I'll take Avril

Just flicking around TV and came across one of those live performance, interview type shows with Avril Lavigne. Love her style. She does the loud, brash, confident, honest, chick thing really well. Gives a strong impression of not caring but does it in a decent way.

Can't stand the anti-Avril. Britney. Great female role model - phoney slut. Yet my daughter (and wife) think she's terrific. Despite her lack of clothes, my son feels the way I do. What gives? There's something fundamentally female going on here (it can't be her soundtracked talent). Wonder what it is.

Blog Ads

Was interested to see the Google advertising appearing at the top of 'Dude, What About the Kids?'. Clearly 'sensing' some previous posts (click on ad to see clearer), the ads are for 'Drinker's Check-up' and 'Alcohol Help Hypnotherapy'. The 'Related Searches' (smaller ads underneath) are for 'teenage drinking' and 'binge drinking'. Hmmm.

Funny, when I clicked on the 'teenage drinking' link, here's what came up: 'Teenage Drinking Leads to Bad Teeth'??!! To quote: "A study of the dietary habits of over 400 14-year olds in Birmingham found those who drank heavily were more likely to suffer from dental erosion." And be British. What's the legal drinking age?

The article goes on to say: "The threat can be minimised by good dental hygiene, including brushing the teeth twice a day to remove traces of acid."

Or, by stopping drinking.

Go to Bed

Signs the kids are sleep deprived:
1. close car door with foot still outside
2. call me mom
3. put cereal away in fridge
4. sleep on any road trip over 2 minutes
5. keep missing first period

Signs the kids are like me:
1. close car door with foot still outside
2. forget who mom is
3. put cereal away in fridge
4. sleep on any roadtrip over 2 minutes
5. keep complaining that mornings are coming too soon

Maybe its genetic.

The Problem with Alcohol

Technology aversion aside, our kids school throws a pretty mean fund raising auction, dinner, dance. It was last night. Under the stars in an impressive, funky, see-through tent-like structure. No idea how many people attended, but it was big.

I'm not a fund-raiser frequenter, unlike the friends we invited who go all the time. He works for a big financial institution so has the means and the need to be supportive. Thanks to experience, they're pretty good at it. Know how to scoop the bargains, especially on the silent auction stuff. The problem after a some wine and a few beers in a great setting is lots of crap starts looking pretty attractive (not like organizers don't know this). So here's damage at our table last night (5 couples) just in the open (not silent) portion of the evening:

Trip to Tuscany. Won by our friends in a poor strategic decision to keep the bidding moving. Problem. It stopped at their bid. Oops. Sorry dear!

Beer fridge and wine cooler. Impressive. Won by a fellow I'd never met before. Let's just say this: he's passionate about his drinking paraphenalia.

Trip to Whistler for 4 including accomodation and tow passes. Won with an enthusiastic round of "oh, damn what do you mean there's no airfare? I thought it included airfare.It includes airfare, right? Oh damn.

Trip for 6 to Switzerland. Including airfare. Steal of the night. Staying at a ski chalet in Adelboden, near Staadt. Won, with another enthusiastic round from poor losers of Whistler trip of "yours is better, ours doesn't include air fare. I thought ours included airfare".

Of course, table now talk of the room. Clearly big, rich, money-no-object spenders. Not really. Conversation around table more like "can't frigging believe we just bought that. Sorry dear, I guess we won't be getting the new fridge we've been talking about. We can still eat, right?"

Come on. Lighten up. Eating is over-rated. And drinking is dangerous!

My Kind of Problem

Son just wandered into the office. It's after 9:30pm, he's got his camo baseball cap on, sweatshirt, jeans, backpack.
Me, dumb question: "You're going somewhere?"
Him, perfectly straight: "No it's grub day tomorrow."
Me, stunned: "You're...like...practising?".
Him, confident: "mm,hmm - and looking pretty fine."
Me, good recovery: "The backpack makes it."

I Know What I'm Doing

We've got in-house tension right now re studying. Exams are coming up and it would be nice to know the kids are ready. Actually, one is. Never a problem for my daughter. She always works hard, is organized and knows how to prepare. At the risk of making a sweeping generalization, she seems to fit general observation that girls are just way better at this than boys.

Son on other hand appears to be right out in left field. Problem is, he's got decent marks. Frustration. If he's getting decent marks doing nothing, what would happen if he actually put some effort in? Again, at risk of generalizing, seems to fit other boys that we know.

Question is what to do. On one hand, as a parent I want him to get the right message. On the other hand, come back to belief that he'll learn best by figuring things out himself. Fear is he'll figure himself right out of future opportunities. Of course debating this is frequent stress with spouse. Son is missing most of the fun though...he left 15 minutes ago for 5 minute study break. Gone skateboarding.

no e-mail for us, we're private

Kids go to private high school. Did the public thing until grade 11, then switched as much to try as anything else. Been really, really good. Biggest disappointment and frustration around technology.

Kids are tested all the time. Would be nice to know how they're doing long before dreaded report card. Lots of schools on web-based intranet where parents can stay in touch. Suggested if school wouldn't do that (duh, why?), perhaps they could send along couple of key marks by e-mail.

Can't be done. Still don't understand rationale. What can be done is having guidance teacher round up reports from teachers bi-weekly and call. Knew it wouldn't work minute I heard it. Too complicated. So, no idea how kids are doing. Meanwhile, just last week received 5 mailed pieces from school on everything from auction to sick student. You know, YOU CAN E-MAIL THOSE BABIES!