The Rockstar Supernova Concert

R and I went to see Rockstar Supernova on Saturday night. We had gotten tickets as soon as they went on sale, soon after the TV show concluded. We had been voting along for who we thought the best singer for the band would be, and when I suggested we see the concert, he was definitely enthusiastic!

R hadn't been feeling well on the day of the show, and we realized he might be starting to get the illness B had earlier in the week. So I gave him some Tylenol, and he took a nap. I wish now that I had brought the Tylenol with me.

We met friends who were seeing the show with us, and had dinner beforehand at a restaurant called Archie Moore's which was fun, and where my food was great. I'm glad we arrived a little early at the Chevrolet Theater. We got a really good parking spot, bought our shirt, used the bathroom, and found our seats in plenty of time. The 3600 capacity theater was about 2/3 to 3/4 full.

Dilana came on exactly at 7:30 and played for 20 minutes. That woman is awesome. She's the one I went to see. I can't wait till she comes out with some amazing music for me to buy. Magni actually showed up playing guitar for her too.

Toby's band, Juke Kartel came on next, after almost no break, and the crowd went wild. People had obviously come to see Toby. R really enjoyed their perfomance a lot. I did too. They are an amazingly energetic band, and remind me of U2 before they got into who they are. They played for about 30 minutes. After Juke Kartel I went back out to the merchandise table and bought their CD, which although it only has four songs on it, is really great. While out in the lobby our we noticed a huge line forming for a "meet and greet" with the performers. So when the next band came on and our friends weren't back, we knew where they were.

The Panic Channel is Dave Navarro's band and they don't get a link. They were awful. When the band leader told the audience we were all his bitches, I had to laugh because I don't think anyone in that whole entire audience was there to see them. Unless of course their mothers were there. They seemed very out of place with all the Rockstar TV performers. Toward the end when the singer proclaimed that he had "one more little nugget" for us, someone behind me said "oh no, please don't". Enough said. The only redeeming part of seeing this band was at the very end when they played AC/DC's Highway to Hell and Dilana came out to sing it. It really made sitting through all their other crap worth it. That chick rocks.

Our friends came back to their seats in time for Supernova, oh excuse me, Rockstar Supernova. They had gotten to meet Dilana, Toby and Magni, and other band members from Toby's band Juke Kartel. Our eight-year-old friend had her shirt signed by all the performers. She was very psyched. And some kind strangers took photos of her schmoozing it up with them all. They all apparently loved her and fawned all over her. What a great first concert for her! We had actually met up with our friends on the line, but R was feeling low by that point and didn't want to get on line with them. So we headed back to our seats, and were happy to see them return and share their adventure with us before Supernova came on.

So how was Rockster Supernova? R had voted for Lukas and was looking forward to seeing the show. He really liked all the lights which looked like stars. The rest of the lighting though, was awful. This is the very first show in the dozens I've gone to, where the lighting actually distracted from the show. They had all this back lighting which was glaring in the audiences faces. Maybe they wanted to see the audience, but we wanted to see them! I sincerely hope the lighting designer gets fired, and they are able to fix that mess before the tour is over. I hope they realize how awful it is.

The whole set design was actually quite poor, and very amateurish. There was a large platform about 10 feet or so back from the edge of the stage, which all the performers were on. So, a stage on a stage. It really separated the performers from the audience, and some of their wires weren't long enough for them to step closer to us. Also, Supernova had a platform above Tommy Lee, and some stairs to his right. So he wasn't centered, and he certainly wasn't up high enough. Like I said, it looked very amateurish.

The music was way TOO loud. Even through the earplugs. And Lukas? Lukas needs to get over himself. He is way too cocky. I don't know why the heck they decided to perfom Boys of Summer. Lukas was singing out of his throat the whole time and he actually couldn't reach some of the notes. If he keeps singing this way, it's just a matter of time before he loses his voice. On another song (I don't remember which one) he was actually off key for the second half of it.

The girls were going bezerk for him though; screaming his name and all. I was pleased that the infamous tittie-cam was not brought out. (Wherein the drummer uses a small video camera to encourage female audience members to lift their shirts and be broadcast over the giant screens above the band.) Special thanks to Tommy Lee for recognizing that some younger fans would be attending this band's concert. And to Lukas for not cursing as much as in his interviews.

