Year: 2008 Page 4 of 15

We received a letter from the North Carolina education bureaucrats at the Department of Non-Public Education (DNPE) just before I went to Mexico. The way it works in North Carolina is that each homeschool has to be ready to set an appointment for one of the bureaucrats to visit the school to check three things for each student. Those three things are 1) Attendance records, 2) immunization records, and 3) nationally normed standardized test scores. The way it is supposed to work is that the bureaucrat sets an appointment to visit each home where they stand on the porch and review the records. That has not worked out so well because so many people in North Carolina have chosen to homeschool their children due to the abysmal state of public education here.

The system has just gotten swamped so the DNPE has started asking the homeschool administrators to go to their offices with the required records. In spite of the fact that they asked us to bring more than is required, they asked nicely, so we will make this accommodation for them this year. Part of what makes it a little more palatable is that the DNPE is not part of the government school establishment, rather it is the department within the government that watches over the different private schools in the state.  If the government school bureaucracy were in charge of this, we would probably be less accommodating.  I have blogged previously about the systemic problems with government school education in North Carolina.  Nationally normed test scores are very low relative to the scores earned by homeschools, many of the schools are year-round schools, many kids get bussed many miles from where they live to perform racial balancing, there are problems with violence and teen pregnancy, etc.

So, the upshot is that we will take our documents into the DNPE in early November.  If it is at all interesting, I will report how it goes.

On another note, many in the company where I work now use RocketDock and Launchy on their Windows computers due to some investigative work performed by NerdHow.  I am hoping NerdHow will take a look at the Gnome Do tool for Linux.  I think it is a Launchy equivalent.

October 11, 2004 – Anniversary weekend
October 12, 2004 – Today was another regular day

I got home last night about ten minutes early.  Troy picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at my car.  I stopped off at Harris-Teeter to pick up some shaving creme and razors.  I forgot that I was not supposed to put those things in my carry-on bag and they got thrown out at the airport on the way to Mexico.  We were also out of kitty litter so I got some of that, too.  I was pretty worried about how I was doing with the weight loss death match, but I only gained a little over a pound while I was down there.  We did not have a scale down there so I had no way of knowing how much I weighed.  I like to use the same scale every time anyway to have consistency and keep myself honest.  Now my seven day running average is over 35 pounds lost.  I am glad to see that Lyle is starting to take it off again.  He posted a couple of times.  I do not think Bryan has posted again since he made his target weight, so he can count this as harassment and a reminder that we are going to keep posting our weight even AFTER we make weight.

On another note, an old childhood friend of Lorena from their neighborhood in Monterrey did a search for different members of Lorena’s family on the web and found this blog.  She sent a marvelous email with a bunch of pictures of their time growing up together.  I have posted a couple of those below.  After they exchanged emails, they all talked on the phone.  Paty lives in Chetumal in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, not to far from Cancun.  It was all quite emotional.  Lorena and Lynn have spoken often of Paty and her mother Leydi who was a good friend of Conchita.

Lorena’s neighborhood friends 1

Lorena’s neighborhood friends 2

October 7, 2004 – Not enough time (Photos)
October 8, 2004 – Politics and rockets

Things have been just lovely here in Monterrey. On Thursday, my uncle Lynn took us sightseeing around Monterrey. Some of the places that we went to:
Lynnsito’s kindergarten:
We said hi and ate some veggies, because it was nutrition day.
A stone-sculpture shop:
We took pictures in front of a bunch of silly statues. That was the most memorable part of the day.
The best taco restaurant I’ve ever been to
By far. They gave you tortillas with white cheese and a ton of meat and a coke in a glass bottle, then you went to the salsa bar, which was a thing unto itself.
A fancy shopping center with a bunch of designer stores
We looked around, and gaped at the price tags.
Another fancy shopping center
We took pictures in front of Ferraris and tried out some Nokia products at this awesome lounge that they had.
A swimming pool, where we took lessons with Lynnsito and Marlito:
The Mexican swim team there was way better than our YMCA swimteam. It’s like comparing peanut brittle to gummy worms. Even the swim lessons that we took were tough.
Then Dad arrived…

Saturday evening we went to the wedding. Before the ceremony, the workers had a Gospel meeting, which I thought was really cool. If I ever get married, I think that would be a nice thing to request.

