Oddest. Trip. Ever.

So, Peter and I are in Baltimore (Jessup, actually), Md. He never, poor boy, got a birthday party this year. I tried to get him to have a pool party this summer, but he didn't want to.

What he DID want was to go to an Orioles game. So, our compromise was that he and I would take a road trip to Balitmore for an O's game.

We were going to go over Labor Day, but life got crazy, and then I saw that THIS weekend, the O's were playing.....

The Red Sox.

Now, Peter likes the O's just fine. But he LOVES the Red Sox, so this was a no brainer.

Grace and I had plans last night, plus Peter had a soccer game this morning (lost, 4-3, but Peter scored all three goals), so this is truly a zippy little trip.

We left Chapel Hill today about 2:30; it should've taken us about 5, 5.5 hours to get here. So, yeah, it was conceivable that we could've gotten here about 7:30, and possibly even run up to the Inner Harbor for dinner.

But no. This is THE. MOST. SURREAL. TRIP. EVER.

It started with Peter's lunch (I, sensibly, ate at home. He wanted Bojangles at 3pm). I ordered his lunch, and then asked for a jelly biscuit for me. The drive-through woman replies, "A what????" Me: "Uh, a jelly biscuit." Her: "You want a biscuit? With Jelly????" Me: "Yes!"

I dunno, I know Southerners are inherently different, but dang, is a jelly biscuit really that odd?

So, then we head off. Nothing major for awhile; we listened to the radio, Peter did some homework, etc. We were making good time, and were on trace for dinner in Baltimore.

Then, a road info sign (immediatly AFTER an exit) informed us that there was a major accident ahead, ALL lanes were closed, and we were to follow the detour signs.

An hour later, we had made it a mile down the road to the exit (no signs). We exited, and immediately (well, 10 minutes later when we'd made it off the ramp) ran into THE MOST OBNOXIOUS OLD MAN IN THE WORLD!!! Seriously. Firt of all, it was obvious that EVERYONE was getting off I-95. Most people were nicely alternate-merging. The cars in front of me, both in my lane and Mr. Obnoxious-oid's lane, did that.

But, no. Not Mr. Obnoxo. Luckily, I'm driving the Veracruz (for the GPS), so I made him let me in! Nearly as soon as I got on the road, though, I heard a siren -- one of ambulences from the accident was trying to get down the off-ramp. Again, most of us nice, cooperative drivers pulled over to let the ambulence by.

Not Mr. Obnoxo. Nope, he PASSED ME! Arrogant, sore-loser, unfriendly, obnoxious little so-and-so stinking PASSED ME. And then got ticked because there was no room for him to pull over when the ambulence was behind him honking, loudly for him to GET OUT OF THE WAY.

Well, my patience was, um, strained. Quite frankly, I lost it. I don't THINK Peter learned any new words (OK, one) but he certainly learned some new combinations.

But, we eventually got back on the highway. We headed North (again), stopping for dinner north of Richmond at a place that said it had the best milkshakes in Richmond (it did, and a yummy veggie plate, too! And GREAT biscuits, and even JELLY!)

Then we were off again, but alas, it was STILL not to be a normal trip. We drive and drive, and I'm trustingly following the GPS...which sent us on 395 around DC. Now, 395 is scenic -- we got to see the Washington Monument, Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, and the Capitol.

But it's not the best way to go. It took for-stinkin'-ever, and we went through some lovely sections of town! AND a "parkway", with a 55mph speed limit. Now, I'm all for safety, but dang, people, 55 mph when I just want my nice hotel bed is just mean.

But, we're here now, in Jessup, in our hotel. Where there are a bunch of college kids here for a marching band convention.

Oh, and when I ran to the gas station next door to get chapstick, there was a frat-boy type (i.e. drunk and in khakis, an oxford shirt and tie), trying to buy coffee cups. Not a package of styrofoam cups, mind you; the ones that the gas station uses to sell coffee! The clerk was telling him to put them back, they weren't for sale, but he didn't seem to be listening!

But Man vs. Food is eathing the worlds spiciest burger, I have my chapstick, and tomorrow we get to see the Red Sox!!!!

Whoa! That's cool!

Disclaimer: this post has mild political content. Yes, I am a rabid, die-hard, semi-knee-jerk liberal. Yes, I think President Obama has every right to speak to school children. But, for the record, I also thought that Bush had every right to read to school children in September of 2001. Like 'em or hate 'em, agree with them or disagree with them, these are authority figures, and the more authority figures who read to kids, talk to kids, tell kids that school is important, that behaving is important, that working hard is important, the better.

