The real story

I just got a call from the secretary at school:

Secretary: Hi, Mrs Scalzi. This is Mrs. K from the school.
Me: Hello?
Secretary: Don't worry, the boys are fine. I'm calling because Ms. Principal would like you to sign some certificates she had made up for the DI participants.

Inwardly, I'm laughing. You see, the first thing that came to mind when she announced who she was didn't include. "Oh no, what happened the boys." It was more like, "Oh no, what did they do now."

My sister has this theory that whenever you get two or more boys in a room together without supervision, the dumbest idea wins. Well, with my boys, sometimes this happens even with supervision.

And it definitely doesn't have to happen in a room. Take last night for example. . .

At about 5:00, I got a call from the Accordion Player's mother (we'll call her APM).
APM: Did Firstborn tell you about the lake?
Me: No.
APM: I was afraid of that. Well, Accordion Player came home sopping wet from head to toe. Of course, I had to ask him how he got that way, and by asking some detailed questions, I have determined that they came across some body of water out in the woods. Well, one thing led to another and, of course, my son fell in.
Me: Funny. Firstborn didn't mention anything about it.
APM: Accordion Player said they were all going to tell their parents, but I wanted to make sure. I didn't know about any water back there.
Me: Nor did I. I know it's a dry creek bed, so maybe from all the rain, there is a puddle.
APM: Well, this must be bigger than a puddle because Accordion Player said he had a hard time getting out and Dr. Phil (the kid across the street) had to fish him out with a stick. He said something about feeling something swimming in there with him.
Me: Oh my. I will definitely talk to Firstborn about this and I'm thinking we are going to have to take a break from the woods for a while.
APM: That's what I'm thinking. Accordion Player's dad (we'll call him APD) is going to take a walk out there to see what this body of water is tonight. Would you like Firstborn's father to go too?
Me: I'd like that. I'd like to see what they are up to.

Fast forward to later that night. We are sitting at dinner when APM calls again to tell me that APD and Accordion Player are going out now to check out where the kids are playing. It's pouring out. DH is not happy about going out then, but we are all thinking this is a temporary puddle in a natural watershed area. So, we should look while it is wet out.

APD comes by with Accordion Player and Accordion Player's big brother. Now, APD is a big guy. He's rather tall and a bit overweight. He doesn't look like a hiker. He has the posture of a tall man who gets little exercise. I watch them start the trek out in the back yard through the dry creek bed (yes, it's still dry). The boys are scurrying in the lead, their bright Midwestern blond hair illuminating the twilight shadows. Further and further behind, I see DH's and APD's shadowy forms struggling to keep up. I realize that DH has taken this trek before and knows fully well the footing in the area. APD on the other hand, has never been back in the woods. This should be fun.

A half hour later, they are at the front door and DH is asking for my keys. The "water" is all the way by the main road near our development. A good half mile from the house. They can't get there on foot due to age and wet footing. So they are driving around to the main road to check it out. Apparently, on the trek, both DH and APD had each slipped once in the mud. This is why DH had decided to drive around the long way to explore.

The "water" turns out to be a nearby creek which drys up to a mere trickle in the summer, but swells with all the water we are having. It's surrounded by wetland. Not great footing even in summer. It's a fair piece from our house and they never should have wandered that far anyway.

So while DH and the guys are out getting really wet, I'm asking Firstborn what really happened.
Here's the story as told by Firstborn:

We went to check out a new area that Scottie (15 and old enough to know better) showed Accordion Player. It's got this big lake and we were exploring around there.

There was this log floating on the water and Dr. Phil carefully climbed onto it and balanced for a bit. So Accordion Player thought he would do the same, but the sand under his foot slipped (the area is surrounded by fine dirt carried downstream by the swelling waters. The water has receded, so this silt is remaining around the banks of the creek). So, he had to jump from the land to the log and it was too much and the log bobbed a couple of times and then went under with Accordion Player. (Why is it that I can imagine the look on Accordion Player's face as he went into the drink?)

