Chrome теперь немножко пишет по русски

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/aghcafbdkcgnghpapmfmgapgjphkohlj

Spent the last three days running around trying to make another school bathroom key after my set of keys slipped out of my pocket somewhere (I'm too lazy to turn the house upside down looking for it). This apparently is a rare blank, that standard places like sears, walmart and home depots do not have, nor do local hardware places (more on that later). Once I gave up and drove to the locksmith, I realized why - it's a frickin school key; it would be stupid to make it easy to steal and copy teachers' keys. That's a different topic - how much control should be exercised over high schoolers' bodily functions, but walking in on teachers is an obvious no-no. Made 3 keys, should last me the year. I hid them in various places including on the school key-ring.

On to the hardware store. There's a classically small-village corner shop in our town square. For those in the know, I specifically mean the North part; note capitalization. We used to go there more when we lived at the old place, from where it was 3 minutes away. These days, we go to the chain that opened up nearby when we have hardware emergencies, so I forgot all about it until I needed the expertise. The shop is vintage; most price stickers are at least 20-30 years old and hand-written, but it smells clean, not musty, not withstanding the dust on some of the items. In something like 20'x60' it manages to house an incredible variety of product, often just one or two of each, but organized and practically at your fingertips. The prices aren't insane either, as you might expect from a mom&pop competing with the big box stores and trading on local good will. Some of the stuff is not what you find at Home Depot and such, but more old-style products. It's likely they've been on the shelves since the shop opened, and the owner doesn't much change his vendors or stock.

The man himself is a wizened old coot with lots of straight bristly hair, looking somewhere past retirement age. If I had to guess, I'd say he was in his 80s, but spry. I was standing by the register, waiting till his grandson found my key blank, and listening to local scuttlebutt. A lady from the chamber of commerce or some kind of committee was collecting gift certs for a fundraiser, and while he made them out she was telling him how her aunt who passed on was friends with his sister some time back, and he said something about knowing her sister as well - he's 63 and was around then. He then proceeded to go back to his grandson, who had been looking for the right shape blank, yelled at him like they don't anymore because it hurts children's self esteem, and looked through the blanks himself. Then he called the company and got a consultation. Then his grandson came out to hand back my original, and started to tell me they didn't couldn't make the copies. Before the boy could get all of the three second speech out, the old man told him to "stuff it" with a dismissive wave and explained to me how to get to the locksmith. And apologized twice as I was heading out. bloguser might have a few more stories of hardware knowledge gleaned. I really hope the place is making money, or at least owns the building. I think they do, and the old man lives upstairs. As local as it gets.

Being the supreme optimist, here's what I'm looking for from Democrats after this election: they'll come up with a way not to seat Brown or seat him late. They'll cross every t and dot every i and then check them twice, and then find a way to get rid of him right after agreeing there's nothing else to do. What exactly happens if his Guard unit gets sent somewhere? At best he'll look like scum for not joining them, so even if he does get seated, he'll be sitting in bullshit. So, come on, Dems, disappoint me, send him to Washington next week with the letter the Secretary of State signed saying he's quite sure Brown's the winner. You know, like everyone else. Without the dirty tricks for which you lost the seat in the first place.

Next up, my main dudes, the Republicans. Here I'm looking for a circus of schadenfreude for a few months and the nomination of Sarah Palin for President with Brown as her Veep. That seems to be in the cards according to the local, or not so local, liberal handwringers. So disappoint me, don't gloat for the next 15 weeks, and instead produce a version of healthcare reform.

Since I don't want to disappoint myself, I just want to put in writing how deliciously ironic it is that if Teddy hadn't hung on to "his" seat till the last second, and the hack state apparatchiks hadn't pushed through the "interim" senator's seating, we'd likely have the nice safe Democrat junior senator they wanted. As the man who got cheated out of the seat by Teddy's earlier manipulations said a few weeks ago, Brown captured lightning in a bottle.

