$5

I bought this from a local thrift store and G lifted it in and out of the car for me and set it up.  My new end table has no scratches, dents or bad smells.  The doors work perfectly. Yay!  It doesn't quite match the other wooden furniture stain-wise, and it's probably from the late 1970's, and D says that stuff like this winds up in thrift stores because their previous owners got old and died, but that's all ok.  I am going to keep some homeschool materials in there and D says... this stuff is taking over the house.  How is it that now that we are homeschooling only one child, that we have twice as much stuff?  I dunno.

Happy Drunken New Year!

This is the time of year you can get a free car ride about anywhere... just say you're drunk and can't make it!  Volunteers stand by on New Year's Eve/Day to help you out.  Don't drink and drive, stay alive and all that.

You can hate me all you want but I'm one of those people who would simply say "don't drink."  And doggone it.  Innocent people who have economic hardship (and therefore no car or license) but aren't old or drunk get no free rides.  Meanwhile these "gimme the keys" people out there are just enabling others to guzzle with zero consequences.

Mind you... I remember some friends being drunk near me once and hearing them planning a spontaneous car trip somewhere.  I drove because as much as I think they were wrong, I couldn't imagine that being the last time I talked to them.

So yippee, guess I am a hypocrite or something.  How 'bout you?

Y2K Disaster!

January 1, 2000 will surely bring an apocolypse like you've never seen!  The end of the world will be complete with a clonky computer, big circular floppy disk, a chunky square disk (high-tech!) and floating zeroes and ones.  It's a shakeable mayhem, folks!  Happy New Year!  I sure hope I didn't scare you too much! Feel free to hide your cash money at my house in case the ATMs don't work on the big day.  :)

Better Than Mr. Potato Head!

Buy an orange or small clementine and a couple small containers of "whole cloves."  You'll find them in the spice aisle and ours were 99 cents for a small package.  Pop the cloves stem-in into your orange during craft time.  They're actually easy for little hands to pop in once they're shown how.

And after your craft is done, it makes the kitchen smell lovely.   Here are Woodjie and Rose's creations sitting on my windowsill.

Homeschool Update



Emperor's new 3D chess set



Here's a little snapshot of what Emperor's been up to so far this school year.  See the sidebar for links to many of the resources discussed in this post.

English/Grammar and Reading:

Completed much of Bob Jones Reading 5 book (he's done; I made him skip some plays and whatnot).  He has finished about a third of ABeka's Of America 1 book and is working on Bob Jones Reading 6, As Full as the World.  I like ABeka and Bob Jones books very much for younger children, but after this year we will move to novel studies as I think older children need to study an entire work at a time rather than an anthology of short stories and excerpts of longer works.  Personal preference.

Emperor has also completed the Reading Detective A1 workbook this school year.

He does a little writing each week or so, and we polish his drafts together. He also has completed the Latin Word Roots vocabulary book. We've worked in his English book as well. Emperor needs to learn to complete these assignments on his own and also to take his writing seriously. He absolutely hates it. I'm not sure what our local school district might be able to offer that is any better, but we're looking into it. Don't know.

Science:

Emperor is nearly finished with ABeka fourth grade science.  He has only to complete a study on the solar system before finishing with his science requirement for the entire school year.  Hardly surprising, as we are finished with 700 of our 1000 required hours and have been working since July 1. 

He also loves working with his snap circuit kit and observing birds.  He will continue with those activities and we'll find other things for him to do as well before next school year rolls around.

Mathematics:

Emperor is now done with a little less than half of Teaching Textbooks Algebra I.  For some reason algebra is just a slower go than previous math courses, and it takes time to study and understand the concepts.

History:

Emperor's artwork.

We've finished The Story of the World: Ancient Times and have moved on to volume 2 in the series dealing with the Middle Ages.  I've ordered the rest of the entire set; this is one of those series you will come back to and reread/redo later as well.  I also have a lot of material on Ancient Rome and we'll cover that as well.  There is no way it can all be done in one year!  We're just going to keep going and having fun.

Chess:

Two hours' of study per day.  Tournaments.  A lot of hard work and dedication to the game. :)

Art:

Much of what we do in art is from the Story of the World activity book.  Recently we made a Viking ship of paper and Emperor plans to do a Beowulf movie on youtube.  He's also finished a book on Medieval times and I've included a picture with this blog post.