Me: APM says that he had a hard time getting out.

Firstborn: I don't think so. He got out.

Me: But Dr. Phil had to hand him a stick.

Firstborn: Well ya. He did. But that was because Accordion Player was scared. (with a big smile) He said something was swimming around in there with him. (Oh great.)

So, this morning. The three errant boys were trading their versions of what had happened, and another twist to the story came out.

Apparently, when Accordion Player had announced that something was swimming around in the water with him, Firstborn had suggested that maybe it was an alligator. Dr. Phil, who's usually the most level headed in the group (wait, wasn't he the first to go out on the log?), corrected Firstborn telling him that an alligator couldn't survive the temperatures here in Ohio.

Firstborn argued back that his teacher had told them about people bringing alligators back from Florida and letting them loose when they got too big. I have got to have a talk with that teacher. Firstborn believes every single story he tells. Few of them are true.

Accordion player is pretty sure he felt a snake. Dr. Phil is more convinced it was a fish. Overall, none of them seem to understand the danger they might have been in horsing around near water a half mile hard trek from home.

It was quite the adventure and you can probably see now why I worry when the secretary at the school calls.



About the cast of characters:
Firstborn, you know well.
Accordion Player is a neighbor from the cul-de-sac down the street. He is white haired and slim, plays the accordion, and loves Weird Al Yankovic and Heywood Banks. Always quick with a joke or a one liner, he spends his live teetering on the precipice of danger and never quite falling in the drink. Until yesterday. Usually he has just enough judgement to keep himself safe and we have taught Firstborn not to follow him into danger. Just enjoy the show.

Dr. Phil lives directly across from us. He is intellegent and quiet. He is serious and tries to do well at everything he does. Talks well with adults and is usually the one we count on to be the voice or reason. I call him Dr. Phil because he seems like such a scholar.

APD and APM, the much-too-stressed parents of Accordion player. Each of them host a great sense of humor which is necessary when raising a boy like Accordion player. They are not overly protective but know they need to keep an eye on this child.

All that glitters

This year, Firstborn had a project that was so suited to his personality that it was scary. They study an economics unit each year delving into such topics as running a business and balancing your checkbook. This year's unit included a final project of creating a item, marketing it and selling it.

The school gave them a small business loan of $5.oo which was to be paid back with an additional 10% of their profits. Parents could either gift or loan their kids up to $5.00. The kids had to develop a business plan, rent a shop, buy all of their supplies, produce their product and then sell it.

The kids were generally trying to make the cheapest item they could make to maximize their profits. None of them seemed to understand their market (the lower class men of the school), or how to determine what was already available out there. They came up with some pretty interesting items. Firstborn was actually thinking of getting dirt from outside and making terrariums. We decided that this would be hard to take home. He also understood that Market Day was only 2 weeks before Mother's day and he could use that as a marketing tool.

We finally settled on rainbow makers using the prisms from our old chandeliers in Tewksbury. We had two very gaudy, very old-lady-looking chandeliers that we replaced in the old house and since DH and Firstborn are so enamored of anything glittery, we saved all the prisms.

He strung these, along with some seed beads and Swarovsky crystals on a length of

Fireline. He worked out that the cost of the materials was about $.75. So he charged 1.50 for each rainbow maker.

One day in class, as he was researching the cost of his materials ( he was pretty much using my beads and Fireline, but he had to pay me market price for it), one of the boys caught him researching the price of beads and began laughing at him and telling the class that Firstborn was making girlie jewelry. Firstborn remained quiet and told me about it that night. He was a little shaky on going forward with his plan until I explained to him that the boys in class obviously haven't done their homework. They should know from all the commercials on TV that girls are the ones who will drop money. If you want to make money, sell something that girls like. He liked this explanation and used it the next day. The boys still laughed.

They told him that his materials cost too much and he was never going to sell anything. They told him his idea wouldn't work.

