Scribblings

!Feline Friday: Tumblebush

Someone sent me a variation of the floppy girl tumbling and falling amongst the bubbles--or whatever they are. This is President Bush. Whenever I feel frustrated about how things are going or not going here and around the world, I play this game. Amber enjoys it too, even though she hasn't been able to "catch" the tumbling Bush.

More Feline Firday? Check out Carnival of the Cats

Another Kitty?

When we adopted Kosmo a couple of weeks ago, there were other kitties looking for homes. In particular there was a sad Russian Blue named "Mikey" who'd been given up (in the words of the pet sanctuary) "for no good reason". Kristin and Heidi favored adopting Mikey but TB had fallen in love with Kosmo. We all felt bad about leaving all the other kitties behind. Today someone called from the sanctuary to see how Kos is doing and TB happened to ask about Mikey. The lady told him that poor Mikey is in the hospital because he's stopped eating or drinking anything! She thinks it's depression and that a good foster home would help. Well, of course we wouldn't want anything bad to happen to the poor thing and so we want to take him in--if the hospital says he can come. So we may have a *fourth* kitty. We'll see.

Ten on Tuesday

10 Favorite Articles of Clothing

1. Purple dolphin T-shirt the girls gave me
2. Tie dye T-shirt a friend made for me
3. striped duster/robe
4. Made in Ireland T-shirt
5. Pink kitty socks
6. Kitty Christmas sweatshirt
7. Red sweater
8. Jeans (all of them)
9. Souvenier baseball caps (i.e. from Adventure Aquarium)
10. Cartman heavy jacket

Howl's Moving Castle

I saw the movie version of Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones with Kristin. It was a cute movie, I thought, a little confusing but otherwise the animation was terrific. The movie followed the book's storyline up to a certain point and then they diverged. I lost track of who was who in terms of the enchanted and found myself rushing through the last quarter of the book. I'm not quite sure what the point of the book was because the characters weren't well defined. It was just okay, a good read for kids but not really my cup of tea.

Handyman in the House

Some guys who are handy around the house start a project but don't finish. Thank heavens TB likes to finish everything he starts although sometimes he really pushes himself hard. Anyway, his latest project is our new pantry! We love our kitchen but it really didn't have a lot of storage space and we were pretty cramped in there. We decided to order a kit from JC Penney and TB put it together a couple of days ago.

What a lot of stuff, eh? Check out the wine, er, soda, rack! Cool! TB wanted a neater look and decided to add on doors, sides and a top.

Now you see everything...

Now you don't! It's not quite finished but TB is finally taking a break! The pantry just needs door handles and to be stained.

At the moment, people who don't take responsibility for themselves, their actions, or their precious possessions! I have a couple of people in mind as I write this but can't be any more specific except to say we still don't have a very much needed medical card!!!!

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Bell :: ring
2. Abuse ::injure
3. Relief ::get a break
4. List :: groceries
5. Concern :: worry
6. Absolute :: without doubt
7. Cling :: hang on to
8. Dump ::throw away
9. Terminate :: end
10. Wine :: cooking

Heidi Is 18

Actually, Heidi's birthday was on Tuesday but life was too hectic at the time to post about it. We took her to TGIFriday's for dinner and although she doesn't like a fuss to be made over her, she still seemed kind of pleased when our waiter and the other staff came over to noisily wish her a happy birthday!

Gosh, all my babies are growing up! Billy and Heidi are both "adults" now and Kristin isn't too far behind!

Feline Friday: *My* Perch!

Mouse says: Don't even think about it, Kosmo!

Friday Five

At what time of day are you most capable of producing your best work?

In the morning, up to around lunch time

When you have lots of things to get done, are you more likely to get all of one thing done before moving on, or to do a little of one thing, a little of another, and a little of still another?

I do a little bit of everything and get nothing done!

Do television and music help you or hinder you when you’ve got work to do?

Music helps, TV hinders

When you realize you’re working inefficiently, are you more likely to grit your teeth and power through it anyway, or to put it all down and come back to it when the vibe is better?

I tend to get real frustrated and put it all down until next time when usually the same thing happens again!

