Driving

Today was Kevin’s first driving lesson.

We’re loading up the Odyssey to take the boxboard and cardboard out to the recycling center…..Kevin, for about a month, has been saying, I can drive, I can drive.  And since the van is backed into the driveway, I give him the keys and say “let’s go!”

Kevin can’t believe it; I tell him we can go down to the end of the cul-de-sac and back….but he has to figure out how to do it.  He starts the car (is about to start it again and I have to point out that you don’t want to do that) and finally figures out how to take the parking brake off, but, can’t seem to move that pesky gear shift. 

Mom finally comes out, realizes what we’re doing, starts to put her hands on her head and says “has he figured out he has to have his foot on the brake?”

Kevin does figure it out at this point, and, off we go. 

We’ve learned the following things:

1)  Dad will most likely be the primary Kevin driving teacher…..just the thought of Kevin driving off turned Mom into a mess.  The lasting image of the day is when Kevin, after successfully navigating the cul-de-sac and is heading towards home decides to turn right and do the other cul-de-sac, and I look over towards the house and Mom has her head in her hands and I swear I can hear her saying “Nooooooo!”.

2)  No big surprise here, but, Kevin needs a lot of work….we’ve agreed on a reward system…he gets an A (not an A-) on a math quiz or test and I’ll take him down to a parking lot and see how he does….

The end is nigh!

Felines

One of the most important things we do before we go on a trip is pet control; Wiley goes to ‘camp’ and we either arrange for someone to come and feed the cats every 2 or 3 days or leave them to fend for themselves if we’re not going to be gone long.  That was the case for the recent trip for Lloyd’s wedding.  Friday morning, as we stumble across the cats, we isolate them in the basement.  Madison and Daphne are locked down there, and we can’t find Marino.  As we leave, we figure she is still outside and leave a bowl of food and water out for here and a big bowl of food and water out inside the house for the other two. 

And off we go!

On the drive back home, I look at Suzanne and go “you know, I think I screwed up…I don’t think I opened the basement door”

Uh-oh.

Get home, get inside, and yes, I had forgotten to re-open the basement door.  This stupidity had the following results:

• open the basement door and two cats come screaming out of there…heading straight to the food and water dishes
• Marino, was not outside as we thought, but, inside.  And comes out, and I realize that closing the basement door had cut her off from the kitty litter.  Matthew’s bed was the guest litter box for the weekend, and, some environmental remediation activities were quickly undertaken.

If I had realized Friday that I had done this, we could have called back and had one of the neighbors check.  Since I was stupid, the cats suffered until Sunday.

I still think they are looking at me strangely today……

Brazil

I have a new favorite small plane; the Embraer 145…can’t name another import from Brazil…..

The CRJ’s are still the worst thing on earth, and, for the most part, I’m doomed to be on them for the hops to most places.  But, the recent flights from Cincinnati to Charleston have been on the Embraer 145; it’s 2 seats on one side, one on the other, which is great, since it’s easy to avoid being next to someone and, the best part…..the windows are huge!  Compared to that crap-tastic CRJ, where they are small and you can’t see crap when you are on the ground, the Embraer’s windows have to be at least 1.5x bigger.

Air flow, another important feature on a small plane, is good.  Two thumbs up…more of these, less CRJ’s, and I’d be a happier flier.

All-State Results are in

All of those comparisons between Kevin and the ‘girl’ in that previous post?  They just show how much of an idiot I am…..that girl was the 1st chair viola AND the 1st chair violin….we’re sure she’ll take the violin spot.

So, that would leave Kevin as the 8th chair (he qualified as 9th, but, will move up).  Certainly not the 1st chair he was hoping for, but, he was the highest viola from either of the two middle schools, so, that’s a good thing.  He’s disappointed, but, hopefully will appreciate that a quality practicing and effort will get him what he wants. 

Kevin, a while back, participated in the middle school string clinic.  The clinic was on a Saturday, and all the 8th graders played in one orchestra.  Suzanne and I missed the concert at the end of the event from running little boys around, but, you can see the video of it at the link above; Kevin performs in the final three pieces.

Aloft

Started here

Went here

Ended up here

Three flights instead of 2 = $300 cheaper….

