Tag Archives: sarah

Unity day

Today was “Unity Day” at Sarah’s school. The kids were learning about different cultures, particularly the different cultures represented in thhe families of their classmates. I talked about Kenya, and also read the book When Africa Was Home to them. They were very good listeners, and very respectful, and asked great questions. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.

Later in the day, they had visitors from Japan, who taught them about origami, and some visitors from England, who gave them 10p coins.

As always, I was very impressed by Sarah’s school principal. When I arrived at school, I stopped in the office to announce that I was breaking school rules by bringing a deadly weapon onto school grounds – namely, a 6-foot long Maasai spear. They went off to get Ms. Simms so that she could tell me whether this would be permitted. She took one look at it and said, “Well, of course, we *have* to. The kids *have* to learn about other cultures. It would be wrong to deprive them of the opportunity.”

It is very very *very* refreshing to encounter someone to whom education is so important, and kids are so important, and someone who is smart enough to distinguish between when rules help the kids, and when rules need to be ever-so-slightly circumvented for the benefit of the kids. She’s awesome, and Sarah is very lucky to be in this school.

Pumpkin Day


Another Pumpkin Day has come and gone, and it was a huge amount of fun, as usual. It was very well attended, and there seemed to be dozens and dozens of kids, all of whom were yelling at any given time. The photos are here. I think that this year I got photos of most of the pumpkins that got completed, but I’m not certain of that.

Penguins

At a hearty recommendation from my father, Sarah and I went to the Kentucky Theater to see “March of the Penguins.”

Oh. My. Word.

I have never seen a movie quit so tedious. The penguins walk. They stand. They walk. They stand some more. They walk some more.

There’s a brief, shining moment near the middle where the predators show up, and I found myself cheering for them. But then the penguins stand around some more.

I endured it, because Sarah liked it. I can usually persuade myself to enjoy a movie that Sarah is enjoying, but this was beyond that threshold.

And no end of stilton cheese

Far and few, far and few
are the lands where the jumblies live
their heads are green, and their hands are blue
and they went to sea in a sieve

ApacheCon Europe, 2000, in London. I was there with my little person. At that time, (and again now,) our favorite book was (is) a collection of Edward Lear poems, one of which is “The Jumblies“, about a tribe of strange beings who went to sea in a sieve. And their heads are green and their hands are blue. In case you missed that bit.

Some of you may know Sander van Zoest. I actually don’t know him particular well. I’ve met him on a couple occasions, but never told him this story. You may remember that in past years he tended to have colorful hair.

Well, we were sitting in the main registration area of the conference, and Sander walked in the door. Sarah, who was 3 at the time, stood up in her chair, pointed, gape-jawed, and shouted “Look! It’s a jumbly!”

Yep, that’s the whole story. 🙂

Madagascar

Sarah talked me into going to see Madagascar.

As you may know, Madagascar is the latest movie by the same cinematic geniuses that brought us that masterpiece Shark Tale.

(*ahem*. Note to those unaware of my tendency to sarcasm. Shark Tale was quite possibly responsible for the most completely unredeemably wasted 90 minutes of 2004.)

Well, as stunningly bad as Shark Tale was, Madascar wasn’t that good. It had its moments, I suppose. The penguins saved it from being a complete flop, and even the lemurs were kinda cool. The reference to Planet Of The Apes (which *nobody* else in the theater got) was priceless. The “stars”, however, in their attempts to prop up what one might laughingly call a plot, were just awful. Shark Tale, at least, had De Niro. Madagascar as a hypochondriac giraffe. I can hardly wait for next summer, when the squirrels take back the forest from the hunters. (Alas, I’m not making that up. If only I were.)

Oh, I suppose it’s worth mentioning that Sarah thought it was just great, but there are a few brief parts that are somewhat scary, on the 7-year-old-girl scale.