Monday, August 29, 2011

Goodnight, Irene

We were right along the path that Irene was due to hit.  As a member of the Hopkins "Go Team," I take disaster preparedness pretty seriously.  I was reviewing our household plan and current level of preparedness, and decided to seek Oldest Son's review to see if he had anything to add.  Since we were both at work, I sent him a list of where we stood and what last-minute things I was picking up on the way home from work.  Here is the list I received back from him:
  • Also charge Kindles and iPods. Make sure Kindles are set with wireless off, and iPods are on Repeat None to conserve power.
  • Unplug your laptop and printer when not in use. Mine should be fine until the outage, what with the UPS.
  • Gas up the bikes too, if it’s not raining when we get home.
  • Make sure any important documents exist locally, in the cloud, and on hardcopy.
  • We might also want to stock up on handguns, shotguns, long-range sniper rifles, ammo, throwing knives, body armor, concussion grenades, land mines, trip wire, portable generators, ATVs and EMP devices in case the zombies, robots, ninjas, demons, secret dark magicians, clone armies, scientifically resurrected velociraptors or all of the above choose this time of chaos and vulnerability to strike.
  • Oh, and protein bars. Can’t run a guerilla war against the clone armies without protein bars.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

HSAs: Two down, two to go

We've been dying all summer to get the results of the High School Assessment tests Charlie took back in May.

All high school students have to pass 4 HSAs in order to graduate.  There is an alternate way for special needs students to graduate (called "Bridge Projects") if they don't pass all the HSAs, but colleges don't look as kindly upon students who didn't actually pass the HSAs. 

Charlie passed the Algebra HSA last year on the second attempt.  We knew English would be a problem.  The first time he took it, he was around 60-70 points from being able to pass.  The second time he took it, he was still 40 points away from passing.  Last May, he took the English one again and he took the US Government HSA, as well (which is about to be phased out, but would be really great if he passed). 

We just got the results.  He passed the Government HSA with a good margin, and he is now WITHIN 9 POINTS of passing the English.  He is just thrilled!  He is scheduled to take it again in October, and since he has been working with a tutor all summer and learning some grammar, he really feels he will be able to pass it this time.  Then the only one left would be Biology (which he is taking this fall, and already knows and likes the teacher he will be taking it with). 

So, we now have two down and two to go, and he is feeling more confident about being able to pass the remaining two.

I decided this was something we just had to make a big deal out of, so I went out and bought a Snickers Ice-Cream cake and put two candles on it.  We'll just keep up that tradition until he passes the last one, when we'll have 4 candles and some sort of little present to go with it. 

Gotta celebrate the small victories, KWIM?  Wahoo!!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Conversation @ Costco

So, do you want that huge, plush, overstuffed bear you're standing there hugging to death?

No, it's fine.

Sure?

Yeah, let's get checked out.

(after we have checked out and the goodies from Costco are loaded in the car):
Y'know, I think maybe I want that bear for Christmas.

This store doesn't work that way. If you see it, you like it, you want it, you gotta buy it now, because they won't get it again for a long time.

Okay, let's go back and get it.  Pleeeeeease???

So we get out of the car, leaving our perishables in the 100-degree heat in the back of the car, and head back into the store.  On the way, he suddenly hurtles himself into my arms and gives me a big hug.

Some moms will do absolutely anything for hugs.

Ten minutes later, we are exiting Costco for the SECOND time, him hugging to his chest a stuffed bear that is almost as big as he is (and people are doing the swivel-head thing to get a second look at this gangly teen-ager blissfully snuggling into this bear's neck), and I'm left ruminating about the fact that he missed out on this kind of stuff throughout his whole childhood and that there is still a trace of that abandoned little 3-year-old in there who just wants a mommy and a teddy bear.