Where Mark Is Today

My friend Kimmie works at Perkins School for the Blind. The owner of the Boston Celtics (Wyc Grousbeck) has a son who goes there. In fact, that's how he got to the area and ended up purchasing the team.

So Kimmie occasionally gets some Celtics-related perks. She got two tickets to a game awhile back and took Mark. And the team comes to the school occasionally for programs. One of the programs they do is Read to Achieve, where several members of the team come to the school, read to the students, and then help with arts and crafts. So when the program was scheduled for today, she immediately thought of Mark and called me.

She's actually kinda sneaking him in, but once he's there he will be volunteering. .He'll help with the arts and crafts. He's been to Perkins before, met a bunch of the students, and he'll do a great job with that.

SO. Hopefully he'll get a hat autographed and get some pictures. We'll see when he gets home, (obscenely) late tonight! mk

Overheard

Kira, playing with some guys in the dining room. Can't see her, but I hear:

"But they cost more!"
"No they don't!"
"Yes they do! Babies cost more"
"No, babies cost less...................at WalMart!"

Introducing the newest blogger in the family

Mark's created his first blog!

Take a peek at Sprtsgeek. mk

p.s. Be sure to scroll all the way down. There are games under his first post.

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby...

Mark's hormones have switched on to "rage." He's started being *very* aware of women in the various teeny-tiny outfits they wear on TV, and he loooooooooved his Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

To complement this, in school right now in guidance they're talking about "Reducing the Risk," about pregnancy and STIs and abstinence and condoms (they're allowed to talk about condoms, but they can't *see* a condom). They'll be doing some role-playing to build skills on how to avoid peer pressure to be prematurely sexually active. etc etc.

So Mark comes home the other day and asks to speak to me privately. After some stumbling about sex and premarital sex, he gets to his point, which is to ask whether IF (he sooo stressed the if) he were to accidentally get a girl pregnant, would I help him out with figuring out what to do, etc.

I was so proud of him for coming to me with this question. I was pleased that he felt he could bring it up. I did give him a bit of crap for thinking for a second that I would abandon him when he needed me, but it was great because we opened a discussion. We talked about all the different options when a girl gets pregnant, and how I've known people who have taken each of them, and we discussed premarital sex and condoms. I offered to show him a condom but apparently he's already seen one. A friend of his was given some by his mother a year or so ago, (!!!) and the boys have taken a look at it.

Same topic, different approach...we were watching House (yes, we watch it a lot) and there was an opening in which the patient was involved in a sex fantasy & collapsed. Mark didn't understand what was going on, and I -very- briefly explained that some couples have sex fantasies and do some roleplaying. Mark was silent for a minute, and then he said, "From what I've been hearing and seeing on TV and stuff, it looks like sex is really GREAT!"

Woooooooooonderful. mk

Honey, I love you and I support you in school, but...No.

Mark and I love to watch House. There are reruns on almost every night, sometimes several of them in a row.

Tuesday night in one of the episodes the fellows had to do an emergency tracheotomy. Mark pipes up to tell me that his science teacher has always wanted to do one, and that he (Mark) thought it would be pretty cool. (Mark's teacher was an EMT, so that's not quite as freaky as it sounds, but still kinda odd) I just kind of nodded along.

Then Mark looks at me speculatively and says, "Mom, are you having any trouble breathing?"

Sorry, Mark. No matter how much you protest that it's "just a little cut!" I am not letting you and your science teacher perform a tracheotomy on me. Even for extra credit. mk

Reason #19 Why I Need A Laptop

Because all of my best ideas come when I am either in bed or going to bed and if I had a laptop I could have it right there with me and then I wouldn't forget them all and the world would be a better place. Amen. mk

The Cyberworld is giving me a big hint

Having realized that I missed Fun Monday (which was also National Panic Day, which I discovered at 12:02am on *TUESDAY*, and actually panicked a little because I missed what should be one of my big holidays of the year), I've been perusing The Daily Meme for ideas for a Tuesday post. After rejecting TMI Tuesday (really, people, you don't want me answering some of those questions), I also found these two:

Tackle It Tuesday
Each Tuesday you post a before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that they tackled that week.

That's My Answer--"The Official Question of the Day"
Which this week was about painting...what colors you paint your ceilings and if you tape off the woodwork or just wing it.

And what is really kind of bizarre about these is that I purchased today (wait, sorry, Monday...it's 12:30am, I've not yet switched days) several items to do a makeover in my bathroom, and made final selections on paint colors. Tomorrow (today, damn it) I will be doing some repairs, priming the knots on the paneling, and painting the door and possibly some more priming. This was already planned before I read these memes.

Insert Twilight Zone music here.

Hey wait, I can!

Honestly, I'm amazed Mark still comes within 50 feet of me at school

I think I am probably one of the biggest geeks I know.

This week is MEA testing for Mark's class. (Kira's were last week.) One of the things that happens is that parents volunteer to send in snacks or drinks. Well, I volunteered to send in snacks *and* drinks for Mark's class. I chose Thursday, which is the only all-math day. Yes, I deliberately chose my day for snacks based on when they were doing math.

WORSE! I have now made up little snack-packs, each containing a small Gatorade, a Nature Valley granola bar and a trail mix pak. I put them into little brown-paper bags, and on each one I have stapled a slip of paper with a weird math trivia item on it. (ex. The billionth digit of pi is 9) I've made a little bag up for each kid plus the teacher.

Mark has just shaken his head and rolled his eyes at my geekiness. He did request that I drop off the snacks before school so no one would know who sent them.

