As Smart as a Fifth Grader

We had conferences for Hockey Girl and AOS Boy last night. I think we're pretty aware of the strengths and weaknesses of our kids, but it's always interesting to have the first conference with this year's teacher to see if they are the same kids in school as they are at home. For the most part I'd say they are. Hockey Girl is probably the most different at school. According to her teacher, Mrs. S., at school she is very responsible - at home she is pretty responsible, unless responsibility includes brushing your teeth and hair without being told, putting your dirty clothes in the hamper or down the laundry chute or keeping your desk organized. Apparently she is so responsible at school that she keeps Mrs. S. and her brother in line if given the opportunity. Mrs. S. has a hard time picturing HG as a hockey player. She absolutely couldn't believe that she lead her team in penalty minutes last year - but she did. HG's grades were okay. We (including Mrs. S. - she said she double checked it) were all a little surprised at her C in Language Arts (also known as grammar and writing). Apparently she only likes to do the minimum required and she doesn't like to correct or edit her work (who can blame her). So, she has to try a little harder to bring that grade up! Everything else was just fine - As in Science/Health and Spelling and B+s in Math and Social Studies.


It's always a little frightening when a conference starts out with, "let me start with, he has really turned it around in the past month..." Hmmmm. Turned it around from what? Apparently Mrs. L was really worried about AOS Boy at the beginning of the year. He just wasn't doing what he was supposed to. He failed to turn in homework on time 10 times in the first 3 weeks. He told Mrs. L that it was *my fault. I always took it out of his folder and forgot to put it back. Finally when she picked up the phone, asked him for my number and told him she was going to call me, he fessed up. *That is exactly what he is like at home. Lying to avoid personal responsibility until you call him to the carpet and he has no place else to go. He has reportedly come a long way in a short time. He has not had a late or missing homework assignment in two weeks. He is generally "acting like a 5th grader." He is a pretty smart kid. He has had perfect spelling tests this year. His reading tests were nearly perfect (but he only will do one book report every other week so he's just at grade level, as opposed to above grade level). He had an A in Spelling and Social Studies, and A- in Math a B in Science/Health and a B- in Language Arts. He was pretty disappointed in that B- and told us he know what he has to do to bring that up is increase his effort. He loves to write, he is very creative and comes up with great stories - but capitalization, punctuation and sentence structure are not very high on his list. Again not much of a surprise. He was a little disappointed that he did not get an E in gym (although his sister did).

Overall, we were pretty pleased. The kids aren't perfect, they're not genius', but they seem to like school, they try, they're pleasant to be around and teachers enjoy having them in class. Those things get people at least as far in life as perfect grades.

The Big Apple Day #3 - Marathon Day

Today was the day the Finns were waiting for. The NYC Marathon (like all marathons) is a 26.2 miles race that (unlike other marathons) takes the runners through all five boroughs of NYC. The runners start on the Verizano Bridge in Staten Island, they run to Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and finally Manhattan finishing in Central Park. It was a cool day, but a pretty good day for running - a little too windy at some points. We had discussed what everyone would be wearing and we had made a plan to try to see them between miles 16 1/2 and 17. We got an approximate time that they should arrive, if they ran the pace they expected. We said we would be on the West side of 1st Ave. Having never been to the NYC meaning we didn't know the course, and knowing that there were 40,000 runners, we were skeptical that we would succeed in seeing them, but we decided to try. Again we took the NJ Transit bus into Times Square. We took a subway to Central Park and we watched the top women come in. We saw the top three finishers. I was able to get photos of #1 and #2, but my camera wouldn't cooperate with getting a photo of #3 - who just happened to be the top American, Kara Goucher, who is from Duluth!! In her marathon debut she became the 1st American to grace the podium at the NYC Marathon in 14 years. She also had the best debut race time in that marathon ever. What a thrill to have "been there" - guess I'll just have to remember it since it's not documented for all time.

