| Welcome to my journal |
[Aug. 26th, 2025|10:06 am] |
Welcome to my Journal. I'm future-dating this entry so it should stay at the top. Feel free to read the public entries, which tend to be book reviews or entries about me. If you are interested in reading about the kids, I've put those entries and pictures on a filter so that they are not open to the general public. When they are older I'll let the kids decide what they wish to make public.
If you want to read the filtered entries, you will need to make yourself a live journal account. It's free -- I recommend selecting "basic account" rather than "plus" to avoid the advertising, but either way works. Then drop me a note to let me know it's you and what filters you'd like to be on. You can leave a comment on this entry after you make an account. I'll screen the comments (make it so they don't show up to the world) so you can say anything you'd like, it's just like sending me an e-mail.
My current filters are:
Kids - prolific stories about the kids. Can include graphic details about potty training, vomit, etc. Also includes much Mommy-bragging. You have been warned.
Girl Genius - occasional musings about the Girl Genius comic. Filtered because it's only interesting to those who read the comics.
Thanksgivings - Since November I've been trying to post a daily thanksgiving, but lately I've gone to bed first.
Ask to be on whichever interest you.
If you've found my journal because you were looking for pre-schools, you may be interested in all the entries tagged pre school. The entries make the most sense if you read from the bottom of the page up (oldest first.)
Make yourself at home,
--Beth
PS. If you're interested in my journal, you may also be interested in Jon's. |
|
|
| Honoring the dead |
[Jan. 22nd, 2010|01:02 pm] |
HMC sent out an alumni list announcement about Professor Moody's death today. (My previous news sources had been through friends who have students at Olin.) It included a link to a nice little obituary which doesn't mention donations. That page does include a link under his picture to "Honor and Celebrate Professor Moody's Legacy". I clicked because, frankly, it's what I feel like doing.
I was expecting something along the lines of, "In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you send donations to ____" and I was intending to follow up on that link. Professor Moody's family gave quite a lot of him to us, the students, especially in that year he lived away from them before moving the whole family down to Mudd. I want to... to do something to acknowledge his impact on me to them, more than just the letter I have written.
I was not expecting, "The Department, the college, and I are enthusiastic about recognizing Michael for his achievements and his contributions to the college. We would like to preserve, celebrate, and perpetually renew Michael’s impact by naming in his honor the long-standing Harvey Mudd College Evening Mathematics Lecture Series. Please join me in making a contribution in order to help us achieve that goal." The page goes on to say how they're trying to raise $250K for an endowed fund at Harvey Mudd to continue a top-notch math lecture series.
I'm... torn. Did they consult with his family at all? Are they ok with that? Or is it just another fundraising angle from the college? I absolutely support the idea of the lecture series, but I'd like to know what the family wants first. He did leave Mudd after all to help found Olin. I'll think about it for a little while.
--Beth |
|
|
| I did not want to spend today looking for a new dishwasher |
[Jan. 22nd, 2010|12:03 pm] |
Our dishwasher started leaking last week. It showed up as a wet floor several feet from the dishwasher, so at first I thought Amber had had an accident on the carpet and not told anyone, then when I realized the wet was wettest near the walls, I thought someone had spilled a glass of water. It was the day before the heavy rains started, and this is the lower floor of our house, so I do not suspect the roof is leaking or that it's water from the sky making this mess.
I cleaned up the initial wet and didn't think about it for a day or two until it came back. Under the kitchen sink is dry; this appears to be coming from behind the dishwasher. The dishwasher was also not draining.
We called plumbers who (for free) told us they think it's an appliance problem but for $135 they're willing to crawl under the house and check the pipes so we'd know for sure.
We called appliance repairmen, who (for $35) told us that for an extra $150 in labor alone they'll remove our dishwasher and look behind it to hopefully figure out what the problem is. This repairman did take off the thing at the bottom of the dishwasher and look under it, finding a very very slow drip coming from the hot water heater thing. It didn't look (to me) like that would be enough to cause the quantity of water I saw on the carpet, but maybe I'll run it again just to confirm.
We called Sears (who sold us the machine 5 years ago) who told us that for $205 they'll sell us an extended 1-yr warranty which includes parts and labor and they'll send someone out next Tuesday. I think the max benefit on that is $500 or a new dishwasher however.
