September progress

You might recall that, the first couple of years in our house, Stephanie and I together painted one downstairs bedroom each year. It didn't literally take the whole year - but it might take five months plus. For several of our first few months in the house, Stephanie and I slept on the floor in the living room while we painted our bedroom (until it got to be around this time of the year and got too cold). This year, you'll recall, Stephanie (by herself) began painting hallway, dining room, and living room - a big job! As with the other rooms, prep and painting the trim (one of the last steps) took longer than the actual painting. Prep was particularly time-consuming this time. Instead of simply stripping a border across the top of the walls, she also had to strip wallpaper/border off of one entire wall all wallpapered. All of the border/wallpaper in the dining room and living room, Stephanie discovered, was in two layers, with paint in between. Plus, we have always painted the ceilings first, which necessitates very good ground cover. Stephanie's visits to ailing mothers/mothers-in-law in OH and FL kept her away for a little bit (as did a couple of other weekend trips). Stephanie got the hallway done relatively quickly, even while she was still teaching summer school in June. She then attacked the dining room, but got slowed down by going to FL and the wallpaper/border stripping. To do the dining room, you'll recall, she had to rearrange all of the dining room/living room furniture. She had to do (mostly) the same (see "Tetris") when she shifted to the adjoining living room (all the got the same white ceiling paint, the same white trim paint, and the same green flat. Although there was not as much trim per square foot as in the bedrooms, there was plenty of other meticulous work to do. Two years ago an electrician had pointed out that someone who painted the walls previously had dangerously painted over several wall socket covers (which creates a fire hazard). Stephanie pried most of these out (and then as she finished we had to find and buy new covers and she to install them). Above and immediately below Stephanie is earlier in September peeling the tape off of the wall after she's painted several coats on the living room trim and it's dried. She's also was reapplying the wall socket covers and installing new ones.

Here is me in a rare picture - Stephanie took a picture of me vacuuming the living room - part of a several week project of mine - dusting and vacuuming most of the first floor (I'd done Vincent's room/the upstairs - several weeks earlier - see "Boy's room"). I also vacuumed the finished part of the basement. This was the only part of the process I contributed to.

In the picture above and below is the new cover to the front door window that Stephanie's mom, Nancy made us. We wondered if it was a tad long but like it a lot (its purple precedessor was real ugly). It fits the room.

Here's Stephanie - pretty much done - after I've vacummed and dusted, she's painted and taken off all of the tape, and she's put in all of the socket covers. Notice the smile.

Notice - Stephanie also put the turtle terrarium and stand and the turtles back. They'd been in the terrarium on the chaise lounge in the Florida room all summer - with no heat lamp or spectrum light lamp on in there (she figured in the summer and in the Florida room it was pretty warm and pretty light).

Good work, Stephanie!

These few shots below have some significance that I'll go into later. But the night shots - with the lights on - give you a different sense - especially with all of the decorations etc. restored/installed (and with some of the clutter etc. more or less permanently out) what these rooms look like. Stephanie has continued to put paintings etc. up - some there before, some not. In the picture below, on the far left of the picture on the wall behind the sofa is a painting that was already there, a painting by our friend Meredith (see "Friends in Tallahassee") of the side of our old apartment building in Tallahasese (see "Old and new haunts") (which was already up before).

Notice all the beautiful trim painting that Stephanie did (in the picture below).

Below is another picture of the dining room (with the kitchen behind it), the room Stephanie painted second this summer. On the wall in the right hand of the picture is a framed photograph of Stephanie and me (we'll have to take a better picture of it). It's in the "romance side" of the dining room/living room, according to our friend/feng shui consultant Sara. It replaces three framed photographs of the Louisville Waterfront that Tina had taken (see "Open House").

Later in September Stephanie tried some yellow drapes from World Market. We hemmed and hawed about these - we hadn't had drapes in this room - just the old-fashioned screens (blinds in our bedrooms).

Notice the yellow microfiber sofa - we got (with plenty of financial help) - from Haverty's Furniture. I still don't love those extra pillows Stephanie got a Target. Frisco likes the combination of pillows, though he also misses the love seat (now down in the basement - somehow Stephanie got it down there by herself balancing it over the stove and counters in the kitchen) - He had an easier time perching on the top of the love seat. Stephanie (below) was still pondering whether to keep the yellow draperies while she put them up.

