On Safari

My safari hunt has turned out both dangerous and exhausting. The sock monster is a clever foe! So far I have traced him to my daughter's closet, then to the toy box where it passed a fair amount of time. The sock debris was astounding. It has now moved on and I suspect it my be lingering under the bed. I have returned to camp for fortifications and will set out again tomorrow. One thing is for sure, this foe is not to be underestimated. I shudder to think of what may await me beneath the bed but I shall bolster my courage and set out with the dawn of the new day.

Play It Again, Sam

My sister, niece and I went to a dueling piano bar for my niece's 21st birthday. We've been waiting for over a year for her to be old enough to get in. I've only been to one such place before, which was in Dallas just before my brother died. If you've never been to one of these places, it is a great experience which you have to try at least once. It is unbelievable the amount of songs the pianists know and their playing ability is astonishing. It's certainly worth a try.

Monster Safari

There is a monster loose in my home. I thought it was contained but there has been a break out. The sock monster that previously resided in my dryer has freed itself from its restraints and is running amok in my home. It has a definite preference for my children's socks. Prior to this unfortunate incident, the monster contented itself with gobbling the occasional mate to a pair of socks during the drying cycle. Now, however, my children are running out of clean socks while none of the discarded ones are making it to the laundry hamper.

My children assure me they have no idea how their socks are mysteriously disappearing from the hamper, where of course they are certain beyond any doubt that that is the last place they had put them. That leaves only one reasonable explanation. The sock monster is on the loose.

WebMaster

I have finally taken a class on creating my own website. I've wanted to do this for a while now so I can set up a site for my brother and pancreatic cancer. I've got a start page set up and plan to add more. I'm just using a free site for now. It actually was much easier than I thought it would be.

I'm really rather excited about it. For some reason though, I can get a link set up here in my post but I can't get it set up in my blogger template. I don't know if it's because it has all those back slash thingies in it, or if it's cause of the html at the end or what. (It may be becoming clearer to you as to why it seems like a big deal for me to be able to do this)

Ah well, maybe some day I'll figure that out. As for now, I'd kinda like to set up a site for someone else, maybe a non-profit group or something. Anyone have any such needs?

Vacations

Something a little fun. These are places I would like to see or vacation at. Something that would probable be more dream than ever being a reality.


1. Disney World - Been there once but I would so like to take the kids again. They loved it and my daughter absolutely loves the princesses and is into all things girl and dress up. Kind of a generic, run of the mill vacation wish and more on the obtainable dream side but this one is for my kids and therefor tops my lists. Also, my brother had wanted us to all take a family vacation there but it didn't happen before he died.

2. Japan - The main island, mainly Kyoto, Tochigi, Mt Fuji. Not so much Tokyo but their places of beauty and culture. We had a girl from Japan live with us for 4 years when I was a junior in high school. She is back in Japan now and I would like to visit her and her parents. I have a feeling I would never have the time to see all I'd want to see. Konichi-wa!

3. Scotland - I love the brogue. I want to see the highlands and the castles. I'd like to experience castle life - for about 2 days, I'm sure that's all I'd last. I like toilet paper and I like to flush.

4. Central America - I want to see a rainforest. Waterfalls. I'd never be able to breath there because of the humidity but we're being fanciful, right?

5. Italy - I don't speak a word of Italian but I want to see the Colosseum, the rich history, vineyards. This is probably one of the few places that the cities hold the allure.

6. A Monastery - Kinda odd, huh? But I want to go someplace very, very simple. I want to spend time in complete silence. I want to meditate in an environment rich in devotion to a higher power. I think a Buddist type place would be neat, I, of course, would be connecting with God rather than Budda or my own perfect self or whatever it is exactly that they seek. Oddly enough, I don't lean towards a christianish monastery. Certainly not a catholic monastery and those are the only christianish ones I am aware of without getting into the uncertainty of new age comet riding stuff. There are christian places to go, but they lack to monastery setting. Somehow the christian setting still seems too worldly to me. Not that something appropriate to what I'm looking for isn't out there, just I don't know if it is or where it's at. Anyway, monastery, ya. Monks, robes, silence, simplicity, silence, reflection, and simplicity. And silence.

7. Somewhere with beautiful, crystal clear blue water. Don't much care where it's at, as long as it's not a tourist trap place. I just want to spend a day staring at the beautiful blue clear water. Then we can go.

These really aren't in order, now that I look at them. But I would labor to much over decisions that are moot anyway.

Learning a Learning Disorder

My daughter, now 7, was diagnosed last year with a learning disorder. Her main problems are with short term memory and information retrieval. I've since learned a lot about learning disorders. At one time, I related LD to slow, retarded, not smart, etc, etc. My daughter, however is intelligent, very socially capable, and by no means retarded in any way. Most people don't even know she has a learning disorder. The parents of her playmates are usually stunned if/when I tell them. I think because many people equate LD with being some form of retarded that they are taken by surprise to hear that a seemingly normal vibrant young girl is LD. Then, because she seems so "normal", they assume her learning problems must not be very severe.

Her learning problems are actually fairly substantial. For instance, in addition to the time spent in Kindergarten, she spent the first half of her 1st grade school year trying to "learn" the number 7. We finally just moved on. She has some kind of block to number 7, and 9. Let alone learning her teens! I would spend a 20 minute session just on the number 7 - writing it, saying it, counting it, doing it in glitter or sandpaper or bright colors - and at the end of that time, I could hold up a card with a 7 on it and it'd be 50/50 on whether or not she'd be able to tell me what it was. Yet the next day, she may identify 7's as if she'd never had trouble with it.

It's been very frustrating. The intricacies on the workings of her mind would actually be quite fascinating if it didn't hurt my heart so much. She is a super hard worker and very diligent. She doesn't give up. It's just that for all her hard work, she so seldom sees success or progress. I've often said that for as hard as she works, she should be a genius.

That's the facts in a nutshell. More to come on my feelings and experiences in the matter at a later date.