Esquire Coffinberry's Great-Grand-Niece

Sometimes, you just have to decide, you know? Standing there in Home Depot, in front of the Behr color selector, with samples of the wood, carpet, flooring in hand, trying to decide what color to use to paint the walls and the trim and everything else in the upstairs half of the house... so many to choose from! Sigh. Time to be bold! Two gallons of Semi-Gloss interior in Clair de Lune, and a quart of the same in Calm Air, please. Clair de Lune for the inside of the kitchen cabinets (they were a worn-out fake walnut stain sprayed on particle board... which the helpful but overzealous 14 year old did a pretty good job of gouging when he was removing shelf paper with me), and test it on the other walls while I'm at it. Calm Air is for changing the color on the trim around the light fixtures, to diminish their presence. Nearly 12 hours later, the paint has been applied, two coats inside the cupboards, at that. It looks pretty good. And I do think Clair de Lune will work for the walls a...

Remember those paper things you folded, colored, and came up with your best 'Magic 8 Ball' sayings to write inside? You ask a yes-no question, pick a color, pick three numbers, then open under the third number to read the message. They called them Cootie Catchers when I was a kid, but I don't know what they call them now... Fortunetellers maybe? I had a bored little girl on my hands, so between supper and bedtime, I taught her how to make one. And she's been having a ball, asking it questions as I fold clothes: Will mommy read me a story? (Later) Do I have to take a bath tonight? (No Way... which is true, since she prefers showers). Here's what mine told me: Will I get Professor Hill for Property? I picked "Purple"... "4"..."5"..."6". And the answer is... "Sorry, no answer now."

That laryngitis... it just seems weird to only mouth the words during the hymns at church. I was, fortunately, well enough to run the 11-year-old Scout Camp on Friday and Saturday. The rain was gentle on Friday evening, the campfire cozy and lively. We learned a new - and easier - way to make 'smores, using fudge-stripe cookies instead of graham crackers and chocolate bars. The next day, bright and sunny, after cooking their own breakfasts the boys worked on orienteering and the proper use/care of knives, saws, and axes. Then we reviewed the rules for Safe Swimming, and they had a blast swimming. The weeks of prep and planning paid off when I heard a boy ask his dad as they were leaving: "That was great! Can we do this again?"

Much to my children's delight, my new laptop arrived today (so they no longer have to give up their computer when I wish to log on and check the blogs...). And I do like this Vaio. Itsy bitsy, but big enough. Comfy keyboarding. Fits in the laptop backpack I already have. My cold is starting to subside, thankfully. I've got a scout campout I'm the responsible person for tomorrow night.

Opening disclaimer: my first post-college job was in a survey-taking operation. Lots of radio surveys, Sara Lee product surveys, Pennzoil oil surveys, and as it was the '88 election season, lots and lots of political surveys. So I don't mind answering tedious questions, because I remember what it was like being on the other end of the wire. It's almost fun, pretending that my opinion means anything to anyone. Tonight I participated in a strange one: 'Just three or four minutes of your time, ma'am,' he said. Ok, go for it. (I'm whispering, because I've got laryngitis.... ) Tell me your opinion of the following persons or groups in your community - Highly Positive, Somewhat Positive, Neutral, Somewhat Negative, Highly Negative: Xcel Energy People who live in Jamestown People who have houses and property in the mountains ( by now I'm thinking " huh?" ) People who have suffered damage from wildfires Next, the inquisitor related two sides of ...

I pull the pile of stuff out of the mailbox, and peeking out of one corner is the return-address I've been watching for. My heart pounds, and as I put the pile on the dining room table, I tell myself "open it slowly, slowly." I feel it. Not very thick. Does that mean good news or bad news? I peel back a corner of the flap, and slit the top with my finger. Three sheets of paper, two white, one green.... and a check! Oh my goodness! My heart pounds as I unfold the letter. "Award of Merit," it says. One of my musical compositions won second place. Cool.

The master bath shower will finally be useable this afternoon, which is good, because I expect my beloved and our two oldest to return from scout camp today, dirty stinky and tired (are those adjectives or are those names... maybe both!). I am still picking bits of silicone caulk off my skin, though. All books, AV, art and bric-a-brac have been removed from the living room, dining room, and master bedroom, and all that's left in the rooms now are the basic furniture. It helped that my husband finished the built-in bookshelves in the basement last weekend; most books found a new home. (Though about 6 boxes of books are going to make their way to some donation center... lots of Readers' Digest condensed books I inherited from my grandma, and all the undergrad/MBA texts we've been toting around since heaven-knows-when.)There are now only 7 boxes of stuff from those rooms waiting for putting back in place when the painting/carpeting is done. My littlest one has been sick this w...

