Monday, September 26, 2005

Getting the chemistry right

Johannah signed up for torture this year, aka chemistry. Since I escaped high school without chemistry and deftly avoided taking it in college, I know nothing. The closest I get to chemical knowledge is mixing baking soda and vinegar in various containers and calling it lava!

So the other night, she called from the computer to ask me for help. I put on a brave face and marched over as a dutiful parent would.

"Mom, I'm trying to put in absolute numbers. How do I do it?"

"Absolute numbers! Like, those are numbers, not vowels? Johannah, I'm sorry, but I'm worthless with any heiroglyph used in counting."

"No Mom, I know what absolute numbers are. I already did the problems. I just can't figure out where the right key for vertical brackets is on the keyboard."

Aha! I'm a genius! "Right there, honey. It's the upper case of the backward slant key."

And that's how I help with chemistry homework. The computer and I—we've got chemistry.

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