Watching the Olympics and Writing Grants

OK, so here I sit watching the Olympics and wondering what else I could be doing. Not that I don't enjoy the competitions, I do, but I tend to put off doing other things that need doing around the house.

So far, I really enjoyed the women's sabre competition. How cool, strong women going after each others with swords. They don't hold back, it's ok to yell, and their professionalism is awesome.

I'm trying to forget that I go back to work tomorrow. We've got a morning full of meetings, and I'm way too ADHD to sit still for too long. I'm looking forward to one meeting with our superintendent concerning money and funding issues. I know we all have lots of questions.

I've spent the last two weeks writing both science and music grants. Our department budgets have been cut way back, so I'm trying to get the money to keep going and do the labs I like to do to help the kids learn.

The music grant idea started when Ricky brought home this POS marching baritone. Here's two pictures if you want to see what I'm talking about.


After he brought this thing home I was pretty shocked. I knew that some of our equipment in band was probably about as old as some of our science "equipment" (if you can still call it that) and all of this stuff needs to be replaced. I was also thinking about fundraising for my kids so they can attend the band trips, and fundraising for science olympiad so we can buy our supplies and register our team for this year. So I started hunting around on the internet for fundraising and grant opportunities for my science programs.

I found grants, so I've written two for science. Then I had the bright idea of trying to find grants to fund instrumental music programs. I found some, and so far have written three grants and two foundation funding requests. I'm not sure what chance they have, but I hope to get at least one funded.

The problem with both science and music is that the equipment and instruments required are really expensive. Our science budget was cut by half for this year, and we were already pretty lean from past cuts. Just getting microscopes cleaned is amazingly expensive, not to mention replacing them. And that is just one of many issues.

The music department budget is ridiculously low, approximately six thousand. Since it costs at least five thousand to replace the current marimba that is in pieces and being held together by wire, that budget is ridiculous. This instrument is an integral part of all of the bands, and so replacing it is incredibly important. A decent concert tuba is around eight thousand, and we have two that need to be replaced. Not to mention all of the other instruments that are probably older than me, like the POS baritone above. Hopefully, we can find the money soon. I've got more grants to write for both science and music, so I'm trying to make this work for all of our kids.

Ok, I'm watching, and I think the chinese gymnasts are like 10 years old. They're supposed to be 15 but I'm wondering.

I watched beach volleyball yesterday. What's with the stupid bikini bottoms? Don't those women worry about keeping them on? It seems pretty counterproductive to doing well at your sport.

Maybe I'm ignorant, but I've never heard of synchronized diving. It was pretty boring since the dives are so easy. I'd rather watch the regular stuff.

What's your favorite event?