Looking at new dishwasher prices, maybe the Sears $205 wait-until-Tuesday option is my best bet. It means I have to go another weekend or two without a dishwasher however. Hmmm. Thinking about it.
--Beth |
|
|
| Do I tell the story or not? |
[Jan. 21st, 2010|10:31 pm] |
As ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ukelele posted Professor Moody passed away this morning. I'm still writing my letter, but now I write with the certainty that it is just for his family and not for him.
I'm trying to decide if I should tell the story of that first test in the first 8am DE's class he ever taught at Mudd. You know the one. The story of when he handed out huge 20oz chocolate bars to the top three people to high score the first test he'd ever given at Mudd. Bronze, Silver, and the Gold went to 175560 who was the only first-semester freshman in the class. He'd high-scored the test by a whole standard deviation.
At lunchtime, Brian told stories about how many toilets he'd been whirled in in North. By dinner he'd been whirled in every one in the dorm. A week later we all discovered he hadn't been whirled even once, he'd been making up the stories. Smart kid. But it killed the chocolate-bar for high scores idea fast. Prof. Moody was a fast learner too.
The more I think about it, I don't think that story belongs in the remembrances for the family. It's a memory for me.
--Beth
Dear Family and Friends of Professor Moody,
I don't even know where to begin when I start thinking about
how wonderful Professor Moody was both as a person and as a
professor. I had him for DEs (Differential Equations) in his
first semester of his first year at Harvey Mudd. I still remember
the lecture where he had all of us clap randomly like applause
while he held his hands aloft, then when he put them down we were
supposed to start all clapping in unison.
I remember how beautifully that worked over several trials, and
how much more real it made the math when he showed us how it
couldn't happen without differential equations.
Professor Moody was a very caring individual, especially that first
year at Mudd when his family was still living far away. He was very
involved in student life and hosted off-site trips for students who
didn't often get a chance to get away. I signed up for one that fall
which was to be leaving at the extremely early hour of 9am. Everyone
else who signed up decided at the last minute they'd rather sleep in,
so I was the only one who showed up. He could have canceled the trip,
but he respected that I'd dragged myself out of bed to come and we
continued just the two of us. We had a lovely morning in the
mountains sampling apples at the local apple farms before returning
to campus.
As a student, one received the impression that he cared. Not just about
tests and grades or even just about learning, but about the whole
individual.
I am deeply saddened by his death and I wish to offer my condolences.
Sincerely,
Beth Leonard
(HMC Class of 1997)
|
|
|
| Trying to catch up |
[Jan. 14th, 2010|10:36 am] |
I'm now trying to catch up on things. I wrote a to-do list yesterday that was two pages long, but for once I don't have to do things in the shortest-deadline-first order. There's lots of LJ posts I want to make, including Peter turning 5, weaning, and New Year resolutions, but I think I better prioritize cleaning my house a little more first. We had a great snow trip with friends last weekend and just this morning I caught up on LJ posts while we were away.
--Beth |
|
|
| iPod Touch warning |
[Jan. 7th, 2010|11:28 pm] |
Warning:
It is very easy to spend far too much money buying children's audio books on iTunes to download to the iPodTouch and play in the car for the kids.
--Beth |
|
|
| Can't wait to fill up the tank |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|10:17 pm] |
I'm now gleefully looking forward to filling up my gas tank. I don't think I've done that since I was 16.
I bought a little iPhone app called "road trip" that will calculate my gas milage for me. Jon and I used to record all the data but never crunched the numbers to do anything with it. After we had kids we stopped doing that. I think I get about 25mpg on the minivan, but I want to know for sure. I also want to play with seeing whether or not the milage changes if I change the grade of gas we use, or get oil changes more frequently.
Luckily we're going on a road trip this weekend, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to fill up the tank in my near future.
I suppose I could always fill it when it's only half-full... but perhaps that's going a bit too far.
--Beth
PS. If you're an iPhone/iPodTouch user and have a favorite gas app you think I should try, let me know. I went straight to the "pro" version of this one because it got good reviews and for $5 I didn't want to bother learning the lite version and switching over (also I think lite only handles one car) but I'm willing to try a few to begin with until I find one I like best. |
|
|
| Test 2 |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|09:55 pm] |
This is my second attempt at a post from the l ivejournL app. I wonder if it will send itself the next time I connect to the net. (I'm in the car now.) ... It doesn't appear to auto send. It also only seems to keep one post. So if I write a post when I'm away from the net I can only have one stored up. Althogh, I guess I could write another in the notes application and then cut and paste when the time is right. --Beth Posted via LiveJournal.app.
