Lying to the Cops

Abra, speaking to the nice policeman who visited our block party to talk to the kids about safety:

"Oh, all we do is stay inside all day and watch TV."

sigh. NOT TRUE!

Isn't lying to a police officer something like "obstruction of justice"??

Concerned Citizens, Junior Division

So a few months ago, the girls and I were driving around and Abra suddenly started asking questions about the Iraq war. "Why are we fighting a war?" "Are kids being hurt?" "Why doesn't the President stop the war?" So I suggested that she write the President and ask him to stop the war.

She did. She wrote (well, she dictated and I transcribed) and said that if he stopped the war, she would do five things that he wanted. (She never actually said what those five things were-- obviously she has caught on to the art of politics pretty well!)

Anyway, we dropped the letter in the mail and that was that. I figured we were being added to a Homeland Security list somewhere, but who isn't?

So today both girls got letters back from the President. Here's what they said (click on the image for a bigger view):



And, of course, they each got pictures! YAY!



I can't wait until their mother comes home and sees this!

(Sadly, no mention in his letter of stopping the war...)

Best. Complaint. Ever.

Abra: "Dad? Thalia's forcing me to do things!"

And she's off...

OK, so Brenna just pulled out of the driveway, on her way down to Columbus to take the bar exam. Cross your fingers, say your prayers, send your reiki, rub your rabbit's foot, whatever you can do is appreciated! Of course, most of all, she's a smart lady and has studied hard, and I'm confident that she will do what she needs to do down there...

In the meantime, it's full time Mr. Mom duty for me (and the girls), for three days. Cross your fingers, say your prayers, send your reiki, rub your rabb -- oops, I already used up all that, didn't I? Suddenly, I feel like Michael Keaton:



Anyway, here' the first Single Dad Dilemma to ponder. Tomorrow I take Abra (and, by default, Thalia) to swim lessons at the pool. To get to the pool itself, you have to go through the showers. How, pray tell, do I do this -- drag 'em through the men's locker room with their eyes closed, or shove 'em towards the women's locker room and hope they come out the other side?

egad, they didn't teach me this stuff in grad school....

Skool Daze

So the local school board, in their infinite wisdom, decided last fall to close down our neighborhood elementary school. The school right down the street from us. The school Abra would start at in a month's time, and Thalia two years from now.

When the school board started the process of deciding which school to close, they stressed community involvement in the issue. They would hold open forums, ask for community feedback, look at the financial picture, etc. And then make a reasoned decision based on all these factors.

What a crock.

The board took two schools off the board right off the bat, for reasons which still remain unclear. Then when both the financial models and the community input pointed towards other schools for closure, suddenly, magically, the school board produces a new document saying our school, Coventry, needed another two million dollars worth of repairs.

And then they voted to close it.

And a week afterwards, that repair estimate gets quietly "revised" to about a tenth that cost.

What a scam. There's more -- including the school board violating sunshine laws, lying under oath, predetermining the decision, etc -- but I'm too disgusted with the whole situation to type it all out. If you want to hear more, go to the OPEN blog. And while you're there, think about donating to the OPEN fund.

But it gets better -- now the school board is asking us to support a new levy. And therein lies the point of this post.

I have lived here for ten years, without children until the last six months. And every time a levy vote came up, I voted for it, despite the fact that I had no kids and, for a long time, believed I would never have kids. But I believe in public schools, and have supported them at every turn. They are a critically important part of a community and deserve our support. And afters years of supporting my local schools, I now find myself with children of my own to use the neighborhood elementary school --- and they close it down in the most duplicitous manner.

And now they ask me for more money.

I wish I could give it directly to the individual schools, to buy books, to renovate buildings, to transport the kids. I wish I could give it to the teachers, to get paid competitive salaries, to buy supplies for their classrooms. I wish I could give it to the students, so they could buy notebooks and pencils and play in music groups and sports teams.

But I can't. The money I give isn't ultimately managed by the schools, or the teachers, or the kids -- it's managed by the school board. And I don't trust them to make honest, ethical decisions to help the schools. Not after this. And I'm not giving them my money, or at least not my support on the levy.

So here's my promise: if this school board resigns, I will support the levy in full. Without that, you're not getting my vote. And I'm not alone in that -- I have talked to many people who say the same thing. Long-time public school supporters, levy supporters, who now are unable to trust this school board.

