In middle school we started having research papers that were a joint project between our Social Studies and English classes. They were a big fat deal.

When our little town's students got to our Regional High School we really were ahead of the game. In college even -- I knew some people who hadn't written a large paper until Senior year in High School while I'd been doing it since the seventh grade. (IIRC, it wasn't just the high-level kids either, we all wrote them.)

The last few months of eighth grade, we had to write a five-paragraph essay practically every day, to prepare us for the Early Warning Test (a test that the state of NJ gave to all eighth-graders to test for people who might need extra help in order to be able to graduate high school in another four years.) That structure and method was drilled into us -- first take a few minutes write down anything you can think of that's relevant to answering the question, then take another few minutes to organized that into an outline, and then start writing. Used that same method and format for every essay on a test up through the AP exams. (We also learned other formats for longer papers, but the five-paragraph one was definitely the one we used the most.)

Tamara, I'm very sorry for your loss. Peace and strength to you and your family.

ice water foot baths might save me from this heat

{{{Tamara}}}

No fair! She already has the meara named after her. (The quote and response thing. She started it. Back in the before time, on TT or WX or sommat. Point being, she already has a ...thing...named after her.)

Hah! I will not be greedy. I will just rant. Eventually. When I am home. Currently, I am in the airport...in Dallas...which may possibly be worthy of a rant in itself, were it not for the fact that I have internet access...

So I loved the Meara before I even met the Meara and then when I met Meara I really loved both

Aww. And I love the javachik! And the coffee-java (hey, it's a reason to move to seattle! along with the weather! which people think is insane, but seriously people--it rains because it's not cold enough to snow! Think about it!!!)

...um, I might've been a little crazy today. What with the 4:30AM-my-body-time start of the work meeting. And the forced playing of work-trivia "family feud" style. Wherein the extreme amounts of caffeine I had ingested meant I was cheering loudly and yelling "GO TEAM FOUR!" and yelling for the one man on our team (who had previously identified his strength as "sexy") as "GO MISTER SEXY!"

Ahem.

Glory Box – Portishead

Er...you listed this as an UPBEAT song, Billytea??

my mother finally 'fessed up that she's seeing my dad again.

OOooh! Now that's some family drama!!!

The picture of Squeakaboo giving me The Look is only slightly less funny than her doing it in person, y'all!

Much peace~ma for your family, Tamara. So sorry for your loss.

My friend got some good photos of the kids this past weekend. Including this one

Cash, Olivia is (1) FAR too grown to actually be the baby girl I remember, and (b) sooooo pretty!!!

(Also, and I know this sounds weird, could I Photoshop that deck picture for you? I've been teaching myself Photoshop techniques for a couple of months, and that picture is just perfect for some color boosting.)

(If that's okay with you, OF COURSE.)

We have to leave for the airport in 2.5 hours. Ask me if I've packed ANYTHING. No, wait, don't. Please don't.

Half of what I want to pack had to be washed this morning and has to hang dry. I stuck it in the California sun and have been praying to the sun gods to dry FASTER for the last two hours.

{{Tamara}} All my sympathy to your family. Peace~ma to your aunt.

What a bummer, Barb. I hope all further revisions are quick (if not painless.)