Today was relatively uninteresting. Lots of cleaning, a well deserved break playing my new game Voyage, and the usual antics of the children.

James saw only Kathy this morning and he did well. Kathy and I discussed him going to the meeting by himself next week since he did that with Carey the last couple of weeks and he did great. So, we'll see how he does next week.

Carey did kick me out this evening when he found out some of the women from my homeschool group were getting together and he kicked me out. I enjoyed sitting back with some good women of like minds without the interruption of little ones. The meeting was at a popular local coffee house. I've only been in their twice, including this time, but I really like the ambiance. It's full of comfy arm chairs, couches, small tables in secluded nooks, etc. I ordered a large chai and settled back with the five other women who had come. We talked about all kinds of stuff ranging from different homeschool philosophies, curriculum, field trips coming up, knitting, sheep, and other general day to day stuff. I found out that one of the women was older than I though. She has an 8 year old son and she's 49.

There was also a reporter there! I enjoyed talking with her. She has a son she's talking about homeschooling herself. So I think she gleaned more from us than just fodder for an article. The article will be in the January 19-20 issue of the Moscow Pullman Daily news and she's hoping to attend an upcoming field trip at an art studio for a photo op. I may or may not be featured in it, although it would be interesting if I was. I did make sure the kids names were spelled properly just in case.

The most amusing story belonged to one of the women, Gabrielle, about her youngest son Sammy. He has taken to making up really silly and nonsensical super heroes. He will take a word or even a sentence and add the word "man" to the end of it. One of his creations was called Penis Man (I kid you not, his mother was in tears she was laughing so hard over this). He came up with lots of adventures that would only actually have a sexual overtone for someone old enough to understand. To him, they were completely innocent. The story involves a trip to the grocery store, him, and a group of perhaps Mennonite? children. (I can already hear the groans and snickers). He got along quite well with one of the girls and they were having an animated conversation. Sammy wanted to play so he jumped into the middle of the aisle with his arms and legs splayed out and cried "Hey, everyone, lets go for a ride on the Penis Mobile!". Oh, Goddess, I'm laughing just thinking about it. Gabrielle says the whole group went deathly silent and bug eyed. She had to explain to him that not everyone is comfortable with the term "penis" and it's associated connotations so it would be better if Penis Man only came out to play at home.

I was glad to get a ride home with one of the women. I had walked down, only a 10 minute walk but in the ensuing two hours the temperature had dropped drastically and I didn't relish the walk. Wonder of wonders, even Kitty was asleep when I arrived so Carey and I settle down to spend some time together. We watched the first two episodes of CSI season 1 that had arrived that day from Net Flix. That is one of the few shows that I actually miss with no TV. I was happy to discover that Net Flix has the complete set of every season so they've all been added to my que. I will gradually get to watch them over the next several months. There are only two or three episoded per disc and I get one disc at a time. I have also interspersed those discs with movies and stuff that the kidlets would like to watch or even documentaries and other general educational stuff I'd like them to watch. In fact, next up in our que before I recieve my next CSI installment is The Music Man 2003 remake and Wallace & Gromit. Everyone liked the original The Music Man so much that I thought I'd see how well this one was made. However, based upon a video I saw of one of the kids' favorite songs, Shipoopi, it already seems that it just doesn't have the same sparkle and the sheer amount of energy that is displayed in the original elaborate musicals that I so enjoy but I'll reserve complete judgement until I see it.

Alas, we also discovered that James little African Dwarf Frog Charlie breathed his last and passed on sometime within the last day or two. Carey and I talked about just going and getting a new one, and not telling James, but in the end we felt it better to just tell him the truth. He has to deal with this kind of stuff some time and we won't help him any if we shelter him to that extent. So, sometime within the next few days we'll hold a little funeral and James will get to go down and pick a new pet. This really didn't come as that great of a surprise. When I bought a new tank in December, the guy I was talking to was amazed that we still had Charlie since their lifespans really aren't that long.

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