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Monday, May 30, 2011

We decorate graves

Sunday we went to the cemetery to decorate graves. (We have no veterans since the civil war and they are not buried in Oregon anyway.)
I used to go with my Mother every year and I have just continued the tradition with my family. We had a hard time finding flowers this year due to the cool weather and my wife actually resorted to buying flowers.
We didn't have quite enough.
We have my two sets of grandparents, Mom, and my great Aunt and Uncle. We short-changed Uncle Milton as he was often really grumpy.
The daughter spent a few moments at Mom's grave. She loves her grandmother and is sad she can't hold onto the memories of her. She was only four when her Grandmother died but she had already developed a close bond with her.
Later we met my brother and family and dad at the Mongoloid BBQ in Salem. You go down a line where you pile raw food in a bowl and then give it to a fellow who cooks it on a giant Wok. You add spices and oils to get the right flavor and when it is cooked those flavors are infused into your meal.
This was the daughter's first trip. Her cousins had been building it up for months. I helped her get a pretty decent mix the first trip. The second trip she chose mostly noodles and it was kind of gross.
I am amazed at the amount of food people consume. A nice elderly lady in front of me was pushing two bowls and she took all the cilantro. Just flat piled it on. I figured the cilantro was a spice and not a main dish...
I just take one dish as I like to make multiple trips for experimenting. I loaded up on dead sheep and spinach and not so many greasy noodles. I was quite happy with my meal.
Since all the meals are cooked on this huge circular wok I told the daughter to watch her meal closely. I think it is kind of funny when you get pineapple and you didn't put any in your dish.
Later, we went to the Daughter's school program. She has decided she wants to go to public school next year. She is doing so much better and is pretty happy at the small Christian school I really hate to see her go back. But, we let her make the choice to go the private school and I feel like I am going back on my word to take this choice away from her and... if we force her to go to the other school will she hate it and then lose the benefits of the education which worked mostly because she was excited and it was her choice to attend the school?
The next year (6th grade) she is going to attend the school where her mother teaches so I suppose one year is not that bid a deal.
I really dislike my old school.

3 comments:

  1. I never minded school; it was teachers that I didn't care for. (SOME of them, at least.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nothing wrong with public schools, I turned out ok. At least they haven't caught me yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hated my school, I still hate my former school. Same sort of administration, same stupid people, same sorts of teachers. One teacher out of twenty is inspiring the rest are self important "well-meaning" morons. My daughter had several good teachers but her luck was bound to run out.
    I am putting my dislike of my home school onto my daughter. I can't wait for the meaningless mid holiday program. Or the endless sports programs and the begging for money and the endless little drama's about parking and oh, my! What if someone brings a plastic camping knife into the lunchroom. I really look forward to again telling my daughter how to get along. Keep your mouth shut, never tell on anyone, don't mention what we do for entertainment here on the farm.
    If only they had a chapter of The Young Pioneers and she could wear one of those pretty red scarves.
    I never though I'd be defending a frumpy school uniform but it is easier to tell her just to follow the rule book when you know the people who wrote the book are just decent well meaning folks. AND, I don't think she needs to know about blow jobs at age 11...Call me old fashioned if you will but I've hired enough kids that I think some knowledge should be delayed a bit.
    IMHO

    ReplyDelete

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