It's been a busy (though rainy) summer so far. I've apparently decided to (mostly) heed advice, and leave the pre-law reading list alone. Instead, I've embarked on a cleaning/remodeling journey, one that's been seriously overdue (carpet, paint, countertops, cabinetry are all original to this 1978 house - can you say Burnt Orange?). So I've got grout and tile to finish today. Painting every room in the main floor is ahead, followed by a removal of EVERYTHING from the kitchen so the resurfacers can do their thing, followed by new carpet. Along the way, there's been a lot of sorting, discarding, and donating (making long lists of items... taxes are going to be such fun next January). Then we're getting a service to come in twice monthly to keep things nice (and thus we now see the economic value of my unpaid labor over the last many years). The computer issue was settled in favor of a Vaio, just waiting for it to arrive.

Seventeen years ago today, likewise on a Friday afternoon, my husband was on campus in an Advanced Differential Equations class. It was just a week or so before finals, his last term before graduation. I was at home (our tiny, basement apartment... o! for the days of $150/month rent!), passing time playing games on the Amiga 500, feeling tired and huge and just not very comfortable. Then the uncomfortable got worse. I looked at the clock... an hour before class would be out. I paced the room: "Do I interrupt class, or not?" Pretty soon, I didn't care what happened to the class. My husband needed to get home NOW! So I called the department offices (this was pre-cell-phone days). And a secretary went running through the building, slip of paper in hand, burst into the classroom, panting: "Mr. _____! Mr. ______! You need to go home now! Your wife is in labor!" (Ok, this was BYU, and such interruptions were commonplace in upper-division courses.) Pretty soon, I see m...

Remember this one? School's out! School's out! Teacher let the monkeys out! That was going through my head yesterday, as I helped the elementary school serve 750 McDonald's hamburgers (two cookies, a handful of chips/cheese puffs, one napkin, one soda) to students and family members who came to say goodbye. And then I had a houseful of kids the rest of the day. Welcome, summer. ***** Somewhere along the way, I forgot to mourn the fact that life does a complete change from here on out. When they go back to school in the fall, so will I. No more automatic assumed availability in crisis, no pencil-whipping the field-trip chaperone line. No more sending young'uns off to school and revelling in a day completely under my own control. I didn't even think about it until there was only half-an-hour of that last school day left. Guess it's not that big a deal. ***** On tap for the summer... new carpet (current carpet is original to the house, 27+ years, and boy is it due!...

Once upon a time, Memorial Day was called "Decoration Day", because that was the day that the town turned out to decorate the graves of those who had given their lives for our freedom (and while there, decorating the graves of other family members, too). So, that's why we were up in Scottsbluff yesterday, because that's the nearest cemetery with kinfolk, including Aunt Jeanie, whose life was shortened by her service as an Army Nurse in VietNam. But cemeteries aren't all that exciting for the younger set, so we usually combine the visit with something fun, like climbing (racing) up the Monument. But it was rainy and wet and little visibility, so there wasn't much point to a three-mile hike. Instead, we went Geo-Caching . We found " The Legend of Chinook ," " The Olive Pit ," and " Reflections #4 ." Lots of rain, but still fun.

I want to first say "THANKS!" to all who have, do, and surely yet will offer advice to the rising crop of 0Ls. One of the topics of recent discussion has been whether the summer before 1L should be used to study or to mentally relax. Some say do, a little. Some say, whatever you do DON'T. I imagine that which to choose would vary from individual to individual; a little gunnerishness, a little fear, a little stress, a little curiosity, a little exhaustion all play into that decision. And it's great to give and receive advice, as long as nobody minds if anybody listens or not. True confession time - I'm a gunner at heart - not that I intend to be, that is. When I watch Harry Potter movies I just so identify with Hermione. Books are cool. Ideas are cool. Histories are cool. Like water on parched earth. I mean, I even spent the first couple months here (more than a dozen years ago) reading histories of Longmont, learning all about how come Gay Street jig-jags throug...

As Michelle noted, the fat packet of CU information included a 'suggested reading list', that supposedly somebody (somebodies?) had requested. So, I logged on to the Longmont Public Library's online catalog, to see which ones I could read for free (or at least, for the cost of the overdue fines I seem to always incur). A total of three books were in the collection, and two were already checked out. So when I went to the library to return the biography Thomas More, there was but Jurismania to accompany The Cat who Went Bananas in my book bag (along with the new The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers , which I actually plunked down cash for at Borders) that rides along in the van for those inevitable moments of hurry-up-and-wait that happen at karate, music lessons, concerts, etc. Now Bananas was not one of the best-written stories that Lillian Jackson Braun has produced, but it still was a page-turner... I'm never good at putting down a story until its over. Done with that...

Nights like tonight are my favorite kind, especially after days like today. The choir sang beautifully at church this morning (even my son, the one singing in the bass section, was impressed with our bunch of amateurs - and he is hard to impress, being as accustomed as he is to high-quality singing in the HS audition choir). The Sunday afternoon nap was lovely. The cool of the basement for a few family games - some playing dominoes, others chess or billiards; eggs and bacon for supper. A lovely walk, a little bit of catch, a glorious sunset and brilliant moonrise as the children play in the front lawn and us oldfolk rock on the front porch. Nice respite, before plunging into the last week of school (with its attendant "Mom! Help! I need... you to proofread my term paper... make me a sack lunch... drive me to the concert... find the sunscreen for the field trip... help me make a thank you gift for my teacher... you get the picture.).

Which is the name of the thread at the HP site, describing what my beloved laptop has been doing. Unfortunately, the above-named thread has been going on, non-stop, since 2002. Or in other words, an awful lot of folks with HP Pavilion laptops have this problem, not just me. Mine has had it before - we've gone through a whole mother-board already, but this time, it looks like I'm just gonna have to go ahead and get another laptop. Which I wasn't planning to do until later in the summer. Arrggh. Oddly enough, CU was for once timely, and I got the thick packet in the mail this week that included the information about computing requirements. Between those requirements (what's with the 'approved' wLAN list; will other 802.11 a,b/g cards not work? My live-in tech support rolls his eyes at that...) and the fact that I just don't want to lug a huge weight around, the replacement candidates are Ex-Pen-Sive. Front-runner right now, the Fujitsu S7010d Lifebook, (14.1...

Engel v. Vitale was decided some time before I was born, declaring that requiring students to participate in the recitation of a non-denominational prayer at a government-owned public school violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. I personally agree with the basic principle of that decision; it is wrong to require someone to pray in a way that would violate their conscience. As I grew, I observed that the understanding of this Supreme Court decision varied considerably, as people struggled with what it meant in terms of personal and local practice. I remember folks bewailing the 'removal of God' from our Schools. This attitude was something I didn't understand - nobody took God out of our school, because those of us who wanted Him (or Her or It or Them) brought Him/Her/It/Them with us anyway. Others insisted that Engel demanded that there be no evidence of God or religion at all in school. This seemed just as strange to me - religion was just as integra...

1957. That's the year you had to have been born before (can I say it any more awkwardly?) to avoid the University of Colorado requirement to prove having had the MMR shot twice. The helpful little letter telling me this recommends contacting parents, high schools, etc., to get the records. Well, bummer. I'm born after that. But not by much. And no, my mom doesn't have my shot records. So I contacted my three high schools - and amazingly the school district I started in still had 'some' records. So thank you very much, Metropolitan School District of Perry Township; because of you, I now know that I got a smallpox shot in 1965. I had the DPT and polio vaccines in 1965 and again in 1970. I had measles when I was a toddler, and mumps when I was 5, but I was given a shot for rubella in 1970. My kindergarten vision was 20/30, and I weighed a wispy 46 lbs. And intelligence testing at kindergarten entrance was 99+ percentile (hmm). But no information on the second round o...

Tomorrow, the 5th grade is going on a field trip to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature... and somehow, I was volunteered to share the fun. Tonight, I'll prepare my expeditionary equipment : Peanut Butter and (homemade) jelly sandwiches on brown bread, carrot sticks and chocolate cake, in a paper sack; and my cell phone with the teacher's phone number programmed in. When we arrive, my son wants to go Elf Hunting. Yes, there are elves at the Denver Museum. I've only spotted one, so far. He is riding the back of a dinosaur in "Prehistoric Journey". My son tells me there are several more, and he's convinced several classmates to join him in finding them all. There's also a Yoda meditating by a mountain stream and the Millenium Falcon launching into space. I saw those last time, too, along with the angel floating in the clouds. They're in the Imax Theater waiting line room, hidden in the mural. But I didn't see Chewbacca. I'll have to have my ...

Mwitterone: Have fun at Disneyland! But once you arrive in Colorado, be sure to take your little one to the library, and start the summer reading program. The prize for all who read enough books (in this case, that mama and daddy read to her) is a free ticket to Lakeside ( http://www.lakesideamusementpark.com ). Most people know of Six Flags Elitch Gardens in downtown Denver (and yes, I confess we have season passes there... buy early and they're only $45/person!). But the secret gem is really Lakeside, especially on a sultry summer Tuesday evening. Cruise down I-70 west of the mousetrap and you'll notice this enormous wooden roller-coaster beside a lake; and electric lights like it was 1910. The place is still owned by the original owners, and Miss Rhoda is seen walking among the visitors of an evening, making sure all is well in her little magical kingdom. Run down, oh, definitely yes, but still great fun. We go every year with our free library passes... one time, when my old...

Should the law bring a person onto unequal grounds based on the disability of their parents? As a parent who coached a 15-year-old through his permit stage last year, and expecting to begin all over again in August (yes, coinciding with the start of 1L), I certainly understand the value of the rule - child puts in many many hours of practice driving with responsible adult (licensed instructor or parent/guardian, over age 21) supervising in the front passenger seat. Trust me. The role of responsible adult can be hair-raising. It's not the kid's driving, per se, but the biting the tongue that is so difficult (I still remember the first trip down to the Zoo with son in the driver's seat... I-25 to I-76 to I-270 to I-70 is not fun for me, and I had to calmly and quietly direct him???) So, naturally, the only persons who are willing to put out the inconvenience, time, and lost years of life in stress are the parents of these children. And this law is certainly better than how i...