I have to admit to being disappointed at how poorly their whole show was produced. I had listened to their album half a dozen times and thought the show should be pretty good, but I was disappointed. R enjoyed what he could, but I could see he was getting sleepy, so I asked him if he wanted to leave. He stayed another couple of songs before asking "are you sure you won't mind if we leave?" I'm guessing we only missed two or three songs. And there were a lot of other people leaving at the same time as us.

My poor R. I feel badly that he wasn't himself for the show. But he says he did enjoy it, and he got a new t-shirt. I'll take a photo soon and post it here. As for myself, I'm glad to have seen Dilana and Juke Kartel. And to have had dinner with some friends. The rest of the night was totally expendable.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Not staying on top of blogging the way I had hoped to. Hey, I still use my treadmill five out of seven days a week :-)

Saturday was spent at a birthday party at the YMCA. A boy from Craft and Swim invited both R and E to a pool party. R had to leave basketball early to attend, but was glad to, since he really likes D. They had pizza beforehand, then opened the presents, played a game of musical chairs (which E did not play) and headed down to swim for an hour. A very fun time.

Sunday we went to Chinatown in New York to pick up the new setting for my engagement ring. I'm really glad to have it fit again! Afterwards we had lunch at a Shanghai place, which was just okay. I guess since we actually have good Chinese food here where we live, it was hard to wow me. It was very cheap though! Here I am showing off my new ring in the restaurant.












We also went down to check out "ground zero". I wish I had gone before construction on the new place began. I had expected to "feel" the spirits of those who perished there, but nothing. The photos on the gates surrounding the construction prompted memories which were upsetting, but the location itself did not prompt any feelings at all.

I've noticed that people who have lived in NY and had been to the twin towers when they were whole are not affected by seeing ground zero, the way people who had never seen them up are. I guess as a New Yorker I appreciated the reality of what was happening at the time it was. Perhaps people who have never seen the towers can only appreciate the enormity of it when they see the hole they left behind. To me though, it just felt like a big construction site. I'm glad to have gone though. I would have regretted not having seen it.

Monday E made a huge list of things he wanted to do, and we managed to get to many of them; a game of Battleship and reading The BFG among others. I was happy that he considered making dinner a "craft", since there are just so many hours in the day.

Tuesday we headed down to the Peabody Museum with a new friend we made while swimming a week or so ago. N is a really sweet boy with lots of enthusiasm. His mother is very lucky that he is so inquisitive and was so absorbed by many of the exhibits. However, this didn't make for a very good companion for my boys. So next time we see N it will be a playdate, and not an outing.












My boys really enjoyed the temporary space exhibit. We definitely have to get back down there to see it again. It was over E's head, but there was enough there to engage him that he stayed happy. R found a really cool exhibit on designing your own solar system. He had to take the gravitational pull of each planet as it rotated around the sun into consideration. We witnessed lots of crashing planets, but never did get a good one. Like I said, we'll have to get down there again.

We'll be getting a Peabody membership this year. It is reciprocal with the Science Center and several places in Boston which we enjoy. We've had a Science Center membership the last few years, but I recently discovered that the Peabody will honor the Teacher Discount for homeschoolers. So instead of $75 we'll be spending $45. I'm so glad I looked into it!

Today we had playgroup in New Haven. There have always been about five or six families in the indoor space we all chipped in for, but today I counted ten! I'm glad that when I mentioned that there were a lot of families to the boys, that R chimed in and said it was too many, and that if next week there are that many again, we should skip it till they head back out to a playground. That kind of noise just drags me down.

Invitations for R's birthday party are out!

Spellcheck isn't work tonight so forgive me. Sometimes blogger is soooo slow.

A Day At Home

10:00 am:

3:00 pm:

The boys were thrilled to get a few runs down the backyard hill. But of course they were disappointed it didn't last longer. Poor school kids didn't get to enjoy it at all.

Today was spent at home. I love days at home. We need more of them. Time to be bored and find new things to do. You can't get bored enough in just a few hours every day. You need loooong stretches, and we don't get those often enough.

Today I utilized a Teaching Tolerance kit, which a fellow homeschooler lent me. I didn't utilize the whole kit; we just watched the video. The description from Amazon: "A Time For Justice is the story of the American civil rights movement as told by those who fought the battle for the right to vote during the 1950's and 1960's. It depicts the struggle through the experiences of its foot soldiers: the men and women who rode where they weren't supposed to ride; walked where weren't supposed to walk; sat where they were not supposed to sit. And who stood their ground until they won their freedom. A Time for Justice uses the first-hand testimony of participants and stunning archival footage to present a concise and compelling look at the grass-rots movement that sought to extend the fruits of democracy and basic human dignity to all of the nation's people."

