— 1 —

We’re in the midst of high school applications, which really means that I have to finish the heir’s online application. I’m not a big fan of all this “applying to high school” business. I keep thinking that every Catholic child who attends Catholic elementary/middle school should have a seat in a Catholic high school. It irks me that there are protestant kids filling seats while some Catholic children don’t get picked. Not that the heir won’t get in, but it’s annoying. He has attended Band Night at his school of choice and, despite the fact that neither his father, older brother nor I play any instruments, he plays the guitar and is interested in learning a brass instrument or percussion.

— 2 —

The Heir made his high school bowling team. He taught himself to bowl in 5 week. He really loved rowing but the local rowing club started falling apart. Loss of great coaches, new head coach who brought in sculling instead of the sweeping that the boys loved, so the Heir decided to bowl. All that rowing has resulted in lots of upper body and leg strength so he was able to pick it up pretty quick. Since it’s an official school sport versus a club team he can get a varsity letter in it…snort. I told him I’d buy him letter jacket but he said it would be a waste of time. I would so totally rock a bowling varsity letter. When he gets his letter I may just frame it for him anyway.

— 3 —

The Heir did incredibly well on his ACT testing, a 31 out of 36, which places him in the top 97% of test takers. He only got an 1830 on his SAT because he refused to take a prep course or study (he refused to even open the book I bought him). He takes all AP and Honors classes, and had three years of Latin. Of course, he uses none of this brain power for actual studying so while he could have straight As, he’s happy with solid Bs with no effort. I’m not happy but then, it’s not my future that’s being impacted. So, he has been accepted to LSU and University of Arkansas and has guaranteed acceptance to several Texas universities (but not the flagship UT Austin). He’s also applying to the University of Connecticut, Purdue, USC, UC Santa Clara, and UT Austin. Northeastern in Boston, Fordham, Tulane, and the University of Chicago have emailed him and asked him to apply, waiving their application fees. Of course, we cannot afford any of these universities but I guess we’ll see what happens and then cobble together funds. We’ve told him, no student loans for him or us, which will limit where he can go, unless he can be resourceful and get funding.

— 4 —

We passed our audit at work with flying colors (other than a regulatory issue which we don’t handle so “we” passed with flying colors, but they need to issue a corrective plan). In the midst of that trauma my favorite co-worker unexpectedly quit to take an opportunity in another city so it’s been very sad and stressful and I’m overworked. But our new hire started yesterday! I’m so happy! Granted it will be a while before he is up and running autonomously but, yeah! Did I say I’m happy?

— 5 —

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is next week. I have all these Martha Stewart expectations (and the skills and equipment to be successful) but my desires far exceed my initiative. I haven’t taken any vacation time in months so I’m taking next Wednesday and the following Monday off. My goal? Complete, thoroughly clean the house, decorate for Christmas, and work on our former bedroom that we’re trying to renovate into a second living area. But I think I will try out this Christmas cake:

Instructions can be found here:

— 6 —

The Spare and I have been watching Big Bang Theory and the Patriarch bought him the complete Star Trek (original series cast) movies as well as the other movies (with Capt. Picard) and Next Generation for his birthday, which was November 7th. Anyway, last night he stated that after watching all these movies, Big Bang Theory is like a new show! He’s getting all the Star Trek references. We only stress the important things at our house.

— 7 —

I can’t wait to see Spielberg’s “Lincoln”. I really, really, really like Daniel Day Lewis. So here’s a picture of how I would like to see him as Lincoln:

You’re welcome.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!