Why, yes, my family IS weird...

Heard around the homeschool this week:

--the difference between a troubadour and a minstrel (thank you, World Book!)

--the founding of Rome: 753 B.C., the fall of Rome 476 A.D., the fall of Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, futurely Istanbul, 1453 A.D.

--trying to remember the lyrics to They Might Be Giants' "Istanbul not Constantinople"

--chuckling over Don Quixote's using the Fall of Constantinople (1453) as his default setting on his wristwatch alarm

--Kingdom Monera (including bacteria), listening to restaurant managers Daddy and Joe Hardy regaling us with food-borne illness stories they learned at Serv-Safe classes. Eeuuww.

--Learning that a "mild" case of botulism can cause high fever, vomiting, and severe diarrhea, and laughing at anyone who would inject such a poison in their body (i.e., Botox)

--Laughing at women in the 1890's who took little bits of arsenic to make themselves "pale."

--Dividing expressions with "x" variables, such as 3x - 6 over 3, divided by, 4 over 6x - 12. Blackeyed Susan asking, "when would I ever use this in real life?" Me answering, well, unless you work in Math, I guess NEVER. But, you still have to learn it, so you can do Higher Math that you will never use again, either.

--Okay, kids, time to read. "Can't we clean the bathrooms instead?" Alien children. I have Alien children...

edited to add: By the way, I took Latin class beginning in 1969, and *I* remembered the dates of the founding and fall of Rome. (preening my feathers, here). Maybe that doesn't say so much, because I also remember David Cassidy's birthday is April 12, and Donny Osmond's is December 9, from the Tiger Beat magazines my friend and I read. Maybe all information remembered is not all that useful...but if you ever need to know the dates of the founding and fall of Rome, let me know...