Part of us thought the draperies looked very nice, but we were still thinking about it.

-- Perry Chang

Fiesta Latina

For the past two years we've visited with some of Stephanie's students and their parents and a few of her colleagues at New Albany's Fiesta Latina, held on a Saturday near September 16, Mexican Independence Day. It's a good way for Stephanie to connect with her students and their families - and for the families to share some Latin American culture with Stephanie and her colleagues - in a fun atmosphere outside of class and school. The festival takes places in the parking lot of the St. Mary's church, where Southern IN's Spanish-speaking masses are held. This past spring we reported on the first communion celebration with many of Stephanie's students, also at St. Mary's. Leading the mass there was Father Tom, the Anglo priest who we quip only half seriously is the one who got Stephanie her job. This year we were slated to go with our Guatemalan American friends Carlos, Nora, and Ana. But a pall was cast over the event because Vincent (faced with the reality that his failing grades would prevent us from hosting a Danish exchange student, his former host, Tim) - who has only been to this once - ran away from home some five hours before we were to leave. We picked up the Lara family late - and Nora was still leading a women's group and I felt bad because Ana said her friends were going to a parallel Louisville celebration, outside of Okolona's St. Rita's Catholic Church). But off we went. When we got there, we had not only missed the procession and mass (which were new this year), but also the organized dancing, which we usually catch and which sometimes involves some of Stephanie's students. Pictured above - at our arrival - is M.C. Father Tom. Stephanie soon saw 5th-grader Benji, whom Stephanie has taught since 2nd grade at Mt. Tabor. Benji helped us out throughout the evening and hooked Stephanie up with his cute 2-month-old baby sister, Esmeralda, whom Stephanie got to hold (pictured below and far below).

Although we missed the dancing, I got to take a picture of the dancers (below) posing for other photographers. None of the dancers this year were Stephanie's students, but two were previous year students (now moving on to middle school).

When we arrived, several of Stephanie's colleagues were already there, including Stephanie's principal, Susie, and her husband, New Albany City Council Member Jeff (with whom I talked about the mayor vetoing his smoking ban ordinance), and a 4th grade teacher, Missy, (and her son, Alex) who has taught summer school English as a new language classes with Stephanie (all pictured below).

Susie also talked with some of the students (Perla pictured below). Many of the students were excited to see teachers and administrators from school and to show off their culture and food. They were especially excited to see the teachers actually trying the food. "Do you like it?" was asked often.

In the glasses behind Susie is Carlos (below), our Spanish-language Bible study teacher and student pastor at our church.

In front of Carlos and between Stephanie and Susie (below) is Karen, another of Stephanie's previous students. Stephanie has been teaching long enough that she didn't even recognize some of her previous students until she saw their face.

With his back to us is the guidance counselor at Stephanie's school, Jim (below). The family of one of Stephanie's favorite students, Maria, is selling food - sort of informal economy-like - just like in the streets in Guatemala or Mexico. That's Maria in orange, now a 5th grader, whom Stephanie thought might graduate from ENL - like four of Stephanie's students did over the summer based on their scores on an ENL test Stephanie administered this spring.

There's Maria and her mother (below). I bought grilled corn from them. Maria's family has also made food for previous years' Spring Festival at Fairmont.

Here's Carlos' daughter, Ana (an 11th grader at a Louisville high school and - like her brother - an avid soccer player), and his wife, Nora. Their son, Carlos David, is a sophomore at Warren Wilson College. They came to the U.S. 2 1/2 years ago. Carlos guest-pastored at our church before working for the national Presbyterian Church world mission program for a year. He's now a student at the Presbyterian seminary in Louisville. He was a pastor in Guatemala and a leader in the Guatemala Presbyterian church before they came to Louisville. He has helped us get back in touch by phone with our friends in the Lago Izabal area.

As it got dark, the organizers got out some pinatas and kids tried their hand knocking out the candy - in the street between the church and the parking lot (the street was blocked off).

