The Bawdy Cloister

Get Your Grain On!

Mrs. T and I were watching the season finale of America's Most Smartest Model last night when a commercial for My Word Coach aired.  Mrs. T's eyes lit up.  English is her second language and she's been in a learning slump the last couple of years.  The Word Coach caught her attention as something easy and fun she could do on the side.  I tucked her reaction into my memory thinking Word Coach might make a nice little Christmas gift.

Then just this morning on National Public Radio I listened to a story about the website FreeRice.com .  It's a free vocabulary building website based on a program designed by a guy to help his son's performance on the SAT.  Turns out it's become hugely popular not just among high school students, but also folks studying English as a second language.  Moreover, with every word you answer correctly, the site donates 20 grains of rice to the UN's World Food Programme.

When I got to work this morning I logged on to check it out.  It's pretty neat, albeit humbling.  The site ranks your vocabulary level on a scale from 1-50.  Your level fluctuates as you hit or miss.  It remembers your highest level reached and your current level.  I played for a few minutes and decided to play until I earned 1,000 grains of rice.  I figured at that point I could share my score with others so we could compare.  It's a lot of fun, only problem now is that I'm back to square one for Mrs. T's Christmas present.

So without further ado, my current vocab level at 1,000 grains of rice was 39 with a highest level of 42.  Play for yourself at FreeRice.com and let me know how you fared.

Nothing New Under the Sun: A Reply to S. Reed

Slender Reed's comment on my last post reminded me of another YouTube video....

Algorithm March: With Ninjas!

You might recall last summer I wrote about how the Acolyte is addicted to a Japanese kid's show called Inai Inai Baa!  Well, he still is, and these days he's copying a lot more of the dances.  We record it every morning and watch it in the evening as part of our standard post-dinner, pre-bath ritual.

The thing is, the show starts at 10:15 in the morning, and because of the screwy way a lot of the TV Japan shows are listed in the directory, we're forced to set the recording timer at 10:00.  At first I thought it was a pain having to fast-forward through 15 minutes worth of Non-Inai Inai Baa! programming to get to the show.  But a few weeks back I realized that the show just before Inai Inai is actually pretty entertaining.

It's called Pythagoras Switch and it targets slightly older kids.  One of my favorite sequences in the show is called the Algorithm March.  I was thrilled yesterday when I discovered that it had been posted on YouTube.  Trust me, you'll want to check this out:

The march has many different versions, it's not ninjas all the time.  It's been shot with a crew of firemen, a soccer team and all sorts of other characters.

It appears I'm not the only one who appreciates the march either....

Because you're cheaper than therapy...

I've been under the weather most of this week and the wife says it's my fault.  On Monday, after work, I drove up to Austin to pick up an old high school buddy for a Tori Amos concert.  The concert was in San Antonio and looked like this...

After the show I drove my friend back to Austin, then drove myself back to San Antonio getting to bed at about 2:30am.  That's about an hour later than I anticipated it would take.

That would normally have been okay.  Problem was, I learned earlier that day at work that I had to be in Goliad the next morning at 8 which meant I had to wake up at 5:30.  So I did.  I got to Goliad on time, with only 2 1/2 hours sleep, and took care of my business there, then headed for a meeting in Corpus Christi that afternoon.  I arrived home Tuesday around 6 pm and crashed.  By then my immune system shut down and I was running a fever and feeling cruddy the next two days.

The wife says I'm getting too old to pull stunts like this.  (I'm 33.)  I said I would have been fine had it not been for the hour delay getting out of the concert and the unexpected early wake-up the following morning... that is, gone to bed at 1:30 (just an hour later than my usual bedtime) and been able to sleep till 6:45 like normal.

"You haven't learned your lesson, have you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Given the same circumstances in the future, you'd still stay out till 2:30?"

"If I didn't know I had to be up so early the following morning at the time I made my plans, then yes."

"Stupid."

What say you?

BTW:  Yesterday at work I told a 24 year-old guy I work with that I saw Tori Amos in concert Monday.  He replied, "Should I know who that is?"  Maybe I am showing my age.

Involuntary Downsizing

Two weeks ago I received a letter in the mail stating that our landlord intends to sell the Cloister, so they would not be renewing my lease. However, they were willing to give me first option to buy and they'd take into consideration money saved by not having to put the place on the market and have it sitting empty.

