Education Update

TOYH and I took a tour of Seward Montessori school this morning. It looks like it would be a good fit for Madster and 'Nika. We sat in on a middle school Spanish class, and talked to the teacher afterwards. We explained our situation - if the girls got into Seward, they would be wasting their time on the beginning Spanish taught there. She understood and said that they have other students who are advanced beyond introductory Spanish and there are special supplemental classes to challenge them. That was somewhat reassurning, but it remains to be seen how challenged they would be with Spanish at Seward. This is one of the more painful things about leaving Emerson. We were so excited for the girls to get a real leg up on a second language before they got into high school and Emerson was doing a pretty good job of that at least. At Seward we talked with a 6th grade science teacher, parent liaison, and some middle school students. I came away with a pretty good feeling about the place. The school is a bit different than Emerson. Fewer kids on free or reduced price lunch and the ethnic makeup tips toward more Hmong and Somali students than Latino. The facility is at least 60 years newer than Emerson. It's all irrelevant right now. The girls are not enrolled in Seward. I just stuck the school request cards in the mail today. Now we wait to see if one or both of them win the lottery.

In other education news, KyKy is taking driver's training. It seems a bit early, she won't be turning 16 until November, but I guess she'll need the practice. She says that she's scared of driving. I don't blame her. I really think that people have become more maniacal in their driving since I had driver's ed 28 years ago. Part of it may be the city/country difference. Part of it may be the fact that there are a lot more cars on the road than there were 28 years ago. I'm sure part of it is the the higher speed limits. I don't know. It just seems to me that practicing your driving on County Road 6 and the sleepy streets of Cambridge in 1979 was a lot easier trying learn to drive in Minneapolis in 2008.

For All Of You Who Don't Live On The Frozen Tundra

Yesterday when I left work it was 39F. Today when I left work it was -6F. That's a 45 degree difference in 24 hours. The windchill (or feels like) temp when I left work was about -30F. I feel bad for those of you who are missing this. Honestly. Springtime is sooooo sweet up here because we endure this kind of stuff.

It's Been Two Long Weeks

Since I last rode my bike outside. I went out for a twenty miler today and while I'd like to say that it was blissful, it was only o.k. The lingering head/chest cold is still lingering. I had one short, steep hill to climb today and I thought I was going to die. My lungs were burning and and I was really huffing when I got to the top. Some coughing ensued. I'm ready to be done with this cold.

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

Big day of testing for The Madster and 'Nika. We had to get them up early (for a Saturday) to get to Minnehaha Academy for an entrance exam. Yes, it has come to this. TOYH and I are fully supportive of Public Schools, but when our children are involved in the dismantling of a very good middle school program, we need to draw the line. Our frustration with the administration of MPS knows no bounds, and to be perfectly honest we're getting bitter. In some respects, I'd like to just stick the kids in a private school like Minnehaha to "punish" Minneapolis Public Schools. When kids don't enroll in the schools, the schools don't get reimbursement from the state. This is what is happening on the North side of the City. People are pulling their children from public schools and either sticking them in charter schools, private schools or sending them outside the district to another public school. All this flight from the district is precipitating a budget crisis in MPS, and their reaction, it seems, is to wreck a very fine middle school program at Emerson. I just can't get over the stupidity of the administration. If you have a strong program, you keep it, even build upon it. You don't rip it apart. All that being said, I'm not really, truly wanting the kids to go to Minnehaha. It's a fine school, but I'm not sure I want the kids there. I guess I'd rather have them mix it up with the hoi polloi of MPS than the slightly more exclusive M.A. M.A. is our "safety" school, meaning if our other options are unacceptable, the kids would be able to start there in the fall if need be. What are the other options? Seward Montessori, Field K-8, or staying at Emerson. All three are MPS schools. Entrance in to Seward or Field is by lottery, since they are not our "area" schools. That's actually how we started at Emerson. When we registered KyKy for kindergarden 10 years ago we put her in the Emerson lottery and won. Siblings get automatic preference, so the younger two followed her there. We're crossing our fingers for Seward.

The other test the two kids took was for the next level in Karate. They didn't move up a whole belt to purple from green, but they took the intermediate step to get to their purple belts. They passed the test. They are piling up mad skilz in this Karate thing.

