Happy Birthday, MM! May you finally perfect that robot army you've been working on.

Happy Birthday, Miracle Man!!!

Strawberries with cream cheese dip:

{{{Erin}}} I'm so sorry about the sleep problem. I know how difficult it can be when you don't have one of the socially acceptable reasons why you need to miss work. Take care.

I'm sorry about the insomnia, Erin. Fie on stubborn pharmacists!

I made a huge Oriental Trading order yesterday, so we'll be set for a while once it comes.

Oriental Trading Co. is dangerous. And they let me order stuff at one of the group homes, because I will do crafts with the residents. Just in case you were wishing it weren't so prohibitively expensive to get fleece blanket kits from them - their fleece is god-awful cheap. It pulls out of shape and is not always cut evenly.

Note to self: When you're craving chocolate chip cookies, Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs Chips Ahoy! Thin Crips baked chocolate chip snacks is a poor substitute.

My dad would snap on the lights and bark "Get up!" in his master sergeant's voice. It was a horribly unpleasant way to get woken up. From deep sleep to sitting upright, adrenaline coursing in my veins with no transition.

Contrastingly, my college girlfriend, Suz, would come down to my dorm room and gently waggle my foot back and forth so we could go to our Shakespeare class. Most pleasant.

Probably better one's Father do the first than the second though...

Probably better one's Father do the first than the second though...

Yeah, that would've been creepy. There are mornings where I I have to literally drag Emmett out of bed. Since his bed is fairly high off the floor, I just drag him until his legs are touching the ground.

Today I almost passed out, I think. So, even though I'm still thinking "Oh, I should be working,", Ithink almost fainting is enough to still even my wacko German ethic. Feeling decent now, though.

One of my coworkers is so upset with her 15 year old daughter that she ended up coming in to work an hour earlier than scheduled just to get away from her. Apparently the issue is, the girl is not doing her homework for her science class. She's getting high enough marks on tests and projects that she's got a C in the class overall. The girl does her homework in all her other classes. When I told coworker that I'd bet next week's pay that the homework is stupid, meaningless busy-work to the girl, and that it might do more good to negotiate with the teacher for more interesting, challenging projects to do instead of the busy-work, she said, "Well she just has to do it, that's all."

I am so glad my dad had been the kind of student who never took a book home, and never had to take a final. My parents told us we had to maintain a B average, and any class we got a D in, we had to study every night for an hour whether or not there was homework, until the grade came up. I was given a pass on that policy for the mandated remedial reading class that I could not get out of, in spite of having undergraduate reading skills in the 9th grade. Also, the typing class I took my senior year, got a D in that, but they didn't care, because I learned enough to not have to pay anyone else to type papers for me. But my folks were willing to let us have a choice about how to marshal our efforts, so long as we kept up a reasonable level.

I have to say, if this were my kid, and she only had one class that she was taking the easy way out, I'd let it go.