Walking up 5th Avenue, we leisurely made our way from Central Park to 65th Street. We stumbled upon temple Emmanu-El (which is the first Reform congregation in NYC). The beauty of the building rivals any Cathedral I've ever seen. From there we made our way to the race course on 1st Avenue. As we got close to the course it was clear that it would not be easy to get to the edge of the street. We walked up a few blocks and staked out the spot we would stay to try to fill-in as people left when their runner went buy. It was not yet 12:30 when we got there, and we expected the runners to come by about 1:00 p.m. We started to look for them - watching for a man and woman running together both wearing white hats. Kevin tried to get a spot earlier on the route so he could spot them and call us, but before I ever heard from him we saw them - well two of them, Ulla and Antti were running together. Olli ran alone. I even was able to get a picture (Ulla is in the middle and you can almost see Antti's face behind the runner in the I love Harlem shirt)!

It was very fun! We stayed a bit to see if we could find Olli, but it turns out he had already run by. We had tickets to see Wicked at 3:00 p.m. so we left to make our way back to the theater. We had gotten the tickets the day before and we were SO lucky. We were in the 4th row in the center section. It was fantastic!! The show was wonderful - although the leads didn't seem to sing as well as the ones we remembered from Chicago. Nevertheless we enjoyed it immensely! It's definitely better when you have the soundtrack memorized. After the show we went to dinner at Pongsai - a Thai restaurant in the theater district, and I had (surprise, surprise) Shrimp Pad Thai. It was very good. We got home fairly early that night - in time for Kevin to use the nightly free drink available at Embassy Suites. We watched some TV and relaxed. It was a great day!

Big Apple Day #2

Saturday morning after a wonderful cooked breakfast at our hotel we made our way to Manhattan via NJ Transit. We were meeting the Finns at Rockefeller Plaza at 10:00 a.m.. We were, as expected by anyone who know my mother and me, a little late but we found them without a problem. We bought tickets to go to the Top of the Rock. We tried to get tickets for the NBC Studios Tour as well, but the tours was closed by the Secret Service as John McCain was appearing on SNL that night. We went up to the 67th floor and I took this photo of Midtown. We also had fantastic views of Central Park and the Hudson River (see below). We had access to three floors and we were able to be outside. The weather was perfect and it was just beautiful.

After we left the Rock we made our way via the subway to the southern tip of Manhattan to catch the infamous Staten Island Ferry. The Finns wanted to see the Statute of Liberty, but didn't feel the need to actually visit it. We went to the terminal and it has been significantly renovated since I was last there. It was really quite nice. We lined up with hundreds of others for our now free ride to Staten Island(it used to cost a quarter, but they must have decided the work involved in collecting quarters from the passengers cost more than they made doing it - so you can just walk on and off. Since it was a Saturday, most of the people on the Ferry appeared to be tourists like us rather than commuters. If you ride on the right side of the Ferry going over you have a nice view of the Statute and of Ellis Island.

When we got to Staten Island, we boarded the Ferry to go back to Manhattan. The Finns got to see the Verizano Bridge - which is where the NYC Marathon would start the next day. We also saw the Brooklyn Bridge. Once back in the City we made our way to Chinatown and Little Italy to eat dinner. On the way we passed the Courthouse area which was particularly interesting to Olli and he is a lawyer in Finland. We saw the steps seen routinely in Law and Order. We had chosen to eat in Little Italy because the Finns needed to carboload for the big race on Sunday. Last winter we had taken the kids to NYC for their 10th birthday and we had eaten a special meal at DaNico's on Mulberry St., so we decided we could recommend it. We were able to get a lovely table in the back garden, and again the weather was so perfect for outside dining. All of the food was good. I had a wonderful shrimp and spinach ravioli with a bolognese sauce (2nd shrimp meal). Ulla's seafood dish was something amazing to behold. I thought I had a picture, but I can't find it so you'll have to take my word for it - the bowl was huge and filled with shrimp, lobster, clams and other yummy things in a garlic butter sauce.

After dinner the Finns wanted to go back to their hotel to rest up. they had to be up at about 4:30 a.m. to eat breakfast because they were catching a 6 a.m. bus to Staten Island for the start of the race. Kevin went up with them to see if he could get discounted tickets to anything at the TKTS booth in Times Square. Mom and I stayed in Chinatown to shop. We did not find any great deals. We were most amazed by the inexpensive prices of the seafood stands. Kevin called and said that he had gotten 1/2 price tickets to Spamalot, so we made our way back up to Times Square. We went to Toys R Us to get presents for the kids and then went to the theater. Our seats were a little far off to the right of the stage, but as Monty Python fans we thoroughly enjoyed the show. We got an extra kick out of the Finnish jokes in the program and the opening fish slap dance scene. We got back to the hotel in time to see John McCain on SNL.