I've been wanting to start talking about Martin Luther King Jr. with R, and then this fell in my lap. It was a very good documentary. The violence was a little upsetting, but it prompted a good conversation afterwards. We talked about people being treated differently because of the color of their skin. We talked about how peaceful resistance really can change things. We noticed that the black people never used violence, but continually had violence used against them. We also talked about how fear (ie the police in this video) can prompt people to be violent.

We talked about racial profiling (Islamists today) and about civil liberties. We discussed how some people still do not have them; the lack of gay rights in this country and our hope that the laws would soon be changed.

It's amazing that I decided R was ready to learn about the not-so-nicer aspects of life, and all this stuff drops in my lap. E did not appear to be interested in the video, but did participate in the conversation.

The video we watched today was a good introduction on the issue. I have also ordered a documentary on the life of MLK from Netflix. The boys were wondering why we celebrate him, and videos keep their attention longer than non-fiction books. We can only skim the surface with the books before they want to move on to other things.

Yesterday the boys had a fabulous time with their friends B and S. They hadn't had a playdate with them in months, and were thrilled that their mom agreed to let them come over for a couple of hours before they all took Craft and Swim together. After Craft and Swim I dropped their friends off at home and we all visited at their house for another hour or so. A very, very good day.

R just called me upstairs - 8:30 pm - and asked me to take a photo of this:
Only good things can happen when Klutz teams up with Lego. That Santa is a cool guy.

Pequot Museum

B had off from work so we all headed out to spend the day together. We went to the Pequot Museum, which we had never been to before. Overall a nice museum; very well put together. However I wish they had not bothered with the ice age stuff. It's stuff which is so easily found elsewhere, and took time away from the Pequot specific exhibits at the end. No, the four hours we spent didn't get us through the whole thing. And I really am quite frustrated that all the Pequot stuff was the stuff we missed. However, it doesn't change the fact that what they had was very well done. Unfortunately no photos were allowed though, and I actually followed the rules.

We did get to see a film about how they lost most of their population in a war with the English. Afterward, R asked me if I had known it was going to be so violent. He was very disturbed by all the shooting and killing, and the giant fire which killed so many people. He really is a pacifist at heart.

Anyhow, after the movie we pretty much got kicked out. The boys had had enough by that point anyway, I suppose. R's favorite part was the Indian Village. They had portable listening devices and you were supposed to press the number which was shown on each scene to hear about what you were looking at. It even kept E busy.

E actually did well the whole day. The exhibits were interesting enough to keep him focused. But if you were to ask him what his favorite part was, he'd emphatically tell you it was the buffet dinner at Foxwoods afterwards.

R and I had been to Mohegan Sun to see Def Leppard a year or so ago. He really liked the interior of the casino and was insistent that we return at some point. Well, Foxwoods seems to have been an acceptable alternative. We walked around enjoying the sites for a while before we ended up at Festival Buffet, which we all enjoyed very much. Especially E.

We got home around 9:30. It was a very enjoyable day, and we were all sad when it was over.

The making of a Conscientious Objector

This morning R came into my room as I was watching This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and started watching with me. There were no images of war, so I allowed him to stay and listen. He watched for a few minutes, left, and returned during The Chris Matthews Show, which seemed to keep his attention more.

This led to a 10 minute conversation about sending more troops to Iraq, how Bush hoodwinked the country into the war in the first place, how the Patriot Act is turning him into a dictator, whether Iraq would be better off with us forcing our view of a good government on them vs. leaving now and letting them fall into civil war, how we can get Bush out of office, and whether or not U.S. citizens can be dragged into fighting in the war if they don't want to go. He was full of intelligent questions; I was, quite frankly, surprised.

I have been wanting to start taking him to rallies, and talking to him about the realities of war, so that I can start making a Conscientious Objector file for him. I think it's really important that I start doing that soon, but I've been concerned about exposing him to the stress of war. I know for myself that keeping up on it often makes me feel powerless, and I've been concerned about how it would effect his psyche. So I've been dragging my feet on it. But today convinced me it's time to get moving. I'm going to pick up some of the age appropriate books out there about war to read with him, and maybe I'll check out what Netflix has to offer on the subject too. I'll definitely be starting to document conversations like the one we had today.