What are your ideal working conditions?
I'm alone in the house, got a cup of coffee and music going in the background

More Cat Friday stuff? Check out the "http://carnival.isfullofcrap.com/">Carnival of the Cats

Ten On Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday

10 Things You'd Do If You Had More Time

1. Write
2. Read
3. Walk
4. Spend more time with family
5. Spend more time with the kitties
6. Go to the beach (an hour's drive away) and just relax
7. Keep in better touch with friends
8. Call my parents/aunt
9. Volunteer
10. Write some more

Aches & Pains

Linda just went to the emergency room. She's had a bad tooth for quite a while now and it's been giving her so much pain she tried taking 8 ibuprofens at once--and they didn't help. She's feeling sick from all the pain medication and so the last resort is the ER. Why not the dentist? She doesn't have insurance yet! Her new coverage doesn't start until November 1.

It didn't occur to me until just now but I thought she should have been covered under her old insurance for at least a year under the COBRA plan. I also know that companies pay by the quarter or the half-year and so she might have been covered but didn't realize it. If she hadn't left already I would have told her about it and said for her to try to use the old insurance.

This is one of the biggest gripes I have about the underinsured and uninsured. When they need medical treatment, they can't afford it and so they put off going to the doctor until it becomes really serious. For instance, if Linda has an infection, it can easily spread to her heart valves. If that happens, the complications can be deadly! That happens to so many people in this country it's pitiful.

Tomas and I seem to have a stomach virus now. He's been a healthy little guy up to now but was off his feed today, very grumpy and kind of lethargic. I started having cramps and other viral symptoms just a couple of hours ago and he seems to have the same ones. :P On top of that there's more than the usual fibromyalgic and arthritic pains lately. Guess the weather's going to change soon.

Monday Madness

1. How do you eat an oreo cookie? (from tricia)I dip them a half at a time into milk just long enough to become really soft and then I pop 'em in my mouth before they fall into the glass!
2. How long does it take you to eat lunch?20 minutes average
3. Caffeine or decaf?Got to be high test
4. Chicken or beef?Buck-awk
5. Pen or pencil?Pen
6. Autumn or spring?Autumn--love the fall colors!
7. Baseball or basketball?Basketball
8. 'Survivor' or 'The Amazing Race?'Hard choice! Eeny meey...Survivor
9. Come up with one question I can ask our Monday Madness participants in the weeks to come.dramas or comedies?

Our Kosmo

Now that he's sort of got the lay of the land and figured out who is who in this house, Kosmo's come out of hiding. He is a very friendly, affectionate guy who--even though this post is about him--would much prefer me to scritch scratch between his ears than type on the keyboard! More later...and more pictures

here.

Hey, so is it Kosmo or Kozmo? He's not telling!

Financial Aid Feast or Famine

FAFSAs and EFCs--alphabet soup that parents of college students understand. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) determines your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) based on how much income you've got. The year Billy started at RPI, TB had been out of work (on workman's comp) for 2 years and so our EFC was low because we were broke. Then TB went back to work and for a year, we managed to stabilize ourselves...and then he got laid off. He's still laid off.

This year's FAFSA, however, reflected last year's income and so Billy's aid dropped and we got absolutely none for Heidi's at the community college. I signed a promissory note to make up the difference in Billy's tuition. We're struggling. I guess next year we'll get an abundance of aid again. Today I have a little time to catch up on my mail and reading and was intrigued to find this article online:

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Uncovering Secrets Of Financial Aid

Sept. 15, 2006
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(U.S. News & World Report) When the Breen twins of Lexington, Ky., started applying to college last fall, they just assumed that schools would look at their dad's new job as a controller for a hospital company in Tennessee, and the fact that their mom was going to lose her job as a special-education assistant when she moved to join their father at his new job, and provide enough grants to allow them to attend.

"People in the middle class live pretty much paycheck to paycheck," says Matthew Breen, 19. "They can't come up with $35,000 a year. That's absurd."

Then, in March, Matthew and Ryan started getting thick letters - and their first lesson in college economics. While some of the schools patched together enough grants so that they could just cover their costs, others gave the Breens little option but to take out big loans.

"It was really unnerving," Matthew says. "Your financial situation doesn't necessarily dictate how much aid you'll get."

Never has the gap between the simplistic assumptions of applicants and the cutthroat reality of college financial aid been so wide. A report issued late last week documented just how typical the Breens' situation is. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education said 43 of the 50 states deserved F's in college affordability for sticking families with higher tuition and making degrees less affordable. Of course, many government officials, school administrators, and educational lenders do try their best to help students afford college. Some elite colleges, for example, are becoming more generous, ensuring that the top students will get enough aid to pay their tuition. And a growing number of states and towns are funding full-tuition scholarships at community or state colleges for good students.

