I thought Super Hero Movies were for Kids.

Friday Fragment Time here at the pretty good Coral.

First of all let me start out with a rant. My temp job ended on Tuesday, so I have had the ability to do things between 3 p.m and 11 p.m. that eluded me when I was working. So, Wednesday I went to see Green Lantern. Over the past 5 years there have been a plethora of super hero movies, the majority of these films feature the comic book heroes I grew up with.

Now when I think of super heroes, I think of 6 - 12 year old boys. If I were making Super Hero films they would be my target demographic My problem is that with few exceptions almost every super hero movie that has come out in the past ten years is not one I would want a 6-12 year boy to go to. Especially not my 6-12 year old boy.

Green Lantern is no exception. It is a dark scary movie that would certainly give my son nightmares. There is also sexual content that would preclude me from having good old Spider Droid watch it.

Over the past 5 years I have previewed many of the super hero movies, Iron Man, Spider Man 1&2, Fantastic 4 among others and there was always something in those films that kept me from letting Spider Droid watch it.

What bothers me is that many of these movies are marketed for children and that children would love watching super hero movies. My son is always disappointed when he asks about a movie I have screened and I tell him it's not for kids. He always gives me a look that says a Super hero movie that's not for kids, what's the point of that?

For Fragment 2 I will move from rant to review.


I recently had the joy of reading a great book to my kids. It is called Marvin Beeederman, Super Hero - The curse of the bologna sandwich.

The thing I really liked about this book is not just that it's funny, it's how it's funny. It uses one of my favorite methods of humor, repetition. It repeats parts of the book over and over until the mere mention of certain words are pure hilarity. I am looking forward to reading other books in this series.

Fragment 3

Continuing the superhero theme. Here is a video of one of the super heroes of the animal kingdom, the mighty dolphin.




Well that's all the fragments I have time for today. I have had a super time. For more Friday Fragments click here.

Fragments, Photos, Tweets and Rants.

Yes you can sing my title to the tune of Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes if you want to. You got to know I will! That said, I have been blogging like crazy lately. I still have a lot to say and Friday Fragments is a great place to tie up loose ends

Fragment 1: I blogged earlier about former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich this week. Maybe I didn't mention that when he ran he said he was going to clean up corruption left in the wake of the previous governor. Now that George Ryan is in jail and Blago soon to join him I really like this new license plate and slogan proposal.

Fragment 2: I also have blogged some what inadvertently about the Pioneer Woman over the past two posts. They were really peripheral blink if you miss them comments beyond the main themes of the posts. It got me to thinking though that I do have a few pictures of her I wanted to post. Amy and the bigs went to a book store in Naperville this spring to get her new book.

She signed Spider Droid's book. and posed for these pictures.

She was impressed with his profound Lego skills. If I was The Next Big Thing on the Internet, I would have probably been "Next!" She, was incredibly gracious.

Fragment 3: As you may or may not know bad or inaccurate commercials drive me crazy. Today I was listening to Pandora while weeding the garden. (If you don't believe me check out this tweet.) A commercial for Lowe's came on and they said July 4th was finally here. That really ticked me off. (If you don't believe me check out this tweet.)

You see they Didn't say July 4th weekend was finally here. They made a single day into a season and then call the season by the day. This sort of thing really irks me, because making the day something it isn't, obscures what it is. In the Little House books, especially Little Town on the Prairie and Those Happy Golden Years, the 4th of July was a special day nestled in between 2 ordinary days. This gave it special meaning.

Our town's 4th of July fireworks were June 25th! 9 days before the actual event. Now they used to always have them the Saturday before the 4th, which I could understand. I even sort of got it when the 4th of July was on a Saturday, and they held the fire works the Saturday before. But 9 days? I mean they should have called them the Father's day fireworks since they were held closer to them, then the 4th of July. Many of the local area festivals which usually coincide with the 4th of July are ending on Sunday this year. I don't get it. The date has significance!

The timer just rang which means I have to stop this ranting and move on. (If you don't believe me check out this tweet.)


Fragment 4: I stole this picture along with the picture from Fragment 1 from the same Facebook account. I could type a lot more, but I think the picture speaks for itself.

Those are all the fragments I have for the time being. Click here to head back to Half Past Kissing Time for more Friday Fragments. (If you don't believe me, check out this tweet.)

The Dog Day of Spring and other Fragments

It's Friday and it's time for some fragments. These aren't technically fragments, but the way I've been rolling lately if I don't post them here they may never get out.

