Chit Chat in VOLTVILLE Thread #2 :)
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Good morning, Voltmaniacs.
Raven, still thinking good thoughts for you.
A wood chipper would be nice but they are really pricey, awsum.
Geez, 29 degrees this morning. Yes, I did start a fire in the wood stove. They are claiming 66 degrees today and not quite as cold over night. Ihope that is true since my trees are all leafing out and blooming and such. I will check for frost damage later today when it warms up.
At least the wind is dying down. It has been pretty windy for the last few days.
It is the .... crack of dawn so I need to go feed my cold critters
Later, although I should rest up, I will be working on the cheat grass. Most of the yard looks fantastic but the area in the southwest and west side has too much cheat grass to let it drop seeds every where. I need to try to nip this invasion in the bud.
Raven, still thinking good thoughts for you.
A wood chipper would be nice but they are really pricey, awsum.
Geez, 29 degrees this morning. Yes, I did start a fire in the wood stove. They are claiming 66 degrees today and not quite as cold over night. Ihope that is true since my trees are all leafing out and blooming and such. I will check for frost damage later today when it warms up.
At least the wind is dying down. It has been pretty windy for the last few days.
It is the .... crack of dawn so I need to go feed my cold critters
Later, although I should rest up, I will be working on the cheat grass. Most of the yard looks fantastic but the area in the southwest and west side has too much cheat grass to let it drop seeds every where. I need to try to nip this invasion in the bud.
I had an invasive vine show up a few years ago that wrapped around my rose bush and lillies. It produces some purple flowers, and then produces a bunch of beans. I think I have almost got them all. Last year I only saw a few. I hand dug each and every one of them up. It was not fun! Lol That first year i dug up 3 walmart bags full. They were smothering my other plants and flowers.Good morning, Voltmaniacs.
Raven, still thinking good thoughts for you.
A wood chipper would be nice but they are really pricey, awsum.
Geez, 29 degrees this morning. Yes, I did start a fire in the wood stove. They are claiming 66 degrees today and not quite as cold over night. Ihope that is true since my trees are all leafing out and blooming and such. I will check for frost damage later today when it warms up.
At least the wind is dying down. It has been pretty windy for the last few days.
It is the .... crack of dawn so I need to go feed my cold critters
Later, although I should rest up, I will be working on the cheat grass. Most of the yard looks fantastic but the area in the southwest and west side has too much cheat grass to let it drop seeds every where. I need to try to nip this invasion in the bud.
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It sounds pretty, though. Was there a place you could plant it where it wouldn't disturb other plants? I wonder what it was.
It was really pretty. I planted it across the road from my house. It was so invasive that I did not put it anywhere in the yard. I live on a dirt/ gravel road that never gets traffic so it was still able to be seen
At first I wondered if it was a type of morning glory, because the leaves looked just like a morning glory vine.
English Ivy is another invasive, destructive plant. It looks so nice but kills every tree it climbs.
I just got home from a long day tutoring and then going to the movies with 4 of the 5 kids I tutor. As some of you already know, it was The Jungle Book. We all decided to go to the 3-D showing, since none of us, including me, had ever seen a 3-D movie. Unlike old movies where you got cardboard glasses with one lens red and the other green, these were plastic frames, like real glasses, and the lenses were a tinted gray. I wonder how it works compared to the older 3-D. Anyone know? I'll probably not be able to resist looking it up online. I love computers, where you can get an answer to practically any question that pops into your mind!
The movie was pretty good, though the animals looked a little fake. Yes, they looked real mostly, but there was just something off about them that made me think they weren't real, whereas Mowgli was real. As expected, the plot varied from the book. I'll have the girl who has been reading the stories recall the differences and write about them. We sat down before the movie started, so we watched a lot of previews of other movies, and some of those were in 3-D, too. They even have a movie based on the video game, Angry Birds! I liked one that featured a little girl who's father didn't pay enough attention to her because he was so busy, and she wanted a cat for her birthday, so he dashed into a pet store to buy one, and the creepy pet store owner (Christopher Walken) turned him into the cat his daughter got for her birthday. It was just weird enough to appeal to my sense of the bizarre, even though it was a movie for kids. There was also a very strange Alice Through the Looking Glass movie. The others were pretty lame, at least for adult tastes. I wonder what the kids thought of them. Did they get tempted by any of the trailers?