TOYH received her official RN license to hang on the wall along with wallet sized portable license. I offered to punch two holes in the big one and put a string through them so she could wear it around her neck for everyone to see. She declined.

Is This Finally Coming To Pass?

TOYH (RN) starts training at her new job on February 1st. She had been playing phone tag with the director of nursing at People Inc this week, and because it was phone tag and not an actual conversation, there was a question as to whether she would have a job at all. Wednesday night while I was at Book Club, TOYH texted me after listening to her phone messages. The message from People Inc made it sound like she wouldn't be able to start until March or April and there may be no full time employment for quite a while. Major depression. TOYH called them back on Thursday, left a message (of course), and later that day she got a message (naturally) saying that she could start soon, just not full time. All this miscommunication has been a bit nerve wracking. People Inc thought that TOYH wanted full time work right away, but they didn't have the budget for that now. They didn't know that TOYH wanted to start ASAP, full time or part time. TOYH heard the messages during this little saga and assumed the worst, specifically that she couldn't start work for a few months. She finally had a real live phone conversation with the Director of Nursing today and was told to report next Friday. Major relief.

I think part of the problem with this game of phone tag has been TOYH's cell phone. A few months back it was stolen from her desk at the Massage Parlour. She found it later after it had been dropped down the stairs in the building. It hasn't been the same since and it has been acting really funny lately. It powers down, resets itself and then powers back up multiple times a day. TOYH could very well have missed phone calls because the thing was on the fritz. She brought it into Verizon this week to replace it. You have to understand that this thing is a Palm Pilot and email device besides being a phone. Cost to replace: $400.00. But...it turns out that in 7 days our 20 month contract runs out and she can get a new one for half that price. Must....hold.... on.... must....delay....instant.....gratification. So if you're trying to reach her by phone for the next week or so, don't be disappointed if she doesn't get back to you right away. Blame it on the phone. I know she will. I'd really like to get iPhones, but I don't want to switch to AT&T's crappy service.

In the near term, particularly while she's working part time at People Inc, TOYH will continue to rub nekkid people at the Massage Parlour. It looks like our friend Jess will eventually take over the Massage Parlour space and TOYH will be able to rent back a few hours a week as needed. The best part of this change in employment(besides the money) - no more Saturdays. If I were to guess, I would say that between work and two schools (Aveda and St Kates) TOYH has had around 20 Saturdays off since 2002. This job at People Inc is M-F, days. Whew.

You Can Thank Me

I feel that I can take most of the responsibility for this. I can't figure out why they did not interview me, it would have answered a lot of their questions.

If You Could Stop Whining For A Moment

TOYH passed her boards. Was there ever any doubt? She is now certifiable, errr certified.

You may resume whining.

And The Whining Will Commence In 3.....2.....1......

It snowed about half an inch yesterday. Just enough so that when the plows went up and down Park and Portland Avenues they left a pile of crud in the bike lanes. When I drove to work today I passed a couple of bikers and they had to take the lane of traffic because the bike lane was impassable. In other weather related news, it was -4 when I took the kids to the bus stop (which they missed because they were monkeying around instead of getting ready). I'm getting tired of the cold, mostly because of the static electricity in the office. Every time I touch the metal part of my desk after getting up and walking around, I get a shock. Speaking of the cold, or rather colds, I've picked up this extremely annoying head/chest cold. It's like this half cold. Sinuses are partially plugged but not draining. Chest is congested but not enough to cause me to cough a lot. I'd rather have a full on, miserable, knock you off your feet cold for just a couple of days than this middling little nuisance that has lasted for nearly a week now. TOYH is haggling with an Insurance Company over services rendered at the Massage Parlour. Lessee, what else? Oh yeah, I'm tired of being poor.

Feel free to add your own grievances in the comment section.

Can We Actually Relax Now?

