Another Car Memory

So, after reading my last post, my friend Melissa told me I should blog about another car-related thing that happened to me one time.  At first I was like, "Oh, yeah, I should," but then I thought about it, and I realized that that particular story makes me look like a special kind of stupid.  I mean, I often write embarrassing stuff about myself, but this story is off the charts.  Should I tell it anyway?

Okay, fine.

Several years ago...like maybe 8 or 9 or 10...Mike and I owned a crappy little stick shift car.  We had another, better car, but we needed two vehicles, and so we acquired a beater for $1.  Seriously.  We had friends that wanted to get rid of it, so they sold it to us for a buck.  I learned how to drive it, and it was sufficient to get me to and from my part-time job.

One day I was driving it home from work and I decided to stop at Wendy's for a quick burger.  The only thing was that I had already passed the restaurant, so I had to backtrack.  I chose an empty lot to turn around in, only to discover that it was much more sand than lot.  I ended up getting the car stuck.  In fact, I had maneuvered myself into a place where I couldn't go backwards, because the wheels were spinning and digging down into sand, and I couldn't go forwards because there was a random cement parking bumper right in front of me.  This was before I had a cell phone, so I had to to either figure this situation out for myself or walk.  I chose to deal with it myself, and the way I decided to do that was by trying to drive the car over the cement bumper.  Did I mention it was a small car?  It got stuck on top of the bumper.  Like, it was high centered.  I couldn't drive it off.

Now what?  Well, I sat there for a few minutes, and then I decided to get out and walk to a nearby gas station to see if 1) they had a phone I could use to call Mike or 2) I could find someone to help.  I went over there and came across a group teens who looked halfway decent.  I told them what had happened and they agreed to help.  We all walked back, one of the teen boys got in the car and the other kids got behind it, and they drove/pushed the thing off the cement.  The sound it made is hard to describe, but basically it was like every important thing that cars have underneath them was being ripped in half.  On the bright side, the car wasn't stuck anymore.

Long story short, Mike did his best to fix it without pouring a lot of money into it, but that car NEVER worked the same after that.  It was loud and clunky and horrible, and I still had to drive it. 

Memory

Something I saw in the news today about a semi driver who drove on an area of the highway that wasn't big enough for the load he was carrying, which caused him to get completely wedged, reminded me of something I did one time.

First of all, here's a picture of the semi.  This happened right here in Seattle this morning.

Second, here's my story:

When Mike and I worked at David's House, an adult foster care home, I had to learn to be very comfortable driving a 15-passenger van.  To my credit, I became good at maneuvering it on the road, but I wasn't always so good at parking it in the 2-stall garage of the home.  One time I backed it into the garage, but apparently I was angled in a weird way, because somehow the van became hopelessly stuck.  No matter if you went backwards, forwards, or diagonally, you were only a few inches from something immovable.

If it were up to me the van would simply have stayed in the garage forever, like a final resting place, but Mike didn't see it that way.  He tried and tried to get it out, but finally he too had to admit defeat.  Then he and Dave, the director of the company, tried together.   Long story short, they eventually resorted to removing some of the trim from the garage door, which gave them the extra couple inches they needed in order to make it work.  Meanwhile I was standing on the sidelines, embarrassed and saying things like, "Sorry, guys!  I just don't know how I did that!"  Doh.

Bible Words

This morning Paul and I were sitting at the dining room table doing math when Baylee walked up...

Baylee:  I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have a question.  What's reconciliation?

Me:  It's when we go to somebody and tell them that we're sorry, and they forgive us and the relationship is fixed.  In the Bible it's when we go to God and ask for forgiveness for being sinners, and He forgives us and takes us into His family.

Paul:  Oh.  Huh.  I thought it had something to do with penises.

Me:  No, Paul, that's circumcision.

Sigh.

Playing with Jean-Paul!

Drew got to do something cool today!  He got to play with Jean-Paul Gaster, who's the drummer of the band Clutch.  (I used to have no idea who Clutch was, either, but now I know that they're a well-known rock band that puts out albums and tours the world.)  Clutch is here in Seattle to do a show, and Jean-Paul agreed to come to the SoR to play a couple songs with the house band and to hold an hour-long workshop.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but he's a great guy.  He's very down-to-earth, and he gave the kids excellent advice.  It was a really neat experience!

Talking with the kids...

Taking a group picture.  Both Drew and Baylee are in it, but you can only see part of Baylee's head.  She's too short.  Drew's along the right side.

