Tresses for Success

That is the name of my niece Keiko's website, I think. She has a new job working in a salon and is trying to get some clients. Her website isn't finished, yet, but keep checking my links; when it is done, I will post it.

She does great work; she is in charge of my cousin Gayle's hair for her wedding (and mine too though she doesn't know it yet!).

Monster Truck madness

There is little to say in this post - I have to admit that we took Champ and his friends to the Monster Truck show last week. Though the motor-cross riders were exceptionally interesting,the real highlight was the fact that we got to sit in a club suite!

Falling down

Okay, I really think it is time for me to give up running. Again, I was outside running and fell down. Face first, but at least this time I did not try to save myself by using my legs - which always causes some leg problem. I guess I will have to take up walking.

The Lakers

The Randy's basketball team is now 5-6. They are done with the regular season and after a week off with practice, the playoffs will start. If they win their first playoff game, I will miss their second on as I will be in Vegas!

An interesting coaching dilemma came up for big Randy. This past Thursday was the last regular season game. There is a girl on the team, not a particularly athletic girl. She hasn't scored all year and they always have to run special plays just to get her to touch the ball. Randy wanted to give her a chance to score in this final game, as she has played in this league for 2 years without ever scoring. So he decided to play her for the entire game until she scored. Not only that, but he had the whole team talk about it and agree to feed her the ball until she scored. Meaning, they weren't going to score many points in the game and most likely get blown out by the other team.

I was against it - being for equal opportunity and not favoritism - but he did it anyway. The team seemed to be fine with it and rallied around her to try and get her a point. At first, I don't think it was obvious to the other team what was going on. Eventually they found out (how is another story that really pissed me off, but I'll not air that dirty laundry right now (and it wasn't my husband that did it)). She finally scored in the middle of the 3rd quarter and the gym went crazy for her. Though I was still not quite sure it was the best thing to do, but her parents were very happy. And she asked to be on my husband's team again next year.

Once she scored, the rest of the team went back into action. They didn't win, but at least they didn't seem down or depressed by it. I can't wait to see them in the playoffs!

The cost of poverty

This weekend my husband and I spent a few hours helping a friend renovate a house for his new tenants. The house is in good shape, even though it is located in a housing project. As we worked, we talked about the problems in our society about the accumulation of wealth through housing. In poor African American neighborhoods, owning a home has benefits, but the benefit of building wealth is not present. Houses purchased 40 years ago in these neighborhoods may have cost between $10,000 and $15000 and are now only worth $50,000 or $60,000 - and this is only true sometimes - you can purchase these house for $25000 or $35000 now. In downtown areas, similar houses go for $350000 to $1 million.

But on the other hand, we also talked about the problems of having houses in high crime areas. As we worked, we had drug dealers walking through the yard of the house. How much money do you put into these house, knowing that the tenants may or may not keep it up? In the end, we did what we could - putting up new blinds, cleaning rugs, fixing fences.

we even put up curtains -



- okay, these really aren't curtains. They were left over shower curtains that we cut up to cover the edges of the windows because the blinds in the middle (which are the stick on kind) really didn't fit and left a 4 inch gap on the sides. I did the best I could to make them look as nice as I could.

The cost of poverty.....

Vegas - here we come!

I have been involved with a research study about using a SMARTboard with teachers while teaching math. If you don't know, a SMARTboard is a large whiteboard-type computer screen. You can write on it with special pens, use virtual tools like blocks, dice, videos, that can be touched and moved. It is great to use in classrooms because it is easy to see, allows you to use many different tools and things to present information, you can allow students to share their ideas and solutions, and demonstrate actions and ideas with virtual tools.



One of the teachers in the study is working with me to present our research at a Technology conference in Las Vegas. We are excited, but wary. Our presentation is during the poster session; we create a large (4 ft by 6 ft) poster that describes our work and we stand with it and answer questions about the project. We are wary because the poster session will be held during the social wine and cheese time of the conference. So for an hour and a half, we will be explaining all our hard work to tipsy conferencers!

Let's just hope that the wine makes them more cordial and friendly and they think our work is so very interesting!

Basketball Ups and Downs

It has been a while since I have blogged, sorry about that.

Well, the Randy's team is now 4-5. They look like a very good team while they are playing even when they lose. They don't give up - they play hard to the very end.

I don't get to take pictures because I usually keep the stats for both teams during the game. I hope to get some pictures from the game this coming Wednesday.

Check back then!