Here we go again. I don’t usually stick with weekly blog “get-togethers” very well, so we’ll see how far I go with this one. Sometimes it’s nice to have an assignment. Sometimes. (For other Quick Takes visit the Conversion Diary.)
1. I’m seriously waffling about what to do regarding Maddie’s ear piercing predicament. She DOES. NOT. WANT. TO. GO. to the piercing place for it. I’m sort of wondering (gasp) what if we go back to the mall and make a better selection in earrings this time (bigger ball in front)? Would that do the trick? I couldn’t sleep last night and spent too much time googling information about piercing. I know the arguments. Guns are bad. Guess what? Life-long trauma to a 10-year-old is also bad. Sigh. And for the record, don’t google “body piercing pictures” – just trust me on this.
2. The school planner* I tried to use this year just won’t load on my Mac. Now, I knew it was a PC-based program, but I had been convinced by the seller that I could make it work if I installed something on the Mac first. Problems: my laptop was too old for the install; my new desktop CRASHED when we tried to install it (that crash made me lose every file I had saved including my entire iTunes library). Not happy, I emailed to see if I could just resell the disk since I can’t use it. They said no. Boo! I don’t understand how that violates copyright law since I can’t use it anyway.
*link removed to “protect” the guilty
That said, I’m looking for lesson-planning software for the Mac that will also track hours for homeschool needs. I’ve looked at Planbook for Mac. It doesn’t track hours, though. I may have to go back to doing it by hand. Bummer! Any recommendations out there for me?
3. Do you know how, if you repeat any random word over and over and over, it starts to sound like a nonsense word? I’m taking Maddie through First Language Lessons Level 4 right now. The book wasn’t released until last month, so we’re doing two lessons/day to sort of catch up. The word in question today is “hamburger.” We were doing a review of adjectives in which we were modifying the word “hamburger” in a bunch of different ways. The end result was that by the end of the lesson we were both giggling out of control and hungry.
4. I just read on a couple of blogs that Krispy Kreme is giving away donuts on inauguration day. Now I’m really hungry.
5. Craig surprised me this week by telling me he registered me for the February L’abri Conference in Rochester. Sadly, he can’t come, so I’ll be spending three nights in a hotel. By myself. I may not come out.
6. After a couple of weeks off for various (good) reasons (Christmas, Chicago, Craig’s grandpa), the girls’ piano lessons started back up today. The craziest thing happened: our cats have never met the piano teacher before, but they were instantly drawn to her. Two of them would not leave her alone – playing with her scarf, climbing up in her chair, etc. I had to banish them to the basement just because they were being distracting. Hilarious.
7. My children’s literature class begins in 11 days. I had many of the books already, and picked up another small handful from paperbackswap. The rest I’m buying from the bookstore. Can I just tell you how satisfying it was to have to purchase children’s books yesterday? No qualifying, no excusing – I had to do it. I need more classes (and days) like that.
Okay, back to our day. Hope you all have a great Friday!
Half-Pint House 
Many dermitology offices do ear peircings. Nice and sterile. Maybe that will work for M?
LikeLike
With regards to #1, you could try a Piercing Pagoda store (http://pagoda.com/). They’re typically a step up from Claire’s or places like that and have a huge selection of all gold/hypoallergenic piercing earrings.
LikeLike
I’m getting the lesson here that you should STAY AWAY FROM THE MALL when getting your daughter’s ears pierced. I had NO IDEA. Thank you for the information, as I have FOUR girls!
P. S. I found you through Jen’s Mr. Linky.
LikeLike
I’ll be at the L’Abri conference, too! 🙂
LikeLike
I need a good excuse to buy more books. I wonder what class I can sign up for?
LikeLike
I’m struggling with jealousy. L’abri conference, a hotel room to yourself for a few nights (ahh the peace!), AND a children’s literature course, giving you the excuse to buy books guilt-free.
I need to go repent and count my blessings.
LikeLike
We’ve gone to the mall for all of our ear piercings…
Abbey had trouble with her first set at age 11. So, we just took the earrings out and let them close up and tried again a year later. No problem. We even went back to Claire’s.
LikeLike
I bailed on that same program over Christmas break and switched everything over to Homeschool Tracker+ by TGHomeSoft. Much happier with it. Good discussion forums and quick tech support. Might want to look into that?
LikeLike
Yeah, think I’m going to probably end up taking her to a mall place again. She really wants them pierced, but really does not want to go to a place where they do it with a needle. I can’t really say I blame her – I don’t want to do that either, though I did tell her if she would go then I would also get something pierced too. *grin*
Keri – Are you running on a Mac? That’s been the hardest thing. I looked at Homeschool Tracker about 20 minutes ago but they are also PC based and require you to install a Windows application on your Mac. That’s where we got into trouble last time – the Windows application crashed my 2-week-old computer. I heard *someone* mutter, “This is why we don’t use Windows anymore! They’re a piece of crap!”
Pretty much goes for Windows runs programs too…
My main frustration today came from a day-long email argument with the “support” team there who would never give themselves a name (rude) and continued to tell me it was my problem and not theirs (double rude). All I was asking for was permission to sell it to someone with a PC. They implied it would be theft. As if I would keep a copy of that program around for fun after I sold it. Made my blood boil.
I have this theory that “Christian” companies expect you to just turn the other cheek. If I were dealing with Amazon or somebody you can believe I’d be making a big stink out of it. But you know what? I wouldn’t have to because whenever I’ve had a problem with something I’ve ordered from Amazon they’ve always been quick to assume responsibility and make it right.
Frustrating.
LikeLike
I think it’s really rare for you to have had the problems that you did with the mall piercing. I’ve had that done 4 times (remember when it was the thing to have 3 holes in your ear – ugh! I had to have one set redone because they weren’t even). Both my daughters had theirs pierced at the mall. None of us ever had any problems. I wouldn’t want to do the needle myself. 😦 Good luck! I hate tha she had to go through that.
LikeLike
Oh – the conference looks wonderful. Looking forward to you sharing what you learn on your blog. Hang in there with the ears…B.
LikeLike