Sunday, September 5, 2010

labor day blues

What a beautiful weekend! The air is cool and crisp and the sky is blue. The surf is calm(ish) once again, after the hurricane that never really was for the Jersey shore. But summer is over. One more day!

Yesterday, we drove M down to work and took a walk along the boardwalk, then picked her up and had dinner at one of the beach hot spots. She was grumpy today about the escort service, and I was tired anyway, so she drove herself. She texted that she had made it, so we'll see what the car looks like. Since being her work transport, the car has had several injuries: something sharp dragged across the rear bumper, something white opened into the side, and some seagull target practice all over everywhere. And this is the car that's up for lease return in a few short months.

B is in crunch mode for his summer reading test. He went in Friday morning for pictures and book issuance, and after that we went to see the neurologist, for a clean bill of neurological health for the half-year. No MRI! I'm sure this won't be forever, and I'll probably sweat it out even worse than ever when it's been more time in between, but for now I am happy about the outcome. And he had a strange little black thing removed from his face (to the tune of a non-reimbursable $175!!!) which was also pronounced nothing to worry about.

The problem he's run into is that the practice tests and lesson plans I bought from an online site are now no longer accessible, which they should have been for a year, and the only recourse is to send an email to the site, and they don't even promise to respond for 24-48 hours! This at $17 per lesson plan! I'm not happy about this. I found another site that had one of the tests on it, and paid $5 for that and printed it out ASAP. It's not as comprehensive, but hopefully he's done the due diligence already.

M is plugging through her summer work, and she ended up staying in the European history AP class, which added another huge packet to her first-day-of-school work. She emailed the teacher for extra time, but I don't think she has heard back. Her only real option to switch into was Calculus BC and she was more worried to do that - they had also had a large summer packet which she has not done. And yesterday I took the Explorer up, got a spare key made for it (the old one got severed by the power seat) and had it washed, waxed, vacuumed, etc for her to take to school on Tuesday. She wanted to take the Honda, but since it has to go back anyway, might as well start with the sticker on the other car from Day One.

She also finally got connected with the coach from a fourth school, who invited her for yet another official visit. So she has the two coming up this month in PA, and then one in NY and one in Boston in October, missing a day of school for each. I hope one of these produces a good fit for her and for us by November so she can be done with this process and focus on her classes for the rest of the year! Two of the schools are in the same league, and someone we spoke to sang the praises of this league for putting academics ahead of athletics. The other two may be more intense, which might mean missing more school for meets and meet-related travel. Stay tuned.

In other news, Molly's blood tests were all the same, meaning her Cushing's hasn't returned and she still needs the prednisone supplements indefinitely. This is a cheaper alternative to the drug that controls the adrenal glands, but it's a little dismaying that that drug killed them off so completely. It would seem to me they are never coming back. But this way of being for her is so much better than before. She no longer has 24 hour insatiable thirst, almost never pees in the house, and her rear legs are a lot less shaky. She rarely falls down the stairs, although she does still randomly collapse on slippery surfaces. But that could just mean it's time for a paw trim :-).

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