i has a sad

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Fufnir “Flu-Snout” Berzelius, aka Fufu
*200? – † 30 May, 2009

mumble mumble

I’m having trouble finding time to blog, is why I’m never here anymore. A real estate agent came over and photographed the house and crunched some numbers for us, we’ll give her the go-ahead to list the house tomorrow, and then we’ll have to keep it clean All The Time (apropos of nothing, can anybody take a couple of blondish kids off my hands until July? I can’t pay much, but on the bright side, they’ll probably behave for you).

down for the count

One child with allergy attacks bad enough to leave school early, but otherwise fine, so he’s just stuck at home, bored.
+
One (child) behavior problem which I thought was resolved, but which has resurfaced
+
One sick cat
+
One extravagantly and suddenly sick child
+
One absent husband
=
One grumpy and exhausted alala. Why am I still up? Oh, right: because fatigue makes me stupid.

yum. crow.

I stand by my assertion that Ignatz’s (spoken) English is better than that of his teachers, but I went in and looked at the test that he got a C on, and it wasn’t what we’d thought, that creative solutions were marked as wrong (I should note that I’m using “creative” here to mean “correct, but not on the vocabulary list,” because one of the mistakes he made was using “dangerous” when the teacher wanted “deadly,” which I would dispute except that it is clearly not the real problem here). The problem is his usual lack of basic academic skills like following directions, or even reading them. E.g., the task is write a 100-150 word email to a friend, and he writes like 30 words.

should’ve named her Bill

Aw, geez, Fufu’s up to her old… probably shouldn’t call them tricks. I really thought we’d somehow broken the everything-happens-to-Fufu curse, but then bug season came, and it looks like we’re going ’round one more time. She kept bringing home ticks, so I bought a flea-and-tick collar (€10! Small town! Only one pet store!). It was awful, this big, clunky white orthopedic-looking thing, the same kind of cruel-for-her-own-good as a back brace on a 12-year-old. Next day she came home with a new tick, and the day after that she came home without the collar. No idea what she did with it. I asked her, and she was all, “Huh? Collar?”

But Tuesday night took the biscuit. She came in with her mouth open and her tongue hanging out, occasionally gagging (oop ack!) and quite hostile to her humans. She couldn’t eat, so I gave her milk to drink and even that just fell out of her mouth. She wouldn’t let me near her, but Ignatz managed to look into her mouth and reported a bump on her tongue. We think she must have eaten a bee. Two days, she walked around like that, and then Friday morning she was back to normal, and acting like nothing had happened.

Cats.

Song du jour of the day: El Cuarto de Tula, by the Buena Vista Social Club.

and more on Ignatz’s academic malaise

It’s English this time. I got a note from his English “teacher” – the quotes are because she is actually a Referendarin, which means “student teacher,” except that in the States, student teachers aren’t left on their own with the kids, and here, they are. Basically, they have the role of teacher but no practical experience yet. Last semester’s English “teacher” went a whole semester without noticing that Ignatz is a native speaker. He asked us not to take any action, but when he got a 3 in English, we felt we had to write to the school.

another one?

SIGH. Ignatz got yet another “censure” from school today. It says he made an “impolite comment.” So I asked him about it, and he says that his history teacher threatened him with extra homework because he was talking, and he said “that’s not fair, you’re talking too.”

One of the things I’ve found most challenging about being a mother is keeping a straight face when I need to. I managed it this time, but I think I sprained a face-muscle.

Song du jour of the day: Lose Control, by Waldo’s People, for Finland.

If I had a laptop…

I could liveblog The Eurovision Song Contest Part One (of Three) tonight. But I don’t. Sorry. The Guardian has some pointed comments, if you like.

How busy am I?

So busy that I’ve been meaning to point you to this article since Monday, but I still haven’t actually managed to read the whole thing. The first two pages are pretty good, though. I don’t know if it’s all about the welfare state, or if he also mentions how much the Dutch are doing to keep the Atlantic ocean from sinking half the country. That money has to come from somewhere (taxes), but I wouldn’t call it welfare. The people who let New Orleans drown probably would, but that’s why we voted their sorry butts out.

Song du jour of the day: Germany’s entry, by Alex Swings Oscar Sings – Miss Kiss Kiss Bang. The song’s okay, but the dancing girls forgot to put their pants on. How embarrassing.

happy birthday Lilu! probably! maybe…

We might have missed Lilu’s birthday – that is, when we got her it was mid-June of 2007, and the farm lady said the kittens were about 6 weeks old, so we counted back and assigned her a birthday of May 1st. And then on May 1st of 2009, we totally forgot that it was her second birthday. But it may not have been. Maybe it was today. Who knows? It’s a cat, so who cares? Well, Ignatz does.

Me, I have just now decided that keeping track is not my job, because it’s simply not in my skillset. Example: I have one brother, just one, and I usually mark the occasion of his birthday by waiting five days and then saying to myself, “Oh wait, didn’t something important happen last week…?” I admit it, I suck. The best brother ever does deserve better.

Anyway, happy birthday Lilu, if it is indeed your birthday. Nate, I put yours in my PDA. Maybe this year you’ll get a card in a language you don’t know. Won’t that be nice?

Song du jour of the day: The Balkan Girls, by Elena Gheorghe, for Romania. Historically, getting all regional is not a formula for success, but there are now enough Balkan countries to win it for this song.