What's Been Going On

Not much. A lot of little odds and ends.

Katherine will play the flute in the Middle School Band next year. She is so excited. I've never played the flute, so I'll be interested to learn some right along with her.
I bought new shoes from Metro. Two pairs of black shoes, when I went in for sandals. I tossed my old pair of black shoes, so I'm only up one.
I'm cleaning out house again. Too much crap is piling up. Ian and I cleaned up the toy room on Monday and the housekeeper swept and mopped and pounded the carpets. It looks good in there now. Rebecca went through her clothes and pulled out a bunch to give away. I went through our school books and passed on some we don't need anymore. Our den is hopeless, I'm going to have to accept that I think. It's where we spend the most time and a cleaning only lasts a few hours. But with the party on Saturday the main floor needs to be cleaned up thoroughly, Katherine's room in particular. It'll be the main bathroom used too.
We dropped off our cat-mutilated carpet where we bought it. Next week it should be back, repaired.
For our anniversary we bought a curio cabinet and a lazboy chair. Both are lovely and both were delivered right when we were told they would. Amazing.
Rebecca has packed her suitcase. The girls leave in 7 days.
We're on a hunt for a new driver. After asking for a Rs10,000 loan (after he JUST finished paying back, and complaining about paying, a Rs2000 loan from January), he nearly had a huge accident on a major road, crossing 4 lanes of traffic on a red light with oncoming buses and trucks. The following day he asked for the loan again. Since then, he's just irritated me. Well, he's always irritated me, I've never really even liked him. In the past two weeks we had to point out that he's driving way too fast, seems like he's in a rush to get home. I've had to tell him not to tell my kids to open the back door of the house. He does this to let the gardener into our house to get water, which is so not acceptible on several levels.
Tomorrow I take the cats to the vet to get fixed. We've changed vets. Cross your fingers.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the 6th grade orientation. No idea the time but I hope it's before 1 p.m. so I can tag along. I'm helping out with the end of year parties. From 1:15 to 2:15 are water games with the K-2nd. From 2:15-3:15 is the 3rd-5th disco. I'm bringing a pan of brownies, 2 packages of cookies and a bag of chips. And my swimsuit and a towel.
Saturday we are hosting a party with our neighbors. With our three houses we have one for the kids with bouncy castles, face painting, kid movies, kid food, etc. Another for women... girlie stuff like manicures and jewelry for sale. Our house is the food place, with a biryani fire pit. Someone wants to have a roasted pig. I can just imagine. To say I'm not exactly excited about this is an understatement.
And lastly, my dad was readmitted to the hospital on Tuesday for repair surgery on his arm. All good thoughts and prayers for finally a full recovery.

Coming in 2009

Oh I'm so excited... a world for Harry Potter fans will start construction in a few weeks and open in 2009, complete with Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Hogwarts Express and a Forbidden Forest. So says BBC (just watched the entertainment report on it), and The Sun.

Another vehicle power alternative in the works

The Air Car. I'm curious to see what these inventions will lead to. Fascinating.

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659/

Before it Disappears

Check out the video on CNN about a hotel designed in a 15th century fort. That's Neemrana, where we stayed one night last fall. Beautiful, no?

I wish I could link to it, it's a little javascript pop-up and I can't figure it out, sorry.

RENEWED LIFE
Conservation-hoteliers Conservation-hoteliers
A 15th century Indian fort turns into a hotel, thanks to entrepreneurs

My Project

Have I told you how much I hate Halloween? The begging for candy, the making of costumes... I really dislike it all. We successfully avoided Halloween last year (much to my children's disappointment) with our trip up North. So what does the school do for Book Week? A character parade.

*bang head on wall*

But guess what. We did it. Character day is this Friday and we have plans for all the kids.
Katherine: Will be the American Girl Kit. From 1934, Kit wears nifty hats (check), pleated knee length skirts (check), a sweater top (check), and cute little shoes (we're going with sandals... work with me here).
Rebecca: Will be American Girl Felicity. In Colonial Williamsburg, Felicity wears an assortment of materials from cotton to silk. Rebecca will sport a long skirted, smocked dress, with a velvet elbow length half jacket. Stockings will help her swelter in our summer heat. Her head must be covered, and there was no bonnet in sight, so yours truly made one based on this Family Fun pattern. With extra time and a lack of white shoelaces, it turned out like this: (OK... eventually an image will be inserted here to show off my "masterpiece") Trust me, it's pretty nifty. Shoes are a problem, no black leather boots to be had.
Nicholas: Will be Jack from The Magic Treehouse. A borrowed pair of glasses from Katherine, a small backpack with his notebook, reference book and pencil, and he's set.
Jonathon: The knight from Tomie dePaola's The Knight and the Dragon. A helmet from Busch Gardens, a sword holder thing from the lego store, an "armor" shirt from London and he's good to go sans sword: no weapons allowed.

Middle School Band

Next year I have a middle schooler. And with that comes the painful Middle School Band.

Katherine brought a choice sheet home last Thursday. Ranking three preferred instruments she had these options: flute, clarinet, tuba, trombone, trumpet, tenor sax, french horn, alto sax, bass drum, and snare drum.

I'll put up her choices, but you all can guess first.

ARG!

This child will be the death of me. After finally clearing up the issue with Jonathon stomping on another kid's backpack and thereby paying for a new one, I was pulled aside yesterday by his teacher and told we need to have a chat. When I interrogated Jonathon, seems he pushed a little girl off a pile of pillow cushions. His reasoning: no one is allowed to sit on all the cushions. How do I get it through his thick little skull that pushing her off wasn't the right response?? He honestly feels he had a duty to right her wrong, but didn't see his reaction as the wrong thing to do. Thank goodness there are only 3 weeks left of school. I told him if he can't respect his classmates then I'm putting him in preschool next year. Wow, that was a bad response on my part, wasn't it? Sadly, I was only 1/2 "kidding."