So, to the CH/UH school board: support the schools by resigning your position. Or go ahead and try passing the levy without Coventry. Your choice. But if you opt for the latter, good luck with that. I think you'll be in for a surprise.

Astro Updates

The Alambre wildfire, 2 miles away from the observatory, has been contained and no longer threatens the telescopes. This is good, since I am flying out there tomorrow morning.

And then there's this other piece of good astro-related news.

Healy's Waking Nightmare

Maybe Healy had a bit too much bad catnip the other night, because when he woke up he was being visited up-close by a giraffe and a purple unicorn.



That's gotta be a little disconcerting. Freaking out cats must be hard work, though, because later the giraffe fell fast asleep clutching her binky:

The Yorkshire 500

OK, I must say one of my more amusing pleasures is watching Abra and Thalia riding their bikes down the sidewalk. Thalia's on her trike, of course, and Abra has a two-wheeler w/ training wheels (borrowed from Colleen -- thanks, Colleen!).

Thalia knows she can't ride faster than Abra, but if she beats her out of the driveway and onto the sidewalk, then she can block. Abra will come up behind her, and Thalia will start drifting left and right, so that Abra can't pass.

This is hilarious to watch from the back (which is where I am, usually with a dog leash in my hand...), where Thalia is constantly drifting left and right, frustrating Abra's attempts to pass. Abra, who is not well-renowned for her patience, is typically howling "Thalia, let me pass!" at this stage. Meanwhile, Thalia pedals on, swinging left, then right, then left again.....

I am thinking of putting a number 8 sticker on Thalia's bike helmet.

"Whose" doing the writing at Yahoo?

Yes, OK, I'm kind of anal-retentive about writing, but things like this drive me up the wall. Is Yahoo hiring fifth graders to write their web content these days?

Overheard at the Breakfast Table

Thalia: Is Mommy going to class forever?

Abra: Thalia, do you know what "forever" means?

Silence

Abra: Forever is longer than people live.

Silence

Abra: When Mommy and Daddy die, we will still be alive.

Long Pause

Thalia (somewhat concerned): Then who will make us breakfast?

Picture Dump

So here are a few amusing pictures lying around on the camera:

Abra is a proud Safety Town graduate today. (Safety Town is a progam run by the Cleveland Heights Police Dept which teaches kids about personal safety, being a good pedestrian, etc). Here's her graduation picture:



Meanwhile, Thalia had some tasty juice next door at Jon and Molly's, which give her quite the impressive face:



(Am I the only one thinking of the Joker here???)



And, back at the ranch, Healy decided it was just a little too much work to reach the top level of the cat tree:



Snapshots of our life....

What's your dirt doin' in mah yard?

I dunno, boss...

Actually, it must be mulch season! Abra and Thalia called this "Mount Mulch" and had a ball playing on it. Their parents -- not so much of a ball hauling it all around the yard. But the gardens look better, and next time we might get away with a bit less (maybe 5 yards instead of 7?)...

An Exciting Day

So today Wacko finally went to the groomer (U Dirty Dog) to get his summer haircut. Thanks to all of you who voted to spare him the worst of the razor. Instead, he got a haircut that's short enough to keep him cool, but not so short that he looks like a mutant from Planet X. Here he is:



(Here's a "before" picture to remind you of what he used to look like....)

But while I am standing at the counter at U Dirty Dog picking him up, my cell phone rings, and it's Brenna saying that we have to take Thalia to the emergency room. Evidently Thalia's head lost a battle with the arm of a rocking chair (which is pretty impressive -- I would have bet that Thalia's head is the harder of the two...).

So I zip home and we pack everyone in the car for the first of what is sure to be many family trips to the pediatric emergency room. They did a great job, and so did Thalia -- she sat through them putting a stitch in her eyebrow without a single tear or cry. That's my brave girl! (Abra, of course, was chattering away -- luckily the doctor was good at simultaneously sewing and answering the questions of a 5 year old). So here's our girl is posing with her brand new bandage:




So now both girls are in bed, the newly shorn dog is asleep, and the cats are all suspiciously wondering what all the hubbub was about. Just another fine day in the Mihowski household....

Healy Listens to Technotronic

Pump up the jam
Pump it up
While your feet are stompin'
And the jam is pumpin'
Look at here the crowd is jumpin'
Pump it up a little more
Get the party going on the dance floor

The Yorkshire Redemption

So flash back to last August. I have this huge three-sink cement laundry tub in the basement that I have HATED for years. So when my Dad and my brother and nephew are all in town, they help me reduce it to a rubble pile (think sledge-hammer-applied-to-cement project) so I can finally replace it with a nice simple laundry tub.

