Finally!!

This...is my brand new registration sticker.  (You can see I need to do a better job sticking down the edges).  I got it on Thursday after work; it only involved about 2 hours of driving, traffic, waiting in line, etc.  Not bad, given that I did it to myself.  But this means that we are all mobile independently, for better or for worse.





Friday's big news, we thought, was the junior Prom.  Note Wendy's dress--I kept saying that it made her look like the Blue Fairy from the Disney version of Pinnochio.  Upon reflection, it's clear that she doesn't--sorry about that Wendy.  I think the issue is that years ago I saw a performance of Disney on Ice where they did Pinnochio and the skater who played the Blue Fairy looked something like this.  Or something.  But now I understand why everybody thought I was crazy.

Anyway, the prom apparently was a success, and a good time was had by all.







While they were at the prom, however....

The rest of us went out to dinner...no big deal, right?

But while we were eating, all of a sudden Harry started complaining that his lip was swollen.  Well, he has no history of allergies, so we didn't know what to think.  But we stopped him eating any more (duh) and asked what the ingredients were.

When we were done with dinner, we stopped at the store on the way home to pick up a dessert of our own choosing instead of the restaurant's.  While we were doing that, Harry started complaining that his eyes were itching.

To make a long story short, Colleen ended up taking him to the hospital at 10:30 at night, just to be sure.  Naturally when they got there it was crowded and the irritations started to diminish.  So by about 1AM, they finally got home with the news that we should probably try him out on shrimp again only with a supply of Benadryl on hand.

The rest of the weekend was pleasant if unexciting by comparison.  Everybody was tired; the boys went biking to a bunch of yard sales and spent money on cool stuff (well, they think it's cool stuff; we're not so sure); we all went to a small regimental party yesterday; we didn't get enough sleep.

5th grade band--what a hoot!

Last night we went to the town-wide elementary school orchestra and band concert.  Harry was playing with the orchestra, but we stuck around for the band, too (it seemed at least polite not to get up and leave mid-concert, after all).  We were glad we did.

In the first place, they played decently.  Not brilliantly, but you know, they're 5th graders, so one can hardly explain.  The great part, though, was the discipline, and the kind of discipline, the director had them under.  When he raised his baton, they more or less brought their instruments to what I'll describe as "attention" (not being a band musician, I have no clue what that 'ready' position is called).  They were a little inconsistent about exactly how quickly they did it, but they all did it.  Then, as he counted off before they actually began to play, all their toes started to tap in time.  So they'd begin with "thump thump thump" and then the music would kick in.  It was hysterical to watch, although I'm sure that wasn't the point.  It also meant that they were all starting in time, which with a 5th grade band can be quite a trick.  And it meant that they were all quite clearly taking direction from him.  The importance of this last cannot be underestimated.

Whenever I go to one of these concerts, I'm reminded of when I was in middle school and my sister was in 5th grade.  We went to a concert, and the conductor explained they were going to play the overture from Gilbert & Sullivan's "Mikado."  He blew it, however, by joking beforehand that it wasn't supposed to sound like some kind of Native American dance.  If he had just waited until after, it would have been insanely funny.  If you know the music, you can imagine--it's supposed to go "dum dum dum-dum, dum dum dum-dum, dum dum dum-dum dum-dum-dum," but with these guys it went "DUM DUM dum-dum, DUM DUM dum-dum, DUM DUM dum-dum dum-dum-dum"  Well, hopefully you get my point...

Off to talk about Latin American natural resources to 6th graders...

Doing the two-car shuffle

Ok, you might want to get out a pencil and paper to follow this...

Wendy and I needed to get to school this morning.
Beth has a doctor appointment at 11
Colleen and Wendy have various dentist appointments in the early/mid afternoon.
I have a department meeting until 2:30
Teddy needs to be picked up at dismissal (3:15)
Beth needs to be at the synagogue by 3:45
I have to be at a meeting in the center of town at 3:30
Harry has a piano lesson after school, followed by a violin rehearsal

So...

