Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Pardon me, have you seen my last two weeks?

Whoa, what was THAT? Oh, that. It was just time shooting past in the blink of an eye.

Actually, there were some seriously lazy interludes in there, for which I have no excuse. But there were also some seriously good work times and stuff too.

December 3rd I went geocaching with a crew from 'round here. Almaden Quicksilver and man did my legs hurt for a week after that. But those caches put my count up to 40 finds. (Now up to 43 after a few quick ones near work last week.)

Last night, we took the kids down to see the Christmas in the Park displays in downtown San Jose. Same stuff as last year, but there is something to be said for that holiday magic. My husband and I, both being from places where snow was a reality, both remarked on how realistic the "crushed-down snow carpet mixed with dirt and pine needles" thing was working. Cameron enjoyed the choo-choos and seeing Santa through a window.


Oh, yes. The Man in Red. Third time . . . not so much a charm. This past Saturday I took Cam to see Santa for the annual picture. He stood between me and the platform, arms raised in a blocking gesture, so that even I could not approach the hallowed chair. So I sat, with him in my lap, on the platform, and Santa came and kneeled behind us for the picture. What a guy. Now Santa knows (thanks to me, since Cam went all mute like he does) that Cameron would like a car for Christmas. A toy one. He's not quite three yet.

Loving how we can use the Santa thing to our benefit, by the way. When C throws a fit (which lately is any time he's even a wee bit tired), I can ask him if he's being a good boy so Santa can bring him his car. We then go through what being a good boy means:

Mommy: "No . . . . "
Cam: "Tweeming" (screaming)
Mommy: "No . . . . "
Cam: "Whining"
Mommy: "And no . . . "
Cam: "Twying" (crying)

If it weren't so frustrating when he gets like this, it would be cute and funny, but by that point I always have a headache, and am mentally composing the Nobel Peace Prize my neighbors will want to give me for getting the kid to stop freaking out. (He's SO loud.)

So, nothing all that geeky, except the geocaching, I guess. But there's been tons at work, plus I think I hooked another geek on geocaching. Today, I was out sick. But, as I have done once before this year, I spent much of the day approving project topics (countries this time) from 6th and 7th graders via e-mail . . . and when the Gaggle.net server crapped out . . . via IM through my co-teacher.

The kids seem like they're moving forward fairly well. They seem to have come around to the idea that learning how to research, present, and cite sources of information is a necessary skill. Some kids have already done their re-take of the online MS Word quiz, and the overall average went from 78% to 79% after the first of three nights of re-take opportunities.

Life is good. Pizza and lasagna in New Jersey is better. That's next week. Little C and I board a plane Saturday night for a week with my family back East. And my brother will be letting us get a close-up look at a fire truck, so C is sold.

All right. Sleep would be nice.

I promise to be more geeky and edu-tech next time.

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