I met lots of relatives and friends that I already knew, but forgot about. I re-acquainted myself with my cousins. I met some completely new people. I signed Betty Blonde’s name in the wedding book for her. In all, I had a very nice time.

There is a very a beautiful rock formation right on the edge of Monterrey we visited last night.  I have a busy social schedule today, so I might not be able to post much until Wednesday morning, but I will try to post something, however small.

A taste of what we enjoyed on the wedding.  This is Valeria, Jorge and Mari’s three year old daughter.  She looked quite stunning at the wedding.

This morning we slept in until about 9:00 or so, then went with Tio Lauro to see the new house he built for his family in Santiago, Nuevo Leon, just close enough to Monterrey to benefit from very good infrastructure. It is a beautiful house in a beautiful small town with a traditional plaza. It was a very relaxing morning and a great chance to get caught up a little with Laurin. He travels all over South and Central America in his job with Oracle. We are going to look around the area where they live to see if we can find a piece of retirement property. These are a few pictures we took while we were there. The house is truly a work of art both in its layout and the beauty of its workmanship. The top picture is of a butterfly that landed on the hood of the car while we were there.  You can see a little of the marvelous indirect lighting in the house in the second picture.  The third is of a papaya tree growing in the back yard.  The last picture is of Laurin and I talking.

All my bags are packed and I’m ready to go…

My buddy from work, John S., is going to drop me off at the airport this afternoon to fly down to Monterrey through Atlanta. I am excited to see everyone down there. I have BIG plans for this trip, most of which have to do with red meat, fresh corn tortillas, and salsa. Speaking of food, it is great that LYLE IS BACK IN THE FIGHT, posting his weight, and starting to come down again after all his travels. The up side of his job is that involves a LOT of eating and good food. The down side is that it is wildly difficult to stay on a systematic weight loss program. I will try to post observations and photos while I am in Mexico. I will only be there for a few days, but plan to enjoy them immensely.

Monterrey is beautiful city with a population of just under four million people. While it is not a typical tourist destination, it is a fabulous place to visit. The purpose of this trip is to hang out with the family and attend a wedding. Hopefully, though, we will be able to visit one or two museums or other attractions. The photo below is of El Cerro de La Silla (Saddle Mountain). Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita live right at the base of the mountain on the right hand side of the image. I will see if we can make arrangements to go into the center of the city one day and maybe go to Allende to see Grandma Conchita’s father, Grandpa Jose one other day.

Cerro de la Silla – Monterrey, Mexico

October 5, 2004 – Writing program
October 6, 2004 – Vice Presidential Debate (Photos)

Lazy days here in Monterrey…
 
Today we went to the local mall.  It’s two minutes away from the house, literally.  We had fun there… it’s actually a surprisingly familiar place!!!  It’s interesting to see how much I remember from previous visits.

Anyway, nothing too special happened there.  It’s identical to most small American malls except they have more taco places at the food court and everything’s in pesos. 

Observations at home:

It’s dangerous to poke your fingers into a parrot cage.
Eating 6 tamarind candies at once is not good for your stomach.
When it rains, it pours.
Never, ever let grandpa start talking about watches, music of any kind, or famous opera singers.
Chicken a la king MUST have some Tabasco, or else it’s too ‘desabrido’
Starving pit bulls do roam free along the streets
Calamine lotion, bug spray, Vick’s vapor rub (say veek-vahpoh-roob very quickly) and hand sanitizer do nothing to prevent mosquito bites.

There’s more, but I must be off to meeting.
Sorry this is so short!!! 🙁

I talked to the Lorena and the kids in Mexico last night while I was washing clothes and doing a chores around the house. As is always the case when we visit Mexico the weekends are crazy with barbecues, visits to Allende, site-seeing, shopping, etc. Then, during the week, all the Mexicans have to go to work and to school, so we go from 5000 miles per hour down to about 2 miles per hour. That is where the kids are now. They might be getting a little bored. So, Kelly is planning to do a bunch of Betty Blonde comics so we will have enough for next week and beyond. She is also going to write one or two blog posts. Christian is working on installing Xubuntu on an old, piece or trash computer for his Tio Lynn. I think he is going to write about that for NerdHow. By the way, did you notice that today’s Betty Blonde was written by Christian. Lorena, of course, has many hours of important conversation with her mother planned. Really, that is the one thing that does not change whether it is the weekend or mid-week.