Meantime Firstborn continued to make his rainbow makers and also he made some bookmarks using just seed bead strings with a Swarovski on each end. He carefully made a variety of colors to appeal to everyone. We packaged everything up and drove to school with it.

DH helped Firstborn make a display case. It was a cigar box with a glass top. DH painted the inside black and lined it with reflective paper. Then he rigged up a flashing LED key chain that changed colors from red to blue to green. They hung one rainbow maker inside. Flashing lights and sparklies, the perfect recipe for bringing in the crowds.

The day of the sale came and we were all nervously anticipating his results.

Well Firstborn came home elated. He sold every single piece he had made and sold $10 worth of orders that he would have to make up that weekend and deliver on Monday. After all his expenses and loan, he had $20 in profits. He had made more money than any other individual in the market. The rainbow makers were the talk of the school.

And many were purchased by the boys in the school.

His teacher purchased one and asked to keep the display box to show future classes. I think he got an A on this project.

Nova plays with the kitties

Who says that cats and dogs can't get along.

The cats have been very curious about Nova since she came into the house. I don't restrict her from the cats too often because I feel that they need to get a good scratch into her while she is small so that she will respect them.

Very quickly, Nadia developed a lot of confidence around the dog because she is so agile and can jump over the pen we are using to keep the dog contained. Not only does she jump over it, but she also likes to walk along the edge of it for a few steps before jumping down on the other side.

Georgia doesn't have the confidence because she is not as great an athlete, but she is just so curious that she is always the one who sneaks up to sniff the dog when she is sleeping on my lap.

After about two days, the cats were settled. I rarely see any raised fur or hissing anymore. And they never scratched Nova. So I decided that I could give more reign to her. Yesterday, I gave her run of most of the house. We have had her for two weeks and she has never peed on a carpet. So I decided to test my theory that while she is not free of puddles altogether, she will seek out a hard surface to puddle on.

She was so happy to explore the house and see what her friends the kitties were up to. She trotted around the house, picking up shoes and carrying them to other rooms and picking up the cats' toy mice. At one point, she laid down for a rest, and Georgia jumped on her and ran out of the room. A chase ensued and the two of them were cavorting around the house for a good 10 minutes before I decided to get the camera and see if I could capture this fun. The amazing part, was that both Georgia and Nadia looked like they were having nearly as much fun as Nova.

The set up for this video:

They had been playing for about 10 minutes. Nova would collapse and rest every few minutes (usually when the cats jumped onto some surface she couldn't reach). Right before I turned on the camera, Georgia had jumped on Nova and run to another room again. It starts with nova in a full run after her, and then she forgets what she was doing.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4838892239607044463&hl=en

And then I ran out of memory before you see the cats chase her into the office. Notice how Georgia goes into the library and lies down just a few feet from Nova. And the shock is that Nadia then joins them. She is such a skittish cat. I never thought she would be comfortable around a dog.

What's in a name

The struggle to name our little Nova started before she came home. From the drive home, I was discussing with the boys good names for the little black wiggling mass we had just met and paid for.

The name Gadunka came up. I've loved this name since Lastborn first started talking about the Bionicle character. What a great name for a dog. Gadunka. And given how mouthy she is lately, it's the perfect fit.

The cats submitted their choice; Nemesis. They were thinking definition number 3.

We mentioned to DH that the dog had a white star on her chest and I knew immediately what DH would come up with. Star. That's just so done which is exactly what DH would want. We had to come up with something just a bit more original than that, so I suggested Nova. The boys and DH loved it. (The cats are still going for Nemesis.)

But then my sister came up with the perfect name. Stella. From the Latin Stella meaning star. Also the Boston pronunciation of Stellar. And I figured that DH would love the Seinfeld reference.

He considered it, but later came back to Nova and will not budge. So the kids have begun calling her Stella Nova. And Nova is where it stands.

Sleep issues

New puppies are like infants except that instead of changing a diaper, you are constantly mopping the floor.