Indoor Soccer – Game 2

Lost 4-0 to Holt (I think it was 5, but, that’s not what the standings say).  Game occurred while Mom and Kevin were down in Charlotte doing the Solo thing Saturday.

Team played like crap.  Boys yelled at (again!) by the coaches at the end….not so much for playing badly but for not even trying to do the things we’ve been talking about for 3 months. 

In indoor soccer you can substitute at will (in outdoor, it’s only on certain plays at the ref’s discretion).  We’re taking this opportunity to provide almost immediate feedback to the boys when things are go awry; one boy is coming off every time he’s pushing or trying to play football.  Another boy is playing way more defense than he would like….because he keeps trying to move up and play offense and then we have no defense, so, our solution is that he’ll play defense (which he doesn’t like) until he plays it right.  Both Matthew and Christopher got to run to the sideline for, um, encouragement; Matthew to not jump as he ‘attacks’ a player (when he jumps, the player can just go right around him) and Christopher to not give up when someone does go around him.

All in all….a trying day.  

George of the Jungle

So, get a call from the school yesterday; wanted to let us know that Christopher has run into a tree at lunch recess and scraped up his nose and face, but, he’s back in class now after they applied some anti-bacterial cream.  Ask the obvious question “Is the tree ok?” and “Good thing pictures are done!” and hang up and that’s that end of that..

Get another call 5 minutes later; Christopher’s back in the office….his wounds ‘sting’.  Talk to the big guy on the phone “We were playing tag, Sahil was chasing me, and I hit the tree….” and convince him to tough it out.

He’s got some serious bumps and scrapes going on.

The Joys of Algebra 2

It’s going better; no really stupid low homework grades in almost a month and good, but not great, quiz and test scores (he did pull a 100 on one quiz, but, the test for that chapter was a B+, so, still some work to do).

Have to say, I’m getting a kick out of problems like this….I was always fond of polynomials and factoring them and working with them…..

 

Another quiz tomorrow morning; confidence is high, I repeat, confidence is high!

Solo & Ensemble

Kevin performed the only movement of the Telemann that he hasn’t trotted out yet (the 3rd) on Saturday at the District Solo & Ensemble event.  Grades are 1 through 5; Kevin got a 2…..much to his disappointment.  I was not there; Kevin says he did fine and thinks he should have gotten a 1; Suzanne doesn’t have an ‘ear’ for it and can’t tell if he’s done well or not.

But, she did tape it.  And I have that uploaded here. 

My ear, when I first listened to it, had me wondering why he was missing so many notes.  The beauty of uploading the video is that I can send the link along to Kevin’s viola-jedi-master….and he chimes in below.  I have no idea what the heck is right or wrong with the viola…but he does!

“Thanks for the link to Kevin's performance.  First of all, I've heard him give a more accurate performance than this.  What stood out the most (at the beginning of the piece) was that Kevin was playing consistently sharp.  I wondered if his viola was in tune, but then toward the end I could tell that the open strings were in tune, and that he was playing sharp after his shifts to and from 1st and 3rd positions (we will be working a lot on that in the coming weeks with the Introducing the Positions books.) 

This particular movement of this concerto is the most expressive of all of the movements.  Most experienced players will agree that playing expressively and slowly, having to sustain a beautiful and consistent tone, is often more challenging than playing something fast and flashy (especially when nervous).  Kevin plays fast music very well, and sometimes tends to view slow music as "easy"; only because the notes are not moving quickly.  We've worked on playing scales slowly, using the mirror during lessons to keep the bow where it should be to sustain the most beautiful sound.   I  will continue working with Kevin on this, as I think he should be working hard in his personal practice playing slowly and expressively.  He tends to lose patience with doing this.

I agree with the judge's brief remark about putting more weight in the bow.  I noticed during the performance, Kevin looked uncomfortable using the lower half of his bow, and then was not putting enough weight into the bow when he was in the upper half.  Since the upper half of the bow is farther from the hand and arm, more weight should be applied into the bow in the upper half to achieve a bigger sound. I think part of this was due to nerves.  We'll work on that as well.