BUT. This post is more about being a proud mom than being a political being. So, if you disagree with me, fine. You're entitled to your opinion.

But keep it out of the comments when I'm being proud of my boy!

(rant over)

Now, on to more important stuff!

As I was sitting down to my lunch today, I got a call from Peter's English teacher. "Hmmm," thinks I, "this is unusual..." Now, Peter is a good kid, and typically doesn't get in trouble at school. But he's also 11, and is beginning to push some boundaries, just to see what happens. So, I have to admit -- I had a brief moment of worry, wondering if he'd pushed the wrong boundary!

But, no, the teacher was just calling to tell me that they'd watched President Obama's address today in Language Arts, and that one of the local new stations had been there filming them. The news folks had picked three kids from the class to interview afterwards to hear their reactions to the speech...

Including Peter!

He's going to be on TV!!!!

Fun!

Mr. Armstrong said that the story would start streaming late this afternoon, and they're pretty sure it will be aired tonight at 6 and 11 (for anyone local).

UPDATE:Here's a link to the video of Peter, and here's a link to the text article

There they go....

First day of school, yet again.

This one, of course, was a little different -- David's kids are working they're way through the system; between broken fax machines and bureaucratic shenanigans on the part of both Wake AND CH/C, it was down to the wire, but it looks like all is going to be well.

Grace is still somewhat in her Rock Star persona, she's loving being one of the big kids at the bus stop:


I've lost the ability to make Peter let me take a picture of him on the first day; he did allow me to give him a hug before he left (inside, of course, where there were no potential witnesses). Apparently middle schoolers (MIDDLE SCHOOLER! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?????) are just way to cool for pictures. Or parents. Or most everything, as far as I can tell!

So, off we go again for yet another year....

69 Bites and counting....

So, Peter got back from Scout Camp today, absolutely eaten UP with bug bites. He had lots of bug spray, but apparently the mosquitoes there were determined, and pretty lethal. From his knees down, he's just one big bite, and assorted random other bites above the knees.

He seems to have had a good time; he did the First Year Camper program, which he recognizes the value of (they get a running start on the first three ranks), but said he would've preferred to just do Merit Badges. "They were more fun!" He apparently did get his Fingerprinting Merit Badge, though.

So, we're washing clothes, treating bug bites, and may be heading to the pool. Tomorrow it's acolyting at church, then off he goes to the beach!

This is the way we wash our clothes...

Peter is home, for 36 hours or so. He'll be with his Dad this weekend, then leaves around 10 am Sunday for Boy Scout camp.

So we're washing cloths.

Or, rather, I'm washing clothes.

Which, honestly, is not that difficult: run upstairs during a commercial, sort and throw first load in. Spin sheets in dryer. I'll run up in a bit during a commercial to take sheets out of dryer, put first load IN dryer and second load out.

But the bad thing is, I'm going to be doing the same thing NEXT Saturday. Peter will get home from Scout Camp about 2pm on Saturday, and will be home for a solid 24 hours this time, before leaving with his buddy Blake for the beach on Sunday.

Sheesh. I think it's time for Peter to learn to run the washer!

Yay for Peter

Peter is at his basketball camp this week. Today was the last day; they had the final free-throw contest this morning, then the all-camp free-throw throwdown!

Peter did not do so hot in the free throw contest today, but he had won the contest earlier in the week, so he got to be in the finals, and he won!

He was very psyched, and had at least a third of the kids pulling for him -- all the kids from the Chapel Hill area!

According to the coaches, camp will send him "Something nice" as a prize!

My Boy!

Today was Peter's fifth-grade "graduation". It was a nice ceremony; there was lots of involvement by the students in either introducing speakers, emceeing, performing, and speaking.

Each of the three third grade classes had a speaker; all the kids wrote essays on what FPG (the school) meant to them; the teachers then selected finalists, and the kids in each class voted on which essay they wanted to represent their class.

Peter was chosen from his class (Mom beams with pride!). I'll post a video of him reading his essay once I swipe it from his Dad's website, but for now, here's the text:

Hi. My name is Peter Cohen, and I have been at FPG since Kindergarten. I have loved every single minute that I’ve been here. Throughout my years here, I have learned many things, such as:

Don’t touch your teacher’s lava lamp at nap time! That happened when I was in Ms. Story and Ms. Potter’s kindergarten class. We had nap time every day, and on that day I decided to lay down next to Ms. Potter’s desk. I had been fascinated by that lava lamp since the first day of school, so when she got up, I stuck my hand up, and touched it. Big mistake. It had been on for a few hours, so it was very hot. No one ever found out, but I have always regretted it.

