You're Drivin' Me Crazy

Nah. I take that back. Not crazy. I'm actually quite impressed.

Last Saturday, I gave my son, MonkeyDude, his first driving lesson.

A full week before, he'd passed his learner's permit test. We won't have the actual piece of plastic for another couple of weeks. He could have had his permit last year, but we forgot to send him to driver's ed... and he didn't remind us. Driving just wasn't a big deal to him.

Even now, he'll be a junior in high school this fall with a full academic, extra-curricular and social calendar... soon to be adding his first job to the mix. Unfortunately, I'm still going to have to be his chauffeur. He has to have his permit for a full 6 months before moving on to some kind of low-level license with restricted driving privileges. Then another 6 months (I think), before he's allowed to drive for real.

Although he hadn't been in a hurry to drive, and seemed, really, to avoid it for awhile, actually enjoyed himself. He handled himself very well behind the wheel. Listened attentively to my instructions. Knew when he'd made a mistake and corrected for them. Asked good questions.

Granted, we only drove around the big high school parking lot, across one road, into another school parking lot and back, but for a first lesson he did well!

Color me proud.

Neil Gaiman - Storyeller Extraordinaire

I don't know what I haven't done this before now. I just added Neil Gaiman's online journal to my list of blogs. Enjoy!

THANK YOU, SENATOR KLOBUCHAR!

Some of you may remember my post back in November 2007, "Your Papers, Please." I had discovered on a family trip that I'm one of the lucky, lucky people on the Department of Homeland Security's "Selectee" list. I regularly get the "special" screenings, can't print out plane tickets from home or from kiosks, get pulled from the airline gate for additional security checks... lucky me.

FINALLY, a politician is trying to fix it! Enter Senator Amy Klobuchar. I first heard about this on a Fox 9 news report tonight. (I know, I know... Fox News... but for this story, it was worth it.) Check out Senator Klobuchar's website to learn more.

I even wrote her and pointed her to my blog post from last year.

Oh, and apologized in advance for the occasional expletives from a very, very angry Geek Goddess.