american evolution

In the great tradition of American Labor Day we headed out to buy school supplies and rat food. There you have it. I vaguely remember going out with my mother to purchase supplies but it seemed more a matter of some trapper keepers, one binder, and pens and pencils from the Rexall drug down in Rockbrook Village. Actually, as an elementary student I don’t ever remember getting anything – it wasn’t until junior high at Valley View that supplies became necessary. The schools across northern Virginia are hardcore when it comes to “The List”. The kids need very specific stuff like low odor dry erase markers, Kleenex, college-ruled paper, yellow highlighters (yellow!), four 1” white vinyl three-ring binders, two glue sticks, and erasable pens (I hate erasable pens). What I realized at the checkout is that every school is saving about $75 a kid. If nothing else, the college-ruled paper seems fishy; no one uses college-ruled paper until…college. Are they worried about kids writing too large and sneaking less than what they consider a full-page essay entitled "What I Did Over the Summer"  into the homework box? It wasn’t so long ago that I did some research on the whole college-ruled vs. wide-ruled paper. I was overly interested in the term and exactly what started the battle of the ‘ruled. (As an aside, I might also have been some research into pica vs. elite font from my junior high school typing class days.)

The rat food isn’t so interesting; the rat needed some food.

The boys and X have settled back into the house. That basically means the boys can run all about, enjoy their own rooms, and not worry about anything. For X it means I’ll cook her food and give her kisses – what’s a boy to do?

I’m adding an embed of Ricky Gervais doing a bit on evolution. If you don’t know, Gervais created and starred in The Office in England. He’s a consultant on the American version that came years later. I gave the American version a go when it first started but seemed to miss out on the funny. His original version is still, to me, the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.



and this clip from the show about his office doing training...

"go get my guitar..."