As far as the rating of a "2" goes, I think it is a fair assessment of Kevin's progress on that particular piece.  It should not be viewed as a reflection of Kevin's cumulative efforts and abilities on the viola.”

For the curious, the All-State piece emphasized speed; a Kevin strength.  I’ve already told Kevin that he’ll be playing this piece again at the December recital.

Wall Art

Had to go to the school about an hour after school let out to pick up Christopher, who is receiving some extra ‘help’ from a HS senior on Wednesdays.  On my way to get him, I stopped by the 2nd grade rooms and was pleasantly surprised to see that the art was things I hadn’t seen before.

the kids were asked to draw a picture of them in their Halloween costume, or, a costume that they wish they could wear…

and then each kid had to write a story about their apple friend.  Matthew’s grizzled apple friend has had a full life, suffered a gruesome injury, but, is calm with it (asked about this….it happened fifteen years ago while the apple was on active duty, so, he’s had time to get over it).  Now relaxing in his golden delicious years I guess…..

Boil your water

So, this happened today:

Part of Meridian Township is under a precautionary boil water advisory for the next day and a half. This because of a mistake made while the water system was being tested in the area.

Wednesday morning the Lansing Board of Water and Light and the East Lansing-Meridian Township Water Authority were testing the exchange of water in the system. During the test, water is supposed to be re-routed to maintain pressure, but BWL failed to do that. As a result, between 9:18AM and 9:44AM there was a gap in the system where no water was flowing in the southern part of Okemos. When air enters the system, there is a small chance bacteria could contaminate the water. Officials with both BWL and the East Lansing-Meridian Water Authority say it is unlikely bacteria has gotten into the water, but state law requires the township to issue a boil water advisory for at least 24-hours, as the water gets tested.

no problems here at the home, but, it did have some effects on the family.

This is a test of the EBS:  Because there was no drinking water at the high school, they dismissed classes.  Since Kevin is, technically, enrolled at the high school, both Suzanne and I received phone calls on our cell phones from the school districts automated system letting us know that the high school was ‘out’.  Had a call at my work number as well.  And an email at our two email addresses  Can’t fault the district for the notification.

What???:  Water was not available at the school for Christopher and Matthew as well; not sure why not, the notice was south of Bennett Road, but, I guess better safe than sorry.  Picked up the boys separately today; both, first things out of there mouths, was man, did that no-water-thing suck.  Christopher was especially vocal about it; what did they expect someone to do after gym when you are hot and sweaty??  The voice on the phone said that bottled water was available at the school, but, guess it wasn’t readily available……

 

Indoor Soccer – Game 1

A win, 1-0, over St. Johns.  Matthew was off with Mom watching MSU take on the Western Michigan Broncos, so, just Christopher for the first game of the indoor soccer season (of course, it’s 65 degrees out, warmer than for at least three of our outdoor games in October).

Christopher played well, again, he excels at defense and was a rock back there in the first half.  The last part of the second half we went where we hadn’t gone before in outdoor; Christopher got his turn in goal.  The bright side?  He stopped everything that came at him….the downside….well, let’s just say he won’t be getting another chance unless we’re winning by more than a few goals.  Not very good on goal kicks (missed MISSED on one of the punts….not good) and just really not his strength back there. 

He’s the rock that holds the defense together; I guess that will have to be enough.  

All State

Last weekend was Kevin’s tryout for the Middle School All-State Orchestra

Last year, Kevin could never fully master the etude he had to play….but that performance and his sight reading was good enough for the fifth chair.  This year, Kevin was able to play it without error, although, the last line was certainly the most challenging.

I think Suzanne went with Kevin to the audition last year; this year I went and stayed in the practice room while Kevin went off to perform.  The viola player (‘she’…we’ll refer to her as ‘she’ for the rest of the post) that was going to audition after Kevin was warming up while I waited.  And, it was interesting to hear the differences

Tone:  may or may not be the right word.  Artistry maybe?  Anyway, she was definitely more artistic/tone-y than Kevin….the piece above goes pretty quick, and she would slow down before the rests at the end of each musical ‘phrase’ to add vibrato and ‘flair’ to the etude.  But, when you do that, you sacrifice…..

