March 29, 2005
Dark. Dark!
I love me the dark chocolate. I love me the peanut M&M's. How excited am I about these?
(Very!)
March 27, 2005
A Fun Toy
One of the cool things the kids got for their birthday was Moon Shoes.
Here's a quick clip of them giving them a go:
Walking On The Moon (2.3 MB wmv file)
Fun for anybody up to 180 pounds! (Earth weight, that is.)
March 17, 2005
Communications Breakdown
Yesterday Mister P and I decided to go to the studio for lunch. We went down to the parking garage and walked a full lap around parking level B2 before realizing that (a) both of us assumed the other was driving and (b) neither of us had keys.
We ate lunch in the building instead.
March 15, 2005
California. Screaming!
Claire and Cameron turned six yesterday. Yes, six.
I know - it's as big a surprise to me as it is to you. They asked to go to Disneyland this year for their birthday, and since we are such indulgent parents we planned a two-night stay at the Disneyland Hotel.
On Sunday night we were in California Adventure and Claire declared that she wanted to ride "the big roller coaster." After a few rounds of every parent's favorite game - "Are You Sure?" - Katy, Claire, and Katy's dad went off to ride California Screamin'.
The souvenir picture really says it all from here:
March 10, 2005
Please Understand, I Hold You In The Highest Respect
The other day Slashdot was running a poll on who was the greatest fictional swordfighter. Winning the poll was Inigo Montoya, of Princess Bride fame.
Are you people nuts? He wasn't even the best swordfighter in his movie!
People are so dumb sometimes.
March 9, 2005
Conferences and Evaluations
Today we had our second of three parent-teacher conferences for the kids. We were told that both of our kids are doing "S" and "G" work, and that they are doing great in their respective classrooms. More on that in a minute.
As we went into our second conference of the morning, the teacher was returning with a box of tissues. I thought maybe she had a cold, but she made a comment that implied that some of the parents she'd met with already had been crying during the conferences.
Oof. It's tough enough to manage a classroom of five-year-olds, but how do you deal with parents who break down while discussing their kids? How unpleasant would that be? It makes me very glad to be an engineer, I'll say that.
On to grading - or should I say, "evaluation." They don't grade any more. Maybe later actual grades will be handed out but for now, the kids are evaluated (not graded) against a four level scale - U, S, G, O. These are not grades but they stand for Unsatisfactory, Satisfactory, Good, and Outstanding. "S" is considered to be "grade level work" and much was made of this at the first conference. I suppose every parent thinks their child is Outstanding, so the teachers spent a lot of time trying to calibrate our expectations to "S=Okay."
Anyway - even though U, S, G, and O appear to map well to the more familiar F, C, B, and A, I'm sure this similarity between "evaluations" and "grades" is strictly coincindental. Really.