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Update
2004-02-24 - 9:53 a.m. Oh, oh oh. So, yesterdays entry. I'll just recap the highlights -- Nora had a good time in DC despite the loss of luggage and ineptness on the part of the chaperones at helping her to retrieve it. I was absolutely furious, but at least after talking to Nora felt that they weren't completely inept, and that she saw a lot and learned a lot. I think it was sort of a complicated social affair -- she was rooming with two friends who didn't know each other, plus a girl no one really knew. Other friends were in a different room -- But they didn't spend too much time in their rooms, so I think it was basically okay. It's hard to be around people for 8 days straight even under the best of circumstances. But I think it was a good experience. The rest of us had a good week, too -- Maddy and I went skiing for a day (Thursday, the perfect day -- tons of fresh new snow and sunny, but not too warm.). It was great. I've gotten mysteriously better, too. I can really go down blue slopes with ease, now. There used to always be at least one spot that I could do, but would fill me with terror. But this time, no. Maybe it was the snow. Maybe it was that I'm in slightly better shape from biking so much in the fall. Maybe it's that I really wasn't feeling all that great last winter. I think I was anaemic. So -- And my knitting convention! Oh, it was really good -- I went to one class on basic pattern drafting which was really useful. And I bought some lovely yarn, and met the people from the yarn shop in Truckee that I have dealt with over the internet but never met. They were really nice, and have really nice yarn. Our local yarn shop is also really nice, but tends (Nora and I have come to believe. Out neighbor agrees) to have kind of old-lady colors. I'm fond of it, but it's laid out in this retarded fashion, so you can't really find anything, and it has a lot of those new sparkly yarns, and wierd colors. We both remember the yarn shop in Ann Arbor with longing -- lots of nice wools and good colors, which I think maybe means lots of greens and blues. And lovely mohair. Anyway, at the convention I got some nice wool for socks, and some great thick wool from a sheep farm in Virginia, and some beautiful alpaca from a farm in Vermont, and the card of another beautiful alpaca farm in the San Juan Islands (beautiful alpaca, but I couldn't afford it.) Plus some patterns, and some needles. So it was good. I got a pattern for a sweater for Kevin, but he thinks it will be too girly for him. He is so very odd -- sweaters are not girly. And I finished the baby sweater, and it looked good! And I started Maddy's sweater (which has four colors in this nice Norwegian wool -- I'm using these Nova Scotia two-color patterns) It looks really great so far, and the wool is really nice to work with. And Nora came home and was glad to see us! And we were glad to see her. And Maddy listened to the four Harry Potter tapes that we have and lounged around in her pajamas and had a good rest. It was fairly exquisite. And now I'm back at work, but thinking I would like to really clean the house. It's so full of dust. And I'm discomboblutaed, too. I keep losing things -- partly, I fear, because the house is such a mess. And it's al;most time to start gardening, but I can't quite yet because (thank god) it keeps raining. Oh, and Maddy got in to Middle School B. (Hooray!) I went to a fairly annoying parent teacher conference about her. They persist in regarding Middle School B as academically inferior. I think, actually, that it isn't. It's more "whole child" based, which is actually a great thing -- a lot of importance is placed on being nice, which is not a bad thing in middle school. I think I went on and on about this yesterday (lucky you!), but in the end I think it's not a school for neurotic parents. It's not a school that says "send your kid here, and in 6 years he'll be turning down Harvard for Middlebury!" (as one school I know really did say). It's more about learning and less about thinking that you're special because you're learning. It's not about getting the top math grade. It's actually a good place for Nora because she's smart, but being smart is not really a huge deal there - which I think is an easier way of being smart for her. She would probably be better off if she were more competitive, but unfortunately for her, she's our kid. Also -- I'm not sure how important it is to drive your kids like dogs in middle school. It's always seemed more important to me that you learn because you enjoy it, etc. etc. etc. And you know, the whole appearance versus reality thing, which has always been my downfall. You know -- it's almost kind of a midwestern thing. Okay -- and now I have to go. Bye!
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