http://vimeo.com/1623327 (password is her name)

First day

Frankie's bouncing around the house singing about her first day of kindergarten at Ecole Kenwood. She made the wait list, got into latchkey and has met many little girls already before the start of school.

And, I'm the one with the stomachache.

Forging on, today's lunch:
-honey wheat bread baked last night with peanut butter and Nutella
-thinly sliced apple (dipped in acidulated water so it won't turn brown)
-two sugar cookies
-cloth napkin
-gooey candy treat to share

I doubt she'll eat any of it. Wish me luck. She's just fine.

Deconstruction of the egg

At the State Fair this year, a woman working one of the exhibits told us of this egg phenomena. We did the shelling of an egg in vinegar before. She told us of a part the sequence I never heard of. Take the shelled egg and place it in corn syrup and the water gets sucked out (free energy thing I guess). Had to observe it. Frankie and I were on it as fast as we got in the door. Here are the observations. Very cool.

Day 1: Vinegar degradation of the shell in process.


Day 2: Egg after 1 day, residual shell brushed off.


Day 8 (or so): The shelled egg suspended in corn syrup for several days, dehydrated and leathery, ick.

Get it yet? [VP to 62262]

The persuasion of a thoughtfully composed message

I like the concept of Freecycle. Have something cluttering up your digs and want it hauled off? Just post an offer on the Yahoo! group and someone will want it. Promise.

Used tires? Hideous 400 lb, concrete, garden, cherub fountain? Gone. I've done it.

However, the lure of free stuff is tough to resist. Many offers proceed thusly: receive 50 interested inquiries in less than a few minutes, busily begin working through the list and try to line up someone to pick up the item. It is frustrating and frequently ends in no-shows and people who leave town after 10 email volleys. arrrgh.

I recently purchased dog food that didn't agree with the Queen, our dog Suze. I had a bunch leftover. Not cheap either. Perfectly packaged (a can) to give away with no worries. This time I decided to try to make it a tidier and more convenient transaction. I stated in the offer I would only read requests that were legible and that were composed of full sentences - capitalization, punctuation - the works. My grammar is pretty bad, so it might sound like a hypocritical request, but I didn't want a text message. I said I interpret that kind of message as careless and not serious about the transaction. For example, I would not consider the person who wrote

i want the fud 4 my hungri dog as i can use it dog for my --thx ;) **&^ heehee

I thought I'd be flamed. Emails poured in agreeing with my sentiment. The food was taken from my driveway within 30 minutes of the post to the first responder. A Freecycle first.

Ready or not.

Interpretation of kids' art is about as useful as making sense of dreams. Despite the fact I have cold sweat-inducing dreams of homeownership (like being chased by mortgage brokers brandishing downspouts), I don't believe in placing too much meaning in their message. The interpretation of the art becomes even less useful when the kid is your own.

Frankie's about a couple weeks from the big K, kindergarten. Redshirting seems to be all the rage. Let 'em stay home an extra year until they're "ready." Until the kid's ready - or the parent? I don't think we'll ever feel too comfy setting her out for the challenges of the world, so we'll go with the time-honored tradition of scooting her out the door at the age of 5 and hope for the best.

This piece of art gives me some solace.

the state fair

The cheap candy at the fair is one of Frankie's favorite exhibits. It's about a 1/2 mile long maze of pieces of candy. I thought these nifty fake cigarettes were especially suitable for the kiddies. Didn't see any glock-shaped licorice though.