Thursday, September 15, 2005

Face Down in My Cheerios

Something cool in The Sims Nightlife: When your Sims is exhausted and trying to eat, they will fall facedown into their meal and sleep.

Not only is this a really cool expansion pack, but the game's programmers managed to stop the memory leak. The game doesn't suck up all the system's resources until finally I have to restart the game.


I like leading with a silly game much better than starting with Fry's problems. It seems my little rebel doesn't like following recess rules. HER teacher has a thing about all the kids being where he can see them during recess. No roaming the halls, chatting in the bathroom, or playing tag in the library. All of which, Fry has done. Her friend's teacher, the little friend who has been her partner in crime, doesn't keep as close an eye on her students. So what is ok for little friend is very NOT ok for Fry. When she was in the bathroom instead of at recess, I thought poor baby, just be where you're supposed to be and leave the bathroom for pottying, not chatting. Then the second time, she asked to go to the library during recess then proceeded to play tag. We had a stern discussion about the library, recess, and her behavior. The next day, she comes home saying that she has to spend tomorrow (which is today's) recess in the Principal's office. She was trying to get her Crime Partner talked into going outside for recess, then when Fry finally went outside, the teacher lowered the boom.

After hearing about this, I was less than sympathetic, but also less than postal. If we had not gone over the "recess in recess areas only" rule just the evening before, I'd have been a lot more understanding. During PMS, no less. I told her that this time I was NOT happy with her behavior, that she is a great kid and I expected better from her. That I didn't think that "library behavior in the library, recess behavior at recess, and bathroom behavior in the bathroom," was too difficult to understand.

I love this child more than anything else in the world. She does have this need to hear things three times before doing them, as in, when in the car, "Put on your seatbelt." "Are you buckled in?" "Do you need help?" After years of this, I just say "Buckleupbuckleupbuckleup." I warned her that yesterday I was not in the mood to argue or say things more than once. I know her teachers must LOVE having to tell her and every other kid in there everything more than once. (intense sarcasm) Forget that stupid apple, give the teacher a tranquilizer gun. Seriously. Or heck, give me one.

I'm so hoping she comes home with no incident. Hubby is going to email her teacher to discuss this. We talked last night and while the teacher is a flake who speaks rudely and immaturely to his students, he IS the teacher. I don't think (and told Fry this) that specific activities at specific times is too tough. If the other kids manage, I'm sure she can, too.

In other news (this is the fluff piece), I was just called by my library friend. It seems that the library tonight is more than packed. My class limit is 15, but no one was minding the store and there's 25 signed up. LOL! There will be a helper librarian there who can knit, so I'm not too worried. My largest class was 30, so it's possible. I just can't help everyone with sizes at 20 or more. First, I show everyone how to cast on, go around to help, have them practice, then on to the knit stitch. I show, help, then help until everyone is practising. After that, and I hope we get there, is the purl. If it's a reasonably small class, less than 10, and they're overachievers, we can not only purl and bind off, but also decrease and increase.

Every beginner's class has one thing in common. The knitter who isn't a complete beginner. They're the ones who have learned at their Granny's knee, but haven't knit in eons. That's fine, but they're also the ones who ask, "Why do you teach this cast on instead of this or this?" Well, number 1, because I can, number 2, teaching 10+ people how to do the latter two cast ons is a task outside the scope of the class. I had one lady ask this about the double cast on. When I answered with number 2, she replied that in 4-H, they learned the double and it was a bunch of them learning it. Hmmmm. I'm lucky, she's lucky that I didn't have PMS at the time. I probably would have got that expression on my face that tells my family members to duck and cover. Over the palm, around the thumb, needle from pinky to thumb is much easier to teach a herd of people. I teach it opposite from the instructions here because that first row really IS hard to knit. The opposite way is much easier for my newbie knitters.


Is it naptime, yet?

No comments:

Slow and Steady Wins the Race