Weekend Events

I am still painting the cabinet. I have finished the rust removal and most of the cabinet has primer on it. The bottom and the top are now blue. It will be really nice when more of it is blue. Tonight I put on another primer coat and tomorrow it will be blue!

Today, Howard and I went to the first annual Columbia University alumni picnic held on the grounds in front of the Mathematics building. Photos are posted on Flickr.

After the picnic, we looked at compact refrigerators so I could select one for my schoolroom. It turns out that the one I want won't fit upright in my car so it will have to be delivered. So the final selection is not yet determined. I really want one with two doors and enough space in the freezer to hold a container of ice cream. The one I was looking at, an Avanti, is pretty expensive, but it is frost free.

Next, we went to Verizon so Howard could pick out his new phone. His old one needs a new battery so for not too much more than a battery would cost, he could get a whole new phone with a speaker phone feature which he has been missing. Now for less than $70 he has a new LG phone. He says he loves it, yet he still loves me more!

The big event on Friday was a trip to the Hudson River Museum Planetarium. You can see photos from the bus and one of Saturn on Flickr. After the show, which was a tour on "Rusty Rocket" from earth to the sun and then through all the planets to Pluto, the children and I had lunch at the nearby park on the same grounds as the museum.

Friday after school, I washed with bleach two of the 5 pools that the school children use for swimming. Four of these pools are 15 inches high and 6 feet across made of vinyl; the 5th one is the same diameter with lower sides. We got concerned when three children got fevers over three days, but it turns out that the first child never went in the pool. The second child was a classmate of the first while the third child was in a different class. After speaking with pool professionals and checking web sites, it seems unlikely that the pools had anything to do with the latter two children getting a fever from the first child if that is even what happened. In the last week, no other child has been reported as sick. Pool people tell me that fever is not the sickness passed through pools. But to be on the safe side, we quit swimming until the pools could be cleaned.

[Posted first August 12, 2006 on MySpace]