<p>Not thinking much of Beyonce’s halftime…oh well.
I watched Hope Springs while H was out of town. Much like the Tommy Lee Jones character, H would not go there with a 10 ’ pole.
Apparently, D is spending a lot of time at the gym this semester, in preparation of spring break…priorities, you know.
S called this AM from Laos. He’ll be out of contact for a week as he will do a trek to some distant forsaken villages. Glad he called!</p>
<p>I’m glad the Super Bowl turned out not to be a blow out. We were at a restaurant that had it on, so we saw 1) the halftime show; 2) the 109 yard touchdown, and 3) the blackout. Came home and watched a bit of the Puppy Bowl, and then Downton Abby. Earlier in the afternoon we went to see Argo. Quite good. Interesting to see the late 70s/early 80s portrayed as historical…the cars, the glasses, the hair, the moustaches.</p>
<p>We have “Parent University” at the HS tonight. I’ll skip all of their advice about college, since it always makes me angry (so much that they don’t tell you.) But I’m going to try to meet younger D’s APUSH teacher. It’s delicate. How do I say “the original teacher gave D grades 25-30 points higher for the same level of work”, when I know that D could be putting in more effort?</p>
<p>We thoroughly enjoyed the Super Bowl. Very exciting game. missypie, no suggestions but good luck with the meeting.</p>
<p>woody, sounds like a once in a lifetime trip for your S. I love it when they go off the beaten path. I have been hoping S1 will take a trip into the outback, but he says his next trip is back to Bali over Easter which is a pretty standard tourist destination. S1 starts soccer practices next week with a competitive club team. He played on a couple of teams in Rio but they were work-based teams that had a variety of ages and ability levels, designed to just be fun. This organization has multiple levels from semi-pro on down so you can be on a very serious team, if you have the skill level and time. S1 is really, really excited. I just hope he doesnt forget that he has a day job.</p>
<p>I am currently reading The Rich and The Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto (Smiley, West) that is disturbing. I just finished Aftershock (Reich), which wasn’t terribly good, in my view, but serves as a good companion book. Both cover the same issue of increasing inequality in this country.</p>
<p>TA - H is reading The Rich and the Rest of Us now as wel. I’ll suggest Reich to him as well (I assume he’s the former Labor Sec’y, right??)</p>
<p>The soccer thing sounds very cool. I’m sure he can’t wait to start! </p>
<p>Anyboy read that NYT article about getting addicted to ADHD meds? Harrowing…</p>
<p>Yes, under Clinton. He is a professor now at Berkeley. The full title is Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future. There is some good stuff in there but I don’t get on board with more consumerism being the answer to anything. </p>
<p>One point he made that was interesting was that losing something is harder than not having it in the first place. In a study, one group was shown a mug and asked how much they would pay to buy the mug (determine the value). The second group was given a mug and asked how much money they would accept to sell the mug (determine the value). Oregon’s recent mug experience notwithstanding, the group asked to sell the mug valued it twice as high as the group asked to buy the mug.</p>
<p>Reich is a very thoughtful guy who is usually superb on diagnosis and very weak on implications. </p>
<p>Yes on ADHD meds since both my kids have prescriptions and take regularly.</p>
<p>4 days after the last shot to my knee and so far things feel fairly good. An occassional twinge but was able to go to the gym this morning. I did back off the weights for the legs as I haven’t been there in several days but not too bad really. Looking forward to making progress now! :)</p>
<p>Worked all weekend. Still ot feeling perfect but better. This winter has been a doozy.
Didnt see the halftime show, my H said it was a snooze.
Thanks to all of you for your comments and discussion. I feel more centered
Cast of Roots on the View. I want to see it again, such an impressive series especially thinking of when it came out.
One thing I noticed about shows. theater, talk shows, is everyone gets a standing ovation. From Jersy Shore actors to The Roots actors, there doesnt seem to be a distinction for what is truely quality and deserves the accolade. Obviously I think the roots actors deserved it</p>
<p>Morning! Sounds like your kids have some good experiences planned traveling. My D loves to travel and S hates it. At least with us. Spain is still up in the air as are the trees. Seems everything is a drop in the bucket as it will be a decade before a tree makes an impact. But the side garden did get some ideas going talking with landscapers so that seems fun.
dt–I gripped at the play this weekend as there was a standing ovation and H urged me up and I whispered, “but this is does not warrent one”. We now live in a world where every effort is perfect. Which it is but that should not always equal trophies, standing ovations and mugs.
