Ever hear just a little bit of someone else's conversation and it made you glad you didn't hear the rest?  Here's what I heard in the hallway at the middle school this morning:
Male student 1: I haven't taken one today.
Male student 2: Well, mine had corn in it!

Now, what do YOU think they were talking about?
-Cara

If Hollywood had its way with history, this might be what it would like.

It is basically the history of the world if every movie actually happened.

Nice.

(via Woot)

One of my co-workers was trying to get the attention of a little girl we work with at Kids First one day.  The little girl's family speaks Spanish at home, but she has been at Kids First since she was a baby and knows English too.  This was the day we learned that she chooses to hear only what she wants to in both languages:

Co-worker: "Come here."
Child: "Huh?"
Co-worker: "Come here."
Child: "Huh?"
Co-worker: "Come here."
Child: "Huh?"
Co-worker: "AQUI."
Child: "Que?"

I was working with a four year old at Kids First today on answering what and where questions. I said, "It's raining outside. What do you do?" He answered, "I go get my Cinderella." I wasn't sure at that point what he was talking about and he tends to have trouble paying attention anyway, so I just said, "No, you put on a raincoat or get an umbrella." Later, I asked the same question while showing him a picture of an umbrella. He said, "See, my Cinderella!" Cute.

Cara

When my kids are working on articulation, I usually give them a worksheet or flashcards with their target sound for practice. I had given one first grader a set of "th" flashcards and was looking at my papers while he practiced. I heard the following: "Thermos, three, thirteen, thumb... zillion." Of course, I looked up to see what had gone wrong. It was a picture of 1,000. Close enough.

Cara

According to Gadgetopia, a nine-year old in North Dakota made a bet with his older brother that he could print the entire Internet.

You know, if the story stopped there, it might just be a cute story about childhood innocence or something like that. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. The bet is for $50 and he has 6 months to do it. It gets better. His hometown is HELPING him. They apparently have no idea just how big the Internet is.

As the post says,

At one time, Google claimed to have 8 billion pages in its index. This kid is printing eight pages to a sheet of paper, but he still has to print one billion sheets of paper.

Let's hope the environmentalists don't get their hands on this. This kid is going to need a few rainforests to get all the paper he'll need. On top of that, there is a whole lot of stuff on the Internet that is completely inappropriate for a nine-year old (much less a 25-year old like myself).

Maybe if his brother is nice, he can get a deadline.

Someone is on the road, but it isn't me. Cara and some friends from Memphis are on their way to the Atlanta area tonight for a wedding tomorrow (congratulations Melissa and Jamie!) so I'm holding up the fort while she's gone. Cara and I have been married just over 9 months now, so I haven't had the house to myself in a while... and MAN is it quiet! And no, I'm not saying Cara is loud!    An empty house is just quiet! To fend the quietness off, I've been listening to some music (the new Switchfoot cd is good).

Anyway, Cara was telling me about getting to see her grandparents who live outside of Memphis today while on her way to Georgia. Cara and her grandfather went to the local library there where they have free internet access. Her grandfather had never used the internet before. Apparently he was amazed by it. I guess he liked our website alright, too. If I remember correctly, Cara said that he asked if there was a wire going from there to our house here.

By the way, sorry if I'm jumping topics all over the place. I think I'm just sort of rambling now. The effects of an early morning to get to work plus staying up late seem to affect my blogging skills. Maybe I should go to bed.

David

I just posted another photo album from Cara's 25th birthday party. For her birthday, Cara specifically requested a cookie cake. So that's what I got her. To each their own I suppose, eh? At the party, we ate cake (obviously) and snacks and also played some games.

The first game we played was Catchphrase, which is a sort of hot potato word game. You pass around the game, which will display a new word for each person. They have to get their team to say it without actually saying the word or saying what rhymes with it. You get the idea. While playing the game (guys versus girls), I discovered that guys and girls think differently. I've known that for a while, but the game further reemphasized that. For example, Cara had the word "booster rocket," which is one of the two side rockets that helps send spaceships into space. She didn't know what it was, so the first thing she said was "band." One of the girls yelled out boosters, as in band boosters. How in the world do you get from booster rocket to band booster?!? When the guys would get a word they were unfamiliar with, most of us sort of sat there and struggled to figure out what it was instead of going a different direction.

We also played Cranium, Cara's favorite board game. A few of the people hadn't played it before either, which became quite clear when one of them had to do a Sensosketch, which is where you have to draw your word with your eyes closed. It was also a Club Cranium, so both teams had to pick one person to draw the same thing while the rest of the team tried to guess what was being drawn. If you've played the game, you'll know that the Sensosketch falls under the "Creative Cat" category. As I said, this guy hadn't ever played the game. He began to draw a cat, and we guessed that much, but then we were stuck. Suddenly, the other team yelled out "glue" and that was the word! WHAT IN THE WORLD! But wait! His word was glue! But he didn't draw glue. He drew a cat... he said he just didn't know how to make it a "creative" cat. Basically, he had read the wrong word on the card. It was pretty funny.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun. And don't forget to check out the pictures!

David

I often use games as incentives to get my kids to work in speech.  This week I played a quick card game with one of my middle schoolers.  It was the third or fourth time we'd played that particular game, and the first time he won (no, I don't always let the kids win-is that wrong?).  I said, "Congratulations, it's about time you won, huh?"  He quipped, "Yeah, your old age must be getting to you."  I said, "Hey, maybe you're right.  I am older, in fact.  I had a birthday this weekend."  He asked, "What are you-in your thirties or forties?" 

You have got to be kidding me!