Latin:

We've completed Prima Latina!

Today's Events!

The Keebler Elf makes sugar cookies!

Make and do battle with duct tape and cardboard weaponry!

Lazy Mom's gingerbread houses:  graham crackers, a tub of frosting and some sprinkles.

Holiday Humdrum

It's reallllly hard for me to get into the happy holiday spirit this year.  I don't know why exactly.  I should be baking cookies and doing tons o' activities but ohhh my goodness I swear to you, the drama.  The drama.  Do not tell me teen boys don't have it.  Dealing with a headache tonight on top of all else.

I know they are not calculating their every move to frustrate me, but it almost feels that way sometimes.  I do remember what it was like to be younger and to know everything and ohhh I couldn't wait to get out of the house because my parents were lame!  And my own kids?  I will never do such an awful job as my parents did with me!  They will never want to leave!  We will all be best buds forever!  (Yeah yeah yeah maybe I wasn't so smart.)

I just feel done with this parenting thing, at least with the older boys.  SO. Freaking. Done.  I had heard from other moms that this feeling would happen and I never believed I would everrr feel this way about my precious zu zuu zuu zuu babies.  You know, the cute kids that cuddle you and ask you for stories are the same ones that roll their eyes and wonder when you will quit talking later on.  I never thought it would happen to me because I figured I'd raise everyone "better than that" but there you go.

Sorry!  And even worse, I'm so tired I don't even want a do-over.  Ha ha ha!

I think it's the holiday thing, the older children being home all day and our expectations of what a day will bring really clash.  They sleep in, eat food several times a day, lounge about in clean clothes and whatnot but wouldn't you know it, I still fielded complaints about there being nothing to do.  And I got snapped at when I was able to make about 50 suggestions.  Or someone whines that it is unfair that it snowed and plans were ruint (and I can fix that... how..?).

The middle kids are just that, pretty much stuck in the middle of whatever is going on.  I feel right there with them, as they are working with me and we are all three of us overswamped with the drama.

The little kids are so cute but they are a lot of work and they never really are quiet.  Woodjie is running all over the place with a plastic gem that fell off the fake paper Christmas tree he made in preschool  I told him it was a Pokemon gym badge and he has been squealing and talking about it allll dayyyy long.  Apparently it is a "lightning" badge and it is not from Johto.  It is very important to discuss this - with sound effects - nonstop.  I got tired of that and sent the children upstairs to play with whistles.

WHYYY did I do that?  Just why.  Does it show the state of my mind to tell you that it really did seem like a good idea at the time to get the entire BAG out and say, go blow these for a while?

Later, I got the brilliant idea that they should use the hole in our wall (it's an older house and I refuse to order custom vent covers) to pretend to be short order cooks and pass plastic food through into the hallway.  Fake restaurants are very loud places, I'm afraid.  It's still a fun idea but the problem being when you need quiet in my house it never IS quiet.

I'm feeling like I REALLY NEED TO SNAP OUT OF THIS, how to have a little quiet and get rid of my headache and stress, but not sure how to do it.  I think much of the problem right now is that everyone is keyed up for Christmas and thinking they're getting a bazillion presents.  Even Rose has learnt of this "Santa" at preschool.  I told her my goodness, no.  Santa is fake.  Get that out of your head.  They have even given her the story about "presents" at school and she is expecting some here at home.

This year, I am getting everyone a gas station gift card. Some toothbrushes in festive holiday colours or something next time I make it out to the grocery store.  Do myself a long-term favour and lower expectations for next year.

I'm thinking go me.  Seriously, though, I don't know why I am having such a hard time about things and just want to scream at everybody.  Ok... there it is.  Sometimes it's nice just to vent a bit and now I feel I can go on with my day and la la la.  Before I go, I wanted to share this holiday survival kit with other parents of special-needs children.  Fun, isn't it?  I looked around for the same sort of thing, but about how to deal with adult special needs children... and didn't find much.  Hey, those cute six-year-olds who have meltdowns do grow up and apparently then they disappear or their problems get solved or something.

Okayyy I am just going to bed.  It's a shame I don't drink alcohol on a night like this.  No wait.  Maybe it is not a shame because I have already binge eaten.  I'm a mess.

What a day.  I sure hope I feel better tomorrow because I wouldn't want to live with the grumpy mom I was today.  :(

Shopping!

