Gymnastics, cars and rivers
Both kids went to school on Thurs, although only MiniPlu went today (more on that below). However, I got called in to help out at the school library at the last minute by the mom who usually takes Thurs am; her kids were sick so she had to stay home with them. Story of my week: I have a list of things I want to get done, and then one thing or another pops up and it doesn't get done. Sigh.
Two didn't go to school today because he had a gymnastics meet. Most meets are Sat/Sun, but this meet, hosted by a local gym that has trained (female) Olympians, includes Elite-level gymnasts, and is large enough that an extra day is required. However, I was royally ticked off that the Elite gymnasts went this evening, when they're the kids who are homeschooled. Make THEM go during the school day, and have the Level 4s, who are regular kids, come when it's NOT the school day! Sheesh. But, according to our coach, this meet is always arranged like this. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Two and I had to be there at 8am, so it was basically a regular school morning for us; we left a bit earlier than MiniPlu had to (a neighbor with a 7th-grader picked her up), but it was otherwise pretty similar, schedule-wise. Admission was $15, and I'd forgotten to go to the bank, but thankfully they took credit cards. (I had $12 in cash.) Got a good, central seat on the bleachers, and started working on detangling the yarn snarls I'd been dealing with for my knitting project. Also went back to the candygram station (which had been un-manned when I first arrived) to get Two some treats. These were bags of regular candy for $5, rather than movie-size boxes of individual candy that we sold for $3 at our meet in Dec, but there was a decent amount of candy so it wasn't too bad. The problem was, there was a LOT of chewy stuff - AirHeads, Tootsie Rolls, that sort of stuff, and I have a kid with braces. I finally settled on a bag that had a higher proportion of safer items, and decided I'd turn a blind eye to the rest.
This meet was HUGE. Teams came from Connecticut (4-5 hour drive) and Quebec (no idea - but far!), and God only knew where else around the region; 23 teams in all (some had only a couple kids, but still). Also, there were so many boys, each apparatus had to be divided into two groups. So, there was a full A group, and a full B group. So, like, the A group would do their first rotation, then they'd go behind the curtain where there was another full-size gym (this place is huge - there was actually a third, smaller gym space beyond THAT, where the elite girls continued to train throughout all of this) and do warmups for their next event and the B group would come out from where they'd been warming up and do THEIR first rotation. Repeat. So, rather than six rotations, there really was twelve. Took AGES. Then, when it came time for awards, there were so many younger kids (common for this lowest group of competition) that they had separate award divisions for ages 6, 7 and 8, before finally combining the 9-10s and, finally, the 11+s. Age 6 was awarded to 10th place, 7, 8 and 9-10 to 12th place, and 11+ to only 5th place, there being significantly fewer of them.
Two's results were ... mixed. He scored poorly on events that I didn't think he'd done too badly on, and got a 9.0 on floor, which didn't seem especially spectacular. I didn't expect him to get anything but the all-around medal (after they award all the official places for all-around, all the rest of the kids in that age division get a medal. It's a silly "special snowflake" approach, but in Two's case, it works). And, sure enough, he didn't - but that was also partly because a single gym swept several of the categories in his age range, and in those few cases where they didn't place in all five spots, they still placed in four of them, and a lone kid from some other gym got to stand on the podium. So, yeah, no real hope for anyone else. HOWEVER: once the five all-around medals had been given, the first name they called for the rest was: Two's. Which pretty much implies he came in 6th. I didn't think he did THAT well, but it's also possible that the other kids dominated so much, there was just a huge drop-off between 5th and 6th. And it's possible it was a random listing, although, based on what I saw from the other all-arounds, I don't ... think so? Well, anyway, I'm not going to argue. Two was ecstatic to think he was 6th.
The size of the Level 4 group meant the meet took quite awhile, and it was nearly 1pm before we could leave. Two was starving and I'd promised to get him a sandwich (had a coupon) afterwards. By the time we had stopped for his sandwich and driven to school, he would have only had a little over 90 mins left in the day, two periods, only one of which was academic. Although I'd initially intended for him to go to school after the meet, given the circumstances, it didn't seem worth the hassle, and Will agreed, so we let him skip the last bit of the day. (In thanks, he voluntarily cleaned his room so he could have his BFF spend the night. And actually did a decent job of it.) But, yeah, that's why only MiniPlu went to school today.
