Goodbye 2009, hello 2010!

What a year we’ve had in Chez E. Nowhere!

A new school year was begun…
Kindergarten for Isaac

and a new year with new decorations for me (I did pandas this year. I like pandas…I promise, a photo of my door later…)

We had our first foray into team sports

and found that the truly beloved sport in our house is hockey.
Both watching

Learning to play

and dreaming of playing one position in the future.

I spent some time learning to be a good sports parent. Yes, it is a learned behavior. Basically for me, it meant seeing all of the people who did it wrong, and remembering how I hated some of the things I saw as a kid and not repeating those things. It also meant advocating for my child when he was being ignored because of his special needs.

We had some fiascos (but when don’t we in this house. I think if I didn’t go a week without a good one, It wouldn’t be me.)
like this one:

and we had the broken bed fiasco.

Both had decent endings, but they were fiascos none the less.

I went from pulling coffee at the ‘bux to game geeking…and even did a store transfer.

And I have no lack of material of wackjob people now that I’m geeking. Seriously.

And we had our first school pageant. My kid? He’s the “turkey catcher” in the center in the overalls. That’s what he called being a Pilgrim.

And as with every year, there are highs and lows and things that are all inbetween. But it is what makes up our year.

Here’s to a great 2010, with new adventures, fun, challenges and a lot more hockey.

Game Geeks-What’s 10% of 30.00?

I survived Christmas. That’s a whole other blog post, for another time. But, have I survived the post-holiday Game Geeking? Hrm…let today’s latest hilarity be the judge…

An older gentleman came in, purchasing 6 Playstation 2 games as well as our discount card. The discount card takes 10% off of all preowned games and accessories. The gentleman’s bill comes to 33.27 before the discount of the card is applied. After the card is purchased, the bill came to 45.00. There was a discount of 3.10 total on his bill, reflecting the 10%. Here’s where the insanity shows up.

HE BEGAN ARGUING WITH ME OVER THE MATH!

First he argued that 10% of 45 was not 3.00.

No, it’s not. But 15.00 of that 45 was the membership, so it doesn’t count for the discount…

So, I went through each game with him, went through each thing with him…and finally, the manager comes over and chimes in asking what the problem is, and tells the guy the same thing I told him about the 10%.

Then, gentleman asks manager to get out a calculator. No, not kidding. I was heading there, but the manager beat me to it. Then, the gentleman began to argue the math. Seriously… 30x .1 vs 30 x .10

SAME THING…

eventually, after a few more minutes of complaning, arguing and all of that, the guy relented and paid us…but not before the parting shot of “are you sure that’s 10%??”

Yes, we’re sure.

and that was the question of the day to all of the employees…what’s 10% of 30?

Snowy days, no school today!

This is one of the reasons I love teaching. The snow day.

The television reported that my school was closed about a half hour before the call came in.

I passed the word along the snow chain to the Elementary school Spanish teacher with this phrase:

“Happy Snow Day, M!”

I could hear her get all sorts of happy on the phone!

So, there will be pictures of the evil stuff (snow) later, and my laments to go back to the west coast have begun…so, bear with me…

But for now, I’m going to go snuggle with my AM Kindergarten kid (who has no school because our suburban district is delayed…and AM K is cancelled!) and have a fun day off!

Wordless Wednesday, 12/2/09