Another thing that I’ve learned is that when you make a discovery, and want to tell people about it, don’t. Trust me, because the same thing happened to me when I was in Ms. Del Gaizo and Ms. Farrington’s second grade class. I was outside taking my weekly spelling test, and I noticed a large green caterpillar inching towards me. I told Ms. Del Gaizo, and since we were done with the test, we had to go inside and read quietly. Well, yours truly started talking about how he had made a great discovery, and how he was going to be rich and famous. Well, I did make a discovery that day, but it wasn’t the caterpillar. It was that teacher’s have ears like a hawk. Ms. Farrington heard, and I got silent lunch for the first time ever.

The last thing I will tell you about is this:

Teachers love it when you are a good student. They don’t love it when you hate their favorite sports team. That happened to me this year in Ms. Rigor and Ms. Gray-Ford’s fifth grade class. I’m a pretty good student, but my teacher, Ms. Rigor is a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan, and I’m a big Boston Red Sox fan. There has been a lot of arguing, mostly about Barry Bonds and the upcoming World Series. So, she loves me, and she hates the shirts I wear.

These are some memories I have from FPG, and I hope I never forget
them.

That's my boy! (Mom beams some more)

Peter, you're a whale.

And Grace, you're evil.

No, I'm not angry at my children! And, no, I haven't become a nasty vindictive mother who hurls insults at her kids in a vain attampt to boost her own ego and deny her own insecurities.

Nope, it's just church choir musical time.

This year's musical was "Oh, Jonah"; it's (duh) the story of Jonah and the Whale. Peter was the whale; he mainly had to do a boogie-swimmy-ish sort of dance, and did sing a bit (solo, he sang a lot in the choir). Peter memorizes well, and enjoys choir, but he is not, generally speaking, a child that covets the spotlight, so it was interesting to see him! He did quite well, though, and got some laughs.

Grace had a speaking line at the beginning of the musical, but really came into her own when the choir became evil Ninevites -- let's just say my girl tapped into her inner bad-guy. She looked EVIL. E-V-I-L Evil. Good stuff.

It was a fun morning -- we went for brunch at the Waffle Shoppe after!

In case you wondered

My son ROCKS at the sports trivia quizes on Facebook.

80's music, though, not so much.

And when it comes to NASCAR math the three words that describe us are as follows, and I quote:

"STINK. STANK. STUNK!"

Tourney Time

Actual conversation today:

Me: What is up with Georgia Tech beating Clemson? They've done NOTHING all year!?!?!?!

Peter: It's the tournament!

I love my boy!

That took longer than it should've

My darling son is a big fat sleepy-head. And a night owl, to boot.

So, regardless of what time I insist he be in his jammies and in his room, he will frequently stay up till all hours of the night. I learned when he was about 2 that it's really hard to make someone sleep, at least without lots of tears and threats, so I figure there's not much to do other than insist on bedtime, even if he doesn't sleep, and insist on getting-up-time.

But it's a challenge.

He has an alarm clock, and it goes off every morning. On a buzzer, even.

He sleeps through it.

He slept through it for an hour one morning when I was feeling particularly passive aggressive!

He will wake up when I call him, but to be honest, he needs to learn to get himself up.

So, last night we tried something different. His clock actually has two alarm settings; he put one on for 6:00 (he also has his mother's tendency to like to get up gradually), and set it to 99.9 The Fan, the local all-sports, all-talk station. Then he set the other one to go off at 6:30, with a buzzer.

Worked a charm, as my English grand-boss would say! He was out of bed and in the shower at 6:33!

But you'd think that the sports angle would've ocurred to us before now!

Peter the Carnivore

Last night was Prime Rib night at The Carolina Club, so Kathy invited the kids and I to go after their choir rehearsal. It's a yummy dinner: a HUGE slice of prime rib, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable medley, plus either soup or salad and a glass of wine.

My kids LOVE prime rib, so rather than ordering off the kids menu, they ordered that (sans wine, of course).

So, our dinners came, and I will repeat, these were HUGE slices. Easily 3/4 of a pound, maybe more, an inch thick and bigger than half the dinner plate. Huge.

