The Big DumpTruck

This time it's not me, though. It's The Boy. He starts 6th grade (Middle School!) in less than two weeks. In discussing how you have to pick a stereotypical [my term] group of friends to hang with, he defined the difference between geeks and nerds for me.

Geeks are into gadgets and electronics
Nerds are into math

You know, I think that works for me, so henceforth, this will be a rule of the Sorting Hat. And before you start up with the "crossover" comments, I'll just say that if you are a geek who is into math, you get tagged as a nerd. Geeks not into math remain geeks. The only other accurate measure we could use as a tie-breaker is how many hours of the Sci-Fi channel you watch a week. 0-3 = Geek, 4 or more = nerd.

So I say it, so shall it be.

Labels: geek, kids, nerd, rules

I basically spent the long weekend taking photos and getting a brake job on the van. I preferred taking photos. Went with one kid and husband on Saturday, and other kid and his friend on Sunday and Monday. I will slowly fill my flickr profile with the best ones. Or the ones I feel like forcing on all of you.

I spent a long time today working on getting just the perfect photo of a swan floating on a little man-made pond. You know, he was a great model.

And then I got home, uploaded the files, looked at the swan photos...and realized it was plastic. People who knew much have thought I was a huge moron. Or maybe they did it on purpose to amuse themselves. Actually, I suspect they did it to try to keep geese away, and it appears to have worked. Still, would it have killed them to put up a sign that said "I don't care how much you really want a photo of our swans, they aren't real."

Labels: camera, kids, photos

Junior's Little League team finished the regular season in 2nd place. They had a bye the first round, which is cool, so we didn't have any games yesterday. This morning there was a [very very damp] practice, and their first playoff game will be Tuesday. Because of the strict pitching rules in Little League being twice as strict during playoff games, they let Junior practice pitching this morning on the off chance that they run out of the regular pitchers and have to start plucking people out of the lineup to finish the game. He's thrilled, but I'm thinking that it would not be a good thing if he had to pitch, simply because he's never done it before, and having the pressure of trying to pitch well in a playoff game...well, I'd just rather we not have to dip into that pool without more practice.

Happy Father's Day everyone! Enjoy all the dad-activities you have planned, even if the plan is to not have any activities.

Labels: baseball, junior, kids

I suppose someone has already come up with the idea of mom badges. They would work like girl scout badges - if you do something worthy, you get a badge to wear on your mom-sash. Or perhaps your mom-vest if you've earned a lot of them.

I get to wear the "Dying in the Heat Watching Little League Games badge."

Junior played on Sunday (he had to be at the field at 1:30pm for a batting practice before the game) and on Monday night. Even though it started later, so you'd maybe assume it would be cooler, Monday was definitely the worst of the two games, because at least on Sunday there was a breeze. Man, what a difference a breeze makes! I was seriously starting to feel a bit panicky last night about how overheated I was getting. I was pulling the ice packs out of the little cooler I had and was applying it to my neck and wrists, just to keep things cool.

So I grant myself a mom badge today (it's lovely, it's got bleachers with those wavy heat lines coming off of them with a background picture of a baseball.) Anyone else earn one the past few days?

Labels: baseball, junior, kids, mommy

We could skip the candy if you would just bring me a warm, sunny day. I realize that Easter is way early this year, so normally we're dealing with April temps instead of March ones, but still, I have certain expectations about Easter that just aren't going to be met.

Historically (and I mean back when I was a kid through recent years with my kid) after Easter dinner we would get in the car and drive over to the Leominster State Forest and look for salamanders and fish. I know, seems silly, but you must know, Easter Bunny, that you were the one who would bring us the butterfly nets that we used to catch the salamanders. You do remember that, don't you?

We took all the kids (and when I say that I'm referring to my son, niece and nephew) to the park a couple of times to either throw a frisbee, a baseball, or fly a kite. All things I do not want to do tomorrow because it's going to be too cold. So I'll ask again; instead of sugary stuff, can you give me a 55 degree day with puffy clouds and no wind? That would rock. (Of course, I wouldn't turn down the warm day AND some of those chocolate covered marshmallow rabbits that I love...)

Labels: fun, holidays, kids, weather

Oh, sir, but you are!

After watching the amateur footage the kids shot of the cop going apeshit on them for "being disrespectful" (um, dude, I'm pretty sure asking the kid if he was from county was pretty disrespectful as well. Let's just say kids learn by example, shall we?) at my house we are now dude-ing each other constantly. And at random intervals, one of use says "I am NOT A DUDE" just to balance things out.

Think about how these kids were treated. I don't believe this is a very unusual interaction, either. I can't imagine that this cop would have treated a group of adults the same way.

I'm glad they caught him on tape doing this so he can be disciplined in whatever way is appropriate. I do not want my kids to grow up hating the police and thinking of them as the enemy, as the kids in this tool's jurisdiction certainly did. Getting headlocked and thrown to the ground for "disrespecting" the uniform? Dude, you need to get a freaking grip.

Regardless of how you feel about the way the 14 year old responded to the cop, his reaction was in no way appropriate. Dude.

(The video is currently available at the ABC News website: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4278101

Labels: current events, kids

Last night I passed the 25k mark. Now I only have to hit 50k before the clock strikes midnight and November turns into December. I think maybe I can do it. I had a really good rush of pointless prose last night, so that's nice.

Mike Lowell is staying in Boston, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm giddy for a few. He's my favorite player (Papi has a special place in my heart forever, but Mike Lowell is my boyfriend). In fact, that's how I refer to him. It's always "My boyfriend Mike Lowell." I saw a photo of my boyfriend Mike Lowell down at Disney the other day. I was pretty sad that he didn't do that the day after they won the World Series, but I would never question my boyfriend Mike Lowell's decisions.

