More About the New School...

I am super-enthusiastic about the new school. I think the staff and the involved parents have tons of energy and have worked incredibly hard to get the place started. (This is only their fourth year.) IF they/we can raise enough money to move in January into the great site they've found, then this place is really going to be very, very wonderful. Currently the site is a tiny, cramped corner of a public elementary school. To put in perspective how small it is -- the school has had to rent a nearby apartment to use as the office. The only space onsite for an office is a tiny trailer about the size of my dining room. And anyone who has seen my dining room knows it's SMALL.

Because it's an incredible hassle having two separate schools on one campus, and the campus itself is old and nothing special, and additionally on a weird block in un-gentrified, decaying Hollywood, there are some logistical issues. One is that there is absolutely, positively no pedestrian access to the school for drop off or pick up. Last year apparently there were some quite serious issues of kids almost being hit by cars, parents getting into battles, etc. This is a difficult one for me, because my darling Boylee has never, ever liked being dropped off at preschool, kindergarten or camp. He doesn't like the whole "we roll up, you hop out" scene. It's just not the way he operates. He likes me to walk him in. He likes to hold hands. He likes lots of kisses and hugs. And i like that he likes all of that! But despite my plea directly to the principal at an orientation meeting this week, we've been told we have to obey the drop off policy.

So Boylee and I walked around the campus and talked it through: here's the driveway where I'll drive in; here's where a teacher will get you out of the car; here's the door that you will walk through; here are the two first grade classrooms (we don't know which is his yet); here is where I will be after school when they bring you to my car.

OY VEY! This is what is making me most tense about the start of the school year.

The New School...

...it's an arts charter, which means that it's still a public school. Albeit a public school that desperately needs money -- they get the same allocation ($35 or $40 per kid on the days that they attend -- no money for a kid who is absent, no matter what the reason) and with that money they have to pay all the stuff that schools usually pay for, like teachers and supplies, but they also have to pay for their site. They're in temporary space now and hoping to move into a great permanent space in January.

To that end, in addition to big fundraising they're trying to do, they're asking for $2600 per family. Ouch.

But the good part about it is the focus on the arts. The California arts standard requires instruction in drama, music, visual arts and dance, over the course of the year. (Last year Boylee did several weeks of dance, followed by several weeks of music, etc.) But this school hits all four parts of the standard every single week. Yay!

Pants Made From Ikea Dishrags (2 @ 49c each)

Something Rare

Boylee woke up...SICK! That is something we haven't dealt with in at least year -- remember, he didn't miss a single day of kindergarten. But this morning he's got a fever. So we're taking it easy and canceling all plans for the day. I did drag him to the video store really quickly just so we could get some new things to watch. With the terrible smoke and heat we haven't done anything outside in days, so he's already watched basically every DVD we have on hand. Oh well, it can't be helped. Hopefully in a day or two he will be better and the air will be better and we will be back to playdates, the pool, and our regular run of the city.

It's not the heat or the humidity, it's the smoke

I didn't take this pic, but this is basically what we've been looking at for the last several days. The air quality is horrible, but we're grateful we're not in any of the danger zones.

I Am Dreading The AC Bill

But it can't be helped: it's 7pm and it's 97 degrees. And it's been like this for days.

What I Sewed Today

A sewing machine cozy! I have a new set-up in the den -- where I used to only have a desk, now I have a desk and a sewing table. So now I get to leave my sewing machine out all the time. I hope that this will enable me to sew more, since I will no longer have to drag everything in and out of cardboard boxes in my closet. But this is a dusty household, so...voila!

But it was so hot today that I did the entire thing with no ironing. A sewing purist would not approve of the finished product, but my motto is "A Crooked Seam is a Happy Seam." However I will say in my own defense that the lump in the upper right top is not my uneven sewing, it's the large spool of thread on the top of the machine.

How Hot Is It?

Too hot, I tell you.

Hot enough that when Boylee picked out a SpongeBob DVD at the library this morning, and I saw that it has 16 episodes, all I could think of was, "Great!" I'm pretty sure I'm going to let him watch them all.

