09/24/16 – School Weeks 2 & 3

I haven’t forgotten about this blog. We’ve just been very busy. Let’s see if I can pick up where I left off…

Monday wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have a sub assignment, so I rode my bike to work, which did leave me a little tired. Then we got the notice that Denero had a pre-meet pasta feed Tuesday night, and he was supposed to bring dessert. After a bit of thought, I came up with the idea of banana bread. I even found a healthy recipe, that used whole wheat flour, oat flour and flax seed (all of which I happened to have). It also used brown sugar, which I happened to be out of. A bit of regular sugar and some molasses did the trick, though. And Denero was pretty psyched that I had made banana bread, which is one of his favorites.

On Tuesday, I had a sub assignment suddenly show up on my schedule for Wednesday, without having selected it. It was from St. Thomas. It turns out, they had specifically requested me, because I’d already been a sub for the same class – 4th grade Math & Science. It was the first time I’d been requested, so I didn’t want to turn it down. But here was the rub: my car was due to go in the shop that day, to take care of the unknown warning light. After a bit of discussion with my friends, I arranged for Victor to drop me off on his way to work, and for Geli to pick me up in the afternoon and drop me at the car shop. So I put my bike in the back of my car, and dropped it off Tuesday afternoon, on my way to the Y.

Victor had to be to work earlier than I did, so I had the chance to walk around Medina Park in the morning, admiring the fountains and the sunrise.

It turned out the warning light had just been that the car was a little low on coolant. They couldn’t find any reason for it to be low, so they just topped it up again. They checked into the ABS light, as well, but couldn’t identify the problem. They gave me a referral to a European car specialist. I’ll hold off on that, for now.

I was rather late to the Y that evening, because of how long it took to get the car, but the shop would be closed when I get off work. Besides, then came the next part of the evening: my first-ever PTA meeting. It was interesting, but on the whole, I wasn’t very impressed. I’d been hoping to make some friends and find some resources that would help with Denero. I got there a little late, so perhaps they did introductions at the start, but my overall impression was that this was a group of people who mostly knew each other and the PTA routine. After all, even those who were new to high school had eight years of experience with the school system. Ah, well.

Thursday, I was an 3rd grade Educational Assistant at the French-American School on Mercer Island. That was kind of fun, especially because a lot of it involved recess duty. It was very nice weather, so recess duty was pleasant.

For Friday (and the following Monday) I took an assignment at the Seattle Academy. I was the Vocal instructor, which I thought was pretty funny, since I can’t actually sing. The students pretty much knew what they were doing, though, and mostly ran their own classes. The room was a really nice setup that I suspect many of my musician friends would have appreciated.

Saturday, we had to get up ridiculously early to get Denero to the bus for the Cross Country event in Stellacoom. Parents (and others like them) can’t ride the bus, but I was able to catch a ride with Steve, Scott’s dad. Despite the number of schools present, it wasn’t too hard to find Juanita. The big tent kinda gave it away.

The weather was less than ideal, and it was still cold and wet when Denero ran. It got drier later in the day, but the wind also came up, so I wouldn’t say it was exactly warm. He’ll get used to it at some point, maybe.

That evening, we went to Larry Murante’s CD release party. I was seriously tired by that point, but as soon as the music started, I was also very happy. The music was excellent, and I had a lot of friends around. I felt right at home. Added bonus: Denero thought Larry was awesome.

We didn’t have anything scheduled for Sunday, but we were both pretty wiped, so we took the day easy. We did get out and do some shopping, though.

Back at Seattle Academy Monday morning, I was just getting set up for the day when one of the students comes up and gives me a hug. I tutored her in Geometry a couple years back. Small world.

There was a large open block in my schedule in the middle of the day. I offered to let them put me to work elsewhere, but they didn’t have anything for me. I asked if they’d mind if I went out for a walk. They didn’t, so I headed down to the Waterfall Garden for lunch, admiring the murals along my way, and swinging by the waterfront before heading back.

I spent the middle of the week back at the French-American school, as a Kindergarten Assistant on Tuesday, a 3rd Grade Educational Assistant Wednesday, and a Young Pre-Kindergarten (YPK) French Teacher on Thursday. In truth, the YPK assistant became the French teacher, and I became the assistant, but it all worked out. With all the work I’ve been getting there, though, I’ve decided to work on my French. It’d be nice to understand a bit more of what they’re saying!

