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 22^nd off, but then more shows on the 23^rd, and again the weekend after, the 26^th – 28^th. 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.

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?

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.

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.

Alex the Chef

I tought Alex to make pancakes this morning.  I had him worried that he was not going to be able to remember all the ingredients, but when he found out it is only pancake mix and water, he was okay . . . he's got it memorized!  Instead of measuring, I taught him to tell how much mix and water by looking at the consistency of the batter.

He was worried about flipping . . . we made smallish (5") pancakes, and he still made me flip the first one.  Then he made the second.  I did the third, showing him how to sprinkle chocolate chips on just after pouring the batter in the pan . . . then he was done.  He ate the chocolate chip pancake while I continued cooking the rest of the pancakes and eggs.

After breakfast, I called him our pancake chef, but he didn't like that; he says he's not making all of the pancakes from now on.

EXCEL Test, Part 2

Alex took the second part of the EXCEL test today.  He took it in the library, and I was able to see him as he was taking it because I was in an adjacent hallway doing Math Facts.  Alex had no idea I was there.  He looked very calm and happy.  He says that he enjoys taking the EXCEL test, and he appeared to be enjoying himself.

During his lunch break, I was able to speak with him for a moment before he had to get back.

After school, he said that he thinks he did very well today.  He took the Language and Reading portions of the test.  He was extremely disappointed that they did not administer the Science or Social Studies portions of the test.  Apparently, the entire CogAT test is not used.  Other than the missing sections, Alex said that the test was very similar to the practice test he took Monday evening.

EXCEL Test, Part 1

Alex took Part 1 of the EXCEL test on Tuesday.

Evergreen School District uses the Iowa CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test), which can be studied for . . . in fact, there are study guides available for puchase online.  I downloaded a practice test, and Alex took it Monday night.  Most of the practice test was very easy for him; he quickly and easily got 100% on the Math, Science, and Social Studies.  In the Reading and Language parts, he had a little more difficulty.  I had to coach him a little on word associations.  for example, he missed the following problem:

The words BLUE, GREEN, and RED are alike in some way.  Choose the word that is alike in the same way: 

1. COLOR
2. CRAYON
3. PAINT
4. YELLOW
5. RAINBOW

Alex chose the word COLOR.  In fact, he chose this word several times, even after I told him that it was incorrect.  Eventually, he seemed to understand that the correct answer is YELLOW.

In addition, he missed a few problems in which he was asked to find a spelling, word usage, or punctuation error.  Most of his mistakes were simply the result of going too fast.  A couple of them were the result of his not knowing a particular rule.  For example, he did not know that there is supposed to be a comma between the day and the year in the following date format:  January 1, 2010.

He got up on Tuesday morning for the test and got to choose anything he wanted for breakfast.  He chose hashbrowns.  Freshly grated hashbrowns.  He also had to take a sack lunch for the test, so we had bought some special treats for him and he got to take an extra special lunch that he would really enjoy after the test.  I spent the morning grating and frying potatoes while he got ready for school.  The hashbrowns did not cook as quickly as I had hoped, so we were a little rushed getting out the door, but he did make it to school on time.

He took the test on Tuesday morning.  He was the only student from his class to take it.  He told us that he took the math sections only, and that they were very easy.  There were 6 sections, and he seemed to be pretty upset that, although it was easy, he did not have time to complete one of the sections.  I explained to him that some tests are designed so that nobody finishes them, and that is okay.  When he got back to his classroom, he spent the rest of the day doing math in school.  He thought it was funny that he spent an entire school day doing math!

Tomorrow is the second half of the test, including the Language parts of the test that I am nervous about.  I'm just going to coach him to take his time and double check his work so he avoids the problems he normally has with hurrying through his work.  He got to bed a little early tonight; we have some special stuff ready so he can pack whatever he wants in his lunch, and I have told him he can have anything for breakfast again.

I'd better get up a little early in preperation for those hashbrowns again!