Today was the second-to-last farm tour of the season. It consisted of nine first graders who, like most children their age, showed a great interest in cow flop. We found a fat Jerusalem cricket under a stump, and a few Darkling beetles under one of the foot bridges. Another stump gave us the opportunity to play Lorax for awhile, although it seemed that none of the kids had read the book. Why haven't most kids read The Lorax? Is it some sort of new conspiracy between public schools and the logging companies? Is George Warfare Bush behind it? What is going on here?

On the plus side, we got to eat sun-dried tomatoes fresh from the drying rack. Yum.

At the museum, I was studying the algebra section of the CBEST study guide when one of my co-workers, who had taken the test a couple of months ago, informed me that there wasn't a whole lot of algebra on it. It's just as well, I suppose. It's not a whole lot of fun trying to cram 12 years of math back into my head.

cds I listened to while not thinking about math: Ducasse compilation (disk 2), Judas Priest "Stained Class" (they once got sued for this one because some kid tried to kill himself with a shotgun after listening to it repeated times - Hey! junior is suicidal! It must be because of that damn heavy metal record. It can't be because we ignore him or because he's deficient in some way. Let's see how much money we can get from their record company), Rosalie Sorrels & Utah Phillips "The Long Memory", Diamanda Galas "The Litanies of Satan", Falu Spelmanslag "i stoten", and Heather Alexander "Life's Flame"

now: Corvus Corax "Die Konig der Spielleute"