R feels that we should definitely not be sending more troops to Iraq. Especially more men than those that live in the whole town of Cheshire. He also feels that we should totally withdraw from Iraq and let the people fall into a civil war. He believes that we should not be dictating to anyone how they should run their country, and we should let the Iraqis fight for the government they want to have, themselves. He thinks that we should get rid of the Patriot Act, and that George Bush is dangerous, and we should try to get rid of him too.

I am very proud of R for seeing things the way he does. When I was answering all of his questions, I was careful to give both points of view (McCain was being interviewed on TV at the time we were speaking) to make sure he would formulate his own opinions, and not just accept mine as his own. He is a bright boy and understands how wrong war is. If anyone would actually show the realities of the war on TV, I'd probably let him watch. He is getting old enough to understand the world beyond his up-till-now small one.

My creative kid

"This guy is so special,
he has an invisible head."

Swimming

Here are the boys at the Cheshire pool with one of their friends from the Greater New Haven Homeschool Group. We spent four hours there and all had a fun time. I was the only mom who swam, but still had the opportunity to connect with a mom from the Valley Central Homeschool Group who has a boy of 7. E was happy to proclaim "I just made a new friend!". We are going to try to get out with them this week.

The boys have really been missing all of their old playgroup friends. Everyone is so busy these days it's difficult to get us all together. Even just one family at a time. I'm glad I made the effort to find more friends for us, because they are turning out to be the only friends we actually get to see. R is really looking forward to his birthday so he can have all his old friends over. I hope we end up choosing a day when everyone can make it!

Snow at last...

but does it really count?
Despite the fact that R ran out in his pajamas this morning to eat some, it only really snowed for about 20 minutes. It stuck well on the grass, but never to the pavement. It was a joyous moment followed by a big let-down, for all of us.

We had playgroup today though, and had lots of fun. During the drive there E and I had a conversation about the earth's atmosphere, space, and clouds. He was disappointed to hear that clouds are not fluffy when you touch them. He was kind of young when he touched them through the window when Uncle Roberto gave us an airplane ride, but the memory of touching clouds is one I thought he'd never forget. We'll have to arrange to do it again to jog his memory.

R is very proud of the progress he is making in reading. We've been working on groups of sounds. He's covered "ay", "eigh" and many others. So I made a list of review words on our dry erase board, and he was able to sound them all out. He prefers doing it this way to reading books, because sounding out the words in books interrupts the flow of the story. So although his vocabulary is quite large, and his ability to read somewhat large words is really increasing, he still resists picking up books unless I insist. He probably won't read a book for enjoyment for himself though until he can do so without having to pause over hardly any words at all. We are getting there...

Between this page of anagrams and this page for puzzlemaking, I was able to make another crossword puzzle for him, which I'll give him tomorrow morning. What did homeschoolers ever do without the internet?

The Have Kids Will Travel book I ordered arrived yesterday. I'm kind of disappointed in it. I'll have to read it more closely, but so far it's all pretty obvious information. It does have some websites listed in it though, so we'll see how those are.

I received an email with a link for a very moving video today. Check it out if you can spare four minutes and want to see some truth...

Flippin' Families

I don't recall if I've ever blogged about Flippin' Families before. The Southington YMCA has a gymnastics center and every Tuesday they open it up for free play from 12:30 pm till 2 pm. We went quite a few times last year, but this year have not gone too often, since many of our friends are involved in a yoga class on Tuesdays now. Last time we went R said it was no fun without friends, but today he asked if we could go.

We went out for lunch first, so only had 45 minutes to play once we got there, which was really perfect, actually. It was crowded today; lots of toddlers and preschoolers. We were the only homeschoolers. But the boys had lots of fun and were glad we went. I think 45 minutes was just enough time to have fun without needing someone else involved. Plus they've been getting stir crazy at home so any outing was welcome.

We did a bunch of chores afterwards. In the car E asked me how much 10 take away 5 is, and that led to about 15 minutes of him happily working on math problems I gave him. "E, I don't know why you think you are not good at math, every time we do it together you are excellent." That prompted a BIG smile.

R was lost in an audiobook as usual. I don't know how he's not sick of Harry Potter yet.

