On This Date in 1999 (February 24)

The ground is covered with snow again, but I don’t think it will last too long. About three inches fell during the afternoon, making rush hour traffic treacherous, which, of course, was of no concern to me or JoAnna, The weather is supposed to warm up, with temperatures in the 40s by the weekend. I haven’t bothered to shovel the sidewalk, and I think I just might let Mother Nature take care of the job. (As it turned out, I shoveled the sidewalk but not the driveway, which I did leave to Mother Nature. She did a good job, too.) 

Andy brought home a terrible midterm report in math, an overall grade of 60, which is barely passing. When I returned home from work last night around 9:15, JoAnna was attempting to help Andy with his homework. He had written down incorrect answers for all of the math problems using the symbols > (greater than) and < (less than) but couldn’t be convinced that they needed to be changed. He got upset when we told him that he must have misunderstood something in class. As a result of this downfall, Andy is grounded for a week and his Playstation game will only be available at selected times during the weekend. I suggested that sleepovers be disallowed until the end of the school year.

Although Andy went to bed mad last night, he woke up this morning in a pleasant, even affectionate, mood. He corrected the mistakes on his homework assignment. The disagreement with Mom and Dad seemed to have been forgotten. 

I signed up the boys for baseball on Monday evening. Andy will again try out for a traveling team. This year, the 11 year olds will play in 5 (!) tournaments, the first one scheduled for the middle of May. I don’t think Andy is going to be playing much soccer this spring.

JoAnna made a casserole for supper tonight, using boneless chicken breasts, Stove-top stuffing, and cream of mushroom soup. It was very tasty. In fact, I should be able to have an encore for lunch tomorrow unless JoAnna has seconds once she returns from an evening spent at Shirley Abrahamson’s campaign headquarters. Both Shirley and another Supreme Court justice, Ann Walsh Bradley, have asked JoAnna to stay on until the election in April. I know she’ll stay involved, but I don’t see how she can continue to do everything she’s doing now once she starts working in the Department of Justice.