Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Still no bid list #2

We've been looking ahead. Rebecca is thinking about a future working with animals. For a long time she thought about working in an animal shelter. She briefly considered a career as a vet but decided the schooling for that took too long. Then she shifted gears to becoming a lifeguard. Today we talked about other animal careers and she brought up working in a zoo as an animal trainer.

Of course since Jonathon learned there are proffesional computer game players he's been asking which college he should go to that will get him a degree in video game playing. And he asked whether Marymount has an arcade, because he knows it's close to grandma and grandpa's house. He said he's saving all his money in India to change to American dollars later, so he can buy a townhouse next to grandma and grandpa. Rebecca disagrees, as she's thought far enough to ahead to want a house that her brothers and sister and their whole families will be able to visit. She wants to go to college in Virginia.

Katherine wants to go to college overseas, preferably Ireland, though she has no idea what she wants to go to school for or what the schools in Ireland offer.

Nicholas? No idea.

But I digress.

So we looked at the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) website. After reading up on Wildlife Careers, we checked out the Snore and Roar overnight campout activity, and then at Adopting a Species. Katherine is still talking about adopting an owl, though it doesn't seem that it's an option at the National Zoo right now.
What I did think was exciting was the opportunity for kids as young as 14 to volunteer at the zoo. I know the competition to get those spots must be quite a hurdle, but how amazing it would be.
Lots to think about when we come home. Not that we know yet, because, you know, still no official list out.
But if I had my list right now it would look something like this:
DC
Brussels
London
Sydney
Krakow/Amsterdam/some other language post in a nice place
Am I dreaming? Absolutely. But right now, I feel like I have the right to dream.
Ian has been keeping an eye on realtor.com for a while. A newly released search is quite impressive, where you can find home values across the nation, but also put in a street & state & zip code and it'll pop up a map of the area, with plots, and recent homes sold marked in red as well as current homes on the market marked in green. Click on the flag of interest and get the listing. Not only can we see exactly the streets we want, but whether the house backs up to park land, is next to a major road, is on the corner, etc., all with a single glance. Home prices have dropped dramatically where we want to buy, so it's looking very positive for us. Should we go home for our next tour. Not that we know yet.
In the meantime we're still going swimming every day. Well, I managed to swim 8 days in a row until this morning when the pool was so pond scummy green I couldn't bring myself to dive in. When you can't see the bottom of the shallow end, you know things are bad. Today we received an e-mail that acknowledged the sorry state of our pool and said:
... Tomorrow after the head pool contractor visits the site, we will drain the pool, inspect the filtering system, repair loose cracked tiles, and re-balance the chemicals with fresh water.
Next week the pool changing rooms will begin rennovation. They will be gutted and kitted out with new tiles and fixtures after waterproofing work is completed and new plumbing lines installed. Consequently, the rooms and the baby pool area will remain closed for three to four weeks....

While I'm thrilled the pool is finally getting some attention, I'm also frustrated. It's happening NOW. Summer break is still here, the kids are still home, and no one else has returned from vacation. The pool is a regular activity for us (except today, obviously). And I had actually gotten used to exercising every day. Blast.
While the kids are finishing up math, Rebecca has dressed herself as a veterinary surgeon, and I'm loading up a CSI computer game for us to all work on this afternoon together. And then we'll have some zucchini bread.
Hmmm, looks like CSI will have to wait. Rebecca has just grabbed some of my disposable gloves, dug out a thermometer, sprain bandages, and her toy medical kit, and is opening up her own office. The others are waiting patiently with their stuffed animals to see the doctor on-call.

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