Shhhh . . .

Listen. Do you hear that? That lack of sound? That, my friends, is the sound of my children at a sleepover. I have awesome in-laws, I really do.

So how am I going to celebrate my freedom tonight? I'm going to work. :/ And tomorrow, I'm going into work early and staying late so we can hopefully make some progress on the yearbook.

Spanglish

Wow, what a great movie. Adam Sandler - who knew idiot boy could act?

Not your typical fantasy

Every time I go to teach at the gifted school, I think about sending Sarah there. I love homeschooling her, but I still think about what it would be like if she could go there. They really address a lot of the reasons I homeschool (small classes, child led learning, etc). Never mind that I have no idea how we would pay the $9K/year, or even if she's eligible. It's something I think about, in a kind of daydreamy way.

If we were parents of a child in this school, we'd be doing some volunteer work to help out. For instance, I'd redo their website immediately (it's embarassing, frankly). Right now, I'd like to redo the site, but I'm not going to devote a lot of time for something I'm not going to get paid for. I'd like to do it, but I don't have the time right now.

Here's where the "fantasy" comes in:
If I were teaching there and Sarah were a student, I could drag Jeff in to work on the computers (he just replaced the power supply on our PC tonight) as his volunteer stuff. As it is, about 40% of the computers aren't working at any one time (they're older models, donated, and could use some new parts). It would be so nice if I had my own personal IT guy at school/work!

Huff

When they built the new library last year, I was so glad to see a separate children's wing. The old building was very open, so it was easy for Lauren to "escape," and the noise must have been disturbing to the other patrons.

Now, since the new library does have a children's wing, well apart from most of the rest of the building, complete with blocks to make a town and a puppet theater, wouldn't it make sense that kids can use it and be kids? I don't mean be hooligans, I mean talk in regular voices.

When we got there today, there was one other little boy about Lauren's age with an older man I'd guess was his grandpa. I didn't see any other adults at all while walking back to the kids' area, though I didn't look to the other half of the building.

While I was looking for books for Sarah to read to me this week, the three kids were talking and playing with the blocks. Not yelling, but not whispering either. The kid's desk librarian came over and told them they had to keep it down. She wasn't mean about it, but I thought it was a bit excessive. True, Lauren has a hard time with volume control, but I really thought she was doing ok. After that, I kept shushing her and reminding her that she had to be even more quiet.

When they're waiting to start story time, most of the kids get a little loud and sometimes rowdy, and nobody bats an eye. I'm sorry to see that preserving the perfect sanctity of silence in the library is more important than enjoying it.

/rant

On a good note, Sarah is very excited to start the summer reading program! Prizes for reading books? Wow!

Finally!

I wish I knew the trick to getting good, sharp pictures of close up objects like this.

The sad part is, it sat on my dresser for two years, untouched. When I finally picked it up again, it took a week to complete.

The text below their names (my brother & SIL) says, "A wedding lasts but a day. A marriage lasts a lifetime." The original text on the pattern was about new beginnings, adding to the circle of the family, etc. In addition to not fitting their lives, there wasn't any room for their names or the date.

Now I can start working on the projects for my most recent neice and nephew, and Lauren!

Oh, my - decadence

We went to Jeff's cousin Kristi's graduation yesterday. After the ceremony, we went to The Holly Hotel for dinner. I've never had a seven course meal, delivered one tiny course at a time, and I was so relieved that our babysitter could stay later than we'd planned, since it all went very slowly.

The menu:

Amuse Bouche

Pickled Chef Creek Oysters, Hiyashi Salad, Cucumber Cappellini

Soup

Roasted Chicken Broth

Salad

Mizuna Salad, Bluefin Crab Timbale, Passionfruit Vinaigrette

Foie

Roasted Foie Gras, Caramelized Pears, Pumpkin Seed Oil, Duck Sauce

Fish

Blue Nose Snapper, Poached Leeks, Seabeans, Sauce American

Sorbet

Iced Pink Champagne

Entree

Roasted Squab, Baby Morels, Ramps, Glazed Beets, Black Fig Molasses

Cheese

Delice de Bourgogne and Garrotxa

Gingerbread Crackers, Thyme Caramel, Yellow Watermelon

Dessert

Chocolate Zabaglione Parfait, Bitter Orange Chocolate Sauce, Poppyseed Florentina

The cheese was a bit too rich for me after everything else, but the rest of it was heavenly! They already knew about Jeff's poultry allergy, so they substituted beef dishes (very nice tender roulade for his entree). A lot of people didn't really get into it - Jeff's mom hates fish, so she didn't eat much - but I thought it was really cool. Not something I'd want to do often, but a big time treat for me!