omorka | Progress Reports

It's Labor Day Weekend, which means I get some extra sleep on Monday. That's rather happymaking, except that I've wanted to sleep all this week . . . It's been raining here pretty solidly since Tuesday, the usual tropical moisture coming off of the Gulf, and the kids have been extremely antsy. Add to that my having been up all night between Monday and Tuesday with flu symptoms, and you get a very tired me dealing with some very antsy kids. Today, the sun is peeking out between occasional showers and I feel like I should be outside doing something.

I think there's a poly discussion group meeting today, but Noah's still at bagels so I don't have transport. I'm not sure I'm up for it anyway - I'm still feeling a little ill.

We saw MW & JT Friday night at the 59 Diner (we all ordered the chicken fried steak - imagine that, all of us agreeing on something) and last night for some pick-up gaming (_Gother Than Thou_ was less fun than Fluxx; I got to play kingmaker at _Family Business_, which I haven't played in forever). We may see them tonight, weather permitting, to watch some erotica.

The Spouse managed to bounce a check this week. Fortunately, I got paid the next day, so we have sufficient money in the account now, but the bank charges ridiculous overdraft fees, and we're going to be a little short until the Spouse next gets paid, a week from this Tuesday. We had to sit down and have the whole "responsible spending" talk. Since I'm the primary breadwinner, I had to play bad guy to him throughout the conversation, which of course I hate doing. The upshot is, he now has an allowance which he cannot go over in a given month. He actually was going to make it less than I was; I don't think he realizes how unrealistic that is for him. I think he's going to have incredible trouble sticking to the larger one I gave him. Hopefully, it will all be a learning experience for him and we won't have to stay like this for too many months.

For me, it's just natural to ask the people one has joint finances with if you can spend some of that joint money. I almost never make a purchase without asking the Spouse, and never make one over $10 that isn't a gift for him without asking. This is foreign behavior to him; not only does he not ask unless it's a purchase well over $100 - he regularly makes $30 and $50 purchases without telling me afterwards, much less asking beforehand - it puzzles him that I do ask. I had hoped that by providing a good example, he'd at least get the hint that he should ask, too, but he never has.

This past Friday was the grade cutoff for the first progress report. I'd tested in all of my classes, but I didn't get the test grades in for two of my Alg. II classes. I'm deeply relieved at the Geometry test grades - mostly B's. Of course, I'd love mostly A's, but after last year's first test with its preponderance of D's and F's, I'll settle for B's with few reservations. The few F's I did get are mostly people who don't participate during class. The one Alg. II class I've graded is also mostly B's, but that's the class that didn't do too hot on the quiz either, so we'll see how the other two classes do when I force myself to grade them tomorrow after procrastinating all weekend.