Unfortunately, however, more and more schools are adopting secret and sophisticated aid strategies that often end up increasing families' out-of-pocket college costs. Meanwhile, the rules governing student loans and educational savings plans have changed so dramatically recently that those who fail to adapt will end up paying more than they should have to.

Free ride

But a U.S. News analysis of hundreds of 2006 financial aid award letters, as well as interviews with researchers, college aid officers, lenders, financial planners, and students, reveals strategies that can help make a college degree more affordable.

The most important new strategies are those that yield "free money"-grants and scholarships. Most colleges tell families that the size of a financial aid award depends upon the student's ability to pay and academic performance. That's strictly true only for two kinds of schools: elite private colleges and popular public universities. Well-endowed, top-ranked schools like Princeton simply pick among the world's best students, then provide enough grants to cover anything the students really can't afford. And cash-strapped, application-flooded public colleges such as the University of Massachusetts-Amherst spread around what little scholarship money they have according to fairly simple need, merit, and athletic criteria.

But for thousands of lower-ranked schools scrambling for smarter kids, more generous donors, and increased tuition revenue, aid decisions are far more complicated-and secretive. "Most people would be shocked to learn how much goes into scholarship" decisions, says James Nondorf, vice president for enrollment at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

College math

They would indeed. Hundreds of colleges are employing Ph.D. economists, demographers, and even rocket scientists to develop mathematical formulas using as many as 100 different factors about each student to calculate the least amount of financial aid necessary to get the most desirable students to enroll.

These enrollment managers analyze such factors as the student's gender, hometown, intended major, parents' education, high school, and applications to other schools to decide the size of grants. They are increasingly able to accurately identify the students likely to enroll without any aid. Some enrollment managers say they can predict within $100 how big a scholarship it will take to attract the kinds of students the college is short on-such as females at engineering schools, rural kids at urban colleges, budding archaeologists at institutions with empty seats in classics lecture halls, and the like.

Colleges typically keep their unique formulas secret to prevent competing schools from outbidding them, to outflank parents who want to game the rules, and to give themselves wiggle room to make exceptions for special cases.

But even enrollment managers concede the secrecy causes many families to end up mistakenly paying more for college. Worse, some experts fear that colleges may be tempted to abuse their information advantage to manipulate students into paying more than they would otherwise. Rupert Wilkinson, a former American studies professor at the University of Sussex, England, who recently published a history of U.S. financial aid, says that most aid officers "came in wanting to do good. But they need to keep their jobs and meet the institution's purposes," which increasingly means raising more tuition revenue and reducing financial aid costs. "As financial aid has become more complex, it grows more vulnerable to being exploited," Wilkinson says. "There are so many things that can be used dishonestly."

Families who've been through the school of hard financial aid knocks say, however, that a few simple strategies can make college much more affordable.

The starting point is the way colleges determine how much aid students need. The government uses the information a family provides on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, to estimate how much the family can afford to spend on tuition-the so-called expected family contribution, or EFC. Many middle-income families are shocked to learn that the government expects a family of five with two students in college to spend anywhere from 22 to 47 cents (rising with income) of every after-tax earned dollar above about $27,000. On the other hand, the federal need formula, used by all but a few hundred private colleges, rewards those who save via real estate or other investments. Home equity is exempted from any contribution. And families with two parents in their early 50s are expected to spend no more than 5.6 percent annually of any nonretirement savings over about $50,000.

The difference between the government's EFC and the full cost of attendance is the need that the government and colleges attempt to fill with financial aid. Families with low incomes and EFCs of $3,850 or less, are eligible for federal Pell grants of up to $4,050. More-affluent families with higher EFCs may qualify for need-based grants from states or colleges.

The good EFC news is that because private colleges have become so expensive, even upper-middle-class families with six-figure incomes sometimes get need-based grants from schools. The bad: The vast majority of colleges fail to provide enough grants to make up the difference between a family's EFC and the cost of attendance. Overall, only half of all college students get any kind of grant. Those grants average slightly over $4,000, which leaves the typical student with a gap of almost $6,900. That can be bridged with federal student loans and part-time work.