Last Tuesday we had fun at the old ball park. The White Sox have a Kid's club and each year our kids get two tickets to see a baseball game. We parked for free brought in our own dinner so besides some lip balm in A White Sox container that Amy bought and some cotton candy for the kids it was a cost free affair (Okay gas is like $4.00 a gallon, let's not rub that in!)

Here we are on our way to the stadium.

Spider Droid and I playing catch before we head in.

Each year we try to go to Dog Day. Which is where some fans can bring their dogs and the dogs are able to walk around the field. Puppy loves this for obvious reasons.

Nothing beats food at the old ball park.

One of the best features of U.S. Cellular field for our kids is a place called Fundamentals. It is a number of baseball skill related games that the kids can play for free. There are batting cages (more on those later), and other batting and throwing drill games. There is a miniature field where you can practice fielding and throwing with the staff there. Here is spider droid making a solid play.

My favorite of the games by far is a running race where the kids practice running from home to first base. Here is puppy running for the dogs.

Oh yes there was a baseball game and yes the Sox won.

Now Bunny also participated in some of the athletic stuff. She is a very fleet runner and even tried the batting cages which is way out of her comfort zone. There are two batting cages ans she had to go into the 8 and older one which is medium speed. She did fine the first time and a few innings later she went back. On that occasion she got hit by a pitch which gave her a nasty contusion.

What followed was we went to the bowels of the ball park to first aid. She was treated like royalty even being taken there in a wheel chair, which of course she both loved and embarrassed by. (she's almost a teenage that is a mix of emotions she needs to get used to.)

While we were in First Aid a 20 year old came in with severe alcohol poisoning and perhaps drug use. The nurse had to leave Bunny for a while to help this girl. When the nurse and helper were able to help bunny they were very impressed with her and made some nice comments about her deportment and about her being home schooled.

On the way back to our seats we walked by the main offices of the Sox and I took a quick picture of Bunny with her arm in a sling in front of the 2005 World Series Trophy.

All in all it was a great night. A week from Monday Aim and I will go to a game and plan to actually watch it.


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Fragment 2: Bird Feeding



Bunny got a book about birds from the library and wanted to make a bird feeder craft so she could sketch some birds in the back yard. She obviously didn't get the memo that neither her mother or I are crafty but we tried it anyway.

A) Start with some pine cones and then coat them with a peanut butter lard mixture. Then put some eye screws on the pine cones.




Step 2 string the pine cones between 2 trees.

Step 3 get on a ladder and try get the pine cones up properly.

step 4: Pine cone treats for obliging birds.

Fragment 3: Drawing Birds

There is a restored prairie land 1/2 way between out house and our church. On Monday morning I took the kids to the prairie so they could sketch some birds.

And of course so Spider Droid could be goofy. He found a dead mouse and will post about it in his blog soon.

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Fragment 4: Light Show

The other day Bunny tried to create a way to turn a light on just by opening a door here she is to tell you about it:

Well that's all the fragments I have for today for more Friday fragments stop over at half past kissing time click here.

Next Time: Six Word Saturday

Friday Fragments: Levis, Bunnyisms and Give-a-ways

My clock say Thursday evening but it really must be Half Past Kissing Time, The time of the week for Friday Fragments!


Fragment 1: In October I mentioned how one of my favorite musicians Allen Levi only updates his blog about once a month. In fact, His last post was only written at the excoriation (his word, not mine) and cajoling of faithful readers. The post was a masterpiece. His prose is almost as good as his lyrics. (By the way, IMHO, His music and lyrics are so powerful I would just rename the Grammys to the Levis.) His post about 2 sets of fathers and daughters just oozes poignancy.

Yet with as good as his blog is, he only updates it kicking and screaming, which leaves his readership wanting. Allen, must blog more. So, I have decided to do something about it. I have written a song: Since I can't carry many tunes with or without buckets don't expect any viral videos any time soon. (Some people have said that my singing may cause a virus.) Be that as it may here are the lyrics to my song.

Blog Allen Blog

He likes to sing
He likes to play
He doesn't like to blog
But that's OK

He likes his dog
And he likes his town
He doesn't like to blog
So word gets around

But he's really good at blogging
Eloquent, sincere, and charming
So the fact he doesn't like it
Can be quite disarming

Blog Allen Blog
We think you're quite a guy
Blog Allen Blog,
we need a regular dose of Levi

He hooks us in August with a song a day
And before we're saturated he just goes away
He can go a month or more without a single post
When he does it's great
But then the blog goes comatose

Blog Allen Blog
Come and press some words together
Blog Allen Blog
Your posts keep us on our tether

He's a poet
He's a critic
He can be a clown

The cyber space
is a better place
When he's around

Blog Allen Blog
I'm an Allen Levi geek
How about posting twice a fortnight
Which boils down to once a week



It can be a poem
It can be a song
It can be a recipe
A video of planting a tree
A thought on a sermon
A song about Ethel Merman
A tip about killing vermin

Blog Allen Blog



To hear some good music (Allen's) click here to go to his website.

