A Jackson Chameleon is the Coolest Pet!

Can you find him in there? That is Rex, and he is a Jackson chameleon. He was found as a baby (a teenager?) by Courtney, inside her car of all places! She had left her window open when parking on the street. At the time I already had another Jackson chameleon (Spike), and daughter #4 decided Spike needed a friend. Bad idea! Chameleons are solitary, territorial animals, and when I came home Spike had turned the most amazing color. Fortunately he had not yet annihilated the tiny invader. Since then Rex has lived at my school. For one year he was in first grade, and he has spent the last two years in fourth grade. Apparently he is happy there because he has grown very big. I think, actually, that he needs a much bigger cage.

Yesterday I was in the pet store buying crickets, one of his favorite foods (snails being his most favorite of all), and I saw a baby chameleon for $169! I should get a female, and go into the breeding business, but I don't really have time...

The Worst Thing About Teaching

Today is the first of four days I will be subjecting my students to the modern day torture device known as the STAR Test. My three Special Ed students will take the test. My student who just arrived in the country back in December not speaking a word of English - he will also take the test. According to the California Department of Education, this test "is aligned to the state’s rigorous academic content standards." Now "rigorous academic content standards" does not sound like a bad thing, but if you have heard me comment on them at all, you know I think they are ridiculous. Algebra in fourth grade? Come on! Check out the fourth grade mathematics standards and tell me you could do all this at the age of ten! Or imagine that your parents don't speak any English, you started learning English in school four years ago, and you are asked to show proficiency in the English Language Arts standards. According to the "No Child Left Behind" law, by the year 2014, all students (make that 100% of them) need to be Proficient in these standards. Someone needs to tell the clowns who made the law about something known as the bell curve. In the meantime, I will pass out the tests, the special gold pencils, and tell my students to try their best. Come Friday we will celebrate, and teaching will become fun again.

Looks Like an Ordinary Shoe

Nike + iPod = A perfect birthday gift for my marathon-running, music-listening daughter. She tried on and compared shoes for half an hour before we realized that if she got a Nike shoe she could do something cool (we weren't quite sure what) with her iPod. After we left Nordy's with her purchase, we wound up at the park to try it out.

First, you put the special sensor in the secret compartment under the insole in the left shoe.

Then, you attach a special receiver to your iPod.

Hit the ground running, and a sensitive accelerometer measures your activity, then wirelessly transfers this data to the receiver on your iPod nano.

Here's Daughter #3 trying it out in the park with Suzanne.

So it plays music just like it always does, but when you press a button, it talks to you and tells you how your workout is going. We're not sure but it might have been Betty Lou herself doing the speaking.

Many happy miles, Jess! Enjoy!

Jeanne Casenave (1906-1995)

My grandmother. Don't you love that bow?

Marcus Anthony Casenave (1875-1956)

My great-grandfather. Son of Pierre Casenave, recipient of the letters from France.

Only 100 years old

OK, this letter is not quite as old as the last one I posted, in fact it is one of the most recent letters in my collection. The original of this letter is in the hands of a distant French cousin named Anne-Marie Vaillant, who lives in a house built by her grandfather in 1871. I have the scan pictured here, which is not quite as thrilling as holding the original paper which has been handed down through five generations. But it is still exciting.

Even though I haven't figured out exactly what these letters say, I think it's awfully cool to think that they are still around after that long journey from Los Angeles to France and vice versa, and through five generations of hands. Somehow I can't imagine that anyone will be reading the words on my blog 100 years from now!

Parlez-vous français?

142 years ago, this letter was written by Arnaud Casenave to his brother, Pierre Casenave. Pierre Casenave was my great-great-grandfather who left the Basque country of France to settle in Los Angeles.


From 1866 to 1883, letters were written back and forth between France and Los Angeles. The original letters, all written in French, were passed from Pierre Casenave, to his son Marcus Casenave, to my grandmother Jeanne Casenave, then to my father Howard Lawson, Jr. and finally to me. Not ever having learned any French, I was left to wonder what mysteries they held.


Now thanks to the internet, one of the letters written from Los Angeles to France has been located in the hands of a distant cousin in France. This letter is from Pierre's wife, Cayetana Alaniz, telling the French relatives of Pierre's death. Distant cousin speaks limited English, so maybe we will begin to unravel the mystery. In the meantime, I have got to find a translator and figure out what these letters say!