Category Archives: Stringbean’s HE

Not where we planned to be!

Posted on November 29, 2008 by | 4 comments

i was thinking that we might be in yorkshire, but a number of events changed our plans somewhat, and we will be wending our way up on mon. not least is the total exhaustion i feel at the moment, and a couple of chilled days with the family seems to be a good plan.

hmm, thinking back to thurs and fri – obviously chris days as i got back from work v late both days. the normal things i think, the nots and tots group thurs, with crafting and recordering, but too late for frenching. then some gym for each in the pm. i think SB did some spelling and maths and maybe a piano, but not entirely sure! BB has done quite a bit of geomagging, and also making long neck dinodoors from the maize packing fillers in one of the boxes we had. friday they waited in interminably for my phone, and unfortunately meant a missed visit to a monks event, which sounded great. the phone came and had the back of it missing anyway! of course, when it arrived, chris nearly instantly found my old phone! after a great deal of fussing about – and i have complained via email re customer service – i now have a working phone – my old one on the old number. other than that, i think the whole day was spent tidying up, and it does look better for it, and the room of doom is a room of gloom instead as it just needs a bit of cleaning, but chris has organised most of it!

and so today . the big thing, i guess is SB’s grading for judo. it is her first ever grading, and she enjoyed it. i hadn’t realised you got to sit in, so BB and i stayed at home and chris took her. he snapped a couple of photos. After the grading they did a bit of shopping – including wellies and some christmas card making supplies – and had a treat lunch out to celebrate SB’s new white and red belt. it does seem to be enormously long ? adult size?

i have had insomnia most of the week, with a standard to sleep time of 5-ish and a get up of 7-ish. so am feeling in desperate need of sleep. i am also quite considerably grumpy – so another reason to try and get some sleep before being sociable! anyway, i was wondering how i would survive the morning with BB as i just didn’t have enough energy to power a biowatch. luckilly BB had some ideas! we made cuisinaire rod patterns, read books and then sorted out my 2 sewing boxes, which BB had great fun in dong, and is now the proud owner of the sewing box i was given when a child, and the pin/needle holder book i made whilst at infants school! following this BB chose to make happy maize pictures, and we have now run out of happy maize.

she then was v keen to do baking, so we did that, and made pink sugar sprinkles cupcakes, which were then iced with various greens. hmm! anyway, loads to take with me to yorkshire. we had a more boring lunch and i did a short violin practice which she danced to, before we read more books together all snuggled up. At this point chris and SB came home and mayhem ensued!

SO with a few card supplies, and the brass rubbings we did a while ago, we made a start on making cards, and between us have made 12 – so not bad! then a bit of grumpyness tidying up, followed by a bit more work on the secret santa things from the girls, as both decided they needed more paint. and actually they both look better for it. i think SB’s really is fab [even with one upside down zebra] and BB added some detailing to hers, which elevated it from looking like a paint accident to a design! SB did a piano practice with me, and had a go at a christmas carol she thought would be too difficult in a different book. SHe was very impressed she could play it [we 3 kings] so that was good. then she is making fudge [rather than tablet, which i prefer] and it is currently in the fridge. So more tidying and then bathtime, and i red meg et mog les oeufs de meg [or something similar!] which is Meg’s Eggs (Picture Puffin)
book in french from the little linguist shop that was fab at delivery times etc and comes recommended! and also hurry up molly, this subterfuge makes me seem interactive, yet doing something easy [reading] educating [french] and ensuring that for once the majority of the bath water stayed in the bath rather than cause further damage to dining room ceiling. fab!
dinner and the bedtime. i think i shall hope for sleep tonight. i feel i should be able to sleep for centuries! SB also at somepoint today fitted in some music theory.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, language, little languages, music, online resources, Out and About, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE

shaking off the rain and making the most of things

Posted on November 26, 2008 by | 5 comments

as you can imagine, after yesterday, my black dog on the shoulder seems to have turned into a clydesdale horse! so i decided to be as computer free and child available as possible, with my facilitator hat on. it has actually meant we have had a v productive yet fun day, but i am totally bushwhacked from being so engaged! in reality, i think disappearing off to an alternate reality with a book might help my weariness, but not my heartache.