A DJ played Latin dance music and some people danced. Nora, Carlos, and Ana were patient (after they got to sit down) as Stephanie caught up with her former colleague, Anabel (aide/translator for her for two years) and her fiance (also pictured in "World Fest" - though Stephanie didn't get to talk with them then). Anabel will graduate from Indiana University Southeast in December and the two will get married in Southern Mexico in January. Stephanie - who may get a chance to go back to Guatemala next month - was invited!

Vincent did not call us while we were gone. Although I had not entirely discouraged his departure, we left the door unlocked and the light on while we were gone. He was not home when we got back and - after an anxious night - he was still not there in the morning.

-- Perry

Open House

Tuesday night three weeks ago was the annual Brown Parent Teacher Student Association open house, an open house in many ways like schools across the country (including Stephanie's school). Pictured above is a mural in the entrance to Vincent's school. The Brown Bears are his school's mascot. The evening started with a PTSA meeting, which I had helped just a tiny bit to organize. The cavernous auditorium dwarfed the several dozen people there (a typical crowd for this event). Second-year Principal Tim Healy spoke first, using the sound system the PTSA had purchased, while PTSA President Clare looked on.

Clare, an artist and a parent (like most involved in the PTSA) of two Brown children, spoke at the meeting. Brown is a downtown, K-12, public magnet school. It is selective, but not based on purely academic criteria. It is kind of alternative school - at the high school level, partly to the more highly selective college prep magnet schools, Manual and Male (misnomers). Brown has its name (the J. Graham Brown School), because it first met in the Brown Hotel, one of the main businesses of Brown, a Louisville tycoon of the 1930s and 1940s, whose hotel (now several blocks away), still graces Louisville's south downtown. Brown now shares half of the old building of Ahrens trade school (now adult education), about five blocks from my office closer to the waterfront.

As the short PTSA meeting finished up, we reversed our usual sequence and went up to talk informally with Vincent's teachers. More formal parent-teacher-student confernces are to follow in a week. I didn't get a picture of a teacher we saw early on, Vincent's journalism teacher, Neysa. Vincent wound up in this class somewhat by accident, but the writing practice should be good for him (since he wants to be a writer). He's writing reviews of newspaper pieces and is supposed to be doing two things I did during two years of high school journalism class: writing articles and selling ads. Brown, which only has 200 high school students, has not had a regular student newspaper for several years, and I'll wait and see if they raise enough interest and motivate students enough to produce one next month, as Neysa hopes.

Vincent spent a few weeks working with the debate club last year, and the debate coach is Juanita, also a math teacher. Vincent has a study hall with Juanita and pre-calculus. Vincent has struggled with math in recent years. In pre-calculus, they are first doing standardized test review of pre-algebra and algebra, which Vincent needs. At home he is taking first-semester geometry on-line, for ACT review (he already took and did OK grade wise in the class). Vincent did not do great on the arithmetic and geometry sections of the SAT, you might recall.

Vincent has never had Neysa or Juanita as teachers (somewhat unusual in this small school). Juanita was the first of Vincent's teachers to e-mail me to tell me that he was failing her class this first six weeks, and she's e-mailed me several times since. She is very easy to talk with (at least for parents) (though we miss Vincent's teacher last year Pam, who also did ACT preparation with me the week between school and the Denmark trip).

Stephanie, Vincent, and I talked with Juanita for a while.

Next was Alice, a social studies teacher. Vincent took World Civilization with her last year. He failed the second semester - something we just learned last week, since, among other things, we haven't received any report cards from Brown since this past January. Vincent now has two classes with Alice - Advanced Placement Psychology and Sociology (?!), which he could get college credit for if he had a better grade point average (and did more work). Like me, Alice's daughter is an applied sociologist (and has come in to talk with the class). A couple of weeks of ago I discovered that Vincent is officially enrolled in Senior Seminar (which involves less work), which may be required, and not in Sociology - something he needs to figure out. Over the summer Brown HS programs went to block scheduling, where the kids take four classes one day and four different classes the next day. One of the reasons was to mimick Manual and have kids take more classes (which then also requires them to do more work outside of class, since they spend less time in class assuming the amount of work in each class stays the same). So Vincent is taking three college-level (AP) classes and four other classes, plus a study hall, plus has a senior project (which takes place partly in AP Senior English). Vincent has done the block scheduling before (at Manatee School for the Arts), but these classes are harder and Vincent seems particularly disorganized this year and particularly enthusiastic about charting his own way and visiting with friends (remember - he changed schools five times in five years before arriving at Brown for four whole years (we hope).