But okay, how do I get rid of the rubble pile? There must be at least 600 lbs or more of cement lying on my basement floor. So I call up the city, and they say "yes, put it on the curb, we will pick it up."

I doubt this. I doubt it greatly.

But okay, I took a little bit of it to the curb and piled it up (kind of a mini Stonehenge) to see if they would take it.

Of course, they didn't.

So I call the city again, and am told "oh, to be picked up, it has to be in a container."

A container?

"Yes, no more than 40 lbs per container."

Now, this is an enormous pile of fist-sized concrete shards, with stiff structural wire lacing through many of the pieces. I can't just put them in garbage bags or cardboard boxes; they aren't strong enough to hold more than a few pieces, and the wires will rip the bags/boxes to shreds. (It should go without saying that I'm too cheap to hire someone to take this stuff away.)

So, I break the thing down even further and, piece by piece, week by week, toss a little bit into a garbage bag and take it to the curb. I feel like Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins' character) in The Shawshank Redemption, who digs a tunnel in his prison cell and carts the cement from the tunnel out to the prison yard, little by little, of the course of many years.

All winter, into spring, I'm taking these cement shards out in the weekly trash, little by little. And tonight, the last of it got set out of the curb. It's all finally gone. Time to go to Zihuatanejo...

Wacko Shave-down Poll

So Brenna usually has Wacko shaved down each spring. This year, Wacko pulled me aside and whispered "ix-nay on the ave-shay." Now, I can understand his reluctance -- I suspect all the other dogs laugh and point at him when this happens. So I figure we'll see what our devoted MGW blog readers have to say about the issue -- should he get shaved this spring or not??? The poll is below, feel free to weigh in.

To help you with your decision, I'll first post a picture of him with his beautiful long coat:



Isn't he a fantastic looking dog??? And now, in the interest of a fair and balanced presentation of both sides of the issue, here is what he looked like after his shave-down last spring:



Hmm. Well, as they say "We report; you decide." So here's your chance to weigh in: shave, or not?

Trip Log

So the car trip (driving Cleveland -> Northern Virginia and back again) actually went very well. Notable mile markers:

mile 1.9: Abra pulls out beeping toy cellphone.
mile 2.1: Chris confiscates beeping toy cellphone.
mile 5.3: First "Are we there yet?" (Abra)
mile 21.8: Second "Are we there yet?" (Abra)
mile 21.9: First "Is it lunchtime?" (Abra again)
mile 36.0: First rest stop (Brenna)
mile 68.4: First "I need to go potty" (Thalia)

and so on. As we crossed the border into Pennsylvania, Abra asked if they spoke English or Spanish in Pennsylvania.

The return trip was even smoother, the girls were great. At mile 1.2, Thalia announced "I'm hungry," but they settled down for a long while. At mile 233, I said to Brenna "the girls have been fantastic", so of course at mile 234 Thalia spilled yogurt all over Abra, and at mile 236 Abra gave the first "Are we home yet?" -- but given she has just had yogurt spilled all over her, who can blame her? The girls then settled back down, and except for a very occasional "how much longer" out of Abra, it was a fine ride...

I think I got off lucky this time...

Are We There Yet? Are We There Yet?

Tomorrow I do my first extended drive with the girls in the back seat -- 7 hours from Cleveland to Northern Virginia.

Wish me luck!

Saturn

So I'm an astronomer today because my parents took me out when I was a little kid and showed me the stars. And one of the most vivid memories I have of my childhood was when I got my first telescope and pointed it at Saturn.

Tonight I took the girls out and showed them the Moon, Venus, and Saturn through the telescope. Abra was very excited. Thalia was too, but also a little tired. But Saturn was beautiful, a little white ball with tiny, perfect rings.

(No, not my picture of Saturn, this one
came from Cloudbait Observatory)

In this era when we see spectacular images daily from an array of space probes, space telescopes, and mammoth ground-based observatories, you'd think a little smudge of Saturn through a telescope sitting on your front steps would be nothing. But it's really wonderful to see it with your own eyes.

I love my job. The universe is a beautiful place.

The Good, the Bad, and the Easter Bunny

So today the girls were coloring Easter eggs....



... while listening to the soundtrack to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."



I like to think about how they will remember these scenes when they get older....