in the garage with whole inches to spare!
But wait, you say, back up a minute... That's not Haley's bike! Alas, Haley's bike won't even come close to fitting on a bike rack. Also if we're going to be going up any hills she's going to need some gears. So we went on down to our local used bike shop. This bike was a little dusty, a little used, a little ugly, but it is in good mechanical shape. Then we looked at the price tag. For $20 it's fantastic :) :) :)
It's a little big for her. She has a little trouble starting and stopping, but on the plus side her knees aren't fully extended when she's pedaling. Plus she's growing really fast right now -- another inch or two and it won't matter :) I figure we can spend some real money on a better bike when she's done growing, but this should do her until she's my height :)
Monday, June 22, 2009
Letter to the President
Dear President Obama,
I was terribly disappointed to see your administration's response to the question of Gay Marriage. Comparing homosexuality to incest? Wow. What an incredibly shitty and ironic attitude towards this civil rights issue.
As a country, we constantly struggle with civil rights issues. It is a measure of how far we have come that you are president at all. Sixty years ago it would have been inconceivable that a black man should become president. Black people were second class citizens. They were not awarded the full measure of rights that white people possessed. (Hmm, sound familiar?)
Many people felt that this was unfair. They spoke out and marched in protests. Not all of those people were black. The civil rights movement would never have succeeded if all the white people had been content with the status quo. It required popular support -- many people of varied colors standing up and saying, "This is not right."
I'm not black. I'm day-glow, fish-belly white. It's no skin off my nose if black people are oppressed. And yet, had I been alive back then, I would have proudly marched beside your ancestors. Not because I would have personally benefited, but because it would have been the right thing to do.
Of course, it would have been fairly easy for me to make such a gesture. After all, I am clearly not black. It's a lot easier to be a supporter of an oppressed group than to be mistaken for a member of that group.
Fast forward to the civil rights issue of our time. It's a lot harder to be a supporter of homosexuals. After all, it's not like you can tell who's gay or not just by looking. And so it's easy to dismiss support for gay marriage as being "a bunch of queers". Unlike white supporters of the black civil rights movement, straight supporters of the gay civil rights movement are not obvious. Many feel the need to declare themselves. Sometimes I wonder whether they are thinking, "They need to know that not all supporters are gay." or "They need to know that I'm not gay." Is that your problem? Gee Barrack, don't worry. With your lovely wife and two kids, you're probably not going to be mistaken for a homo.
So what is the basis of many of these objections to gay marriage? I think it would be difficult to argue that most of the criticisms are religious in nature. However, I was taught in high school civics that in America we have a separation of church and state. Because marriage is a legal status that confers many rights and responsibilities, it seems ludicrous that religion could dictate who receives that legal status.
Some people argue that "marriage" is a religious term, and that gay people should be granted civil unions. Fine. I think it's rather petty, but as long as you guys are willing to spend time doing a "search/replace" on all the legal documents in the United States that mention marriage, and replace the word "marriage" with "civil union" I guess it really doesn't matter.
But you're not offering to do that, are you? Basically whenever civil unions are mentioned, they seem to be second class marriages. Good enough for them homos, but not as good as a *real* marriage, for real people.
I recognize that supporting gay marriage would not be a popular move with much of your constituency. After all, you ran on a platform that included your faith. But faith can be an evolving thing. Unless you're following the bible strictly in your life (when were you planning on selling your daughters?) it seems hypocritical to pick and choose which pieces of bigotry you're going to follow in your own life. You need to balance your presidential popularity contest with doing the right thing.
So Barrack, I guess I'm asking you to grow a pair. In the name of all the white people who stood up for what was right so that you could eventually become president, why don't you stand up for what's right, even though your marriage is already legally sanctioned?
Sincerely,
Meg Claypool
I was terribly disappointed to see your administration's response to the question of Gay Marriage. Comparing homosexuality to incest? Wow. What an incredibly shitty and ironic attitude towards this civil rights issue.