Taxes today and I am here insead:).</p>
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<p>Au contraire, madam! If I could come home every night to a delicious home cooked meal, I’d clean up the kitchen with a smile on my face!</p>
<p>I still need to read the NYT article about the ADD meds. I did read the article in the NYT Magazine about the young boy with arthritis and leaky gut syndrome. That’s as far as I got into the paper yesterday.</p>
<p>LOL about the standing ovations. We went to see our HS’s musical and it was decidedly “high school” … some good performances, lots of average, but yes, the crowd dutifully rose to its feet.</p>
<p>During senior speeches at D&S’s high school, the kids are very careful about giving out standing ovations, but typically some sort of confessions about drug use, an eating disorder or race relations brought them dutifully to their feet. My kids felt that a standing O only counted if the topic had nothing to do with any of those things. S gave a good speech, but not a great one. D, on the other hand, gave an awesome speech about bullying, and people leapt to their feet. And I do not say this as her mother… because I was just as shocked as she was!</p>
<p>Ugh… stager came for all of 15 minutes to discuss carpet. Still have to schedule measurer and installation. Why hadn’t he already done that so that guy could have been here later today? I hopefully got through to him that the three weeks I had for being a complete slave to this process was three weeks ago. Needing a bit more of a timeline and set schedule.</p>
<p>Oregon, regarding the trees and view-blocking, you could try to get away with what my brother got away with. He set 12 foot posts in the ground, then sidesways attached lattice panels along the top, then planted grape vines. These he trained up and all over the lattice. The neighbor, whose hobby it was to stare out her window at him, called the city to complain about the too-high fence, but he explained that it was a grape arbor. Today it produces every year and is thick with vine and leaf. I have to smile every tome I see it.</p>
<p>Good evening to all. I hope you have had a pleasant enough Monday. </p>
<p>Moda, I really wanted to see Hope Springs when it first came out. I even told S1 that I’d like to go with him, since he was home on break at the time. Well, time got away from us both, and we never went to see it. A few months later, H was feeling bad that we hadn’t seen one of my picks, so we went to see it, finally. We decided to leave S2 at home for some reason, even though he’s a big Steve Carell fan. Well…needless to say, I think that either one of my sons would have been horrified to see this movie with me! H sat through it, didn’t complain afterwards, but I know he was being super sweet as it was definitely not his cup of tea! </p>
<p>S1 finally received his new computer at school. I only know because I called him to see if he (and the new computer) were okay. He responded by text that yes, all is well, that he is in an evening class, and so sorry for not making contact. </p>
<p>Treetop, a grape arbor sounds like a lovely idea! Very tricky, too.</p>
<p>What a weekend! Crazy busy getting D2 back to school and then entertaining to forget about the empty nest. Surprise visit by the local city police Saturday night as they tracked a burglary suspect through the snow to outside our house. Appeared he was peering in our garage window and up on our deck. The doors from the deck look in to our kitchen where I was busy cooking dinner for our guests. Thank heavens he didn’t try to get in but I was scared to death when the police approached the doors in the dark when I was in the kitchen pouring (and consuming) wine! Imagine a man all in black approaching with a light and a very obvious gun after you have been drinking some wine! :eek: Still a bit rattled. We live in a very nice neighborhood but lots of woods. The burglary was in a neighborhood behind our woods. The woods are an easy escape route.</p>
<p>pssstt…the green squares are gone! ;)</p>
<p>NM that is very creepy and I am glad you had some wine onboard !</p>
<p>Oh my, northminn!!! I’d still be shaking!!
Something similar happened to S when he was just hanging out in his own apartment while in college. Cops burst in, guns drawn, got him down on the floor and handcuffed him. All a well-intentioned mistake but sheesh!</p>
<p>(So glad the green things are gone. I will now begin my search for self-validation though other means.)</p>
<p>Oh wow, NMN, you’re right! Gee, i just got above repute!! ;)</p>
<p>Scary about your burglar! Footprints on the deck?! That’s creepy for sure. A few years ago we heard a noise, enough to wake us but not get us up. About an hour or so later, the doorbells ringing and it’s the cops. Kids (they suspect) had filled men’s socks with rocks and were hoisting them through windows. Put a hole through our most massive window… and as I recall just the glass was $$$. But what I really remember is it being a Saturday night and seeing that cop at the door and my entire hearing went under water. I think he saw my terror and said something like, everything is fine or something. I was so relieved that I was barely ticked about the window (until we got the bill which was big enough to hate it, but wasn’t big enough for insurance)! But they took the sock and the rocks as evidence. Apparently there was a long string of them until someone’s alarm went off.</p>
<p>Love the arbor idea but it would need to be 40’ off the ground! We are high on a hill and they built from below even higher. :(.
NM–THE GREEN IS GONE!!! Thank you for pointing this out. Now I will have free time each day instead of going through every poster and giving them positives. They were just very juvenile.
Sorry about your scare!
Mother is still screaming. B found out the procedure–ask her to get in the wheelchair. If she refuses call the non emergency 911. Police come and take her to the ER where she stays in the hall for 72 hours and then police arrive and take her as an "assisted processed"or something like that. They physically move her. They assured my B that they do this all of the time and not to worry. Mom will go as far as the police showing up but she won’t go to ER. Been there enough that she knows they will not repond to her demands. Going out to dinner with old friends Friday night so hope to have a toast. Still–am betting she has a stroke and stays that way for 18 months to “show us who is in charge of her”.</p>
<p>Good morning, and good riddance to the green squares. I am at the desktop computer this a.m. because some idiot at cc or elsewhere has hacked the mobile site so that if you click on the link in your email you start to load the thread you want to see but then a twitter ad opens instead telling you to sign in. Sigh.</p>
<p>Spent so much time trying to figure that one out that I lost my train of thought, so this is just a proof of life post ;)</p>
<p>Maybe a hacker took away the green squares!</p>
<p>Talked to older D’s teacher yesterday (email since she wasn’t going to be at the event at night)…got her version of the story. The truth probably is somewhere in between but I knew all along that D wasn’t putting in the necessary effort. So, she has the distinction of being the first of the Pie kids to ever be grounded.</p>
<p>NM, scary but also kind of funny to this Texan about the tracks in the snow…don’t people realize how easily they can be tracked up there?</p>
<p>Oh, the horrible (and ridiculous) news is that my nephew went back to the stripper clothes girlfriend. She called and told him that she is pregnant and he packed up his car and drove the 15+ hours back. So we’re back to the “where will my sister live?” conversations.</p>