nickles and cents

So Miriam got a note from school that her monetary counting skills are not up to turtle rock elementary school's high standards. The circled portion read "below average (needs to learn the identity and amount each coin is worth . . . and to learn how to count coins from the beginning)- daily (underlined 3x) practice is needed." I was sort of proud of her cluelessness about money, (except when she was giving it away to her friend who knew what it was worth) but I guess those days are over. So we spent some time counting coins and she paid me 23 cents for dinner.

On a related note, for the activity portion of FHE we played "Who's got the quarter?" or whatever you call it and it's funny to play with two kids, one of whom is totally without guile and the other who is not so much. Once when they raise their hands, Miriam forgets to close her hands and the quarter is in plain view. Bekah asks, "Gwyn, do you have the quarter?" She smiles like she can't keep a secret and nods her head. (She doesn't have it.)

bottom of the list

So, I was an advocate of the blogs listed by order of recent updates on the Palmer blog, since it seemed very user friendly. Now I realize, that when you are at the bottom of the list, it means you are the biggest blogslacker on there. My main excuse is no pictures. Let me think of some blogworthy news.

We are going to Hawaii for 10 days, from the 6th to 16th. I am very excited. I am going to try an help mom get her energy bill down. Should be a fun project. It would be nice to expand the solar water heater if possible, maybe swap some appliances for more efficient models, making sure all of the shower heads and lights low flow and fluorescent, respectively. I've thought installing rainbarrels would be good too. Her energy bill is insanely high, so stuff that wouldn't be cost effective for many people probably would for her. (Lots of people and Hawaii energy prices.) Any suggestions.

I am almost finished applying for jobs and actually kind of stoked to get working on my dissertation again. I mean, if I get a job, I'm going to need to have it finished this year, which seems doable, but I will be busy. I had my first phone interview. It went well, I thought.

We went kayaking again. We need to figure out some kid games, because they get pretty bored and don't like it anymore. I think we just need to give ourselves more time so we can stop, check out beaches, etc. We did see paddle out to a rock that we always seem from the beach, and realized that the back side is home to about 20 sea lions. They were all at home too. It was very cool.

We are going to Norcal for Thanksgiving to see Chris and Da, Sienna and Tony, Noel and Austin, and everyone else who I haven't seen in a long, long time. We are very excited. And, there is a BIG north swell due that weekend. Hopefully we will have picts to post soon. (We took some kayaking, but the are all out of focus for some reason.)