Well, we have weathered the Seattle Public School process/system/lottery for kindergarten/elementary school selection, and, I’m proud to say, Alex will be attending Alternative Elementary School II @ Decatur (AE2 for short) next year.
Very cool school - teaching principles based on ELOB and project-based learning. I know Alex will thrive in this type of hands-on environment, where his voice will be heard and his leadership skills given a chance to develop. Leah too - next year she’s switching from the PNPC to a Montessori program around the corner from our house, and then on to AE2.

It’s a relief to have gotten our #1 choice, and be done with this process. I never realized how much thought and effort goes into this choice - maybe it was just easier when I was a kid, and just went to the local/closest school…?

Categories: Family
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VERY funny stuff. Keep reading - it just keeps getting better…

The Credit Card Prank II

Categories: Humor
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Such is the callout quote from a recent Nature article, which reports on a study by researchers that seems to show that RNA may (in some cases in some plants) contain a “backup” copy of DNA. This goes against the current idea of “inheritance” which states that the child gets the same genes (and gene mutations) as the parent. However, if this backup copy exists, it may be that the un-mutated genes exist in the RNA, and could (theoretically) be used to “overwrite” the mutated DNA genes. If this holds true for humans, this marks a profound opportunity shift in how we currently treat genetic diseases. Big stuff here.

Categories: Science
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I saw this article a couple of weeks back, but forgot to bookmark it. Then I wanted to send it to someone, so I googled it, but the site was lost. Thanks to Google’s caching services, I grabbed the page anyway. After the jump.


Show me more… »

Categories: Geek
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We just got back from a week at Snowbird in Utah, and had a great time. We went with the Harness’sss and it was a ton of fun to get the kids on skis for the first time. Pictures will be up soon are here, but I wanted/needed to write about it before I forgot all of the fun stuff, so here’s my brain dump (in no particular order):

• Sharon joining us and being woken up the first morning on the couch by the kids pestering her for hot cocoa.
• Noah strapping on skis for the first time in 10 years (I’ve been snowboarding) and taking the first turns down the slope at Alta — just like riding a bike, you never really forget how…
• Kris grilling steaks on the balcony (umm, no, actually, he never did this, as far as you know)
• Anne cruising down the slopes with her new skis (orange, the same color as every pair of rental skis on the mountain)
• Andrew bugging the maintenance guy for more hot cocoa
• Leah bugging Noah to watch “Beauty and the Beast”…again…
• Dropping into Great Scott, and not quite making that first turn (I recovered though…)
• The many trips to the game room to play air hockey and the snowmobile game
• Snowball fights with Alex
• Seeing Alex and Gabby go from total beginners to passable skiiers in 3 days. Can’t wait to see what the years to come bring — it’s true; get them started as early as possible.
• Playing “ball” with Leah in the swimming pool
• Watching Gabby learn how to swim and not drown
• Kids in and out of the hot tub…about 100 times…
• Cruising Bananas
• Anne’s crick in her neck (that “allowed” her to spend the whole day at the sauna, steamroom, solarium, and massage table…
• Anna’s sunburned teeth (and gums)

I’m sure that I’m forgetting something (probably a lot). Let me know…it’s too good to forget…

Categories: Family
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