As a country, we constantly struggle with civil rights issues. It is a measure of how far we have come that you are president at all. Sixty years ago it would have been inconceivable that a black man should become president. Black people were second class citizens. They were not awarded the full measure of rights that white people possessed. (Hmm, sound familiar?)
Many people felt that this was unfair. They spoke out and marched in protests. Not all of those people were black. The civil rights movement would never have succeeded if all the white people had been content with the status quo. It required popular support -- many people of varied colors standing up and saying, "This is not right."
I'm not black. I'm day-glow, fish-belly white. It's no skin off my nose if black people are oppressed. And yet, had I been alive back then, I would have proudly marched beside your ancestors. Not because I would have personally benefited, but because it would have been the right thing to do.
Of course, it would have been fairly easy for me to make such a gesture. After all, I am clearly not black. It's a lot easier to be a supporter of an oppressed group than to be mistaken for a member of that group.
Fast forward to the civil rights issue of our time. It's a lot harder to be a supporter of homosexuals. After all, it's not like you can tell who's gay or not just by looking. And so it's easy to dismiss support for gay marriage as being "a bunch of queers". Unlike white supporters of the black civil rights movement, straight supporters of the gay civil rights movement are not obvious. Many feel the need to declare themselves. Sometimes I wonder whether they are thinking, "They need to know that not all supporters are gay." or "They need to know that I'm not gay." Is that your problem? Gee Barrack, don't worry. With your lovely wife and two kids, you're probably not going to be mistaken for a homo.
So what is the basis of many of these objections to gay marriage? I think it would be difficult to argue that most of the criticisms are religious in nature. However, I was taught in high school civics that in America we have a separation of church and state. Because marriage is a legal status that confers many rights and responsibilities, it seems ludicrous that religion could dictate who receives that legal status.
Some people argue that "marriage" is a religious term, and that gay people should be granted civil unions. Fine. I think it's rather petty, but as long as you guys are willing to spend time doing a "search/replace" on all the legal documents in the United States that mention marriage, and replace the word "marriage" with "civil union" I guess it really doesn't matter.
But you're not offering to do that, are you? Basically whenever civil unions are mentioned, they seem to be second class marriages. Good enough for them homos, but not as good as a *real* marriage, for real people.
I recognize that supporting gay marriage would not be a popular move with much of your constituency. After all, you ran on a platform that included your faith. But faith can be an evolving thing. Unless you're following the bible strictly in your life (when were you planning on selling your daughters?) it seems hypocritical to pick and choose which pieces of bigotry you're going to follow in your own life. You need to balance your presidential popularity contest with doing the right thing.
So Barrack, I guess I'm asking you to grow a pair. In the name of all the white people who stood up for what was right so that you could eventually become president, why don't you stand up for what's right, even though your marriage is already legally sanctioned?
Sincerely,
Meg Claypool
Friday, June 19, 2009
My Garden
Thanks in large part to Mom's motivation, my garden is looking pretty good right now :) My herb box is looking great!
The spindly plant is basil -- it's actually pretty healthy, it just doesn't grow as fast as mint!
The jasmine Mom gave me is doing great. I'm not sure what time of year jasmine blooms, but I'm hoping to find out!
I have a fun volunteer sharing my jasmine's pot -- this fern is a colonist from a neighboring pot :) I figure the chances of it choking out the jasmine are pretty nil, so it's more than welcome to grow there :)
The Venus Fly Trap we bought is doing amazingly well given how picky a plant it is! (No tap water allowed - rain water or distilled water only!)
And behind the Venus Fly trap you can see a visitor to our garden!
The spindly plant is basil -- it's actually pretty healthy, it just doesn't grow as fast as mint!
The jasmine Mom gave me is doing great. I'm not sure what time of year jasmine blooms, but I'm hoping to find out!