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Fragment 2: As you know Levi's come in pairs. So I think it's time to give an update of my favorite current t.v. show (Chuck) starring my second favorite Levi (Zachary)

Zachary Levi Autograph
Originally uploaded by TravelShorts

Last year I was very clear in my opinion that Chuck was humming along in season 3 with brilliant episode after brilliant episode. Season 4, in no means a disappointment, has not been as consistently good as season 3. Instead of building from episode to episode, it reminds me of a title of another Chuck's (Swindoll) Book: Three steps forward. Two Steps back.



Despite it's unevenness (one mediocre episode of Chuck is worth a handful of CSI, NCIS, or the rest of the alphabet soup that's out there.), I still love Chuck and hope it staves off cancellation for yet another year.


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Fragment 3: I don't dabble in to too many Bunnyisms here at HSD. My 5 year old puppy tends to get all the good lines. Bunny had a doozy this week. I was reluctant to mention it, since it doesn't really put me in a good light. The fact is that I am very inconsistent in the way I structure the household and discipline the children. This past week I was much more consistent much to the chagrin of a certain 11 year old.



After handling some preteen rebellion, she came up to me and said " I liked you much better before Mom taught you how to parent." Well it is not her earthly Mom teaching me to parent but our Heavenly Father. I just need His grace to get better and better at it.



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Fragment 4: A few weeks ago, I started giving away an mp3 of an on line home school conference. So far, I have had only 1 entry. So it looks like I know who is going to win. Sure you may not home school yourself. But you may know someone who does. You could be a big hero in someones life to win such a useful prize for them. I have decided to lengthen the contest 1 more week until March 7th. Click here to see complete rules and to enter by leaving a comment.

That is all my Fragments for now. Other's are just a click away.

I usually don't fall for stuff like this . . .

Fragment 1:

I have worked 2 jobs in the past 10 years where at least part of my job was being aware of fraud and fraudulent behavior. So when I received an e-mail today from UPS that said my package was coming and just to open an attachment to get the tracking #, I should have known better.

But for whatever reason I opened the attachment because from time to time I do have packages sent to me for products I am reviewing or free trials I see advertised. However, I should have noticed I was not addressed by name, nor was there any indication of my real address or anything like that.

Bottom Line: this was a malware scheme. The moment I opened the e-mail attachment my security system zapped it from here to Feliz Navidad. However, things could have been a lot worse. If you ever get an e-mail asking you to do anything even just open an attachment don't do it. The best thing to do before even opening a suspicious e-mail is google the subject. If I would have simply googled United Parcel Service Notification E-mail, I would have soon found out it was a scam and not even have to trust my security program to protect me.

Fragment 2: What do you get the Dad/Grandpa who has and/or gives away everything?

My Dad is a hard person to buy for. I have talked in these pages before about how his goal in life is to de-clutter by giving all his junk to his kids. On Monday I realized my Dad was coming over to fix things at my house the next day and the day after that was His birthday. I decided that the best thing to dp was throw him an impromptu surprise party. Bunny made a cake (Puppy and Spider Droid helped.) My Dad showed up slighltly after the cake came out of the oven so we moved it to the desk in my room where Bunny frosted it once it had cooled. I would go in there from time to time to check on Bunnies "Math".

On Tuesday night I saw that the first 100 primes were still written on a dry erase board from our history unit on Pythagoras. This gave me an idea. I rewrote the primes and stopped at 73 which is how old my Dad was. I then draped my Sox Throw (No it is not a 1919 reference) over the dry erase board.

After the cake was frosted. I took my Dad out to the shed to ask him some question. This of course was a ruse so Spider Droid could remove the throw revealing this . . .

Bunny and Puppy brought out the cake and we had a celebration.

Fragment 3: Rainbow connection on C.D.

Today, Puppy went in her room and saw a rainbow on her wall.

The sun was shining through the Window reflected on a c.d. on a bookshelf and the rainbow was visible on the ceiling.

Fragment 4: Crazy Video.

On Tuesday, I was helping Spider Droid make a power point presentation. I kind of went stir crazy and made this video . . .

Well that's all the fragments for today. click here to head back to Half Past Kissing Time.