This news came at the worst possible time, because my lease expires in May.  I had been planning to take May-July off work to study for the bar, NOT a good time to be moving.  I wasn't too keen on buying this place (or any place for that matter) because I have a financial plan that will land me a nice place in about 2 years from now.  I asked the owners what they were willing to sell the place for and I scoffed at the quote.  Essentially, these folks bought the property 2 months before we rented it.  And they got a deal on the place.  They're real estate investment types and own 12 other properties in town.  They intend to sell all of them this year.  The "deal" they were offering was $25,000 more than the current appraisal and probably close to $40,000 more than they paid for the place when they bought it just a year and a half ago!  I checked with a mortgage broker and learned that I could qualify to buy the place if I wanted to.  I entertained that option for about a day, the plus being I could avoid the hassle of moving.  But I figured that money could get me a lot more house if I shopped around, especially in this market.  Moreover, if I held out 2 more years like I was originally planning for, I could get even more.  So with that bit of knowledge I knew a move was imminent.

So last week I look out my livingroom window and I see a moving truck in my neighbor's driveway.  A guy pulled up in a shiny black SUV and planted a "For Rent" sign in their front yard.  I ran out and asked about it.  The realtor told me he hadn't even listed the place on the computer yet and the family wouldn't be cleared out and the place cleaned up until mid-December, but if I gave him a security deposit he'd hold it for me for a Jan 1 move-in.  (Most places don't hold property more than 2 weeks, so this was perfect!)  I ran down to my property manager's office and had them draft a letter stating I could end my current lease on Jan 31 without penalty.  This will give me a one month overlap allowing me to move all my stuff into the house across the street in January and give me time to settle before taking time off work.

The only negative is that the house across the street is much smaller.  The place I'm in now is 2600 square feet, the new place is only 1600.  That's 3 rooms worth of furniture the new place doesn't have room for.  A lot of our big furniture won't even fit up the stairs.  So the plan is to use the livingroom downstairs as a storage facility and do most of our living upstairs with only a fraction of our stuff.  On the bright side, 2 years from now I'll have limitless options.

Needless to say, if you think my blogging has been sporadic recently, just wait till December/January.  I'm going to be a busy bunny.

It's time for you to shut up and kneel before me, please.

You might recall that last February I got an excited call from my Dad thinking he'd traced our genealogy back to William the Conqueror.  There was just one link in the chain that was iffy.  We still haven't figured that problem out, but it doesn't matter anymore.  We found a solid link through another branch!  Check this out, no asterisks in this list:

1.  Rowdy Theologian, his father is

2.  Old Methodist Theologian, his father was

3.  Grandpa Theologian, his father was

4.  Great Grandpa Theologian, his mother was

5.  Amy Perrine, her mother was

6.  Lillian Burdsall, her father was

7.  Middleton Burdsall, his father was

8.  Samuel Burdsall, his mother was

9.  Dorothy Chrispin, her father was

10. Paul Chrispin, his mother was

11. Margarite Owen, her father was

12. Joshua Owen, his father was

13. Owen Humphrey, his mother was

14. Elizabeth Ferch Sion Howell, her mother was

15. Sibyl Ferch Hugh Gwynn, her mother was

16. Jane Ferch Owen ap Huw, her mother was

17. Sibyl Griffith, her father was

18. William Griffith, his mother was

19. Joan Troutbeck, her mother was

20. Margarate Stanley, her mother was

21. Joan Goushill, her mother was

22. Elizabeth Fitzalan, her mother was

23. Elizabeth DeBohun, her father was

24. William DeBohun, his mother was

25. Elizabeth Plantagenet, her father was

26. Edward I, his father was

27. Henry III, his father was

28. John, his father was

29. Henry II, his mother was

30. Empress Matilda, her father was

31. Henry I, his father was

32. William the Conqueror--my 29th great grandfather.

Grandpa!!

Baby Vs. Chihuahua

One by one I keep reuniting in person with old high school friends I've tracked down on Facebook.  This afternoon I took Mrs. T and the Acolyte to Travis Park in downtown San Antonio for the Jazz'SAlive Festival.  There we met my old buddy, Wheatie, who I hadn't seen since 1992!  He brought his family with him too, including their Chihuahua, Boo Boo.  Boo Boo and the Acolyte got along famously....

I'm Single!

Well, at least till Friday when Mrs. T returns home from her business trip.  So far I'm handling the Acolyte okay by myself.  Doesn't leave much time for blogging though... sorry.

Beach Bumming

Took the family down to South Padre Island this weekend for a little fun in the sun...

The Acolyte enjoyed the local restaurants as well...

Family Matters

We practiced naming animals with the Acolyte today, but it looks like he takes after his Dad in terms of study skills:

Later, Mrs. T drew a family portrait on a napkin at dinner: