Stan’s Obligatory Blog

We went to Back-to-School night at Don Benito this evening. This is our first time being parents of a school-age child, so it’s all new to us. We didn’t realize that public school is a lot like public TV. A good bit of the evening was devoted to begging us to donate money. Apparently, the school doesn’t pay for classroom supplies, so the teachers end up spending their own money to get the classrooms outfitted. This is pathetic.

On the plus side, Lucinda’s teachers seem very capable and nice. So we will likely pony up some cash to help out with the supplies.

Being a transplant from Back East, it took me several years to get used to the idea that citrus fruit just grows on trees in peoples’ back yards here. I’ve accepted this. But this evening, I needed a lemon from our neighbor’s tree, and I saw these weird-looking mutant lemons growing on it. You won’t find these for sale in the produce section:
 

Today was Lucinda’s first day of school. Don Benito has buses for the kids, so she decided she wanted to ride the bus. So we walked down to the corner with her and waited with her until the bus came. Then she got on and she was gone.

Lucinda’s first day of school is Thursday. This evening we went to her Back-to-School picnic at Don Benito to see her classroom and meet her teachers. We got her a school shirt and met some of the other incoming kindergartners. There are pictures in her photo album.

Last night we heard a tremendous crack and crashing noise in the middle of the night. This morning, we woke up and found a big tree branch had fallen down on our driveway. We called the city, and they sent a crew out who turned it into mulch. Ah, the joys of suburban living…

 

I built a new gate for our driveway this weekend. Here we are posing with it at the end of the day.

Lucinda won an award from the 99 Ranch Market. Afterward, we went shopping there for a bit. We were wondering what ‘feminality’ is.

Our dog Buddy is kind of weird. He likes to jump up on things like a cat.

There was a movie crew filming near our house today. This happens a lot down near Caltech, but not not that often near our house.

Cathy’s birthday is today, so we all went to dinner at Cafe Bizou.