That column had me yelling EEEWWWWWWWWWW. That woman needs some serious therapy before she fucks up her son.

Our furnace quit heating.

No fuses out. The blower blows, the burners just don't fire up.

Fuck.

ION?

Andi and I finally got an Obama yard sign.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, OMGWTF OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Seventy-two pounds of Lab determined not to have drops put in her ear = me banging my ankle, right on the bone, against a cabinet edge.

OMGWFTBBQ did that HURT-- Since it hit right on the bone I wasn't sure if it was going to swell, but it does look like the soft tissue around the bone is swelling and the throbbing on the bone would seem to indicate a pretty deep bruise. On the upside, I can still put weight on it, so I'm guessing nothing's chipped.

And did I mention OW?

But I got the goddamned drops in her ear. And she had the grace to look sheepish and is currently sitting beside me with her head on my lap.

Ow, indeed, Barb.

Ow, Barb! Healing ~ma to you.

Shir, I'm glad that the day has been helping with the healing process, and I'm very sorry for your loss.

NYT Teacher lady? Mad as a bag of frogs on acid, and then some.

I mean, I kind of get the whole thing of being mad at the wee girl, if her kid came home feeling humiliated and uncomfortable because of this whole crush thing. But there are better ways to deal with this as a teacher, and better ways to deal with this as a parent. And going all Spanish Inquisition on the small children, deciding they're all miniature trollops, and hating any and all possible future admirers, girlfriends and wives that her son might garner in the years to come...kind of embracing the Psycho side of the force, right there.

Newsflash: small children occasionally get, or think they have, crushes on other small children. The way to deal with this? Is to DIFFUSE it, not to fuel it! Not to make it into a Romeo & Juliet-flavoured witch hunt!

bangs head on desk.

This should have been kept as unembarrassing for the wee boy as possible, whilst re-enforcing to the class that they should be showing more respect for property than to be carving graffitti, and explaining that, whilst it's nice that someone likes Sarvis so much that they want to immortalise their feelings - because, hey, we all love Sarvis - they need to realise that they've made him feel BAD, and embarrassed, which isn't cool. And we're sure they didn't mean to make him feel bad, what with them liking him.

And then have some circle time about positive ways to be a good friend, and make people feel happy.

End. Of. Story. (Why yes, I do have at least one romance in my class of 7 and 8-year olds: Boss has been smitten with Sylvia since Kindergarten. Sylvia accepts this as her due, and plays into it, and bosses him around a bit - Boss sometimes needs rescuing from being her butt monkey, but is still thoroughly smitten. In circle time, when talking about people we like, he chose Sylvia "because she is sensitive." When we made flags that showed important stuff about us, who we are, what we like doing, he made a flag with 3 vertical stripes: in one, a rendering of Sylvia in a princess-ish dress, with billowing veil, in another, an outrageously disarming picture of himself with an enormous grin like a slice of Edam cheese, his shorts seeming to start in the middle of his chest, with little stick legs coming out from them. In the central stripe, a big heart with 'I love you!' written on it in wobbly script. This was the flag for Boss's nation. I was slain. Several kids commented upon it to me, and I was suitably blase - yes, Boss likes Sylvia, we all know this - now, what can we tell about Declan from what he put on his flag, kids?)

Fay, you are totally right about the non-reacting. Too bad that oh, so many parents and professionals have not learned the trick of it.

Xposty with Buffistechnology:

I want my @%®#§√! tabs back at the top of my iGoogle page!

Grrr.

Too bad that oh, so many parents and professionals have not learned the trick of it.

In fact, does anyone have any suggestions for how to teach other professionals how to do it? I mean, beyond discussing appropriate reactions, and modeling it?

OMG, I am so Daniel in my iGoogle frustration!