Almost a heat wave

So I took stir-crazy and over-minecrafted Jacob to the park to play on the dinky little hill.

Also, from my observations following yesterdays rain storm - roundabouts and ice do not mix.  Both roundabouts near us had lost about half their signage.

Going back to school!

The kids are going back to school today!  It's still -26 wind chill..... but yay!

Also, it's a Late Start day, which was a pre-planned event where the teachers have 2 hours in the morning to collaborate and the kids don't go to school until 10:27am.  So, it's sortof like they go back to school today - except that one of them is still home (Jacob is at a friend's house and will go to school with him).

On our days off - we did this:

 Which was a Christmas present from Grandpa Jim and Grandma Darleen.  You might notice some inconsistencies in the blue pieces.  That might be because every shape was 'almost' identical - and finding the correct location for nearly identical shaped and colored pieces ended up being more like "yeah, if I sortof force it in here - it works."

Also - God-willing, they never get funding to complete the giant .... eh.... "spire" that's hanging out by navy pier.  It really screams: "So, you think you're so young and sexy, Dubai..... Well check out my new mid-life-crisis-tower! Kiss that Spire! - Yours Truly, Chicago"

Overall, though, the puzzle was pretty cool.  Now we need to figure out how to glue it to a board or something.

It's a wonder anything gets done at all!

So, I'm going to put my work rant on the blog because I am friends with too many coworkers on facebook.  I received an e-mail earlier this week that said - in effect - "your spring class websites are ready, please log in and do these things before the students can access them on the 20th"

Ok.  So I did.  And I discovered two things.  (1) one of my online classes is missing and (2) the other has no content in it.  It's blank.

So, I returned to the e-mail just to make sure I didn't misunderstand and it might have actually said something like "your spring class websites will be ready next Friday, please be patient and make sure you do these things before the students can access it on Jan 20th."  But, no, I had it right the first time.

So in reading the e-mail - in two totally different locations!!! - it said "if you have problems please contact "contactusatthisemail@thisemailshouldwork.edu."  In fact - the e-mail address was even underlined and highlighted to draw your attention to it.

Well, I sent a short e-mail to that address with my two problems stated above and I got an autoreply that said "please do not use this e-mail to contact us, in the future, please direct your inquiries to tagyourit@runaround.wtf.edu."

OMG.  I am just trying to Do. My. Job.

Is gonna be cold

Guess what?  It's winter!!  Oh, yeah, and in northeastern WI - that means it's going to be cold.  Really cold.  "Once in a decade" cold.  "You haven't seen this cold before if you are younger than 40."  "Frigid." 

And this gives us all something to talk about.... namely that it's winter and it's cold.  It's OK - I prefer talk of cold to talk of the Packer's playoff game - though admittedly discussion of Packers and discussion of cold have a fair amount of overlap because the Packers will be out playing in the cold.

But it was cold enough that they almost didn't sell out a game.  THAT would have been something to talk about.

I also learned that the school district has a "When to Close the Schools Because It's so Fricking Cold" policy.  (though I don't think that's the official title - WCSBIFC is not a good acronym.  "Appleton Schools Should Close On Listed Days" would be better.)

Anyway - the policy is that school is closed when windchills are below -35 degrees F in the hour before school starts.  That's really, really cold.  Every weather-person out there is predicting windchills well below that for Monday morning and maybe also Tuesday.  I'm sure AASD will make the decision around 5am on Monday.  Because - you never know - every weatherperson in the country could be wrong.

Merry Christmas

Do you believe in magic?

So, Jacob's friend showed him a card trick.

Jacob tried to repeat the track for me (in preparation for his part of the magic show).  It did not work because he did not know the trick.

I guessed the trick and showed him.  He was impressed.  But when he tried it again (not knowing the trick), it did not work.

So, I showed him a way to do it where it would work.

He looked at me - exasperated - and said "but that's not magic, mom!"

Golden Days

Allison turned 11 on December 11th - a Golden Birthday!  She insisted on having a party ON her birthday (a Wednesday).   Not exactly an ideal time for a party, but we solved it by having an open house, where her friends could stop by and stay as long as they could.

Overall it went really, really well.  Many of her friends stayed the whole time, and they had a dance party and air-hockey competition in the basement.  Some friends came for just a few minutes or to enjoy a piece of cake.  Family friends stopped by, and some parents hung out and had Brian's gourmet mac & cheese (the kids got Kraft - Allison's favorite).

I can't believe she's getting so old!!