I caught a shark once while fishing in the Atlantic off the Florida coast.

Happy birthday month Katia!

Mother's Day is May 11th, still time to send a card..

hey! this is Jessica i am Doc's niece, but you might know me better as "the au pair who's better than your au pair"

i just wanted to comment on what you guys were saying about required tests to graduate. you guys were saying that there weren't any in the U.S., but there are. In Tennessee (the state in which i attended school) there are now state mandated tests in tennessee that every high school student must pass in order to graduate or even move on to the class that you would take next. All of the tests are pretty recent. i graduated in 2006 and my graduating class had to take most of the required tests as trial runs.

this is what i found on the tennessee state board of education's web site:

"All students must achieve a passing score on gateway examinations in mathematics, English language arts, and science to be administered upon completion of the content standards.
End-of-course examinations will be administered in the following subjects: Math Foundations II, Geometry, Algebra II, Physical Science, Chemistry, English I, and U. S. History. A test of writing, which measures cumulative writing ability, will also be administered in high school."

anyway, i love listening to the podcast! you guys are awesome!

@Bob - Oh, sharks really are cool. But not on the end of a line. ps. have a good flight!

@Erica - thanks for the bday wishes :) I'm not sure I could give her the hoops and yoyo birthday card though. LOL.

@jessica - that's so cool! Thanks for this insiders perspective ;)

@bob - how big was it? what KIND was it? i just have visions of you pulling up a great white! like jaws. :)

@erica - DULY NOTED! my mum's bday usually falls a day before or a day after, which is a handy reminder. i usually send hoops&yoyo for everything. i love the little guys.

@aptibty - hmm. well. things may have changed since, i um, gradumatated, and um. stuff. :) thanks for cluing us in!

Thanks for the bday shout out, les filles! I, par contre, was allowed to celebrate since I've never forgotten any Muffin Person's birthday! ;)

I love Samoas! Yum. Thin Mints ain't too bad either. I'm glad, btw, that The Babysitters Club is such a great American culture reference and that's how Katia learned her facts about the U S of A. I also, btw, am really cool and did or didn't maybe, possibly, kinda, sorta try to start a Babysitters Club in elementary school with my friends. Wait, what? Who did that?

PS-What does gruffy mean? I was thinking I would more say some unshaven moutain man type was gruffy than saying he was grizzly, but maybe I've forgotten more of my English?

@Leah - seriously, I think we might have had maybe a little bit of a Babysitters Club at school too ;) Which one did YOU want to be?

And gruffy, according to dictionary.com, means 1. low and harsh; hoarse: a gruff voice.
2. rough, brusque, or surly: a gruff manner.
So... Grumpy. Grizzly. Gruffy. In my mind, they all seem to be variations of the same theme.

As an American I have used the word desiccated BUT only from the context of working in a chemistry lab. There is a type of container called a desiccator that you use to dry out or keep dry something.

Also in Massachusetts there is now a graduation exam for high school. It is called the MCAS, and it has only been in place for 8 years (required for only 5).

@Leah Do you mean scruffy?

OMG - KylieMac......are we getting SO old and so out of touch with our country or what?!?!? End of high school exams EVERYWHERE!!!

"Ch-ch-ch-changes!"

@kathryn - yes! we are getting old. (and thank heaven i caught the musical reference (i.e. pre-goblin king days)) and i think i am very glad to have gotten out of high school before all these end of high school exams started popping up. and that i lived in neither australia or france at the time! (there is a philosophy component on the bac!!!)

@katia - did you do philosophy on your end of high school exam?

OMG, I vraiment have perded my anglais, Je totally voulais dire'd scruffy! Thanks, omly!

tragically, I am older than probably all of yall. sigh We did have standardized tests in Texas and there was one we had to pass before we could graduate but they didn't implement it until I was in high school. They very much do it now - my poor nephew has his final test (in science) this week so he can "graduate" to 6th grade.

Kathryn = super sexy radio voice.

Oooooooh thanks Frog!!!! :)

Je suis ici maintenant, et j'ai un cadeau pour vous!

Kylie: It was just a small three-footer that latched onto my line while I was napping. But it was the major excitement of the day.