Kid and Caboodle

Just checked the Fairfax County Public Schools emergency announcement page and learned that school has been cancelled due to snow THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23. This, combined with the winter break scheduled to start December 24, means that A.J. is not scheduled to go back to school again until JANUARY 4. Good grief!

It’s a good thing I was already scheduled to be off all this week and that Chris was already scheduled to be off all next week, else we’d be scrambling for child care!

As a bonus, though, the federal government (in the D.C. area) is also closed tomorrow, so Chris doesn’t have to figure out how to get to work. Believe it or not, the federal government rarely gives its workers free leave because it costs so much money. This has been one heck of a snowstorm!

1 p.m. December 20: Driveway and walk are clear, but still no sign of a snowplow.

I am fortunate to have access to really good health care in my area. This afternoon, for example, I took A.J. to the dentist to have sealants put on his permanent molars. These sealants are basically bits of plastic injected into the pits and cracks of his teeth so bacteria can’t grow in them and cause cavities. They used to be an expensive luxury, but nowadays they are becoming routine.

A.J.’s dentist is a pediatric dentist, not a standard one. Her office not only has all sorts of toys and children’s books in the waiting room, but it does its best to make the appointments comfortable and almost fun for the kids. For example, the children get to wear sunglasses to shield their eyes when being examined under high-powered lights. The toothpaste the staff uses during cleanings comes in flavors like cotton candy, grape, watermelon and bubble gum, and so do the dental floss and fluoride treatments. Kids without cavities win little prizes like tops, plastic bracelets, rubber balls, and the sorts of things in vending machines they always seem to love.

How I wish A.J.’s dentist took grownups as patients!

Student Privacy Spotlighted in Va.
Manassas School Board, City Pay in Discrimination Suit; Policies Tightened
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603641.html?hpid=topnews

This story makes me hopping mad. How dare the school target students with Hispanic names and distribute information from their personal records? Even if they had the right, which they DON’T appear to have had, why didn’t the school look at the residency records for ALL students — who is to say crowding doesn’t happen for Asians, blacks and whites?

And who wrote that ridiculous residency law anyway? Rather than saying, “A house cannot have more than X residents,” it says the residents must all be parents and children. So a couple with nine children can crowd into a two-bedroom condo, but an aunt can’t take in her sister and niece. That is not the way close-knit families work.

Attended a training session today by Shel Holtz on social media networks. I am mildly dazed by all the different tools that are out there. I thought I was doing fairly well by having a personal Web page, a blog and a Facebook presence, but apparently I should also explore Twitter, Second Life, digg, de.lici.ous and other software.

I think I’ll call it a night instead.

All week one of our neighbors has been setting off fireworks.  I can hear them going off right now, in fact, and it is past 10 p.m.  I understand tomorrow will be July 4th, and I’m all for having a good time, but I think it is fairly inconsiderate to make a lot of noise when people around you — particularly small children — could be trying to sleep.

A friend asked me tonight to review the first chapter of a book she has completed and plans to try publishing soon.  She asked me to be brutally honest, and … I was.  I can see an easy fix for the main plot problem I pointed out, but I don’t know how much rewriting she wants to do since she already has finished the book.  Hopefully she’s still willing to talk to me at this point to hear my suggestion!

Due to some sort of inventory overhaul, my office has asked that when I return to work on Tuesday I turn in the government laptop I’ve been using for the past few years. This means I am now shopping for a new laptop so I can continue telecommuting on Thursdays. Arrgghhh!

We do have another machine in the house, but I don’t like using it because it takes a very long time to boot up and is starting to fall apart. The touch pad and one of the USB ports don’t work properly, for example. The machine also is configured to my husband’s preferences since he is one who uses it the most. This means that even when I go into “my” profile, the browser tries to load all kinds of bookmarks I don’t want and the virtual desktop is cluttered with all kinds of software I don’t use. I think it would be cleaner for us to have separate machines altogether; we can transfer files between machines as emergency backups, but in general each one of us should be able to set things up as we like on our machines. Having two machines in the house also will enable both of us to telecommute at the same time, or let our son play on one machine while we do some work or play something else on the other.

I glanced at a few Web sites selling computers this evening and was fairly bewildered by the wide array of choices at my disposal. I know three things I absolutely need: wireless Internet capability, video-playing capability and the longest-lasting battery power available. I know I don’t want to spend more than a certain amount of money, and I assume a speedy processor and a lot of hard drive space are important. Pretty much everything looks the same after that point, though.

While I was shopping, one thing did catch my eye: Dell is selling a number of machines under the (PRODUCT) RED campaign, in which companies donate a percentage of the sales of specified products to help fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa. I had read about this campaign from an article one of my co-workers wrote recently, but had not realized computers were one of the things one could buy. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of going with a (PRODUCT) RED laptop. As I have written before, I regularly shop at places like The Hunger Site or Ten Thousand Villages so I can contribute to good causes while shopping. Since I’m going to buy something anyway, why not buy it at a place that also is helping the less fortunate?

Today A.J. and I went over to the home of one of his classmates. The two kids seemed to get along very well, and I enjoyed socializing with his classmate’s mother, who is Chinese. Both A.J. and his classmate are only children, so I think it was good for them to have the opportunity to play with someone else of the same age.  Apparently they are only one month apart. The classmate’s mother and I talked about the types of food our kids like to eat. It seems that A.J.’s classmate only likes to eat Chinese food, and fresh fruit. This is a healthy habit, but it is causing some concern at school because A.J.’s classmate won’t eat most of what the school serves at lunchtime. I noted that it is possible to eat healthily in different cuisines. Because the classmate’s mother is Chinese, though, that is the only style of cooking she knows. Being Chinese, she also doesn’t like dairy products or raw vegetables. I did find it interesting that she not only served the kids a big plate of fresh watermelon, but also chips and cookies, though!

We plan to invite A.J.’s classmate and his mother over for a playdate in return soon. Perhaps I will take the opportunity to introduce them to some healthy, but non-Chinese snacks.

Today, April 16, is the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.  I am very grateful that none of the kids I know who attend that university were killed or hurt that day.  This year I did not wear maroon and orange, but I did think about the shootings yesterday and today.

What I thought

• the day it happened,
• the next day,
• a few days later, and
• about two weeks later.