Monday, August 8

Up at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. As usual, swimming and water aerobics set the pace for a very good day. Back home, I spent about an hour on a lesson plan for a meeting with my student this afternoon.

Mother stayed home this morning, but came over after lunch, and we made greeting cards until it was time for me to leave for the college.

Today, the lesson included reading a couple of stories and answering questions about them, as well as learning the differences in the sounds and meanings of words like "thigh," and "thy," "ether," and "either," "teeth," and "teethe," and "mouth," as a noun, and "mouth," as a verb.

We had a rather comical moment, when the student read the sentence, "He hurt his thigh," as "He hurt his thing." Once I explained what "thing" meant in the context of that sentence, we both had good laugh.

The student learned how to use "half," and "half of," as in "I'd like half a cup of coffee," and "Give me half of that apple."

She also learned to use "another one," "the other one," and "the others," in sentences like, (teacher): "I have a pen," (student): "Do you have another one?" And, (teacher): "I have two sisters." (student): "Where is the other one?" And finally, (teacher): "I have three sisters." (student): Where are the others?"

She had a problem with the surname "Smith," which she kept pronouncing as "esSmith." After practicing for quite a while, she finally got her tongue around it.

Last week, I took a carton of Reliance grapes to the student. She commented that she and her husband found them to be the best grapes they'd ever eaten, and wanted to know where to get them. I told her, but advised that the grapes are probably out of season by now, and they might have to wait until next year to make an excursion to buy them.

Today, she brought me six peaches and two pint-baggies of figs.

Funny: last week, in the midst of our session, I asked the student if she was wearing a new blouse, and she said yes, whereupon I pulled a strip of cellophane, showing the blouse size, off the side of the garment and handed it to her. We both laughed as I told her that I've been known to wear similar cellophane strips attached to the backsides of my blue jeans.

About 30 minutes before our session ended, the librarian came in to let us know that the library would close promptly at 4:30 today, and wouldn't be available again until Monday, August 22. She also asked that I provide her with a written request to reserve a library study room on Mondays during next semester, so she can add it to her calendar. I did this at the end of our session.

Back home, Mother was preparing a supper of leftover spaghetti, which we had with salad, and cottage cheese. Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I watched the 2007, PG-13, movie, "War Eagle, Arkansas," starring Brian Dennehy, and Mare Winningham.

This little gem of a movie is based on a true story about a coming-of-age young man who stutters, and his friend with CP, who is confined to a wheelchair. When the young man begins dating a popular girl, his friend, who first accompanies him on his dates to complete his sentences, soon becomes jealous.

Later, the stuttering young man has to decide whether or not to leave town to make something of himself. And whether he can do this without hurting his friend's feelings. The young men (Dan McCabe and Luke Grimes) are great in their roles. Viewers will be especially drawn to McCabe in his portrayal of the boy with CP. He in fact does not have CP and is not confined to a wheelchair.

When we first began watching the movie, I commented that it looked like a film festival offering. Later, in researching it online, I found that it has won more than 20 awards for Best Picture and Best Actor in film festivals around the country.

I became a little aggravated with myself today. We received a coupon for a free On Demand movie from our cable company. I know that the idea behind On Demand is to be able to watch a movie any day at any time of the day, but what I didn't know is that movies from that source can't be recorded on DVR.

We wanted to see "Black Swan," so I hit the "buy" function, and then the record function. It didn't record, drat it. I guess I just should have waited until the three of us were free to watch the movie, but this had to be done before August 25, and I figured it would be easier to put it on DVR than to try to keep up with a deadline date. Oh well, I can probably rent it at Red Box for a buck some weekend when we're free to watch it.