Monday and a new keyboard

Sunday, Omaha and I rose late and woke up Kouryou-chan, who didn't object too badly to being roused. Breakfast was scrambled egg sandwiches on english muffins with cheese... and two cups of coffee for sleepyhead me. My wrists were okay, as was my back, but the knee kept tweaking on me badly from time to time. Omaha and I then went about cleaning house.

Around two or so, kendaer and jenkitty showed up about the house to visit and hang out. I asked Jen if she wouldn't mind running a few errands with me and she readily agreed. So we wandered down to Southcenter to wander about in a few stores in a fruitless search for an IDE cable for the internal Zip drive I recently acquired from a friend. After three failed attempts we consoled ourselves with some coldstone ice cream and then headed back in the direction of the house. I called omahas on our way back and discovered that she and Kendaer were also on their way, but they were going to the park with Kouryou-chan so she could practice on her tricycle.

Jenkitty and I made it to the park first and proceeded to find a quiet spot in the shade. After a few minutes of smalltalk we started to become rather indecoruous. She's one heck of a great kisser, not to mention a fine snuggle all around, but it took some willpower to note cross the line between indecorous and indecent. Especially since it was some time before Kendaer and Omaha actually showed up at the park. By this time we had probably reached at least a mild state of dishevelment.

After running about the park and watching Kouryou-chan try to make friends with the neighborhood kids, we headed home for dinner (pizza laden with just about anything we can find in the 'fridge) and a round of Give Me The Brain (which, I happened to notice, was designed by the same guy who designed XXXenophile), it was time for Kendaer and Jen to pack up and head home while Omaha and I struggled to put Kouryou-chan to bed.

She did not want to go to sleep at all. It was two hours too early according to her inner clock, and she was on a tear for half an hour. But we eventually got her to calm down and go to sleep.

Hey, I mananged to hammer out this entire post on a Kinesis keyboard that a friend of mine loaned me. He had it in a closet; it seems that he never got the hang of the thing and decided to go with a slightly different solution for his RSI. It's definitely different and, like him, I may never get used to it. One thing about it though; it's definitely intolerant of sloppy touch typists. I have to be very precise about where I put my fingers and how I move them as I type. I really wish the home row buttons had the tabs on them, though. That would make a lot of difference.

Tuesdays with Yamaarashi-chan

It has been an adventure of a day. After working my way through a relatively dull workday, I made my way through a series of buses that I don't usually take up to the West Seattle Junction and a seven-block walk to Yamaarashi-chan's new school. It's an older building, kinda run down and tired looking, but well-maintained. The place is crawling with parents and teachers and children of all ages, all of them huddling around a very smoky grill on which the almost canonical burgers, hot dogs, and vegetarian burgers are being burned at a furious rate.

I spot Yamaarashi-chan's mother there, along with Aurora, her middle daughter. But Yamaarashi-chan is nowhere to be found. I grab a burger and wander about, finally spotting her wandering off with her teacher to her new classroom. When I get there, her teacher is helping her fill out her name on a number of slips-- to her cubby hole, her sign-in spot, her job of the week.

I tried to talk to the teacher, but she seemed to be trying to keep so busy with the students that she's avoiding talking to the parents. I do finally manage to corner her toward the end of day and nail down the expected curriculum for the year. Apparently, it's encoded in a book called How is My First Grader Doing?, of which I have to get copy.

Lily shows up about then, and while Yamaarashi-chan is playing with her friends Aurora and Lily tell me their schedules for the year and the trials and tribulations of getting registered for classes. Lily's champing to get into a drama class and she despairs at the tiny size of the stage in Yamaarashi-chan's school.

On the way home, I saw a number of oddities. The first was an adult woman who, rather on the large size, who seemed more or less normal, conversing with her friend and being sociable... except that every second she wasn't talking, she was sucking her thumb, and apparently as a very serious habit for her comfort. She had to be in her mid-30's.

At the first transfer spot, I listened a fiery young lady bitching out her ex-boyfriend about harassing phone calls.

At the second transfer point, I watched two young men discussing "skanky" girls. Their ages clung to 15, but one of them had the nerve to ask me for a cigarette. I don't suppose it would have done any good to point out that such things do kill you. Eventually, a third showed up with cigarettes for the other two, and I had to wonder from where they acquired their cancer sticks. It's a hefty fine to sell to underages around here. They're impressed by the "boom box" in my computer and they're even more impressed when they realize I'm listening to Godsmack. They proceed to harass a few high-school girls at the opposite park and ride, engage in male-bonding games of pantsing and keep-away (mostly of the prize booty-- a bottle of beer, provided by the same high school girls), and other nonsense that's kinda fun to watch from this far away.

I wrote 1400 words today. I spent most of the morning editing; it's less stressful on the hands. I stopped when I felt the slightest twinge, and it's been quite a good day, pain-wise. Oh, yeah, and this post. 700 words. And the one I made this morning. And all the work in-between.