Here's Drew playing a song called "Burning Beard" with him.  Afterward Jean-Paul shook each of their hands, and I heard him say to Drew, "Good leading, brother."  (My favorite part happens at about the 1:44 mark.  Drew has a solo.)

WW

Question I want to ask my WW leader:  Does milk chocolate count as a dairy?

I really want to know.

Voluntold

Have you ever heard the word "voluntold?"  It's when you're asked to do something, but really it's understood that you have no choice.  Well, I sort of voluntold Baylee that she was going to help some of the elderly ladies of our church this week. 

It all started when I got a call from one of the deaconesses.  She told me that they were going to be having a special birthday luncheon to celebrate the women in the church who are over 75, and they wanted to know if Baylee would be able to help them.  Baylee wasn't home at the time, so I said, "Yes, I think she'd do that."  The woman was thrilled.  It turns out she needs Baylee to dress in red, white, and blue, and march down an aisle to the beat of a drum while carrying an American flag.  I think she said that the luncheon has an armed services theme or something like that.  Anyway, when I told Baylee about it she wasn't thrilled, but she was a good sport and willing.

Yesterday I got a call from that same woman, reminding me that Baylee needs to be at church this afternoon to practice.  "And," she said, "I was wondering if she would wear an adorable little sailor hat that I have here."

I knew Baylee was going to kill me, but I said, "Umm...yeah!  I'm sure she'd be fine with that."  (I owe her, big time.)

Poor kid.  LOL  To her credit, when I told her about it she just laughed.  She's a nice little thing. 

Jamming and an Extra Picture

The other day at Baylee's drum lesson her teacher told her to ask Drew if he would play with her once in awhile, in order to help her get better at improvising.  Today Drew did that.  They spent pretty much all of their lunch break just messing around, making up stuff.

 
And here's a bonus picture that doesn't have to do with anything.  Baylee took it the other day, and I think it's cute.

Harem

Have you ever noticed that kids who read a lot sometimes mispronounce words, because they've only ever seen them in print and have never heard them spoken aloud?  Well, along those lines, yesterday Baylee and I had this conversation about Arab women in history:

Baylee:  Sometimes women were in huh-ROMS, too.

Me:  Okay, let me stop you right there.  It's pronounced HAIR-um.

Baylee:  Really?  I'm pretty sure it's huh-ROM.

Me:  Trust me.  It's HAIR-um.

Baylee:  Well, I've been reading it as huh-ROM all this time.  I think it's huh-ROM.

Me:  It's not huh-ROM!  It's HAIR-um!  I'm forty-four!  I've been around!  I know these things!


Sheesh.  

"Lose Yourself"

Yesterday during our lunch break Drew was messing around and being silly, and he showed us that he could play the guitar and rap the whole first part of "Lose Yourself," by Eminem.   

It's a little bit fast and hard to understand, so here's what he's saying:

Look
If you had
One shot
Or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted
In one moment
Would you capture it
Or just let it slip?

Yo
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready
To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgettin'
What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud
He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out
He's chokin', how, everybody's jokin' now
The clocks run out, times up, over, blaow!
Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity
Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked
He's so mad, but he won't give up that easy? No
He won't have it, he knows his whole back city's ropes
It don't matter, he's dope, he knows that, but he's broke
He's so stacked that he knows, when he goes back to his mobile home, that's when its
Back to the lab again yo, this whole rhapsody
He better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him

WW

I lost 4.6 pounds this week!  Woo hoo!

One of the reasons I wanted to go back to Weight Watchers meetings, besides the accountability of the scale, was the leader I've had in the past, Linda.  In fact, Linda and I got to be...not exactly friends, but...what's just this side of friends?  Acquaintances?...over the time I was there, and now she's someone I'm connected to on Facebook.  Because of that I was able to private message her last week and say, "Hey, Linda!  I'm coming back!"  That's when she let me know that she moved on and hasn't been a leader for two years.   My initial thought, besides, "Has it really been 2 years since I last went to a meeting???" was that I was probably going to hate the new leader.  See, you might not know this, but WW leaders are a real crapshoot.  Some are awesome and some are just duds.  I was worried.

Well, I'm here to say that Jodi, my new leader, is great!  She's fun and interesting, and she keeps people engaged and talking.  I like that.  Shoot, I even talked today, and it's only my second week.  It doesn't matter that I admitted something embarrassing, which then gave me a creeping hot I-think-I'm-blushing-but-I'm-just-gonna-forge-on-because-what-else-can-I-do feeling, right?  I mean, it's the participation that counts.