As a result, I'm seeing DH revert to his new fatherhood personality. Whereas he used to announce that no way were we getting a dog, he now spends hours cuddling with the little critter. Enjoy that while you can. She won't be little for long.

I'm not one for crates. I understand the whole concept that crate simulates a den, but where in the wild would a dog choose to be alone in their den? So our house is her den and we are providing safe places within this den. It makes things harder until she has learned basic commands like lie down stay and come, but I feel it is worth my investment. Anyone have any ideas on how to express this to my neighbor-cum-former-dog-breeder who has been lecturing me on how I should use a crate and how evil I am for adopting this dog before she was 10 weeks? Avoidance is my plan for now, but it would be nice to be able to speak to my neighbor in the future without fear of further lectures. :-)

So anyway, the sleep issue came up her first night. Of course, she was missing her siblings and her mother and we were of course the indulgent parents. So I stayed up most of the night cuddling and helping her comfort herself and then putting her in her enclosure in the kitchen. She would wake every hour and I would take her out to pee and start the whole process again. On Saturday, I was a zombie, but still determined to get her to sleep on her own.

By Saturday night, my resolve was gone. She slept on my stomach on the couch for the night. And slept well, I might add. The two of us got 6 hours of blissful sleep before her first necessary potty break and then she went right back to sleep on my stomach when we returned. Well, I must clarify. She got a blissful night of sleep. I got 6 hours of somewhat restful-you-can't-roll-over-even-if-you-want-to sleep. But it was better than an hour at a time.

So the same happened Sunday and Monday night. In a way, this is attachment parenting for dogs. Now that I proved her bladder is stronger than one hour, it's time to wean her a bit. So I got a cardboard moving box (small, book size) and placed a towel in the bottom. Once she calmed down, I placed her in the box awake. She slept next to the couch with me right there for 4 hours. I calmed her and she went back down for another 2 and then I took her out for a pee. Back in for a calming and into the box for until 6am. I'm feeling a bit more human again.

Wednesday night the same. I find that as long as I cuddle and let her warm up after the pee break, she goes right down.

So today, I have to get a bit of work done for my new freelance editing job. She is rambunctious because she got so much sleep last night and she doesn't like to wake alone in the kitchen. So after our 9:00 walk, I calmed her and placed her in the box for her nap. She is in the office with me, next to my desk. Sleeping soundly. She loves the box. It's like the crate, but I can't expect that she will stay in it, so I have to be with her. Right now, she can't jump out. I should start a pool on how many days until she can jump out.

Gotta get back to work now.

No bolts of lightening

Lastborn made his first communion yesterday.Because none of the extended family could make it, I decided to post the story and pictures here.

We got there very early, so I decided to take Lastborn's picture before the crowds started. This was the best he could do with "Stand up straight next to the font. " This was right before he asked if he could dip his feet in there.

Practicing for the event. He's the only one behaving now. But just wait until the actual event. When they were standing up there at the altar for the blessing, he was dancing around. DH thought he must have to go to the bathroom really badly. No. He just said his feet hurt. At one point he was jumping up and down. I was afraid he would fall off the steps.

The opening procession. Doesn't he look so sweet. His lips are forming "Don't take my picture!"

Anyone who knows Lastborn will recognize my shock and fear when he started down for the offertory carrying this very full glass pitcher of sacramental wine. Exactly which section of hell do you end up in when you drop that and it not only splatters all over the porcelain tiles, but also onto the fluffy meringue-like dress that this little girl is wearing. Notice the concentration.

All dresses remained pristine white through the whole event, and I was able to resume breathing as he successfully handed that jug off to the priest. When he came back to the pew, there was a noticeable bead of sweat on his forehead.

He was very nervous about actually receiving the bread. We practiced a bit before mass, but when he got into line, he immediately put his hands out to receive the bread. I had to correct him and as we approached the priest, prompt him to hold out his hands. Of course, he put the wrong one on top. So I quickly switched them. Then I heard him say Amen in a very strong voice, and he received the bread, took hold of it in his right hand and then didn't know what to do. I could hear the twitters from the people in the first pew as he walked away with the bread in his hand, so I quickly told him to eat it. Then he went sailing past our pew. More laughter as I tried to grab the shoulder of his coat to stop him, but he was out of reach. So we walked around the long way.

All-in-all, no major embarrassments and he did provide a modicum of comic relief to the crowd. A typical Lastborn affair. Despite his lack of preparation for the actual event, Lastborn worked very hard for this event. His CCD class was three hours every Saturday morning for 10 weeks and they required him to finish 2 workbooks at home on top of that. Firstborn never had to do that much. The good thing was that he very much enjoyed his CCD class and his teachers.

Isn't she cute???

Who needs TV?

TV Turn-off Week -- Day 2

We survived day 2 with a bit more success.

Of course it helped that most of the evening, the children were strapped into the car travelling to Springfield where we looked at 9 adorable puppies!!!

Yes, we decided to bring one home. She is a doll. They are golden retriever mix puppies and the mix is somewhat of a mystery. The pups are almost all black with white marks except for one brown with white marks. We picked the smallest one for many reasons. 1) She's a bit smaller. 2) She is really cute and friendly. 3) She gnawed on our hands the least. 4) While curious and just as active as the other puppies, she was a bit less in-your-face and much more calm than the others. 5) She barked less and for better reason.

She seemed happy to see anyone and wagged her tail (but not her whole body) happily when she approached us. She seemed willing to be independent of the other dogs, but happy to wrestle with them as well. She is mostly black with a white star on her chest. She has what looks like the perfect lab head right now. We'll see how her nose takes shape. It's a bit longer than her siblings now.

Her mom is an AKC Golden with very good breeding. The breeder's dad is a vet and she is very serious about breeding responsibly. She is a close friend of our puppy's current owner. She is truly a beautiful dog, if a bit large and energetic right now. She's just a kid who got in trouble before they could get her fixed. This is one of the big disadvantages of having the invisible fence. Male dogs can get in. :-)

So anyway, we bring our puppy home Friday and then the fun begins.

I did not bring the camera and so wish I had. Because it was great hearing Lastborn giggle as a gaggle of puppies knocked him to the floor and licked his face.

Firstborn wanted to bring all 9 home. They both think this dog will stay small. Boy are they in for a surprise. Right now, she is shorter than the cats. Which is a good thing. The cats might just give her a chance. Now we need to work our our training goals, where she will sleep, how to keep her out of the cat food, which type of fencing we will use, and many other challenges.

Back to the TV Free Week. The trip to the puppy house was all we needed to entertain the boys. We did play some board games last night. Lastborn is quite annoying at board games. Never remembers when his turn is, can't remember which pile to take the cards from and which to put them on, etc. But we did have fun and maybe, he will improve with more practice. I think a short walk in a neighborhood park might be just the thing for tonight.

TV Turnoff Week - Day 1

Just shoot me now!

I decided that I wanted out family to participate in TV turnoff week. Last year, when I suggested this, I thought the roof would collapse. This year, I put my foot down. Not only with the kids, but with DH as well.

You see we are a totally electronics addicted family. I see issues with the kids from this. A reluctance to try anything new that does not include a plug, Lastborn's reluctance to move his body at all, and a constant struggle with who gets control of what electronic device and for how long.

I really felt that this would be a good way to teach the family that there is life during a power outage. One would think...

So when the boys came home from school today, I tried to be somewhat nice to them. I knew the question would come up about whether they could play electronic games or what in the world were they supposed to do without electronics? I was somewhat prepared. I forced an increased tolerance of their fighting ad roughhousing in the house. They played sword fight with the Nerf swords I purchased for Lastborn's party (until Firstborn broke one). Then I sent them outside to practice on the hop balls that we will use at the party as horses for the joust. I guess I need to post on our medieval party plans for Lastborn. But that will be another post.

So I help the kids find the hop balls in the garage. All they want to know is where are the pool noodles that we will use as the jousting staffs. We have not purchased them yet.

