Zander's 4th Birthday

My Dear Boy Zander! I can't believe how fast you're growing. You're growing leaps and bounds faster than I can keep up. Zander's favorite TV Shows: Charlie and Lola, Little Bill, Spongebob, Max and Ruby, Little Bear,
Favorite Movies: Polar Express, Monster's Inc., Matilda, Shrek, Monster House, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,

Favorite Foods: Mashed potatoes, pizza, burgers, peas, fried chicken, oatmeal pancakes, crab (both to eat and to watch), noodles (almost all kinds), mussells (seafood portifino), strawberries, red grapes,

Zander's favorite Drinks: orange juice, grapefruit juice (yep), orange soda, pink milk (strawberry), milk shakes,

Favorite treats: icecream, cookies, red grapes, suckers,

Zander's Favorite Things to do: Ride bikes, play with friends, play games on the computer, play board games (candy land, cherrio, sorry, and memory), Go to the Zoo, Go to Lagoon, petting kitties, playing with puppies, digging in the dirt,

Zander's favorite toys: Remote control train, leapster, daddy's tools,

Zander's Nicknames: Nanu, Nano, Zanu, Zanderman, Blankey McDougal, Mr Monkey man, Silly Head, little man, Mr Conductor, Louis

When he grows up he wants to be: a cook, a daddy, a superhero, and a train conductor.

Important Life Lesson # 122. RTFM!

So in Chemistry today the Professor starts off answering questions with the homework that students may have had. Anyway, so it's nice to get the professor to help you out with what you don't understand. Well, there is a group of girls that sit not too far behind me that don't pay attention in class and can get rude and disruptive talking to each other during the lesson. The professor had already gotten a little annoyed with them a couple of weeks ago when they were talking for the first 10 mins of class (not whispering) and told them that if they wanted to talk then to take it outside or at least to the back of the room, and not to waste everyone elses time and money being disruptive. At the end of that day one of them had the nerve to start asking questions in which the whole lecture for that day was leading up to explaining, in which the professor did several times and in several examples so that it became pretty understandable. You could tell the professor was pretty irritated with them and said that in order to get the explination they'd have to see her during office hours or make an appointment. So anyway there are things that indicate that they still aren't paying attention or doing their homework, but they try to make it seem like they do so they asked her to work out on of the questions from the homework in which was pretty randomly picked and I really don't think they were paying attention. The problem in which they wanted her to explain went like this.
"Select the quantity that contains the greater # of atoms in each of the pairs of substances"
a. 0.100 mole C atoms or 0.200 mole C atoms
so you really don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. It's pretty self explainatory even if you don't know what moles are 2 is obviously bigger than 1. So needless to say the professor said something somewhat like this, "you know, if you just read the question you might know how to get the answer." She kind of laughs to herself, then asks the class, "Does anyone know what RTFM means?" She then explains that this term was told to her by a former student she had who had a teacher in high school that was proper, and often got frustrated with some of the students who wouldn't put effort into figuring the problem then came up with the term RTFM (Read The F*^%ing Manual). The Professor then went on to say that she wasn't smarter then the rest of us in what we can comprehend. The difference between her and the average joe was that she put effort into learning and finding out things that she needed to know, and where she wanted to get. The only reason that she could remember all these fancy terms and relations in Chemistry and Math, was because of years of teaching and repitition, but at one time had been a struggle for her.
It reminds me of this news broadcast a while back showing the increase need of Technical support, those so called "Nerds" that you knew back in high school that were now making the good money. When interviewing one of these "Nerds" he said his job is simple. He reads the instruction manual to the computer or electronics and puts effort into understanding them, which the majority of the population doesn't want to do, or claim they don't have enough time to do and that you don't necissarily need a degree to work with computers, just the want to learn and read the manuals that come with them, most things come with a pretty explainatory manuals, and those things that are hard to understand you can now just look up on the internet.

So anyway, I know what she's talking about. Most things aren't rocket science to understand, just the act of reading the manual, question, etc. just one time makes a huge impact in understanding. Though to get full understanding usually it has to be read a couple of times or more (at least the important things).
So remember to RTFM!

Warning, Dumb Drivers in Snow.

So today was not a very good day. I was sick over the weekend and still wasn't feeling very well this morning when I woke up. So in looking out the window and seeing how bad it was snowing, I just knew that if I dared venture out that something bad would likely to happen. Like Car accidents, slipping on campus, getting stuck inside a building, etc. But my husband wakes me up at 8:30am and says that I NEED to get out and pay some bills, and that it would be best to get them done in the morning. So not very happily I leave my warm bed.
I have a small talk with my mom, who's currently living with us, and munching on a donut, explaining how I need to leave for a little while to get things taken care of. On my way out to Ogden I notice that several lights between 29th and 36th are out on Washington Blvd. I know that at some point they're will be an accident, probably several accidents. There's accidents on good days, and with the snow and down lights, this just increases that likelyhood, because.... well I think many people on the driver ed test get this answer wrong. It's not like you need to get all of them right, right?
Yeah, I wasn't too far off.
I got through them fine the first time, and in 2 of the lights, of course I see people who don't treat them as a 4-way-stop, but fortunately for them, others were either being cautious, or weren't there. On my way back though, and get this the second light (you would think after the first down light that someone would know what to do), this girl slows down, but starts to go through with the car ahead of her, with all of the lanes full of people needing to go. So yes, a car going the perpendicular way that vision was blocked by a boxed delivery truck, get's T-Boned by this girl. luckily they weren't going at high speeds, there were some cuts from shards of glass hitting the guy in the face. But other than that, they seemed to be fine. It kinda irked me that someone who said he saw the whole thing, but that he vision was blocked from the boxed truck as well, said that he saw the girl stop, but wait... I thought he vision was blocked from her point. Oh well. I guess that's what he though he saw.
Anyway, after I get done helping with that. I'm coming back, being cautious, and as I'm stopped at a red light coming left onto 1900 from Riverdale (in Roy), everythings fine, then.....wham. I'm hit from behind.
At first I thought that maybe the guy behind me was hit from behind him and he then hit me. But as I put the car in park, and go to check on the guy, he looks at me kinda confused, puts his car in reverse then accellerates and hits a van behind him. This guy is in his late 80's -early 90's. I can tell that he feels bad and that he's concerned, but I'm concerned about what else he may do. So I call 911(again) and let them know. It was kinda funny because the cops didn't know where the accident was, not to say that it looked like an accident besides my hazards being on, but they must have circled the intersection a few times before me calling 911 again and waving them down finally caught their attention. The guy appologized, but I didn't see him leave with the rest of us. He had mentioned as my mom came to get me (just because I wasn't feeling good, and was a little shocky) that he didn't want to loose his driver's licence. I feel bad, but I really don't think he's coherent enough to be driving. Anyway, that's what's up today. I just wish people knew how to drive in bad weather and downed traffic lights.