Next week I'll update more about Boylee's new school.

Another POV

We have a neighborhood email list, and someone posted this today:

About noon today, as I was sitting at my kitchen table, my little dog 'flew' out of her doggie door, barking like mad. I looked up and saw some ears through the ivy on the outside of my fence. I thought it was a coyote - then it came right down close to the fence and grabbed at something in the heave grass. As I watched in horror, the coyote ran up the steep hill with a small black & white "tuxedo" kitty in it's mouth. The cat wasn't moving. I hope it had died quickly.

R.I.P. Boo

A coyote got him today, in the late morning. A neighbor saw it happen, and managed to scare the coyote enough that it dropped Boo. But it was too late.

We've lived here almost 15 years, and I never worried about coyotes during the day. I guess I should start to now. I feel horrible about Boo, and Boylee was beside himself. He chose to look at the corpse, before we took Boo to the vet's office so they can give him to the crematorium.

At a certain basic level I also feel badly for the coyote. They're only out during the day if they're really hungry. And since it killed Boo, it might as well have eaten him.

Dog Days

We're kinda dragging, these last few days of summer. School doesn't start till September 10th, but on Wednesday there's a kindergarten orientation -- and since we've switched Boylee to a new school (an arts charter) we are going to go to that orientation...even though he's obviously not gonna be in kinder.

Other highlights of the week ahead: a trip to Ikea (Boylee plays in the kids area while I return a lamp); visit to the science center with Nana; a couple of a playdates...and certainly a swim or two.

Foiled! Then Rescued!

Boylee and I went to Target to find a lunchbox...and discovered that it is way, way too late to buy a lunchbox. The huge section of shelving had about ten lunchboxes left, and none in any pattern or design that would appeal to a six-year-old boy.

So we went back to last year's supplier: lunchboxes.com. It wasn't nearly as much fun for Boylee -- he'd rather look at everything in person, not just see pictures on a computer screen. But he finally made his choice: Pirates of the Caribbean insulated lunchbox, and a Spongebob Sigg water bottle. I insisted on a Sigg bottle because they're non-toxic and they hold up really, really well. Boylee's bottle last year was destroyed at the very end of the school year, but before that it had been dropped a million times and really beat up a lot. (We're still using it for cold water in our fridge, but I'm afraid it can't hold up to another year at school. )

He is happy. Now all I have to do is find some non-toxic food containers to go inside and we're all set.

Boylee's Quote of the Day

"I am a duckling. A ninja duckling."

A Clarification

It's not so much the lunch box that I'm looking for -- we have plenty of bags and boxes to use. (Though Boylee's lunch box from last year was basically destroyed by the end of the year.) It's the containers inside that I'm really looking for. We have plenty of small plastic containers, and baggies of course, but I want to make sure his food is stored in something that's clean and healthy for him -- without leaching contaminants. And I don't want to create so much baggie trash over the course of the school year. It's five meals a week for 3/4s of the year...so the trash adds up, and I'm guessing the plastic stuff touching his food adds up. So that's why.

Getting Ready

Boylee needs a new lunchbox for next year, and I'd like it to be as green as possible, so I went searching for some possibilities.

I liked this one, but Boylee didn't:


And I'd heard about this one and went to see it at a local store:

But the problem with that one is that the lids on those stainless steel containers are really, really hard to get off. I could hardly do it and I know Boylee would have trouble with them.

So the search continues.

At The Observatory

So Glad I'm Not There Right Now

One of my girlfriends lives next door to Laura Ling!

Diversity

Today at Boylee's camp I asked an African-American boy where he goes to school. His answer: Beth Hillel. Yay, L.A.!

Work Work Work

Just finished my freelance job: almost 60 hours in 14 days. Not too shabby for a full-time mom whose kid is only in camp three days a week!

How Hot Was July?

Hot enough that our DWP bill was almost $600. That includes June, but I'm pinning all the blame on July's heat wave.