having fallen asleep [wayhay for actually sleeping] playing civ 4 last night – a go at alternate reality, but actually i prefered the earlier civs – i was woken up by bouncing children at 9.30. managed to keep them bouncing in a mole game, rather than having to get up straight away! On coming downstairs, SB and i started with piano practice together. now she isn’t playing the violin [and i v much miss that] we are making a concerted effort to practice the piano daily. this is already paying off! bB was a bit grumpy that i was doing piano practice with SB, so once she had got going on it i played the most dificult game of hangman with BB. she was in charge of the hang, and the only letter of the alphabet in her 17 letter word was 1 m! so i lost.

BB then leappadded, and chose the phonics series. being BB she chose number 7 rather than actually look at some of the letters of the alphabet! she is def going to learn to read her own way. she wants the dinosaur leappad book that sb has but never looks at. SB meanwhile was doing maths. they have got to thousands – woohoo and all! so she raced through that, as having grasped hundreds, tens and units, thousands is really just more of the same. SB then insisted on more ballet practice whilst BB said she was doing her ‘writing practice’ – ie squiggles on a white board! SB settled into some spelling – she enjoys these wizard whimstaff, and BB and i did a bit of piano fun. I then did some violin practice [faint!] as have strings. boy am i rusty!! i think i now have finger strain – rofl!! WHilst i was doing that, bB was quite happily following instructions on the brainbox primary electronics kit to make a ‘whizzer’ with only a little bit of support from SB.

After lunch it was baking time. SB chose a recipe of chocolate marzipan biscuits – something nice and complicated! and through the afternoon did it pretty much on her own. BB and i opted for the simpler peanut butter cookies. SImpler in recipe, but obviously complicated by BB’s desire to lick things all the time [so i have a series of spoons that are single use licking spoons to keep the biscuits edible!] and her sometimes idiosyncratic weighing and measuring :smile:

SB’s mixture had to rest for a while in the middle, so we all read one of my french books from the little linguist – berthe makes a pizza – which we loved. [here it is on amazon] and SB did a recorder practice. the new outerwear from muddypuddles arrived, so SB now has some camo trousers, my pink girl really has vanished! BB got a free glove puppet, so equally happy.

SB finished her biscuits whilst bb and i had a romp and read a book together, then we all had tea before SB went out to Judo. BB off to bed, and SB watched some nina and the neurons when she got back.

SO there you go, a busy day in our household! flickr pics of the day

oh, and any advice on trampolines. still humming and hawing. jumpking ovalpod oval vs bazoongi deluxe 12 foot with funring [ouch for more money, but ? its worth it?]

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, General, language, literacy, little languages, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

Shopping, Pizza , Shopping

Posted on November 26, 2008 by | 2 comments

Started the day with a bit of online shopping, new waterproofs for SB,  socks, mitts etc. some waterproof walking boots for SB as an alternative for her to wellies (managed to pick up some Clarks shoes for her on sale for £15 last week, so was goign to get some other boots for her with the saved money, and got the boots for £15 as well, bargain :-) ) some shoes for me and other bits and bobs.

Got an phone call later from the second place, their order system had had some kid of fit and missed out sizes on some things and mixed up others (a pair of 36″ waist boots anyone)  :-)

Managed to get children breakfasted and dressed in 45 minutes, and SB managed a bit of piano preactice, so we got out in time to get into City 1 for a Home Ed group trip to a Pizza Express restaurant. They talked a little about the pizza making process, (for some reason I was a bit disappointed to find they don’t make the dough and tomato sauce on site – I doubt making a big batch in a factory is much different to making a big bacth in the kitchen, nor is it likley to be any different in any other big pizza chain), showed us how to make the dough into a base – SB was pretty good at that.