Saturday

This is what you call righteous indignation...

Baylee:  Why can't pads and tampons be free?  Women can't help that they need them!  There's nothing they can do about it!  Why should they have to pay for them?!

Me:  Water's not free and we need that to live.

Baylee:  Well, it should be!

Me:  At least air's free.

Baylee:  For now!

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Today is a "get things done" kind of day.  Mike's working out in the yard (usually the boys help him, but Zach worked today and Drew has a rehearsal all afternoon) and I'm cleaning in the house.  I like days like this, especially once they're over and everything looks nice.

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Another conversation:

Me:  How come it took you such a long time to do [such and such], Zach?
Zach:  It's called procrastination, Mom.  You wouldn't know about it.
Me:  Why wouldn't I?
Zach:  Because you never procrastinate.

I don't know whether to be proud that I've managed to pull the wool over his eyes so thoroughly or embarrassed.

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I don't think I ever mentioned this, but Drew and Nina broke up quite awhile back.  Now he's become good friends with a girl named Renata.  I like Renata.  She's an awesome singer, she's fun, she's smart, and she speaks fluent Russian.  To be honest, she and Drew seem like a weird match, but they really hit it off.  The thing I like most, though, is that for right now (and maybe forever) they're just friends.

Yesterday the two of them caught a city bus and bummed around.  They saw a movie (which they walked out of because it was stupid), went to an Asian soup restaurant, and then went to Renata's (her parents were there) to watch anime.

Friday

Last night I had a nightmare that I won some sort of award for saying the most racist thing on Facebook this week.  It was the kind of award you don't want to win...sort of like "worst dressed"...and tons of people were angry and hating on me.  Then I woke up and I was like, "I gotta delete that!" before I realized it wasn't real.  (PS:  I have no idea why I dreamed that.)

Today during our lunch break Baylee was out riding her bike, when she came across a lost dog.  Being who she is, she didn't want to just keep on riding, so she stopped and called me.  Siiiiiigh.  I took the car to where she was (about 3 blocks away) and called the number on the dog's tag.  It was a number to the dog's vet.  The vet then called the owner and told him where we were with his dog, and the owner met us.  He was thankful.

Speaking of Baylee, she decided to do double the amount of Sonlight (the literature-based curriculum she uses for Bible, history, and reading) every day until she's done with the school year.  That's kind of huge.  It means she spends a TON of time reading.

Here's the stack of books she had to read yesterday, and that's not even including the textbook spine that she's reading for history.  There were that many books because she was just finishing Shadow Spinner and Habibi (both of which she loved, but especially Shadow Spinner) and just starting Seven Daughters and Seven Sons and The Hobbit.

To make it a little more fun, she often does one of her books on audio. This time it's The Hobbit.  Here she is listening to that while knitting this morning.

Thursday

So it's...what?  Day 3?...and I'm doing well with Weight Watchers.  It's weird and a little unnerving, actually, because so far I haven't had any issues at all.  Normally I have to white knuckle a diet in the first 3 or 4 days, but this time it's been a breeze.  To be honest I'm a little nervous that somehow it isn't working!  I guess I'll find out on Monday night when I weight in.  The only thing I can figure is that I'm really busy these days, and somehow that's making dieting easier.  I just don't have very much time to obsess over it.

By the way, Drew's doing fine.  He felt bad for about a day, then put it behind him.  He decided it was just one of those things.

I haven't talked about Zach for awhile.  He's doing well!  Lately he works like a crazy person, because the gear company is wrapping up some sort of huge order.  Literally, right now he works 7 days a week, 12 or 13 hours a day.  It's insane.  His boss, Jerry, has been buying him supper every evening, I think out of thankfulness.  (Either that or Jerry's mom, who's the office manager, makes the guys something homemade to eat.  Yesterday she brought in a big pot of bean and bacon soup.)  Zach's in good spirits, though.  His attitude is that it won't last forever, and in the meantime he's making good money.

Rocking the Triangle

This kid makes me laugh.  She sometimes irritates the crud out of me, too (she is 13, after all), but she makes me laugh on a regular basis.  Today she was demonstrating how she was going to make playing the triangle for one of her SoR show songs a cool thing instead of a nerdy thing.    She used a pencil and a washcloth to help us visualize.

