That was the question.

I decided to grow a beard for the first time in a long time. It came in grayer than I was expecting. Though it made me a bit more distinguished, it also aged me a couple of years. I know, I know, I should not be so vane but I am. I need all the help I can get. I put up with looking a bit older because the beard also helped hide some of my weight. This trade off of weight for age took a turn for the worst. A couple weeks back I was skiing with Alex and he convinced me to go off a jump. After completing my little jump and landing on my feet Alex skied down to me and informed me that the guys up top said, “Hey look the old guy can do tricks.” Flattering as that might sound, I decided to shave off the beard and look younger even if that means looking heavier. Now of course, the young guys on the mountain will still see me as the old guy but I do think I look a bit younger.

Tags: Uncategorized by Randall
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The time has come for the great frog dissecting.

Yes - Alex has been finding this very exciting, though I am not convinced that he has been doing much learning. I think he and his lab partner have used this as an excuse to act more goofy than normal. If that is even possible!! Melinda has found this to be completely disgusting. At least it is something he is doing at school that he wants to come home and talk about. His class also went on a field trip for the purpose of dissecting a sheep’s heart. I do not remember getting that opportunity when I was in school.

On the subject of of field trips

– I went on a field trip the to the art museum (with Melinda’s 4^th grade class) . Some of the things were rather interesting, including the building itself. And I enjoyed a day of being with Melinda. I do not know what particular exhibit had the most impact on Melinda - however, there was one in particular that grabbed my attention. This room had all of the walls painted – a mural of sorts - an almost abstract mural – not enough of an abstract. It did not take but five minutes before a couple of the boys in the class noticed a man in the image with a penis shaped like foot and another man that was – shall we say over sized. I was not sure how I was going to explain this to Melinda if she asked, not to mention the women that had body parts well out of normal proportion. The person from the museum that was showing us the exhibit was trying (in vain) to redirect their attention. She talked about some of the other images in the mural and how there was symbolism in all the images in the painting.. I was not getting all of the symbolism!!! And the images I did get, I did not want to talk about. I realize I am a bit behind the times but………

So the real question – do I bring it up with Melinda or do I not say anything unless she brings it up. I know it was suppose to elicit some emotional reaction, and it did, the reaction was - is this appropriate for fourth graders??? I must be out of touch.

Tags: Alex, parenting by Randall
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Do I yell?

 Do I let it slide and just chalk it up to another lesson learned? It had already been a relatively long day of teaching skiing. Alex was given some freedom today to ski with a friend and for safety reasons and so he was able to call his friend I gave him my phone to use. With the phone he got a good lecture about keeping it safe and not loosing it. He lost it!!! On the Mountain!!! In the snow!!!

He had a great day to that point. Though I did not get too mad at him but he will be finding work around the neighborhood to pay for the phone. The new lecture was about taking responsibility for the mistakes we make. He was good with that.

Pattie got on line and deactivated it so we hopefully won’t find any long distance charges on it. Now the chore of finding a new (cheap) one.

At least he had a good day to that point skiing with a new friend. And Melinda got to spend a day at home with mom and now big brother bugging her.

On a side note Melinda skied a double black diamond with me on Sunday.

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Day off of school.

Melinda took one more day off of school today with some cold type symptoms. Alex brought school work home, and though this is a great idea to help keep Melinda caught up we could not ascertain what exactly was to be done with the school work. So, She will have to make up her work next week when she can get some direction.

Flu

When calling the school attendance line, the voice mail system still wants to know about any kind of flu type symptoms. Do they use this as some kind of statistical numbers about kids missing school because of the flu? Seems some what un-scientific but what ever works for them.  NO she does not have the Flu.

She does not hate school but has been enjoying staying home and playing computer games. I insist that she does some studying on the computer as long as she’s there anyway.  It is amazing how much time the kids spend on the computer. We even have started watching some shows on the computer.

Tags: Melinda, Public education RANT by Randall
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