But students who find schools looking for their particular characteristics can get schools to fork over bigger grants. The U.S. News analysis of 2006 aid awards and interviews with college administrators reveal many surprising factors students can exploit to increase their chances of getting scholarships:

Academics

Most schools give bigger grants to students who prove their abilities through grades, test scores, Advanced Placement classes, and other indicators. But an analysis of more than 300 award letters sent out by over 100 public and private colleges around the nation reveals a strategy likely to improve a student's chances for merit aid. No matter what the student's SAT score, those who applied to schools in which their scores put them in the top 25 percent of the school's student body tended to get more and bigger grants. On average, letters to students who were in the top 25 percent contained grants averaging $11,144, meeting 81 percent of the student's need. Award letters to students whose SAT scores were at least 200 points below the top 25 percent floor offered grants totaling only $7,800, meeting just 64 percent of need.

Typical were the awards from New York University, where 25 percent of last year's freshmen had (two-test) SAT scores above 1420 and the total annual cost of attendance this year is likely to top $48,000. Of seven awards examined, six failed to provide enough grants to allow the student to attend without borrowing. One student with a family EFC of about $16,000, a grade-point average of 4.1, and a below-average SAT score (for NYU) of 1300 received no grants. The only student to get the full amount of needed aid scored a very high 1520 and had a GPA of 3.9. Because that student came from a family with an EFC of slightly more than $39,000, the school grant of $10,000 made up the gap in the cost of attendance. Barbara Hall, head of NYU'S admissions and financial aid offices, says that NYU doesn't promise to meet the need of any student and generally caps its grants at $25,000. But while NYU does tend to offer better packages to students who have better grades, it also offers bigger grants to lower-income students, without regard to their academic record. "We are concerned about access," she says.

Students who want to increase their odds of being admitted and scoring big aid packages should apply to a couple of safety schools-in-state public colleges and perhaps one or two private schools in which their grades and scores put them at the top of the class. But they shouldn't necessarily end up attending the school that costs them the least, says Sandy Baum, an economist at Skidmore College and the College Board. "For some students, being a big fish in a little pond is a great idea," she says. But others would benefit more by opting for pricier schools with better students and more challenging courses.

Competition

Schools are more likely to give generously to students who set off bidding wars. David Lang, an economist at California State University-Sacramento, found preliminary evidence that students accepted at several schools get as much as 30 percent more in grants than similarly qualified students who get into just one college. The head of financial aid for a medium-sized private university in the Midwest, who did not want to reveal his own school's practices, said many aid officers will look at a student's FAFSA to see what other schools are listed. "It is not so much how many schools as what schools you've applied to," he says. If the student has listed schools with similar costs and rankings in the same geographic region, the officer may say: "Wow, we compete with those, and we have to up the ante," he says.

Applying to several schools also pays off for students who think their initial aid offers were too low. More schools now up awards to students who have better offers from competing schools. In April, Harvard, which gives aid only to meet need, announced that it would match more-generous awards to low-income students.

Gender

At math-heavy schools like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where females are in short supply, being a woman is one of about 100 factors that can increase a student's award. "We love women," Nondorf says. But he says other qualities can boost aid as much or even more, joking that the scholarship jackpot would be hit by "a harpist from North Dakota who is a woman and applies to nuclear engineering." Laura Wontrop, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, says she wishes that applicants were simply judged on their merits. But, she adds, "my dad told me to use what I've got." So she's getting merit and need-based grants from Rensselaer.

A growing number of universities are using aid to address the opposite problem: a shortage of males. Just 43 percent of all current college students are men. And at not-quite-elite liberal arts schools, the male shortage is becoming acute. "At just below the top tier, men are such a scarce commodity that those schools who engage in differential packaging end up putting more money toward the males," says John Maguire, a physics professor turned enrollment manager.

Talent or major

Students know, of course, that there are scholarships set aside for those with in-demand athletic, musical, or other skills. But they may not realize that there is extra aid for students who choose majors that governments, schools, or donors want to encourage. The federal government is starting to hand out grants of up to $4,000 to low-income students who study math, science, or foreign languages. And many colleges funnel extra aid to students who beef up majors the school wants to strengthen. Kellie Laurenzi, dean of enrollment services at Robert Morris University in western Pennsylvania, says she awards more aid to students who apply to the school's new majors such as actuarial sciences or media arts. "We are trying to entice students" who wouldn't have considered the school before it started those courses of study, she says.

Ethnicity or race

Although court rulings and local laws have made some schools leery of race-based scholarships, schools are eager for diversity of all types and thus use aid to attract students who can bring cultural differences to a campus.

Geography

Many schools try to recruit from far away so that students get to meet all sorts of people. But some schools, like the University of Redlands in Southern California, give bigger grants to locals. "We're about meeting demand," says Craig Slaughter, director of financial aid. "We think kids from Wisconsin will be willing to pay more. But we are competing with the Cal States" (the low-cost in-state universities) for California residents.