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Then we got to make up pizzas which they then took and cooked. They had a system of numbered hats so they could number the returned pizza boxes. It mostly worked, though a couple were mixed up. Had a little look rouind the kitchen area (pretty small as they basically just make up the pizzas in there)  - 4 minutes to cook a pizza in their ovens.

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Kids seemed to find the big walkin fridge and freezer most interesting.

Then it was back to collect the pizzas. Not sure there was a massive educational value to the trip (making pizzas isn’t exactly something new to them) but I guess they got to see behind the scenes a bit and  have a bit of fun with their friends. And it was free (a bit of a promo for them I guess), so we got free pizza for lunch :-) Then headed off into town for a bit of real, in a proper shop, shopping

Ambled down the road a found a bench to munch pizza on. They are apparently looking cheerful :-) 

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Finally found SB a new hat that she liked (another bargain as it turned out when we paid that it was much reduced as was aold stock from a couple of years ago) Though it was an adult hat, that only just fitted SB, so maybe that’s why it didn’t sell. But BB a fleece like the one I got SB last weekin a different pattern it’s just a fleece really, but for some reason it seems especially nice according to SB (BTW, any YHA members you get 10% off in Millets). BB doesn’t get that many clothes bought for her as we have so many from SB,  so when she gets something she gets so excited about it. I finally found some slipper-boot things that I liked, and we looked at various gloves, but none where waht SB wanted.

Went through the market and found gloves (she wanted some thin alternatives to her thick gloves) as did BB – fit her perfectly, which is unusal for a littlie like her (more excitement). A quick hit on M&S, and then it was time for a coffee break (SB had spied a Costa, and she knows they do nice cakes…) I’d said we could have a snack in a cafe if they were good whilst going round the shops. Quite surprsingly !! they were on the whole (a bit restless in M&S), probably becuase we were on the hunt for particular things, and tried not to faff around too much. And I had the buggy, which I can stick BB in.

A pop into Lakeland  on the way back to the carpark, where a bit tired children meant I wasn’ tempted to buy anything unnecessary (it’s an odd mix really I think of decent quality kitchen stuff, and all sorts of useless tat and gadgets).

As an aside, wondering what is the best rolling pin. I used to have a marble ones, which was good, though heavy and coould be too heavy for rolling somethings, but the weiht meant it rolled things out without a lot of effort.Have been using one we bought for SB to use and it’s really not big enough and is hard work rolling out things, I’ve bought a plain simple cyclindrical wooden one for now, but I’m tempted by one of the silicone ones like the Sil-Pin. The kids one is cute :-)

Just about got back to the carpek before it rolled into the next hour, and toolted home.

Kids where much more a of a pain at home (why is the default seemingly into argue about something, even when there is no need?). SB found a white board lurking, so wanted to draw on that, I didn’t feel like going and finding any suitable pens, but SB went and found some, so theyns  drew cats and things and argued over pens (plenty of them) cloths (how often do you need the cloth?)  and who knows waht else. I sat a read a few random books to them when I got fed up with it and had revived myself a bit with tea. But before we knew it it was time to head off for SB’sswimming lesson.

Out, back, Helen was home from work , chips for tea, watched Merlin, children in bed.

Flop.

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Posted in Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, cute, music, Out and About, photos, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

Shall we dance?