Now that Christmas break is here, Elf and Emperor and I are sorta homeschooling together.  I told Elf that I need him to do something besides sit around all break.  I know he will be a crabby apple if he doesn't have some sort of schedule.  But I'll be generous.  Not only would I give him EVERY WEEKEND off, but also Christmas Day AND Christmas Eve!  An incredible amount of time off.

They both felt a bit gypped, though, when they figured out that Christmas Eve and Day are over the weekend.  Oh, well.  :)

The three of us went shopping out of town today just because.  I just took Emperor on the escalator and he literally fell all over the place.  He doesn't understand this concept of the stairs opening up, and I've explained and explained about holding the rail and the yellow lines being on the end of each step... to no avail.  He still wobbles a bit when the stairs pop out and about flies off the escalator as they are retracting... I want to say that he does it exactly as Steve gains his balance after a "skidoo" on the Blue's Clues show.  Exactly.  I'd like to take real stairs when I'm with him, but some places, they're just not available.

Poor Emperor is very smart, but he also can't seem to figure out that random people don't want to discuss what the writing on their shirts mean when they are on line with him.  "Why would they be wearing it in such big letters if they didn't want to discuss it?" he wants to know.  I told him it was supposed to be a one-sided conversation.  Emperor doesn't get how you can even *have* a one-sided conversation.  Where do I get these ideas from?

Bah.  Okayy, nevermind.

On the way out, he asked the cashier about whether it would be ok under the store's "no weapons" policy for him to bring his shield in.  Because technically it could be considered a weapon but see mostly? it is a defensive piece of equipment.  So what do you think?

"What?"  The cashier was clueless and had that "did I just hear that correctly" look on her face. Well... she thinks it would be ok for him to bring the shield in.  She guesses.  Emperor told her that if she's going to work there, she really ought to know the rules of her own store.

Times like this, I am glad we were shopping out of town.  But that went off better than his telling someone at the end of a boring paperwork meeting awhile back that honestly he doesn't know howcome you even need to get paid because you really did no work but just sat around and said nothing.

*cringe*

D hates these particular paperpushers and thought that was the best zinger ever when he heard that one.  Emperor though?  Just was trying to chat and isn't quite sure why he is laughed at all the time, or people get upset with him.

I Am Worried About My Grade!

Today is the last day of school before Christmas break.  Merry Christmas to all those mean teachers out there!  :)  Hat tip:  Darren

Yay, Elfie!

Elf won the USCF Christmas Scholastic Tournament in Olathe, Kansas, today! He won two games and drew one.  "I worked pretty hard and my mom helped me a lot, although this day wasn't the best day of my life because my mom made me clean my room and throw away stuff I wasn't using and I cried over it," Elf said.  "Mom told me to throw away a humongous dust ball and I did not want to throw it away so I hid it and Mom will never find out where it went."

Seashells

Post-It Homeschooling

I love Post-It notes.  I use them as bookmarks because they don't fall out.  I also use them for assigning work in our homeschool.  Everything that needs to be done will be written on a Post-It and Emperor can mentally go through his checklist each day. 

For some assignments, I have cut Post-Its into strips and written the words "START" and "STOP" near the top.  Emperor can use these as tabs in his book.  In our science book, this is especially useful as the assignments often begin and end midway on a page.  I can tuck the sticky note out sideways and he knows right where to begin and end.

I also keep a stack of Post-Its by my computer.  If there is a particularly blinky- or boobie-type ad on the sides of the article I'm viewing, I just pop the note on the screen and viola! It's gone.

Yes, I wrote "viola!" to be funny.  "Wahh-lah" is also a favourite.  "Your" welcome.  :p

The Fat Baby Diet

As you can see by looking at my sidebar, my children are really, really FAT.  Especially Patrick.  At 6ft 2, he weighs a whopping 160 pounds!  The other high schoolers have to sit on the other side of the bus when he gets on, I'm telling ya.  New shocks every week.

But seriously?  He used to have big, lolloping fat rolls on his legs and wear Onesies to avoid that Pooh-bear look tummy-wise.  At the age of 2 months, he was over 17 pounds.  Round, I tell you.  But see, that was normal for him.  He ate allll the time.  No way I would ever listen to a doctor if he wanted to put Patrick on a diet.

