Open Letter to Parents

Dear Parents of Teens,

If your teens are at a performance, even a high school choir concert, and they are texting, browsing the web, and talking, and you are sitting right next to them, TAKE THE D@MN PHONES AWAY!

RRRRIIIINNNNGGGGGGGG

The woman in the next cube evidently has a) a series of extremely important phone calls, and b) a phone that does not have a volume control on the ringer.

Visual Pun

Old McRusty Had a Farm

This is a picture of neighbor Rusty's back yard.  Yes, that is a Ronald McDonald figure in the distance.  A local McDonald's was redecorating, and Rusty asked if he could take the figure from the trash.  Kath does not like this, and she insisted that Rusty move it further from the house.

Helping Hand

So I am standing here at neighbor Rusty's, listening to a high-pitched, nonstop beeping that tells me his invisible dog fence has a fault. Rusty has about two acres encircled by said fence. He is trying to find the fault in the snow. This is one of the weirder things I have helped Rusty do in the past five years.

Foto Phriday

I found this note in the parking lot where I work.  Our building does not house any labs, and I don't think we're within litter-blowing-in-the-wind distance from any chemical labs, but maybe litter can really travel in the right weather.

Like Father, Like Son, and Vice-Versa

Son has a habit, when doing his homework, of narrating his cognitive processes.  I'm trying to break him of this habit so he doesn't get in trouble at school when he is supposed to be working quietly on a quiz or test.  Talking at such times can result in the teacher alleging cheating. 

Last night, I made a point of having him sit at the kitchen table to study for his geometry quiz.  The conventional wisdom is that a student should study in an environment that resembles the environment in which he or she will be tested on the material.  The idea is that the student will more readily recall the material, because there are fewer differences in studying and testing that could cause distraction.

As Son was loudly describing all the steps involved in determining whether a quadrilateral was a parallelogram, I asked him to use his inside-the-head voice, and explained that he should try to approach this particular study session as a practice for the quiz environment, which wouldn't allow talking.  He seemed to get it.

Today, I find myself working on an assignment that involves moving a bunch of numbers from System A to Spreadsheet B.  I was just narrating my steps, until I realized that I am the new kid on the block, and I don't want to scare the neighbors.

Foto Phriday - on a Wednesday

Here's a picture of a pencil I found yesterday in the driveway of the school where I go to mentor.  It looks like it exploded.  My mentee suggests that I sell it on eBay.

As a Bug in a Rug

Brother 3 was sitting on the couch last night with a blanket covering him all the way up to his neck.  I looked at him and inquired, "Where's your Snuggie?"

He replied, "Upstairs."  Then he got a cross look on his face.  "And now I can't reach the remote.  This blanket needs sleeves!"

In Like a Lion

Lousy Smarch weather.