In other news: took our Forester in yesterday to get the leaking head gaskets and some other stuff repaired. Price: $Ouch.ow They anticipated it would take a minimum of 3 days, and so gave me a free loaner car to use in the meantime. I got a 2016 Subaru Crosstrek, one of those crossover vehicles, a beautiful medium blue and spotless. The "crossover" aspect means it doesn't have a lot in the way of cargo space (compared to the Forester), so I wouldn't ever consider buying one, but it was perfectly nice to borrow. And, to everyone's surprise, the Forester was ready tonight, so I only had the Crosstrek for two days.
I also finished reading Foxglove Summer (Rivers of London #5) tonight. Christmas gift from hamsterwoman, and greatly enjoyed. I think this might be my favorite book. I'm not even entirely sure why. Maybe the cast of characters was slightly simpler, or more engaging (I really liked Dominic) or maybe it was Peter doing things on his own for the first time, or the change of setting or ... I don't know. His snark in this book was just jacked up to even more fantastic levels. I really loved it.
As for the story itself, that was good, too, although I wish the book cover map had been clearer and more detailed, because I kept wanting to refer to it, all the times Peter described driving from Point A to Point B, or where the various magical points were in reference to each other (or even where the Roman Road cut through everything). The visual reference would have been a nice bonus.
The fact that Derek had fathered all THREE children was a bit of a surprise, although I wasn't surprised in the least to hear that he had been with the other mother. That was plain as day. :-P
I often find the actual rivers characters somewhat annoying, so it was nice to enjoy Beverly's presence, for once. Also, I loved how nonchalantly Dominic's sexual orientation was addressed.
The one thing that bugged me was about not-Nicole. So, let me get this straight. The 100% human girl was raised among the fae, while the half-fae girl was raised among the humans, right? How is it that a 100% human girl was able to do mental manipulation? That seems like a skill you would have to have an innate ability for, at least latently, not something that anybody could acquire like a piano lesson. Like: if Petunia Dursley had been raised in a wizarding household, she wouldn't have gained an ability to do magic. (This is the problem of squibs, after all.) So, how is it that a fully human child was able to do this? It didn't make any sense to me at all.
And why is it that Zoe's eyes changed color, but not the baby's?
(Also, it bugged me that Peter kept referring to Nicole and Hannah as "young girls" or "little girls." Trust me - 11 isn't that little for most kids, especially not in this day and age.)
But, overall, I really loved this book. Thank you again, hamsterwoman!
Been trying to tackle some decluttering and packing tasks in earnest this week. Why is it the more we weed through or pack up, the more mess there is? Ugh.
Two didn't go to school today because he had a gymnastics meet. Most meets are Sat/Sun, but this meet, hosted by a local gym that has trained (female) Olympians, includes Elite-level gymnasts, and is large enough that an extra day is required. However, I was royally ticked off that the Elite gymnasts went this evening, when they're the kids who are homeschooled. Make THEM go during the school day, and have the Level 4s, who are regular kids, come when it's NOT the school day! Sheesh. But, according to our coach, this meet is always arranged like this. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Two and I had to be there at 8am, so it was basically a regular school morning for us; we left a bit earlier than MiniPlu had to (a neighbor with a 7th-grader picked her up), but it was otherwise pretty similar, schedule-wise. Admission was $15, and I'd forgotten to go to the bank, but thankfully they took credit cards. (I had $12 in cash.) Got a good, central seat on the bleachers, and started working on detangling the yarn snarls I'd been dealing with for my knitting project. Also went back to the candygram station (which had been un-manned when I first arrived) to get Two some treats. These were bags of regular candy for $5, rather than movie-size boxes of individual candy that we sold for $3 at our meet in Dec, but there was a decent amount of candy so it wasn't too bad. The problem was, there was a LOT of chewy stuff - AirHeads, Tootsie Rolls, that sort of stuff, and I have a kid with braces. I finally settled on a bag that had a higher proportion of safer items, and decided I'd turn a blind eye to the rest.
This meet was HUGE. Teams came from Connecticut (4-5 hour drive) and Quebec (no idea - but far!), and God only knew where else around the region; 23 teams in all (some had only a couple kids, but still). Also, there were so many boys, each apparatus had to be divided into two groups. So, there was a full A group, and a full B group. So, like, the A group would do their first rotation, then they'd go behind the curtain where there was another full-size gym (this place is huge - there was actually a third, smaller gym space beyond THAT, where the elite girls continued to train throughout all of this) and do warmups for their next event and the B group would come out from where they'd been warming up and do THEIR first rotation. Repeat. So, rather than six rotations, there really was twelve. Took AGES. Then, when it came time for awards, there were so many younger kids (common for this lowest group of competition) that they had separate award divisions for ages 6, 7 and 8, before finally combining the 9-10s and, finally, the 11+s. Age 6 was awarded to 10th place, 7, 8 and 9-10 to 12th place, and 11+ to only 5th place, there being significantly fewer of them.