Scared 2

Well, Drew had his audition last night.  He bombed it.  He choked.  Honestly?  Mike and I don't care that he won't be going to All-Stars in the least bit.  We just care about him, and he's hurting.

In a nutshell, he got scared.  (I know this because I saw the whole thing.  Parents got to stand in a dark control room in the back.)  He was with about 30 of his peers from different states.  Also, there were not one, but four judges.  The judges were two men from different SoR schools, a bass player from some well-known rock band, and a DJ from a rock-and-roll radio station.  They were sitting at a long table right in front of the stage.  It was unnerving.

Drew got up there and I could tell from the moment he started that it was a trainwreck.  If you've ever done public speaking or singing or whatever...have you ever been so scared that you almost feel out-of-body?  Like your body is going through the motions, but your brain is checked out?  That's what happened.  He rushed everything.  He left out chunks of the music.  He set the amp wrong.  Then, instead of standing there afterward and answering questions, he basically fled the stage.  Poor guy.  Ugh.

One of the things that made it all so hard to watch is that it's never happened to him before.  He's always been that centered guy who makes it look easy.

Anyway, on the bright side, our family rallied around him when we got back home.  Both Zach and Baylee let him know how sorry they were that it happened, and Mike and I told him stories of our own failures.  And we told him that it's okay...just a bad moment in time...and ultimately a chance to grow. 

This morning he's still dying inside, of course.  He's walking around like a zombie, and sometimes he randomly groans out loud.  It would be kind of funny if I didn't know it was real, heartfelt mortification and even some grief.  He had invested a lot of time and effort and hope into this process, only to have it dashed in a couple minutes.

Scared

Drew is really scared, because he's got his 3rd and final audition this evening.  In fact, we just figured out that it's going to be even more scary than we thought, because all the kids who are auditioning from this part of the country will be in the same room at the same time.  (It's a big rehearsal room with a stage.)  There will be kids from Washington, Oregon, and California all listening to each other try out, plus, of course, the judge.  Gulp.

A little while ago, just to make him laugh, I told Drew, "You think you're nervous?!  I'm going to Weight Watchers tonight!"  It worked.  He chuckled for quite awhile.



PS:  I am going back to WW tonight.  Not just the online program, the actual meetings.  I need some structure.

A Few Things

Interesting thought...

"If you know how to use verbs in any language, you know how to use the language.  The verbs and the use of the verbs are the backbone of a language."  ~ Michel Thomas

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Both Mike and Zach had to work all weekend.  Blah.  Mike usually has the weekend off, but he's on a rotation with the other managers to oversee the weekend shifts, and this was his turn.  Zach usually has Sunday off, but they have a big order going out soon, so it was all hands on deck. 

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Drew was asked to be a guest in one of the SoR shows.  That just means that he's not actually in that show, but he's coming in to be the guitarist for one of their songs.  It's called "Welcome Home," by King Diamond, and the show is Music from the '80s.  Drew has his first rehearsal with them this afternoon.

Weekend

Drew and his friend Gavin went skateboarding yesterday, and Gavin got this picture of Drew...

TGIF

I'm so glad it's the weekend!  Both Drew and Baylee (and, by extension, me) have been working so hard in school for the past few weeks, because they're pushing to finish by the end of May or so.  The only subject that I don't think is going to make it is Drew's American Literature.  He'll be doing that all summer.

Today was especially crazy, because between the two kids 6 tests were taken.  I feel like I spent all morning and afternoon with a red pen in my hand.  (They did well.  It's just that it's a South Ridge Academy rule that all tests must be scored with red ink.)

Honestly, my brain is fried, so that's all I've got.

Thursday

Here's the picture of Drew on his birthday. We went to Red Robin and I snapped this on the sly, as he's fully into the "no pictures" stage.  (Which is also why I have so few of Zach.)

Words to live by...

And this is the very beginning of hour 2 in Total French...

He's asking the students to translate into French the sentence:  "What impression do you have of the political and economical situation in France at the present time?"  And I can do it!  The weird thing is that I can say it, but I have no idea what it looks like in writing.  Oh, well.  I guess that part will catch up eventually.