Timing of the application

Most schools admit a higher percentage of students who apply early. Only a handful of those schools, however, also give those early applicants better treatment in financial aid. Students who risk waiting and apply along with everybody else at the beginning of the year may lower their odds of admission but raise their chances of getting bigger offers from schools, says consultant Maguire.

High school

If previous graduates from the student's high school performed well at the college, or the high school is known as a tough grader, many colleges bend the rules to offer more merit aid, says Lucie Lapovsky, a financial aid economist who served as president of Mercy College in New York from 1999 through 2004. Colleges also often compare all admitted students from each high school's class to make sure the valedictorian gets more than the student ranked, say, 25th.

A student's desire to attend a particular school

Schools can draw surprisingly accurate conclusions about how much a student wants to attend from indicators such as the parents' college record, whether a student has visited a campus, and even in what order the student listed schools on the FAFSA. A study by educators in the state of Washington showed that the higher the student placed the name of a school on the FAFSA, the more likely the student was to attend-and thus, the less financial aid the school might need to offer. Enrollment managers say only a handful of schools use information on a student's campus visit or FAFSA ranking to determine aid, since most schools don't want to scare students off from doing research they need to make the best college decision.

The growing complexity of and competition for financial aid can't help but be daunting. But smart students like the Breens are succeeding by turning the competitive tables on colleges. The Breens each applied to six schools, to increase their odds of hearing from a school that wanted what the boys, both top students and football players, had to offer. In the mix for each: schools that promise to meet 100 percent of admitted students' need. That strategy was expensive, says their father, Gerard. The family probably spent at least $1,000 on applications and campus visits. But it paid off. Matthew ended up at Georgetown and Ryan at the University of Richmond, both of which meet the full need of their students. "We're going to struggle" to cover the family's EFC of almost $35,000 a year for the two students, Gerard Breen admits. "But they did fantastically. I was really proud."

TIP

Boost your odds of getting aid by applying to schools that compete with your first-choice college and also to those where your grades and scores would put you at the top of the class.

By Kim Clark With Emily Brandon
Copyright © 2006 U.S. News & World Report, L.P. All rights reserved.
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One Door Away From Heaven

Aunt Gen, a lovable eccentric character in this Dean Koontz novel about aliens and redemption, asked her niece, Mickey, this question when she was a little girl. Aunt Gen didn't realize that Mickey was an abused child and although the answers were always strange and wrong, they didn't raise a red flag. That's not exactly the point of this book but it's where the title comes from. As usual, Dean Koontz didn't disappoint. I was turning pages--slowly, admittedly but that's more because I was so busy with other stuff than because of the book--and didn't want to put the book down.

There are different characters in trouble converging on each other. Troubled Mickey, now an adult, feels compelled to rescue a very bright disabled little girl from her menacing stepfather--a charming killer who believes aliens are coming to "cure" the child. Or so he says.

There is a motherless boy on the run from the government and a group of savage, relentless killers. Why are they all after him? He befriends a dog who helps him stay on the run.

Finally, there is a disillusioned detective, bitter and also self-destructive.

Somehow, I knew all these people were going to end up in the same place...and they did. What a great book! Read it!

Now I am switching from my summer time reading genre (mystery thrillers) to books I need to read and move--bookrays and rings I belong to and books that have been waiting around for over a year for me to get to them!

Five Years After

How can it really be five years? I have the same surreal feeling about 9/11 as I do about the anniversary of Rich's passing. Did this really happen? And now five years ago? Except for those who were very young or impaired, I'm sure that most of us know exactly where we were when we first heard that the World Trade Center had been attacked. I was at work and had just finished interpreting for a client. Now I was free to surf the 'Net--except that no one could get access. What was up? When I finally was able to connect to yahoo, I just could not believe my eyes: the north tower of the trade center was burning. Out of nowhere, a second plane appeared and crashed right into the south tower. Other than the shock and disbelief I can only remember two thoughts. One was for all those people lost, all the newly widowed and grieving. The second was: I'm glad Rich is not here to see this.

For weeks and probably months afterward, I felt angry. How could such a horrible thing happen? After losing Rich, this loss was especially hard to bear even though I didn't know anyone who'd been in the towers or at the Pentagon. I remember feeling hopeless and depressed and thinking that we were all just falling into a deep black hole that would just end in everyone's death and the world's destruction. It took a long time for that black feeling of despair to lift.

