Mrs.J

Did not know that. FCPS has been using Schoology for the last 2 years. The older Miss J's freshman year certain teachers at the HS level were chosen to use it 100% in their classrooms. Her French teacher was one of those teachers. All MS and HS the year after that went to using it. So those kids and families are familiar with it. ES schools just transitioned to it this year. Yes I am curious about snow days from now on and how they will be handled. I am aware of all the HS's in Frederick now have cell towers installed on their grounds and that has helped a lot with in school online access. Not sure about the tower situation around the county for more rural areas. Although out of 44,000 students only around 800 were not able to get logged on this past spring even with a hot spot. So the tower situation for those without cable or fiber may be better than I would have thought.

Yea I expected issues especially today with a lot of systems going on as their first day today. We live 1/4 mile from my girls school which has a brand new tower installed on the property. I believe it was a server issue most likely with the online platform with this issue. Loudoun's first day is today and they are now using the same platform as Frederick. I think the western part of Frederick Co. might be on the same servers as Loudoun and we went down over here. All back up and running now though. School system was super quick with getting the issue resolved with the online platform. Much better communication than back in the spring.

Sun back out over here. 78/76 it really did not cool off at all after all the rain. Currently sitting at .46".

I can say my area while currently under rain missed out on the super big stuff.

Ok human barometer here. My head all of a sudden just feels like it is going to explode. Got a pressure headache that has made me have to sit down it hurts that bad. My left ear canal hurts so much. Currently under what I would call gentle storm.

81/76 here with thunder. My area seems to be in a dry slot for now. Opened the back door and OMG so muggy.

That Tornado warned storm is to my East. Storm coming over from VA to my west is warned.

It would be nice to get at least a decent storm. Would help me justify the stabbing eye ball pain I had all day yesterday from pressure in my head.

Had a quick passing shower sun starting to come back now.

Completely covered in thick clouds over here now. No sun coming through.

77/74 here with sun powering through the cloud deck. Tropical feeling out.

I just have to say we are 3 days into online learning and the youngest Miss J, who was bullied horribly last year, has had her best ever start to school since 1st grade. She told me yesterday that she likes not feeling stressed about the bullying. And Mr. J and I can see the difference. Every cloud has a silver lining

Want to thank all for the kind words and acknowledgement. Oscar was a special guy. I grew up not liking cats, he changed my opinion. Mr. J had grown up with cats and it was him who wanted kittens when we lived in LA. As we were in an apartment I said yes. Oscar and his sister Ursa, who we lost 4 years ago to the same cancer, marched into our hearts. Knew we would be moving back East yet still adopted the two 4 mo old fuzz balls. We drove cross country with them when we moved back and it was an adventure. And yes both Miss J's knew him and his sister from the start of their lives. It has been the hardest on the younger Miss J. But she went with us yesterday and said it helped her closure. Oscar was one of those cats that was more like a dog. He would great us at the door when we came home and was always in our business. And oh my he had a motor on him. You could just look at him and he would start purring. We used to say he was solar charged as when he would lay in a sunbeam he was always purring. He had been on Chemo for 2 years and at the start it was working to keeping him his normal self. But just after his 18th birthday he started to really not rebound from his treatments and we decided to stop. As our Vet office is still closed to people they worked with us so that we could still be there through the process. We pulled up in the back of their office and were able to open the back of my car and we all crawled into the trunk with Oscar and were able to spend the whole time with him. And the Dr. and vet tech sat down on the back steps with Oscar in blankets when they administered his end of life care. We have always loved our vet office, but they bent over backwards yesterday to give us the closure wanted. Even had a vet tech who had taken a liking to Oscar make sure he was the one with Oscar the entire time. Even stayed later at work for it. We have two more hooligans still in the house. Wes and Millie a pair of crazy tabbies. As of now they do not realize their brother is gone. But he was their gravy train as he ate whenever he asked for it. But the two fatties are going to get a rude surprise of treats being severely limited. But it is for their own good. They say things come in 3's so if true we are done with pet deaths this year. Lost both of our budgies (parakeets) this year also. Have always wanted to put Ursa and Oscar together again, and found out that we can. We took in Ursa's urn yesterday with Oscar and their ashes will be combined into one Urn. They should both be home soon.

Sad day here today. We let our 18 year old cat Oscar run pain free over the Rainbow Bridge. He had been fighting cancer for 2 years. But his body had just had enough. We will miss him so much. He was such a kind gentleman.

For those starting school today students and teachers, including the two Miss J's... Change is never easy. Learning new ways to do things is never easy. Embracing both will broaden your horizons. Take a deep breath and jump in.

Left over pulled pork so did pork tacos with corn relish. And Mr. J shook up one of his special margaritas.

Had a cell go up to my north came through here with blowing rain and some thunder and lightning. Got .22" in about 5 min as it moved out pretty quick to my south.

5 star dinner tonight. Halibut with wine garlic caper sauce, Au Gratin potatoes and fresh broccoli. Absolutely nothing left on anyone’s plate.

So proud of the younger Miss J today. Her and her friends have been doing a zoom of their D&D group. Well today she found out that one of her friends who had said yes to wanting to join was wondering why she was not part of the group. This friend looses her phone and also gets privileges revoked and apparently since she could not reply they cut her out of the group. My daughter felt it was an easy enough fix to allow her friend in, but the others said no as it would be too much work to include her. Needless to say my daughter felt that was not right and withdrew herself from the group. We have always taught our girls to be inclusive and to find ways to work things out. I don't know much about the game and while my husband does and said that they would have to work in another character into the campaign that it could be done. I know my daughter would have made it work.

Spicy pork bowl with Kimchi.

And I officially have two HS'ers. Schedules just came today. And come spring semester they will actually be in a class together. Into to Ag. Science.

Yea I know it is easier for me. Although I will need to stay on top of the newbie HS'er. Was like a fly on a dog pile this past spring with her to make sure stuff was turned in. There was more leaneancy then not so sure about in the fall though. Both girls have picked their respective "schooling" zones. They are both actually going to use their school laptops to run through the TV's for a bigger screen for the F2F on Google meets. Then use their personal laptops to do work on. So one will be down on the 3rd level and the other will be on the main level. I told them there is always room for tweaking. I really think a lot of families have learned a lot about each other through this process.

We are still waiting on the girls schedules. Both are in HS this year and the sample schedule is as follows. Mind you having HS'ers they are pretty much on their own with this schedule unless they need help from us with anything. Will be interesting as Mr. J is still working from home for the foreseeable future. And both girls will be on video F2F for a decent chunk of the AM. Made sure we were at the top tier for downloads and uploads. I do like that they chose to start HS'ers an hour later than normal start time. Now just need to see if in the afternoon they will be required to show that they are logged on in some fashion till the 3:30 time. Or if that last section of time they are on an honor system. Did find out that the oldest Miss J will have her dual enrollment class next semester. So we are not on the hook for the tuition till January.

That looks great! What is the heat factor with it? While they don't mind spice in curry they tend to not go for heat. Could leave out the Thai green chilies.

So the Miss J’s love curry. Found this fantastic coconut chicken curry.