Our exciting but expected news of the week is that Matilda was placed at Grattan in the school lottery. So she'll be going to kindergarten next year at the school where she's currently in pre-K.

One of the biggest trends in SF schools has been language immersion programs - mostly Spanish and Chinese (Cantonese), though there are also French, Japanese and Mandarin programs.

A nearby neighborhood school on Haight Street that had been allowed to close has been rebooted as a Chinese Immersion program. The upshot of this is that there are no Chinese Americans in Matilda's incoming class at Grattan because (apparently) most local (Haight) Chinese Americans all opted to go the Chinese Immersion program. Weird. We're smack in the middle of the Haight and Grattan is going to be one of the whitest (76%) schools in the entire district.

The neighborhood has changed a lot over the years but it's not that white.

Bon, I've taken steps to acquire S1.

30 Rock was when I realised I'd given up on sitcoms, I think. I could appreciate it, but Tracy Morgan. Then I tried HIMYM, and it was like an allergic reaction.

Coupling UK was probably the last sitcom I watched before the great half hour purge.

I'm watching a surprising (for me) number of sitcoms right now, including Modern Family and Mr. Sunshine (yay.), but not Community or Raising Hope.

I think the last time I really watched sitcoms was Friends. I have loved the episodes of Modern Family I've seen, and the first Mr. Sunshine was suprisingly fun, but I just don't remember to watch them.

If Raising Hope didn't come on right after Glee, I probably never would have seen it.

Someone mentioned The Jeffersons at dinner the other day, so I'm creating a season pass and grabbing up a few eps to see if I still like it. I haven't watched it in forever.

Remember when NBC Thursday nights were...NBC Thursdays? I know appointment TV has shifted (nothing's truly appointment anymore, although I twitch if I don't get to see SPN as soon as possible), but that was a mega-block carved out of my week, for comedies and ER.

Our exciting but expected news of the week is that Matilda was placed at Grattan in the school lottery. So she'll be going to kindergarten next year at the school where she's currently in pre-K.

That's where you and JZ wanted her to be, right? I mean, even though it was expected, that's still great.

Remember when NBC Thursday nights were...NBC Thursdays?

More than once, too. Thursday nights were always TV nights for a long time for me.

That's where you and JZ wanted her to be, right?

Yep. We really lucked out on the changes to the school lottery system. Two years ago we were walking past Grattan and JZ said, "Hey, I didn't know they had a CDC (preschool) there."

Put ourselves on the wait list. Waited. Waited. Gave up. Went to more expensive preschool at her work. And then last fall this spot opened up. So that was a huge financial positive for us (about $800/month cheaper). And then they changed the school assignment process so that (a) if you went to that school's CDC and (b) you were in the school's attendance area then you were given priority over all other applicants except siblings.

So, that's lucky thing number one. Lucky thing number two is that they're rolling back the age eligibility date from December by one month every year, to phase it down to birthday before September 1st. Matilda's birthday is in September so if we didn't hit this little window she would've been held back for a year.

Also, the after care program is affordable, on-site and has a sliding scale so we'll probably pay less than full price. And the after care program for 3rd to 5th grade is FREE.

So instead of having the equivalent of an extra rent payment every month we'll have an excellent free public school paid for and supported by taxes. Which shouldn't feel like such an amazing boon in my opinion, but it does feel like one.

Basically it turns out I'm kind of a Socialist.

Zmayhem WIN! That is terrific, congrats.

That really is wonderful news, Hec. Socialism FTW!*

*At least in this case. I know very little about socialism and therefore hesitate to endorse it completely.