lunch time update on loads of stuff

So I passed my final class. I get to Graduate!

I am going to attend the graduation ceremony for this degree. I did not walk at my undergrad graduation, so this is a big deal. When I finished my undergrad I did not see the point of spending that many hours of suffering just so I and my three thousand or so closest friends could stand as a group to be told we were done. This one is a bit different. I was much more committed to this degree than I was to any other scholastic endeavor in my life. And it shows in my grades. Amazing how that works. And it has given me lots to think about for when our little one starts school.

In other news, our little one has started day care. It is for two hours two mornings each week. More a chance for him to socialize and Mom to get some errands run without having to deal with a toddler. Getting to the point of sending him to day care has been more stressful on Mom than on child. He has taken to it like a fish to water. The two ladies running the program never fail to mention how surprised they are that he adapted so quickly. The only time he fussed was when I was a little late in picking him up and that was only becuase he saw the other kids leaving without him. And in the short time he has been going we have seen a huge increase in his speaking. While he still only has a few words, he uses them and a growing number of signs much more often. It really seems as if he wants to talk, so we are really excited.

And I finally figured out what to call it when he mixes his two languages. "Ponglish" I thought I was being really creative and trendsetting when I came up with that one late at night. Then I found it is already a slang term in Polish, with a polish language wikipedia entry and everything.
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponglish Granted, my wife did not know it, so at least I am figuring out new slang before she is, in her language, which is funny as my Polish is pretty minimal.

On the music front, I found the music for "Sto Lat" and took a stab at transcribing it so I can play it on the concertina. I have not actually started practising as yet but be assured I will be posting anything that does not sound like cats in a blender. "Sto Lat" is the traditional Polish song sung at all happy gatherings. It serves in place of "Happy Birthday", "Auld Lang Syne" and "100 Bottles of Bear on the Wall" as best as I can tell. Further info as well as music and words can be found here: http://www.polishamericancenter.org/StoLat.htm
Please note the English version is not a translation of the Polish, but something of the same spirit.

Garden update: I never got replacements started for my tomatoes that decided not to start but I have gotten started on prepping the garden beds. I weeded some, ran the garden weasel over them and added some nice dark stuff from the bottom of the compost pile. I only got a few buckets full of the good stuff, where you can no longer tell what it once was, so we also turned the pile a few times and have been adding everything since to a new pile. I have all my seeds and am planning on getting as much into the ground as I can this weekend. This is what I really hope to get done: plant the spinach, lettuces, bush beans, tomatoes, sun flowers and get the mounds made and corn planted for the Three Sisters experiment. That is all I can remember from my big plan, so I should also take a look at my diagram and see if I am leaving anything out. Things like cucumbers come to mind...

Ok, lunch hour is coming to a close and I need to get back to other things.
*smiles*

I hope all is well with you and yours!