Rhythm: when Kevin practices the piece, if there’s one thing he is consistent on, it’s the pace.  With a metronome, without, he performs it at the speed that the orchestra is going to perform it at.  The upshot of all that is that Kevin doesn’t have the ‘time’ to add the flourishes that ‘she’ did…..and we wondered after the tryouts what the judges would find more important.  We’ve had the chance to ask his orchestra teacher (at p/t) and his private teacher and they both agree that in the end it’s going to come down to what the judge who listens to both recordings values more…..but both thought that the rhythm would be valued more.

Accuracy: I think ‘she’, if she did what she did in warmups, made more errors than Kevin (who maybe makes one error, tops) in the etude.  She seemed to be having some issues in the scales they have to memorize also….

Scales:  The students have to memorize four 2-octave scales; the first three, according to Kevin, range from easy to medium, and the last, the chromatic, is hard.  She performs the scales at about the same speed…about half a second for each note, but, seems to have some difficulty in hitting the notes correctly.  Kevin, based on his private teacher’s advice, draws these notes out on the first three scales to show his tone and vibrato (at least a second on each note), and, on the fourth scale (the hard one, the chromatic) he speeds it up to about her pace (it’s harder because you have to shift more, and I believe the thinking is to do it faster shows you have the command to do it faster).  She goes slower on this scale.

Sight Reading: Have no idea how ‘she’ did, obviously, but Kevin reports he did good, but maybe not great.  I think I’ve come to believe he’s being unduly hard on himself…he says he made a mistake on the rhythm of the notes near the end of the piece, but, says he did a good job on the tricky rhythm at the beginning, and, if he hit that and hit all the notes, than he did better than he thinks he did…..

So, what does it all mean?: God only knows.  Kevin was happy with his preparation and his performance, so, that’s about all we can ask for.  Will be interested to see how it plays with Kevin, and she, and Kevin’s viola ‘partner’ and where they end up in the ‘ratings’ (the other 8th grade viola is about as good as Kevin….when he tried out he was so nervous he flat out forgot the chromatic scale……we wonder how that will affect HIS placement).

P/T

This week Suzanne and I attended the parent/teacher conferences for all of the boys. 

Kevin:  Kevin’s conferences were first; on Tuesday.  Talked with every teacher but math (did not make the special journey over to the high school for that…..Kevin’s had his lowest grade of the year and the highest grades of the year in the last week…still a struggle).  Doing well; no grade lower than an A (at Chippewa…the high school’s a different matter).  A common refrain was that he was too ‘goofy’ and one teacher mentioned he was prone to ‘blurting’ out answers. 

Matthew:  Matthew and Christopher’s conferences were back to back on Thursday; at the school the youngest is always first when they organize that type of thing, so Matthew started us off. 

 

The kids use a folded 11x17 piece of construction paper to act as a folder for the papers that the teacher is going to give us; this was the front of Matthew’s folder.

Matthew’s doing well in everything; no real concerns to discuss EXCEPT that he needs to work on ‘blurting’.  Sigh.  Got a bit of a mixed message here; apparently when Matthew is doing work he’s really ‘intense’ and focused, but, during the transitions, he’s not as focused as he needs to be.  Don’t have the sheet he wrote on, but, listed his strengths as “kickball, soccer, and gym”….the teacher pointed out that Matthew and his friends are very organized at getting games like that going at lunch and not every group of second graders she’s had has been successful at this. 

Matthew apparently wants to be everyone’s friend, and, in the no-surprise-moment of the night, the teacher pointed out that he’s quite a ham sometimes; twice last week on the way to the bathroom as he was going out the door he’s turned around and posed for the class and caused a chorus of giggles.  He’s received several warnings in the class for behavior, etc, but, has escaped the dreaded red card home (that we’ve been very clear would result in parental sanctions….).  Apparently he’s good at getting right up the very edge of the rules but not sliding over…..

The scroll is some program where they track counting to 1,000.  Apparently Matthew was really motivated to be the first one to do that (he was) and to be the first one to get to 2,000.  Doing good on spelling tests should probably read doing great…

Christopher:  Didn’t go over much of the reading here as we’ve been over that before.  Went 3/3 on this round of the conferences with the presentation of a sheet marked “Christopher’s Goals”

Goal:  Blurting

How will this goal help you?:  I’m blurting too much

How can you parents help you achieve this goal?  My parents can’t help me; I have to do it on my own.

