Today was a pretty good day. I drove to Ann Arbor and picked up Kevin. We went to Chili's to have lunch. We also went to Borders, the one where the workers are not on strike. I got a book and a special edition of the magazine, maximum PC. After that, I dropped Kevin off at his mother's house. I then went to Mervyn's and got some extra-large pullover shirts. Then, I walked over to Office Depot and bought some office supplies. Throughout this excursion, I did not notice any particular pain. I'm confident that I will be able to return to work without too much difficulty.

Yesterday, Yvonne seemed to be doing a little bit better. She was a bit more active. Today, though, she has spent most of the day in bed. I suspect that she was feeling a little bit better, over exerted herself, and now is paying for it.

Now for some political commentary. For while, I used to wonder why part of the Republican agenda was to increase what they call "accountability " in public education. I knew a big part of the platform in the year 2000 campaign was an emphasis on improving education. I was glad to see that. It is somewhat perplexing now to see that public education is getting cut left and right. To paraphrase a popular musical: they cut funding left, they cut funding right, 'til nothing is left, and nothing is right. Although the funding for the substance of education is being cut, there's greater funding for standardized testing. I can see only one logical explanation. The more teachers are held a accountable for the performance of students on standardized testing, the more they have to " teach to the test. " What this means is that teachers will have less time to personalize the educational experience. Could it be that this, in fact, is the goal of the Republican party? Perhaps they are of the opinion that students who do not receive personalized education can be swayed more easily by stupid, overly-simplistic arguments.