they don't do birthdays clod?

good luck with that adhesive BigV, i can only imagine the mess that made!

thanks y'all. i hate taking pills and have tonight. a couple that my roommate offered. i'm in more pain than i thought i would be but for the most part it's just the soreness from everything. it's not the fall that gets ya, it's the landing!

V, at least you didn't get any in your ear this time. :)

what????

ha

Sorry, man. But I wish there was a video.

Are you euphemizing at all here? :eyebrow:

no. speaking literally. there'd've been a picture but I didn't want to muck up the camera.

mucky pictures too?

As a method for deciding who goes in what class? No, the birthdays are evenly spread throughout the year in all classes. But they also don't allow parents to bring cupcakes or whatever for a kid's birthday, both because it's disruptive to the school day and because there are too many kids with allergies these days. Things have changed since we were kids and no one had allergies... the nurse has an entire filing cabinet drawer to hold all the various kids' Epipens, and the number one rule on the cafeteria wall is that you "never, ever share your food with friends." No kidding.

We had a big birthday cupcake war two years ago at our elementary school. One mom, who is a nutritionist, went on a crusade and got them banned. She felt shunned afterwards, and probably was. Most parents and teachers liked the cupcakes, but there was a new principal and he caved to her pressure pretty quickly. The whole drama was kind of amusing to me, because it really was a big deal when she got them banned. Her argument wasn't along the food allergy line or the disruption line, but an anti-sweets line. I didn't care one way or another, but people were very up in arms about it.

hopefully these will suffice
clear pictures of mucky everything else

computer wrist rest
Attachment 40194

hinge area of leatherman, the tool of destruction. you can still see a bit of the glue around the recessed area around the word LEATHERMAN.
Attachment 40195

the sink (still dirty, been cleaning a lot). notice the bashed in rim from earlier misadventure where I dropped the glass carboy on the rim of the sink, crushing the tile.
Attachment 40196

the remains of the bomb that I set off, retrieved from the trash can; very attractive, don't you think? I can see cable sheath end and old corroded brake cable from bicycle maintenance project, burrito wrapper, ice cream/popsicle wrapper, lots of pet hair, the top of the can, ironically adhered to the side of the can, the stuff you'd expect to find in the trash can.
Attachment 40197

Admittedly, a few parents do ignore the rule, and teachers don't feel they can just send the parent away after the kids have already watched the treats walk unexpectedly in the door. Which is even worse, because it means that I have no warning to provide an alternative--last year Minifob came home one day with this new toy in his backpack, and it turned out that another parent had randomly shown up with a plate full of doughnuts, so the teacher had thought quickly and given Minifob a toy she had in her cabinet, to make up for having to just sit out and get nothing while his class ate doughnuts. She was such an awesome teacher.

V, try entering that garbageball in some local art contest.

Oh and in future, if you want to do craft activities, get a grown-up to supervise, oaky? ;)

Key Stage 1 occasionally goes through suggestions of cake-bans. Mostly because Mums just show up at the door with them, randomly. Like "Oh we've been baking!" and bring in 20 cakes for a class of 31. But like you say, how can you turn them away at that point?

Our kids tend to have sweets for birthdays, which are given out at the end of the day and mustn't be eaten on the school premises, thus giving parents some nominal control. They're quite good about allergies and things too. Pretty much most of the class would be able to tell you that L can't have nuts and M can't have Haribo because he's muslin but A can't have Haribo because he's vegetarian but they can both have Jelly Babies because they're made from something special.

I just saw in the news this morning that the jury a stone's throw away from Apple's world headquarters ruled in favor of Apple and against Samsung in the cell phone patent lawsuit. I expected this, because juries are generally too dumb to be deciding patent cases, but it's disappointing anyway.

Smart phones are going to be more expensive now, and there will be fewer advancements and choices. Apple has gone from a business model of innovating to one of litigating.

I work in a patent law firm, so this helps my job security, but as a consumer, it's bad.