Posted on November 24, 2008 by | 5 comments

And she did. SB was happy with the dancing exam, though she had done everything as well as she could. so we were all properly appreciative and cooked her ken hom for tea. i am really happy, as it looked for a while a bit shaky, and although i’m not bothered about her passing the exam, or doing really well, i am bothered about her being dejected, upset or put off if she fails. SO the week of 30 mins ballet practice a day appears to have paid off, and both BB and i are also much better at the steps! for her, she knew it was going to be fine, when the teacher watched her pas de basques and cifras and was happy with them. phew!! SO she had her first grade 3 lesson this pm with the others [though we obviously don't know the outcome of the exam]

in the morning i think she had done piano practice, ballet practice and book reading, and when i got home, after a blow by blow ballet re-enactment, we also did a quick piano review, and then BB and i did piano practice. bB was v keen to do ‘home ed’ with me, so we did a couple of pages of earlibird 1B and before the code 1. [before the code 1 does annoy me a bit, as it has k for kitten - but of course it looks like a cat! and also on a pick of a boy playing football and kicking a ball, bb was supposed to choose the letter k for kick. she chose f for football, so i was happy with that, but the 3 choices were k,f and b!]

All 3 of us sat in a huddle and read out book of opposites in french, and the SB came up with a game of me saying the french word, and her finding something that suited it ‘leger’ ‘grand’ ‘pousser’ etc. SO we had fun doing that. She still remembers her a droit and a gauche from saturday, and sunday we did french converstions in the car – including de quelle couleur est les arbres etc etc. so i am feeling french virtuous!

when SB went for ballet and brownies, bB requested fimo. She had an idea in mind [she does tend to the bossy...] and she wanted to make a christmas tree shaped christmas tree decoration, like SB made in the past. we didn’t have an exact match fimo green :roll: but she did settle eventually on one of the 3 [!] other fimo greens, and we each made a tree. she didn’t want a hole through it, so we will have to stick string on the back somehow. Then, sorting through our cookie cutter collection, she did a gingerbread boy, and i did a gingerbread girl, and we ‘branded’ them in mary and joseph wear. I think BB’s joseph might be more of the technicolour dreamcoat variety… i am always impressed by the care and detail that BB puts into crafts and arts. she spent some time getting it how she wanted to, and looking at mine and deciding what she liked in it, and doing something similar with hers.

fimo cooking, we read a couple of big picture books together, and then a red red nose reader for her to show me she can read [still keen on a ds] unfortunately, although she was convincing with the 3 big pigs, she forgot it was a wolf not a fox…

SB came back from ballet and brownies, and read some of this book Cracking Up: The Story of Erosion (Science Works): The Story of Erosion (Science Works)
, which she said was good, and now both are in bed.

Unfortunately my strings haven’t arrived yet. so i haven’t done any violin prac, and i have just realised i need to blog yesterday, and do some fiddling with time stamps! AND do a musical monday post – all go here!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, geography, language, literacy, little languages, music, noises and sounds, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

not a snowy winter walk

Posted on November 23, 2008 by | Leave a comment

we woke up to snow, and were really hopeful that our monthly RSPB walk would be snowy, but then it rained and was just v cold! Whilst michelle and i did half empty glass brightkites, marcus was much more positive. and you know, he was right! apart from some setting out rain it was fine, and sunny in parts! by the end, my toes were a bit on the cold side though! BB had a walking crisis, but managed in the end!

i am getting ahead, we fitted in HE on the sly! we did a v short piano practice – for each girl, and did some french conversation for at least 30 mins in the car and french games. And, when we were at M and M’s SB did ballet practice.

AHA! i did nearly forget to blog that bB and SB had a delightful conversation about greenhouse gases in the car. currently, when sb grows up she is going to be a research scientist and sort out the problem with greenhouse gases. mms says bb, because they are naughty – yes says sb and does a bit of greenhouse gas talk and melting things. mm says bb, so it is good it has snowed because that sucks up the greenhouse gases, eerrrr, well not quite! v cute together anyway. bb is going to be a dinodoor bone finder btw! later bb decided the problem with greenhouse gases were that they were smelly! err, well, i guess some of them!

So we had a lovely fresh walk, with some coffee to warm up on the way. SB and C climbed trees – something they are rather keen on! well, one tree in particular, and then ran about a bit before going back to the car.

we went to M and M’s house for dinner, chat, world righting and the kids played well together, and lots of games. very nice evening, thanks v much!

now i just need to get flickring!!

