Week in review: May 19-25

I have just realized that I haven’t actually written a blog entry in about a week. Have ya’ll missed me? Joye says I’m slacking. Rhea has emailed me to make sure that we are all safe and sound. I must admit it’s nice to be missed. But this week has just flown by in a flurry of activity. None of it exciting…or blog worthy…but a flurry nonetheless.

So…what have I been up to? Let’s see. Tuesday night, we hid out in the basement because of tornado warnings. What was that line from that movie “Twister?” It’s something like: “we have hail. We have debris. Cow!” Well…we had hail:

Then on Wednesday, we officially entered summer with Madalyn’s last day of school. Poor Katie still has six more days.

On Wednesday night, we went to our usual hangout…Summit’s tavern for trivia. We were actually in first place when we got the final question: In which comedy series have all of the main characters received Emmy awards? There are three correct answers…and we just had to come up with one. Wow…there was a lot of hashing out to do! I said “Will and Grace.” Someone else said “Seinfeld.” Another, “Fraser.” Then we started digging deep. We ruled out “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” because there were just too many actors to contend with. We discussed “All in the Family” and then thought that Sally Struthers probably never won an Emmy. Then Michael had the brilliant idea that it must be “The Odd Couple.” And especially with only two main characters, it had to be a winner.

We turned in our answer…and then listened to hear the correct answers: “Will and Grace” (ahhh…I was right!); “All in the Family” (we live in a world where Sally Struthers won an Emmy?!); and “The Golden Girls” (cannot believe we didn’t think of that one!). But no “Odd Couple.” We lost. Michael was sure they were wrong. So, naturally, first thing when we get home, he looks it up. We were robbed! Jack Klugman won twice, and Tony Randall won once…but they were each nominated in every year that the show was on! Robbed!

On Thursday, I taught my last Latin class of the school year…and then the girls had friends over to play in the afternoon. In the late afternoon we discovered that our neighborhood pool had opened…so we went over to check it out. I am hoping that the girls will meet more kids in the neighborhood and not be so dependent on the kids next door for their entertainment. But they can actually make their own entertainment. They feel the need to do a dramatic scene every time the camera comes out. Every. Time. Woe is me...
Friday morning, I took the girls to get hair cuts…and Katie’s was finally long enough to donate:

Friday was also Michael’s birthday. When he got home from work…he opened his cards. Here is the card I got him:
And after you all read on Thursday about his favorite things – you know how much he likes the band, Rush. When tickets went on sale for their concert here this summer he decided not to go because the tickets were too expensive. So, I naturally bought one for him! He was quite surprised. After reading about all his penny pinching ways, you all can imagine how he gets when I head out to my happy place.

Anyway…Madalyn had been invited to a slumber party…so we dropped her off and then Michael, Katie and I went to Ted’s Montana Grill for dinner (yummy!) and then to see Iron Man. What a great movie! Very fun…and Robert Downey Jr is so underrated. And if you haven’t seen it yet, go see it…and be sure you stay until ALL the credits are completed.

On Saturday we went to pick strawberries again. Well, first we picked up Madalyn from her party – and she brought her friend Kari with us to pick berries. Why is it that my child feels the need to show off her tonsils every time the camera comes out? This was the last of the season. We picked four buckets full…but they were the tiniest berries I have ever seen. I actually got it in my head that we might freeze some of them to make smoothies when they are not in season. We’ll see how that goes.

After we got home, the girls were invited to a pool party and to spend the night with their friends Diana and Shannon. So…what exciting things do Michael and I have planned? Why to go to the grocery store of course. I can see my husband the coupon man in action. We got $300 worth of groceries for $200. See…this is why I don’t grocery shop. I go and get $70 worth of junk. Because I was hungry. Then he did take me out to dinner. Because he had a coupon. Don’t tell me you didn’t see that one coming.

And then Sunday brought our neighborhood Memorial Day pool party. Because nothing says “remember those that have died for their country” like a hot dog and a good game of Marco Polo.

See?! Flurry of activity. And somehow in all that…we DID manage to homeschool:

MATH: We finished the section on percent. And Katie learned about interest rates. I had to explain to her why the bank would give their customers money in the form of interest. And explain that if you are earning 1% interest on 500…you would have 505 at the end of one year…but if you want to find out how much money you would have in the bank after two years, you cannot just multiply that interest amount times two…but that the interest would be on the $505, not the $500. She finished the chapter with multi part word problems and then a review. We will go back to 5B in the fall…and the plan will be to completely finish Singapore by the end of next school year.

