RBOC

• Oven roasting vegetables is surprisingly easy and tasty.  Why have I not been doing this all my life?
• I accidentally deleted my amazon wishlist and couldn’t bring it back.  I was able to recreate the first page (because I had it open in another window), but not the second, which means I lost some Darcy Burke books I wanted (I don’t love all of hers, but some were worth getting) as well as the replacement watch I want to get at some point but not until my current watch stops working.  And… I’m not really sure what else.  :/  Oh well, if I really really had wanted whatever it was, I would have gotten them by now.
• GT pullout for Kindergarten is supposed to start in March with permission and testing in January.  But DC2 told us that zie and the other kid in hir “I” level reading group have been going already since before winter break.  I think I’m not bothered that the school didn’t mention this to us.  And we did fill out the nomination/permission slip for GT testing and got it in early so maybe that counts even though zie hasn’t done testing yet.  And I would feel bad for kids if their parents didn’t give permission.
• I have gotten so many colds this year.  It sucks.  :(
• It’s the first day of the quarter and the rain is pouring.  The phone system is broken indefinitely and the printers/copiers have gone down.  The fire alarm isn’t alarming, but it is beeping inconsolably.  At least the pipes didn’t freeze and flood my office like those poor professors on the East Coast.
• Our compost pile is really the only way to get dirt around here absent of buying it.
• Remember how I had the scary dentist experience (newer readers should definitely read this story– it is pretty awful)?  Well, it turns out she didn’t even do my crown right– it was too high and that is probably why the top tooth cracked requiring my second crown.  My amazing current dentist fixed the old crown when the bite wouldn’t work with the new one.  I didn’t realize how bad my bite was during those 6 years, but it seems obvious now that it has been fixed.  I wish I’d thought to ask him to check 5.5 years ago when I switched to him– I could have avoided (or at least put off) this second crown!  The experience was a lot different too– he spent the time explaining about the architecture of the tooth and what parts to sand down and which tools to use to do it and how to get the angles right and so on.  He also discussed the different materials that these crowns are made of and what research says about how they affect mouth muscles while chewing and why he prefers the one he gets for his patients.  It was lovely.  Or about as lovely as an hour and a half of sanding down and refitting a new crown could be.
• DC1 (now age 11, but 10 when zie took the exam) got a 1260 (out of 1600) on the SAT.  Not bad for someone who hasn’t quite finished half of Algebra 1.
• DC2’s report card came with excited notes that DC2 can count past 100.  But… DC2 can do multiple digit addition and subtraction with borrowing and carrying at least two different ways (traditional US and Singapore style) and can do quite a bit of single digit multiplication.  I wonder if we should talk to them about math. [Update:  We emailed and they said they’d add harder stuff to the math stations, which in practice, according to DC2, seems to be a couple of those puzzle games where you try to match up square cards based on the pictures they have on them.]  We also wonder what grade would be best to skip given the dual-language thing and if there are immersion summer programs we could send hir two to bulk up on Spanish if zie does skip a grade.  We have until May to decide about grade skipping testing for the year.
• It seems like a lot of people have no idea how horrific slavery actually was.
• DC2 is learning angles.  Zie says, “Obtuse!  Obtuse!  She says I’m obtuse!” in hir best Rudolph voice.