Time so short

This anatomy class is so hard and Kate just isn't in school enough. I've been meaning to update, but it will be short. I'm writing a few paragraphs (with citations) about menstruation and the ripening of human eggs. I tried discussing things with Mr. K, but he got all upset and tried to close his ears on me. That man does not like to hear about female physical processes. I'm writing a bunch of stuff about menstruation, but I have no citations about my specifics. It is just common knowledge for an old woman like me to have had enough periods to have a pretty good idea about what is going on. There will be many citations when I get to the stuff about egg ripening and the hormones involved in each part of the process.

Mr. K's office has had me busy running errands, too, and I am supposed to coordinate with the guy we use to fix our computers to get two new computers in place and running the update for our corporate software by the end of October. I just hope K starts Stay and Play soon. I think the problem is that not enough people have signed up. It's probably a bad economy thing.

N had to be dropped of an hour early at school today. He's having a special breakfast with the other fifth graders who are participating in the Battle of the Books (some kind of a reading competition). He didn't do it last year because he forgot to turn in his permission slip (which I signed in a timely manner) on time. He's like that.

K got into speech therapy at N and J's school! She'll be going in on Friday afternoons for half an hour of help each week. I am hoping her speech will become clear at a much younger age than N's did since he was seven before I could get him in.

Last Saturday we went to a wedding. It was in the Mormon church, which I've never been in before. The whole thing (wedding and reception) took place in the church's gym, and I was very impressed with the money-saving techniques the bride and groom applied. Later they told me they had pulled it all off for less than $200. It was a second marriage for both of them, and I think they're in their 50s (or a bit more for Charles). It looked like somewhere around 50 people came. I'm so glad my girls got to see what a lovely, inexpensive wedding looks like.

Preschool too short

K still hasn't started Stay and Play, which on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, will make preschool last until 3 p.m. instead of 1 p.m. I sure could use the time for my class. I am hoping they will start by October.

K seems to be adjusting well to preschool. She's started talking up a storm there in the past couple days. I was afraid they would think she was too immature for the pre-K class instead of the 4-year-old class if she wasn't talking. Now they can she see she's just fine there. She's just shy and slow to warm up to new people.

Busy

I had my in-person lab today. I guess it went okay. It was pretty much chemistry. We didn't cut anything up, but we turned red cabbage into an acid/base indicator.

Unfortunately, N has given me a nasty cold so even with two cups of coffee, I was still in a stupor. I also had to take my test at home today (closed book), and even with a cold, it went just fine. I've been studying all week for it.

Mr. K has taken the kids out for fast food and then to play at a local playground just to give me a break. I am so glad.

Is this sick?

I was looking at a web site listed as a link from my anatomy class, and I suddenly realized what I was looking at. First there is a Papa John's pizza ad on the left side of the screen. Then I realized that the picture on the web page resembled an uncooked pizza. Really it is a transverse section of a human, cut through the abdomen. The combination of the two was so icky I figured I had to share.

Transcendental Underwear

I finally found N's missing underwear! They have super powers. He lost all but three pairs of his eight-or-so pairs of boxers about a month ago. He assured me he had looked everywhere in his bedroom, including in his drawers and under his bed.

While he was at school today, I was up in his room on an underwear hunt. I found them in a drawer. They were mixed in with shirts, shorts, t-shirts, and socks. It would appear that he shoved a load of laundry right into his drawers without sorting it. Apparently it teleported away when he made his search of his drawers, but it returned after he looked there.

So Out of Practice

I am so out of practice writing anything with documented references. Plus, I was trained in the MLA method of documentation, and my class is using the APA method. I'm sure the MLA has changed a lot in the 20 + years since I've used it. Back then there was no Internet to cite. Book and magazine titles were underline since most people were using typewriters, and one can't do italics on a regular electric typewriter.

I have a nice little book that goes into detail about each part of a reference for MLA. I gave up trying to figure out APA from the website link I had (and had printed out lots of things from different parts of the site). I started my references on notecards in MLA format. Then, at least, I had the main information available, and I could look up details in my MLA book about what one does with things like translations.

Then I converted the cards to APA format. Things go in a different order and an author only uses his initials. I think I did it correctly but we'll see. I guess I am more comfortable with the APA format now so I can probably skip the step where I started in MLA format. It's just that I was so much more comfortable doing it the "right" way first.

Anyway, I finished and uploaded my puny three paragraph discussion thing that took me days to write and format. I can only hope that the next one will go much faster because I will be more familiar with what I am doing.