Wednesday

First of all...and you're probably going to get very sick of me talking about this before everything is said and done...I'm so happy with my Total French program!!!  I've gone through only about an hour of the program, and one of the last things Michel Thomas had us all do in that hour was to translate into French the sentence, "It is not logical, but it is very practical for me that way."  The man and the woman (and I) groaned and laughed, but everybody was able to do it!  The way he teaches is so unique and great that you find yourself learning bit by bit, until you've built the ability to string a long thought together.  Anyway, I highly recommend it!  It should be used in conjunction with another, more conventional course, though, in my opinion.  Total French (and the two that come after it, Perfect French and Master French) are about speaking.  You need to find something else to teach you to read and write.

And a picture, taken by Baylee...

This and That

Today is Drew's birthday!  He turned 17.  I think we're going out to celebrate tonight, so I'll try to get a picture or two.

I've still got a cold and am therefore feeling just this side of horrid, but the show must go on.  We did school today.  Apparently today was "Pajama Day" for Paul, because he came over wearing drop-seat long johns.  LOL

 
On Easter Mike went to church by himself, because the rest of us were sick.  While he was there, he was concerned about the roast beef and veggies he had in the oven (Yes, I'm lucky.  Not only can he cook, but he enjoys doing it.) so we had this conversation via instant message:

Later he told me that I had scared him for just a second.  *grin*

My Total French program came in the mail today!  I'm so excited!  I already messed around with it for about an hour today, and I truly felt like the 3rd student in a small tutoring situation.  There's an American woman, an Englishman, and me in the class, and I can tell you right now that the American woman is a little on the dumb side.  She rushes into translations before she thinks them through, and Michel Thomas keeps having to tell her to think first.  The man, on the other hand, gets everything right away.  He's smarter than both me and the other woman put together.  I think the way it's going to play out is I'm going to have to listen to stuff over and over in order to truly master it.  (But that's normal.  The other program I'm doing, Learnables, makes you take each lesson 3-5 times.)

Happy Easter!

We had a good day yesterday.  Patty and Brit (a girl around Zach's age who's staying with Patty right now) came over and we had a nice dinner with lots of talking and laughing.  The only trouble was that 3 out of the 5 of us in my family have head colds.  Blah.

Last night after Patty and Brit left I wandered into the TV room where Mike was, rested my head against his arm, and said, "Do I have a fever?" I felt so cruddy.  He was like, "Yup."  He's better than a thermometer.  lol  (Or should I say "thermometre," which is French?  The word looks basically the same, but they pronounce it in a way that's crazy.)

We didn't do the whole Easter basket thing this year, now that we have all teens.  Instead we got them mugs filled with candy.  We got the idea from my own childhood, since that's what my parents did for my brother, sister, and me on Easter for years and years.  Because of that I came into my marriage with tons of really cute mugs!

 Baylee has passed her grandma by a lot, height-wise.

We kept the meal fairly simple this year.  We had pot roast with roasted veggies, a broccoli and bacon salad, potato casserole, and cheesecake.

Also, and this has nothing to do with Easter, on Saturday night Mike and I went out with two other couples to a really good pizza place.  That was fun. 

Saturday

Yesterday I was at my friend Bethany's house, and I happened to see this chalkboard hanging on the wall of her kitchen:

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The other day I was trying to take Baylee to a new friend's house* and my Google Maps app was having fits.  First of all, it told me it would take 3 1/2 hours to get there, even though they only live a few miles away.  Second, it tried redirecting me about 100 times.  It was as if it REALLY didn't want me on the highway or any busy roads.  Finally I said to Baylee, "This thing has lost its ever loving mind!" and I found a place to pull over to try to figure out what was wrong.  Turns out I had it set to "walking route."  Haha!  Oops.

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Tomb of Desolation came over again last night.  This time they only played about half the time, the other half they spent in conversation.  Afterward, when they were all gone, Drew told me that they rethought everything and decided they want to expand and be more "musical."  (I think that means play more than just heavy metal.)  Also, they're going to come up with a new name.  Yay!!!

One of the cool things they did while they were here was work on a heavy metal cover of a classical song called "Asturias."  Last night they started figuring out the lead and rhythm guitar parts for that.

Here's the song...

And here's the beginnings of their version...

*There was a church here in the Seattle area called Mars Hill that sort of imploded.  I don't understand exactly what went wrong and I feel sorry for them, but on the bright side we've gotten several new families at our church because of it.  One of them is a homeschooling family with three daughters, and Baylee has really hit it off with all three of them.  That's where we were going.