A diet?  For an infant?  I know.  It's nuts, I tell you!  And yet it seems to be the new trend some doctors are pushing to "prevent" obesity.  I didn't think it was even possible for an infant to BE obese or have eating disorders like anorexia or bullemia.  I mean, come on.  If your kid is a little stick, he isn't getting enough food or he has a medical problem.  If he is as big as a house, he's probably meant to be big or just mayyybe he has a really odd medical problem.  Mayyybe.

But barring said really odd medical problem, you just can't overfeed an infant.  I'm sorry.  Maybe I'm old school on this.  But no way.  Overfeeding is only possible after puberty.

I think that we are so blessed in this country that we have to make up problems like "childhood obesity" to worry about instead of polio, starvation, or as is currently the case in much of the world, war.  You watch, soon there will also be a government grant so poor people like me who can't afford/don't even know what to do with Ipads, Ipods, nanotechnology and silicone implants can get new ones at taxpayer expense.

PS. I also would like one of those blackberry blue tooth things that listens to my thoughts and scans entire books and can go "beep" after scanning odd codes on ketchup bottles and coded signs around town.  I am feeling left out and it is hurting my self-esteem and thus must be bad for national health and the economy.  Thanks.

Have You Heard of RtI?

The theory behind Response to Intervention is that districts will save money by not testing every child who is referred. (A "referral" just means a teacher or parent goes to the right person and asks for special testing.)  It seems that under the RtI system, teachers are not just awesome people; they have supernatural powers.  Even if they have 30 kids to a class, they can somehow rig other personalized "interventions" for the student.  These "interventions" have to be tried for a good amount of time before it can be demonstrated that a child even needs to be tested. Mmm-hmm.


"All too frequently, special education becomes the only intervention, and that is just sad," writes a school psychologist.  She refuses to test any child who hasn't had extra helps in the classroom for a goodly period of time.  She's just too busy. "There has to be an intervention before you can make a case that you need special intervention."

"Also, not all students with disabilities need special education...I need to be convinced the problem can’t be remediated with targeted intervention in general education before I suspect a disability or a need for special education. Nevermind that you could go through the whole special education testing process and find there is no disability and that whole time you could have been doing something for the student."

Oh, doesn't that sound lovely, folks.  You might just not find anything with testing, and that would waste her time.  If you have stomach pains, and you are not SURE it is appendicitis?  Do not bother the doctor.  He is too busy with other patients who have been proven to be sick.  What other interventions have you tried first, dear patient?

No testing?  A watch and wait attitude?  Means we have no objective data on what the student really needs.  (We'll just say we have met all "needs" and save a lot of money, reasons the school.  No data also means no lawsuits.)  There is no need for an IEP that gives legal protection to the disabled child and outlines his rights to a given modification or therapy.  It wastes the school psychologist's time to test and draw these things up, and she could be actually helping some other kid with that time. School psychologist is busy and testing doesn't happen until she sees a glaring need for it, so you concerned parents and teachers?  Shut up until ohh... I don't know... months pass and the kid is further behind and/or has a school aversion.  Truancy is such a cut and dried thing, plus it's cheap to measure and isn't her department.

I wonder why this chick has an entire article on those pesky "helicopter parents" and is also surprised when parents seek outside evaluations?  Even in the 'hood, some parents are able to get their stuff together enough to fight the system.  I am very sorry for the kids who don't have parents who know what's really going on.

Kids Play Blindfold Chess.

You Can Look Now.

The older children have been playing blindfold chess.  It's exactly like regular chess, except they have to face away from the board, call out their moves by notation only, and keep track of the entire game in their head.  I make their moves on the board, notate, and occasionally have to tell them that this or that move is not possible.  It is a LOT harder than it looks.  Elf says the middle game is hardest because that's when there are the most pieces on the board to keep track of.  During the beginning of the game, the pieces are all near their starting positions.  Endgame has very few pieces, usually.  Emperor kicked butt in this game, but many of his pieces are idle under this system, which almost never happens in a regular game.  It's good mental exercise, have you ever done this?

No Hospital Birth? No Baby.

Well, my.  "No crime has been committed," the media has been careful to say on several occasions.  But a teen's baby boy has been removed from the home and is in foster care because she didn't get prenatal care and there were no medical visits for the infant after birth.  He's three weeks old.

I have library books that have been out over three weeks.  It's not a hugely long time period if you're not sick.  At least I thought that.  But according to some teen pregnancy educator, these people are extremely fortunate to EVEN be alive because there COULD have been complications.  (And I COULD have gotten into a major car wreck by not hiring a professional driver on my last outing, too.  What is wrong with me??)