Two's results were ... mixed. He scored poorly on events that I didn't think he'd done too badly on, and got a 9.0 on floor, which didn't seem especially spectacular. I didn't expect him to get anything but the all-around medal (after they award all the official places for all-around, all the rest of the kids in that age division get a medal. It's a silly "special snowflake" approach, but in Two's case, it works). And, sure enough, he didn't - but that was also partly because a single gym swept several of the categories in his age range, and in those few cases where they didn't place in all five spots, they still placed in four of them, and a lone kid from some other gym got to stand on the podium. So, yeah, no real hope for anyone else. HOWEVER: once the five all-around medals had been given, the first name they called for the rest was: Two's. Which pretty much implies he came in 6th. I didn't think he did THAT well, but it's also possible that the other kids dominated so much, there was just a huge drop-off between 5th and 6th. And it's possible it was a random listing, although, based on what I saw from the other all-arounds, I don't ... think so? Well, anyway, I'm not going to argue. Two was ecstatic to think he was 6th.
The size of the Level 4 group meant the meet took quite awhile, and it was nearly 1pm before we could leave. Two was starving and I'd promised to get him a sandwich (had a coupon) afterwards. By the time we had stopped for his sandwich and driven to school, he would have only had a little over 90 mins left in the day, two periods, only one of which was academic. Although I'd initially intended for him to go to school after the meet, given the circumstances, it didn't seem worth the hassle, and Will agreed, so we let him skip the last bit of the day. (In thanks, he voluntarily cleaned his room so he could have his BFF spend the night. And actually did a decent job of it.) But, yeah, that's why only MiniPlu went to school today.
In other news: took our Forester in yesterday to get the leaking head gaskets and some other stuff repaired. Price: $Ouch.ow They anticipated it would take a minimum of 3 days, and so gave me a free loaner car to use in the meantime. I got a 2016 Subaru Crosstrek, one of those crossover vehicles, a beautiful medium blue and spotless. The "crossover" aspect means it doesn't have a lot in the way of cargo space (compared to the Forester), so I wouldn't ever consider buying one, but it was perfectly nice to borrow. And, to everyone's surprise, the Forester was ready tonight, so I only had the Crosstrek for two days.
I also finished reading Foxglove Summer (Rivers of London #5) tonight. Christmas gift from hamsterwoman, and greatly enjoyed. I think this might be my favorite book. I'm not even entirely sure why. Maybe the cast of characters was slightly simpler, or more engaging (I really liked Dominic) or maybe it was Peter doing things on his own for the first time, or the change of setting or ... I don't know. His snark in this book was just jacked up to even more fantastic levels. I really loved it.
As for the story itself, that was good, too, although I wish the book cover map had been clearer and more detailed, because I kept wanting to refer to it, all the times Peter described driving from Point A to Point B, or where the various magical points were in reference to each other (or even where the Roman Road cut through everything). The visual reference would have been a nice bonus.
The fact that Derek had fathered all THREE children was a bit of a surprise, although I wasn't surprised in the least to hear that he had been with the other mother. That was plain as day. :-P
I often find the actual rivers characters somewhat annoying, so it was nice to enjoy Beverly's presence, for once. Also, I loved how nonchalantly Dominic's sexual orientation was addressed.
The one thing that bugged me was about not-Nicole. So, let me get this straight. The 100% human girl was raised among the fae, while the half-fae girl was raised among the humans, right? How is it that a 100% human girl was able to do mental manipulation? That seems like a skill you would have to have an innate ability for, at least latently, not something that anybody could acquire like a piano lesson. Like: if Petunia Dursley had been raised in a wizarding household, she wouldn't have gained an ability to do magic. (This is the problem of squibs, after all.) So, how is it that a fully human child was able to do this? It didn't make any sense to me at all.
And why is it that Zoe's eyes changed color, but not the baby's?
(Also, it bugged me that Peter kept referring to Nicole and Hannah as "young girls" or "little girls." Trust me - 11 isn't that little for most kids, especially not in this day and age.)
But, overall, I really loved this book. Thank you again, hamsterwoman!
Been trying to tackle some decluttering and packing tasks in earnest this week. Why is it the more we weed through or pack up, the more mess there is? Ugh.