Note: It got the auto-detect location wrong. |
|
|
| Excited for Christmas |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|07:46 am] |
I woke up early this morning excited about Christmas. And by "early" I mean "before the kids woke me up" which is to say about 7:15 am. I think this is the first time I've awakened early since that Christmas morning 5 years ago when Peter was born. I woke up early that morning too, and also woke Jon up, excited about the day.
Most of the American social pressures are taken care of -- the presents are wrapped, the stockings are hung, the food is bought and ready to prepare. All that's left to do is a little more cleaning and to enjoy the day(s). (We celebrate with my in-laws and nieces on that side on Christmas eve, so today is like Christmas in that sense).
On the other front, I'm excited about welcoming Jesus into our lives again. I'm a Godly Play teacher this year at church, and the way the schedule has worked out I taught 3 of the 4 Sundays of Advent. I really like the stories, and especially the Advent lessons. I've been able to get even the most hyper-active kids in my class to sit still, breathe, and reflect on when God became human in order to better connect with his people where we are.
In the last 5 years since Peter was born, I know I've drifted somewhat. So much of life became just putting one foot in front of the other. But now I'm ready. Ready to reconnect with God. Here I am. Send me.
Merry Christmas!
--Beth |
|
|
| Grumble. Trying to send e-mail to a hotmail user |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|12:21 am] |
All evening long I've been fighting with trying to get mail sent from slimy.com (or leonardfamilytutoring.com) to a hotmail address and failing. It keeps sending bounce messages like this:
This is the mail system at host phantom.slimy.com.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.
If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.
The mail system
<name-here@hotmail.com>: host mx4.hotmail.com[65.55.37.120] said: 550 SC-001
Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons for
rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or
IP/domain reputation problems. If you are not an email/network admin please
contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. Email/network
admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery
information and support (in reply to MAIL FROM command)
[-- Attachment #2: Delivery report --]
[-- Type: message/delivery-status, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 0.7K --]
Reporting-MTA: dns; phantom.slimy.com
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 4464681CA
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; beth@oasis.slimy.com
Arrival-Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 08:13:26 +0000 (UTC)
Final-Recipient: rfc822; shannon_o@hotmail.com
Original-Recipient: rfc822;shannon_o@hotmail.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0
Remote-MTA: dns; mx4.hotmail.com
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for
policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be related to content with
spam-like characteristics or IP/domain reputation problems. If you are not
an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider
for help. Email/network admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for
email delivery information and support
[-- Attachment #3: Undelivered Message --]
[-- Type: message/rfc822, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 2.9K --]
...
When I send the message to gmail, it winds up in my spam the first time I use an address, but if I move it out, subsequent messages get through just fine. We added the spf stuff MS wants, and it shows up in gmail as "pass" so I don't know what else to try.
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of beth@oasis.slimy.com designates 74.82.3.76 as permitted sender) client-ip=74.82.3.76;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of beth@oasis.slimy.com designates 74.82.3.76 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=beth@oasis.slimy.com
Help me O internet friends, you're my only hope!
--Beth |
|
|
| Internet outage |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|12:20 am] |
Our DSL line appears to be down. We have some redundancy with the Fiber line, but our e-mail goes through the DSL. For family members who want to communicate with us about Thanksgiving plans, please call until further notice.
--Beth |
|
|
| Thankful for technology |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|09:23 pm] |
Someone on my friends list was recently in a major car accident, and it reminded me that I'm very grateful for modern safety technology.
--Beth |
|
|
| iPod Touch, should I get one? |
[Nov. 23rd, 2009|10:17 pm] |
When mrc80238was out visiting he let me fondle his iPhone for a while. Ohhhh. I've had iPhone envy for some time because some of the moms at church have them. When I show up for an event on-time, and the next earliest person shows up 10 minutes late and uses her iPhone to check e-mail while we wait for the rest of them, I develop even more iPhone envy.