Frugal Fragmental Fridays

It has been a long long long time since I posted at Frugal Fridays. There are many reasons for this. The main one being, I haven't had anything especially frugal to share. But since this is not only Frugal Friday at Life As Mom it is also Friday Fragments at Half Past Kissing Time. I thought I could get my lead fragment to be frugal. Let's see how I do.

Fragment 1: Is Groupon for the truly Frugal?

About a year ago I joined Groupon. I remember it was mid April we were visiting Amy's brothers in Madison and Spider Droid had just come back from a hike listening to the spring peepers. Spring Peepers are frogs before I start getting angry comments. I borrowed my BIL's computer and I signed up for group-on.

Since then I have been receiving regular e-mail from them about various deals. It wasn't until today that I actually used one of them. Either the deals are not something Aim (I sometimes call my wife Aim, deal with it.) and I are interested in like a wine tasting or they are not really good deals or and this is generally it we'd have to spend money we normally wouldn't to save money.

The deal I got today is a good case in point. I got an e-mail to get a ticket to a movie called The Lincoln Lawyer which opens tomorrow for $6.00. They said the ticket was a $13.00 value and yes there are movie theatres near us that have tickets in the double digits. But thanks to our local theatre having $6.50 tickets for general admission and going to the early bird shows when we do go to a different theatre we have seldom had to pay so much. The truth is that The Lincoln Lawyer is showing at our theatre this weekend and we can get early bird tickets for $4.50. Even better we have been incrementally increasing the amount of time we have been letting our oldest watch the other 2 and we should be able to go sometime during the day and give her her first 2 hour babysitting gig.

So why did I buy tickets for $6.00 for a show I can see for $4.50? Good question. The answer is I didn't. I had a $5.00 off coupon so I bought 1 ticket for $1.00. Our total movie experience will be probably less than $20.00. A dollar for the movie for me, $4.50 for Aims ticket. Another $4.50 for a kids combo (you don't have to be a kid to get it) which is popcorn and a drink with 3 refills. That puts the total at 10. We will probably give Puppy $5 for the baby sitting so the whole thing will run 15.

This brings up my point: Is groupon worth it for the frugal? Does it help you do things you would normally not do? Or does it tempt you to spend money that you normally would not? Leave a comment and let me know.

All of you visiting from Frugal Friday can go home to Mom now. Unless you want to stay for further fragment. Actually now that I think about it. Fragment 2 has a financial application as well. SO STICK AROUND!

Fragment #2: Giving it up for Lent

This is the second of my Lenten Observations segments. Have you ever lent somebody something and not gotten it back? Have you ever lent somebody something and forgot who you gave it to? Have you ever not gotten something returned and have had difficulty getting over it? I hope so, I would hate to think it was just me.

I have learned very few things wholly by other's examples or advice. Many times I have had to learn through my own experience or mistakes. When I was a teenager a friend of mine lent a friend of his (an acquaintance of mine) a sizable amount of money. He then watched week after week his friend spend money on non essentials while she kept the debt to Him unpaid. This was very frustrating for my friend. He learned an important principle any money he lent out he would consider gone for good. In fact he would not even call it lending he would just give it away if he could. I have followed his principle for almost 30 years now. I have given co-workers money and weeks later (generally when I needed it most) they would pay be back. To me it was found money.

I have found the lesson a lot harder to emulate with things. I gladly give away anything to any one who wants it. Especially my books music or movies. However if it is not returned. I don't forget about it as I do with money. Money comes and goes. But things have a kind of permanency to them. If I front $10.00 to another home school parent for a field trip, I can use a different $10.00 if the need comes up. If the parent forgets to pay me back, I can easily make do without it. I mean I can literally forget about it. But if I lend a DVD about dinosaurs to someone and then forget who. The next time I want to watch it, I can't because I no longer have it. For whatever reason I have a habit of lending things to people that are no longer readily available for purchase or now out of my price range.


Over the past few years I have been convicted to try to let go of this feeling of loss when it comes to unreturned possessions. Strangely enough I know some people who are exactly the opposite of me. They can give away possessions without any problems whatsoever but have a real hard time with unpaid debt. I have decided that this Lenten Season I would "give up" any thing I have not ever received back as lent. Yes it's a bad pun, but a good philosophy. It is more of an internal task to stop trying to remember who I gave things to and just be content with what I have. I have a few things out to people right now. Hopefully with God's help I will not think of these things as my possessions again until when and if I again possess them.

Fragment #3 Am I the only one out there who loves Detroit 1-8-7?

