First Days of School

Stardate 57082.7 (08-27-2004)

The first three days of school have passed. Thomas, as expected, cried as he went in the first day. The next couple of days, however, he went in with a smile on his face. The teacher, NaLani Gannon, told me he did very well. I'd have to call her a miracle worker. I still wonder what happened at the day care center that made him so terrified of it. The was the one day that they made him go outside after the weather had turned cold. Or it could be a combination of events. I think he went into pre-kindergarten with the idea it would be the same. In any case, he seems far more comfortable now. Patrick leapt out of the car the first day, yelled 'Bye, dad", and was gone. He did express the desire to go to the public school down the street so he could go with the neighborhood boys. I told him he still gets to play with them after school, and he if he did go to the public school, he would not see his other friends. Rachel enjoys school, and is glad to be back with her friends. One of them, Melissa, is in a different class from her for the first time since pre-K.

It seems a little strange to have all the kids in school. I had a couple of free hours Thursday, and sat at the Starbucks on Riverdale Road reading a book. I could get used to it pretty quickly. April is out of town looking at a new chemistry analyzer for her work. The apparently put her in a really nice hotel, or more of a resort.

Even as they push XP SP2 to the update servers, people are already finding flaws. I have not seen the notice from the auto update program yet. I might just go and download it manually.

Lots of new terms to learn. POJOs, JMS, JMX, Struts, ILOG, EJB, Xdoclet, ANT, to name a few. I know technically what they all are, but understanding is a bit different. Java enthusiasts point to this plethora of tools as a proof that the language is better than the rest. Me, it seems a little complex. .NET is simpler, but I have heard predictions that it will go the same route.

It's been raining nearly every evening this week.  It's nice, because I turned off the automatic sprinklers the whole week, and the lawn is still green and growing fast. On the other hand, it has been cooler that normal for the end of August.

Well, there was a great deal more I was going to write down, including something about Tonya Wright and not talking, but I am tired. I was out wrestling with the kids this evening, which I have not done in a while. It's fun to do, but I am paying the price in shoulder cramps. I broke down last week and had my doctor prescribe some muscle relaxants. The one tonight is starting to kick in.

End of Entry