Overheard

Yesterday's post wasn't the warmest fuzziest post on the block. I decided to lighten things up a little to tell you two of the funniest things I've ever overheard.

1) A few years ago I passed by my manager's office space while she was in a meeting with another of her employees. The only thing I heard was the employee say, "I haven't fallen asleep at my desk again." He said it nonchalantly and so matter of fact, and I got the idea it was a
non sequitir.


2) Prior to the November 2008 general election, I was at a restaurant with my kids and an older married couple. They basically ignored us and had a conversation about a proposal on the Illinois ballot to have a constitutional convention. The wife was talking the ear off the husband and after he responded, she dismissed him by saying, "You don't understand politics. You've never even watched The West Wing!"

What's the funniest thing you ever overheard ?

Next Time: Summer's out for the school year.

Six Word Saturday

http://www.showmyface.com/ hosts an extravaganza called Six Word Saturday.

My Six: Swimming against the dead pool current.

A couple of my relatives are participating in a dead pool this year. A dead pool is basically like any office pool but instead of best actor or super bowl halftime scores you pick celebrities who you think will croak first (Kermit the frog excluded).

One of said relatives likes to talk about it all the time and preface it with "I know you don't like me to talk about this, but ..." I'm in many ways drawn to death. I used to have a page of my now defunct geocities site where I posted recent obituaries of the famous. I didn't have any qualms against calling the page, Currently Dead. But Death Pools? No Way!
I think there are just a few main reasons why I'm against death pools:

1) On some basis you are rooting for the death of someone else for your benefit. (Note: My relatives have no money at stake in their pool. Just bragging rights.) One of my relatives likes to tell me proudly who she picked correctly. The other is "jokingly" mad that someone on her list has been twice hospitalized but has not paid off for her.

2) I think it is insensitive to the families of these famous people to speculate on the demise of their beloved. Sometimes this speculation is on perfectly healthy famous people. Many dead pools give more points the younger the deceased. This point ties in and overlaps with my first. My relatives and I all lost a dear family member (my brother) in the past 18 months. I questioned one of my relatives about this asking her what would you say if I said "cool! I had Keith in my dead pool."? The reply was that He wasn't famous. But these famous people have relatives too. Where is the empathy?

3)The greatest reason I am against Death Pools is that it is counter to my entire philosophy of life: A)We were made by a creator for the ultimate purpose of eternal fellowship with Him. B) In life we have the opportunity to follow Him reject Him. C) Those who follow will have eternal fellowship, Those who reject eternal torment. D) As long as life continues there is opportunity to follow.

Many of you may not hold to the same philosophies as I do. That's not the point. The point is I would never want to hope in any way for the eternal torment of anyone. For me, participating in death pools or tolerating them would in my mind, be a way of doing so.

So thanks for visiting the Illinois Suburb of Downer's Grove today. You can participate in Six Word Saturday by clicking here.

Next Time: Overheard

Carnival of Homeschooling

This week's carnival of homeschooling is at NotesFrom a Homeschooling Mom. Please head there and check out the back to school edition.

I am hosting next week's carnival. My theme will be the panorama of home schooling. If you home school and you blog, you should think about participating. Here is some information about how to submit an article.

Next Time: A Family Playcation.

The writing on the wall.

One week until school starts.

This is the year that I attempt to teach all 3 kids at the table, at virtually the same time.


So here is what I did: I set out all the school work and made a plan of attack.

I then wrote out all the classes that each child would be working on on some index cards.

After a while the table looked like this . . .

Then with the help of my lovely and talented wife we pieced together a tenative schedule that looks like this . . .

Next Time: A playcation

I can't believe that it's almost September.

Label Time!

# 16 (3 way tie) Seven Word September.

Much of blogging, mine anyway, is reactive. You see a good movie (or a bad one) and you want to tell people about it. You have a cool thing that works for you and you want to share it. You have some neat pictures and you want to post them. Last year I discovered a cool meme Six Word Saturday at http://www.showmyface.com/. The basic idea is to share six words about what's going on in your life right now. Here is my first submission. Here is my most recent.

I liked the idea so much that I augmented the concept last September to have 7 word titles for all my September blog posts. This was my inaugural post. September 2010 is now just around the corner. I have decided to bring back seven word September for this year as well.

Next Time: 1 week until school starts

Plans for the last week of summer break...

It's Six Word Saturdoodle time once again. http://www.showmyface.com/ hosts the fun and frivolity each and every week.

My Six:

Joining the make a list foundation.

With little more than a week left until school starts around here, there are a few things I want to accomplish before things gets into full swing. Normally I take the aim at nothing and you'll hit it approach. But as Dr. Phil surely knows that isn't working for me. Here's what needs doing:

*Make Six Word Saturday post (check)
*Buy supplies for science and history classes
*Clean out garbage cans and garbage cabinet (w/son's help)
*Clean out garage (w/daughter's help)
* Work on blogging class for homeschool co-op.
* Complete this sentence: accesorize and the world accesorizes with you. (Blank) and you (Blank) alone.
*Buy more tennis balls so I can play tennis with my wife (w/wife)
*Speaking of my wife, I should probably buy her flowers more often (okay she wrote that one.)
*Clean out school shelves one last time
*Make history time line.
* Sell Paramount on film idea: Barack Obama's Day Off.
*Enjoy my last week of unscheduled time with the kiddos, bunny, and my wife (even though she's back at work already, her school starts on Monday the 16th)---possibly some more swimming will be involved, even though we swam non-stop during our recent week long vacation to Wisconsin Dells.
*Prepare myself mentally to see a few more White Sox games


So that 's it for me. What are your plans for the end of summer? Make sure you plan to click here and see the rest of Six Word Saturday.