Luckily, mrc80238also pointed out to me that the iPod Touch does nearly everything the iPhone does, except be a phone and have a monthly service charge. That's the main thing I didn't want with the iPhone.
I already have a cell phone. It takes pictures and costs me $5/month for all the minutes I would want to use, which is approximately 4. I see no need to pay $600+ over the next two year contract agreement for 4 minutes per month of phone time.
Nearly everywhere I go and would want to use net access has wifi (Church, Little Gym, if pre-school doesn't have it we could probably donate it to the school for less than the cost of a monthly service plan) so the iPod touch looks very tempting. I've stopped carrying a palm pilot, my old one won't hold a charge anymore, and I need to carry my calendar and contacts with me again.
With some comparison shopping, it looks like I want the iPod Touch 32GB version. The 8GB doesn't have as fast of a processor, and 40 hrs of movies with 32GB should be more than enough so I don't need 64GB. I think Amazon's price of $279 is the same as Costco's, but I should probably double-check. With our outrageous 9.25% sales tax, it's cheaper than Costco as long as Costco is $255 or more, and I seem to remember Costco being $279 too.
So, dear friends (and family) is there any reason why I shouldn't get myself an iPod Touch? It's the same price as my first Palm Pilot so many years ago. I really need to duplicate that functionality again with a mobile calendar and address book, and the iPod touch does so much more.
--Beth |
|
|
| Thanksgivings |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|11:18 pm] |
Somehow it came to be November already. Mid-November even. Today is Jon's birthday, happy Birthday Jon!
I had this plan to post daily Thanksgivings every day of November. Better late than never? I'll post several today to make up for it.
I'm thankful for Jon.
I'm thankful that Disneyland has a "get in free on your birthday" policy, and that Jon thought he'd enjoy taking Peter.
I'm thankful that Jon & I both recovered from our illnesses and it appears Jon & Peter had a good time at Disneyland today.
I'm thankful for Amber. I'm thankful for the image I have of her in my head right now from earlier in the evening. She wanted to wear her Tigger outfit -- which at 12M size is far too small for her -- and play outside. She put her cup "way up high" on the spa cover. She had to stand on her tippy-toes in her gear boots to reach it. The image of her both being too big for her clothes but nearly to small to reach her cup and so proud of everything is a photo I want to hold dear in my heart because I couldn't get the camera in time.
I'm thankful for Peter. As he's getting older he's getting more and more capable. On Tuesday when I was so sick he was able to get the honey down from the shelf all by himself and heat it in the microwave to serve with dinner.
I'm thankful for my parents and my in-laws, that they all live so near and love my children so much. My parents watched the kids last weekend so I could go on my church women's retreat, and my in-laws watched Amber yesterday so I could take a class in San Francisco.
I'm thankful they are all wonderful people I love so much and trust with my children.
I'm thankful the class went well and I learned quite a lot of interesting and useful things that will save me time.
I'm thankful for computers that keep me in touch with my friends and family.
I'm thankful for digital photos and video. I want to remember and relive it all, and this ability to snap a photo and hold on helps me to let go and let my children grow.
I'm thankful for sanitation and garbage collection.
I'm thankful that food, so basic and fundamental a need, is so plentiful in my life that like the air I breathe I didn't even think to be thankful about it until I re-read everything and was about to hit "post" and I realized something was missing from a Thanksgiving day post.
--Beth |
|
|
| Feeling much better |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|06:26 am] |
This morning I'm feeling *much* better, not all the way, but better enough to go to my conference. Given the lack of a fever, sore throat, and runny nose, I'm going to call it "food poisoning" instead of "Flu" but wow I felt awful yesterday.
--Beth |
|
|
| Flu |
[Nov. 17th, 2009|09:00 pm] |
I appear to have the flu. This is about the worst possible timing for the month of November, as Jon was taking Peter to Disneyland Thursday, leaving tomorrow, and he might have it too. I was going to a work seminar tomorrow I've been looking forward to for months. Hopefully this is just a 24 hr. thing and not the full blown flu.
The kids were great this afternoon, letting Mommy sleep while they played and watched TV, and Jon let me sleep through Amber's pick-up time.
The kids don't seem to have it yet thankfully.