And this.  This is the CLINCHER.  The media would like you to know that if you are pregnant and scared that there are alternatives like giving the baby up for adoption or leaving it at a hospital or "safe" home.  In other words, don't try to keep or parent your own child.  Just who do you think you are?

Mind you, the story IS weird.  Girl hides her pregnancy from her family - how? - and then gives a story that the kid they are taking care of in the house is actually a fake simulation doll.  I grant you the "adults" this chick lives with are stupid that they could not tell that Fake Robot Baby (does he have a name?) is really alive.  My question would be how the baby was fed and diapered for all that time.  If the baby were not fed and clothed or kept warm and safe, by all means the authorities have every right to intervene.  Personally?  I think it shows bad judgment not to at least attempt to have a midwife or just another mom who has had several children around and helping with the birth.  Things can go wrong, that much is true.  But people have been having babies all kinds of ways for thousands of years and meh.  I have other things to fight about than my personal preferences.  In some places, medical help is worse than no help at all and I have no idea about her insurance plan.  I know in this metro, they call Truman Medical Center "The Gun and Knife Club" for a reason.

I wonder what will happen later in this story, but we'll never know.  I guess "kid's mom gets a medical card, a job and a new apartment away from crazy family and things turn out OK" would be my hope, but stories like that don't sell copy. 

Rose!

Several times a day she will tell me that the doctor hurt me and "you no pick up me."  I tell her I am ok now but she is a big girl and has to climb on my lap herself.  And I need her help because she is growing up!  She will nod her head.  It is a story she needs to hear right now, I guess.  Here she is with her dolly.  "Dowwy, she look like me! See a hairbow!"  That's so cute that children start to prefer little dolls and things that look like them from such a young age.  The blonde doll doesn't seem to be her fave any more.  From the preschool, I hear that she is "very social" and can now say her real full name properly like a big kid and give her age.

Sorry for Not Feeling the Outrage.

News flash:  people are SURPRISED AND AMAZED that a childless lesbian might give "don't have another baby now" type advice.

SHOCKED, I tell you.

Quite a few people have been posting on facebook and on the blogs that Suze Orman is way off base in her recent advice to a young couple considering another child.  I don't think her advice was crazy in any way because the couple was behind on payments, in debt, didn't make any changes and I presume has no real large savings account tucked away from Mumsie.  What's crazy?  What's nuts?  The whole situation is, and that was never addressed.

It should have been.

They earn a bit over $60,000 and have one child.  Gross income per capita, this family earns well over twice what mine does (maybe even three or four times but I haven't bothered to do the calculations, and plus?  I don't want to tell you our annual income thank youuu)... so I don't see how it could possibly be true that they do not have an extravagant lifestyle.  Were they stupid with debt in the past?  Do they live in a mansion?  Have regular extortion payments due to "Tiny?"  What is going on that they can't make all their payments on time?  Something else is up that has not been shared with the TV audience.  And that drives me nuts.  I'm all for privacy, but if you're going on the air and boo-hooing about not having enough money when you earn over 60 freaking THOUSAND dollars a year and have only ONE child, the people in TV Land deserve an explanation.

Ok, so anyway.

Orman told them, look.  Y'all can't make it on the income you have, and you are asking ME, a financial planner, if it's a great okie-dokie idea financially to quit the higher-paying job with all the insurance, decrease your family income by more than half,  and then go have another baby?  Um, NO.  Duh. Next question.

Folks in Christian blogdom just went flipping nuts and decided to focus on Orman's comment that one should estimate $700/month in new expenses for a baby.  Crazy high price, that is, I grant you.

"My husband earns $10,000 a year and we manage to feed our 14 children quite well and take vacations on that sum.  These people need to plan better!" were the sorts of comments I read.  I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.  The kid is not going to cost $700 monthly, but these people don't strike me as being the crunchy cloth diapering and grow a garden in your backyard-type folks either.  Gimme a break.

I believe babies are a blessing and I also think moms ought to stay home.  I also think that some of the "God provides" type comments are stupid.  YES, He provides.  He is ALREADY providing $60,000 a year to this couple and if they can't make it on that income now, maybe it's not such a good idea to keep spending over that amount AND add to the family at the same time.

