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Due Date: Thursday, May 1st - "Pomp and Circumstance." Now that we've seen your "beautiful baby" photo, it's time to see your high school graduation photo! The hairdos alone have to be worth a lot of laughs. I'd love to see you in your cap and gowns but if you don't have that any high school-age photo will do. And if you are too "camera shy" I will accept a high school memory essay in it's place. Or if you are a real "teacher's pet" you could do both! That'll surely get you an excellent grade!

I could only find a small wallet-sized cap and gown photo so I'm adding a high school photo that was taken at about the same time. I don't think we liked the cap and gown photo very much so I didn't have a lot of copies of that. Under the category "everything old is new again" - my photo doesn't look as dated as it is since long straight hair is "in" again. I went to Venice High School in Los Angeles. Venice is well-known for its canals (just like Venice, Italy) and for it's beach boardwalk. You will find the most eclectic group of people there. Venice Beach is the 2nd most visited place in LA right behind Disneyland. Probably the biggest claim to fame for my high school is that the movie "Grease" was filmed there. Remember the scene on the bleachers where John Travolta and Olivia Newton John sing "Summer Nights?" Those were MY bleachers! Shriek! I spent many a nights on those bleachers rooting for the hometeam.

Due Tuesday, April 15th- "Computer Geeks and Nerds." This is something that always fascinates me. What I want to know is... what led you to be a web mistress? (Doesn't that sound kinky?) I'm always so impressed when I see all you SAHM's and others building websites! How did you get so techno-savvy when a lot of women your age (no matter what your age is) have trouble even turning on a computer? I'm especially interested in my older blog buddies answers because we are definitely trailblazers! So, Connie, Toni, Joan. Nancze and others... how'd you get so cool and hip?

My interest in computers goes back to Christmas, 1984, when we bought our first family computer- an Apple IIC. It had a tiny, maybe 7 inch, green and white screen and it had no hard drive. You did everything with 5 1/4 inch floppies that really were floppy. I tried but couldn't find a picture that I have of a very young Justin and Jessica on my lap as we stared at that marvel! There were so few programs at that point that I bought a book and taught myself a little BASIC (the Apple computer language) so we could have more fun with it. Justin really loved the computer and we began playing text-based games like Zork. How amazed we were when a color game appeared called King's Quest. We sat and played it together for hours celebrating every time we solved a puzzle in the game. It became a wonderful bonding experience for us and an interest we share to this day. I won't even tell you how many hours we've spent playing games together like Diablo, Baulder's Gate and The Sims. Can't you just picture this Mom slaying monsters as a level 60 barbarian? Skip forward to Justin's college years when he turns this avocation into a vocation by majoring in Computer Science. In the meantime, I'd become interested in the Internet and fascinated with adorable country graphics. So just about one year ago Justin suggested, "Why don't you make your own website?" "What in the world would I do with it?" I wondered. Well, little did I know what an obsession it would become and a source of endless entertainment and heartwarming friendships. Justin gave me a one-week crash course, set me up with a copy of Dreamweaver and then pushed me in and it was "sink or swim!" After that first week, I rarely came to him with a question and I do think he is actually proud of the site I've created and the skills I've mastered. Sometimes I even impress him with a "spiffy" script! Still to this day when I tell people I have a website they invariably ask, "What do you sell on it?" I don't even try to explain "Homework Assignments!"

Tuesday, April 1st- "April Fool's Day!" Blog about one of the most embarrassing moments of your life! One where you made an absolute fool out of yourself! Hopefully one that you can look back on now and laugh at. Mine goes all the way back to when I was 10 years old. I can still feel the flush in my cheeks just thinking about it!

As I mentioned, my most embarrassing moment goes all the way back to when I was 10 years old. I can still feel the flush in my cheeks just thinking about it! It was summer and I had just joined the YMCA for swimming lessons. I thought I was a pretty good swimmer already but was mildly humiliated when they put me in the "minnows" class. I thought surely I should be a "shark!" Still, I was thankful I wasn't put in with the "guppies!" I wanted to prove the instructors wrong so on the first day, they presented us with a challenge to test our skills. They would throw coins into the deep end of the pool and we were to retrieve them. This was a new YMCA and we had a beautiful new indoor pool. So all of us "minnows" lined up on the sides of the pool waiting for the coins to hit the water. The instructor tossed the first coin into the pool and like a shot out of a cannon I dove, desperately trying to be the first to reach the coin! I was thrashing and thrashing in the water! Aha! I had it! Surely they would now see I was "shark-material!" As I surfaced, proudly displaying my coin in my hand, I noticed that all of my fellow minnows were still politely lined up at the sides of the pool, completely dry! What I didn't realize was that I was supposed to wait until ALL of the coins had been tossed- not just the first one! There I was, the only one sopping wet, like some money-grubbing loser, feeling like a fool, and the laughter started rising and echoing in the tile-walled pool room. I will NEVER forget how embarrassed I felt!

Due Date: Monday, March 17th- St. Patrick's Day
Assignment: "Luck"- "What is the luckiest thing that's ever happened to you?" And I don't mean something like meeting your husband. I mean something that was just pure luck. For example, have you ever won anything? Even if it was something small. Maybe you luckily avoided something bad? Something that made you say, "I was so lucky!"

My mother used to tell me this proverb: "Unlucky in cards, Lucky in love!" I did an Internet search on this saying and it seems that this is a proverb in many countries: Italy, China, etc... I always figured I'd much rather be lucky in love, which I am, so I never really minded that I never seemed to be lucky otherwise. So, just so you know I don't plan my "homework assignments" around topics that I have a great story for, you will now see that my "good luck story" isn't too spectacular. As many of my longtime blog buddies know, I collect Department 56 Houses. To see my wonderful collection click here. One day around Christmas time, 1997, I went to my favorite shop that sells D56 and they were having a raffle for a very special D56 Ronald McDonald House. All the proceeds went to the very worthy charity for seriously ill children and their families who are housed near their hospitals in Ronald McDonald Houses. Knowing I'm lucky only in love, I still decided to buy a ticket. I only had one dollar in my purse (I never carry cash) so I bought one raffle ticket. Well, what do you know...I won! There were hundreds of entries and this was a very special collectors item! They were never sold- the only way you could get one was to win one. The last time I checked this Ronald McDonald House was valued at over $250.00 and each year it increases in value. I'm happy that the only thing to amount to anything that I've ever won was something that was for a very worthy cause! I just hope I'll still be lucky in love!
Here's a photo of my "Ronald McDonald House."

Due Date: Wednesday, March 5- "The Name Game"- tell us about your name. How did you get it, what does it mean, how is it pronounced if it's unusual?

My name is actually Daryl and my middle name is Lynn. In kindergarten, I decided Daryl was a boy's name so I dropped an "l" and smooshed it together to make "Darylynn" which is pronounced like "Marilyn." Biggest shock of the day for me: discovering that Wynne is not "Winnie" but "Win!"

Thanks to Laurie for making this report card!

Due Date: Wednesday, February 26- "Wild Child"- really a "tongue in cheek" assignment- tell us all about your tattoos and piercings. If you did get a tattoo or some piercings what would it be? We're a pretty tame group but we did get some surprises.

I have no tattoos and only one piercing in each year. If I was younger, I'd have my navel pierced but still wouldn't get a tattoo. The winners of "Wild Child" were Kiki and LaCresha with the most tattoos and piercings :)

Thanks to Ellora for making this report card!