Twelve year old was put out that she had to waste most of a school day attending apresentation by the author of Bang!, a book that is supposed to appeal to the typical inner city school kid. Of course, twelve year old hasn't had the stereotypical city upbringing, she doesn't know anyone who's been murdered, there's been no reported violence on our street, or her friend's streets, or near our streets, her parents are married, her friends' parents are married, and we live a boring middle class upbringing. Maybe she'll be able to leverage that into white middle class guilt later in life, or a dangerous rep in college (I wonder how well she can talk ebonics). I explained to her that  had to read a few books in high school and junior high (The Pigman, A Separate Peace) that I just couldn't relate to, and doing stuff you didn't want to or particularly enjoy was great practice for getting a job.

We watched one movie in the last two weeks, The Sweet Hereafter. I found it dreamlike and haunting, much like the Virgin Suicides. I'm grateful my kids don't ride a bus that goes on steep icy roads with a deep lake nearby.

I want my week of vacation back, it wasn't really vacation. Mrs. Ha's anti-anxiety med is not working, she's very, very, very anxious, which made much of the week a time for consoling and comforting and general burn out. There's a lot of things that I wanted to do that I didn't.

Update, klonopin is the shiznitt.

I did get a chance to catch up with some high school friends, one was playing out Wednesday night, and I met another friend there (and also a previous teacher of twelve year old's). It was good to talk with old friends, and I enjoyed the idea of middle aged grey haired med waving cell phones arounds and discussing their health issues instead of rocking out. I also learned two pints of Arrogant Bastard are one pint too many.

Speaking of beer, I did get a batch of honey lager done Sunday, it's bubbling nicely in the basement. I need to make a northwest order, I'm thinking I can get soem maibock done over Christmas break, and let it lager all winter long.

Newspaper_girl came over before Thanksgiving and we made a big batch of sugar cutout cookies, so those are done. I also put some plastic up on various windows, to keep the heat in, and started dealing with my attic dormer (the one over the stairs, so the eaves are way up there). I couldn't find any mini-scaffolding that would fit, so I'm doing some temporary framing using exposed studs and the banister.

Saturday we went to Mrs. Ha's sister's house, and ended up seeing the whole family. First up was the nursing home, my mother-in-law in the dementia ward still has that crazy funny cruel sadistic abusive potentially lethal streak. When one of the patients asks is anyone has seen his wife (who may even be dead), she tells him she just saw her, walking out of the ward, with another man. She's also taken to turning off her roommates oxygen at night, it bothers her when she tries to sleep. I should get her the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest DVD. Yes, she's still got it.

After the nuthouse, we went to the sister's house, and was a mellow time, which I sorely needed. She's on facebook, as was a niece and nephew (and they've friended me, hah-hah).

There was a moment of schadenfreude on the way to Buffalo. The toll booths were backed up about a quarter mile back, veterans know to get over in the left lane, so I did. Some a-hole driving a Mercedes SUV pulled out in front of me to bypass the stopped traffic, because I like to leave a little space in front of me. The fool didn't have an EZ-Pass, so he still ended up waiting in a long line, while we just breezed through. Sucker.

Facebook, okay, I'm over 50 friends, and I've used it to set up playdates and the Saturday thing. It's just another social networking thing, I wish they would adopt the six degrees thing where you can see all your connnections at a glance. I'm also rarely on it during the week.

I'll be upgrading our cell phones (mine and Mrs. Ha's) soon, it's only a little more to get on twelve year old's Verizon plan. My inner geek is thinking a Centro would be cool, I only use my cell and text capabilities once or twice a day, but I have fond memories of my Palm III. Twelve year old wants to come to the Verizon store, but doesn't have much input, except that we can't all get matching purple Moto W755s. I'd like music, games, qwerty, long battery life, micro CD card and cheapness. I will get a corporate discount.