Developing . . .

Here at the Mountainside Homeschool Academy, our 2008-2009 academic year starts this coming Monday. The kids are excited (The Boy demanded preliminary coursework on Thursday to get a jump on the competition). The teacher is, well, not quite ready for summer to be over. The assistant principal in charge of discipline is honoring this significant event by leaving town on Wednesday, starting three weeks of ugly travel to Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Chicago. Hopefully my blogging will be more regular from the road than it has been while I've been home the last 3 weeks.

Anywhich, last Thursday my beloved wife and I were surveying the school-room. In a former life it was a screened porch, converted to a sunroom by some former resident. It's a wonderful room with fabulous views through it's many windows. Unfortunately, those many windows leave few walls for things like bookshelves. We were able to squeeze one 30" wide bookcase in just next to the door, but it's completely overwhelmed by text books / math manipulatives / binders / pencil boxes / cups of coins / etc /etc / etc. The teacher can't find a dang-blamed thing.

So, back to Thursday when we were surveying (etc / etc). I suddenly realized that, with the school table turned 90 degrees, there was a vast space (65" wide by 24" high by 12" deep) now available under the one window that doesn't go all the way to the floor that could be filled with a BOOKSHELF!!!!!

(Note: this space has always been there, but with the table in it's original position there was no space for a shelf in that space. Why we didn't turn the table earlier is a mystery, but let's not dwell on the negative, shall we?)

So I innocently mused aloud "that would be a great place for a bookshelf, wouldn't it?" To which my beloved replied back "yes, I've been looking for something that would fit there but haven't found just the right thing." Apparently having left my right-thinking mind elsewhere in the house, I blurted out "I could build one". In fact, I went on to sketch out a design that was EXACTLY what she wanted.

As you can imagine, Friday evening I sallied forth to the nations favorite hardware and lumber (and paint, lighting fixture, carpet, tile, hardwood, faucet, tool, bottled water, plant, seed, pine-straw, and random garden accoutrement emporium), Home Depot to procure all required supplies to build said bookshelf. Afterall, school starts this Monday.

I'm pleased to announce that immense progress was made today (with the significant help of The Boy). While not yet photo-worthy, a bookshelf that is currently identifieable as such by even a novice, is sitting in the garage. It needs to be sanded and painted, and it's missing it's top (due to an unfortunate "measure once right after dinner and cut immediately in the wrong place" incident that is all my fault. However, a quick (1 hour) trip to the HD tomorrow and all will be right with the world.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'll note that beloved wife (whom I've finally found a blog-name for and will introduce accordingly soon) pledged to paint the thing if I build it. She has in fact already primed the boards before I made the first cut. This is indeed a joint effort.

With any luck at all, I'll be able to post a photo of the finished product, in place, by Monday evening.

With any luck.

In the meantime, the initial sketch is posted above. Let's see how close I got. The middle shelf is actually portrayed much lower than intended. The final product will have three cubbies (for three kids), each with a lower shelf to hold all classwork binders and a short upper shelf to hold pencil boxes. The very top of the bookcase will run just below the window trim and will hold odd-sized items like a skeleton, a scale for balancing weights, and other random items.

Look at that follow-through . . .

Belle finished her third week of golf camp today. She has absolutely loved playing so much this summer. The camp ends with a 9-hole parent/kid tournament. Since I played with her for the first two tournaments earlier in the summer, she asked if we could get someone else to play with her. She was actually wanting someone better to play with in hopes of winning a trophy, but she is too sweet to actually come out and say that. One of my brothers came up and played with her and, though they didn't win, place or show, they had a blast. I remember how much I liked spending time with my aunts and uncles when I was young; hopefully today will be a long-term memory for her too.

Straying once again into the political realm . . .

For those of you who enjoyed McCain's "Celebrity" ad, and for those of you who didn't, here is Ms. Hilton's response. No, really. And the amazing thing is that's it's really clever and very well done. If we could get a real candidate to support her energy policy, we'd have something. No, really!!

Oh, mild language warning. It is Paris Hilton afterall.

Do you think this might disqualify me from ever being on the Homeschool Carnival again?

Paris Hilton for President

A Quote from W. C. Fields

"Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water."

hat tip to Kathy at http://barefootmeandering.com/blog/. Check her out; she's a trip.

Ode to Beaker . . .

When one is a tall, skinny red-headed teenager (one sister-in-law once suggested that my "gawky" stage lasted roughly from pre-teen until just before I got married), one's friends might unkindly decide that "Beaker" is a good nick-name. Purely a hypothetical scenario, I assure you. Anywhoo, I saw this on a blog linked from Tim's and laughed out loud. I wish The Muppet Show was still on TV; now that was good, quality family entertainment!

New entries in the blog roll . . .

Please draw your attention to the bloggy recommendations in the right-hand column and note the new additions.

Under "general reading", you'll find:

• Dirty Harrys Place : a great blog /site dedicated to film-making and the movie business. It has nothing to do with my career or life (other than I like to watch movies), but "Harry" always has something interesting to say and is one of the few movie reviewers with whom I tend to agree. Oh, the fact that he is an out-of-the-closet conservative in Hollywood (I think that makes 5 now) makes him that much more interesting. Note: some of you may know Harry's work from when he blogged at Libertas ; he's set up his own shop now.
• Metrodad : I learned about Metrodad from Ann Glamore over in My Tiny Kingdom. I love his subtitle - "poppycock from a cocky pop". We have nothing in common other than we're both fathers. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter, works in the fashion industry, and is an extremely funny guy. Oh, he does relish his skills in making sailors blush (language alert), so consider yourself warned.

In the "Homeschool Division", you'll find:

• June Cleaver after a Six-Pack : How can you not read something with a title like that!? I learned about June from MetroDad, who I got to from the Tiny Kingdom, who I started reading because of Tim. June (aka Cris) is an Irish-Catholic homeschooling mom whose husband is in the Air Force.

You'll note a common theme here - they're all laugh-out-loud funny. Have you noticed that there are a tremendous number of talented writers out there in blogland? What a loss it would be if these folks didn't have an outlet like this. Have fun!

Just doing my part . . .

Some of you may have heard that, according to the Senator from Illinois, all we need to do to solve the fuel crisis in this country is to make sure our tires are fully inflated. Well, I took my car in yesterday and, among other things, had the tires rotated, balanced and had the air-pressure checked. Darned if they weren't low. If you see gas prices dropping in your neighborhood, you can just thank me.