OK, she's the one I was thinking of. Neat kid. So she's had some surgery?

Sorry to hear about T.

(Yeah, they made an impression.)

Engaging my teen friend on fb. Playing a meme, but MY RULES. Not text or chatspeak. She probably thinks I'm crazy. But since I can't mold her in person much these days, fb is it.

Yep. They constructed thumbs for S and I think fixed her jaw.

Yes. Ms. Leslie is AWESOME. She had Grace show us all the things Grace does -- she uses Dynavox to communicate while there. She plays. She uses the slide (!!) I think Ms. Leslie's class is exactly the write place for now.

Ooh, what does she do with the Dynavox?

Man, this movie is stupid. What I actually want to be watching is Push.

After the divorce I was happy to see KCD get back into bowling. He is good at it and enjoys both coaching and playing league.

Tonight he bowled his first 300. And called CJ as the first person to tell.

Yay awesome Ms. Leslie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TYPO BOY!!!!

::mearatime::

I am normally really tough on religion, but I defend Mormons and Mormonism to an absolutely illogical degree. I'm not really sure why this is, probably just because they were all so damned nice to me, but I am fully aware that it doesn't make any sense.

I have similar warm feelings about Jehovah's Witnesses. A co-worker I was good friends with (I even dated her nephew for a time) was a very active JW but never got proselytize-y with me. She said it was frowned upon unless you were actively doing mission work. First evangelists I ever met with an off-switch. Gotta respect that.

The man was close to bleeding to death but managed to call police. His life was saved but he remains a eunuch for life.

Pretty sure they can give him hormones nowadays. Sorry, folks, no eunuchs here.

You know, had it been real.

When I had a street entrance in Astoria I use to get Mormon missionaries a fair amount. Usually a pair of sweet-faced blond boys with short-sleeved button-down shirts and a name tag saying Elder Whatever. They always looked a little overwhelmed -- NY has to be a rough beat. Poor little things, working so hard to be elder... I'd usually offer them a glass of water. Sometimes they'd accept. We'd chat for a moment and they'd go on their way.

My friend Miriam has a coworker from the Philippines. Her co-worker was amazed that Miriam was Jewish. She was all, "You celebrate Christmas, right? You still believe in Jesus, right?" Apparently, co-worker had never met a non-Christian before.

Suburban New Jersey, 1989, her first year of High School (and first year of non-parochial school) my friend T kept grilling one Jewish friend "But WHY don't you have a Manger scene? They're so PRETTY!" Heh.

Lo these many years later her world has changed greatly and I'm sure her girlfriend of ten years is tired of the story...

I have discovered, over the years, that the more eccentric I look, the less likely people are to talk to me about religion. I guess the evangelical types figure there's no hope for me anyway, so why expend the effort.

I was all killjoyed out for a show and (much to my disappointment) people on the platform at Penn Station were STARING at me. C'mon people, I don't care if I have blue hair and a makeup mask it's NYC and you should be able to DEAL. I felt like the Hasidic guy was really out of line with the staring - you're dressed like a Polish person in the 1500s. I don't think you get to judge!

Home, for me, is right where I'm sitting now and nowhere else, and this is the first time since I moved out for college that that has been entirely true.

That is wonderful. Congratulations, Zen.

Tonight he bowled his first 300. And called CJ as the first person to tell.

Whoa! That's impressive.

Dynavoxes are the AAC devices that are similar to what Stephen Hawking uses. [link]

At school, Grace can answer questions. During the IEP/conference, Leslie asked Grace what that morning's story was about and Grace knew to push the button that said Reindeer. They also have lowtech PICS folders for the kids. So she can create folders that say things like I like _______. Or I want to do ______. And the blanks are filled with little pictures of activities.

We need a PICS box for her at home to communicate.

Or, if I could afford it I'd get her an iPad with this software: [link]