October 1, 2004 – Worker visit
October 4, 2004 – Busy weekend

You can click on the pictures to see them larger.

Some of the many beautiful mountains
seen when flying into Monterrey

Tacos from the awesome little outdoor
restaurant around the corner from
Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita’s house

Eating tacos with cousins Lynncito and Marloncito
both very cute and very sweet natured

Parque Santa Lucia –
Cousin Marquitos takes everyone to the newly
developed river walk in the center of Monterrey

Parque Santa Lucia –
A tour boat in the river along the river walk

Parque Santa Lucia –
A beautiful new sculpture of the
Monterrey ‘M’ made by Saddleback Mountain

Parque Santa Lucia –
Kelly, Lorena, Grandma Conchita, and Christian

Grandpa Lauro (demonstrating his trademark smiley face)
and Grandma Conchita

Three of four generations
Christian, Grandpa Lauro (smiling again),
Great Grandma Rosenda and Kelly

September 29, 2004 – Lorena starts intermediate algebra
September 30, 2004 – The ski trip is a GO!

I’m sorry Dad, for not posting and stuff.

Monterrey is wonderful!  They say October is the loveliest month weather-wise, and I think that’s true.

Today we went to the H.E.B (the local supermarket) for some ingredients to make chicken a la king.  We learned several things there:
1. You’re not allowed to take pictures of yourself in front of the produce
2. In Mexico, the yogurts have flavors like Papaya or Fig.
3. The bakery section of the Mexican grocery store OWNS the bakery section of the American grocery store.

We also learned some more things while on the road:
1. You can’t survive on Mexican highways without honking or at learning to whistle extremely loudly.
2. Seatbelts are optional
3. You can fit 2 seniors, 3 adults, 2 teenagers, and 2 small children into a 5 person car.

Yesterday we went to Allende after Sunday morning meeting (which was lovely.  It was great to see the Monterrey friends again.  Many of them were at the Spanish Georgetown convention, so we still have lots of people left to visit) to visit Great Grandpa Jose.  It was great to see him and our step-great-grandma Herlinda.  The day before yesterday our cousin/worker Marquitos took us to the park where Grandpa Lauro works.  It’s a gigantic, beautiful place right smack-dab in the center of metropolitan Monterrey.  There’s a winding river running through it with fountains, sculptures and murals all over the place.  Boats take people back and forth through the park. There’s a place for musicians and plays, lots of play structures for kids, and a nice little area with restaraunts and ‘waterfront’ tables.  While we were there, Mom got us a chocolate churro: Deep fried sweet bread rolled in sugar and filled with chocolate syrup.  Good old health food, no?

Anyway, since everyone is at work or school, we have a pretty lazy week ahead of us. That is until Dad arrives. 😉

We miss you!!!

Love,
Kelly
P.S. I have pics up on my facebook account.  I’m not sure how to get them up on the blog.  I’ll try to figure it out ASAP.

I talked to Lorena, Kelly, and Christian several times this weekend on Skype.  They went to downtown Monterrey yesterday to see the new river walk where Grandpa Lauro works with their cousin Marquitos who is in the ministry.  They said it was beautiful.  They had a huge barbecue at Tio Rigo and Tia Minita’s house with all the aunts, uncles, and cousin.  They said they had a great time and the food was super, too.  On Sunday, they went to meeting in the morning, then did the traditional Mexican dinner and marathon hang out session at Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita’s house with the entire extended family for the rest of the day.  They said it was very relaxing.  I would love to be showing you some pictures of all this.  I would love to see some of them myself.  Maybe if I work the guilt and sympathy angles, we will get some pictures, a blog post or two, and some promised comics from Kelly.  But sincerely, I think they have completely forgotten poor old Dad sitting at home with the cat sisters eating dry cereal.  With this level of attentiveness, I can tell I am going to have a mighty fullfilling retirement.  I am just that old bald guy with all the cats.  Woe is me.

September 25, 2004 – A great party. (Photos)
September 28, 2004 – Catchup day

Well, this will be one of the most worthwhile dinners I have ever bought.  60 lbs. since February.  Congrats Bryan!