Alice and I have clashed subsequently since she seems disinclined to offer the parents regular updates, as I have requested. It turns out she posts her grades weekly in the classroom, but Vincent ostensibly loses his student number, which is apparently why he was not aware that he was failing World History last year (unless he was aware and hid this from us because he knew it would jeopardize his Denmark trip).

Two of Vincent's teachers have - one way or another - reminded me that Vincent must pass that second-semester World History class (he'll take it again on-line) and pass AP Senior English (with the senior project part of it also) - and get his senior project approved - and that's it. In fact, he doesn't need any of the other credits to graduate. However, his GPA so far - I suspect - will put him back on academic probation - which he was on fall semester sophomore year. Already, this year (plus spring semester grades - when he spent lots of time on the 10-Minute Plays, which he won't be allowed to do again if his grades don't improve) he's probably doomed any chance he had of getting into any private colleges we might persaude him to apply to, into the Honors College of the school he says he wants to go to (Western Kentucky), or academic scholarships anywhere. Also, if his GPA sinks low enough, I think this could imperil his general Western admission. The least selective KY public university he's looked at - Morehead State - lets students substitute GPA and ACT scores, and he already has a good enough ACT score to get in. However, given his current study habits and given that he's nixed any possibility for financial aid (we won't get any need-based aid - except perhaps for loans, which none of us want more of) - I fear Vincent may come back after one semester at Western or Morehead - either us having run out of money and/or him having flunked out. Then it will be Jefferson Community and Technical College (which he attended as a 15-year-old post-8th grader) (or possibly Indiana University Southeast - if he can still get in) and/or work for him.

Vincent's French teacher had e-mailed me soon before the Open House to tell me that Vincent was also failing her class, having not turned in much of any work from the first three weeks of class. Early on Vincent had tried to persuade us that there was little schoolwork during the first few weeks of class, which apparently was not the case. It is true that Vincent had usually had no problems with French (and his French teacher below - Margaret - a U.S. native and parent of a recent Brown grad looking for full-time work teaching at Brown - we were afraid there was going to be no French 3 class - who nevertheless has lived in France - raved about Vincent) and he had said in the past there was no homework. But reading French books (she showed us used books she had gotten - she has no budget for buying books - just textbooks) and learning future tense and conditional mood is apparently more challenging - plus there being some work that Vincent apparently wasn't doing.

One of Vincent's favorite teachers going back to 9th grade was Becky, who has taught him French and English. Like Carrie (the English teacher who sponsored all three of Vincent's at-school extracurricular activities last year - KY United National Assembly, Danish exchange, and 10-Minute plays - who Vincent misses but doesn't have - his schedule didn't work out to take Theater with her), Becky seems to have a special bond with Vincent, even though he can get on her nerves. It helps that English is his favorite subject. Nevertheless, Becky had a baby a year or so ago (George is pictured further below) and she's more circumspect and I believe watches her time more closely. Especially since Vincent isn't in Senior Seminar, Becky is also the main teacher keeping an eye on his senior project - a somewhat amorphous and changing complex of community service, research project, and extravaganza - along with Carrie and Karen, one of the local librarians. Vincent's project has evolved somewhat, but he seems to want to explore what reading means to kids, continue volunteering at the St. Matthews library, work with others to produce a multi-high school literary magazine, and collect books to give to the library.

Becky's father is a Presbyterian minister who I'm acquainted with, and at a play two summers ago with our friend Sarah, also a Presbyterian minister, we uncovered all of these connections when Becky's father, who knows Sarah, saw Sarah, and Vincent saw Becky (one of his favorite teachers), and we noticed the two (unbeknownst to us, father and daughter) sitting with each other. It's a small world.