We interrupt this NYC Trip blog

with a hockey update...

Duluth Icebreakers 10U team went to Breezy Point and rocked the house. They played the Pequot Lakes 10U team on Saturday at Noon. You may remember (or you can read below in Tis the Season) that there was some conflict regarding what level Hockey Girs team should play at - A or B. The Pequot Lakes team was a B level - and any doubts about whether we should play A were answered this weekend. The girls smoked them. They won their first game 12 - 0. Hockey Girl didn't score, but she had plenty of assists. They then went to Brainard to play their 10UB team and they beat them 19 - 1. Hockey Girl scored her 1st goal of the year. Saturday night we had much fun hanging out with the team at the pool area of the beautiful Breezy Point Resort. We had lots of snacks, pizza and a few drinks to boot. Most of the team stayed at the dorms by the hockey rink, but Hockey Girl and her BFF were having none of that (and their parents were glad to spoil them if meant we also didn't have to stay in the dorms). Our families rented a beautiful condo by the lake. It was huge and lovely and since no one wants to be in Breezy Point in mid-November quite inexpensive to boot. Sunday we woke up early because we'd been lead to believe we had a game at 9:15 a.m. We had a great breakfast at the resort - cooked to order French Toast for the kids, Eggs Benedict for Curling Man and BFF's Mom and poched eggs for me along with a lovely buffet with a lot of fresh fruit and plenty of unhealthy side-dishes. We made it to the rink about 8:30 only to discover that the game wasn't actually until 11 a.m.. The girls went back over to the dorms to do some warm-ups and chalk-talk. BFF's Mom and I went back to the condo to pack up and check out. We returned to the rink for game 2 against Pequot Lakes. They again beat them handily 12 -1 and Hockey Girl scored 2 more times. It was a fun series of games. We just hope the girls don't get too complacent because the competition in the tournament coming up in a couple of weeks in Thunder Bay will be much stiffer.

Welcome to the Big Apple

Curling Man (who isn't curling this year by the way so I should probably change his name) and I went to NYC with my Mom. We left the evening of Oct. 30th for Minneapolis because our flight left from there at 7 a.m.. We got a very decent Stay and Park rate at an Embassy Suites right by the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. It was exactly what one would expect from an Embassy Suites (which is a fine thing). We left the hotel about 5:30 p.m. for the airport. We were flying Air Tran which meant that we got to leave from the H.H.Humphrey Terminal - a nice small terminal. Everything went very smoothly. Because we were flying Air Tran we had to take the scenic route to Newark - through Atlanta. All flights were on time - actually a little early. We landed in New Jersey and took a taxi to our hotel in Seacacus/Meadowlands, NJ - another Embassy Suites. Our room was laid out exactly like the one we had just left in Minnesota. We unpacked and tried to call Ulla to let her know we were there.

Ulla was my exchange sister during the 1985-86 school year. She is from Finland. She and her husband Antti and her brother Olli and his wife Mari all were in New York for the marathon. All of them except Mari were running and she was cheering. They were staying with a group at a hotel near Central Park. We had exchanged cell phone numbers, but I couldn't figure out how to dial hers (because of the country code issue). I left a message on the hotel room phone, but we did not connect. We decided that we would just go to their hotel and see if we could find them as it would be nearing 5 p.m. by the time we got there. Transportation to Manhattan was so incredibly easy. NJTransit had a bus with a stop directly across the street from the front door of the hotel. The bus comes every 10 - 20 minutes depending on the time of day. It is a commuter line so it only made a couple of stops before going into the City to the Port Authority Bus Terminal which is conveniently located in Times Square. We got off the bus and made our way to the hotel which was no more than a mile away. We thought about getting something to eat, but we were on a mission. We found their hotel without any problem. We went in and it was clear that it was NYC Marathon European Headquarters. There were lots of foreigners there and a lot of information about the marathon in many different languages. I found a house phone and called the rooms again. Just as I was getting ready to leave a message in Olli ad Mari's room - who should walk in the door but the Finns - how great!! We had a warm reunion and we let them go to their hotel room while we ran across the street to the Carnegie Deli. I always need to have Matzoh Ball soup when I'm in NYC and Kevin loves the REALLY BIG sandwiches.