Yesterday 'Nika and I finally escaped from Test Equipment World Domination Headquarters at about 3:30. I had told KyKy that I would take her to the downtown library so she would be able to pick up some materials for a school project. (Just as an aside, The Minneapolis Public Library exists no more after 122 years. It appears the past few years (decades?) of mismanagement or lack of funding left no alternative but to merge MPL with the Hennepin County system. Nothing against the HC system, in fact their rescue of MPL has increased hours at libraries and opened branches that were previously shuttered. It's just that the Minneapolis Public Library system was a point of civic pride for me. For a relatively small city population wise, it was a great system. But no more.) The whole family ended up going. We piled in the car and drove to the Lake St train platform, took the Hiawatha downtown to the shiny new Cesar Pelli designed library. I've taken the girls down there a number of times, but TOYH had never been there. We split up to find some things to bring home, met up again, took the train back to the car and ended up going to Matt's Bar for Jucy Lucys. TOYH ended up checking out a bunch of videos to celebrate her liberation from studying. After nearly 3 1/2 years of that nagging feeling of, "I can't enjoy anything because there's always some studying I could be doing instead of what I'm doing now," she's free to do what she wants. That means vegging out in front of the teevee. It's a fine weekend for doing just that. The temperature dropped below zero at about 5pm yesterday, and it might stay there until sometime on Monday.

It Is Finished

Just got off the phone with TOYH. She finished the test at 9:40. 75 questions. 75 is the minimum number of questions you can answer, I think 200 is the maximum. The test is taken on a computer and it rates your competence in certain categories as the test goes along. If know your stuff the computer will shut off after 75 questions because it figures you've answered enough questions correctly and what's the point of wasting any more time. Conversely, if you really don't know your stuff and you're bombing, the computer will shut off at 75 questions because what's the point of wasting time if you're such a moron? So what do you think? Pass or fail? Discuss.

Update

TOYH started the test at 8am. 'Nika has strep throat and is at work with me. The Madster just texted me saying she's not feeling good. Jon is on a field trip with his daughter. Temp is 1F windchill is -19F. Coffee is hot. Pandora is pretty cool. Stay tuned.

'Nika Sick, TOYH Stressed, Laser Printer Out Of Toner

That pretty much describes our household at the moment. I'm hoping that it means I get to leave work early today. Yesterday I was supposed to leave work a bit early so as to get 'Nika and The Madster to karate, but through the incompetence of DHL, I ended up leaving work late and the kids missed out on beating on each other. This was probably a good thing because when I finally made it home from work, 'Nika said she had a sore throat. I made her skip church youth group too. By the time I got home from dropping The Madster off at youth group, 'Nika was a bit weepy and looking peaked. We watched a bit of TV together, I gave her some Tylenol, and I sent her off to bed. TOYH came home from the Massage Parlour, and I went off to Book Club. I got to bed at about 1am and have vague recollections of 'Nika coming into our room last night. Turns out she got TOYH up. The poor kid was feverish, sore throated and body ache-ish. No school for you. Unfortunately, this was the day that TOYH was going to do absolutely nothing in preparation for the big test tomorrow. (Remember the NCLEX and all the encouraging notes you are sending her?) Studying is done. It was to be a kick back, run a few errands, take a long bath, clear your mind kind of day. 'Nika being home doesn't completely wreck her plans, but it does alter them. This is why I'm wanting to get home early, good husband, father etc., etc. etc.

On a completely unrelated note, two of my Book Club friends have been talking up Pandora internet radio. Without getting into the details, you simply log on to the site, plug in some artists or songs and the service starts playing songs on the "radio" that some computer algorithm thinks you might like. So far, I'm reserving judgement. I guess the algorithms do work pretty well because Pandora has been playing a bunch of artists that are on my iPod, but were not given to Pandora as my own musical preferences. I should say I was nearly immediately won over with the first song they played for me. I simply entered Tom Waits and Pandora started playing "Chocolate Jesus" one of my all time faves. You can rate the songs that the service plays for you, so maybe that starts to shape the playlist that is generated for you. Anyone else using this? Jen? Francis?

Oh, and the printer is out of toner at home, and it seems like everyone has a project due this week.

At Least The Days Are Getting Longer

That's what I tell myself. It was -4F this morning at the school bus stop. We get a bit of a respite, then back into the deep freeze starting Thursday night. Saturday morning the weather geeks are saying it could be -13F and cold temps could stick around for 7-10 days. Sigh. On the whole, I'll take cold weather over hot and humid weather. (Here's a tip for you. When it gets cold, wear more clothes.) The problem with both the extremes of hot and cold is that it limits my biking. I've gotten to the point where I can manage about 10F on my bike for an hour at a time. My feet get cold, but the rest of me is fine. When it gets colder, my feet are uncomfortably painful, and I get the old ice cream headaches. When I'm not biking, I find the cold weather rather invigorating, if the wind isn't blowing hard. Then all bets are off. It was actually pleasant this morning at the bus stop with the kids. For the next week or however long the cold snap lasts, I'll be spending quality time in the basement with my trainer bike. Ick.

