Women, piano, karate and camera

The plight of women in Afghanistan continues to horrify me. I suppose it is better than when the Taliban was in charge, but they are still treated badly enough.

Meleah went to piano last night-- first time for the new semester. She is back with her old teacher, which she loves. It is quite the drive. Meleah has agreed to pick up some jazz music in addition to the classical.

Speaking of firsts, the kids took a karate lesson tonight; the first one in years. They really liked it. Well, Meleah liked it. Walker is up in the air. Todd may start taking lessons with them next week.

I fixed my camera today. Well, sort of fixed it. The mode indicator fell off of my Camedia 5050. I was horrified. This camera takes fabulous pictures and I love it. But I was not sure if I loved it enough to pay a couple hundred dollars to fix it. But I found this site that assured me that I could fix it myself with a nylon bolt. It worked. The indicator is now a little picky, but it is on and it still takes pictures. And that makes me happy. I would try to find a #4 bolt instead of a #6 if I could do it over though, to see if that would work. The bolt is almost a little thick for the circuit paper thing that actually sets the mode.

I was reading student blogs to see if any were interesting enough to refer to here. The one that probably would have been was shut down. I'll miss "Slouching Toward Bethlehem."

Charlie linked to this article which disturbs me. A town in New Jersey is shutting its public library down after school because teenagers are running amok in there. And one person they interviewed for the article had the nerve to criticize them for doing so because now the teens don't have a place to go! How on earth is that the library's problem??? Maybe the parents should consider taking responsibility for their children? I have an 11 year old and a 13 year old and I make sure that I am available when they get home from school. Shoot, I pick them up from school! I can't imagine just leaving them for hours to find their way home, or not. I understand that some jobs are not as flexible as mine. But one reason I have my job instead of one that pays better is so that I can supervise my children.