This and That

Mission Impossible - Yarn Ball - Success

After several days of mostly patiently untangling my yarn, I finally finished last night.  Yay!!

I made a lovely flower barrette, which is about to be posted on my shop.

Minor Rant:

The past few weeks my remote entry key for the car has been sluggish to get a response.  I decided it probably needed a new battery since we got the car just over a year ago.  I found out the dealership had told my dad that if that thing dies, you have to bring it in to the dealership and they replace it for about $200.  No f***ing way!  No way was I paying $200 for this.  I took the key assembly to the electronics department at Target.  A nice young man popped the thing open - I think it took about two steps and popped out the old standard model battery.  We bought a two pack of new batteries for about $6.  He put the new one in and put the thing back together  - with no indication that it was ever opened.  And car dealerships wonder why they get a reputation for ripping people off.  They want to charge $200 to replace a $3 battery?  WTF?

Brokering a Deal with The Child

My daughter can be a little 'quirky'.  That's a good word to use for it.  It sounds nicer than other words I think sometimes. 

Last week she had a small group play she had to do with other kids in her class.  They're studying Aztecs vs. Cortez.  She decided she wanted to play the princess....There's no princess anywhere in this little project, but she's insistent that she wants to play the princess.  Now this is her social studies class. 

Meanwhile, in another area of the building, in her language arts class, they're working on their end of term living museum projects.  They had to pick a famous survivor.  She picked Princess Diana.  I think everyone went with it, just because that made her buy into the project.  If she doesn't like the subject, she won't do the work - period. 

Back at home, I'm digging through my stuff for my old Princess Diana collection of magazines and news clippings.  I don't find that >.< but do find an old purple, (fake) fur trimmed royal robe in my costuming stuff.

At this point, she is doing the Princess Diana project.  She's flatly refusing to do the social studies project.  Enter bribery.  She will do the social studies project if I let her borrow the robe to wear when she does her presentation - and if she gets to borrow the obsidian dagger I brought home from Puerto Vallarta to use as a prop in the social studies project.  Now Colorado has a zero tolerance rule about bringing weapons to school - but this is a deal breaker for getting her to do the project. o_O

The next morning I put the dagger (not sharp in the least - she could do more damage with a #2 pencil) in my purse, collect the child, and drive her to school.  We easily get the robe approved with the language arts teacher.  We have to discuss things with two school administrators to get her permission to use the dagger as a prop - and that's only if I give it to the special ed teacher, she hands it to the social studies teacher, he tolds it until the presentation, lets the child show it, hands it back to the special ed teacher, who then gives it back to me at the IEP meeting.  As we're discussing this, the child chimes in to the administrators, "I promise not to kill anyone."  (This is where I'm trying really hard not to laugh and hoping the team has a sense of humor - turns out they do.)

Everything went well.  She did the project for social studies.  No one was killed.  ...But my eyes boggled at the IEP meeting when he mentioned how easy the it ended up being to get her to do the project - he was so oblivious to all the wrangling that went on to get her to do it in the first place.