When I asked Z what she was going to plant in her Kindergarten, she snickered a little, then said, “It’s not a garden, it’s school, daddy.” Right. Still, I suggested that perhaps her class will plant Kinders, maybe like a class project for the year or something. She said, “Whatever.” Corrected, I moved on to completing our unnecessarily elaborate Lego Staircase to Nowhere that we eventually used as a perch for her Lego ducks. Then we played Operation–a new re-discovery since the first time she tried to play it a couple of years ago the buzzer and light scared the tar out of her nearly to tears. She’s braver now–Kindergarten starts tomorrow, and she’s already proven a rather skilled extractor of both Wrenched Ankle and Brain Freeze. Perhaps a surgeon…

I recall Kindergarten for the corporal punishment that was doled out to me by Mrs. Martin (I’m sure long since deceased), who was in her final-ish years of teaching and didn’t seem to think anything of a smack or two upside the head for all parties deemed guilty (by association or otherwise). Didn’t exactly make for a stellar introduction to school. She’d have been so sued today. I also remember a School House Rock poster on the wall, and having to sing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” each morning while she accompanied on the piano. Those two things and the beatings is all I really recall of Kindergarten…

Finally, I watched Sen. Kennedy’s funeral service on Saturday, which was touching, but caught myself responding during the liturgy. (Here’s a fun party joke: Next time you’re in front of a group, say, giving a PowerPoint or lecturing or something, start off with, “Peace be with you.” You’ll know the audience members who spent 16 years in Catholic school by their Pavlovian drone-response, “And also with you…”) I have to admit, Ted Kennedy Jr.’s story about his father carrying him up the snowy hill brought tears to my eyes. It was an honest, loving moment during an otherwise private national Event that made me uncomfortable to watch, kind of. I never know how to feel about televised funerals, especially ones that Brian Williams is narrating…