Lou Duva, Veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan training regime of Andrew Golota: “He’s a guy who gets up at six o’clock in the morning regardless of what time it is.”
The content of a generic letter from MIT we received was interesting. It was addressed to the parents of Elliot Lee.
While it may seem tempting to be involved at every step [of the application process], the role of “the applicant” must truly belong to your child. Our application is carefully designed to help us get to know the applicant, and to be effective the voice must be exclusively his or hers.
Did they think I was going to complete the application myself instead of letting my son do it himself? Are there really parents who would do that? For the Dean of Admissions to say that in a letter must imply there is a fair number of applications that are not written by the propective student. But then how would they know? What if they find out after the student is admitted?
We dropped Elliot off at USC on Monday, it being Labor Day weekend. I mentioned to Audrey that it seemed sadder to drop him off this time than on move-in day over 2 1/2 weeks ago. I was wondering why that is so when Audrey said this with great insight, “Because this is his home now.”
Elliot has a home separate from us. He comes to visit us and then we take him “home.” Sigh…the circle of life. We’ve all been there. I too was anxious to grow up and have my own “home.” I thought nothing of leaving my parents and going off on my own. When I came home to my parent’s house, it was never the same again as when I was a child. Now I am on the other side of the fence, watching my son go off happily to be on his own. When I think of my young adult period of life, it was a time of great adventure as well as growth. Elliot will experience the same. When I think of his benefit, I am happy. It is not my lost, but his gain that I will focus on.
The good son that he is, Elliot called home last night…at 11:30pm. I jumped out of bed to get the phone when I heard his voice on the answering machine…
Today is Amy’s birthday, and in her words, she is now a double-digit, 10 years old.
We have never given our children birthday presents or Christmas presents. We figure they get plenty from the extended family. So it is our family tradition for the birthday person to pick whatever he/she wants for dinner. I usually pick going out for Mexican food. Mike likes a roast duck as a special treat at home. Tonight, Amy wants sashimi, shrimp cocktail, mixed vegetables with broccoli and mushrooms, and chinese steamed eggs. She is going to save the treat of an ice cream cake for another day. So I am going now to bake a lemon cake, topped with real whipped cream, my favorite! There are no calories in any of my desserts, of course….
Amy and I were walking through the men’s department at Robinsons-May Department Store.
Me: See how the mannequins are dressed? They have a nice tie coordinated with different color shirts.
Amy: Those are called mannequins? What do you call the girls – womanequins?
“The Original Magic Bullet System Does ANY Job in 10 Seconds or Less.”
This is their claim! Who needs time management skills when you have the Original Magic Bullet System!
Yes, the little pink things are alive! These are two of our baby hamsters the day they were born, January 21, 2005. I just realized I never posted pictures. They are no bigger than my pinky fingernail. See them curled up with each other? The black dot is the eye not yet able to open.
Don’t they look like embryos still inside the womb? It’s incredible how they survive outside the womb like this. Over the course of merely three weeks, they will open their eyes, grow fur over their whole body, and be weaned from the mother. Compare that to human babies…we just take our time!
One of the little pink babies could be Stuffie, but we can’t tell…
This is our hamster Stuffie.
I blogged about her birth and here she is, seven months old now.
Stuffie is very friendly and she likes to be handled. She is officially Audrey’s hamster because she picked her from the litter as one of the ones we would keep. She lives in a cage by herself to avoid hamster overpopulation. Though they say hamsters are territorial creatures and don’t necessarily enjoy the company of other hamsters, we don’t want Stuffie to be lonely. So Amy handles her often and plays with her.
I wonder if Stuffie lives her whole life alone and never have babies, is she going against nature’s way and missing out on something? Would it be better if we give her opportunities to have one litter? What do you think?
A star-nosed mole is one of the world’s fastest feeders. It can eat a meal so quickly that the human eye cannot see it!
By using a high-speed camera, scientists tape the mole eating earthworms. Then they watched the tape in slow motion and discovered the star-nosed mole can eat a mouthful of worms in .23 seconds!
Amy had a sleepover the past two days, to celebrate her 10th birthday. The total of four girls built a canopy using our chairs, sheets, and ropes; then they slept under it. It was quite a masterful job.
What fun it is to be 10 years old and having 2 days of fun with your good friends!
I didn’t want to miss out. So last night I slept with Amy in the tent. I would have slept better on my soft bed, but it was great to have a taste of 10-year-old fun again.
I didn’t remember doing interesting things like that when I was little. I am envious that my children has such a great childhood!
Then we took the tent down today. All good things must come to an end, even being a child.
But. . .”We can do it again another time!” I said to Amy.