I have a fun volunteer sharing my jasmine's pot -- this fern is a colonist from a neighboring pot :) I figure the chances of it choking out the jasmine are pretty nil, so it's more than welcome to grow there :)
The Venus Fly Trap we bought is doing amazingly well given how picky a plant it is! (No tap water allowed - rain water or distilled water only!)
And behind the Venus Fly trap you can see a visitor to our garden!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Welcome to Summer
The title should be read with both sarcasm and desperate relief, in approximately equal proportions. The school year is over, the students have all graduated (or not) and I get to forget about teaching for at least a month. Yay! But I was pretty exhausted by the end of it. Between teaching duties (had to chaperone the graduation dance till 11 on Thursday!) and my own stupidity (opened a new book at 8pm one night!) I didn't get much sleep last week. Pretty much kicked my immune system in the teeth, so now I've come down with a cold.
So Friday I finished tidying up my classroom for the summer, then went to a staff party and then a family friend's graduation party, and then packed for an SCA event. Got up before 6 on my first day of summer vacation in order to hitch a lift up to the event with one of my friends :)
It was a good event -- we had at least 30 fighters there, so there was lots of fighting. But I was pretty tired. You think I was a lame soccer player? We foolishly armored up on time, and then ended up waiting around for a hour for the rest of the fighters. So I stretched out in full armor and took a nap. Didn't even take my helmet off -- just laid my shield across my face grill to keep off the sun :) When the fighting started it was good fun, though carrying a sword and shield in a war pretty much means a lot of standing around trying not to be killed by enemy pikes while the pikes on your side are hiding behind your shield trying to kill the enemy shield wall. One of these days I'm going to fight with a Dane ax or something crazy :)
I paid $10 to get my face painted with henna -- no school on Monday (though that probably wouldn't have stopped me anyhow!) I hung out and chit chatted and then dozed in my chair, until I had to admit it was time to head for bed. At 8. Yup, I'm a wild party animal. But just as well as the friend who gave us a ride was up at 5:30 and wanted to head back home ASAP.
So we got home and Haley keeps complaining that her head itches. Nothing new -- she has terrible dandruff. But I look at her hair for lice, just to keep her happy. Nope, no nits. And then A. Bug. Runs. Across. Her. Head. AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH! So I calmly collect it and put in in a plastic baggie. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe this is just some other bug running across her head. After all, we were just camping. The next day we go to the lice clinic. She's not finding any nits either, but when I show her the critter in the baggie, she confirms my dire suspicions. She finally finds one nit, and sends us home with some lice treatment and combs.
Acu-Life Lice Cure. If you've got to have lice, this is definitely the way to treat it. No pesticides, just essential oils. Tea tree oil is the biggie, along with ylang ylang, eucalyptus, and citronella. So, following instructions, I gloob that all over her scalp and then finish up with coconut oil (since there wasn't enough in the bottle) to help smother any bugs in the length of her hair. Oh. My. God. On the one hand, proof positive that this stuff WORKS. On the other, there were a hell of a lot of secret ninja lice in her hair. Who knew that all that time I spent picking fleas off the Grandparents' dogs was in fact training me for parenthood? I must have found and crushed at least 7 (apparently dead and much easier to find) lice. Ugh. And the oil made the nits a lot easier to see too. So we let that sit in her hair for a while (theoretically 15 minutes but really more like an hour). Then we rinsed it off, slathered her hair with conditioner, and rinsed again. Then I combed her hair with a lice comb. And it wasn't a big deal!!! No, really, all that oil super-conditioned her hair, so it was pretty easy to comb. Nothing like last time! And we got a bunch more lice :p I can see a bunch of nits that I didn't get -- I'll need to comb again tomorrow, but we'd had all we could take for one day.
