This is Important because...

In a jar you have collected spare coins. You have the same number of dimes as quarters. The rest are nickels. You have a total of 34 coins valuing $4.20. How many of each coin do you have?

Now really, if you are neurotic enough to need to know how many of each type of coin you have in your jar - and you only have 34 coins - just take the bloomin' things out and count them! 

Oh, I know, this is not about coins necessarily, it's just a way to think about a certain type of math problem.  (Forget that there's a whole category of word problems called 'coin problems.') I maintain that it's a ridiculous kind of math problem that will likely never do me any good. 

I've realized that half of my problem in math is that I sit there and think to myself "this is so STUPID!" or "I am ne-ver going to use this!" and that distraction (never mind how TRUE it is) makes math even harder. But it's true! (You can see that I really do get stuck here.)

Milk women instead of cows?

In case you're not already convinced that PETA is out of their minds, here's one more reminder - maybe the best yet. They have asked Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk rather than cow milk. Those little baby cows need milk whereas human babies.... I don't know, I guess they don't need it...  You can read the article and the letter sent to Ben & Jerry's here:

http://www.wnbc.com/new/17539627/detail.html

Good for PETA! Let's milk women instead of cows!! We could have milking stalls at the local mall where you could donate unwanted breast milk. No pump with you? No worries we have extras! A little shy? Well then, just pull this lovely privacy curtain around you. Bring your full container to the receptionist and she'll give you cash on the spot. It's that easy!

Why hasn't anyone thought of this earlier?  Now, some of you moms are thinking that you have plenty of extra milk so this could be a great opportunity for you but what about those moms without extra milk? How ever will they choose - feed my baby or make ice cream?  

And think of the extra choices you'd have at the local Ben & Jerry's store. Hmm, I think I'll have a Mooo-ther's Milk with chocolate sprinkles. Wait, are those milk chocolate sprinkles? No? Oh, um, then I'll have to pass on those. Just 2 scoops of Mooo-ther's Milk please.

Mmm, mmm! I'm hungry just thinking about it!

Less Laundry

Over the last few weeks I've noticed that J's laundry is quite a bit less than it has been in the past. He'll probably suggest that it's because he has no clothes and therefore nothing to wash.  I assure you, this is not the case. You might think he's wearing dirty clothes over and over.  Trust me, he's not into that - he likes his image far too much. What then, can be going on?  

I realized that I haven't been bothering him as much about picking up the clothes on his floor and putting them away.  Of course when I say that, I mean 'away' in the sense of putting them in a dresser drawer (he has 5 drawers available to him) or hanging them neatly (or not neatly - what do I care?) on hangers in his closet (where he has ample room). Since those options don't appeal to him (FAR to much work and sadly, then he "can't find anything") he leaves them on his floor. When I bug him to put them away, he puts them in his laundry hamper and brings them down on laundry day. So since I haven't been bugging him, he hasn't bothered "cleaning up" and I have less laundry to do. 

This is one of those contradictions that as a parent I'm not quite sure how to address. I mean, I appreciate less laundry but, really, he should learn to put his clothes away... Eh, whatever. Less laundry for me!

The Little Things

Life is full of little things that make me happy so I thought I'd share some of them that I've enjoyed this week.

1. I love it when my hair turns out really cute but I can't for the life of me figure out what I did differently... This also confuses me but I'm more happy than confused so happy wins. 

2. I love finding a great new recipe!

3. I love sleeping in a bed that you just changed the sheets on cause the sheets are all tight and even if you make the bed every day it's never quite like that until you change the sheets again.

4. As I study history I love to see how things worked together to ready the world for the Restoration! It's so cool!

5. I love it when I get a math problem right the first time. Seriously, this doesn't happen very often so it's really a happy thing when it does!!

What are some things that make you happy?

To Disengage My Brain

Some weeks the 'tiredness' sets in more severely than others and this is one of those weeks.  This morning I told Justin that I'm going to have Diet Pepsi for breakfast and I'm so tired I might just die by the end of the week. (yes, of course I'm being dramatic)  He said, "oh no."  You know, I'm not entirely sure he was concerned.

Last night my eyes just hurt and I was about to fall asleep on the spot - where ever that spot may be.  Until I got into bed. Then there's an instant awakening as my head hits the pillow and my brain starts going over and over what happened today and what I need to do tomorrow, etc. I have got to learn to disengage my brain at bed time but I have no idea how. Ok little brain, enough is enough - if you can't work properly during the day (what was that I was supposed to do??) you certainly don't need to bother at bed time. Because then I can't sleep for way too long and by the time I actually go to bed it's already late then I start to freak out cause I can't sleep and now I'll really be tired cause I'll only get __ hours of sleep at the best...  which makes it worse and then I really can't sleep. What a viscous cycle! My brain needs to work with me, not against me.  I think that's only fair.

etiquette question

Today I arrived at my class about 10 minutes early. This was a mistake because I sat down and instantly the girl next to me began talking. And she didn't stop until the professor walked in and began class. You might be thinking that this doesn't sound like such a big deal. Let me give you a little taste of our one-way conversation: 

She talked about her favorite English teacher, who sadly only teaches 100 level classes so even though he was a bit eccentric she's sad that she can't take his class again. Then she said she was so glad our book this semester is hardback (yeah, me too - that only adds another pound of two to the monstrous thing) because it's so much better, (gasp for breath) but then "there's just not room to annotate and really what are you supposed to do? Put sticky notes all over? Then that looks messy but really I just like to be able to write lots of notes. In other books there's lots of room to write so I don't know what I'll do with this one." yada, yada, yada...

Then she went on for-e-ver about how each and every one of her books arrived in the mail - what packing was used (FOR EACH ONE) and what shape they were in and she gets sooo frustrated if the corner is bent or anything like that (gasp for breath)...

So, what's the proper etiquette in a situation like that? I believe my eyes glazed over today and I just nodded every so often and wished the teacher would hurry on up and start the class. I think next week I'll meander the halls until about 1 minute before class starts.

Falling Leaves

Fall is on its way and I'm pretty excited! I do think the Aspen next door has jumped the gun a little because it's mostly lost all of it's leaves already but nevertheless I'm happy to see the change coming. Some other things I love about fall:

1. Yankee candles that give off delicious fall smells such as pumpkin and fall harvest and mulled cider.  Yum!  I just got a BOGO coupon in the mail for Yankee so maybe I'll go check out their new fall scents...

2. A chill in the air. I love, love, love the cooler weather!!  Here's funny scene I came upon yesterday - my mom and brother sitting in the living room complaining to each other about how freezing cold (they were serious) it was yesterday. Yesterday was 65 degrees out. They'll be good company for each other when it actually does get cold.

3. Most of the girls at school will start to wear more clothes - this is really good!

4. I like to walk through the park in the fall.

5. The leaves.  Who doesn't like the leaves?

Once fall really does arrive I'll probably add to my list but this will tide me over for today.