Wednesday was also Curriculum Night at Juanita. I went around to all Denero’s classes, met all his teachers in person, and heard a little bit about the classes. It was kinda cool to see the space, and a great way to get connected to his teachers. At the end of the night was a grade-level meeting, which was mostly about fundraising for the Prom, for when the sophomores are seniors. It’s a pretty big deal, and apparently the fundraising goal is around $65,000. Good thing they have a couple years to raise it!

Friday, I was back at the Seattle Academy, this time as a High School English Teacher. Turns out Fridays are good days to be at the Seattle Academy, because parents bring in food for the teachers, and there’s lots of food available in the teacher’s lounge. While I was in there getting a bit for a mid-morning snack, one of the staff members stops abruptly as she’s walking in. “I know you!” she exclaimed. “Could be,” I replied. “Where from?” She thought only a moment. “High school.” She’d been a year behind me at Tahoma. Another small world moment.

I had a corner classroom Friday, with a view of the Ferrari dealership across the street. Denero has been impressed by some of the nicer cars here, and I knew he’d be blown away by these. During my break, I walked over. “You’re way out of my price range, but I’m teaching across the street, and I’ve got a 16-year-old at home that would love to see these cars. Do you mind if I take some pictures?” They didn’t, so I did.

The Cross Country team is in Portland today, but it was an expensive trip, so Denero opted not to go, especially once a girl invited him to Homecoming. He’s now working on figuring out how to go to the dance, which means we need to figure out where to find him a tux. In the meantime, we’ve spent today playing catchup with stuff around the house, though we also played a bit of Borderlands, and we just finished making some Creamy Potato Cabbage Soup. A little later, we’ll head out to SeaStar’s CD release. Last one I know of, for a while!

 

 

9/12/16 -First Week of School

I don’t honestly remember what we did last Monday, although I seem to recall talking Denero into giving Borderlands another try. In the afternoon, we took Scott with us on a hike to Evans Creek Preserve. It’s close by, has numerous loop trails, and has some nice forest and meadows. As an added bonus, I actually helped build some of those trails as part of a WTA work crew, back when the park was first established. Denero and Scott took off together, so I didn’t see much of them, but they had fun, and I enjoyed the hike.

Tuesday was the first day of school. Denero woke up around 3 am, perhaps just a little excited (and/or anxious). I went out with him to the bus stop (not until around 7 am!), and we were dismayed when a school bus drove by without stopping. We went back to get the car, so I could drive him to school. When we got back to the corner, however, we spotted a second bus. This one stopped for him, and he was off on his first day.

The first part of the day was orientation, and then Denero got his schedule: Intermediate ELL (English Language Learning), Physical Science, Foods 1, Weight Training, Algebra 1, and English 10. The two electives are single-term classes; next term he’ll have World History 1 and 3D Design 1. Should be a pretty decent mix of classes.

Sports and clubs are a big part of the High School experience, and Denero decided to join Cross Country. He’s already a runner, and his friend Scott is on the team. Unfortunately, because Denero was not in school for a while last year, he won’t be able to participate in any school meets (he has to have been a student for the previous 6 months), but he can still run in open events.

I found it a bit ironic that the first event he went to, which was on Saturday, was hosted by Tahoma, my own high school, and was held at Lake Wilderness Park, right next to where I used to live. I had a dentist appointment I couldn’t get out of, so I wasn’t able to go to the event until afterward. When I got down there, I realized this was a much bigger event than I had anticipated, with apparently 40 high schools competing, some coming from as far away as Oregon. The place was a madhouse, and parking would have been impossible, except that I had a free pass to park at the Ikolas’, next door.

Jacquie and I wandered over in search of Denero. We got lucky, and passed Scott’s dad, Steve, on his way to get something from his car. Steve told us where we might find the group from Juanita. The running event was already over, but the group was just getting ready to start their post-event potluck barbecue. I had the opportunity to meet the coaches and some of the parents, which was cool.

On the way back to the Ikolas’, I ducked in to take a look at my old house. It’s looking pretty nice. The area around it has reverted even more to forest than it had been when I was there, back before the surrounding property was sold to the county. 

This was a first week for me, too. I’m now an assistant supervisor at the Einstein Elementary YMCA after-school program, and I’m also a substitute teacher with Kelly Services. A few of the kids at Einstein remembered me from when I was there last year, before going off to Pohnpei, and a few others had been in summer camp at Ben Rush. The rest were new to me, and I’ll need to learn a few names.

