Light Precip

Last night, we had a ferocious thunder-and-lightening storm, the sort that sends cats into a frenzy, dogs whimpering under the bed, and kids darting for their parents' bedroom. I was awakened by the start of it, and even so was startled by the brilliant flashes of light and sound of water thundering against the side of the house. It was - amazing. This morning, my daughter was extraordinarily lethargic, telling me that she'd been woken up by it and couldn't get back to sleep. I would imagine that the tension of Finals Week didn't help. Even my wife, who managed to sleep through the storm, wasn't able to skate: she was on call last night, got called around 2AM, and was on the phone for a few hours. They don't tend to call with the easy ones, that time of day.

I've been reading the book on tutoring, trying to extract the concepts that guide the fellow who wrote it. His methods range the gamut from simply having the child work through problems/do reading with him, probing and assisting, through consultations with a neuropsychologist to evaluate the child's abilities and general functional style. This morning, I was moderately amused to read about a situation where he 'reached out' to three teachers of a boy who was underperforming; one teacher responded forthrightly, agreeing that she pushed her kids, but did so with an eye toward the ones that she thought would benefit from it; one teacher responded curtly that he preferred to talk directly with parents, and didn't have much use for tutors, and one that didn't respond at all. It reminded me of my mentoring experience last year.

Speaking of mentoring, they had the final wrap up yesterday. My mento said he wants to get back together next year. I told him that I was amenable to that, but that he had to understand that I would ask more of him than I had this year. "But I'll still get cookies, right?" he asked. I agreed that such would probably be the case. To help the cause, he (actually, his mother) gave me a gift: a small compendium of cookies and baking tips. Aw.......

It was interesting for a different reason, too -- one girl who was sitting at my table was talking and laughing with her friends, and occasionally talking with her mentor. She was pretty much the classic image of 'jailbait', to give an idea of her looks. I sometimes think it's not reasonable for the male mentors to have just boys, but the women get both; seeing her, though, I thought Oh, yeah. At one point, I - and the other mentors - heard her say 'My mother's boyfriend will say that I have to be back at four thirty, and I'll say See you at five, and get back at five thirty or six, but he doesn't really care'. She seemed to like it, but the mentors all looked at each other.

Last night, my daughter earned the first stripe on her white belt at karate. Three more, and she becomes an orange belt. I was allowed to tell her mother, provided that the daughter was no where in the area when I did, and that the mother promised not to be restrained in her praise. And we are fiercely commanded not to tell her aunt, who soaked up the oh-wow California culture during her residence in LA, no matter what. Ok, no problem. Though, were this the case, it would be hard to keep it a secret.

Baking pizza dough again today. Not the actual pizza, just the dough to see if I can get it thin this time. They're right about humidity affecting the amount of water you need!