One of my favorite television related websites is the cancel/renew index. Each week it goes through t.v. shows by network and prognosticates what will stay and what will go. generally the shows I like the most are the ones without the staying power. When Detroit 1-8-7 came out this Fall, I thought I found a show that would be around for a long long time. A smart, funny, well filmed procedural with some excellent acting and storytelling. Yet every week, I see at the cancel/renew index that it has little to no chance of a second season. I love watching it on Hulu each week and wondered if there was anyone else who liked it.

Well those are my fragments frugal and otherwise for this Friday. For more Fragments click here.

Write a song for someone

A few weeks ago I posted a song here about Allen Levi, one of my favorite musicians/bloggers/people. I e-mailed him the link and received this response:





i'm honored by your creative gift. i've written lots of songs but not been written ABOUT in any before (that i can recall anyway). ... i posted two new blogs this week. i still have to make myself do it, but the writing is a good discipline for me. ... Hope y'all are good. You're a good man. every blessing, allen





I thought it was really cool that I could impress such a prolific song write like Allen just by writing a song about him. I also found it strange that no one had ever written a song about him before. So, my challenge for any of you would be song writers out there. Write a song for someone, it might be the only one they ever get.





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I was working on some phonics work with Spider Droid and we were coding some words together. I wrote a few words down on a dry erase board and asked what he would do with them. His reply: draw a black hole near them and it would suck them all away.





It was funny and poignant thing to say because reading may not be his thing, but he sure has his science down.





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A few weeks ago one of my former pastors who is now pastoring a Church near San Diego, CA had a massive heart attack. It is a miracle that he survived. His heart stopped around 30 times when they were putting a stent in. Each time they had to stop the surgery and start his heart again. After the surgery, he was in a coma like state for almost a week. All of a sudden, He was out of the coma like state and just days later he was at home with his family.





On Sunday my sister told me that a former pastor of ours had died that morning. He was substantially older than the first pastor I mentioned but still younger than all the kids grandparents. I will be at the wake at the same time that many of you checking in from Friday Fragments will be reading this.





Please pray for the families of these two men of God as they deal with the the two different outcomes to illness: recovery and death.





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I was at Old Navy a few months ago and would you believe: They have a mannequin that looks exactly like Princess Puppy? That's just weird!

For more fragments head over to Half Past Kissing Time.

Dole - Now in 100% Juice Aloha Sweepstakes and other fragments

It is Friday Fragment time again. I have had a strange and wonderful week. Drove to Springfield with the Family on Tuesday to protest a bill that would take away some of the freedoms we have here in Illinois to Home School, The bill was tabled and I blogged about it here. ************************************************************************************ My next Fragment reminds me of the book and movie The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio. This is a contest to win a Hawaiian vacation. There are several ways to win. Any time Amy and I see a contest we know for sure that we are "slated" to win. It doesn't matter that, we often forget to enter and that we never win. We just know we are going to win. So enter if you want, but Amy and I have got the vacation in the bag. Dole - Now in 100% Juice Aloha Sweepstakes ************************************************************************************ We saw this add on Hulu this week. I know I've been sharing lots of commercials lately but this one is hilarious. Bunny Girl especially liked it. Even though one of her favorite creatures was threatened. ************************************************************************************ This commercial by the same airlines does a very good job of explaining why companies don't say Super Bowl in their radio and t.v. spots. It's also very funny. ************************************************************************************

Final Fragment. The pictures that started this post were taken last Saturday at our Church for Awana Bible Quizzing. Both Spider Droid and Bunny Girl were just a small # of the kids participating to get 8 of 8 correct in their multiple choice round. It is rewarding to put God's word in your heart!

For VW "Force" Ever is short time.

It's Friday Fragment time.

Fragment #1

Last week I posted that this VW Ad was the "best commercial ever". It turns out that ever did not last all that long cause less than a week later I have a new best commercial ever and like the VW commercial that ran at the Superbowl this is also sports related.



We have to go back to last years opening day baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox. Mark Buehrle who was in between back to back Gold Glove winning seasons was on the mound for the Sox when this happened. The play lasted the test of time and was elected the This Year in Baseball (TYIB)play of the year.



The White Sox generally have very good quality ad campaigns. The initial 2011 season ad came out this week . . .















The announcer is played by Sox announcer Ken Harrelson who along with Steve Stone made the call last year. The guy who says "Not bad" is of course Buehrle himself. As a faithful SOX fan and a great fan of all things Buerhle. This has surpassed "The Force" as my all time favorite commercial.



Fragment # 2


My second favorite super bowl commercial behind the VW ad was this masterpiece from Chevy. It's a great send up of the Lassie show that played when I was a kid. They use a comedy technique that I called piling on.