"Don't worry about the noodles," I say. "Just practice with the balls."

Just then, Lastborn falls off the ball onto his face.

"See?" I say quickly. "You need to figure out how to use the balls before you can worry about the noodles." I'm so cruel.

Being much accustomed to my sarcasm, the boys see the humor in this. So, I return to my office to look into doggy training in our area. (yet another post)

In a few minutes, I hear frantic screaming. It takes me a minute to decide whether this is really danger screaming or just the sound of two boys having fun in the front yard. I'm still not sure but decide to get up and check it out just in case. I look out the front window to see Lastborn lying in the gutter and Firstborn looking like he is trying to roll Lastborn out of the gutter onto the sidewalk. The hop ball Lastborn had been using was in the middle of the street.

Now, I am aware that an 8 year old and an 11 year old should be able to play in the front yard of their suburban home without danger. I know that the street doesn't get too much traffic and there are no nearby bends for a car to come streaking around and hit an unknowing child, but still. It looks like my son has been hit by a car, or maybe he hopped too close to the street and did another face plant on the cement but this time lost consciousness.

I ran outside in my slippers (make that waddled quickly) to find out how bad the damage is. At this point, Lastborn sits up with a big smile on his face, and firstborn reports that Lastborn was playing too close to danger and he was trying to get him to move back into the yard.

No more playing in the front yard, and he got a good dose of shouting for this one.

I reported this scene to DH last night and his only question was, "You didn't yell at him outside did you?" Ah yes, the neighbors still think we are nice people. Anyone taking bets on how long that will last?

Return From Hiatus

OK. It's been a while, and I feel I have to explain before jumping into the latest kid's post. It's worth waiting for...

This is the news. The company I have been working for has reached a fork in the road that requires some staffing adjustments. After the hard push that started in October (just as I was moving from MA to OH), we experienced the quick-change that seems to hallmark the struggling company. This week our main push is one thing, the next week, that function is dropped from the product and we work on a different one. They have done everything right and produced a great product, but the market is reflective of the wonderful economy we have all been experiencing despite the rosy picture FOX TV wants to paint.

I won't get into gory details, but I was expecting a lay-off. After all, I'm a contractor. I'm there solely for the purposes of being laid off. So, while waiting for the call to end my career at this small start up, I was happy to be approached for a freelance editing job. Just the ticket. Not a constant full-time job. Just a few hours here and there. Plenty of time to get out and meet people here in my new state.

I finally go the call on a Thursday morning. But I wasn't laid off. They are keeping me on freelance. So, now I can stress over having two freelance positions and worrying that they will both have the same due dates.

No work over the past two weeks. I've just been re-taking control of my life. It's been nice.

Good Reads

DH picked up this book for me. It sounds good. I have a whole list of people back east who would I'm sure enjoy reading it when I'm done. I'll let y'all know if it's worth the shipping cost.

Remembering the woman who got me into blogging

Every year, on the anniversary of her death, I'm compelled to go back to her site and remember her writing. Maybe in hopes that she's really not gone and she will have posted a new update. But this year, I stumbled across this entry that I had never seen before.

http://graybar.blogspot.com/2004/11/people.html

It sucks to lose friends and family,

Decorating Easter Eggs

Firstborn decorated the eggs this year. He always enjoys this. I asked DH to pick up another dozen white eggs (we only had 8 left), but when I opened the carton, they were brown. So we have some decorated brown eggs mixed in with the white. Firstborn did a good job with them though. You really can't tell they are brown without looking very closely.

Pizza Gana

It's DHs favorite food. When his mother came to visit in November, he asked her to make one for Thanksgiving dinner. It's really an Easter dish, but DH loves it all year. She left her recipe and I have spent the past 4 months trying to dissuade him from making it again. It's basically a slab of very delicious cholesterol, containing eggs, whole milk ricotta cheese, cold cuts and provolone cheese, all wrapped into a flaky crust made with shortening and eggs.

After a long lean winter, this is probably just the food a struggling Italian farmer would need to revive his half-starved bones, say 500 years ago. But now, we must be careful not to overdo.

Because this is a traditional Easter dish, I relented and let DH make it. The picture above is of his rendition. He's quite proud. He's already talking about how he will make the next one.

We purchased a new sofa and love seat last month. Now we finally have adult furniture in our family room. There's room for a game table as well. We're working on that.

The day the furniture arrived, I was luckily able to lock the cats into rooms so that there was no danger of them running out the opened front door while the furniture was being carried in. But as soon as the guys left, I heard Nadia open the dining room door. The problem was that I locked them into separate rooms. They were not happy cats. how she pulled open that door is beyond me, but I'm a little scared. Pushing a door is one thing. Pulling it is a completely different thing.

As soon as the cats were loose though, they felt the need to check things out. They crawled all over the new furniture and the old couch, which I had moved along a different wall to make room. They were fascinated. The old couch is rather light weight and the floors between the family room and the library are hard surface. So, I was able to slide the old couch into the library where it plans to live the rest of its life.

However, every time I stopped moving the old couch to change my grip, the cats would jump onto it and sniff around. Then I would move it a little more and they would jump off. I'd stop and they would jump on. Like every time the couch stopped moving, it was a totally new and exciting couch.

In the end, they far prefer the new sofa and love seat. Georgia likes sleeping on top of the upper cushions. She jumps up there and starts needing the cushions to plump them up in just the right manner and then she sleeps. And sleeps. . .

Nadia prefers the lower cushions. The two of them sleep on this couch all day. I miss having them in the office with me.

Georgia on her perch.

letterboxing

Finally got a chance to take pics of my signature stamps for letterboxing. The first is my personal signature stamp: Barefootcelt.

The second is our team stamp. When we go out as a family, we stamp in with this stamp and list the family members' trailnames in the logbook.

Upcoming schedule

Looking through my Yahoo!Calendar for this weekend:

No events scheduled.

Now that is a rare sight. Very welcome, but rare.

Remedial Midwest

For those of us who are slow catching on, they have a magazine.

Last month's actually had some great soups. Yes, I did feel pressure to buy this. Like there was something I don't know about being "midwest" that I had better learn before I get in trouble somehow. Given my predilection for faux pas, I need all the help I can get.

Living Midwest

Everyone has their preconceived notions of what another part of the world is like. For DH this meant that living mid-west meant eating more naturally. To that end, we purchased half a cow. It helped that one of his co-workers has a small farm and raises cows. DH worked a deal with him to get a half a cow. That meant we had to go out and buy a freezer. So this year, it will not be economically advantageous, but in a couple of years, it will start to pay for itself.

This does mean that I have had to move us from extremely lean ground beef to a somewhat more fatty version. I'm learning tricks to get the fat out and learning how to cook many kinds of steak.

We have very little sunny space in our yard. And frankly, I'm too old to build a new veggie garden. So, we have purchased a share in a CSA. We will be getting weekly organic veggie deliveries starting in June. So, as the freezer empties of beef, we will probably be filling it with frozen veg that we can't eat fast enough.

All those Saturday mornings freezing beans from Rudy the farmer are going to pay off. But if someone delivers a giant zucchini, I will probably throw it at the delivery truck. I need to make a sign showing a giant zucchini with a red circle and slash. Where's that zucchini bread recipe again?

The interesting thing I have found here is that grocery prices overall are much higher than back in MA, but the organic prices are lower. So, while this CSA will reduce our overall veg costs, it will not reduce them by as much as it would have been had we been eating organic in MA. We simply couldn't afford most organic in MA. Here, we do eat more organic veg.

While we will have to pass on to the neighbors much of the corn we get, that's not my biggest worry. I'm worried about the beets. Maybe I'll do fine, but I just don't relish the idea of eating lots of beets. They are a once a year kind of thing to me. Anyone have any good beet recipes?

