The H and I are celebrating this long weekend by both having bad colds. So far, we've slept late, got breakfast, grocery shopped and slounged around in a sickly fashion. based on you guys, I just ordered the top-opening litterbox, though!

Our town is nuts right now. In addition to the normal "people coming up from the valley for Labor Day" traffic, there's a rodeo and fair down on the reservation, symphony in the park in the major town, and the corn festival in the town to the north. It is basically insane trying to go anywhere or do anything.

We've got a football game.

Noisy storm coming in from the west. I thought it was the Grand Prix, but no, that's the other noise....

I'm very jealous.

College move-in here. Everyone on the street is lost and everyone in the grocery store is shopping in a group.

I just half-prepped an eggplant for parm: blanched slices and breaded them, and now they are in the freezer! To be parmed when it is colder. I think I overcooked them, but that should be ok, I think.

Also, of course it's Allston Christmas aka moving day for many many people, but I am resisting walking the streets looking for free stuff.

Deaf preschooler told to change the sign for his name, because his name is Hunter, and the sign for it kinda looks like a gun. (The school district responded in a letter that doesn't seem to me like it clears up anything at all.) [link]

I don't know the language details. When the school board says this:

Grand Island Public Schools has not changed the sign language name of any student, nor is it requiring any student to change how his or her name is signed. The school district teaches American Sign Language (“ASL”) for students with hearing impairments. ASL is recommended by the Nebraska Department of Education and is widely used in the United States. The sign language techniques taught in the school district are consistent with the standards of the Nebraska Department of Education and ASL.

And the article mentions that the boy uses SEE--is there an implication that if he was using ASL this wouldn't be an issue?

I just randomly grabbed a pair of sandals before running errands today, and I grabbed a pair I haven't worn in at least two years--because I've gotten away without wearing sandals that long. But 5 years ago, I didn't just wear a range of sandals, I also wore high heeled ones. It was weird being an extra two inches taller to go to Walgreens.

But then I jacked up my knee overtraining with kettlebells, and I was down to just a couple pairs of heels once I'd finally recovered--and those were boots.

I'm just trying to remember the me that used to swan around in those, and it's way peculiar. Mild summers, me not liking how my feet look, the mess that are my permanently bruised shins...I hadn't realised how for granted I was taking my black tights and boots.

And the article mentions that the boy uses SEE--is there an implication that if he was using ASL this wouldn't be an issue?

That part was confusing me. But the main differences between ASL and SEE are in the grammar, not the vocabulary. The sign for "hunt" is the same in both. SEE is Signing Exact English, which is basically using English grammar with signs. (There are debates about how useful it is in an academic context, with some people saying that it helps deaf kids learn English better and others saying that it just confuses them; I haven't read enough of the studies to be able to say anything about that issue.)

My best guess is that the teacher told the parents to come up with a new name sign, and then the district heard about it and heard all the objections and overruled the teacher, but these articles really don't give enough details to figure all that out.

My condolences to you and your family, Theo.