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Posted in Dance/drama, General, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, pre reading, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Black dog on my shoulder

Posted on November 22, 2008 by | 11 comments

and its being a bit resistant to shaking off. i am reasonably confident i can pinpoint the problem, but would like it to move off a bit.
anyway, to today. i find in a black dog kind of day, a bit of organised activity and lots of book cuddling helps, so thats what we went for.
Anyway, SB had agreed to a last violin practice for piccies and video ‘to see where she had got’ and she still appears to enjoy doing it when she’s doing it! but is absolutely definite that the only string instrument she wants to play is the piano.

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so there we go. we played christmas carols, she then decided to move on in the book and play the spiccato section. we then had a jolly christmas carol concert with me on the violin and she and BB on bells/tambourines and singing. SO there, i don’t understand, and I hope one day she doesn’t turn around and wished she had gone ahead, but she is clear for now she doesn’t want to play.

We then moved into ballet practice. I don’t know how good they need to be, but if the teacher thought the others in the class would pass, then i think SB might now as well. SHe has really worked hard at it. the videoing has been the best thing, and i am from now on always going to sneakilly video the term before the exam!

we went off to do some arts and crafts, which will feature in Helmsley secret santas, but it is only kiddie to kiddie! [nic, we changed slightly who we are doing between us to save WW6091] SB confused herself with starting the painting with the glass upside down, and then said it was ok, because she meant the zebra to be standing on its head…

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and they only have 3 legs because the other one is hidden behind one of the other legs, oK?? such is life on the savannah.

whilst the black outer was drying, we then all snuggled up and i read various story books and some french books to the girls. i made a dreadful mistake of suggesting we could have soup in mugs with straws watching raven in the playroom [as there was drying painting stuff all over the table] the rug paid for that with BB’s tomato soup! i was going to do some violin prac, but am temporarily a string less [and g string :roll: ] so am having to wait until wed – em, i am a little rusty!!

SB then did her arm drawing for sketch tuesday. i think it might be supposed to be real life ish, but ours isn’t! it is a multiarmed rainbow bug. BB did her glass painting – v carefully – and i finished what my secret santa thingy is! chris is the only one so far not to do it. SB was using watercolour pencils, and had a go at washing them over – which did work until she had had enough.

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He, however, was busy elsewhere, and has bought an xmas tree [for the village lights on the outside of our house] and has also put a shelf up in the room of doom cupboard. our new years resolution is that it should become the room of resources instead!

SB and BB both did piano practice with me. BB was insistant to do it properly as well. so she has started gbdf and ace. SB does also play the piano nicely and sight read some new music today.

we finished with dinner infront of tv as well [sounds a bit scandalous, 2 meals infront of the tv] and although we were going to watch Harry Potter, SB decided on wizard of oz instead! both girls storied and bedded, and i have spent some of my christmas money on games! contemplating shelving.

oh, and i have wasted tme making an amazon astore.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, DIY/ house renovation, General, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, photos, pre reading, Stringbean's HE

happy top post

Posted on November 21, 2008 by | 4 comments

i don’t like the blog to look sad for long! today has been productive for the beans. SB has really got the hang of pas de basques and cifras, and done some tidying up of a number of other steps. feeling more positive! so thats good. she also has judo grading weekend following helmsley so stop over plans curtailed unfortunately. she has done some piano practice and finally has finished singapore maths 2b – woohoo! done spelling and handwriting. we have together read a book about castles all snuggled up [as i needed a hug!] and both girls have been to gym. BB has been mostly investigating all her presents happily.
and tonight i did some christmas shopping courtesy of M and S online 3 for 2 and 20% off. i only bought items that i would have bought anyway, as it is so easy to get sucked in [so i halved the amount of stuff initially in the basket!] i am hoping amazon does a similar sale at some point!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, early maths skills, geography, history, literacy, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE, writing