So now she's asleep in her freshly laundered bed, and the pile of laundry to do just keeps growing. On the plus side, I slathered my own hair with a mix of coconut oil and tea tree oil and let it sit for a couple of hours and then combed through it with a lice comb. Nothing. Thank Goodness! I could be missing some nits, but I'm pretty sure it would have found any lice. I hennaed my hair last week, which probably helped -- a bunch of extremely pungent and sticky goop in my hair overnight may have discouraged any infestation.
Haley wants to know what she's supposed to do while all of her toys are in plastic bag quarantine -- I know, let's go visit my parents!
So Friday I finished tidying up my classroom for the summer, then went to a staff party and then a family friend's graduation party, and then packed for an SCA event. Got up before 6 on my first day of summer vacation in order to hitch a lift up to the event with one of my friends :)
It was a good event -- we had at least 30 fighters there, so there was lots of fighting. But I was pretty tired. You think I was a lame soccer player? We foolishly armored up on time, and then ended up waiting around for a hour for the rest of the fighters. So I stretched out in full armor and took a nap. Didn't even take my helmet off -- just laid my shield across my face grill to keep off the sun :) When the fighting started it was good fun, though carrying a sword and shield in a war pretty much means a lot of standing around trying not to be killed by enemy pikes while the pikes on your side are hiding behind your shield trying to kill the enemy shield wall. One of these days I'm going to fight with a Dane ax or something crazy :)
I paid $10 to get my face painted with henna -- no school on Monday (though that probably wouldn't have stopped me anyhow!) I hung out and chit chatted and then dozed in my chair, until I had to admit it was time to head for bed. At 8. Yup, I'm a wild party animal. But just as well as the friend who gave us a ride was up at 5:30 and wanted to head back home ASAP.
So we got home and Haley keeps complaining that her head itches. Nothing new -- she has terrible dandruff. But I look at her hair for lice, just to keep her happy. Nope, no nits. And then A. Bug. Runs. Across. Her. Head. AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH! So I calmly collect it and put in in a plastic baggie. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe this is just some other bug running across her head. After all, we were just camping. The next day we go to the lice clinic. She's not finding any nits either, but when I show her the critter in the baggie, she confirms my dire suspicions. She finally finds one nit, and sends us home with some lice treatment and combs.
Acu-Life Lice Cure. If you've got to have lice, this is definitely the way to treat it. No pesticides, just essential oils. Tea tree oil is the biggie, along with ylang ylang, eucalyptus, and citronella. So, following instructions, I gloob that all over her scalp and then finish up with coconut oil (since there wasn't enough in the bottle) to help smother any bugs in the length of her hair. Oh. My. God. On the one hand, proof positive that this stuff WORKS. On the other, there were a hell of a lot of secret ninja lice in her hair. Who knew that all that time I spent picking fleas off the Grandparents' dogs was in fact training me for parenthood? I must have found and crushed at least 7 (apparently dead and much easier to find) lice. Ugh. And the oil made the nits a lot easier to see too. So we let that sit in her hair for a while (theoretically 15 minutes but really more like an hour). Then we rinsed it off, slathered her hair with conditioner, and rinsed again. Then I combed her hair with a lice comb. And it wasn't a big deal!!! No, really, all that oil super-conditioned her hair, so it was pretty easy to comb. Nothing like last time! And we got a bunch more lice :p I can see a bunch of nits that I didn't get -- I'll need to comb again tomorrow, but we'd had all we could take for one day.
So now she's asleep in her freshly laundered bed, and the pile of laundry to do just keeps growing. On the plus side, I slathered my own hair with a mix of coconut oil and tea tree oil and let it sit for a couple of hours and then combed through it with a lice comb. Nothing. Thank Goodness! I could be missing some nits, but I'm pretty sure it would have found any lice. I hennaed my hair last week, which probably helped -- a bunch of extremely pungent and sticky goop in my hair overnight may have discouraged any infestation.
Haley wants to know what she's supposed to do while all of her toys are in plastic bag quarantine -- I know, let's go visit my parents!
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