Conversations on the Way to School

June 17, 2014

Today's "Conversations in the Car": Who invented ice cream, the Pontiac Skye vs. the Pontiac Solstice, tank tops and should boys of a certain age wear them and what will people think of said boy, why you shouldn't worry about what other people think of you but should do what makes you happy, and the Holst musical composition of The Planets - is the Mars piece better than the Jupiter piece, and what part, exactly, does the Tuba have in each one, and would that be the pinnacle of your tuba playing success to play those pieces?

June 16, 2014

Today's "Conversations in the Car:" We were listening to the classical channel and the announcer reffered to the music as Bluesey - and my son informed his sister that Bluesey isn't a name of a song it's a musical style, pound for pound the human body puts out more energy than the sun, the reality that a coffee called Death Wish Coffee might be the best choice for mom, Bulletproof vests and how they work but not 100% of the time, and then an explanation of taxes and baking and loans.

June 13, 2014

Today's "Conversations in the Car": The Scion FRS, which is my son's most beloved car and how amazing it is, how the Volkswagen golf GT is kind of a lame car that used to be the absolute best in it's earlier time, what does it mean to disown someone and what are some reasons it might be done, 
Potholes vs. Manholes - do they mean the same thing or different? and is the flight pound limit still 66 pounds for carryon luggage, as we saw on an old I Love Lucy episode?

June 12, 2014

Today's "Conversations in the Car": Ibuprofen vs. acetaminophen  vs. Naproxen sodium - which one works better and how do they each work in your body, what is music in 2/4, is the proper use of the word Greek or Grecian, What's it like to be drunk, and then a replay of their favorite lines from the movie Master of Disguise. 

June 11, 2014

Today's "Conversations in the Car":  If you could have dinner with any four people in the world, who would they be, and we finally decided on Neil DeGrasse Tyson, because duh, Mom's  favorite author Diana Gabaldon, Johnny Cash and Sinbad for laughs.

June 11, 2014

I've been toying around with what to do with my "Conversations on the Way to School", as we 1) aren't going to school, because, duh, summer and 2) we don't go as many places in the summer. SO I think I'm just going to do "Stellar Conversational Gamuts" - and here's one from today, on the way to boxing: What is the SAS (Special Air Service), what are Mom's feelings on Bear Grylls (none, I didn't really know about him before this condo), a reminder that Pain is Weakness Leaving the body (after he held a 3 minute plan), The amazingness of Death Wish Coffee, and why, in my opinion, is British TV much better than American?

May 28, 2014

Todays " Conversations on the way to School": How does an inhaler get medication into your lungs and not just your mouth, it seems like only nice people drive old volkswagons, What is a gregorian, how the one kid who really needs to drink the protein shake never seems to finish it every morning because she "runs out of time", and how awesome the book my sons teacher loaned him is - and because it's a loaner, you probably shouldn't dog ear the pages. (The book is called Nazi Hunters, for those playing along from home.)

May 27, 2014

 Today's "Conversations on the way to School":

My kids watched the Morgan freeman inhaling helium clip on Youtube, which led to the discovery that inhaling helium doesn't change the pitch of your voice, but instead changes the timbre, and how cool the preacher in The Princess Bride would sound if he inhaled helium, an attempt to explain timbre by saying that the B-flat on the tuba is the same as an F on the French horn - and I'm so NOT musically inclined that it went right over my head, and the reality of No power at school lead to some very excited chatter about the possibility of an early dismissal.

May 23, 2014

Today's "Conversations on the way to School": are pennies useful or necessary and could we do without them, and running 60 feet in 4.96 seconds. (My son and his friends timed themselves running 60 feet while at recess and that was his supposed time.) Then I put on Gershwin's An American in Paris and we talked about that piece of music, which is my son's new favorite, if it came first or the movie with Gene Kelly did (the musician 1928 vs. the movie in 1951), what the movie is about, and why there is no current Mozart/Brahms/Beethoven/Gershwin writing super cool music. Happy Friday, y'all!

May 22, 2014

Today's "Conversations on the way to School": When we turned on the truck, Pachabel's Canon in D was playing and two of my kids immediately said "Turn it up, I love this one!" - which made me feel good, the origin of chamber pots and the origin of the term "Gardy-Loo!" and the necessity of using the flush part of the toilet, when and how you would use a feeding tube and how that wouldn't help a food allergic individual, your responsibilities as a FA individual (my kid is refusing to wear his medic alert bracelet), Blind vs. Double blind test and when you'd use one, Why do you need rubber bands for braces, why would people do drugs when they did Dare in school, and the Pièce de résistance- the Despair and reality that we have no more morning band - arguably the best part of my son's week.  Happy Almost Friday, everyone!

Gardy Loo - source, Dictionary.reference.com - (a cry formerly used in Scotland to warn pedestrians when slops were about to be thrown from an upstairs window.) Origin:  1760–70;  Anglicized form of French gare  ( de ) l'eau  beware of the water.

My food allergic kid thought that maybe, if he used a feeding tube, he wouldn't have to worry about food reactions - because this has been heavy on our minds lately. It won't work. :) This discussion lead to the concept of a blind test vs. a double blind test and if it could - or should - be used to test food allergies. We decided no. :)

Two of my kids are going to start braces over the summer - actually probably Invisalign - and we talked about the necessity of wearing your trays 23 hours a day and why I would choose this over traditional braces (it's because the two kids who currently need braces are voice and instrument students and I think it'd be helpful for performance to be able to remove them) and how we don't want to toss the trays in the garbage - and this led to a discussion on rubber bands. 

And the end of the school year is within sight, and we've had the year end band concerts, which means no more early morning, A period, band class. Which was my son's favorite part of the entire week.