My Blind Biology Teacher, Part 2

Yesterday I talked about my blind biology teacher, but I didn't tell you my most memorable story having to do with that class, because it was too embarrassing.  I guess I'll tell it today.  I mean, I've talked about worse things here.  I do feel, though, that before I start I should add a disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER:

Growing up I was a nice kid and a good student.  I didn't get into trouble (or if I did it was small).  I didn't smoke or drink or do anything like that.  In fact, I still don't to this day.  I've never had more than a couple sips of wine in my entire life, and both of those were foisted on me by Mike, who wishes I would come to appreciate its taste.  I'm a lost cause, though, as I think alcohol tastes like cough syrup.

That said, one day in biology I had a question about a lab or something we were doing, so I asked it.  Mr. VanDuinen came over to the table where I was sitting and we talked for a minute about whatever it was, and then he walked back to the front of the room.  That night I got a phone call from my friend Tanya (the same one who passed the note).  This is sort of convoluted, but her mom happened to be friends with Mr. VanDuinen's assistant.  (It was a fairly small town.)  Apparently, after class that day Mr. VanDuinen told his assistant that he thought he had smelled alcohol on my breath.  The assistant, knowing I was good friends with Tanya, called Tanya's mom and told her, and then Tanya's mom told Tanya.  Finally Tanya called my house and told me.

I was horrified.  Like I said, I never drank.  I mean, not only that, but I came from a home where there was never alcohol.  And when I say "never" I truly mean absolutely never ever.  My parents didn't drink.  My grandparents didn't drink.  Basically, I came from a long line of teetotallers!  I knew immediately what it was Mr. VanDuinen had smelled, though.  It was strawberry gum.  I chewed the stuff every day like it was going out of style.

After I hung up the phone I went to my mom and told her what happened.  To my mom's credit she didn't freak out at Mr. VanDuinen or me or anyone else.  She just listened, offered comfort (because I was horrified), and ultimately helped me decide that it was something I could handle by myself.

After biology class the next day I stayed late and asked Mr. VanDuinen if I could talk to him.  I told him that I knew about the alcohol thing, and I explained what it was he had actually smelled.  I even told him about my family.  lol  He was very gracious and accepted what I said, and that was that.  Oh, and I never chewed gum in there again. 

   

My Blind Biology Teacher

I know I already posted today, but a conversation with a friend reminded me of something I don't think I've ever shared here on the blog before.  Today is your lucky day!

When I was a sophomore in high school my biology teacher was blind.  I'm not talking "legally" blind; I'm talking white cane.  You might be thinking, "How did a blind guy teach a lab-based science course?"  Well, he had an assistant who did the grading, but otherwise he made it work by himself.

Facts about Mr.  VanDuinen, my blind biology teacher:

•  He walked to school from his home and back every day using that cane.  He had the number of steps and all the turns memorized.
• When we dissected frogs, he gave extra credit to anyone who could get the specimen down to bare bones.  He'd check it by feeling all over the skeleton with his fingers.
•  Note passing was pretty easy in that class.  You could literally toss a wadded up note across the room and Mr. VanDuinen wouldn't know.  However, one time my friend Tanya threw a note toward me and it only made it halfway, landing in the wide middle aisle.  Mr. VanDuinen heard it hit the floor and he sternly said, "What was that?!"  Then he began tapping his way toward it.  Tanya panicked and started motioning me to grab the note before he got to it, since it was closer to me than to her, but I mouthed, "What?  No!"  She just kept on having a silent fit and gesturing frantically, though, and meanwhile the teacher was getting closer and closer, so I saw that I had to do it.  I stood up, quickly and quietly tiptoed over, and, right before the cane swiped past, I grabbed the note and stepped out the of way.  We weren't caught.
• All in all, he was a nice man and a good teacher.

Birthday

It's my birthday!  Is it weird that yesterday I had to get a calculator out to figure out how old I would be turning?  LOL  Seriously, I couldn't remember if it was 43 or 44. 

The French program I'm going through is starting to almost always use full sentences, and I understand it whether I'm hearing it or reading it!  I'm weirdly proud of that.

This first one says, "The waiter brings another glass of milk.  He puts the glass of milk next to the plate of meat."

The second one says, "Where is the hand of the doctor?  The doctor has his hand on the stomach of the fat man."  (I've heard so much about fat men.  It's one of their favorite story lines.)

And this third one says, "Where is the bottle of medicine?  The medicine in the bottle is on the table, next to the bed."

Wordless Wednesday