Thursday, October 18, 2007

Back in instant contact again, finally

Yesterday, Todd the Cable Guy came out to the house to "install" our cable. Not sure why it takes just a phone call to "uninstall" but a scheduled "anytime" (any time between 8am and 7pm) visit, three weeks later to "install." But that's how it works. Finally we're back online! Huzzah!

School conferences were last night, today and tomorrow, depending on which school. The middle school is crazy--all the teachers are at tables scattered around the "commons" (aka lunch room) and you have find your kid's teachers, figure out who is waiting for that teacher and not the teacher next to yours, then stand in line behind them. Fifteen or twenty or forty minutes later, you get to sit down with the teacher, in the huge, noisy room, to discuss your kid's grades, in front of the other families who are waiting in line. Fortunately, the room is noisy enough you don't have to worry about everyone there hearing all about your child's shortcomings. Then you repeat this process up to seven times. Wow, fun.

It was so much fun, we left after talking to two teachers. I'd been informed by another mom waiting in line, that Wednesday night is the worst time to go--everyone is hoping to get their conferences out of the way so they can take off for a four-day weekend. So now one of us will have to go back tonight to finish the job. The same mom told me tonight should be very sparsely attended so it should go quickly. We'll see how reliable her information is. I should have gotten her references.

Speaking of references, we've been filling out "background" check information out the wazoo! Fortunately, as David pointed out, unlike your credit score, your background check score doesn't get lowered every time someone runs a check. These days everyone wants to check your background: the school if you volunteer more than once in a blue moon, the church if you help out with religious ed at all, the Girl Scouts if your daughter is a Daisy and you just want to help the troop during meetings. You'd think they could figure out how to work together on this and only pay for it once.

Fall is definitely here. It has been a real Winnie-the-Pooh-style blustery day today--windy, rainy and sunny all at once. There was even some snow mixed in the rain! Fortunately, the pines in this part of the country have deep roots, so we're not too worried about one falling on this house.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

And to really top it off, here are some catch-ups on the photos from this month:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&conn_speed=1&collid=8537530603.486035624503.1192759045139&mode=fromsite

1 comment:

Juliet A said...

Forest Park high school has that kind of conference scramble arrangement set up. I thought it was fun trying to guess which teacher to hit first, doging around from one to the next. The thing is, they set it up for a Friday morning, allowing the students to come in three hours late. The kids enjoy some time off, the teachers don't have to come in on their off time, but if you are a working parent (of course, I'm not), you have to take time off from work to do this. Oh, well.