--Beth |
|
|
| An education in the classics |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|02:41 pm] |
Jon and I are giving Peter a through education in the classics, and I'm filling in some of the holes in my own knowledge along the way. Recently we downloaded Final Fantasy 1 for the wii and Peter and I have been playing through it together. I never played the FF games as a kid, so now I can see what it was I missed out on all those years. We also have Zelda, Super Mario, Pac Man, and one of Peter's curent favorites (Super) Metroid.
--Beth |
|
|
| Halloween Photos |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|11:16 pm] |
We had an awesome Halloween. I didn't get any stills of the kids going trick-or-treating with 7 friends and everyone all decked out in glow bracelets, (I took some video, but it wasn't light enough to get good shots). I did get pictures of my kids before school in their costumes and of the cranberry pie I made entirely from scratch using only cranberries, apples, sugar, water, flour, salt, and butter. Mmm, mmm, good. The pie didn't last until our party started. I felt very domestic that day, I cleaned the bathrooms and made a pie.
( The rest of the photos are behind the cut. )
Unfortunately at the party, I forgot (again) to actually get out the dry ice I'd bought. I think I did that last year too.
--Beth |
|
|
| Just in case someone on my f-list gardens or likes wine & cheese |
[Oct. 6th, 2009|11:25 pm] |
Peter's pre-school is selling bulbs. I don't garden, and $2/bulb seems like quite a lot to me, but what do I know? The school uses the money from the sale of these bulbs to buy flowers to have the preschoolers plant around the school. The company ships your bulbs directly to you at the right time of year.
If you are interested in ordering bulbs through Peter's school, let me know and I'll scan the catalog to a PDF and e-mail it to you.
The school is of course happy to accept monetary donations of any kind all the time, and their big wine-and-cheese fundraiser is a week from Friday (Oct 16).
If wine-and-cheese with auction (silent and aloud) is your thing and you live locally and want to join Jon and I, let me know. We're required to purchase 4 tickets and haven't given the other two away yet.
--Beth |
|
|
| Pizza from scratch recipe |
[Oct. 3rd, 2009|11:26 pm] |
Friday afternoon the kids and I made pizza from scratch. It was my first time as an adult doing this, and the result was delicious, so I'm recording the recipe.
1 pkg yeast (I didn't use rapid rise, I used regular)
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water (100-110F)
2 cups flour
1/2 to 1 cup more flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp corn meal
Proof the yeast
Put 1/4 c. water in large warm bowl. Add yeast, stir until dissolved. Add sugar. Set aside for 10 minutes. When you come back the yeast should be bubbling.
Make the raw dough
Add the rest of the water, salt, oil, and 2 cups of flour to the bowl. Stir. Add enough extra flour to make it soft.
Knead the dough
Kneed the dough. Add flour as needed to keep it from getting too sticky -- about 4-6 minutes according to the recipe I was using. With the kids helping each kneading half at a time, we spent about 15 minutes on it. Place kneaded dough in greased bowl, turning it to grease the whole ball of dough (I used a few more drops of olive oil.)
Rising
Cover, let rise 45 minutes. I turned the oven on and waited until the internal temperature was 80 F. I put the covered bowl in the oven. At 30 minutes it was bigger but didn't quite look big enough to have doubled, so I let it go 45 minutes. The recipe says 30-60. When it's done, punch the dough down.
Shaping
Spread the corn meal on a pizza stone. I gave a small ball to Peter to make his own pizza just like curious George (This ended up on the floor a few times.) I tried tossing the rest in the air like Tony the Baker, but that didn't work so well. I re-kneaded once or twice to remove the holes, and then spread it out on my pizza stone. It looked really thin in several places, but in the end it was quite thick nearly everywhere after baking.
Topping
I topped with tomato sauce to which Amber had added some spices (oregano and italian spices). We let that warm on the stove while the dough was rising. It looks like during baking the sauce all slid to the lowest parts on the bread, even though it was fairly even when I put it in the oven. I used about a cup of mozzarella cheese and added some olives and fresh pineapple.
Cook
Pre-heat oven to 425. Bake for 10-15 minutes. I left it in until the cheese started to brown. The crust puffed up really thick everywhere, despite how thin it was when I put it in. It was the best pizza I think I've ever had.
--
The whole process took about 2 hours. As Jon said, "It's a craft project that produces food at the end." The kids enjoyed it and I think we'll do it again some time.
--Beth |
|
|
sad
thankful