Library SOS

I don't know how to do journal research on-line, but as of today, I am learning. I took a stab at it myself, found one thing and failed at another, so I called the reference desk at my college's library. My friend Suzanne answered! She helped me find a few things and gave me some ideas on where to look.

When I was in college originally, in the main library, we'd use green books called something like the "Periodic Guide to Literature." I'd fill out a little slip and hand it to the librarian, who would get me the journal or magazine if they had it. If I wanted something specifically related to chemistry, I'd go to the tiny chemistry library. They had their own books to look up journals, but they had limited hours they were open. The same with engineering, only their collection was slightly larger and their hours were much better.

The world is so different now with on-line databases and journal articles available in pdf files if I can find them. I still stink at research, but I expect I'll be much better by the end of this semester.

Speech Therapy Failure

I took K to see the speech therapist at N and J's school this morning. No matter what I tried to bribe her with (fries, a new Webkins, or whatever she wanted), she refused to talk or draw pictures or to put on the headphones for the hearing test. When asked if she was scared, she nodded her head. When asked if she was embarrassed by her speech, she nodded her head. I told the therapist that at home we sometimes call her "Chatty Kathy." Finally we just rescheduled for next Monday.

At home K told me she was too shy to talk while we were there. I was stunned because all summer she's been talking about getting to go to N and J's school for speech. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get her in for some reason, and she'd be so disappointed.

We did go out and got a sticker book and a little notepad that will be hers if she does what she needs to next Monday.

Happy Labor Day!

N and J start school tomorrow. I don't know if they are looking forward to it. N has found out he has a lot of friends in his class. I was disappointed (but he was excited) to learn he has this ADHD-like kid in his class. He had him in his class last year, and it sounded like he was extremely disruptive.

The pool is closed until next summer after today. I have no plans to go there for a last minute swim. The weather has been cooler and less humid (upper 80s).

K goes to N and J's school on Thursday to get screened or evaluated for speech therapy. She has a lot of trouble with words in which more than one consonant form a single sound (sh, ch, th, sch, etc.). It's almost as though she can read to see where those sounds are to mis-reproduce them. Her ls aren't so good either.I am hoping she will get put into speech this year. That way she can be done with it by around the age I finally got N in. N is now finished with speech therapy. It was what his therapist recommended, and he was happy to get out. As far as I can tell, he speaks normally now after three years of help.

Because it was a holiday, Mr. K stayed home from work today. He has a friend over who also does flint knapping. Mr. K watched the kids this morning while I went to the gym. I like going best when I don't have to drag the kids.

More none

I just stink at thinking up titles for my posts.

It's Friday. It's a holiday weekend. I have to take a quiz sometime between this evening and the end of the day tomorrow. It's open note and book but timed. I think we're being given 90 minutes. If that's so, I can't imagine how long the quiz will be.

Sunday I also have to meet the city water/gas person at one of my rental houses to get it turned back on. One of my tenants, who got very far behind on rent, decided to move out before being evicted.

It's my college roommate's birthday. She's listed as a friend on my Facebook page. We have birthdays the same month and we have the same first name. She's a year older than I am, though. She's never cared for kids and has never married. I'm guessing she'll marry someday when there's a good crop of nice men who divorced and who had kids but their kids have grown up and have gone away.

J has a friend over to play with this afternoon. N got invited over to a friend's house to play. I guess they're both happy. Right no K is playing with J and her friend. If that falls apart, poor K will be lonely.

None

My class has been keeping me pretty busy. I spent a couple hours yesterday the sheets I'd filled out in my lab book (and making sure my words were legible), combining them into a *.pdf file, and uploading it to my class's web page. It is very annoying that it takes so long to get my work where it needs to be. I'd rather just mail it, but that isn't an option. If I were taking a "real" class, I'd just turn in the pages and it would take about ten seconds.

Unfortunately, this anatomy/physiology professor is very picky about the timing of things.

With my math class, we could work at any pace we wanted, but the professor set due dates. If one wanted to be early, one could get as far ahead as one wanted. With my psychology class, we had to all work at the same speed, but we would move along one week at a time. Each thing that had to be turned in and each test had to take place within a given week.

With this anatomy class, the professor has decided we'll have a quiz. It must be taken between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:55 p.m. Saturday. In other words, he's pretty much pinned down what day we need to take it instead of allowing us to fit it into our schedule any time during a given week.