On the substitute side of things, I spent Tuesday as a 4th grade math & science teacher at St. Thomas, and Friday morning as a helper in the YPK (preschool) program at the French-American School. I’d been to both schools before, last school year. I was thrilled to discover that St. Thomas now has a full-service complementary cafeteria, and also that the read-aloud book for Advisory was The Lightning Thief. It is, perhaps, a bit awkward to be a sub on the second day of school, but it worked out okay. Helping with YPK was a bit more challenging, because I don’t understand much French, but it was just for the morning.

We probably should have gotten some work done around the house on Sunday, but the weather was so beautiful this weekend that I decided that Mt. Baker was calling. I showed Denero a list of hikes in the area, and he picked Skyline Divide. The 12-mile-long dirt road up to the trailhead was a bit challenging for my car, and a new warning light came on (one I don’t even recognize). But it would turn back off again, too, and the car didn’t otherwise seem to be having trouble, so we pressed on. (I now have an appointment for the car on Wednesday.)

The hike was amazing. It starts out going rather relentlessly uphill through some very nice forest. Then you pop out on the ridgeline, with a stunning 180-degree view of mountains. We stopped to admire the view and eat some lunch.

The hike progresses along the ridgeline, with occasional options to bypass the higher knolls, until it reaches a series of stream crossings. This time of year, they were easy enough to cross. On the far side, which apparently is farther than most people go, huckleberries abounded, and I couldn’t resist picking them for a bit. I would have stayed to pick longer, but the group of women we ran into were encouraging us to head back, because it was getting late (it wasn’t, really), and Denero was getting cold. 

As I was getting my stuff together for the trip back, Denero said, “Do you see that cloud?” referring to the darker cloud that was starting to enclose the higher peak across from us. I said, “Yes. Hopefully, it doesn’t snow on us.” He responded, “Take your sticks. I’m out of here.” He handed me my walking sticks, and was gone. I had to laugh. The cloud never got closer, and the weather was fine for the trip back. I picked a few more berries along my way, and shot some more pictures.

I caught up with Denero again at the place where we had eaten lunch. We stopped for a while to eat a bit more, although this time there were numerous flying insects to harass us as we ate. The view was still wonderful, though.

Finally, it was time to descend back through the forest to the trailhead. We really probably should have spent some time on a bit of Denero’s math, but I have to say I think it was a day rather marvelously spent.

 

9/4/16 – From Football to Mountains

Friday evening, we headed out to the tailgate party before the football game. I don’t know if they do this for all home games, or just the first one of the season, but there were folks set up around the parking lot with food they were giving away: pretzels, popcorn, hot dogs, chili, pizza. The main group of students was a bit too dense for either Denero or me to feel comfortable approaching, but we made the circuit and talked with a few folks. The chili was good, and I enjoyed a pretzel.

I went to the stadium ahead of Denero, who waited for Scott. They sat in the student section, while I found a quiet place in an upper corner. The bleachers weren’t covered, but thankfully the rain held off for the evening. The group of students from the parking lot arrived as a group showing school spirit as the Red Tide. Juanita was in red, and Mount Si was in white. Mt. Si had a decent contingent of supporters with them, dressed in white, in the far bleachers.

I don’t know anything about who was playing, or how the teams were ranked, but Mt. Si pretty well trounced Juanita. Final score, 22-42. It was kinda fun watching the game, anyway, and Denero has now experienced American high school football.

Saturday morning, I showed Denero how to use the clothes washer and the dish washer, and we got a bit of work done around the house. Then I had a meeting with some potential tutoring students at 11, a pair of 8th grade twins looking for enrichment in biology. Their assignment is to decide what kind of biology they’re interested in, either through consulting with their teacher or by doing a bit of research on their own.

When I got home, we ate lunch and then headed out to Volunteer Park, in Seattle. My target was the Conservatory, which has free admission on the first Saturday of the month. We started at the duck pond, though, which was also full of gold fish.

Then we walked past the reservoir, and I couldn’t pass up getting a picture of the Space Needle framed by the Black Sun sculpture.

At the Conservatory, it occurred to me that Denero might feel a bit a home, because their focus is primarily tropical plants, and it was both hot and humid inside the greenhouse. The plants were beautiful.

There was also a room dedicated to succulents and cacti, which I enjoyed.

From there, we wandered over to the dahlia garden. It was wonderful seeing all the fun varieties in bloom. It made me miss the dahlias my parents had put in the front planter at my first house. Perhaps I’ll have to find a place for some at this one.

