The other day I spent 15 minutes on the phone taking an "educational survey". The results will doubtless be in the headlines sometime in the future. "Research Shows Teachers Are Weirdos". I don't know why I agreed to do it. Phone surveys are not my thing. But something seemed legit about this one and I was in the right mood to share my educational wisdom with the poll/researching world.

At the end of the survey I was offered a $20 gift certificate to the Scholastic online store. How nice!

The problem is that the Scholastic website is super lame. In order to place an order I have to register first, which is understandable. But, whereas their online store is snappy and responsive, their registration site is painfully, painfully slow. In fact, it's so bad that I got upset enough to think of writing on this blog about it and I am now almost done with this post...and I still haven't completed the registration process!

It's not that their site is down. I haven't had a single error like "Sorry, this page can't be reached right now." The page always comes up...but it's taking minutes and minutes after each click. I'm currently on "Step 2" of the registration process.

Select your state. *Click* wait wait wait wait .... minutes pass .... wait wait type my blog post.
Select your city. *Click* wait wait wait .... minutes pass .... oh man not again, I still have to select my school!

The sun is rapidly setting. Day is turning to week. Summer is giving way to Fall.

But how cool that I got $20 for taking the survey!

It's been an interesting week. The girls have been in Wisconsin all week. Tammy is working hard at the lia sophia annual conference. Sales have been good, though we definitely over-shipped our binders back there. We'll need to pay quite a bit to bring the extra boxes back. It's still a bit early to tell, but it looks like we're right around the break-even mark for the conference. That might not seem so great, and perhaps it isn't. But for our first conference we're pretty happy. We do expect a lot of residual orders to come from this...so it's certainly worth the effort.

The daughters are spending their days swimming, visiting, and having lots of fun. I think they're having a great trip. Just a couple more days before I get to see my cuties again.

I'm excited that Mat Kearney's new album is out. And he's so cool to let you listen to the whole thing for free on his website. I really like his stuff.

What a strange weekend, though. No family here, and me not having anything scheduled. Tammy got me a gift card for Barnes and Noble for Father's Day so I'm going to go browse there for a bit later today. I imagine I'll be just as lame as always and end up walking out with nothing...but you never know.

Last night as I was closing the bathroom window a large green grasshopper jumped off the screen right at my head. The screen has peeled off in one corner, so it's open to the outside, locust-infested world. The grasshopper ended up on the bathroom window and I decided to just leave him alone rather than try to catch him and throw him back outside. (By the way, do you know how to catch a grasshopper/locust? You make them keep hopping until they get tired. After 4 or 5 jumps they're usually pretty pooped.) But then last night, as I was lying in bed, I learned that grasshoppers are just over-sized crickets. That dude was chirping all night. Rather than let it bug me, though, I just decided to pretend I was camping. Diego, on the other hand, was a bit more distracted by it all. He must have sat, staring into the bathroom, half the night. I couldn't find my green friend this morning. Maybe Diego had a midnight snack? I sincerely doubt it, since Diego is so lame when it comes to hunting and eating critters. But he did mosey up to my cereal bowl this morning and start licking milk out of it for the first time ever. Who knew grasshoppers taste better with milk?

Tammy and the kids flew off to Wisconsin today for the Lia Sophia Conference in Milwaukee. Saying goodbye in the morning was especially moving. Lots of last minute packing and loading of bags into the car. Then I gave hugs and kisses all around before grabbing my things and getting in the car to go to work. But before I could drive off the front door opened and Capri ran out yelling, "Daddy, Daddy, we want another hug and a kiss." I got out of the car and walked back in the front door and gave another emotional hug and kiss to Tammy and the girls. Chloe was a bit preoccupied with the tv, but I didn't mind. I went back out and got in my car again. Then, all of a sudden, Chloe opens the front door and comes to the car door (naked, as I remember) for one more hug and kiss. Really, it was like being in a movie where the director is trying his hardest to get the tears flowing.

I am blessed with a wonderful family and it's tough for us to say goodbye to each other. Thankfully we don't have to do it often.

I have been on a reading binge recently. One reason for this is that I've been able to select very engaging books that really get my brain turning. The world we live in can be so fascinating, and certain books really showcase that truth. (Here's a nod to Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, which I recently finished...it qualifies.)

The other reason for my reading binge is the local neighborhood library. As a consumer of books I am terribly cheap. I have a real problem with spending my money on books that I may or may not like and may or may never read more than once. And even when I have the luxury of a gift card it's often a painful process for me to select one quality book from the 100,000 titles. I just don't want to get the wrong one.

But the library removes that problem. I don't have to be frugal or discerning. I can simply grab what I want and go. Even more appealing is the fact that it's incredibly easy to request library books online, even if the book is checked out or not available at the local branch, it will eventually be put on reserve for me and I receive an email when it's ready to be picked up.

But there is one problem with the library. I have been reading so many great books containing so many fascinating ideas and concepts, and yet I have no access to them once those books are returned. My memory is fairly pathetic and so I have already wished, on numerous occasions, that I had such and such a book on my shelf so I could refer to the details of a particular account.

One solution would be to purchase the books that I really enjoyed. But I'm afraid that could get out of hand fairly quickly.

Perhaps there's a book in the library that could help me with this dilemma....

Last night Chloe was a bit hungry at bed time. "Daddy, can I have Cheerios?" So I gave her and Capri a little bowl of dry Cheerios. A few minutes later Chloe popped out of her room to ask for more. Sure sure, no problem. Five minutes passed and she came begging for more. Hmm, I thought I fed this girl dinner already.

Eventually Cheerios were spilled all over the bedroom floor and the girls dozed off to sleep. But at around 11pm Chloe woke up and began hurling Cheerios every which way. And by hurling, I mean puking.

Thankfully, my girls have pretty strong stomachs. Capri is almost 5 and she's only thrown up once (or more accurately, for one evening). This was Chloe's first time. She was scared. Tammy did everything she could to comfort Chloe and help her feel better. But every 30 minutes or so Chloe would share Cheerios with the rest of us. This went on for a couple hours before she finally passed out with Tammy in the living room.

What a sad thing to see your daughter in such a helpless situation. But Chloe woke up just fine. There was no sickness. And can you guess what she wanted for breakfast?

I think it was waffles.