It's finally cold enough for me to wear my new wool tights. Sad that this makes me excited for the day.

Not sad! The chance to show of the new nifty thing you have. I get a thrill every time the weather gets cold enough to break out the black leather jacket.

On the kerfluffle: It was something I said in my LJ that caused dw's "burn in hell motherfuckers" post. I wish he'd either flamed me on LJ or emailed me, or if he wanted to address me here to specifically address me, rather than attacking all the Bitches. Failing that, I wish he'd apologized to you guys (whether he thinks I deserve an apology is a different matter). For my part, I'm sorry that something I said resulted in you guys getting attacked; I totally did not anticipate that and did not want it. I'm also sorry that Susan feels that she has to leave because of tension between her husband and other posters.

I've come to realize that dw writes for emotional effect, rather than for factual accuracy. That is sometimes tolerated and even appreciated here, but not usually. Most of us (well, at least I) have opted to resist generalizing and be a little more careful in our posts here. Opting not to means that there will be prickliness; it's the poster's choice, and posters should understand that.

On quality of education: My sister and niece are public school teachers, my father and mother taught in public school and then private school, and my stepmother teaches in private school. I attended public school and taught briefly in private school. The sum total of all that personal experience is:

- The quality of education in US schools, both public and private, is not as good as I wish it was.
- The quality of education in public schools in the US far exceeds that of public schools anywhere else I've lived, and often exceeds the private schools as well.
- The failings of public school education are sometimes, but not usually, due to the teacher. They are far more often due to unresponsive administrators, lack of money, parents who do not support the school's efforts, or some combination.

Again, my personal opinions only. The thing about the educational system is that everyone's gone to school, so everyone has an opinion. But you know, out of the approx. 200 person-years of teaching experience in my immediate family, I can think of two years where the administrators were good and supportive of the teachers and students, or had the money to be as supportive as they wanted to be.

Woah. Timelies.

I didn't know if this belonged in the previous post, so I'ma cereal:

Allyson's comment about Matt upthread - yeah. He's done the same for me - made kind, positive observations when he didn't need to - and for that I would gladly defend him.

I may be a little ferocious on the subject of chosen family and the give-and-take thereof, because people here and elsewhere have been so amazingly generous to me in this time of great despair and upheaval. My gratitude is immense, and therefore my shield and sword is yours. Once I get it unpacked, of course.

Yep. Timelies indeed.

I had no idea we had so many teachers on this board. My paternal grandmother, both parents, my sister, and nearly half of my cousins are or were public school teachers. I'm sort of the unusually coloured sheep of the family because I'm not one.

I'm having a melt-down about the litterboxes again.

When peeing, Harvey has the habit of hitching his hind end up as if he were marking. Sadly, it took me years to figure out why the litter box area was so messy - mitigating factors were him being the first male cat I've ever owned and him spending a lot of time outside so not always using the litterbox. So when I finally figure it out, I got a covered litterbox. And that seemed to take care of it. Got a second covered box for a different spot in the house. Then this morning as I cleaned them, I noticed that he is now managing to pee right through the seals of the boxes.

I feel angry and helpless, and I'm not buying another #@$!!!!!! litterbox. I know the anger is not reasonable but I can't make it go away. I feel like I can't cope with this.

And poor Daniel, it was just before he left for work I was discovering this, so he didn't even get a goodbye kiss or an "I love you" from me as he was leaving.

Ick, WindSparrow. Not the sort of thing you'd want to find at any time, much less first thing in the morning.

Might a covering on the floor help? We use cheap plastic stair runners that we originally got to protect the carpet during our move. We recycled them to protect the carpet from spilled food and litterbox accidents.

Andi, I know you said you didn't want to buy another litter box, but I did get this one--it has a high back and a flip top. Maybe this might stop the "peeing through the seal" issue.

We also had serious problems with Oswald NOT keeping his business in the box, so to speak. I know it's frustrating and stressful. I hope you can work something out that doesn't make you crazy.

I'm a slug this morning. It is one of those days where the list is so impressive that I can't even manage to get in the shower. But I have managed to pre-test Bobby for his Friday spelling test and get him off to school. Then I marked up Brendon's essay for him to redo and reprint and got him off to school. (I felt that his using &*#@ to suggest the subject of his essay swearing was inappropriate in a serious 8th grade essay)

We have a Bar Mitzvah to attend tonight. Brendon's best friend and my dearest friend's son. I'm reading something, but she hasn't sent it to me yet!!! Thanks to discussion here I found out about the multiples of 18 thing. The ceremony is tonight and there is a brunch thingy tomorrow. I'm guessing that I bring his gift tomorrow?

This is also Nascar weekend and we had tickets for all 3 days. Alas, we have 4 tickets going unused tonight. My mother and step-dad arrive tomorrow so Grandpa and the boys can do the races thing while Mom and I relax at home. This means that I have to make clean the house.

Yikes.

I'm actually sorry I wasn't here last night because school and teachers always a favorite subject. Maybe later. Because really, at 10:10 I should be already showered and in the office.

I just spent the last hour printing out my school materials for my next class Business Law. Damn, lots of reading coming up.

I have no advice on the catbox issue, though you have my empathy.

Today is C's birthday. We celebrated last night because she is spending the weekend with her dad. K-Bug is going with her this time, so hopefully this weekend will work out better than the last weekend C spent with her dad.