The days are long and the years are short

International Night did not do well being late at night on the same day as the Valentine's Day parties.

The crowd would NOT be quiet for the presentations. And having them in the same room as the food made it worse. Having the whole event in one room was a mistake (and a big one). But someone (and perhaps it should have been me) needed to demand that people shut up and stay shut up. Grump.

I met up with the PTA president at a New Year's Day Open House. There was a lot of discussion of the cost of reserving rooms for activities at the school. It is much higher in cost for the weekend, than for weeknights. Our PTA is spending more than normal and making less than normal due to properly paying for the room reservations and other things that we are doing "by the book" that had once been done "under the table".

I don't ever remember seeing Alan Alda as a bad guy before. He did a great job with it, of course. He was arrogant to a T. He played Dr. Robert Gallo. And Gallo credits Dr. David Baltimore for getting him interested in retroviruses.


Dr. Gallo did NOT receive the Nobel Prize in 2008, when his rivals, Dr. Montagnier and Dr. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi did get it for the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS.

Dr. Gallo and Dr. Baltimore were separately involved in the biggest investigations for scientific misconduct ever conducted by NIH's Office of Research Integrity. ETA: Both investigations were eventually dropped and the leaders of the investigations were believed to be engaging in a vendetta at one point. I can't find the names of the leaders, but they were all over Science in the early 90s. Science is the magazine published by the American Association for Advancement in Science and is the premier wide-ranging science journal in the United States.

Any way, the movie was fun. Unfortunately, we didn't recognize any of the famous faces at the end.

Emily is getting the "self-rescuing princess" shirt from Think Geek.

Now to rescue her at the playground without seeming to. Sigh.

The boys are teasing and chasing the girls and it has gotten bad. Throwing woodchips and chasing with sticks. The parent of the boy that is the ringleader wants to let the kids settle it themselves. But it is not getting settled. Sigh.

Two more accounts, and two more passwords. How annoying.

One account that is pretty much defunct, but not close-able. Sigh.

Computers are *hard*.

mrmoosie took Emily to see "Where the Wild Things Are". Emily enjoyed it. She thought that the violence was fine and that the fort that was built was very cool. mrmoosie was interested in the psychological backdrop of the movie.

One of the first grade teachers invited the children and their parents to meet up with her to see the movie. Emily enjoyed having a group outing with her fellow first graders.

Although Common Sense media gave it an appropriate age of 9+, the mixed group of 6 and 7 year-olds were happy with it.

ETA: The More Child blogger didn't like the movie version.

Moved boxes first thing at starstraf 's and sweetie's townhouse. Eventually, had to just supervise my daughter while the rest of them got things organized. :-(  mrmoosie felt that he lifted and toted enough for his whole family.
I got email from a person that had compost-able trash and wanted to dispose of it. So I gave her directions to my heap. :-)

The pizza that we got was delicious. :-) Emily had a grilled bacon and cheese sandwich. She left the bones (crusts) for Teddy Bear (starstraf 's and sweetie's dog).

We had ice cream nearby. The leaves were falling on us. Tons of leaves.

When I got home, I turned my compost to bury the new additions. 

Then it rained all night. :-) My garden/yard and compost needed that.

This is from USAToday. It is about a whole community approach to exercise and eating right.

I want to go hang out at my daughter's school. Or have some tea with someone. I feel the need of human company. Sigh.

Well, I pick up Emily in 2 hours (+10 minutes). Usually, there is a gang of kids and parents on the playground for a half-hour afterwards.

T did a bunch of work on the taxes. Now there is a lot in my court. He may have to help me.

Emily and Thursday Girl (formerly known as neighbor girl T-five years old) are playing. We could make this a habit. I would not mind at all.