The littlest one and his sister were scared in places in The Jungle Book, but no one was terrorized, and I think they all enjoyed it. Even their older brother, the original boy, said he liked it, that it was better than he thought it would be.
The oldest boy opted not to see it, but he almost has enough stones for a trip, and when I asked him what he'd like to do, he said he'd probably want to see a movie. I said it would have to be one I approved of, that I thought was educational.
Today, in his lesson he read about Steam, and he seemed to be enjoying it more than the usual boring stuff. He even chuckled in a few places. I asked him if he used it and if he played competitive online games, and yes to both. He didn't say anyone "owned" him, though I didn't ask. I guess he does OK, or he'd stop playing online with others. I should find out more about it. In fact, I should have asked him if there is another gaming subject he'd like to read about. Anyone (Trit?) have any ideas of a good, interesting subject?
His sister is still struggling through reading about the Mariana Trench, the deepest place in the ocean. She is really working hard to read it, but she is very, very interested in oceanography, so she wants to.
The original boy finished a book about how snowflakes form and read about Hurricane Katrina. I'm getting him to do exercises on drawing conclusions, i.e., reading between the lines, so he can figure out answers to reading comprehension questions that don't have the answer just written out for him. His reading comprehension is way behind where it should be.
His sister has finished her latest chapter on The Jungle Book, and she opted not to read any more, if there even is another chapter -- I should check -- but I think, even if there is, it's time to move on to something more 3rd-grader-friendly.
The little one is starting to read sentences I concocted out of words I've had him learn, sentences like "The boy can do it." He's not ready for a real book yet. What amazes me is how people back in the old days used the Bible as a primer. It's tough reading for anyone, especially a beginner! How did anyone manage to learn? Also, the little boy is now doing very simple word searches all by himself, though he's still a little shaky about the ones that go on a slant.
We play concentration with a deck of alphabet cards, and he has a phenomenal memory for the positions of cards he's seen. He beats me, with my aged memory, and even his sister, who sometimes plays with us and is no dummy.
I've noticed with the kids that they all have a large capacity for memory. I wonder if that is genetically encoded somehow because Chinese is made up of lots of characters that you have to memorize, like sight words for the whole language. In fact, they have an easier time with sight words than with the concept of sounding out words. Maybe, since I'm only tutoring Chinese kids and have no other kids to compare them to, they aren't unusual, and most kids are the same, but my daughter and I were the opposite, I think. Then, maybe we're just the odd ones. Many times I wish I had more experience teaching English, so I could figure things out better, but I guess you have to start somewhere.
Interestingly enough, other things I've taught kids -- how to ride a horse, how to swim, how to tie their shoes -- don't provide much insight. I think it's because those other things are more physical and not so mental.
The movie was pretty good, though the animals looked a little fake. Yes, they looked real mostly, but there was just something off about them that made me think they weren't real, whereas Mowgli was real. As expected, the plot varied from the book. I'll have the girl who has been reading the stories recall the differences and write about them. We sat down before the movie started, so we watched a lot of previews of other movies, and some of those were in 3-D, too. They even have a movie based on the video game, Angry Birds! I liked one that featured a little girl who's father didn't pay enough attention to her because he was so busy, and she wanted a cat for her birthday, so he dashed into a pet store to buy one, and the creepy pet store owner (Christopher Walken) turned him into the cat his daughter got for her birthday. It was just weird enough to appeal to my sense of the bizarre, even though it was a movie for kids. There was also a very strange Alice Through the Looking Glass movie. The others were pretty lame, at least for adult tastes. I wonder what the kids thought of them. Did they get tempted by any of the trailers?
The littlest one and his sister were scared in places in The Jungle Book, but no one was terrorized, and I think they all enjoyed it. Even their older brother, the original boy, said he liked it, that it was better than he thought it would be.
The oldest boy opted not to see it, but he almost has enough stones for a trip, and when I asked him what he'd like to do, he said he'd probably want to see a movie. I said it would have to be one I approved of, that I thought was educational.
Today, in his lesson he read about Steam, and he seemed to be enjoying it more than the usual boring stuff. He even chuckled in a few places. I asked him if he used it and if he played competitive online games, and yes to both. He didn't say anyone "owned" him, though I didn't ask. I guess he does OK, or he'd stop playing online with others. I should find out more about it. In fact, I should have asked him if there is another gaming subject he'd like to read about. Anyone (Trit?) have any ideas of a good, interesting subject?
