Really smart kid!

Very cool. Can't wait to see it "in the wild."

Nursey Rhymes revisited

Edward Reid Sings Nursery Rhymes to Run backing...

Batter Up

The kids and I went to the Scrap Box last Friday looking for cool "industrial waste" to play with :-)

In the process we came across a huge tub of baseball cards. For a $4 bag, we walked away with hundreds of great condition, mostly baseball cards, but some other sports as well. I haven't collected cards since I was about 10, and I'm not really into sports now, but I thought it would be fun to sort through with the kids and see if we could find anything worth more than a few pennies.

Now the fun part - finding somewhere to research the values. I recognize a few names from when I was listening to the Tiger's winning streak and a few for other reasons, but I have no idea whose card is really worth something. If you're a collector or have a good place to start, leave a comment. I've been Asking Google and a few friends have recommended Beckett's, but I've not really dug in yet.

Worst case, I package them up in zip locks and sell them to the kids at our garage sale. I can easily make back my $4.00 investment.

Given the condition and quantity, I think the collection came from a divorce, death or someone who left them behind when they went to college. It's interesting to speculate.

Wish me luck!

Thanks Gary!

It's been a little over two years since Gary passed away. Because of his needs, I was introduced to additional forms of Red Cross donations. I had been donating whole blood since high school, but now, thanks to Gary I've also been donating platelets. So far, I've donated platelets over 20 times (each donation session may provide up to the equivalent of 12 whole blood donations) and have been able to help many people that I would not otherwise have been aware of. On behalf of all of those people, Thanks Gary!

For those of you who have a couple of extra hours a month (or at all), please consider some of the additional donation methods: Platelets, Double Reds, and Plasma. The process is no more painful than regular whole blood donation. Your time could save a life.

See http://www.redcross.org/ or call 800-Red-Cross for more information or to schedule an donation appointment.

It's not what you say...

...it's how you say it. That's something I'm still working on in my professional (and private) life . This video shows how powerful the right choice of words is, though. I promise to keep working on my choice.

...Kids are quick...

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America.

MARIA: Here it is.

TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?

CLASS: Maria.

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TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?

JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.

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TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile?"

GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L"

TEACHER: No, that's wrong

GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

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TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?

DONALD: H I J K L M N O.

TEACHER: What are you talking about?

DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.

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TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.

WINNIE: Me!

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TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?

GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.

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TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with "I."

MILLIE: I is...

TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, "I am "

MILLIE: All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."

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TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?

LOUIS: Because George still had the ax in his hand.

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TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?

SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.

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TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?

CLYDE: No, teacher, it's the same dog.

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TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?

HAROLD: A teacher.

Walk quickly

My eldest two children will be joining my mother-in-law in North Carolina for an extended vacation this summer. They're really looking forward to hiking as part of that trip. My mother-in-law lives about 1-1/2 mile from the Appalachian Trail and has hiked quite a bit of it. It's taken her a lot longer than this, and she's not finished the whole thing yet, but if you think it'd be interesting to hike the whole thing, but are too much of a couch potato or just haven't made the time yet and want to see what you're missing, Kevin Gallagher has something to show you. :-)

Wired Magazine has an interesting article about his adventures, but in a nutshell, he hiked the whole trail and took 24 shots a day over his six-month-long trek and stitched them into a really cool video. As cool and beautiful as this video is, it really doesn't do the Trail justice. It's just something to whet your appetite until you can experience it for yourself. Enjoy.

Life is 'Baeutiful'

All kinds of nasty things that take place daily all over the world. All kinds of nasty things are printed in the newspapers (yeah, they do still print those) and on news websites everyday. Every once in a while, it's nice to forget about the real world and imagine (or remember) the good in the world. The Daily Good site helps you do just that. It shares stories and posts like this one reprinted below:

DailyGood: Life is 'Baeutiful'

Do you remember the name of your kindergarden teacher? I do, mine. Her name was Mrs White. And I remember thinking she must be some older relation of Walt Disney's Snow White, because she had the same bright blue eyes, short dark hair, red lips and fair skin.

I don't remember much about what we learned in her class, but my mother once told me that we used to write a lot. And I would bring back what I wrote and she would look at it and see there were so many mistakes. But no red corrections. And always a star. Sometimes even a Good! scrawled in that would make my heart soar with happiness. But it worried my mother, so one day when she went in to meet Mrs White for one of those Parent-Teacher meetings, she asked her why she never corrected my mistakes. Why she never red-pencilled in the right spellings of words or pointed out grammatical errors.

And my mother says Mrs White said-The children are just beginning to get excited about using words, about forming sentences. I don't want to dampen that enthusiasm with red ink. Spelling and grammar can wait. The wonder of words won't... And maybe she didn't say it Exactly like that. It was a long time ago. And what my mother gave me was the gist of what she could remember. The rest I added in. Because I grew up learning to use words with loving confidence like that.

And it occurs to me that if Mrs White had used her red pen more precisely I probably wouldn't be telling you about this now. Which is kind of obvious but also kind of not. I look back now and think she must have been a rather extraordinary teacher- to exercise such red-pen-restraint. To allow the joy, wonder and excitement of expression flower- however faultily- like that. Because to bloom is better than not to bloom. And a bud once nipped never opens. May we all be so kind...

I used to misspell beautiful a lot. Never could quite remember that the e went before the a. It exasperated my teacher in high school no end. If I was going to employ the word with such lavishness she figured the least I could do was spell it right. Eventually the e's and a's settled into their right places of their own accord. Am glad I didn't wait on them though. Pretty is easier to spell but it doesn't hold as much as you mean sometimes.

And thanks to Mrs White I had no qualms about writing what I meant even if couldn't quite spell it out. Because Life isn't Pretty. It's Baeutiful.

Thank you to all of you Mrs. (and Mr.) Whites out there that have influenced me and my children or anyone else and allowed us to express ourselves to the world around us.

Japan Aid Projects: Posters, prints, shirts and more

There are many organizations out there seeking support for the people of Japan who have suffered through the effects of their recent earthquake and tsunami. There are many eye-catching items available at the This is Colossal site that reference the aid request and generally commemorate, if that's the right word for a disaster, the event. This is one of my favorites; very understated, but powerful.