I'm not sure what is a better line "How did you get stuck in the belly of a whale?" or "I didn't know this town even had a volcano." In comedy we call such a quandary a good problem to have.

Fragment 3.

A few weeks ago, at our home school co-op I saw this sign on the men's room door at the building we use.

Priceless.

Those are all the funny little fragments I have for you today. For more Friday fragments click here.

Lions and Podcasts and Robotics. Oh My!

White Lion
Originally uploaded by Cyberslayer

Friday Fragment time. I am finally teaching my blog class at our co-op this semester. For the student's first assignment I had them look at some home schooled students blogs. While doing that Bunny girl came across a post about a white lion. I decided to start today's fragment fest with a pic of White Lion cubs.

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The following video is on my desk top. This means my kids like to watch it over and over and over and over and over and over again. (It is short.)

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Speaking of videos, the Office starts new episodes tonight. They have also put out a new bunch of webisodes called The Podcast. I thought I would share it here as blogging is a plot point.

The Office - Ep 101: The Podcast: Gabe's Podcast - Video - NBC.com

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Robotics update: Spider Droid's team did quite well at the State Playoffs this past weekend. His team finished 19th of 63 teams in the performance category. The other 3 categories are scored by judges and the results were not made public. While they did not win any awards they all had a rewarding time. The team will compete in the Spring in a 4H robotics competition.

That is all the fragments I have for today. Head over to half past kissing time for more Friday Fragments.

More evidence that sarcasm doesn't work on 5 year olds.

Friday Fragment time, which is an opportunity for me to throw together a few disconnected tidbits, thoughts and recollections of the week that was.











A few days ago Princess Puppy was on the other side of the door as me and I could not be interrupted, so I told her to wait a minute and not to come in. She just kept on trying to come in and tell me whatever problem she was having at that moment. I told her again to wait a minute and not to come in. She just kept jiggling the door handle and trying to come in and get my help. I finished what I was doing and impatience got the better of me as I said to her: "What part of wait a minute and do not come in don't you understand?". She thought about it a second and said "both."





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Today we were studying the digestive system in our anatomy class. Did you know that if you unwrapped your small intestine it would be 20 feet long? We decided to measure 20 feet out just to get a better understanding.

I like activities that help reinforce the words read from the page. Last week we were learning about the Israelites being deported to Assyria in 721 B.C. We learned that 27,290 Israelites in all were sent to Assyria. The text suggested that we take some small items like matchsticks, toothpicks, or buttons (we used coins) and group 100 of them together.


We even made our coins spell out 100. It really hits home how many Israelites that was when it would take almost 273 groups like we made to equal 27,290.



Much thanks to Linda Hobar and her fine Curriculum, The Mystery of History which has so many good activities like this to add to the lessons.

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This Friday and Saturday is the state robotics tournament. I have wanted for some time to describe my thoughts about Spider Droid's team advancing from sectionals. The sectional they were participating in was a double sectional. Meaning that 2 distinct sectionals were being held at the same time and location. with 15 teams in each sectional. At the beginning of the meet the organizer announced that instead of 3 teams advancing to state from each sectional as was customary, They had just found out that 4 teams each would advance.

The teams are evaluated in 4 categories. 1) Performance. 2) Research Project. 3)Teamwork and 4) Technical Excellence

In performance the team has their robots compete against other teams in 4 different heats. The teams are given a score for each heat and it is the best score of the 4 heats (not an average of all 4) that determines who wins. This is the only 1 of the categories where you know how you are doing as they post all the scores on a screen in the gym. Droids team got off to a great start and had the best score of both regionals in the first heat. They were not able to replicate that score in the subsequent heats and ended coming in third in their regional for performance.t

The other 3 categories are all based on judging. Before they announced the results the event organizer made it clear that coming in first in any of the categories does not assure a trip to state nor does not finishing first mean no trip.

This is all well and good. But as they made the announcements for the first place winners, I couldn't help thinking after their team wasn't announced as any of the category winners that this just wasn't their year. I remember thinking about taking droid to go see the state tournament and how much he would enjoy it. After a few "Honorable mention" type awards, which I was disappointed they didn't get, they announced the 4 state qualifiers in each region.

The first team they announced was his team, The Fanatix! I was in shock. I really haven't been that surprised since Amy threw me a surprise 40th birthday party some six years ago. Before I go on, I just want to say that I would have been fine (and Spider Droid more so) if they hadn't won. 30 teams met that day a week before Christmas and I would venture to say that each one had the time of their lives.

