MOURNING A LOSS AND A NEW OBSESSION

I was going to brag to you all and took that photo yesterday to show how I still have a yard full of flowers even in late October. That's rare up here in the north and we've had the most gorgeous, sunny, warm fall this year! People are commenting on how they are getting third crops of corn, and still growing and eating vine ripe tomatoes. Well, look what my nasturtiums looked like first thing this morning! I guess it's time to say goodbye to summer for good. Here comes 5 or 6 months of bitter cold days and cozy, extra blanket nights!

Another Eventful Weekend!
It's Sunday night and the house is clean, the kids are bathed, the chores were all completed...well, OK, I did put off doing laundry which just means I'll be doing it every night this week. We had Max's last soccer game on Saturday so things will mellow a bit for me now. The kids both got to have friends over this weekend, and had fun playing, and Jeff and I spent pretty much the whole Sunday morning and early afternoon doing "school" work together at the dining room table. Why is it that educators have to give up weekends? I'm not sure, I guess that's what we get for taking the summers off, right? Anyway, I got tons of Senior Project stuff done (with Jeff's help, I had to set up a grading program on his laptop) and Jeff got lots of papers corrected (that's what he gets for giving so darn many tests!!!)

So, on to the Obsession....Zoe has been wanting one of these "Tamagotchi" toys for awhile now, but I wasn't going to spend $15 for something small enough to fit on her keychain (she also has a history of loosing things). I finally gave in this weekend when she informed me that about a dozen other 6th graders have them and they play with them at recess, and then her friends Siobhan and Aidan came over with them. I made her use her own Birthday money which she'd been holding onto since July! Best money spent out of her, I must say! She has been entertained all weekend long with this silly little gadget. I really don't know a whole lot, if you want details you can check out the site here. Basically, it's an electronic pet that you must feed and take care of, clean up after (yes, believe it or not, you have to "delete" it's poop), and play games with. It goes through stages of life starting with an egg which hatches and then announces whether or not you have a "girl" or a "boy", and then allows you to give your creature a name. It then continues to grow and mature into childhood, teenage years and then adulthood. In the end your creature may or may not reproduce and you can start over or create a new one. The amazing thing is that these electronic toys are interacting. Two toys can be pointed together and play games together. They receive points by doing this, and also by playing various on-line games and you can also win "code" numbers online that give you new things for your pet, or allow you to buy special foods, etc. Pretty silly hu? Well, Zoe's creature, which she has cleverly named "Chloe" lost four baby teeth today and is already a teenager. Siobhan and Aidan had theirs over yesterday for a play date, and today friends, Ana and Karina brought theirs! I do have to say this, The designers of this toy did one thing very amazing... they made it a requirement to add your timezone into the toy in the beginning and it automatically shuts off every night at 8 p.m. I also learned today that it does indeed have a "pause" button so I'm not going to let Zoe get away with these excuses "I need to feed my Tamagotchi, I can't do my homework"! So funny! I haven't seen her this excited about anything!

Have a great week everyone!