Beth brought me to school this morning.  She'll go to her appointment late this morning.  Colleen will pick up Wendy at school and take her to the dentist.  Then later, Beth will pick me up after my faculty meeting.  We'll then go and pick up Teddy & bring him home.  Then I'll drop her off at the synagogue and go (potentially late) to my meeting in the center of town.  Then Colleen will go home with Wendy.  Then when I'm done with my meeting, assuming it isn't TOO late, I'll rush off to finish paying my stupid excise taxes so that I'll be able to renew the registration on the car we aren't using that if we could use it would simplify this process immensely.

Weekend update--sheep, rainbows, and dollar bill tracking.

We went to the NH Sheep & Wool Festival yesterday. It was pleasant, but seemed somehow smaller than I remember. I kept feeling like the economy must be having an effect.

One of the vendors had an old 4-harness portable loom (needs some work) for sale. I kept looking at it and thinking how cool it would be, but until I'm sure of employment for next year, even though it was cheap, it seemed kind of frivolous. And I've started too many projects that I haven't ever quite finished to be jumping into something like that too eagerly. So Colleen and I talked about it, and looked at it, and talked some more...and then I wandered past the vendor and it had been sold. So much for that.

We went out to dinner at this pleasant restaurant in Henniker, NH, overlooking the river. Just the kind of place Colleen loves--running water going past the window and everything. While we were there, a heavy downpour came through (only 1 or two thunderclaps) and then the sun came out, right around 7:15 or 7:30 pm. Sure enough, we got an AWESOME rainbow. Check out Colleen's photo rainbow.

This doesn't really show the full extent. First, it went completely from horizon to horizon. Second, there's no way for the picture to show just how bright it was. Third, the rainbow almost divided the sky into a bright half and a dark half--really cool effect. And fourth, there was a faint 2nd rainbow in the darker portion of the sky.

----
This morning at breakfast, I pulled a dollar bill out of my pocket that somebody had stamped "Make a nerd happy. Register this bill at " So just for fun, I did. Seems like this could be a fun idea, especially for certain kinds of high school or college classes, but it clearly requires more activity than this bill was getting--I was the 2nd entry for this bill in the last 11.5 months!

Anyway, back to the S&W festival...

Ever have one of those days?

Well, as the saying goes, I feel like I'm having one of those weeks.

Last night we got to bed WAY too late.  I'm just plain too tired.

My knee hurts.  I think I injured it taking Harry bowling a couple of weeks ago, but that injury seemed to have healed--until yesterday.  Now it hurts like crazy every time I walk down a flight of stairs.

My phone is on the fritz.  We finally decided to bite the bullet and spend the $$$ to buy me a new


Iphone

We ordered it the other night.  But something got screwed up and it hasn't shipped yet.  I can live without it, but it sure would be nice to be properly connected.

One thing that did go well last night--while I was working, I stuck a Beethoven CD into the drive and listened to the 5th & 6th Symphonies while I worked.  Even though I was legitimately feeling lousy, that helped.  My sister points out that the Peter Schickele Beethoven's 5th "Play by Play" routine would probably have helped my mood even more, but I'm not going to complain.

The other thing that happened yesterday is that the organizers of Jerusalem Mill decided (probably correctly) that the rain at the site over the past week or two, combined with the rain that's expected to come over the next week, had made the event untenable.  So they are canceling/postponing to a date sometime later in the summer.

Well, I can't say I want to go hang in the mud, but I was looking forward to this event, and the site is sufficiently far away that I'm nervous that they'll choose a date that I can't go.   

But this weekend we're going to the Sheep and Wool Festival up in NH, and tomorrow at least looks like it should have good weather, so that'll be good.

Now if I can stop blogging and start grading these silly papers.

