Sara Skates

Hard core sitting

I've been meaning to blog this for a while.  Aaron Fotheringham is a kid who wanted to be included at the skate park with his brother - so he just started - I believe the other kids pushed him to the top of the ramp and then let go LOL.  He's been a chair-user exclusively since the age of 8 (though he used crutches between age 3 and 8). 

Don't miss the videos at his site -the second one especially - while it's kinda long, it gives a good overview of the reality of what he does - the falls, the practice, and the thrill of landing a new trick for the first time.  Near the end, there are some really poignant moments where he's working with a little kid (age 4) and showing him how to get going in the sport of hard core sitting.

Some other links of interviews with Aaron:

From an ESPN series on sports trailblazers

From e-bility.com

Toby Tiger

Toby has been lobbying for an OX Ugly Doll - and we also started getting Craft magazine - where a recent issue had directions on making your own crazy plush monsters.  So, I printed off a jpg of OX, enlarged it, traced it in sharpie, and used it as a pattern.  I had a remnant of purple fleece in my stash, and while Toby argued that OX was really green, he finally decided it'd do.

The O is two buttons from the bin of old buttons from my grandmother, the X and mouth are embroidered plus a bit of red fleece for the tongue.  It's stuffed with wool fluff that I'll never spin (my first attempt - I bought a greasy fleece, washed repeatedly but never got all of the grease out, the dye didn't take well b/c of that - and while I hand-carded the whole dang thing it's just not going anywhere).  It's a quick and easy project - it would have been quicker and easier if I had cut the ears and arms a little wider - turning them right side out and stuffing them was a total PITA.  I'm hoping this will morph into him wanting to make some of his own monster plush dolls - for now, he's stuck on having the commercial one.

 

Even with this one - he claims it'll be the teddy bear for his "real" Ugly doll!

And here's Toby last week:

Terry has started taking the kids to one of the local Unitarian churches, largely at Hannah's request.  Their children's programming is great - especially the programs for pre-teens and kids coming of age - so I don't mind.  Last week, they had an end of year children's celebration - and Toby was SO excited about being on stage - he asked for a dress up shirt with a tie, a real one (not a bow tie).  (Shh, it's a clip-on, don't tell him that there's a "real" way to tie ties).  He's heading down the now complete (but only nearly complete in the photo) ramp on the front of our house - it is SUCH a major difference to have the ramp!  He gets himself out to the school bus every morning now - I go with him to pass off his backpack etc., but not having to lift him down the stairs etc.?  Priceless.  Thanks to the State of NY taxpayers - the house is a lot more functional for Toby these days.

Good thing, b/c he's getting way WAY too heavy to lift anymore.

Thanks...

Everyone, really, thanks.

There's not much more to say really. 

Well, aside from the details of getting pix off the camera and sharing yarn, WIPs, and FOs.

I am rather stricken by the vast quantity of folks in my "circle" who are separating from long (some very long) term relationships.  Is it just that I didn't notice so much while not in the same predicament myself?  Very strange.  Mind-boggling really, in a really sad way.

I spent the day outside getting a raised box built for tomatoes, transferring dirt and compost, planting 48(!) tomato plants, plus some broccoli, beets and orange peppers.  Still to come is tossing down some lettuce seed (and transferring some started lettuces if I can find them).  Next up, making a reasonable stab at keeping the boxes weeded...  I am ending the day with a seriously angry knot in the lower left side of my back - eesh.

I also need to get pix of Toby and his new ramp - what a difference to our lives!

Last up, a new computer arrived at the house to replace a 9 (?) year old one - largely for the kids to play on, plus email for the grownups.  It also has a video card compatible with Second Life so I'll want to play with *that*.  The old one is behaving seriously erratically - hopefully it'll work long enough to get the rest of the stuff on it off onto the external hard drive.  The only downside is that the new computer comes with Vista - and after some serious googling, I'm either going to wipe the hard drive and downgrade it to XP, or partition the hard drive and have it dual-bootable (Vista on one, XP on the other).  I'll also look at whether I can boot from an external hard drive (this says it can be done - though it recommends installing a mirror image of the internal drive - I'd do it off of the old computer I guess - and having it sit there in case it's needed - really, I'd rather use the external with XP and use the Vista internal drive in case the external crashes!)...I have a decent-sized external hard drive; it might be even easier to do it that way.  Any tips from the geeks out there?   The one thing I'll probably lose if I revert to XP completely is the TV tuner thingie that comes with this computer (I gather there's no XP driver for it).  I can't say as I'll lose sleep over that one - the house TV has local channels only (no cable), and getting TV through the computer is far from a "need" or even a "want".