That being said, I still am so proud of my son and his team. I am pretty certain that this weekends competition will be the end of the line for the Fanatix, but Oh, what a ride it's been.

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That's all the fragments I have. For more, head back to half past kissin' time by clicking here.

One Last Christmas

Friday Fragment time is as easys as 1-2-3, Episode 123, that is. I have decided to save the title fragment for last because if you are anything like me you will be bawling so much you won't be able to defragment any of the other sundry items.

The 2006 2007 t.v season was the last season that we were able to watch television the old fashioned way (via airwaves). Since then t.v. shows have only been seen on the television via d.v.d's on the computer via sites such as hulu.The 2006 2007 season was the first of four seasons for the show heroes. For whatever reason, I didn't see any part of the show in it's 4 year run. In the past 3 weeks I watched every episode of season 1 on dvd's borrowed from our local library.

I just borrowed season 2 today, so I must have liked Season 1. I did. But it was certainly much different than imagined. I was thinking kind of a super heroes among us light hearted romp.

Light hearted? Not so much. As I watched each episode I was reminded of one of my favorite lines from City Slickers : "Let's think back on what we've buried so far."

Lots of death, lots of blood, lots of gore. I always had to watch it away from my children. It is strangely compelling and does use excellent storytelling. But come on guys, tone it down on the crazy watchmaker dude!
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There are some things I can't tell you, but there be some exciting in our home school lives in the coming future. Some of the stuff will probably not pan out, but I will tell you all about it when I am more free to talk about it. One thing I can say now, that I will be posting far less this month as Amy and I are going to be working on some book ideas.
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This week I discovered the most amazing teaching tool of all time, The Dry Erase Board.

It's amazing! It's revolutionary. If it only sliced and diced vegetables, I'd hawk it on late night television.

Seriously, it rocks. I use the 1 pictured above on the wall. I use a smaller one at the table. All the kids love using them. I am going to buy 2 or 3 more tomorrow. I was telling the kids the night before I bought them, about the concept of the parking lot. You know, where you put ideas and questions that you are going to get too later. When I brought the boards home the first thing Spider Droid wanted to do was start a parking lot.
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I was on facebook today when I saw a link for the video below. I usually don't watch videos on facebook as I am usually too busy playing Farkle and Tetris. I made an exception for this one and was moved to tears.

The video and the song are a tribute to the Locke family from Washington, Il. whose son Dax died from Leukemia Dec 30, 2010.



To find out more about this family click here. The Family is trying to raise 1.6 million dollars to donate to the hospital that treated for their son. The money would run the hospital for 1 day. To donate go to Matthew Wests site.

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That's all I have for today, fragmentally speaking for more Friday Fragments head over to Half Past Kissing Time.

Next Time: Six Word Saturday, The Video

You don't have to be Einstein.

To be 1 step ahead of the Holidays Half Past Kissing Time has started Friday Fragments early here are mine . . .

Our home school co-op ended this week. One of the teachers was teaching a physics class for 1st-3rd Graders. Earlier in the semester she asked me to speak the last week of the class as Albert Einstein.

So I donned a wig (cotton balls taped to a stocking cap) and my best German scientist accent and had a lot of fun with it.

It turns out you don't have to be Einstein to play Einstein. I was able to perform an experiment that illustrated what Einstein discovered about light having gravity.

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My parents came to the closing festivities for the co-op for the first time this year. I think it was the first time they ever got to see my kids in action in a true home school setting. I shared the emceeing duties with two of the speech classes. The presenters went up in pairs and they were very polished, so it had a real awards show feel to it. At the end of the evening I handed the microphone to puppy and she told this joke . . .

Who was the most important knight at the round table?Sir Cumference

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As I posted Sunday, Christmas shopping has seemed to begun in earnest all around us. If you make it out to the malls and big box stores take the sales advice with a grain of salt. I have noticed that some sales people through ignorance, poor listening skills, or just to sell more product don't always give correct product information.

For example, I wanted to buy Amy something she could listen to radio programs with when she is out and about. On several occasions we looked at ipods and we asked several associates if those ipods would play pod casts. Each time we were told no. Sometimes we were told that only a Zune would play pod casts, sometimes we were told that only an ipod touch would play them. Both those pieces of equipment cost more than what I had to spend on her birthday present. We then decided to just buy an old fashioned Walkman type radio and were told by an associate that the store no longer sold radios like that.

I walked back to where they "used to be" located anyway. They were still there and we bought out. We found out later that day through the miracle that is Facebook. That ipods do indeed play pod casts. (I mean they are called "pod" casts for a reason.)