Yesterday we got the usual day care report. Down where it says what he's been doing all day in the first person, it says something like, "Today I saw a UPS truck outside and then went and yelled to everyone, 'Truck, truck!'" At dinner I asked him in English, "Did you see a truck at school?" He looked at me with perfect understanding and said calmly, "Da." Said a few more words today; for example when I pointed to a duck in a book, he said it in Russian, then English.

Lately I get out of the house in the morning, and it's dark. I arrive to school and it's still dark. I get out of school in the afternoon, it's already dark. So, I'll be seeing the sun on the weekends till February or so?

I only read posts every couple of days, and rarely comment - what's the point when it's been 24 hours and 125 comments already?

As for writing, I very much want to write more, especially about stuff at school, but I know if I start it'll balloon into a two-page post and I don't have time for that. For some reason I can't figure out how to write a small blurb - have to cover this, that and 15 other points.

OK, enough whining, back on my head back to lesson planning and quiz writing.

Устала как собака буйвол пашущий поле размером с Техас. Работы на работе так много, что если пересчитать получку на час, то зачем я институт заканчивала?? Первый год физики, практически первый год химии, огромная куча подготовительных материалов и просто запись тем. Зато с приятными чувствами вспоминается первый год, да и второй. Не потому что он прошел хорошо, а какие они у меня сейчас золотые по сравнению. Хочу написать и про них, и других учителей, и вообще о собственных. Надеюсь скоро написать - вот сегодня даже дочитала ЖЖ ленту (выбросив при этом много интересного, но не такого ради чего спать не буду).

Ладно, дети таки главное. Начнем с младшего члена семьи - болтает Хасик уже полными словами и предложениями, хотя в словах которые знает давно продолжает глотать первые слоги, по привычке видимо. Очень громко эмоционально реагирует на неудачи в жизни, например когда не дают бить любимую сестру по голове или сожрать миску jimmies. Зато ужасно обнимальчик и целовальчик - готов часами просто прижаться сильно и целовать и обнимать.

Алишка научилась наконец говорить по английски. Действительно похоже что воспиталка в прошлом году с ней не разговаривала и поощряла совершенно не те качества которые ей надо было развивать. Правда со всем стрессом с ранними утрами и моей работой, она решила применить ход конем и перестала использовать туалет по назначению (ну хоть #2 еще туда попадает. О Хасикином приучении я вообще молчу. Пусть сам попросит научить когда в институт пойдет.)

Классно стало с ними и книги более длинные читать, и мультики более длинные смотреть, и болтать о пространных вещах. И если все хорошо, то сидят играют спокойно друг с другом. Вот скоро Алишка научится бегло читать, так совсем, считай, мое дело сделано!

Ah, teenagers, bless their fragile little souls. Met most of my classes today, and boy what a difference between the physics and the chem. (Physics isn't required, Chemistry is, and I have the lowest level.) So far nothing horrible, but it'll be quite a different experience. It'll be interesting to see how my beginning guesses about personalities and effort will work out. And how many will get pregnant, and how many will get into Harvard.

I've been staring at the laptop for hours upon hours yesterday and today, not counting all the previous time put in - I'm trying to get all the documents right the first time for the beginning of school. Some of the stuff I've reused, but mostly I've been thinking about it all summer and writing fresh. I wonder if I'll do it again next year. Need to make sure to take notes on what works and what doesn't.

( Long treatise on my plans for the year and teaching in general )

So end my days of laziness unstructured family time. Back to work - 5 days a week, on a salary.

Yesterday I was a bit confused - you mean I'm going back again tomorrow? It's not a one-time thing? Yep. Went back again today. Will be going back tomorrow. Four more days next week, and four more the one after, but it's still called a five-day work week :)

So far, it's new teacher orientation week. Kids get in Tuesday; I'll see one class Wednesday due to the funny schedule. At that point I'll need to be in the building by 7:00 (we've been told the new principal is big on punctuality), but they're going easy on us the first few days - we start 8:30. This is marvelous, as I haven't adjusted to going to sleep earlier yet. I'll probably need to get up before 6 next week.