letting dreams go…

Posted on November 21, 2008 by | 31 comments

is a very hard thing to do. SB has decided she most definitely doesn’t want to play the violin any more. i am feeling more dumped and devastated by this than i thought i would. i aim to educate with SB so that she follows her dreams and desires. it is true that there are a lot of similarities between us, so perhaps i over empathise, but there are lots of differences – gym and ballet for a start! so i always have known that she will carve her own path. but her early joy in the violin was a joy for me too, and i guess i mapped out a future where we would play in orchestras together like my mum and me – something that brings me fantastic memories of joy. in fact my whole musical childhood is a joy for me. Her wanting to stop is a full stop to that joy. and she def wants to stop. so, being obviously more autonomous than i gave myself credit for, thats what we are doing, and i managed not to cry in front of her as well!! she is still keen to carry on music in the form of piano and recorder, but my heart was given to the violin! ANd you know, she was actually good at it. she had a lovely posture, hold and tone, and did it reasonably effortlessly – allowing far less practice! SO i feel that i have failed her somewhere, for her to definitely want to give up something she is good at means to me that i haven’t managed to show her the joy, maybe i am too intense? i dunno, but somewhere i have lost her the spark. i actually think it was at melrose last year, as she has been less enthusiastic since then. aargh it was supposed to be fun, and yet i ruined things for my own child. i sobbed all the way back from work about this too. useless facilitator, null points

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Posted in music

penguins dropping from the sky

Posted on November 19, 2008 by | 3 comments

today was busy busy! after such a late bedtime, i am surprised we all got up, as sb also had v late bedtime, and bb woke up as we went to our v late bedtime! but, a fianl tidying push, stuff set out for science and sort of party food! BB opened her presents, and was particularly ecstatic but the sylvanian stuff from both sets of grandparents was a clear winner [as anticipated], and the mp3 from my sister. however, she is now working though the pepa pig set with great keenness! SB and i did some MORE pas de basques, cifras and clappy dance practice – and she has really got the pas de basque thing. just the rest to go! SB’s my pals are here 3 and 4 arrived from singapore and she was very happy!

the latinetc group arrived and we kicked off with science. i thought a fun session of dropping and consolidating the things we had learnt was in order, so we dropped crumpled vs tightly packed paper, and then made parachutes with different size and weight material squares. the children are getting better at making a hypothesis and thinking why they chose that, even if wrong! they certainly enjoyed all the dropping, and were confident with the concepts. then we made paper aeroplanes, which stretched me some, as the origami instructions were complicated! at this point merry arrived, so hers also had aeroplanes which whizzed about a bit. SLight mayhem and chaos later, and a latin session. i was v giggly to here amo amas amat [amamus, amatis amant] from the living room!

finally the ravening children were fed – we had missed out snack time – oops! and fully satiated went on to head shed loads of cake. though my pingu cake looked good, most children ate icing only. i tasted it and thought it was a lovely sponge! BB v keen on the full dark room and lit candeld cake being brought in and all, so we duly did this.

so mostly an afternoon of playing for children – inside and out – and chatting for adults. thankyou to Anne and A who also attended, and chris’s parents. we had a lovely chilled day. BB fell asleep pretty much as guests left, SB did some maths and the judo. BB is awake and playing again :roll:

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Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, General, language, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Aargh to Ballet

Posted on November 17, 2008 by | 6 comments

As not sure that SB will pass this, but she wants to take it at least now as practice. I videoed pretty much the whole lesson today, and chris and i are going to teach her every day all week. I am not bothered about how well she does, but I would actually love her to pass!

Thing is, when others are doing the steps, she is dizzy and in a world of her own as well, so doesn’t learn by watching – and prob dizzies it all out of her head.

She loves and enjoys ballet though, and i hope that she still loves and enjoys it after the exam.

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Posted in Stringbean's HE