I don't think we've accomplished much since the attacks on New York and the Pentagon. In spite of what officials tell us, I don't believe we are any safer now from terrorist attack than we were then. I won't live my life in fear though. One day it will happen again, somewhere else because there is still too much hatred in the world. So it goes.

I got this from The History Channel:

ATTACK ON AMERICA: September 11, 2001

At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded
with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade
Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th
floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and
trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its
twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially
appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a
second Boeing 767--United Airlines Flight 175--appeared out of the sky, turned
sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about
the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning
debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under
attack.The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other
Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda
terrorist organization, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's
support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued
military presence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the
United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American
commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the U.S. in the months before
September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the operation. The 19 terrorists
easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast
airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the
planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after
takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls,
transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles.As millions watched
in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled
over downtown Washington and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military
headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating
inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete
building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the
Pentagon along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.Less than 15 minutes after
the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New
York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World
Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural
steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 mph and a
large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by
the burning jet fuel. At 10:30 a.m., the other Trade Center tower collapsed.
Close to 4,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including
a staggering 343 firefighters and 23 policemen who were struggling to complete
an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher
floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their
collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many
severe.Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane--United Flight 93--was
hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New
Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board
learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to
the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the
hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an
insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the
phone that "I know we're all going to die. There's three of us who are going to
do something about it. I love you, honey." Another passenger--Todd Beamer--was
heard saying "Are you guys ready? Let's roll" over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw,
a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a
galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were
"Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."The passengers fought
the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire
extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards
of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at
10:10 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known,
but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David
presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along
the eastern seaboard.At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who had spent the day
being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the
White House. At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office,
declaring "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings,
but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but
they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." In a reference to the eventual
U.S. military response he declared: "We will make no distinction between the
terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."Operation
Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime
in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based there,
began on October 7.

A New Addition

We have a new member of the family!

Here Mouse meets his new older brother, Kosmo. Mouse isn't quite sure what to make of all this--aren't siblings supposed to be younger?

Amber made it clear she doesn't appreciate having another brother. But...maybe Mouse will stop picking on her!

TB wrote more about Kosmo and how we got him in his entry My Conversion Is Complete. TB is no longer a dog person!

It's been a long time since I had a chance to do a meme and Unconscious Mutterings is one of my favorites!

1. True love :: enduring
2. Age :: mature
3. Stern :: strict
4. Elastic :: rubbery
5. Rustic :: old
6. Enhance :: increase
7. Jackson :: Browne
8. Inherit :: the Wind
9. Devious ::scheming
10. Scapegoat :: victim

Early Intervention Program

I wrote earlier that Tomas and Linda are living with us now. We've had some concerns about Tomas's development and on Thursday, a team came out to talk to us. There were 2 really nice women, a speech pathologist and a physical therapist. They talked to T, engaged him in play and observed him and then let us know that he qualifies for services. What that means is that a team will be set up to meet T's needs and will come to the house. The major area of concern is speech development although there are other lags.

Both women noticed something with T's right eye and recommended he see a pediatric opthamologist. They also said he should see a pediatric audiologist to determine the quality of his hearing. We took him for a well check with his pediatrician who examined his eyes and said yes, that's what is needed and that it's a wonderful thing that T will get the services he needs with the Early Intervention Program.

Now there is just one thing. We don't have T's insurance information. We can't get moving with the appointments he needs until we get that information and hopefully we'll get it soon!

Back to School Pt. 3

Our Kristin started high school on Thursday! She suffers the curse of the younger sibling--she has teachers who remember Billy and Heidi! Another friend of hers has the same "problem". Also, it seems all the seniors remember Billy as "the kid who did karate during lunch time". I guess it's not a bad rep to have.

When the older kids went to the high school, the schedule was in the regular 8-classes-a-day format. Kristin has block scheduling. All her core classes--English, Math, Science and Social Studies are in 2 period blocks and alternate during the week. On A days, she has two of the classes and on B days she has the other two. She doesn't like it--the class time drags too much. I'm not sure what I think of it. She has health, Band (still jazzing it up on the sax!), German, and lunch every day which makes for a nice routine.

Kristin likes school so far--she is in core classes with almost all her friends and each period she has several friends. Billy and Heidi always seemed to be scheduled away from their friends so this is going to be a good year for Kristin!

She is a really cool kid and we are very proud of her.