| Presidential Puppeteering | 1/26/2006 |
I wish I could've sat in on ALL the presentations. I'm so hopelessly uninformed on American History, and just the few reports that I did get to see were so informative.
(even if twelve of the twenty-eight kids had paper bag puppets, but I'm not going there.)
Of course, I was scrambling around like a headless chicken. We woke up to another massive influx of ants in the kitchen. I swear, I've never seen them so bad (well, except for the one time that it was raining, and this massive colony decided to bring in all their gooey white grubs and set up a nursery under the kitchen sink. THAT was grosser) I'd called Jim The Ant Killer, and he was going to come at 10, so I wanted the kitchen to be as clean as possible (but not ant-free), so I was cleaning up stuff that I SHOULD have cleaned up last night, but was a lazy slob and watched Bones and CSI:NY instead.
Then, suddenly I realized that it was Puppet Presentation Time, so I hustled Nate into the car, and raced to school. Only about 5 minutes late, I race into the classroom just as Miss Heck is giving Last Minute Instructions.
I pull out my camera, turn it on, and...
[no card]
flashes on the view-screen.
Dur! I'd left the memory stick on the laptop on the kitchen counter. Again I say, DUR!
With a brief apology and a smile to the teacher and class, I headed home on a 12 minute round-trip errand.
I got back into class with my camera poised, and I'd only missed ONE presentation.
Oh, whose presentation did I miss?
Why, Skip's, of course.
Argh. Oh well, I'm sure he did OK.
[my one little bit of passive-aggressive naughtiness: I had Skip change his presentation a little bit at the end. You know, because his puppet DIDN'T HAVE HANDS... so I took a chocolate coin (penny) left over from Christmas stockings, and affixed a safety pin on the back, turning it into a brooch, which I then pinned onto the 'Department of the Treasury Seal' on the puppet. I was never happy with how that seal turned out anyways... And then I had Skip end his presentation with: "I also established the National Bank, and that is why you see my face on the Five Dollar Bill... and also on this penny. Which you will notice I am carrying. As a symbol of my presidency. To fulfill the requirements of the assignment" Yeah. I don't know if he actually said that last sentence, but I know he did up to there. I left the last one at his discretion, telling him that it might be worth an extra point on his mark.]
So the teacher suggested a short break while everyone "modelled" their president. There were some really nice ones, but I've GOT to say, the most creative one (and probably the most well-finished one as well, though I'm probably more to blame for that bit) was Skip's. While I was photographing, she came over to me, and said that Skip had done a very good job, with good diction, projection, and lots of good information. Unfortunately, all I could squeak out was "I hope the puppet was adequate." as I still am fragile about the whole situation, and was worried I might just erupt into tears in front of the whole class.
Anyways. *waves it away*
I took photos of everyone's but one kid. He said his president was in his backpack and he wasn't prepared to model yet. I wonder if he even did one. If I get better at schmaltzing with pictures online, I may put up a collage of puppets in a future entry.
Then, Nate and I sat down quietly in the front on the floor, and sat through six presentations. I really learned a lot. And I was quite impressed with how some kids carried themselves. The ones that I would've thought were going to bomb? Very confident and articulate. Most impressive. I took more photos, and nobody seemed to notice or mind.
Then we raced home for 10am.
Jim was there right on time. Johnny on the spot with his Aerosol Cannister of Doom.
He says he's never seen ants as bad as we have them, and if I call him again, he's going to bring a supervisor to talk about other options.
Eek!
Oh, and he set a half dozen traps for the mouse in the garage. All I have to do, if a trap gets sprung, is call him, and he'll come out and "deal with the results". Heh. I asked if I could just put the 'results' in a baggie and toss it, or if he wanted the traps back. "ooh. you're braver than most" he replied.
The upshot of his visit is that the house is remarkably cleaner than it was at seven this morning.
I wonder how long it'll stay clean.
Kelly has a play date over right now.
I've been very lax about supervising. They've just been playing make-believe in her room for the last hour. I kind of like that entertainment.
Skip is trying to negotiate for 3 hours of Runescape a day.
Heh. Foolish mortal!
Right now, Ken's got the firewall set up so that it doesn't recognize runescape.com, and when we try to go there, you get a pop=up window "that document contains no data". Ken's kind of miffed at Skip that he lied about his age to get an account there. I think Skip will be lucky if the firewall turns runescape.com back on for more than an hour a day.
But you didn't hear it from me.
Oh golly, these things are addictive:
I opened a new tube of the black currant pastilles last night, and the thing's nearly empty.
Surprisingly, I don't really feel hungry for supper yet.
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