She just said that her children are the wrong race to cause riots or social media campaigns if they get attacked, but that's the America they live in. I give up. This person is not worth arguing with.

They ARE the right race and gender to get help stealing bikes, however...

[link]

White guy steals bike: Pretty much ignored
Black guy steals bike: Stop him!
White chick steals bike: Maybe I can bone her...

I'll cheerfully chime in with that if you'd like :)

Learned today: it takes a looooooooooooooooooong time, but you can pet The Pumpk until she becomes overstimulated and gets all attacky. Loki just tends to go to sleep or run off. This differing reaction has generally been true of my experiences with girl vs boy kitties.

I'm so tired and disheartened that I can't even read or listen to more news about the trial. I just... can't. I felt like this when Bush was elected too.

I was trying to cheat the UCLA parking of my $12 so I parked on the exact opposite side of campus to where I needed to be. It meant I had to walk up and then down a medium sized hill to get where I was going and it took about 20 minutes to do so. I wish I had thought it all the way through because my clogs + barefeet + humid day = two large blisters.

Doh.

Also, N wants me to download minecraft for him and Grace. I don't know anything about it and feel like it will be a waste of money until he can figure it out on his own.

He can probably figure out a lot on his own. And if he has friends who do it, they talk about it at school and learn from each other. I like the creativity that kids can find in Minecraft - mine both like to build worlds and start farms, and neither likes to play the mode with monsters much. But given the addictive nature of the game, we spend way too much energy setting limits and enforcing them. So if that sort of thing is an issue in your house you might want to save yourself the work.

Thanks, flea, for that feedback. We have a Catch-22 screen time policy at the moment where the minute he asks for screen time he doesn't get any, but when I randomly notice it and remember and want a moment, I'll give him screen time un-solicited.

Grace wore her speaking valve all day today! this is exciting.

Yay for Grace! She have any opinions on it?

I listened to two 10 year oldish boys natter on about minecraft while watching the fireworks on the 4th. My brain kinda glazed over. But I happen to know that this is true of many conversational topics between kids that age.

She likes the speaking valve now. She's much louder with it on, which is nice. She'll need to wear it to school next year.

Grace!