Grace ate a fair amount for an 8 year old; probably about 1/4 of the entire hunk. Kathy and I each ate about half ours, give or take.

Peter ate the entire thing.

THE. ENTIRE. THING.

Now, granted, he did not eat his veggies or potatoes (did eat his salad, though). Ang, he apparently did not eat much of his lunch -- he's been fighting a cold, so his taste buds are off, and what appealed to him in the morning while he was making his lunch just didn't do it at lunchtime.

But still.

He ate THE ENTIRE THING!

Oh, and he took a primerib sandwich for lunch today, made from my leftovers! Cause, yeah, a POUND of prime rib just isn't enough...

That's my boy -- carnivore extrordinaire!

He's Done!!!

Peter is now officially a Boy Scout; his Cub Scout Pack had their Blue and Gold banquet tonight, and he and two other boys crossed over to their respective Boy Scout Troops.

Peter chose Troop 39, which is also the troop at our church; he looked at a couple of others, but had friends in 39, and just really liked them.

Troop 39 was originally chartered through UNC, and so has strong ties there, hence the blue and white neckerchief. The Scoutmaster made a big deal about telling the boys that the neckerchiefs were only being loaned to them; they have to give them back when they leave the troop...unless they leave with the rank of Eagle!

Peter and his loaner neckerchief

A good weekend

I haven't had many really, truly GOOD weekends lately; they haven't been hideous or traumatic (at least not TOO traumatic), but there have been high emotions, exhaustion, whininess, etc. And, yes, pretty much all from me, though some of the emotion (and certainly some exhaustion) has come from other quarters.

Anyway, THIS weekend was really, really good. Even great, I might say.

First of all, I had a lazy Friday evening of Pinewood Dery final steps and Rockband. Grace had a fundraiser at school for her drum line; Peter needed to get the wheels on his Pinewood Derby car, so came to my house to do that; we got the wheels on, glued on the figure, and then grabbed a bite to eat. Then David and I played Rockband! Nothing major, but a good, calm, non-angst ridden night.

Then Saturday was pretty much a red-letter day. Peter won first place in Most Original at his Pinewood Derby. Both kids lost their basketball games, true, but Grace learned to set a screen, and did it well! Peter had a great (personal) game: 10 points, 8 rebounds, a block and a steal (and a turnover, but we won't talk about that). After Peter's game, I headed to David's house where I watched UNC beat State (always a good thing), then we went to a Hurricanes game. The 'Canes played really well, and really HARD! Tons of checks, very aggressive play, and they won.

Today was milder again; I rang in church, which means getting up early (ugh), but putzed around with David, then made chicken wings, nachos and pound cake and watched the Superbowl with him and his kids. And the Steelers won, so Peter, and by extension his mother, is happy!

I like good weekends!
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Pinewood Derby 2009

Peter's Cub Scout Pack did their Pinewood Derby this year; for those of you who've never experienced it, the boys build wooden cars and race them. The cars come as "kits", which are actually just a block of wood, 4 wheels and axles. What the boy does with the block of wood is up to him.

Theorectically, the boys are supposed to do all the work themselves; most of them do. In our family, the design of the cars has therefore progressed over the years, as Peter got more dexterity, and as he got older and was allowed access to power tools! For several years he made standard race cars, but never did particularly well; he was usually in the middle of the pack speed-wise, which was not enough to get him to district.

But starting last year, he decided to bag speed and go for originality. This years car? A replica of the Heisman Tropy:

Most Original 2009

Peter and I worked on it some at David's house -- David has a table saw and a router! GOOD stuff, and Peter was way psyched that he got to use power tools.

I, of course, thought it looked great, but I am a Mom, after all. Apparently, though, it really did: Peter took first place in the Most Original category, and will compete in the District Pinewood Derby.

Scouting Peter!

Peter had his penultimate Cub Scout Pack Meeting tonight; what started way back in the summer before 1st Grade is now nearly over.

Tonight was the night that Peter and three other den-mates got their Arrows of Light. The Arrow of Light is the highest award that a Cub Scout can receive; it's also the only award that can be worn on a Boy Scout uniform.

The Pack did a very nice ceremony; they had a slide show of the boys' five years in the pack; and, yes, I got teary-eyed! The arrows the boys were given were made by a guy named John Blackfeather, who's an Ocaneechee chief; they're REALLY cool.

