I Hate Algebra!!

Much as I discourage the girls from saying "I hate", I don't always practice what I preach, especially when it comes to algebra. I took some kind of test in the 8th grade that convinced the school counselor that I had a high math aptitude. I don't. I have a high arithmetic aptitude which is not the same thing at all. I struggled through 2 years of algebra and forgot most of it (purposely) and have never needed anything but the most basic knowledge of equations since.

Fast forward from the 50's to 2007. The girls are covered up in algebra and it gets worse each year. Today is the 1st and my regular monthly main shopping day. After I finished stocking up on laundry products, cat food and litter, toilet paper, etc. along with some jeans for Rebecca who is outgrowing everything and a few shirts for all of them, I treated myself to a hot drink at Barnes & Noble. While there, I purchased a book called Algebra for Dummies. My goal is to stay one lesson ahead of Elcie and two ahead of Rochelle and Rebecca.

I stopped at Goodwill and found more clothes for the three of them and then made a brief stop at home to pick up Elcie (early day for all 3 today and tomorrow).

Elcie and I attended an assembly for 8th graders and their parents the day before yesterday to prepare us for graduation and other end of year festivities. Good grief, one would think it was college. They spent a good thirty minutes talking about dress requirements. Wouldn't it be simpler to just cover everyone in a cap and gown? Evidently not.

The girls MUST wear dresses or skirts and blouses. No shorter than the knee and they must not touch the floor. The list went on from there. Elcie owns a dress or two but seldom wears them; partly because of p.e. and partly because they're ungainly with the wheelchair. (Also, she's a little sensitive about her legs).

They handed out all the instructions complete with two misspelled words. Both homonyms so spell check didn't notice. Bear when they meant bare (no bare backed dresses) and heal for heel (talking about shoes). Not that I have any room to talk but Elcie's teacher and I giggled over it. I refrained from saying if they spent a little less time on algebra and a little more on spelling the mistakes might be fewer.

I'd promised her a haircut today so I called her Uncle Tim and the two of us took her. While we were waiting, we started talking about both of us taking her sometime in the next couple of weeks to look for clothes. Then we decided to just do it or at least see what was available. We checked each little shop in the Mall and found a gray ankle length skirt and a soft green blouse that looked wonderful on her and solved the problem of her legs showing. Found a pair of dressy looking flats to go with it. She's set unless we decide on some jewelry later on.

I'm as fond of clothes shopping as I am of algebra and not that wild about beauty salons either so it was good to have Tim along for company and advice. He's worked in retail for years and knows much more than I. Elcie had a wonderful time.

By then it was dinner time. (Ray was feeding Rochelle and Rebecca). We stopped for Chinese buffet, dropped Tim, and then staggered home. It was a very good day.

Her graduation isn't until May 31 but I know how I am about avoiding what I don't like to do. Left up to me, I'd be shopping on May 30 in a blind panic. Now it's done except for another haircut in May. Even at the rate she's growing, that long skirt will still fit.

She'll be going to Marine World in Vallejo the day before graduation with the 8th grade kids from the 4 middle schools here. She's an animal lover so should have a great time. The next day is the graduation and a dance (same dress) and June 1 is the last day of school (attendance optional for the 8th graders but I'll probably send her). It will be a time for yearbook and t-shirt signing, goodbyes, and possibly even a class party. I don't believe any work will be done.

Rochelle and Rebecca are a wee bit jealous. Their turn will come but two more years must seem like forever to them.

And that's about it for me. Ray is still doing okay and Carol remains the same. I'll probably see her on Saturday if the weather stays decent.

Welcome to new visitor Rositta from Ontario, Canada. She writes that Ontario is experiencing bitter cold, snow, and expected power failures. It's been a bad winter. Please keep them in your thoughts along with Alabama. They've had killer tornados, one of which took out a high school.

Thanks to all for the comments and take care everyone.

It Doesn't Matter How Elcie's Hair Starts Out

This is what it looks like at the end of the day.

Remember my missing camera? The straw that almost broke the camel's back around here?

The picture was taken with it about 20 minutes ago.

I'll never know exactly what happened but somehow it was traced by my friendly neighborhood detective squad (kids) back to a guy who paid $20 for it. We went over, discovered he was more inexperienced than dishonest, gave him the $20 and took my camera home.

He had no idea what he bought. Pushed a button, took a couple of pictures, and then couldn't figure out what to do with them. They were still on the camera. I told him owning a computer and the software would have been helpful; otherwise, it was next to useless for him.

Considering everything that's going on, the missing camera shouldn't have bothered me so much but it did. I'm terrible at remembering to develop film, I'm no great shakes at photography, and it was perfect for what I wanted to do which was to take pictures and see them immediately. I didn't even mind buying my own camera back. If the guy thinks I'm a sucker, he might be right but I don't care. A new one would have cost at least 6 times that with the memory card and lithium battery.

Anyhow, that's Elcie of course with her laptop (provided by the school district). She just finished copying her Language Arts homework to the computer using the voice recognition software. She has it down pat. She'd already written it out and just wanted the practice.

I think we're almost all over whatever the latest bug was that's making the rounds. Still some sniffles but we can live with that. We still don't have the heavy rain we expected; just drizzles from time to time. The girls are back on the bus; at least until the weather decides what it wants to do. Two miles in a downpour (with colds) is a little much.

Tim and I went to lunch at the best Italian restaurant in town. It's the only Italian restaurant in town as a matter of fact. Very good. Then I took him apartment hunting. He's been living with Jim and family. It now looks like Jim's National Guard service on the border will go on for some time so Melissa and gang will probably be moving to Yuma in July. Tim's getting an early start on checking out available places.

And not much else going on.

A couple of people had problems commenting unless they went with "anonymous". I emailed a friend and here's what she said:

In the new Blogger under Settings/Comments you can answer the question "Who Can Comment?" in three ways:

Anyone -- This allows commentors to choose their Google identity, an "other" identity, or "Annonymous". This option should tell you how you are signed in.

Only Registered Users -- which requires people to have a Google account even if they don't have a blog. You will notice that if you click on some people's names you go to a profile that says nothing about them)

Members of This Blog -- This is an option would be far less confusing if it said "other authors of this blog."

I can't find an option that prevents anonymous comments and still allows people comment without a Google account. Maybe some of your other readers know.

I'm set up for "anonymous" here but still it would be nice to know who you are. If the above doesn't help, let me know or maybe some of our other visitors can chime in.

Take care everyone.