Heart hurts

Where to begin.

I broke my children's hearts this weekend...Terry and I told them that we were separating.  Nothing could have prepared me to how it'd feel or for the extent of the repercussions to their lives.  Yes, it makes me question my decisions that led me to here...not because I think they were wrong decisions (the reasons for separating run pretty deep), but because I wish I could have spared them.  They deserve more and better though, as do the grownups in this picture, and as my favorite songwriters remind, the only way out is through.

They're doing ok.  Hannah's more cerebral about it.  She's still scared and her world has been shaken.  Toby's worried - mostly because he really doesn't understand it.  He has a keenly developed sense of being at fault for most things wrong in life, so we have our work cut out for us in terms of him not taking this on as his.  Hannah's teachers and friends have been phenomenally supportive - which is great to see.  So far, they seem to do better during the day, and it gets hard at night.  We keep telling them that we still both love them to pieces, and we'll continue to take care of them, and that the parenting piece was always something that we did particularly well together and that that piece will continue, and that this isn't their fault at all, it's stuff that Mamas couldn't work out. 

Aside from that, things are going reasonably well.  Work is slowing down to a dull roar, as Teri notes.  Skating is in a weird space - there's not much ice to be had this time of year, I'm rink hopping at weird times of the day and it's about to get worse for about 4 weeks.  Then my rink opens up again - I will never understand why New England rinks seem to feel the need to shut down in May and June and sometimes all summer.  Rinks in warmer parts of this country stay open all year long - what a concept!  I have a blog post percolating about some video resources available online re skating - and some pictures to share from Adult Nationals at Lake Placid.

Knitting is happening.  A pair of fingerless mitts are about done, and I'm trying to finish a few pairs of socks that are nearly complete too. 

I have a work/play/work trip coming up in a few weeks - I'm attending my college reunion and presenting at it - they're having a focus on my department/major, as two faculty are retiring (one this year, one last year) - both were faculty when I attended back in the early 80s.  Then I'm heading down to the Bay Area for the better part of a week.  Then, I'm heading to Reno NV to present at a conference.  The fun part - I'm bringing Hannah with me.  She is *thrilled*.  She hasn't seen Grampa Charlie in far too long, and she'll be meeting one of her donor siblings...in the last few months, she has been talking with two of them on the phone, we'll meet up with one of them who lives in the area.  It has been cool and mindblowing honestly to see these relationships build.

Knitting calls - I know I have been hiding in the wood work of the blog living room lately - it'll pass.

Coolest data representation I have seen in a while

I have so many things I'd like to blog about - Toby, skating (Adult Nationals, and Dance tests - I have passed the Rocker Foxtrot and the Tango so am moving on from Silver dances to Pre-Golds - wheee!), plus lots more - but have to post a quickie data thing for now.

This is the coolest data representation I have seen in a while.  I happened upon it here - Flowing Data, a new blog on my blogroll.  It's a New York Times graphic, where rather than using a traditional pie chart to break up and portray how folks spend their budget, they have divided the pie into sections, and then each section also has chunks corresponding to areas of spending - with amounts in that chunk and the increase/decrease from last year.  The chunks are color coded by side of the change in prices - so it looks more like a stained glass window.  It's also interactive - you can click on individual areas.

While my job as an Institutional Researcher does not involve a lot of visual representation stuff, I think it's hugely important.  Edward Tufte's work is phenomenal - I inflict one of his essays (on the use and mis-use of Powerpoint) on my Research students.  Lately, I have been following Freebase - which is a cool attempt that sort of combines my interest in mind-mapping (an example is here) to organize stuff and the vast amount of data available on the interweb.  Sort of.  If you really think about it.  Which is what I have been doing.

At some point, I know I'll have the headspace and time to blog more - bear with me while it's a bit hit or miss please :)  I am knitting - there's an FO on the horizon - so there's that at least!