TOYH's interview yesterday went very, very well. It looks promising. She's excited about the work she'd be doing, and the company seems like a good outfit. They are one of the few, perhaps the only home health agency in the metro that deals with their clients' mental health and medical problems not strictly defined as mental health issues. It drives insurers nuts. They want visits to be limited to medical or mental health. (Note to self: another reason to despise the insurance industry - mental health is not considered a medical condition.) There is also a great deal of autonomy for the nurses. They schedule their own appointments with clients and management isn't looking over the nurses' shoulders all the time. No weekends, no holidays, unless you want to carry a pager and be on call those days. A full time appointment would not be available until sometime in March, but she would be able to start part time soon. A formal offer has not been extended, but the Director of Nursing said that TOYH would be a perfect fit for them.

When TOYH moves into full time work, we are left with the issue of the Massage Parlour. It doesn't make any economic sense to keep it open, although she'd like to be able to keep working with a couple of her long time clients. I suppose she could do it if she wants to net about a buck fifty an hour after all her expenses are paid. Enter the serendipitous phone call. A friend of TOYH's who is a massage therapist/personal trainer asked about the space. She's interested in working on her own and needs a place to set up shop. This would be perfect. If TOYH has the time and energy (that's a big if) to do a massage here and there, she can just rent the space for an hour or two from Jess and everyone would be happy.

Now if we could get Madster and 'Nika's school placement to fall into place like TOYH's work situation seems to be, life would be a lot less stressful, I think. We went to the Mpls school placement fair on Saturday to talk with folks from other schools. We added one possibility and subtracted another one from our list of potential schools. Whatever we decide, we're really going to have to work the system hard to get them moved. The district discourages moving around, for good reason. But we think we've got better reasons for moving the kids to a different school. We'll see what happens.

Big Week Coming Up For TOYH!!!

Monday she has a job interview, and this could be promising. It's an organization called People Inc. The have their hands in a lot of things, but what we're hoping for is a visiting nurse type job. TOYH has a former colleague from ACR Homes, Christy, who works at People Inc as a nurse and is always telling TOYH how much she loves her job. People Inc was very impressed with Christy's experience at ACR and they sounded very interested in hiring another former ACR employee. As well they should be. TOYH would be an outstanding employee. She probably won't be getting into the work that she'd really like to be doing, namely working with at risk teens and young mothers. But hey, it's a start and it's in community nursing, rather than being a wage monkey on a hospital floor. (Not that there's anything wrong with being a wage monkey. I've done it for years. If you know TOYH, you'd understand that shift work is not her thang.)

Friday is the dreaded NCLEX, or national nursing boards. Every pre-test she's taken has indicated that she'll pass just fine, but she's sure that it will be awful and she won't do well. Sigh. I guess it's just more of the expect-the-worst-and-when-the-worst-doesn't-happen-you'll-be-pleasantly-surprised attitude. I've basically given up on trying to convince her that she's good enough and she's smart enough, and doggone it, people like her. Ok, she doesn't need to be convinced that she's well loved by everybody. Deep down she knows it, but honestly, if she can't see that then maybe she is kinda stupid. Anyway, drop her a line at tkstocking@gmail.com and tell her she'll do just fine. She doesn't read this crappy blog or the comments (I told you she's really smart), so anything left here would be unread by her. Please do it, she won't listen to her dumb-ass husband, but she'll listen to you.

Third and most important, tonight is the start of Jane Austin chick-flick extravaganza on PBS. 6 productions of her novels. As I write this, I've been relegated to the living room so that the women (except for 'Nika, it's on too late for her) can drink deeply canon of Western Literature in my bedroom watching the teevee. Dumb-asses like me aren't interested.

Commuted by bike twice last week. I'm trying to psych myself up to do it tomorrow when the temps will be hovering around 10 degrees.

So Very, Very Tired

I went to book club last night and ended up getting to bed about 1 a.m. That in and of itself wouldn't make me so tired, but I woke up from a sound sleep and a rather vivid dream last night at about 3:00. You know that feeling you get when you awaken from a deep sleep where you feel like you're coming out of the tunnel of the subconscious to consciousness? Where, as you are waking up, you realize that you were just in a very deep, satisfying sleep? That kind of waking up. Unfortunately for me when I woke up, that pleasant feeling of the sound sleep was replaced by insomnia. For some reason, I started thinking about Hillary Clinton's "Portsmouth Moment."