After our "snack" we met up with the Finns to head downtown to watch the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. We had the parade route figured out and we decided to try to catch it at 14th Street. We took the Subway to Union Square, walked a bit towards the route and when we got there, we promptly realized that the crowds were going to make actually seeing the parade very difficult. It was a Friday night and the weather was beautiful. We found a spot down the block and settled in to watch the crowd - they were almost as entertaining as the parade I am sure. The NYPD was out in full force, so we never felt unsafe, but there were definitely some characters out for the holiday. We were able to catch some of the parade - the really tall puppets that went above the crowd, but we definitely had a restricted view. After about an hour of the parade we decided to head back to Times Square to eat dinner. We went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for the first of my many shrimp meals.

My village

Hillary Clinton once said "it takes a village to raise a child." I am so thankful for my village. We have very wonderful family, but sometimes they're just not enough. Curling Man and I went to New York City for 5 days. We left the night before Halloween. That means we were not here to orchestrate trick-or-treating. Hockey Girl was invited to a party that included a sleep-over, but she had to get there. Curling Man's parents came to take care of the kids, but they're not familiar with Duluth so asking them to drive the kids everywhere was complicated by needing to leave very specific driections. So, I relied on the 1st Villager to pick up Hockey Girl to take her to the party. Party Girl's Mom then said that she would keep Hockey Girl and bring her to soccer try-outs since Party Girl was going there the next day anyway - Villager #2. Halloween night All-other-sports Boy went to a friend's house to go trick-or-treating and friend's parents agreed to bring him home so the in-laws wouldn't have to worry about what time t-or-ting ended - Villager #3. Saturday night and Sunday a.m. Hockey Girl had hockey practice. Coach's wife (Villager #4) agreed to bring her to and from practice (and would have even taken her overnight had we not said she really should stay at home since she'd had a sleep-over the night before). Sunday night AOS Boy had basketball practice and Villager #5 picked him and brought him to/from that practice. Monday my kids went, as they always do an Mondays and Wednesdays, to VIllager #6's house. She takes them to Hebrew School all year long. Tuesday the ILs headed home before school let out. My kids went to Villager #4s house after school. Eventhough she had already voted and her kids had already voted, she took my kids to the polls so they could cast their votes for Kids Vote. Villager #5 again brought AOS Boy to/from basketball practice that night. Villager #7 never actually had to help, but she had been lined up to bring Hockey Girl to soccer and AOS Boy to play auditions (which he didn't end up doing). We are SO incredibly lucky to have all of these wonderful people in our lives and even more importantly in our kids' lives. They regularly are surrounded by people who value them, who assist them and who care for them. So very lucky they are! We hope that these people know we are happily a part of their village as well.

Making History

I just can't believe it, so I have to write it down. Barack Obama is the President. I have never voted for a President that I just felt so comfortable even happy voting for. Other presidents have matched my general views, but I didn't trust them. I didn't like them. I wasn't proud of them. I didn't think they had the power to transform our image internationally. Barack Obama is different. I know a lot of people felt this way about Bill Clinton - I wasn't one of them - although I voted for him once. I also voted for Dukakis, for Perot, for Gore and for Kerry. I didn't love any of them, but they were all better in my opinion than the alternative. This year I was lucky. Instead of choosing between "not so great" and "even worse" I got to choose between "phenomenal" and "I can live with it." What a relief. If John McCain would have been the McCain of 2000 I would have even had a better choice, but alas he chose to be anything but a maverick and to cater to the Religious Right in hopes of being elected. Despite what I hear from conservative pundits - that it was all about the economy and not about the VP candidate - I firmly believe that if John McCain would have stuck to his principles and made his VP pick selecting another qualified, moderate, independent-minded person, he would have had a chance in this race. Yes, the economy was a factor, but only because people had already lost trust in John McCain. If people believed that John McCain would recognize his actual short-comings and surround himself to compensate for those, instead of making his decisions to pander to the base whose policies created this mess - on other words if he was maverick he claimed to be - the economy wouldn't necessarily have been a game changer. I'm not complaining. I'm glad he made that poor choice which opened the door for Barack Obama to step in. He may not have the experience of John mcCain, but he is smart and he can learn. His character, his manner and what he brings to the table as a leader cannot be taught to anyone. I am so excited to see our country being lauded all over the world. It's a great thing!!