Um, hate to break it to you, babe, but I'm pretty sure they'll alllllllllllll know. mk

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For any of my fellow-geeks, here are the trivia items I used:

*National Pi Day is March 14 at 1:59 (3/14 1:59)

*The largest prime number is 13,395 digits long;
More than the number of atoms in the universe.

*The billionth digit of pi is 9.

*If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc)
the total is 5050.

*111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,876,654,321

*There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

*2 and 5 are the only prime numbers that end in 2 or 5.

*'FOUR' is the only number in the English language that is spelled with the same number of letters as the number itself.

*The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven.

*The largest number in the English language with a word naming it is a googolplex, which is 10^{10^100} , which would be written
as 1 followed by a googol of zeroes.

*The fear of numbers is called arithmophobia or numerophobia.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is fear of the number 666.
Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

*If you keep removing a digit from the right hand end of the prime number 73,939,133, each of the remaining numbers is also prime. It's the largest number known with this property.

*In the English language "forty" is the only number that has all its letters in alphabetical order.

*To multiply 10,112,359,550,561,797,752,808,988,764,044,943,820,224,719 by 9 you just move the 9 at the very end up to the front.
It's the only number that does this.

And in a perfect example of what a math geek I am, I had a very hard time putting * in front of each fact, because that is the computer symbol used for multiplication. Yes. Geek. I know.

Morning Trivia

If you put your bra on inside-out, it will take at least five minutes of cursing and wondering what the hell happened to your bra and was it always this hard to hook before you figure out that you are an idiot. mk

Mark and his friend Eddie did an act in last week's Talent Show. Eddie has since posted a video of it on YouTube. Proud mama shares:



Kira also had an act with a bunch of other kids in her class. I'm working on trying to get that video made and uploaded. Will update. mk

p.s. I have never known anyone to ever get a good-quality video in our gym. Ah well, faceless kids makes for better anonymity, eh?

Daylight Saving Tweets

TheBloggessSo if it automatically becomes 1am at midnight but I set my watch alarm for 12:30am I'm pretty sure the earth collapses in on itself
TheBloggessNice knowing you all. #daylightsavingstimewilleventuallydestroyus
TheBloggessIt's later than you think.
TheBloggessNot like metaphorically... just fucking daylight savings time.
TheBloggessBut probably metaphorically too.
TheBloggessApparently today is International Women's Day. It's the shortest day of the year. Good one, men.

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I friggin' love Jenny. mk

I Told You I Would, Brenda!

Brenda was over tonight to start Season 12 of America's Next Top Model. Afterward, as girlfriends are wont to do, we chatted about a myriad of topics. Somehow we got onto the subject of how awesome Google is, and she mentioned that she googled something the other day that actually returned no real results. Her search:

Why doesn't your brain fall out your ears?

After the requisite hysterical laughter and my promise (or threat, I suppose it's your viewpoint) to blog that, we moved on.

But after she left, I Googled it ("brain fall out ears"). [The first result was awesome, a question on Yahoo: A dog licked my forehead will my brain fall out.] But most of the results were concerning tubes placed in the ears, which often fall out (the tubes, not the ears). I also saw several references to your brain *leaking* out of your ears, so I googled *that*, which returned lots of results, mostly to do with horrible music.

BUT, there was actual real knowledge to be discovered! I found out that your brain does not fall out of your ears because it is surrounded by several layers of membranes that cushion it, along with the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that is constantly produced by and drained from the brain. (Drained *where* was my first thought--turns out it drains primarily into the blood through a fairly complicated process that I lost interest in) I did learn that the CSF is completely replaced ("turned over") about 3.7 times a day. And that a trauma to your skull can lead to the rupture of the membrane and the leakage of the CSF, which can open up the possibilities of all kinds of nasty conditions, like meningitis, which is an infection of the membrane around the brain.

SO. The reason, dear Brenda, that your brain does not fall out of your ears, besides the fact, as we discussed, that the brain is solid and larger than the ear canal, is that it is contained within membranes that hold it in place.

Ta-DA!

And now perhaps there will be a helpful result for the next person to Google that question. ;) mk

primary sources

Wordless Wednesday: Sketch

Tuesday Tip: Gas Gauge Secret

Beast Mom posted a wonnnnnnnnderful item on her blog yesterday!

Apparently, there is a little arrow on (most) car gas gauges that points to the side where your gas tank is.

Huh. Who woulda thunk it?

How many people knew about this one? I've been driving for over half my life and did not know. I feel a little stupid.

I also want to go around and check the gas gauges of everyone's car.

Are there other secrets out there of which I am ignorant? (ok, I *know* there are secrets of which I am ignorant. I mean, are there secrets of which I should NOT be ignorant? ok, wait, I'm sure that's a long list, too. Here: share more tips like this!) mk

p.s. When I read BM's post, I immediately got my shoes on and went right out to the car to check this. I mean, before I even read comments. Before I finished her post. RIGHT THEN.

I have issues.

I Could Not Agree More

In reading a synopsis of a House episode, I found this:

I don't know what a blind uterus is, but I have one that presumably is sighted and it's a pain in my freaking ass every month. I can't imagine how much more difficult a special needs uterus would be.

Yeah, baby. I hear ya. mk


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Geek alert: After a TON of Google research, I have pretty much determined what (I think) is meant by a "blind uterus." They mean a unicornuate uterus with a noncommunicating rudimentary horn. This basically means a uterus that has developed abnormally, splitting into two sections, with one section more developed and the other section (the horn) underdeveloped and in fact closed off to the vagina, not allowing for outlet of menses. That would totally suck.