Wednesday had to get the kids up with bloguser so he could drop them off on the way to work. They took it very well, up until Hasik realized he'd be left there again. Then he started getting upset, and they could hear the screaming across the entire building, apparently. Was perfectly fine when I picked him up, though.

Today I had more of a chance to meet and interact other new hires as we had classes/meetings all day, first with everyone new in the district, then just the HS, and then the department. People are seriously all very nice, and a lot of care is taken to train everyone in what's expected and how things work. For the most part everything is thought out and made comfortable for the teachers, and a strong support system is set up. The building is horrendous, of course, but there are at least two teachers moving over from the brand new city o'seven high schools I've written about before. I didn't get a chance to ask why they left - at least one dude has professional status and wouldn't have been let go.

I've got my room schedule, and tomorrow will have class rosters. Not too bad overall. Even though I've got 3 rooms, they're relatively close to one another, and the chems are in the morning while the phys are in the afternoon, and one level of each. In terms of lesson prep it's not little, but not too bad. The veteran teachers were in in the afternoon today, and promised to give me material when we have time to meet tomorrow (they already saw what I pulled semi-randomly yesterday, and aid they'll be able to make things much easier). I should mention that though I don't have one single classroom, I do have my own desk in the very comfy sci dept. The chair's politics is that no one has "their own room" - we all pay the same rent, as he put it. Basically, a teacher who may teach all his classes in one of my rooms doesn't have any greater right to it. The resources aren't too bad - there's a fancy new copier, and an overhead in every room, plus a few smartboards and projectors in the dept. for sign-out. As time goes on, I'll know if there's a waiting list or not. I won't convert my overheads to PPTs just yet.

Едем из садика с детьми. Я вижу старинную машину и обращаю Алишкино внимание на нее. Т.к. когда забирала раннее машину у механика сегодня, и листала там книжку про старые машины, заодно комментирую что она, похоже 30х годов. Чтобы как-то поставить это в рамки понимания, добавляю что тогда мои родители только-только родились, а мужа родителей вовсе на свете еще не было. Алишка думает, думает, и медленно говорит: "значит бабушка В. и дедушка К. (ее прабабушка и прадедушка на самом деле)..." Тут пауза, и я думаю, ага, сейчас разберется что хотя ее бабушки еще не было, бабушкины родители были. Ха! Она на много шагов вперед забежала! "...бабушка В. и дедушка К. еще обезьянами были?"

Позвоню бабушке В. Интересно, она порадуется?

Driving home with the kids after daycare, I see an antique car and point it out to Ali. Since I just leafed through a book on antique cars while picking up mine at the mechanic's, I comment also that it's of the 1930's. So that she has some sort of reference point, I explain that my parents were just born then, and her daddy's parents didn't even exist yet. Ali's thinking for a while, and starts speaking slowly. "That means Grandma V. and Grandpa K. ..." (they're actually her great-grandparents, Grandma V is Grandma A.'s, who didn't exist yet, mother. I'm thinking, all right, she's figured out that even if Grandma A. did not exist, her parents did. Ha! She's several steps ahead of me, and finishes off, " Grandma V. and Grandpa K. were still apes?"

Does one need to go to a doctor for a bad sprain, or will it go away on its own? For some reason, elevating it and putting ice on it made it worse, while keeping it warm in a blanket last night was good. Or maybe it was just the rest.

On the drive home it hit me. Jason will now have his own experiences, completely different from anyone else's. I remember coming up with this notion with bloguser when Ali went to pre-school. Today it is his turn. I dropped him off, had a chat with the teachers, he didn't want to let go of my hand, but was bribed with snacks. So Ali and I then went to her room, then I came back to his. He was sitting there, snacking and looking, and barely paid attention when I tried to say 'bye'. I then stuck around in the foyer filling out paperwork for my little goons for a half-hour, and nothing horrible happened, so I went home. To an empty house, not counting the visiting Troll. I will have a few days, before starting work, completely to myself, without running away from home. For the first time in 4 years, almost.