Here's a picture of Peter with his Arrow:

Peter and the arrow

In addition to getting the Arrow of Light, Peter also got the Super Achiever award. As a Webelos Scout, the boys can earn pins for doing certain activities. There are 20 pins in all; some are needed for the Webelos badge and the Arrow of Light. If you earn all 20, you are a Super Achiever! Very few kids, though, get all 20. In our Pack, which is 10 years old, there have been 3 boys who did them all; last night Peter became the 4th.

Since the SuperAchiever patch is not a rank of advancement, there are many different styles available. Peter's Dad was keeping WHICH patch Peter was getting a secret till the Pack Meeting; turns out he picked the Heavy Shoulder Award; the pins that the boys earnd are all worn on the right shoulder; by the time they get all twenty, their shoulders sag from all the weight!

It was a good night; Peter (and his parents) were all pretty much beaming all night long!

College Game Day!

Peter and I went to the taping of ESPN's College Game Day today, broadcast LIVE from the Smith Center! It was tons of fun; much more than I was expecting.

I was assuming it would be very crowded, and that we would not be able to see or be seen. I was was pleasantly surprised, though. We got there at 8:25 ish, the doors opened at 8:30, but there was virtually no one in line, so we were still able to get pretty much center court, about 4 rows back. Peter's Dad even saw us on TV (though his Aunt Kathy didn't; she wanted him to take his shirt off to be easier to spot...).

Here are some pictures:

Peter waiting in line for College Game Day

Peter inside the Smith Center at College Game Day

"Duke Boy" (Jay Bilas) being a good sport and posing with the Tarheel faithful

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That was fast...

Peter's pet guinea pig died over the weekend; he was very sad the day it happened, but between taking some time to veg over video games and blogging about it (I was so proud!), he bounced back fairly quickly.

And is now lobbying for a lizard.

Yep, a slimy (ok, so I know they're not really), scaly reptile.

I thought a rodent in the kitchen was bad! Do I really want a reptile ANYWHERE in my house? I'm just not sure....

Initially he said he wanted a gecko, I think a leopard gecko specifically. Not sure (I have to admit I'm not good on the various families, genuses and species of the Reptile class. Or order. Or Phylla, or whatever the heck it is. (Aside: I do, however, remember that the order of nomenclature for, uh, everything I guess is Kingdom, Phylla, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Funny what sticks with you from 7th grade science.....)

Anyway, so he initially was talking small lizards, but then threw out an iguana, which:

• Sounds too much like guano (yuck!)
• Reminds me of Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo (I wish I was in Tiajuana....), and Peter would get mad if I talked about barbecuing his pet
• I'm thinking is just WAY to big a reptile to .... exist, probably. Certainly to share a house with.

So, I dunno. I've told him to find out the answers to various questions I have: how long do they live, how hard is it to regulate their temperature (cold blooded little beasts), how prone to carrying disease are they, how often do their cages need cleaning.... We'll see after that.

But seriously, reptiles? He's such a boy!

OK, OK, I get it!

My little boy is growing up. Yeah, I know, he has been for quite some time now. But sometimes I have a hard time remembering. Luckily, Peter is very good at gently reminding me!

Today in church, during the sermon there was a point where the minister was talking about young men serving in the armed forces, etc. I have to admit that I have a pretty visceral reaction to such talk, as the mother of a son (who will be draft-age in 8 years -- and you wonder why I voted Obama????), so without even thinking, I moved my arm from where it had been, along the back of the pew behind Peter, to his shoulder, and gave him a bit of a hug.

And got a shrug. And then a look! OK, so it was a little TOO public a PDA for my boy, I could cope. So I put my arm back on the back of the pew.

And within a few minutes, Peter began pushing his head back against my arm!

OK, OK!!!!! Fine then!

My arm remained in my lap the rest of the service!

(Incidentally, the title of the sermon was "Signs, Signs, Everywhere are signs", which I found very amusing given Peter's non-verbal cues that I was being TOO Mom-ish!)

In Memorium

Dazzle Cohen
2004-2009

We've had a death in our animal family. Dazzle, Peter's guinea pig, passed away peacefully in his sleep last night. He had not been eating as much the past few days, but hadn't seemed in any distress, so we're assuming he just reached the end of his time.

Peter was very sad, but we had a little ceremony, and buried Dazzle under some cedar trees in the backyard. We marked the grave with rocks, and Peter left a carrot there. He also made a memorial picture of Dazzle on the computer, and hung it on his bedroom door. Both seemed to help.

We'll miss Dazzle; he was a good piggie.