I Came In Dead Last

Today started out nasty with rain and fog, but progressively got better as the day went along. It never got to where it was as nice as yesterday though. I think low 50s was as high as the temperature made it. Catherine had ballet today (as always on Tuesdays). Today was also the last day for us to decide whether we would continue to have Quinn attend the Montessori school next year (if he goes into public schools, he would be starting kindergarten). It was actually a tough choice. Pay for him to continue at the school where he appears to be learning, or stick him into the free public education system to socialize with other kids that will be in his classes from here on out. One the one hand, there are some assimilation issues that attending kindergarten would help him in his adjustment such as getting into the cliques that will be formed later (or I guess the alternative is he may get ostracized from those cliques early on). And there's the free thing, and anyone that knows me will attest, paying for stuff is my kryptonite. On the other hand, he's learning a lot in Montessori school, so we would hate to suddenly interrupt that (don't get me wrong, he's not going to be designing rocket ships in the next year or anything, but he is learning to write his letters, phonetically spell words, and starting on reading). In case you can't tell, we decided to keep him in the Montessori school for another year.

After school the kids came home and made some pictures for Pop Pop for his birthday (Pop Pop, if you read this, try and act surprised when they give them to you). Ginger said they also played some with their lace vehicles. When I got home, Quinn had just woken up and was watching a Little Einstein episode with his Mom. Once that was over and Catherine woke up, we played Candy Land again before dinner (we played it last night too). I was actually getting frustrated with the game last night just because it becomes a hassle to have the game progress. Catherine will take a card, and once you explain the color to her, she takes a long time to move her piece, so Quinn will get impatient and start to move it for her, and this invariably leads a screaming match. Tonight though, Catherine was playing at their new Play Doh table and not playing the game (until halfway through the second game where she took over for Ginger). The first game was just me and Quinn, and he trounced me. And this time he didn't cheat. Last night he would try to get a new card if he didn't get a card he liked. The second game Ginger joined us and Quinn won that one also. I came in dead last, I kept getting the special cards for the places I had already passed. As Quinn pointed out "Daddy, you keep going backwards." I guess it's only fair, since I had won the game last night.

After dinner (low budget meal tonight, cheese sandwiches and canned soups) Ginger suggested we should Catherine the dance video I had made. She didn't like it either. I believe her quote was "It's broken, we need to fix it." Probably because of the flashing. So far no one likes the video. I guess I shouldn't quit my day job to become a video editor just yet. After that we went to see if we could fix Quinn's race track that had come apart. Unfortunately it appears several of the pieces have had the plastic connectors broken, so the pieces don't actually snap together in a couple places. It used to work temperamentally at best due to the connections, but now I fear it may not work at all. Then the kids decided we needed to play Hungry Hungry Hippos. Once again I got trounced. I think 1 time out of 4 games I came in next to last instead of last. My Hippo must have been broken.

Not much to watch on the telly tonight. Ginger watched Gilmore Girls, but with the Prez taking over the airwaves for the State of the Union address, I don't see much worth watching. And no, I didn't watch the address. I can't imagine him saying anything that's going to change my opinion of him or his administration, and I suspect it'll just be more of the same. Although I did see yesterday that the British government (Tony Blair no less) admitted that global warming is indeed something to be concerned about and the threat is greater than originally thought. Hmm, since that's a yahoo news link, I have no idea how long that link will be valid. Even though the British are now onboard, I doubt they're going to be able to change how anything is done here, but at least someone in power is starting to get concerned.