Let's see, what else is going on? Oh, I was going to ask if anyone here owned one of those digital photo frames, and if you do, do you like it and would you recommend it? I am trying to write a Christmas list for Santa, you see, and I want one of those but I don't want Santa to spend a lot of money on it. It's not like I can't just pull photos up on my computer if I really need to see them. I just like the idea of having a photo frame on my desk so that I can just swap out the pictures with the weather.

Speaking of which, we're on snow alert. We may get [breathlessly] a snowflake or two. Junior is doing the happy 4th Grade dance. I tried to explain that the snow isn't going to stick, and that we don't have to track down his boots just yet. But damn, I had better track down his boots. I wonder if they still fit? Doubt it.

(Christine and Nicholle, you pay attention, okay? Nothing you buy will ever fit a whole year later, and you can't buy stuff on sale at the end of the season because you don't know what size they will be when it's time to wear it. This is the most ANNOYING thing about kids. They just outgrow stuff constantly. Sometimes, within days of you buying it, I kid you not. Always make sure you have at least ONE pair of shorts or one sweater that's a size larger than your kid currently wears because it's a sad day when you wake up and it's 90 degrees and they suddenly don't have any shorts to wear to camp. Ahem.)

Labels: clothing, junior, kids, Mike Lowell, nanowrimo, Red_Sox

Labels: football, kids, sports

You know, I try to keep things light here. I'm not in this to get a reputation as a bully or a bulldog or a bull-ony. But I read an article in the Sentinel today that absolutely made me furious. Enough so that I feel I should send a letter to the paper in response. But maybe I'll just vent here to keep myself in limited amounts of trouble.

So for background, go and read the story in the Sentinel and Enterprise. I'll wait.

Okay, so a local mom blew her top over a flier sent home to parents about a wine tasting to benefit the Leominster Education Foundation. A foundation, by the way, trying to raise money to put computers, software and other tools into the schools, outside of the regular school budget.

I'd heard about the wine tasting at the PTO meeting, and I thought it was great that they'd been able to put something like this together. I also got the flier in Junior's backpack this week.

Here's where my head exploded:

"The schools are basically saying, 'Hey, there's a wine tasting, give this to mommy and daddy so we can get drunk with them,'" Tarbell said Thursday afternoon.
Tarbell said the flier sends kids the message that drinking is acceptable.

You know, Ms. Tarbell, if you interpret a wine tasting as an invitation to get drunk, that would be YOUR PROBLEM and maybe you should look into getting some professional help. Wine Tasting does not equal kegger. Wine Tasting is not a tailgate party. Wine tasting is not taking a bottle of Boone's Farm behind the neighbor's barn when you were 12.

And guess what, Ms. Tarbell? Drinking IS acceptable. To pretty much everyone except Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Lindsey Lohan or anyone not legally of age to do so. I spent 3 weeks with a family in France and even the youngest kids had some watered down wine with their meals. Because it's not the big freaking deal it is over here. So when they turn 18 or 21 they don't immediately become useless wastoids intent on killing every last brain cell on 100 proof rum. Because they don't see things like wine tastings as Nosferatu's Welcome Wagon.

Your poor kids are going to have a really warped sense of alcohol's place in our lives, and I would fear that they are going to see it as the apple tree in the garden of Eden. "Oooh, it's forbidden and it makes mom crazy! It must be AWESOME!"

And if you don't like my response, too bad. Maybe you shouldn't have taken your misbegotten crusade to the newspaper. I got the flier, and there is NOTHING ABOUT IT that implies a)it's for kids and b) that it's anything but a very classy, exclusive opportunity for adults to gather and try small samples of wine and food. Not one thing about the flier would have been appealing to an 11 year old. My 9 year old didn't even look at it. YOU, my dear, are the one making your children think this is a BFD.

Well, hey, one thing, you got the Foundation's event a lot of free publicity. I'll bet people who weren't even thinking of going before are now going to buy a ticket. I know I may. Just to prove a point.

Labels: idiots, kids, News, rant

I'm scared. Really scared. Today, Junior takes his first trumpet lesson. Are you listening? Trumpet. Meaning he has to practice. In my house.

Flash back a billion years ago to the year 1976. Little Jody B went to a presentation by the music teacher about all the different band instruments available to the kids at Priest Street School. And Little Jody B chose....the trumpet. Well, I wanted to play the coronet, but the school rental instruments didn't have one, only a slightly dinged-up trumpet. So for two years, I took trumpet lessons at school, the highlight of which was my solo performance at the annual talent show of the Carpenter's song "Close to You." My mom still speaks in awed tones of the brilliance of my performance, and her disappointment that we didn't continue on with the trumpet when I moved up to junior high, because I wanted to take chorus and you couldn't do both.

I'm still scared that a 10 year old boy will be practicing trumpet in my house. I remember what my first weeks were like 31 or so years ago. (Good Lord! 31?) It wasn't pretty.

Labels: junior, kids, music

Okay, I've been meaning to share this with all of you. What you see below you is what happened when Mr. Dump showed the 16 year old, AKA JPDLF his new Wacom Tablet. JPDLF asked if he could try it out. He was left alone for a very short while. Did I mention the first thing I ever drew with a Wacom looked suspiciously like the kind of cloud a two year old draws the first time they pick up a crayon? I thought not.

This is the kid who does the infamous Etch a Sketch art. (Ohh, I was going to link but it looks like the link is broken in the archives. Remind me to fix that tonight).

Labels: computer_art, kids