I hadn’t been thinking about the Asian Art Museum when we made the trip, but it turned out it was free on First Saturday, too, so we explored the exhibits there, as well. The featured exhibit was Indigo Mood, highlighting the impact the discovery of indigo had on textiles. The art museum didn’t really seem to be Denero’s thing, so I mostly just shot a few pictures of the displays I liked, and moved on without reading more.

I did spend some time on the miniature bottles, though, because I thought they were really cool. They were at most a few inches high, but very detailed. There had to have been a hundred or more, but I only shot pictures of a few of my favorites.

Next, we wandered over to the old water tower, and climbed the stairs to the viewing level. It offered a 360-degree view, but the best side was toward Seattle and the needle.

Finally, it was time to return home and get some more work done. The weather was nice, so I worked out in the yard, filling the yard waste bin with spent flowers. Then, I came back in to make dinner of cheesy rice and broccoli. The TED talk with dinner was a funny one, by James Veitch. He gets his material by responding to spam e-mail, in this case one he was actually trying to unsubscribe from. We had enough fun with that one that I looked up one of his archived talks, that riffs on a similar (but still funny) theme.

After dinner, I gathered some more apples, and we prepared more applesauce while watching The Secret Life of Bees. Juanita has a summer reading program, and all sophomores are required to read either that or Into Thin Air. The library had both audiobooks (which I’ve listened to), and both movies, but there’s a wait list on the movie for Into Thin Air. I was pleased to note that The Secret Life of Bees is remarkably true to the book (with only a few minor changes), and it’s a well-done movie. Good way to spend and evening.

This morning, we got up pretty early (I meant to get up at 6, but failed, and didn’t get up until 7-ish). I made a breakfast of eggs and sausage, and packed up food for a trip to Mount Rainier. It’s about a 2-hour drive, but much of it is pretty, through forest land. When we got to the Sunrise Visitor Center, it was chilly and cloudy, and we couldn’t see the mountain. But it was also only about 11 am, and we had hopes of at least some of the clouds burning off, despite a forecast for chance of showers (which hadn’t been the forecast when I checked it yesterday). We considered hiking Palisades Lake, but went ahead and did the Burroughs Mountain Loop. Rainier played hard-to-get, but we got enough glimpses that I think Denero got an idea of there being a mountain there. I think we’ll have to go back up sometime when the mountain’s out, though!

On the way home, we were passing within a few miles of where I grew up, so I decided to route that way. The house is still there, as are the neighbors. I went ahead and knocked on the door, and we spent some time visiting with my old friends. Jacque had been baking some rather delicious cookies, and Denero also made friends with her dachshund.

While I’ve been working on this, Denero went out to spend some time with his friends, and he just came back excited about having played Pokemon Go. Ah, the dangers of technology!  😉

 

9/2/16 – Planes and Doctors

I thought I had a dentist appointment mid-day yesterday, so I spent the morning doing some computer work. Geli played a bit of piano for us, and I also introduced Denero to Rocksmith. It’s like RockBand, only uses a real guitar. I haven’t played it much myself, so I don’t know how effective it is for learning to play the guitar, but he seemed to have some fun with it, anyway.When I got to my appointment and found the doors locked, I knew I was early, and I just thought they were closed for lunch. I had a hold pick-up at the library, so I went over and got that. When they were still locked when I got back, though, I double-checked the time of the appointment. Turned out, it had been at 8 am. Sigh. So now I need to see if I can re-schedule.

I got a few more things done when I got back, and then we headed out to the Museum of Flight. It has free admission on the first Thursday of each month, from 5-9 pm. The downside of that is, of course, that we were heading there in the thick of traffic. 405S was a nightmare through Bellevue, so much so that my routing software took me through the middle of town. That meant Denero got to experience the buildings (including those still under construction) from relatively close.

It was not his first experience with the I-90 tunnel or the floating bridge, but they still make quite an impression on him.

We parked at the auxiliary lot for the museum, which brought us in right next to the Concorde. As with many of the larger planes there (including the new Dream Liner), we were able to go onboard and take a look around.

We toured the rest of the planes in the outer lot, and headed into the Space Gallery, where we got to walk through a model of the cargo bay on a Space Shuttle (among other things) and Denero got to dance with an astronaut.

We were about to leave at that point, but I got suspicious. I hadn’t been to the Museum of Flight in years (like, since 1986, if I remember correctly), but I was pretty sure it was bigger than what we’d seen so far. I picked up a map, and realized that most of it was across the bridge, on the other side of the street.