More fun with the giant box once we got home. Today it was an amusement park ride. They took turns setting themselves up inside with the two beanbag chairs while the other pushed the box over and shook it up all over the kitchen. It made it hard to get the groceries put away, but I stayed out of the way as long as I could.

Days at home

Lots of fun things get done on the boring days at home. Here are the shields I made last week to go with the really cool swords we got at the Renaissance Festival in October. The boys had really been admiring the shields along with the swords, but I insisted they'd be easy enough to make for ourselves, and they were. Now all they need is a coat of paint. R is still deciding on a cool dragon for me to paint on his.

R and E have been having fun with the giant box my treadmill came in. It's got great windows in it now and a good-sized door. It also makes a good cave (?) for matchbox cars.

Today R was complaining about being bored. Then he found something to to do; Izzi. I was happy to see him working hard on it while listening to Harry Potter. Today he also spent some time working on a crossword puzzle. The clues were simple anagrams, and he really enjoyed them. I've got to see if I can find more, or at least try to make some with puzzlemaker and this anagram page.

Holidays 2006

I've finally uploaded all the photos from my 234MB worth of memory sticks. Lots of photos to sort through. My photo utility has somehow disappeared from my computer, so I have to upload them all manually, which is a huge drag. So far, not too happy with the Dell. Yeah, they have great customer service, but unfortunately that's because they need to. Argh.

So, where to begin? Craft night at Grandma's, I guess.

Grandma is one of eight children. Between her generation and the next one down (mine, obviously), the Gassman family managed to produce five, yes FIVE boys in the year 1997. My R is the oldest. Anyway, Grandma has hosted a winter craft night for all of her nieces over the last several years, and last year she decided the boys were getting old enough to have one too. So this is the second year we headed up to Maine two weeks before Christmas for craft night. This is only four of the six boys invited. One completely forgot and showed up an hour late when Grandma called to remind him, and one never showed up at all. No phone call, nothing. Grandma felt pretty bad, and next year plans to have everyone RSVP. The boys all had a great time and are herewith pretending to eat the snakes they all painted. They made lots of cool things to give to people as gifts.

Here is E holding his first cousin M. E fell so in love with that little boy and kept asking me why we can't have any more babies. "I want a girl baby." M would get fussy, so I'd take him from E and within a few moments I'd get "Mom if you want me to hold him again, I will". It was so much fun to watch my baby interact with my brother's.



The boys had a great time with Grandma when she arrived for Christmas. She came a few days early and arrived with lots of goodies. One of their favorites was the gingerbread Christmas tree. She also brought a house, but they all agreed the tree was easier and more enjoyable to make.


Here's the Halloween tissue box cover I made for my mother (Grandma) for Christmas. I made covers for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I'm not much of a seamstress, but I was pretty pleased with how each of them turned out. I actually had a cardboard tissue cover from a craft store and took it apart to make a pattern. Then I had to tape the cardboard back together because the fabric covers had to go over it to give them form. I wished I had another cardboard cover to make a set for myself. Honestly, even if I find one now, the moment has passed. It was a lot of work for someone who had only made curtains with straight lines on her sewing machine up until this point.

I have to admit I did a really bad job taking photos of Christmas this year. I remembered to charge up the video camera, but found in the morning there was no tape. And I hardly took any stills. I was just too busy being there and enjoying what was going on I guess. It was a fun day.

Nagy Papa had gone up to Maine to spend Christmas with my siblings, so we had dinner and celebrated with him a few days afterward. It was very enjoyable.

Last weekend we headed down to New York to celebrate with B's family. Here is a photo of all the nephews:
My husband B is one of three boys and each of them had two boys. My mother-in-law is not thrilled, but she is getting used to it. N is going through a long stage of not wanting to be photographed. He's not a very happy boy, unfortunately. I hope the Joy Berry books I gave his mom help him out a bit. I really do. My heart goes out to him every time he is being yelled at from across the room.

That's about it for Christmas. I'm sure all the fun stuff the boys got will show up here in the coming weeks. My resolution for this year is to blog more often. It helps me focus on the great stuff we have going on. So stay tuned!

By the way, if anyone out there is using the new blogger dashboard, please let me know what you think. I'm always so scared to fool around with what's working just fine.

Photo storage

Okay, these need to stay on a posting on a blog in order to get them stored on the blogger server, I guess. So here they are. I'm going to back date them so they hopefully get lost in the past. Use the links on the right to buy them!