Matching Tracksuits

fun in fours

Month: September 2015

Technical Difficulties

Saturday 05 September 2015

I was hoping to get caught up on grading over the weekend: a long weekend is good for that because I don’t have to do it all at once. I can tinker at it around the edges, so to speak. However, I am currently unable to access the Google Drive account issued by the school district because the district routes all log-ins through their servers, which apparently are experiencing some difficulties. The login page has been replaced by this page, which has no “Submit” button!

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So I cannot access my school Drive account, which means I cannot access my Google Classroom account. They’re both Google products, but because of technical problems at the district’s servers, I am unable to access them.

Technology is great until it doesn’t work.

Too Many Toys

Wednesday 02 September 2015

Every night whoever has Boy Duty (as opposed to Girl Duty) reads to the Boy, and my selection tonight was Too Many Toys by David Shannon of No, David! fame (one of the best children’s books of all time). The story was a little predictable: “Spencer had too many toys,” it begins, and the astute child or the typical adult will guess where this is going.

Tonight, we reached the page that showed all of Spencer’s toys spilling down the stairs. “Spencer liked to make his toys into a parade that stretched from one corner of the house to the other and back again!” E pointed to the huge line of toys and said, “He poured them all out.”

“Yes,” I laughed. “I know someone else who likes to pour his toys out.”

E looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, then concluded, “Babcia doesn’t.”

Indeed. Every time we visit Babcia, she complains, only partially in jest I’m convinced, that she’ll be glad when we’re all gone and she can get back to normal. “No more toys here, there, and everywhere!”

No, Babcia would not be a fan of Spencer’s train of toys.

After a thoughtful second, E continued: “I do too.” Up went his eyebrows as they always do when he’s about to raise an index finger to emphasize a point. “But I clean up.” Another small pause. “Sometimes.”