I talked to Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah.  They will come to North Carolina the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and leave Tuesday the following week.  We are very excited they are coming.  Kelly and Christian are going to cook the turkey and make all the fixings with the help of Grandpa Milo.  I was sad to hear that my uncle Harlan had died.  He had been institutionalized for the last 35 years due to an industrial accident.  Harlan was the brother next older in age to Grandpa Milo.  Half the aunts and uncles are now gone.  Grandpa Milo is the oldest of the boys who is left.  The others, in order, are Uncles Ron and Richard.  Aunt Fern (Merle’s Mom and Trisha’s Grandma) and Aunt Betty up in Washington are the living aunts.  Dale, Dean, Ruth, Alma, and Harlan are the ones that have died.

Lorena and I got married 16 years ago today.  I truly believe that it is because of the grace of God that we found each other.  She is still a wonderful bride and a beautiful woman.  I am truly blessed to be married to her.

September 24, 2004 – Happy Birthday
September 27, 2004 – The new grammar program (Photos)

I just dropped Lorena, Kelly, and Christian off at the airport to fly to Monterrey.  We got up at 4:00 AM.  Because I work so close to the airport, I got into work a little after 5:00.  Christian was able to get onto the internet while waiting at the airport, so I am talking to them a little on twitter.  I have a week before I head to Mexico for a few days, too.  Last night we ran around like crazy to get everything completed.  Importantly, the kids were able to finish up enough Betty Blonde episodes to get us through the end of next week.  Kelly and Christian came up with the idea for Betty Blonde together several years ago.  Christian has provided ideas for story lines, gags, and art all along.  So, to spread out the load a little, Christian is going to start drawing some of the strips.  His first one will debut on Wednesday, October 15.

I will try to post some of the photos they send me here.  Kelly will be writing some posts for this blog and Christian will be posting on NerdHow, so there will be plenty of information about how they are doing with Grandpa Lauro, Grandma Conchita, and all the uncles, aunts, and cousins in Monterrey.  As per the sound advise provided by Ruthie, they took ZERO homeschool with them.  As for me, I hope to do a lot of programming on side projects to keep myself out of trouble.  I have been working on some new functionality for KamVu and continue work on both the volcano computer and the Python comic aggregation program.

September 15, 2004 – Homeschool in session
September 23, 2004 – Science experiments, the cats, and grammar

Everyone is running around like crazy to get everything complete for the big trip to Mexico. Kelly needs to draw several more comics before she goes, there are a few gifts to buy, the bags need to be packed, etc, etc. On a trip like this, we want to both complete all the homeschool and get everything we will do when we get back organized and neat. It is difficult to get started on homeschool after a weekend if things are missing and not where we expect them to be. After two weeks it is almost impossible. Tonight, when we get home from the bible study, we have to get right to bed because the plane leaves at 7:00 AM tomorrow morning. That means we will have to get up at 4:00 AM to get to the airport on time. The airport is right by where I work, so I will get a very early start tomorrow.

My buddy, John Stranzl, came over to the house last night to look at some of our work together. He met the family, played the guitar, and had a nice visit with everyone. We enjoyed having him and hope he makes it back soon.

August 10, 2004 – Working late again
August 24, 2004 – Back to blogging

Yesterday, I signed Christian up for the Duke TIP program. TIP stands for Talent Identification Program. It is a program run by Duke University to identify and “assist young people with excellent mathematical and verbal aptitude.” The 7th Grade Talent Search is a program that invites precocious 7th graders to complete either the SAT Reasoning Test (the same people who created the CLEP testing program) or the ACT Assessment college entrance examination. Then Duke TIP provides the participants with comparative information concerning their academic ability and resources for unique educational opportunities. Really, I think it is a way to identify talented kids to enter Duke, but other universities also recruit kids who have performed well and received awards from this program.

A student has to receive a score in the 95th percentile in Math/Science, English/Verbal, or the composite score of a nationally normed standardized test.  Christian is in the 7th grade, he has qualifying test scores, and the ACT Assessment test satisfies the annual homeschool test requirement for the state of North Carolina, so I signed him up to take the ACT on February 7.  I decided it would be good to give Kelly the same test, so I got onto the ACT website and found that it was possible to sign Kelly up for the same test at the same time Christian takes it.  We are excited about this opportunity for both of the kids.  The ACT and the SAT are accepted as college entrance exams by virtually all the universities that Kelly and Christian might attend so it will be great practice for them.  It is often necessary to provide scores from one of these tests when applying for scholarships.

Check out Christian’s very interesting post on the election.

August 6, 2004 – Working on the patio (Photos)
August 9, 2004 – The weekend with Lauro and Conchita