Another teacher who's been a big fan of Vincent is Mary, who taught him Biology in 9th grade. She wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for Vincent when he was one of Brown's applicants for the KY Governor's Scholar program, a summer program for finished 11th graders. She sang his praises for his work in science, but also in writing and learning foreign languages, and his personality, particularly his sense of humor. Since then, however, Vincent nearly failed a science class she co-taught. And Mary was the third teacher who e-mailed me recently that Vincent is failing her class (and she is less inclined than Juanita or Margaret to consider taking late work - Vincent had a 40% in her work at one point this month): not turning in homework and flunking tests/quizzes. The class is Advanced Placement Environmental Science. Vincent backed into the class, but Mary lent us the book ("Fast Food Nation") that students in the class were supposed to read over the summer for Vincent to read the first two days of class (he still flunked the quiz). Mary also knows that Vincent is smart but sometimes unfocused and particularly challenged by the combination of senioritis and block scheduling/taking too many classes (he's now not sure he made the right move to try to take a real class instead of Senior Seminar - which would also be with Neysa - that's what he's officially in instead of Sociology).

The buzzer went on half an hour earlier than I had expected, back when we were still with Becky. So we rushed through that and our discussion with Mary (augmented as it was with e-mail messages). Then we went down for what is usually our second stop of the night: the silent auction library fund-raiser in the gym. In past years I was once slated to help with the cake walk - a little fund-raiser with the little kids. Two years ago Stephanie also bid on some photographs taken by a teacher - and ended up asking the teacher to take another picture - so we had a set of three downtown/Waterfront Louisville pictures (including one of Peace Seeker - the commissioned picture - the winged horse in front of the Presbyterian Center - that were up on our dining room wall for a year and a half - for birthday presents for me. We did run into Tina (pictured below), the special education teacher/photographer - but we didn't bid on any of her photographs. I remember Tina from the freshman retreat, which I tried to help chaperone. Two - now one - special ed students are in Vincent's class (of approximately 50). Tina also advised Vincent on the construction of the wood car that Vincent built last year (with only limited success) for the physics part of his Integrated Science class (but he did well enough to just pass the class).

Towards the end of the evening/auction, I went over to look at Tina's pictures and she told me a wild story about how she's started to volunteer at a Southern IN exotic animal refuge - Wildlife in Need - and has helped take care of a bear cub who they found when he was young enough that he'll probably never be able to go back in the wild (because he won't know what to do as a bear and won't fear people). Tina goes over to the refuge on weekends and she's even brought Yogi Mato the bear home for the weekend. Below is Tina with a picture of the bear on her I Phone. Also, click here to see a video of the bear at the refuge ("One Bear's Truth"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iL29Kyrq0w

Click here to see a video of the bear's weekend at home with Tina ("Lazy Saturday"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKKYt7FLrgk

We've just seen these now but we're going to subscribe to Tina's YogiMato videos. Hope things work out OK for him/them/the refuge. (This all seemed especially apropos given the whole Brown Bear and "Brown is green" motifs.)

At the Silent Auction we ran into our friends who hosted a Dane who was one of "our" Dane last fall's best friends (Nathan and Vincent both went to Denmark this summer; Natalie goes to middle school at Brown; Libby is a teacher at a local elementary school; John is cousin's with one of our neighbors). Pictured below are Libby and Natalie with Lauri, a former Brown teacher/administrator. She's still a Brown parent and she functioned kind of like a guidance counselor. But when she got certified as a counselor this past spring, she said she wanted to work with middle school kids, not high school kids (which includes lots of college prep paperwork) - and so she didn't seek Brown's open HS guidance counselor position. She's still a Brown parent. She taught Vincent's super duper study hall sophomore year - which helped him get off of academic probation - and also sat on the admissions committee that phone-interviewed Vincent when he applied to Brown from the Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto, outside of Bradenton. She was also the person who gave the Brown School tour when I was a parent of a prospective student, long before the interview.

Below is Libby in the foregound and John talking with Stephanie in the background.

Stephanie only successfully bid on a bowl. She bid pretty high on a science set - with an eye towards materials for projects for her students. At $75, another parent out-bid her. But she talked with him afterwards and exchanged phone numbers and he may give her any projects his family doesn't use.