And now, to vacuum the waterlogged carpet in the basement, and get to paperwork. Good times!

Хасик сидит у меня на руках перед компутером. перед фейсбуком. Спрашивает, "где мама?" Где мой пик, то есть. Показываю ему курсором мышки, совершенно не думая. "А! вот мама!"

We're going to watch the fireworks off Nahant - there's no way the kids would make it to Boston's at 10:30. Here's the info from Nahant.org:

"Fireworks at Bailey's Hill
9:15PM
Best spot to watch is from the Golf Course parking lot area, but you can see then anywhere along Willow Road, Tudor Beach or the Wharf."


And we were going to grill some dogs and burgers today but the hours in the sun at the parade made us lazy so we're doing it tomorrow.

If anyone wants to join us for either activity, ring our cells.

UPD: We're too tired to clean up the house for guests :( Pigsty will be closed for business tonight.

Что бы не происходило - крики, завтраки, мультики - когда по вторникам слышен рев и бииип-бииип, то дети срываются и бегут к дивану в гостиной, который стоит у окна. Алишка обычно добегает первая, а за ней Хасик во всю прыть, на своих еще толстых ножках, слегка покачиваясь ритмично. Залезают на диван, и торчат из окна две головки, полные ожидания, пока не подъедет огромная грязно-ржавая машина. Из нее выпрыгивает большой дядя, зимой в футболке, летом в майке неоновой, хватает баки и подбрасывает их в огромную пасть. Или зад? Каждый второй вторник шоу повторяется, еще более громко, когда забирают макулатуру и звенящую тару. Иногда они замечают две рожицы в окне, и прямо перед нашим окном утрамбовывают собранное. Тогда вся огромная машина трясется и гремит, и восторг уже неописуем.

When I heard yesterday that Farrah Fawcett died, before marrying Ryan O'Neal like she wanted, I thought it kinda sad, but her heyday was before I was born, much less in this American culture. I didn't have much emotional connection, just some romantic-sentimental fluff on the edge of my thoughts about the circumstances - cancer isn't nearly so deadly anymore in most cases.

But Michael Jackson - he was King in my impressionable pre-teen years. He was an idol, and by the time he became Wacko-Jacko I was onto a different music scene and his image didn't tarnish as much as it could have. In fact, I was looking forward to his comeback, if he really was going back to his pop brilliance and innovation. And it's gone, his chance for re-birth, our chance of witnessing something great. From early reports it seems like he may have trained too hard, took on too much after years of treating his body like a temple. Of a freak cult, perhaps. It's almost like a child dying - promise unfulfilled.

On a sort of related note, we saw Up yesterday. I have to say it was unusually heavy for a cartoon for me - too many adult themes, especially at the beginning, but the end picked them up. I go to the movies for escapism mostly, and while it was very good, I can't say that I'd want to see it again.

I've publicly admitted it, and the world has not crashed down around me in the form of a terribly screaming baby toddler going on and on for hours.

The boy had his last lapping of "mamino ka" last week. At first it was a coincidence of falling asleep in the car for the day nap, and someone else putting him down at night, then I asked bloguser to put him down while I'm out of sight, and yesterday I personally put him down, and again today for nap. Both times there was some screaming, lasting less than a minute. I asked if he wants milk in a cup, or a song, he said no to both. Said he wants mamino ka. It wasn't quite as weird to have him literally ask, but a bit.

It's not that I didn't enjoy it; it was wonderful to hold him close and pet him for so many nights, but lately there really isn't much and he chews and stretches and bites the nipple that feeds him. Maybe eventually we'll do some quiet time of just petting in the chair, but for now I don't want him to get any ideas, so plop he goes.

Oh, and don't need to figure out anymore how much I should drink. Now the liquor supply will take a serious hit!

"Бейка неботает"


-Jason after I paused a video on the comp and stepped away for a sec.

if you haven't seen XKCD, start here: http://xkcd.com/594/