I know what you are thinking, "Where in the hell have you guys been for the last two months?" How do I know that is what you are thinking? Because you have asked me that on facebook. Anyway, to make a long story short, we have been sick...for pretty much two months. Beki and Owen went to Beki's sister's wedding and when they came back the two of them came down with some nasty virus that put both of them out for an entire week. After that Owen got better, but Beki came down with the flu. Right as she got better, I came down with it, and I am just getting over it.
So what have we been up to in addition to being sick? Well, Owen has been doing very good at school. As with the rest of you, we had Parent Teacher conferences with Owen teacher this last week, and just like the rest of your kids, Owen is the smartest kid in the world. Ok, maybe not that good, but he is one of only 2 kids in his class to score a perfect score on the big multi-day language arts test that they took. He is a little mischievous, doing things like sneaking treats from his teacher's desk when he thinks she isn't looking. (Oh, we had a talk about that, and how he will be hung from his feet in a tree if it happens again.) The only mark on his report card that was not acceptable was for "Sharing with others." The boy likes sharing... as long as it is you sharing with him. He doesn't like it the other way around so much. I guess that is one of the problems with being an only child....
While I was sick with the flu, Beki and Owen went to a corn maze and pumpkin patch. They had a great time and stayed longer than they had planned, but it didn't really matter to me because I was laying in bed trying not to die. (Ok, that is not true, when they left I moved myself to the couch and watched soccer and college football all day...tough life I know.)
Owen at the start of the corn maze.
Leading the way!
At every intersection there would be a clue that would help you...the boy likes to show off his awesome reading abilities...sometimes...
Yeah! They found their way out!
The biggest hit of the day was the hay ride.
The ride forded a stream...this blew the boy's mind!
Just looking cute...
Chicken!!!!
Checking out the old tractor...
Hey, it's a pond...I need to throw stuff in it!!!
When the hay ride stopped Owen decided that they needed to go again...
And he played on the hay ride until it was time to go again.
Climbing and hanging...must be a boy!
On the way home, Beki saw a sign for a park, and on a whim she decided to check it out. It had all sorts of neat toys for the boy to play on.
This giant plane rocked back and forth, and the Boy really got it rocking!
I know that you are wondering, "What is the big deal about swinging on the swings?"
Well see, we worked and worked this summer on the boy swinging all by himself, but he would never do it - he always insisted on being pushed. Then school started and this wonderful thing called peer pressure happened. The other children could swing without being pushed...and so now the boy can as well.
One of the treats that they brought home with them was popcorn...still on the cob!
How cool is this? Owen and mommy got the kernels off of the cob...
Then they put it in the machine...
And we had yummy popcorn!!!
Now, if you recall, I have already mentioned that the boy is doing exceedingly well in school, and so we thought we would use that as an excuse to go celebrate. Owen is participating in "Book It" at school, and he had earned a Pizza from Pizza Hut, so we partonized the local one, and probably will never again. It is not that the pizza wasn't good, it was actually better than I remember Pizza Hut being, it was more about really crappy service. We should have walked in and ordered to go, we would have got it faster, and they probably wouldn't have screwed the order up. (The positive side of them screwing up our order, we got a free pizza in addition to the one that we wanted.)
Owen with his free pizza coupon!
Soooooo muchhhhhhhh pizzaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!
After pizza we thought that we would do something extra fun, and we walked across the parking lot to the bowling alley. Now, I think I have talked about the strange things that they do out here in the name of bowling - and this alley had the strange "duck-pin" bowling, but they also had regular ten-pin bowling as well.
Owen was able to pick up his 6 pound ball and throw it down the lane all by himself. (The frame before this one he got a strike!)
His poses all night were awesome!!!
Notice that after 2 frames the boy is beating papa...
Halfway through the game and the boy is still beating papa...
I picked it up in the end, but Beki still beat me, which is really good because she usually hates to play aby kind of game with me because I have a tendency to be competitive...(Wait till you read about soccer below...)
At the start of the second game the boy figured out that the floor was slippery and he would follow every through with a running slide.
Good times!!!
Owen played even better in his second game, and Papa managed to beat mommy (and if you are keeping score at home the two game series finished 280 to 269 to 191 in my favor!)
Family picture!
In the following three posts you will find more pictures and stories about Halloween, Owen's Soccer Team, and the Renaissance Festival the remainder of this post wil be dedicated to me ranting about anything and everything that has been on my mind lately.
Last Sunday my High Schools Marching band went to the Regional High Step Marching Band competition and shocked everyone by winning. At the competition was a city councilman who wanted to know if the band was planning on attending the National Competition that was going to be the following week (this weekend) in Charlotte, North Carolina. When Tony - the director - informed him that we didn't have the money to travel, the city councilman told him that he was going to contact the county council to see if they could raise some funds. Well, by Tuesday 4 of the county council members had said that they were going to donate money and we were going to be able to go. So we made plans, but when it came time to actually get the money, suddenly they were having difficulty getting the numbers from the computer to materialize into actual dollars. Now I find this amazing, considering that our previous county commissioner was able to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars, when the FBI showed up to arrest him, his wife had 100 grand stuffed in her bra. Someone at the county sure knows how to get their hands on real money! Anyway, fast forward to Friday. There was no school for students because it was Parent Teacher conferences, but we had rehearsal for no other reason than to make sure that we had all of the kids there in case we had to cancel. Practice started at noon and I ended up running rehearsal while Tony was on the phone with various important people. At 2 pm we didn't know, at 3 pm we didn't know, finally at 4pm, after phone calls between the Superintendent and the County Council Chair they decided that it would be bad precedent for the county council members to give money to support a single school group, because then they would have to give money to everyone. So the adults play their politics game, and the kids are the ones getting hurt.