For those of you bored by politics, particularly my politics, skip the next part.

[I first read about her choking up in the diner a few hours after it happened on a blog I read. I was perusing the comments on this news item and there were the requisite, "See she's human," and the "This is just a cynical manipulation of the media," responses. Last night on NPR I heard an interview with the woman who asked the question that set Hillary off, and they also played a long unedited version of Hillary's emotion filled answer. After hearing that, all I can say is that if this was a ruse Hillary is the most accomplished actor in the campaign. Even better than doddering old Grampa Fred "Law and Order" Thompson. She sure sounded genuine to me. I was pretty disgusted by the Edwards camp claiming crybabies are not fit for the presidency. Au contraire. I am no fan of Hillary, but if all the candidates out there are truly pressing the flesh with "real" people practicing the retail politics of Iowa and New Hampshire, they all should be choked up about the sad state of our country and our kid's future. It's a mess. We need universal single-payer health care. We need to get out of Iraq. We need to get our Constitution back by repealing the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act and enforcing FISA laws (with no telecom immunity). We need to figure out how to send our children to college without burdening them with a shitpile of debt. We need to get the country out of debt. We need progressive tax fairness. Unfortunately, the "viable" candidates are controlled by their corporate puppet masters and real change will never happen. We will continue down the road of the commodification of everything, let the corporations write the laws and silence all opposition. There's no Teddy Roosevelt take on the corporations. There's no Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson to use the power of the government to address poverty. We've lost. Big business won. And that makes me want to cry.]

To get my mind of off Hillary, I finished reading a book Kent loaned me "The Wal-Mart Effect." That's a fine piece of business writing, and while it took my mind off of emotional politicians, it did little to ease my mind. I eventually got back to sleep sometime after 4:00 and my alarm went off at 5:40. By my calculations that puts me at less than 4 hours sleep, but I could be wrong, because I'm so very, very tired I can't think straight.

You Know You're A Nerd When.....

In the last 6 months of my working in the Emergency Department at Fairview Southdale, I started to take the bus to and from work. This meant getting home after 1 a.m., but hey, I like riding the bus. I quit my job at Southdale when Jon started Test Equipment World Domination Headquarters, and I tried taking the bus to work there. There was a problem though. From door to door, it took an hour and a half each way. Too long. When I worked at the hospital, it didn't really matter how long I spent on the bus because I was getting home when everyone was in bed. At my new job, I was leaving before the girls left the house for school and got home at about 6:30, which is too late most days. I started riding my bike again in August 2006. In late August or early September of that year, I started riding my bike to the express bus stop, taking that bus to downtown St. Paul and then biking from downtown to work in Maplewood. That cut some time off my commute. Soon there after I started biking the whole way and eventually got my commute down to 55 minutes or better. During nice weather, I tried to bike to work at least half the time every month. What does this have to do with being a nerd? Well, I saved all my SuperSaver bus passes. In February of 2006 I started keeping track of how many miles I was riding my bike, including commutes. So I can say with a high degree of confidence that since Thanksgiving 2005 I've saved myself 4200 miles on the car by not driving. It's gotten to the point where I've started to keep track of the miles not driven when I take the girls to karate on the bus. With my bike GPS unit (yes nerds have those things), I can very accurately keep track of all the miles I'm riding. With Google Maps I can map out the the miscellaneous car trips that were replaced by bus rides. Believe me, I'll be doing it. Is that nerdy or what?

Speaking of nerdy, I figured out how to add links on the side of the page so you can easily click through to read them. One of the links is a family related blog, by my nephew Caleb. The other link is to the one person outside of my family who reads and comments on this garbage, and who also claims to be a nerd, Neil. He thinks he is a nerd. Pffft. You just wait, brother. One does not reach the ranks of Nerddom until one's children are embarrassed by your nerdiness and tell you so, often. Mission accomplished for me. Just ask my kids. As far as links go, I'm going to be pretty circumspect. I would add the blogs that I read regularly, but I doubt any of you would be interested in what I spend my time doing at work. If I find something of general interest, I'll put a link in the body of this crappy blog since I figured out how to embed links without making you cut and paste urls. (I did it in the previous post)

Finally, A Winter Bike Commute

The conditions were favorable for a bike commute today, so I went ahead and did it. The recent warm weather has melted much of the slushy ice off of the bike lanes and the sides of streets, so I felt comfortable taking a shot at riding in the dark at rush hour. No problems to report other than the winter beater bike is a chore to ride compared to the SS Deathstar. Either that or I've fallen woefully out of shape since November.