His sister is still struggling through reading about the Mariana Trench, the deepest place in the ocean. She is really working hard to read it, but she is very, very interested in oceanography, so she wants to.
The original boy finished a book about how snowflakes form and read about Hurricane Katrina. I'm getting him to do exercises on drawing conclusions, i.e., reading between the lines, so he can figure out answers to reading comprehension questions that don't have the answer just written out for him. His reading comprehension is way behind where it should be.
His sister has finished her latest chapter on The Jungle Book, and she opted not to read any more, if there even is another chapter -- I should check -- but I think, even if there is, it's time to move on to something more 3rd-grader-friendly.
The little one is starting to read sentences I concocted out of words I've had him learn, sentences like "The boy can do it." He's not ready for a real book yet. What amazes me is how people back in the old days used the Bible as a primer. It's tough reading for anyone, especially a beginner! How did anyone manage to learn? Also, the little boy is now doing very simple word searches all by himself, though he's still a little shaky about the ones that go on a slant.
We play concentration with a deck of alphabet cards, and he has a phenomenal memory for the positions of cards he's seen. He beats me, with my aged memory, and even his sister, who sometimes plays with us and is no dummy.
I've noticed with the kids that they all have a large capacity for memory. I wonder if that is genetically encoded somehow because Chinese is made up of lots of characters that you have to memorize, like sight words for the whole language. In fact, they have an easier time with sight words than with the concept of sounding out words. Maybe, since I'm only tutoring Chinese kids and have no other kids to compare them to, they aren't unusual, and most kids are the same, but my daughter and I were the opposite, I think. Then, maybe we're just the odd ones. Many times I wish I had more experience teaching English, so I could figure things out better, but I guess you have to start somewhere.
Interestingly enough, other things I've taught kids -- how to ride a horse, how to swim, how to tie their shoes -- don't provide much insight. I think it's because those other things are more physical and not so mental.
She still has a lot of pain in her lower back where the pads between the vertebras are gone. The pain meds she's on aren't helping much and she still doesn't have much mobility in her right hand. She's seeing her Dr on Monday and should know more then. Thanks for asking.
Raven, I've been thinking good thoughts for you and I hope the doctor can get some answers on how to help you. I'm so sorry to hear about what you are going through.
I thought about going to see Jungle Book the Movie but haven't followed through on that yet. Sounds like the kids are keeping you busy. Memorization is not included in today's curriculum much, I think. Having a good memory is helpful in so many ways that we should bring it back. I never have been good at memorization.
Sounds like those kids are keeping you busy, SandySu.
We are thinking about going to Reno and seeing the Monster Fish exhibit at the Discovery Museum. I guess it was in Washington DC at the Smithsonian and we are now the first stop on a tour. It is over April 26th so we need to do that soon.
Today, we drive to south Reno and get our brand new French doors. We won't get them installed for several weeks, I am sure.
I thought about going to see Jungle Book the Movie but haven't followed through on that yet. Sounds like the kids are keeping you busy. Memorization is not included in today's curriculum much, I think. Having a good memory is helpful in so many ways that we should bring it back. I never have been good at memorization.
Sounds like those kids are keeping you busy, SandySu.
We are thinking about going to Reno and seeing the Monster Fish exhibit at the Discovery Museum. I guess it was in Washington DC at the Smithsonian and we are now the first stop on a tour. It is over April 26th so we need to do that soon.
Today, we drive to south Reno and get our brand new French doors. We won't get them installed for several weeks, I am sure.
'moanin, Volties.
Terry, thanks for keeping us updated and please give my, and everyone's (I'm sure), best to her. I'd say give her a hug for me, but that might hurt. You know it's hard to look at this thread and not think about Rave, even before this happened. I sure hope there is some daylight at the end of this tunnel for her.
Sandy, I think there is something to be said for memorization. If nothing else it can be a handy technique to have in your arsenal for life. Learning using the Bible as a learning tool may have been hard and, thankfully, I learned more "modernly" for the most part, but it does also instill a sense of morality and a set of values that seem to be missing today. It's good the kids got "scared" but not frightened by the movie. They are recognizing the differences between reality and fantasy while still being able to enjoy and indulge in a fantasy.