As we left, the mother of one of Vincent's friends, Aaron, (Susan - a lawyer - on the left) volunteered to serve as PTSA secretary, as Claire and another officer looked on.

It was a fun night, but the beginning of a difficult couple of weeks (if not difficult 8 1/2 months), as the academic problems that were coming to light did not improve and yielded some unpleasant conflicts with Vincent.

-- Perry

Chronic malady

A couple of years ago I came down with a deathly attack of athlete's foot - only the second time in my life that it's been half of this bad - that eventually forced me to go shoeless at work and made it so I could barely walk (even when I had to walk the dog in the morning). That time I went to the doctor way too late, had to to go the dermatologist, and found the athlete's foot spreading. It turns out that athlete's foot comes from this fungus - that are essentially plants growing in your skin - plants that spread by spores spreading the seeds - kind of like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." In that sense - once you've got it - kind of like scabies - it's very hard to get rid of - because the spores can spread anywhere your feet or other infected parts of your body come near. Instead of airing out your feet, you need to wear socks always (and change them often) to keep the spores from spreading - including in bed. Stephanie had come down with some athlete's foot late last month but started applying my old medicine. I lost my mind for a few days and did nothing and even forgot entirely about my old training regime. But then I called the doctor and got the over-the-counter lotion he suggested plus spray for the inside of my shoes and started wearing and changing socks, etc. I also then went to the doctor and got strong oral medication (but last time I got this it was already too late - my athlete's foot almost overwhelmed the oral medication) - although I lost it over the busy week that followed. Gradually, the athlete's foot has receded and - as Stephanie found my oral medication over the weekend - I'm back to taking that, which will hopefully eliminate the whole thing. I don't think it's an accident that both times I've gotten this - I've been particularly busy and run down - as it seems to develop when my general health isn't great either. Let's hope it's gone soon. In the mean time, another chronic problem which is tough to eliminate - fleas on Frisco and likely eggs everywhere - has cropped up again.

-- Perry

Obama foreign policy event

Monday night earlier this month I went to an Obama-Biden campaign foreign policy event, across the Ohio River in a battleground state (Indiana), at a school that Stephanie and Vincent visited as a possible school for him (and where two of my co-workers go to school). In fact, on the way from the parking lot to the library 3rd floor, I bought Vincent a T-shirt - he's now got one from every school he's visited - and looked around the campus, cafeteria, and library. The event started late but involved an Indiana Obama supporter (former Northern IN Congressman Tim Roemer (from South Bend) and a foreign policy expert by virtue of serving on the 9/11 Commission and one of Obama's chief foreign policy experts, Susan Rice, now with the Brookings Institute.

Congressman Roemer (above) gave more of a passionate case for electing Obama (whom he had apparently endorsed early on). He talked about the activities of the passengers on that flight over PA - who decided at great risk to make a change when things clearly weren't going right - as a model for what we should do now - make change when things clearly aren't going right (by electing Senator Obama president). Roemer was a good speaker.

Dr. Rice (pictured above and below) was a little more analytical, covering various foreign policy areas (this was before the big stock market meltdown and massive bailout proposal) and also making the case - as Roemer had - that - while Senator McCain has some foreign policy experience - he hasn't had good foreign policy judgment. When I asked Dr. Rice a question - essentially for our support for potential NATO members on Russia's Western border - similar question to one Governor Palin was asked - she pointed out my lack of knowledge and continued a relatively tough line - a la Senator McCain, instead of Patrick Buchanan - countries like Georgia and Ukraine should be able to join NATO if they want to (apparently never mind how nervous - perhaps understandably - this makes Russia).

Some of the most interesting moments from the event - sponsored by the College Democrats and moderated by an IUS prof - barely covered by the media - local FOX news and the Southern IN paper - involved the audience. Several people reflected on the campaign in general. A couple of Hilary Clinton supporters (one pictured below) reflected on why they have now gotten behind Senator Obama.

A couple of others (including the U of L professor pictured below) were very tough on President Bush and Senator McCain and said that they'd like to hear Senator Obama get back to calling a spade a spade and run a tough campaign against the monstrous government that the Bush Administration has helped create, that a McCain-Palin administration will only feed (sorry - my paraphrasal doesn't do the statements justice).

-- Perry