Hello, people!  It is the spending, not the baby, that is the problem!

My advice would be honestly, go for it.  Prepare for what you're going to do budget-wise, though.  Be realistic.  Maybe work for one more year, sock away mega-savings, chip at that debt and downsize the mansion or whatever is holding you down.  Money is just a means to an end.  Follow your heart!  But use good sense in planning your family budget because even if that baby doesn't cost $700 a month (ha!), he's going to cost something.  :)

Make a Play Dagger!

Emperor enjoyed making his duct tape dagger using the directions provided by Susan at Homeschooling Hearts & Minds.  I think she's right that there are all sorts of other creations one could make - only think of the various shapes and sizes cardboard tubes come in.  Or maybe someone creative could make a scimitar!  Our little dagger is blue because that is the duct tape we have on hand.  We can pretend that it is Sting and orcs are nearby.  :)

We're quite pleased with the finished product.

What is a Poke Ball?

This is Woodjie's new Poke Ball.  Pokemon is a cartoon and a DS game and a trading card game and an action figure enterprise... and they make a LOT of money on our family.  The Poke Balls in the Pokemon cartoon can "capture" Pokemon (pretend cartoon creatures, each with unique abilities and many with an ability to "evolve" into another creature, and Woodjie doesn't say much but he knows the difference) and be thrown into a battle later.  The balls open and the little creatures come out to fight.  Nobody really dies; the Pokemon just faint and are put back into the balls for later.  Here is a link to a "Pokedex."  You can find out about any Pokemon you want.  My fave is Jigglypuff.  Most people love Jigglypuff.  Woodjie has been playing with the Poke Ball all night and is quite enamoured with it. 

Woodjie is FIVE!

Yep.  This year, Woodjie learnt to say, "My name Aziah!" and to use the potty.  He can also almost write his name... and it isn't "Aziah."  I suppose Aziah is close enough that if he were missing but introduced himself around town, that he would be returned. 

I took him out to lunch today and as we were pulling into the parking lot, Woodjie told me yay he's hugwy!  I don't know how, but he remembers the place from the last (and only other!) time he has been out to eat... at least five months ago.  And it's just a generic strip mall.  I sure wouldn't be able to tell this place from any other.  How did he do that? 

And.  He remembered the fish in the Chinese restaurant.  We had to get a table by the fish so he could watch them swim while he ate.  I didn't get picky about what he ate, just this once.  I gave him as many mini donuts and french fries as he wanted.  I think we spent nearly two hours there before he came home and told everyone "I eat a donut!"

Tomorrow I will give him some Star Wars action figures and a Pokeball that will probably break in two weeks but he will love to death until then.  Happy birthday, Woodjie! :)

Beowulf Movie

Presently, Emperor is up to the part where (we've been warned about six times already) Beowulf is about to die.  Beowulf is having an IRON shield fashioned because he reasons the wooden ones would just burn.  Um, do these people not know about metal conducting heat?  Guess not.  The dragon has only to breathe on these mail-clad men for a nice, evenly toasted meal.  But no matter; it's a good story.  Here is an interesting youtube take on the classic.  The part with Herot being a party castle is actually TRUE to the story.  These are things I missed the first time; all that mead-drinkin' and partying, the gold roof, all that.  In the actual story, I love how Grendel and Beowulf are locked in a deadly battle but the author pauses to admire the metalwork on the walls.  Yeahh.  Though I am not nerdy enough to memorize the prologue in Old English as I see several others have done. 

Should Inter-racial Couples be Allowed in Church?

A church in Kentucky voted to disallow inter-racial couples from becoming members or joining the worship team.  And good for them, because I want to know up front what everyone is really thinking rather than this "Jesus loves everybody" stuff and then get surprised later.   Go ahead and ream me in the comments, but seriously.  It woulda saved me a lot of time and trouble if "we don't really like autistic people" were posted in some church entryways over the years.  (Here's the article.  And no, I'm not saying it's nice, or that I agree with it.) 

My question:  why is the white father of the young woman in the ruckus still serving as church secretary?  Are jobs that scarce in this economy that he's waiting to find another before he leaves?  Is he staying and hoping that he can make some positive change?  Is he staying so he can somehow sue corporate (oh, headquarters, whatever they call it)?  Why did any of these people stay long enough to be voted about?  I'm thinking brush the dust off your feet and move on.