We haven't been to a movie in a long time. The last time we went Mrs. Awsum wanted to get popcorn and sodas. I warned her it would be expensive, but when I shelled out $30 for popcorn and two sodas she almost had a heart attack. The ticket prices, while well above the fifty cents I paid as a kid, aren't bad, but the concession stand is way out of control and going higher. Then, the small soda is enough to bust your bladder and a small popcorn is enough for a couple of ponies. Talk about putting on the feed bag. I guess they need to justify the prices somehow and overly large servings of inexpensive stuff is their way out.
Terry, thanks for keeping us updated and please give my, and everyone's (I'm sure), best to her. I'd say give her a hug for me, but that might hurt. You know it's hard to look at this thread and not think about Rave, even before this happened. I sure hope there is some daylight at the end of this tunnel for her.
Sandy, I think there is something to be said for memorization. If nothing else it can be a handy technique to have in your arsenal for life. Learning using the Bible as a learning tool may have been hard and, thankfully, I learned more "modernly" for the most part, but it does also instill a sense of morality and a set of values that seem to be missing today. It's good the kids got "scared" but not frightened by the movie. They are recognizing the differences between reality and fantasy while still being able to enjoy and indulge in a fantasy.
We haven't been to a movie in a long time. The last time we went Mrs. Awsum wanted to get popcorn and sodas. I warned her it would be expensive, but when I shelled out $30 for popcorn and two sodas she almost had a heart attack. The ticket prices, while well above the fifty cents I paid as a kid, aren't bad, but the concession stand is way out of control and going higher. Then, the small soda is enough to bust your bladder and a small popcorn is enough for a couple of ponies. Talk about putting on the feed bag. I guess they need to justify the prices somehow and overly large servings of inexpensive stuff is their way out.
Same as the rest of you, I find myself thinking of Rave often and sending a good thought her way. @tmcase I know you are monitoring closely, she is lucky to have a friend like you nearby, but how are you doing? I'm glad you are keeping us updated, but I can't help thinking how worried you are, I know this is hard on you too.
I have no doubt that she will get through this. She is a tough old broad.
I will give her a hug for you.Thanks Q. I'm doing fine. I was scared to death the first 5 days she was in the hospital but she is doing much better now. I stayed with her all week and her BF is with her now so I am home and getting some things done. If she needs help next week I will be going back. You know how stubborn and independent she is so I have to let her decide but I will be checking on her if she says she doesn't need help now.
{{{Rave}}} I'm still including you in daily thoughts and prayers/meditations. {{{Terry}}} for being an outstanding friend! You are both so lucky to have each other. 
Raven, I just wanted to send you good vibes, hugs, and prayers. I hope you get better soon, and know that so many are thinking of you.
I know we are all thinking about Raven today and we are wondering what plan the doctor is coming up with today.
Thank you , Terry, for updating us. We appreciate it.
Good morning, Voltpeeps.
Weeding is done. Now I am working on sanding the new door we put installed in January. I need to finish this project up. Sanding and sanding and sanding. I think I am half way done or maybe a little more. Then, I need to stain. After that, caulking around the frame and Hubby has to install the insulating strip.Oh, and the bottom plate which is made out of oak.
The weather is stunning.
Thank you , Terry, for updating us. We appreciate it.
Good morning, Voltpeeps.
Weeding is done. Now I am working on sanding the new door we put installed in January. I need to finish this project up. Sanding and sanding and sanding. I think I am half way done or maybe a little more. Then, I need to stain. After that, caulking around the frame and Hubby has to install the insulating strip.Oh, and the bottom plate which is made out of oak.
The weather is stunning.
'evenin, Volties.
We had a spectacular day. Temps in the low 80's and humidity in the low 20's with light wind and four feet of sunshine! Too bad it can't be like this more often, like every day, to heck with snow! I should have been outside cleaning up from winter, but my get up and go got up and went. It'll be there tomorrow and I'll have a go at it then.
We had a spectacular day. Temps in the low 80's and humidity in the low 20's with light wind and four feet of sunshine! Too bad it can't be like this more often, like every day, to heck with snow! I should have been outside cleaning up from winter, but my get up and go got up and went. It'll be there tomorrow and I'll have a go at it then.
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