HISTORY: Katie completed both chapters 39 and 40 this week (hey, Gwyneth, no skipping this time!). She learned about the conflict between Iran and Iraq (I remembered their long war…but I had no idea what it was all about), Chernobyl, Gorbachev, Glasnost, and the end of the Cold War.

GRAMMAR: We are about to wrap up grammar…and the last chapter of the book focuses on troublesome words – like the differences between rise and raise; let and leave; lend and borrow; and teach and learn. You know what? I am actually contemplating not doing grammar at all next year. She has such a good basis (she actually scored in the 99th percentile on her Iowa tests in the grammar section) – and will get reinforcement from both Latin and her writing program. I am also thinking of leaving off spelling as well. Someone is welcome to convince me otherwise. It seems so wrong…but there it is

WRITING: Katie continued to work on her first lady paper this week. After a first draft without even a mention of the words “first lady” she was back to the drawing board. The second draft was much improved…but I had her actually hand write it…and even with doing it first on the computer…her spelling skills leave little to be desired. (Again…convince me to keep a spelling program. On second thought…what can I get that will actually teach her to spell…she has a huge vocabulary…but spelling…ack!) And, she actually forgot to do her bibliography. So, after a brief speech about plagiarism…she’ll do what will hopefully be the final draft next week…and include that bibliography.

In Pursuit of Trivia...

Inside my head is a bastion of useless knowledge…but I am not quite sure where I left my cell phone. I can tell you the secret service code name for George Bush…but I forgot that we had invited friends over and went to the library instead (sorry Carolyn!). I can tell you the oldest registered trademark (and the first trademark in England), but I can’t remember the name of the movie I went to see last week. I can remember lots of things that happened before I had children…but after, it’s all kinda fuzzy. Those brain cells have been sucked out and I am left dry.

We are a family that is quite fond of trivia. When I was young, I played trivial pursuit in the 80’s with my parents and brother…my husband and I are regulars at trivia contests at our local bar…my kids are big fans of “Scene It.” We have all sorts of incarnations of trivia games…and the more recent dvd trivia games.

In high school, I was part of the academic team. I remember one of the first questions: “Complete this quote: ‘And this is good old Boston, The home of the bean and the cod, Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots, and the Cabots talk only to_______’” My teammates were quite shocked (and thrilled) that I knew the answer. How did I know it? It was used in the beginning of a Jeffrey Archer book that I had read recently. My team had enough wins that we were invited to participate on “High Q” – the quiz show that is on WSB on Saturday mornings. We didn’t do well on sports questions like: “Which college’s mascot is a horse named “Traveler?”

How do I know this stuff? Sometimes, I am not really sure! If it’s a question about the late 70’s through the 80’s I might know because I can associate it with what grade I was in. I remember seeing the re-make of King Kong in 1976 – I remember it was ’76 because we lived in Florida, I was in first grade, I went with the girls that lived behind our house and I remember going to a shop and buying stickers after it was over. I remember that Entertainment Tonight started in 1981, when I was in 6th grade, and that John Anderson was an actual viable third party candidate (well…he actually didn’t have a party at all) against Carter and Reagan in 1980, when I was in fifth grade. I remember him probably because my dad voted for him (he almost always voted for someone that was not in the mainstream).

For events and trivia that I cannot lock onto a school year memory, I am sometimes fumbling. Sometimes I can get things right just because I am a fan of imdb.com – like: “What actor was in all three of these movies: ‘Cold Mountain,’ ‘Gone in 60 Seconds,’ and ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow?’” Sometimes, I can arrive at the answer simply by using my noggin and thinking about NAFTA: “What four countries does the US import the most automobiles from?”

So, is there a difference between memory and knowledge? For trivia, the line is blurred. A good trivia question should make you pause and think (Who was the last man to set foot on the moon?)…it should be on the tip of your tongue (What character was played by the same actor in both the movie and TV version of MASH?)…and if you don’t know the answer, when you do hear it, you should slap yourself on the head and say “oh…yeah…” (What color is Sponge Bob’s tie?) Did you know that there is even a word for people who collect and study trivia?

And do you know what is helping my trivia game these days? It’s homeschooling. By studying with my child, I can now answer: “What alloy is made up of iron, chromium and nickel?” and “What was the political party of George Washington?” or even “How long was the 100 years war?” Perhaps some of those brain cells are returning after all…