Running around like a maniac

So, like a fool, I failed to pay my automobile excise tax.  Then, like a bigger fool, I got confused about when my (non-renewable) car registration was going to expire.  It was last week, not the end of this month.

So I've been driving my daughter's car all week.  Not a big problem, but not normal/convenient.  Also, FYI, my cell phone is on the fritz at the moment.  Probably need a new one.

Today, I was going to go pay the back taxes.  So I drove up to the special "deputy tax collector" office.

The nice lady there took my name and told me how much I owed.  Oh, by the way, cash or money order only.  I wasn't entirely surprised by this, so I walked to the nearest ATM to get some more cash.

Walked back to the office, paid the amount.

She handed me a receipt stating the tax was paid and that the registry "flag" had been cleared via computer.

So I asked her for a copy of the directions to get to the nearest registry branch.

Drove to the nearest registry branch.

Got my little "now serving #" number.

Waited for 25 minutes until my number came up.

Went up to the window and talked to the nice registry lady.

The nice registry lady said "You have outstanding excise taxes you need to pay."

I cleverly pulled the receipt from my pocket, both for the excise taxes and for the parking ticket that Colleen went and paid earlier in the week.

"No," she said, "you need a 'registry release'." 

This seemed odd to me, given that my excise receipt said it had been managed electronically.  She seemed to think it slightly odd too, because when she suggested I call them and I allowed as how my phone wasn't working, she picked up the phone and called the excise tax people.

And that's when we discovered that only 1 of our cars is registered in my name first.  The other two have Colleen's name first.  And of course, they have back taxes owed on them too.  But they didn't come up under my name when I went to pay.

So, I drove back to the excise tax office and talked to a different nice lady who told me how much I owed.  Unfortunately, this was more than I could take out of the bank at an ATM in one day, so I wrote her a check for the portion for which a check was acceptable and went on my way.  I'll have to go back, and of course, it's not real convenient to spend 30-40 minutes driving up there, another 10-15 to get to the registry, half an hour at the registry, and then another 30-40 driving home (assuming all goes well).

So I'm not real happy at the moment.

But I bet you could figure that out.

What else is new?

This weekend, we're going to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival.  If the weather's good, it's always fun to wander around and see all the cool colors and fibers and then hang out watching the dog trials.  You would not believe how much those border collies can do.

If the weather's not so good, it can get a little old, mostly because you can't escape the crowd and it gets hot and stuffy in the buildings.  Those of you who know me well know just how much I enjoy hot stuffy crowded places.

This is definitely getting into the crazy-busy time of year for me.  Sheep & Wool this weekend.  Jerusalem Mills next weekend.  Memorial Day after that...and then we're into June.  June includes the end of the school year, which means work finishing up the year but also means Teddy will be graduating.  June also includes my high school reunion.  I'll leave it to somebody else to reveal how many years I've been out of high school.  Let's just say that my eldest is also out of high school...

The Swiney Hiney

Over the weekend, my sister's facebook status referred to "H1N1."  Somebody with eyes like mine read that as "HINEY".  Add the "Swine" part onto it and you get "Swiney Hiney."  If you're a bicyclist, you probably know what a "Shiney Hiney" is...

But it brings up the point of how insane our reaction to this flu is.  I'm not denying the significance to people who have actually gotten sick, and lord knows I wouldn't want to minimize the importance to the families of those who have died.  But let's get some perspective here folks.  We're not talking about the Black Plague.  We're talking about the flu.  This isn't 1918.  We aren't just out of a catastrophic war.  We've got anti-viral drugs.  We've got modern methods of diagnosis and record-keeping.  We need to be careful.  We don't need to panic.

In fact, in keeping with that,

Testing a blog editor

So I keep meaning to start publishing a regular blog...about life, about teaching, about reenacting, parenting, etc.

But I keep not doing it.

So I just ran across this cool add-on to Firefox called scribefire.  I have no idea how it compares to other blog editors, but so far it seems pretty awesome.