Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Marine Science

Today we went to Nauticus, the Marine Science Museum, to be a part of a home school advisory group. The kids went with a couple of docents to touch sea creatures and play with the underwater robot arm, and the moms met with one of the education staff members to talk about ways the museum can assist the home school community. If anyone has any good ideas for a science experiment having to do with oceans, rivers, or estuaries, let me know. Apparently there are lots of little grants available, and if your kids comes up with an experiment, like growing oysters to filter water or something like that, they can work with one of the museum staff to carry out the experiment with museum money. Mini-grants are also available for creating outdoor classrooms. I'm thinking about trying to have the backyard re-landscaped. I'm so excited by the idea of applying for a grant that I think I might of missed my real calling. I really did enjoy my two jobs grant writing: for the mayor's office and for UD. Then again that could be because they outshone so splendidly my preceding jobs. A song on the country music station yesterday took me back to a lucrative but unsatisfying stint as a waitress at the Lone Star Steak House. We used to have to stop what we were doing and line dance to the Watermelon Crawl at least once a night, maybe two or three times on weekends. The uniforms were t-shirts and jean shorts. Although at the time I didn't give a thought to modesty in dress, I still wasn't willing to go Hooters short for an extra $0.50. I did not recount this job experience to my kids who were enjoying the song. (Joe announced the other day that, while Ben prefers country and Weird Al, he liked hard rock. Huh? I don't know that he's even heard hard rock. Is this something to do with testosterone?) . . .

Speaking of history, my book club met last night: the pick was Ten Dates Every Catholic Should Know by Diane Moczar. Some of the dates were obvious: Like the Edict of Milan in 313 and the posting of Martin Luther's Theses in 1517. Others were less obvious: like the reform of the monastic movement in the early 1000's. While this book could have been a lot more interesting - it breezes through a lot of the information about the period, not very many quotes from sources - it did provide a good summation of how turbulent human history has been. In comparision, the War on Terror is a minor incident. And $4 gasoline could actually be a good thing. The book didn't spur any heated discussion, although later I thought of a couple of things that might have been good fodder, like why didn't she talk about the Avignon papacy and what a mess that was. It would be nice to have that laid out neatly for comprehension if possible.

2 comments:

BettyDuffy said...

Hard Rock IS a testosterone thing. Don't you remember the Great White and Twisted Sister resounding from our older brother's room all those years?
(Though it is suspect that our younger brother, rather than broadcasting hard rock, let us dress him up in leotards to dance to the nutcracker). My primary concern is how you have managed to shelter your oldest child (who is almost a teenager) from hard rock all this time? What does Dan rock out to??? Carly Simon?

Deanna said...

John only dressed up in leotards and danced to the nutcracker because your older brother beat him up when he was little. At least that was your Mom's theory on the matter...

Which reminds me...didn't I see a photo of a certain little Duffy boy in leotards, too?