Not much else to report. The girls are back in school. The transition from vacation was relatively easy. I think they secretly wanted to get back to see their friends.

We spent the weekend doing the usual running around with one added trip. The girls and I went to see cousin Caleb's basketball game on Saturday. Now normally I don't feel any pity for the cake-eaters from Edina, but Woodbury (Caleb and Jeff's team) thrashed them so soundly (73-17 I think) that I couldn't help feeling sorry for them. After the game I talked to Jeff, who is coaching the team, and he said he tried to get Woodbury moved into the more competitive A bracket, but was told by officials it was too late to make any changes to the schedule. The Edina team they played against was apparently trying to play "up" a bracket from C to B, and ended up against the Woodbury buzz saw. I don't know much about basketball, but I can say that Woodbury looked very well coached and Caleb played an excellent game. After the game, the Blodgett family came over for pizza. We sat around and ate ourselves silly. I'm surprised that Caleb and Jeff were able to coach and play their evening game without hurling.

As long as we're talking about all things Caleb, check out his blog at

Caleb's Blog

He can occupy your time when I'm too lazy to write anything.

January Thaw?

After a December which saw below normal temperatures, the first weekend in January is shaping up to be a pretty nice one. Temps are predicted to be in the upper 30's, and if we get some sun, we may melt some of the ice and packed snow off the roads and trails. I checked on the Bike Club web site, and as it turns out, there are only a couple of rides in which I'll be able to participate and even one of those is iffy. The problem on Saturday is that the younger two need to get to Karate in the late morning, which nixes any morning ride. TOYH works every Saturday and is unavailable for taxi service. This evening is another possibility for a club ride, but it means that the girls will be home alone for quite a long stretch in the afternoon/evening. I went on that ride last Friday, and it was very nice. Cold, but nice. If you have a trail to ride on, I think winter biking is more relaxing than any other season. I should be more specific. Riding in a group in the winter is more relaxing than any other season. Let me qualify further. Riding a TCBC ride in the winter is more relaxing than any other season. Why? When I go out on a TCBC ride, I am nearly always the youngest rider in the group, sometimes by more than twenty years. The retirees I ride with are not going to burn up the trails, so it is relatively slow going. On last Friday's ride the moon was trying to poke through the clouds and it was cold enough that the moisture in the air was condensing into snowflakes. There was no wind. The trails are isolated enough that you don't feel like you're in the middle of the city. 15 degree temperature feels good at that pace. Add all those things up and you've got one nice ride. The same thing happened on Sunday afternoon, except you need to replace the moon with the sun.

The girl's two week vacation from school ends Monday morning. Even though I've been coming into work off and on during their layoff, it's been so much less hectic in the mornings. We can sleep in a little more, and we don't have to pester the younger two to get moving so they can get to the bus on time. The Madster is not looking forward to going back. It's not the old, "I don't like school, I'd rather be on vacation," complaint. She is really not being challenged at all and is starting to dislike some of her teachers. We've really got to get her into a different school next year. Our problem is that transferring to different schools within the district is not easy. There are a couple of schools we would like to see her get into, but of course there are a ton of other parents thinking the same thing. Essentially we would enter her into a lottery for a particular school, and if she's chosen, she gets to go to that school. Since there is sibling preference in school choice, 'Nika would get to follow. I am secretly hoping that a rumor we've heard turns out to be true. If the district simply axes the middle school program at Emerson, we can go to the district and demand to get the kids into any school we want. Ultimately we just need to get The Madster through her 8th grade year. The High Schools don't seem to be as messed up as K-8 in the district. If we get the girls out of Emerson, it will be a sad, sad end to a era. We really, truly liked that school, and up until this year, the girls were getting a great education. Not anymore.

TOYH is still busily studying for her boards and is poking around for a few jobs. Nothing is turning up yet.