I marched (figuratively) back to the store returned the Walkman radio, and proceeded to buy Amy an ipod; at a different store.

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Those are all the fragments I have. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving. For More Friday Fragments click here.

The Great Pizza Battle

The basic idea is to share a number of different tidbits that you'd generally not waste a whole post with. It's kind of like my old 3 Things Thursday meme, except it's on Friday, and people read it.

I thought I'd begin these fragments with some local flavor. The Chicago area is renowned for it's great pizza. When we moved to this town 9 years ago, we found a great local pizza place. Local, it's actually only a block from our house. It's a really cool place with a hunting lodge decor. The pizza is great, but they also have great hot dogs and polish sausage. They have complimentary peanuts and insist you throw the shells on the floor.

I don't know all of the exact details that led to the situation I am about to describe. I have heard many conflicting reports, so I am going to be vague to insure I don't pass on misinformation. The pizza place was located in a small complex that includes a hair salon and 7-11. Last year the owners of the pizza place bought the two houses across the street, and had them razed. I thought at the time that this was merely an expansion. In truth the restaurant had let its lease run out and was rebuilding across the street.

A few months later a new pizza place opened in the old one's former location. It was started by a former employee, who wanted to have a place of his own. I tried it a couple of times. The secret to a good pizza, is the sauce. This sauce was not close to the quality of the former tenants.

This summer the building of the new establishment started in earnest. Yesterday they opened. Now we have two pizza places a block's walk from our house. The only time I have ever seen two pizza places so close to each other is in downtown Chicago, and those are generally filled up with tourists. Our small suburb doesn't get a lot of tourists. It's just going to be a short time until there is only 1 pizza place on the block again. I'll keep you posted.


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This week we are finishing up our ed 5 week study called Passport to India. It was a Sonlight class and everyone really liked it. Each session we watched a video like this one. We collected $25.00 for Bible Clubs in India. This would generally allow 25 Indian children to attend bible clubs. Sonlight matched our gift, which will allow another 25 children to attend.


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We play a lot of games in our family. One game we really like is Mastermind. For a game that reinforces logical thinking, the box is packaged most inefficiently. In the olden days (when I was a kid), the mastermind game which has a rectangular shape, had a box to match. These days they have put the rectangular game in a square box. The packaging was obviously not designed by a master mind!

Speaking of which, the blog Thrifty Jinxy is giving away a Mastermind game and a new game called Animal Mastermind (I'm not sure how that one is packaged.) Click here to enter the contest.





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Those are all the fragments, I have for you today. Make sure to hop on over to all the other particpating blogs.



Keith Time: The International Impact of Keith Part I

Some Puppy and Turkeyisms

It has been over a year but I have decided to contribute some fragments at the Half Past Kissing Time blog feature called Friday Fragments.



Last week I was doing puppy's reading program with her. She was reading a story about a tiger and I notices she was covering her ears. I asked her why she was covering her ears, and she said, "The scary part of the story is coming up and I don't want to hear it."

The other day she told me a joke she made up. It is actually a variation of a joke most of you should already know. She gave it a nice twist, and really stuck the dismount. So when our co-op newsletter was looking for submissions, I entered it for her.

Here is what my published puppy's joke looks like:

Knock Knock.
Who's There?
Nobody.
Nobody who?
Knock Knock.
Who's There?
Nobody.
Nobody who?
Knock Knock.
Who's There?
Nobody.
Nobody who?
Knock Knock.
Who's There?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad nobody said banana?

The very same newsletter is having a writing contest. They are giving away a turkey to the writer of the winning paragraph written from the POV of a turkey explaining why or why not the Turkey should be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner.

Bunny's response:

Hello. I'm Tom the Turkey. I want to be eaten because I am very plump and juicy, My feathers are able to be plucked out real fast. I bet I'd be real yummy! If you eat me for Thanksgiving, I wont bother you anymore.

Spider Droid's entry:

Pardon Me!

Dear Mr. President,

Hi. My name is Bill. How are you? You should be fine. Nobody is going to eat you at the end of the month. I am a turkey. Turkeys are not thankful for Thanksgiving. I need your help. Please pardon me!!!!!!! Mr. President you are my only hope of not facing my greatest fear, having my wishbone broken.

Puppy's two cents:

Hello. My name is turkey L3000. The first robot turkey. I do not want to be eaten because I have too many feathers around my robot body.

Those are all the fractured fragments I have for you today. This is a blog hop so hop on over to the other participating blogs.

Keith Time: The Humor of Keith, Ham on Wry.