Anyway, what would be a reasonable price for a used Wii console? And used games? I tried to look at ebay and saw a HUGE range of prices. I'm clueless.

Suzi, I just texted Lewis-he says $200 is what GameStop charges for a used Wii console. The range of prices for games goes from about $10-$45.

When I swim, I just leave my glasses in the locker and rely on my goggles to give me decent, if blurry, vision underwater. The old goggles I had had really small "lenses," but my new ones are really big so I can see loads more than before.

Tonight was interesting--power was out in half the building when I came home, so I had to walk up the stairs instead of take the elevator, but when I got into my unit, the tv and light worked fine. However, everything went out after about an hour, after the ComEd truck showed up (I think they shut everything down to restart it all up again). It's all working now.

The last time this happened was the first summer I lived here. Same thing--power out in half the building, the other half having limited power for part of the apartment and full power in other parts. That night was much warmer (having no fans was killing me until ComEd fixed it), but both outages were definitely not due to weather issues, since the problem was only in the complex.

When I was in Kathmandu, half the power went out in my room. And I do mean half. To the right, power, to the left, zip. Put tour leader without power completely and he had to use my room fer stuff. But the absolutely hilarious part was that the reason I had half power? Illegal India power. Nepal is having electricity issues due to drought, and so a lot of businesses buy into illegal private lines strung somehow from India. Which I halfway benefited from. Not sure why I find this so funny.

Thinking of all the LA-istas tonight. I haven't checked on the fire progress this afternoon, I hope it is more under control. The smoke has made its way to Colorado, which just blows my mind.

The smoke has made its way to Colorado, which just blows my mind. The smoke has made its way to Colorado, which just blows my mind.

That's LA smoke outside here in Utah? I thought it was smoke from our own big fire south of here. So you may be breathing Utah smoke as well.

Mount Wilson might've made it! After the Mt. Stromlo disaster, I'm all eyeore, but that may have been a near miss. Heart sank when the webcam went out after some scary pix.

Trying to explain fire season to a UKer. Just doesn't map.

Owen is ADORABLE! Seriously DH and I were admiring that first day of school photo for yonks. And Isaac will be seething with jealousy about the Bakugan in his hand. So cute! As is the Casper note! I have all these notes by Frances that I just cannot get rid of. Too precious.

but I think part of the problem with high schools/dropout rates, etc is that the kids in less wealthy neighborhoods who in the past might have completed high school but not college don't see any benefit to just completing high school (in terms of jobs/income).

This is so true. Two years ago the College Board did a study and broke it down by income and ethnicity. The difference for Latino or African American Male who complete high school versus those who dropout is actually less than $300/year. If that's the income difference, then there is NO POINT in staying for a high school diploma. (The AA, BA/BS, MA/MS, Doctoral differentials are of course enormous).

Of course money makes it easier. But giving money to schools does not even kind of automatically make a better school. And again, I'm at a program improvement school, new campus, etc. etc. We have a beautiful site, decentish technology if we want it, innovative scheduling etc. And we still have a crappy test scores/grad rates etc. In part because we have crappy students.

The hotword in ed circles these days is intervention. In fact, the big problem is answering the question of WHERE to intervene when a kid's needs are in every area and are so great. When I get a 12th grader who is in an AP class, has a 3.8 GPA and still only gets 380 verbal on the SAT, what does that mean? Especially if the last book he read was Matilda (not to knock Roald Dahl).

Kids in my neighborhood school start years behind. Probably most of the Buffista children already have a love of books, of being read to, of singing songs and playing games. They've been exposed to more than just a blanket covering the stroller. Kids I've nannied for have been places and seen things that knocked my socks off, used words like marsupial correctly at age 3.

If you have never been exposed to the basics, if you come into Kindergarten without knowing your own name (hand to god, I've heard more than one Kindergarten teacher tell me that) or without knowing what a book is or how to count, then how does that teacher make up 5 years of parenting? And that differential between kids who have been engaged with the world and those who haven't grows each year.

Moreover, when I would turn around to a kid who would not be able to do 9th grade level work, who was on the path of dropping out, and I got a parent's response of "well, at least he's gone to more school than I have." what do I do with that?

I'm not saying this is all the fault of the parent or the child or the community, but a child's failure in school is more than just a school failing the child.

t /soapbox

This obviously chaps my ass.

Bless the responsible teachers for doing what they can.

Anyway, what would be a reasonable price for a used Wii console? And used games? I tried to look at ebay and saw a HUGE range of prices. I'm clueless.

Emmett bought a Wii with money he made from umpiring. He paid about $200. He got the Lego Star Wars game for Wii (he'd already had it for the computer and DS) and loves it. We also do the Wii Bowling fairly often.

We're looking forward to the Harry Potter Legos for Wii what with all the wandwaving etc.