We made our way over there, and got to experience many, many more planes. Just wandering through, without really stopping to read descriptions or stories took us a couple hours. I also got us tickets for the 3D movie, Space Next, which talked about the development of the space program and discussed where it thought the space program might go next. I enjoyed it. I tried to get Denero’s impression of it, but I think he was fairly overloaded at that point.

By the time we got home, we were both hungry, so we had a dinner of leftover vegetable rice. We’ve started a tradition I stole from my friend Dan, in that we watch the day’s TED Talk over dinner. It’s a good tradition, I think. We’re also trying to get into the habit of watching CNN Student News at some point during the day. Between the two, we can keep up on current topics of interest.

Afterward, Denero asked to play some X-Box. The game he grabbed was Far Cry 3. I pointed out that it had two-player co-op, and he invited me to play. So we spent the rest of the evening getting shot at by pirates, and doing a bit of shooting back.

This morning, we had an appointment at HealthPoint, to get Denero eligible for sports, should he decide to play them. The fine folks there got him qualified for AppleCare, which took a load off my mind. One of the big questions of having him here was how I might get him insured for medical and dental. Now he’s covered. Vision, too.Today’s appointment was medically-oriented. He got his eligibility form taken care of, and also picked up a few vaccines he had been missing (most importantly, the one for chicken pox). They also checked out the discolored patches on his skin, and established that it was caused by a fungal infection (they’re very common in the hot and humid environment of Pohnpei). They gave him medication to clear those up, and also some vitamin D supplements, because it’s hard for people (especially those with dark skin) to make enough naturally.

We came home for a lunch of grilled veggie burger sandwiches and creamy tomato-basil soup, which was nice for this rainy day. Then I got to work on this, while Denero’s been prepping another batch of grapes for drying. A little later, we’ll be heading to the high school football game. Another opportunity for sensory overload!

 

 

 

08/31/15 – School Prep Day

Shortly after I started making dinner on Monday, our neighbor Stephanie brought her sons Scott and Aaron and their friend Keegan over to meet Denero. Aaron and Keegan are both in college, but Scott is Denero’s age, and goes to Juanita. After dinner, Denero went to hang out with the guys. It’s good to have friends!

Tuesday, we spent mostly around the house, and got a lot of fruit processed. We picked grapes, and got them drying in the dehydrator. By tomorrow, we should have some raisins.

I also picked the last of the plums, and baked them with cinnamon, sugar, and a bit of lemon peel.

Finally, I picked some apples (and there are still some out there), and made two batches of applesauce. Now, if I can just find some more room in the freezer…

Denero got some more X-Box time in, too, which made Marbles pretty happy.

Today was more school-oriented. This morning, we went to sophomore prep day. A short line to pay for his ASB membership, another short line to fill out his photo card. A long line to actually get his photo taken. Now, he’s official!

From there we went to pick up his laptop (Lake Washington School District issues laptops to all students in 6th-12th), but they were out of laptops for new students. Next Wednesday, we hope.

He had another appointment a little later, so we went out to the athletic fields to eat the picnic lunch I’d packed. He also met a couple more guys, and kicked around a soccer ball with them.

Next came the English Language assessment. He was rated at intermediate, so he’ll be taking an ELL class, along with some general education classes. I was surprised to learn students don’t get their schedules until after lunch on the first day (apparently, the morning is spent in tours and activities). So we’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see what other classes he has.

We did some shopping on the way home for some basic school supplies and a few more groceries, so Denero has now experienced Fred Meyer and Costco. I gave in and bought him a case of Top Ramen at Costco (I don’t eat the stuff, but it’s a staple on Pohnpei). I told him he needed to be sure to eat other stuff, too, though. After all, if they can make a profit selling it at $0.17/package, what does that say about what’s in it?

Back home, I made some peach-blueberry cobbler and then some vegetable rice for dinner. As Geli commented, no one in this house is likely to starve.

Just about the time I finished eating, it was time to head back out for New Parent Orientation. Scott came with us, and gave Denero a tour while I attended the official event. It was aimed mostly at freshmen (as the bulk of new parents would be parents of freshmen), but I got some good information out of it. I also had the opportunity to meet Denero’s counselor. She’ll be helping him to get the most out of his experience at Juanita.

Denero’s really looking forward to the first day of school, and wishes he didn’t have to wait until Tuesday!