Saturday, February 13, 2010

Beauty and the Beast Rehearsal and Family Game Night

I had rehearsal with CYT's Beauty and the Beast today. I got there late – about 10:30 – and rehearsed until 5:00. Tiffany and Alex slept in pretty late today then met me at McDonald's after rehearsal.

We came home and had a game night. Tiffany and Alex agreed to play Chess4, which I have had for years, but never played. Tiffany was not too upset when Alex and I got her in a combination checkmate, taking her out of the game early. Alex and I then duked it out for a while, but I eventually won. The game is actually harder than it looks. The playing field is huge, so you've got to look out for pieces from long distances; it is also difficult to control the center of the board because you simply do not have enough pieces to cover it.

Although we generally let the winner choose the next game, I let Tiffany choose because she was nice enough to play Chess. She chose Scattergories. We played 6 rounds, and Tiffany won that. Finally, Alex chose Jenga, which he lost.

Beauty and the Beast is getting very intense. Opening night is February 19, and I've got either rehearsal or shows every day starting yesterday, and going through Sunday, February 21. I've got the 22nd off, but then more shows on the 23rd, and again the weekend after, the 26th – 28th. I will be skipping rehearsal tomorrow, however, because I agreed with Tiffany that I would not rehearse on Valentine's Day. This was one of the stipulations for her to let me play the show.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

After School Activities – and Karate Retest

Alex and I went to the final Chess Club meeting of the year. I finally got Alex to play a game of chess . . . he lost to Brandon. After Chess Club Alex helped me go through all the sets and make sure everything was in order for the club equipment to be put away.

Because he failed his physical test in Martial Arts yesterday, we had to go back today. Not really having the time to go home, we went to McDonalds and had a small ice cream cone while we waited for class.

Alex failed his test yesterday because he was not yelling loud enough. In fact, he was barely mouthing the words. We have been stressing the importance of yelling with him, and letting him know that if he does not yell loud enough today, he will not get his orange belt. He seemed to understand, and determined to pass.

At the beginning of class, Alex was not yelling. Instead of keeping his mouth closed, he was moving his jaw up and down, sometimes with his tongue sticking out. It was very obvious that he was not yelling. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. We spent a whole evening coming to class again because he would not yell loud enough, and he was doing this. When it came time for the test, he started vocalizing, but not very loud. When they told the rest of the kids to line up and get their stripes, Alex was once again pulled aside . . . he had not passed. Yesterday it was Alex and another boy who did not pass; today it was Alex alone. Yesterday's teacher was not there today, and the instructor today did not even know that Alex had been in class yesterday, so this was not a case of Alex being singled out. He simply refuses to yell.

While the instructor worked one-on-one with Alex for a few minutes, I could see the fear in his face. He was glancing at me occasionally, and I was probably wearing a scowl that would have melted iron. Still, Alex would not yell. Instead of punching or chopping with forceful intent, he was just putting his hand out. Instead of a forceful, guttural yell accompanying the hit, he was just saying 'dia'. Really, no better than yesterday.

Finally, the instructor allowed Alex to get his stripe. When he tried to give Alex a high-five, Alex snubbed him (as is usual for Alex). The instructor called Alex back and made him give him the high-five; Alex hit only one of the instructor's two raised hands.

Alex SAYS he loves Martial Arts, and does not want to quit. He SAYS he likes it, and he seems to be learning. But we've got to work on . . . what? Discipline? Or Attitude?

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Karate Trouble

Alex just had his first trouble in Karate.  Today was his monthly physical testing; he had to demonstrate a series of moves, and this is his final test before receiving his Orange belt at the graduation in a couple weeks.  They always tell the kids that it's okay to make mistakes, but it's NOT okay to not try hard.

Alex failed his test.  He performed the moves okay, but he did not yell loud enough.  In fact, he did not yell loud at all . . . he barely mouthed the sounds . . . "DIA!", and etc.  The instructor kept him after class working on the moves for 10 minutes, but Alex never did get louder.  I think it really surprised him and woke him up when they explained that he failed.

Now we've got to go back to the school tomorrow evening for him to be retested.  If he doesn't yell louder, he won't get his orange belt with the rest of his class.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Laptop Problems!

Sunday evening as Tiffany and I were playing Uno over the internet and Alex was sitting next to me, looking over my shoulder, I dropped the laptop off the arm of the couch.  I'm not sure whether I was getting up or just adjusting my posture, but there it went . . . it rolled backward onto the carpet.  It landed softly upright, then rolled backward, with the screen closing as it went.  Watching the soft impact on the soft carpet, I was very thankful.  Until I picked it up and opened it.  I could still hear the Uno game going on, but the LCD screen was cracked.  Alex immediately yelled "It wasn't me!"  Of course it wasn't Alex . . . it was completely my fault.

That night, I searched the internet for a replacement screen.  I found two websites that had them.  One was $270, and the other was $125, with shipping.  I had not heard of either site, and both looked a little shaky.  ENU, my favorite PC parts supplier, does not list laptop screens on their website, so they likely do not carry them.  I did not see any similar laptops on Craigslist for parts.

Monday morning I went to Costco to exchange the laptop (it is only about 60 days old), and they exchanged it with no questions asked.  Literally . . . they never asked what was wrong with it!  Because it was originally purchased in Oregon, I had to pay $43 in sales tax, and I walked out with a new laptop.  Good deal.

Alex was concerned that Santa had made our laptop, so Costco wouldn't exchange it.  I told Alex that Santa had bought it at Costco, but Alex asserted that Santa makes everything.  Finally, I explained to Alex that Santa called Costco and asked them to exchange our laptop, and that Santa was going to make a new one for Costco to replenish their stock.  This Santa stuff is getting complicated.

Before exchanging the laptop, I had thought long and hard about what data I might be losing off the hard drive.  Of course, there is the obvious security concern with giving Acer back the hard drive, but I am not very worried about that.  I trust both Costco and Acer.  Because I was concerned with theft, I have not stored anything important on the laptop.  I should have plugged an external monitor into it and checked, but I didn't think that was necessary.

This morning, I realized that I lost about 8 hours' worth of writing.  I have been considering starting a Mechanical Engineering blog, and have been writing entries up ahead of time; I think I had about a dozen.  And they were all stored on my laptop desktop.  There is no way I can recreate those entries.  I will start over, but I will not be able to recreate them.