To recap ( Read more... )

Littlest will be taking math with her class this year (5th grade math in smartypants 4th grade class) as she tested well on the year's worth of math material she crammed into her head over the summer ( Read more... )

 I bought a new phone. The tipping point is that new ones have GPS, which allows them to be used to track workouts. Quantifying and tracking progress and so on is pretty useful ( Read more... )

 This has been the Summer Of Math.

Littlest got into an elite public school program last year in 3rd grade. Almost all the kids had been in the program for their entire schooling. It was a shock for her, and she was initially behind.  Her 3rd grade class was working through a 4th grade math textbook. Littlest and 2 others were sent across the hall ( Read more... )

For the last 13 years, Admiral and I have vacationed in Maui, about once every 1.5 years on average. We frequented a "barefoot bar" at happy hour a couple of times per trip.  About 4 years ago I noticed a guy who was always at the bar. Older guy, retired I assume.  2 years ago I told the bartender one day that I'd be buying for the guy if he ( Read more... )

I got a call this afternoon offering her a spot on the competitive soccer team she'd tried out for, and which all of her friends had gotten accepted onto.  Literally 5 or 6 girls in her class are on the team, out of 11 who showed today ( Read more... )

As you may recall, Littlest was having some school problems with reading, as a result of abandoning phonics for memorization. That quit working after a year or so, and she was behind for her age, and more than behind for her new tough school, and astoundingly behind her genius classmates ( Read more... )

We got the stolen phone back ( Read more... )

Today was the day the Girl Scout troop picked up their order from the warehouse. 6 of us showed, 5 minivans and my truck. The warehouse guys saw the truck, shrinkwrapped 168 cases onto a pallet and loaded it into the back. There were no tie downs. The stacks were held together by gravity and a few layers of plastic wrap. I said it looked bad to ( Read more... )

Littlest also got a Lego Robotics kit for Christmas. She started building without me.