Jim Rittenhouse's semidaily journal of news, commentary and reports
A young student from China is Ireland-bound, and runs into a problem..agus faigheann sé amach go bhfuil an nach labhraíonn Gaeilge i bhfad Gaelic! 10 minute YouTube video, very funny and sweet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA0a62wmd1A
For the last few months, Mere has been crazy busy with stuff to do – endless tons of homework (I’m amazed at how much they hand out to kids these days) along with extensive reading projects from school (she’s managed to get through the complete Harry Potter) and more – choir, band (she’s turning into [...]
I’ve been asked to speak at a Wright State University forum; their Honors Institute is having a symposium on Chinese-American relations called “Connecting With China”, and I’m to talk on “Exploring Issues in Cross-Cultural Adoptions” from 2-4 pm, February 17th. The event is free to the public, but you have to register in advance to [...]
Meredith is having her last day of school for the year today, and we’re just as happy for her to have some serious down-time. She has been getting really stressed over various things – it’s coming out right now over the tons of homework these kids are assigned – and I’m stating to get really [...]
The family has taken up a new and very nice practice; having family reading times – not scheduled as such, but so everyone has something good to read and is in the living room together reading. It works pretty well, I think, and is an improvement over endless oh-I-can’t-watch-that debates about TV stuff. Tastes run [...]
Monday was Mere’s first day of school in 5th grade: photos after the cut of the series of shots done (mostly by the carved bear at the bottom of our front steps) over the years, in reverse chronological order. Full Flickr set with closeups here.
I am singularly uninterested in the Jackson story. I’ve seen enough oddball celebrity circuses, and the really interesting and truly weird stuff will not come out for a while for most people. I expect more news circuses repeated endlessly on the news, and I will ignore them all. Finally, someone sems to be doing something [...]
Meredith has the idea that I was always a straight-A student in school; it’s not true. My worst grades in grade school: Handwriting and an English Class in 8th grade when the teacher wanted to teach one book (Treasure Island) for the whole damn year. I blew up in class at her, and she gave [...]
The Bactrim seems to be doing weird things to me along with the tail ends of the infection siege; I can go from bone tired to twitchy awake and back again, though mostly, I’m tired as hell at any given moment. Anyone wanna give me the lowdown on this stuff? Donna? Sheryl? I have a [...]
Got the reservations in for Duckon yesterday, and working with the con to make sure that the twins can bop back and forth between the rooms at night. Trust me, this is important for them and for our sanity. Susan decided to not go off with her mom to Sioux Falls for the Memorial Day [...]
Back from trip #3 to the hospital; my foot is still swollen like a football, but the fire-engine red is gone. The docs came up with a specific nasty that is resistant, and so I was taking heavy-hitter vancomycin and zosyn in the hospital, and was given a prescription of bactrim on my rather unexpected [...]
Spent most of yesterday trying to get through the ER process at Good Samaritan; this included x-rays, a doppler of my leg veins and other odd and ends of tests to check things out. They’ve dealt with my infections before, and put me on the above-titled antibiotics to nail this puppy; my left leg below [...]
The tax refunds came back in, and back out again; Susan’s SUV needs immediate work on brakes and tierods (chaching), Mere and her cousin need to be signed up for some Summer stuff Right Now (chaching) and I’m getting the document scanner that I need, which is on sale at Egghead with free shipping (chaching). [...]
I don’t know what’s worse – the idea of stupid trolling tricks or people bragging about them (whether or not they actually pulled that off). When I was in Wilbur Wright High School, in 1974, the VP of the Junior Class (this is when I was a Senior) streaked a school band concert with only [...]
(h/t to cakmpls) Laotian-American high school student in rural Iowa is seventh in her class with a 3.9 GPA, and school administrators are beating her up over her refusal to take a yearly Dick-And-Jane-Run-With-Spot-Run-Spot-Run test of her English abilities. The administrators point to the fact that her parents aren’t really very good in English, and [...]