7 Quick Takes about Getting Your Diploma from the Lost and Found, Using Patriotism to Sell Hot Dogs, and Food Processor Troubleshooting

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week? 

—1—

Our 18-year-old son graduated from high school! The graduation was held outside on the football field and it was a beautiful day. The speeches seemed particularly boring this year, but Phillip said they were just like always, so maybe my tolerance is just going down.

And afterward, my son received this email from the principal:

Tell me you have ADHD without telling me you have ADHD.

—2—

Now that he's done with school, we're hoping that the 18-year-old can get more hours at work. Actually, that's a lie. I'm hoping he can get more hours at work; he's hoping to spend more time with his girlfriend. Right now work isn't cooperating, but he's at least making good use of his time learning about cars.

Apparently the guy we bought his car from this winter had replaced the back wheels with custom rims, which we found out about this week when the tire place refused to work on the car until all four wheels were the same. So this week our son learned all about how to source wheels from a junkyard to match the front ones. It was tons of fun.

He's also been helping out with rides for his younger siblings, which has been so helpful with all the end-of-year recitals and programs and banquets and ceremonies throwing a wrench into our routine. 

He even stepped in at the 12-year-old's parent-child soccer game because Phillip was out of commission with a twisted ankle.

—3—

I was buying socks for my family on Amazon and happened to see this:

"Wow!" I murmured, more to myself than anyone else. "I could buy a hundred pairs of socks for $44."

Immediately, my 14-year-old's voice came from the next room: "Don't." 

—4—

The 6th graders just wrapped up a massive project where they research a randomly assigned country of the world and present it during a big "country expo" in the gym. My son got Eritrea.

For the country expo, kids get extra credit if they add another element to their presentation like dressing up in traditional folk clothing, or bringing music or food from their assigned country. My son wanted to make injera, a traditional flatbread. In the 14-year-old's words, our attempt at making injera "would make Eritrean grandmas cry," but we tried.

As a side note: my son was initially not very happy about getting assigned Eritrea. Since he'd never heard of it before, he thought there wouldn't be anything cool about it. 

Luckily, my 21-year-old was home at the time, and she's the product of 12 educational summer vacations learning that there is no such thing as a boring country. She immediately started working on him, saying "Hmm, I bet there have been some really old civilizations in Eritrea... and wow, look at this map, I didn't know there were volcanoes! I wonder if any of them are active..." 

By the time she was done, the 12-year-old was glued to the computer and spent the rest of the evening periodically shouting out Eritrea facts. 

—5—

I have been passing this sign in the processed meats aisle at the grocery store for a few weeks now, and do you know what? It kind of does make me want hot dogs.

Nothing like capitalizing on the 250th anniversary of the nation to sell 16-packs of wieners.

—6—

I've been making energy balls lately to get more calories into my weight-challenged 12-year-old, and one day I pulled out the food processor and it wouldn't turn on. After checking the outlet and all the physical connections between the motor and the bowl, it looked to me like the motor had burned out.

I was about to contact the manufacturer because the food processor is only 3 months old, but first I wanted to get a second opinion to make sure I wasn't missing some obvious reason it wasn't working.

Pulling Phillip over to the kitchen, I asked "Is this broken, or am I just dumb?"

"Those are two different questions," he answered.

And not mutually exclusive ones, either.

—7—

My biggest cackle of the week was definitely this video. If you are a woman over 40, I think it'll be yours, too.

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