#2 Wendy's
Ok, this is actually a good thing, which is why it is in green. Have you tried the new burgers at Wendy's? Their commercials make a big deal about how much better and juicier and tastier they are, and I was very skeptical. The difference is so great that I am writing about it. If you haven't had one, go to Wendy's, it is worth it.
#3 Tribalism
We in this county like to pretend that we are superior to the rest of the world. We talk about the tribal systems in the middle east with scorn, and yet this country operates on the same principle. We have two tribes in this country, you are either from the tribe of D or the tribe of R. Anyone from another tribe is evil and wrong and can not be trusted. The D tribe blame the R tribe and the R tribe blame the D tribe, and no one is really concerned about what is best for the country, they just want to make sure that their tribe stays in power. Each tribe highlights the other tribes failings while looking past their own, and in the end we are no better off than those tribal systems that we look down our noses at.
#4 People who have sex with children
One of my favorite radio hosts out here says he only has two rules for the world to follow 1. Leave me alone, and 2. Don't "F" kids. I tend to agree. I really don't care to much what you choose to do, as long as it doesn't affect me, and as long as you aren't hurting children. Which brings us to Penn State. I will admit, I am a Joe Paterno fan, and I was sad that the University fired him instead of letting him coach his last home game. And then I heard about what went down. A grad assistant walked into the locker room and saw the Defensive Coordinator having sex with a ten year old boy. The grad assistant went to Joe Paterno, who did report the incident to the athletic director, which is what he was legally obligated to do. However, if the grad student comes in and says, "Hey, I just saw Sandusky having sex with a 10 year old boy in the showers," you call the damn police, and hope they get to the locker room before you get there with your gun. Sorry Joe Pa, you had to go, that was inexcusable.
#5 The Internet
What ever did we do when we were sick in the days before the internet with netflicks, hulu, and youtube? I do not know how I would have survived the flu if not for drugs and the fact that I was able to watch a month worth of The Daily Show, Colbert Report, as well as a number of movies and live streaming European Champions League soccer. Netflicks even had the best of Saturday Night Live: Adam Sandler...Operaman cracks me up!!!!
#6 Administrators
How much damage is done in our schools by assistant principals who are trying to justify their existence? My curent school has about 16 ass. principals (Okay 5, but it feels like 16). Since we just got a new principal it seems that some of them our competing for his attention by sending out all sorts of memorandums on how things are supposed to be done, which is fine, since we usually ignore them anyway, but for someone who actually cares about the teaching process, these boneheads are unbelievable. For instance everyday we are supposed to write our objective on the board. Fair enough, you should let the kids know what they are going to do that day. But one particular ass. principal has gone so far as to analyze the words that you use, and he will lower your observation if you are using words that he feels are not mesurable.
For instance, let's use one of my objectives: "Students will discuss the lives and observe the music of famous musical families in order to gain a historical and cultural perspective of music." Gives you a good idea of what will be happening and why. To this administrator this is a bad objective because it uses the word "gain." He doesn't like words that you can't measure like "learn" "gain" or "understand." He would say that I can't measure if the students are "gaining" anything. This is where I lose it with him. I can absolutely measure it, I'm the f-ing teacher, it is what I do. I have set up the class so that they have questions about each family, where I will measure if they are gaining the information that I think they are. So instead of my objective, our all-star would rather have me say, "Students will discuss the lives and observe the music of famous musical families so that they can answer the questions in their workbook." Wow, I know which one looks more professional, oh and in the observation guidelines given to us by the district, they use all of the words that our ass. principal says we shouldn't use.
#7 Science vs. Religion
It doesn't matter to me which side of this argument you are on, I am sick and tired of both sides arguing that they are right and the other is wrong - see the tribalism rant above. My wife is a scientist, and the more she tells me about the way science works, the more I realize that science and religion have an awful lot in common. Most of science is dealing with things on a microscopic level, which means the scientists are dealing with things that they can not see. Instead they look for the evidence of things happening, and make hypothesis and theories based on their observations. Now in religion we call this kind of person a prophet, but in science they are just a scientist. When you put your trust in science it is no different than a person putting their faith in a deity. And if people want to ascribe everything to man's learning and understanding, why is that my concern? Remember the two rules? Leave me alone, and don't "F" kids.
#8. Hypocrisy
So I try really hard not to be a hypocrite. It bugs me when there is a different set of rules, or when things change because it is convient for someone. For instance, right now the R-tribe is blaming all our problems on the President, while the D-tribe is blaming congress. Yet 4 years ago the R-Tribe was blaming congress, while the D-Tribe was blaming the president. This doesn't make sense to me. If the buck stopped with the president four years ago, then that is where it stops today. If it is congress' fault that we are in the crapper now, then it was their fault four years ago. It doesn't change just because your tribe has changed their roll. Don't tell us your government is going to be the most transparent ever, only to have so many shady business deals that you make Madolf look like a saint. Your feelings about gay marriage can't change depending on which constituency you are trying to cater to.
#9 Words...
I live in the most affluent predominantly African-American county in the country. As a white guy, I am in the minority where I live. My students have never been oppressed, segregated or anything like that. (I however have been.) Yet there are teachers in the school who are teaching the students to be racist, teaching them that the man is out to get them and hold them down. But really the thing that is bugging me right now is the word "nigga." See this word is totally acceptable for my students to use, and they all call each other that constantly. What gets me is that I am not allowed to use this word because I am white. Now here is my thing, could you imagine if white people had a word that they could use that minorities couldn't? Think of the outcry, yet the other way is perfectly acceptable. This annoys me.
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