DI continued

While Firstborn tends to concentrate more on the technical end of his challenges, Lastborn is definitely the drama type. This year, their challenge was Twisted History. They were supposed to create a performance where they took an event in history and changed a fact or changed the whole thing around. Within they presentation, they had to create a magical object that included shapes as part of it's design.

They chose to tell the story of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, but change it to aliens landing on earth and meeting Neil Armstrong. But because Neil was played by a girl, the name was changed to Neila.

Lastborn of course was an alien. But not just any alien. A 6-armed alien, with blue hair. We had fun adding sleeves to a shirt, stuffing them with stuffing and adding stuffed rubber gloves to the ends for hand.

The team waits with their props in the hallway. Neila Armstrong was a farmer, you know.
The three aliens argue over who will drive the space ship.

The girl-alien, Dudette, talks to Neila Armstrong. The girl in black is the narrator. Lastborn and the other alien are fixing the spaceship that they crashed to earth because they decided to all drive it together.
the whole cast assembles for to get their medals at the end of the performance. The adults in red are the appraisers.

This team did much better at their instant challenge. They worked as a team, but of course Lastborn stuck a couple of potty mouth words into the presentation. Sigh.

Overall the day was interesting. The level of competition in this region was much higher than at the region in MA that we competed in. These kids work all year on their props, and their acting so that they can give really professional presentations.

Firstborn and I watched the High School kids perform in the Obstacles challenge and in the structure challenge (that's the one he did last year). We were very proud of the fact that the HS team in Obstacles no only used the same type of car as Firstborn did (wired remote control), but were unable to overcome their obstacles in part because they had no steering. Their solution to getting through a tunnel when on a wired remote was also the same solution that Firstborn had come up with (cut a channel in the roof of the tunnel). Firstborn decided not to use that solution because we feared it would no longer be considered a tunnel.

Watching the structure performance was amazing though. This team built a structure that maxed out the test weights. They had to test it by putting weights on it while it was oriented in one direction and then again after orienting it in a different direction. (That seemed too hard to me which is why we didn't do that challenge this year). Not only that, but their skit was very creative and tied into the testing of the structure perfectly. They did things like using paper bags as masks. The first masked character was a robot; a bag painted with silver spray paint and then decorated as a robot face. Then next interesting mask was a pirate. A bag with a skull and cross bones, but stapled to the side of the bag was a second smaller bag decorated with a parrot. The second bag was positioned to look like it was sitting on the wearer's shoulders.

All of their props were well constructed and simple. Very low-budget but professional looking.

We then watched one of the top rated middle school teams in the area. They routinely go on to the Global Finals tournaments. They spend hours a week for months before each competition. The kids know how to sew their own costumes, build really intricate sets and write awesome scripts. They are very serious. And it showed. It was so amazing.

In some ways, it was disappointing though. The focus here is on winning. It is very serious competition. You can tell the teams who are fairly new to this. They look like they are in the wrong place. Like us, they tend to let the kids showcase what they already know instead of spending the year teaching them lots of new skills and letting them showcase those new skills. Some of us feel that this is a competition but also an after school activity, not a career training in itself.

The other sign of the seriousness of the competition was that few of the judges wore funny hats. It's a hallmark of DI for the judges to wear funny hats. For one it is in respect to the kids who work so hard to solve these problems and be creative. For another reason, it helps to calm the kids when they are being judged by someone who wears a funny hat. Without the hats, the feeling was less festive. There was a huge feeling of "I can't wait until this is over" instead of celebration. I will be making noise in our region about this omission.

At the end of the day, our building did surprisingly well. While we all started in mid to late November while the rest of the region started in September, we still had three teams place. One third, one second and one first place. The first place team will be going on to the state tournament next month and I think Firstborn and I will join them. I'm interested in seeing if State is as competitive as our region and if the rubricks for interferance are at about the same level. I think it will be excellent for Firstborn to see how the best of the best of Ohio solve these problems.