You may or may not know that the oldest recieved a tortoise for his 7th birthday. He named his little russian tortoise "Tuck" after a turtle on a kids TV show.
Anyway, we took good care of our little tortoise, making sure to feed him daily and give him plenty of water. We kept a heat lamp over his terrarium so he would stay warm during the cold winter nights. Every once in a while we'd take him outside to stretch his legs and get some exercise.
One of these workouts ended sadly with the children forgetting that he was out back, and they came in without him. 30-45 min later I asked where he was and neither of the boys knew. It was very frustrating not only because this pet came with a $90 price tag, but because he was really more a family pet.
*Edited. I forgot to mention earlier that the losing of Tuck and the finding happened 3 months from each other, and that he had apparently stayed in the backyard that entire time.
Today, the boys and I were out front playing "throw a tennis ball against the garage door" and Meg came out front.
"You'll never guess what I found outback," she said as she pulled Tuck from behind her back. She explained that she had heard some scraping on the back wall, gone outside and he was between the fireplace and the sun room's outer wall. We were very glad that he was back. He'd gone for months and we'd all just figured he was gone for good, but it turns out he never even left the back yard.
When I thought about it I realized that there were vegetables in the garden that had obviously be gnawed at, but I always assumed it was an opossum or worms eating them away. Now I realize that we were keeping Tuck fed without even realizing it. Thank goodness for the garden.
We had a parent/teacher conference with the oldest boys teacher on Wed. Meg was really not looking forward to it and truth be told, I wasn't looking forward to being told that my son is a holy terror and we're horrible parents either. If history was any indication, that's what the conference would have been.
I calmed myself the best I could and tried to reassure Meg that it wouldn't be that bad, even though I only half believed it myself.
We sat down with his teacher, for the first time together, and talked over the behavior problems he's been having. He won't stay on task, and when he's asked to get back on track he'll often refuse and even throw little tantrums. To date he's pushed his work onto the floor when the teacher was standing there, crawled under his desk and just whine sometimes.
He's also complained often that it's too early to go to school. We let him sleep until 7am and school starts at 7:45. Even though we get them in bed by 9pm at the latest, he still complains about being tired.
His hand writing is very poor, which in itself isn't a bad thing, but with all of the other factors does send up a little bit of a red-flag. There's a technical term "dysgraphia" for it, but it's basically a physical sign of a mental disconnect.
Finally, he's having lots of trouble making friends at this school.
All of this we'd heard before, but then his teacher said something that really caught our attention. "Even though he has been disruptive in class, I'm willing to deal with that. I'm more just concerned for him." This was great. Where we were expecting judgment and criticism of our parenting skills, we instead received honest, genuine concern for our little boy. From there the entire tone of the discussion (a conversation that has been ongoing for months now really) changed from "What are you two doing to him?" to one of "How can we help him?".
We expressed our concern that he has previously taken medication and the side-effects were unpleasant and that we'd rather not go down that route again unless we absolutely have to. She offered to talk to the school psychologist but was very honest about our chances there. The Dr. is only at his school 1.5 days a week and likely won't be able to see him. She suggested we should look at our insurance and see if there was a private psychologist that might be able to help.
In short, we're very hopeful. Being our first, he's really gotten a raw deal on the parent side of the equation. As much as we care about him and his development, neither Meg nor I was properly prepared to raise a child when we had him. I suspect no parents really are and just try their best. In any case I really feel good about the track we're on now and hopefully the boy will benefit from the combined efforts, and I'm really grateful now that he has a teacher that was willing to stick with Meg and me for his benefit.
If you don't think you know who "The Lonely Island" is (are?), chances are you know their work. The front man for the group is Andy Samberg. He's the guy on SNL that's responsible for such skits as "Lazy Sunday" (the Chronic "WHAT?" - cles of Narnia), Lazer Catz, and stars in most of the other Digital Shorts on Saturday Night Live. All pretty funny huh?
The rest of the group does the work. They shoot/write/direct all those sketches. They've always been a little off their rockers, but it's understandable since most of comedy is leading the audience down a path of thinking one way, then at the appropriate time making the course correction that makes them laugh.
Shocking is the easy way out for comedians. The most recent Digital Short is an example of the end of the line for these guys. The sketch is Andy doing a painting of Paul Rudd naked, then Paul Rudd doing Andy, then both of them taking the painting to an art auction, where it's so horrific that the entire group commits suicide in more and more disgusting ways.
Even being as desensitized to this kind of humor as I am, I couldn't watch it and not only because it was gross either. I was just disappointed that it wasn't funny. Instead of putting in the work to bring a concept that will work to an audience, they decided to make something that they could laugh at and give the finger to everyone else.
What artists like this do (and I use the term artist loosely) is just pure ego. To get the joke the audience has to look at it from the perspective of the creator instead of the creator tailoring the joke to the audience. Call me lazy if you like, but I would like my entertainment to be entertaining. I don't want to have to start thinking like you to get your joke.
From here on out I will no longer recognize the English alphabet in it's current order. If the inventors of the QWERTY keyboard are to be believed, A is not the most recurring letter in the Alphabet. It is either 'g' or 'h' judging by the location each holds.
I will order all my lists Q-/ though I doubt anyone but myself and possibly the Artist currently known as Prince would choose a symbol instead of a name. On second thought, there is that guitarists from Guns 'n Roses. Does it count as a symbol still if you spell it out phonetically?
One of the great things about this order is that all the Andersons, and Smiths will be called nearly at the same time. And who knows, maybe that rascally coyote will start ordering his gadgets and gizmoes Quixtar instead of Acme.
Suzie, Ben, Kellie, Wayne, David, Jared, Jonathan, Sharon, Aaron and Nellie becomes.
Wayne, Aaron, Suzie, Sharon, David, Jonathan, Jared, Kelli, Ben, and Nellie.
For this election I find myself torn between voting for two candidates. Neither of them however is Obama.
I live in California, and it's pretty well understood that because of the masses of Democrats living in San Fransisco and L.A. that the rest of us have basically lost a voice in the Presidential Election. I accepted months ago that my vote will not count this year. Since I'm not supporting a candidate whose views are shady at best I'm left with the other guy.
I honestly believe that Obama is going to win this election. Not to sound prophetic or anything, but it's kind of been apparent that he would ever since he gave his address at the Democratic National Convention 4 years ago. The press loves him and has been behind him from then on.
Sadly, my Republican party couldn't see the value in their best candidate. And so comes my decision. Do I write in my real preference for president? In other words, do I vote my conscience? Or do I instead resign myself to voting for the lesser of two evils?