How can your teacher help you achieve this goal?  Give me a signal.

Apparently, it’s such a problem with Christopher that his teacher has worked out a signal with him; when he blurts, she makes a signal, and he goes ‘oops’.  Sigh.  More on blurting as a hereditary defect later.

Received some papers that Christopher had completed at the beginning of the year….of interest (to me at least) is the continued mutli-national nature of Christopher’s friends.

   

Blurting: After some discussion Thursday night we’ve determined that the ‘blurting’ issue must be a dominant Hutsell gene; Suzanne swears up and down that she wasn’t a blurter.  Scott can’t say the same; recent evidence indicates other Hutsell children recall similar instances of having this behavior discussed with them.  Have a hard time picturing a young John Wesley talking out of turn in 4th grade….oh well.  Suzanne and I had an illuminating discussion about trips to the principal’s office; she can’t ever remember going and Scott remembers more than a few occasions of discipline from on high.

Obviously, we’ve failed as parents (sat all of the boys down on the couch to discuss it and they kept interrupting us as we pointed out the blurting issue….amazing how that works!). 

Seriously, I’ve made more of a deal about this issue here than we’ll ever make about it with the boys.  Wonder if it was a point of emphasis pre-conference with the teachers (“and make sure you root out that ‘blurting’!).  Think in some cases you bring it up when you have nothing else to say (Kevin’s grade in the class where the teacher brought it up?  100%….there’s a corrective action we’re supposed to take here?)  Find the whole ‘coincidence’ of ‘blurting’ amusing….

Pictures from Hallowparty

Christopher’s teacher posted some pictures from the day’s events at school.  Starting at 2nd grade, you can’t wear costumes, so, that’s why you won’t see any here.

Commentary by Christopher below:

“I’m making rock candy…I don’t know what flavor it was.  We didn’t get to eat it; we’re still making it at school”

“I’m clapping; I have to make a pattern and the class repeats it”

“It’s Keith’s turn to clap and I’m pushing him towards the front of the classroom”

“I’m just waiting (for the next activity)”

Flight 1401

Noticed something weird in my frequent flier miles recently; Delta gave me 25,000 extra miles for no reason that I could figure out.

Got a letter today that ‘splains things…..a flight I was on was delayed, and they were giving me those miles as an apology. 

But I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out which flight I had been on that had been delayed so much that this would be necessary.  Don’t have any recollection of sitting around in the airport being really pissed off because of airline idiocy…..because I’m not shy about complaining about that type of thing   :)

Turns out, it was this one, my Detroit-Atlanta leg on the way to West Palm Beach…..

I do remember this flight; we were late getting into Atlanta and everyone was complaining that all of the other connecting flights were delayed because of the weather.  When we came into land, you couldn’t see the ground until we were about 100 feet off the ground; of course things are going to be screwed up because of that!  Was irked that everyone was bitching about it; look outside at the rain and low clouds people!  Sat around waiting to board the plane for West Palm Beach, and that was the afternoon of balloon boy hysteria; remember watching the balloon spiral through the Colorado sky on Airport-CNN…

But, for 45 minutes late, Delta gave me 25,000 miles!  in the last month, I’ve had at least 5 delays longer than that for various reasons….just don’t understand why this flight got a mea culpa from Delta….

Not that I’m complaining….I’m just saying….

Halloween!

Matthew welcomes the holiday!

 

The boys prepare for the night ahead.  Suzanne is particularly vocal that with the switch in daylight\ savings time it is still very bright as trick or treating begins

It’s the Vampire Pioneer! or Pioneer Vampire…or vamp-a-neer…or something like that.  Went to the MSU hockey game friday night dressed up and, we feel, was completely robbed for best costume; they ended up giving it to the vampire pirate!

the scarecrow…..only thing of note is that he was the oldest kid in the neighborhood who went out trick or treatin….the other girls and boys in his grade didn’t go….

 

and the Ninja