Mostly about reading

Not a creature is stirring here at chez trek on this second day of summer, except me, obviously. A good time for a Wednesday Morning Bullet Post. As soon as I grab my tea, that is...

• Ah, tea!What a lovely thing. Piping hot with a splash of milk and a scant bit of sugar. Heaven on earth.



• Since I sent in all the Box Tops before school closed, our little balsa wood collecting box is very empty. Wondering if I should launch another Boxtopapalooza this summer. Would a new contest garner more comments?



• Neatnik's report card arrived in the mail yesterday. The children used to bring them home with them on the last day but now they mail them.



• We are so very proud of our Neatnik: straight As for the last term and final averages. Way to go, my child!



• Sadly, Number Guy was on a business trip yesterday. We are postponing academic celebration until Daddy is able to join us.



• Speaking of terms, the summer term is almost finished. My students have only today's class and then finals on Monday.



• As much as I enjoy this crop of students, I am ready for the school year to end. In past, I've not taught summer term and always had a few weeks between the end of my school year and the end of Neatnik's school year.



• This year I did not and I missed it.



• I was also planning to have the hardware from the Infamous Ankle Incident removed in May but now am putting that off until the fall.



• Nobody needs limited mobility during the summer.



• Did I happen to mention that one of my students came to the first class in a cast? Or that the same student showed up a few days later in a sling?? Or that two other students showed up in casts and bandages a few days after that???



• Could this be contagious?



• I am really enjoying Lendle. So far, I've borrowed 14 books and have three more queued to accept the loans. I've also loaned out 22 books and I convinced Abigail to sign up!



• If you leave your Lendle handle/URL, I promise to visit you there.



• Had a little issue with my Kindlethis weekend. The battery started draining like mad.



• Kindle support recommended restarting the unit then recharging and seeing if that fixed the problem. They thought it might be a software glitch.



• Didn't work. Was back on the horn with them on Monday. Got a guy who mumbled about indexing but wouldn't tell me what to do - just wanted to send an email. What if I had more questions?? I asked for a supervisor and he hung up on me.



• Eventually got a supervisor who told me what needed doing and also sent written directions after the call. Said to leave the Kindle on the wall charger for 24 hours to complete the process.



• I am in the middle of Antiques Bizarre,which is a Lendle loan, but I started a library bookwhile the Kindle was in hospital.



• Didn't want to be chained to the wall.



• Reminded me of when we were kids and the moms all had the loooooooong coiled telephone cordin the kitchen so that they could see down the hallway to where we were getting in trouble.



• I'm pretty sure our phone cord stretched a good ten feet under all that strain.



• The Kindle appears to be all charged up. I really hope this has fixed the battery drain problem as the Lendle loan is due on Saturday.



• I had a heap of loans all come through at the same time so this is the last of a batch that had to be read immediately.



• Unlike the library, there are no renewals on ebook loans.



• Time out: I need to reheat my tea...



• Ah, much better. Where was I? Doesn't matter, change of subject. That's what's so nice about a bullet post!



• I signed Neatnik and myself up for the summer reading programs at the local library.



• Personally, I think that the program's parameters are a very sad statement on literacy in America. The program runs from the beginning of June to the middle of August. I think there are about 72 days in the program. For the young ones, that works out to under seven minutes of reading a day. Adults would have to finish a book every 18 days.



• I'm pretty certain that nobody reading this bullet is at all surprised that we have both achieved our goals in the first week. The bar, after all, was set very low.



• Neatnik has read 68 69 new books this year, coinciding with completing her second summer reading incentive and I am planning to bring her to the book store to select her reward book.



• Note to self #1: Check to see if the library has the Happy Meal incentives yet. I hate fast food, but allowing the child a Happy Meal as a treat a couple of times a summer? That I can do.



• Even if I need to clothespin my nose shut while she noshes.



• Note to self #2: Come up with new summer reading incentive ideas.



• She is also keeping up very well with her math homework. The school sent home a math workbook this year. I have Neatnik doing two pages a day on weekdays and she get weekends off.



• Note to self #3: Print out multiplication and division math fact pages for review.

I need to wrap up here: Neatnik just made her way down the stairs and said that her tummy hurts. Prescription for a generalized tummy hurts complaint: bit of reading on Mommy's lap therapy.

Happy Wednesday!

Updated Wednesday, June 22nd, 5:34pm If you'd like to torture yourself, the second chapter of Ghost Storyis posted here.