Or is it "Up To What We've Been"?
We went to the Detroit Lions’ practice on Saturday at Ford Field. It was a lot of fun. This is the first time we’d been there, so we took a walk around to see everything. So much better than the old Silverdome. We got a chance to see the different practices for the different positions, and they had some 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 scrimmages. Each of the three quarterbacks (Daunte Culpepper, Matthew Stafford, and Drew Stanton) were there and we got to compare and contrast their play. In practice, they all looked pretty similar, although Stafford, the Lions’ first-round draft pick and Detroit’s newest multi-millionaire, clearly has a great arm – he could throw that ball on a rope. The last play of the scrimmage, and of the entire practice session, was Drew Stanton, former MSU Spartan, throwing a touchdown pass to Carson Butler, a former UM Wolverine. J wondered if that play might have been staged for the fans…
We bought a few hot pretzels and pop, and I was marveling at the prices for everything. I’d like to buy stock in the concession stands at Ford Field – can I do that? Just the concession stands. If I can’t do that, I’d like to have a cut of the beer sales, at $8.50 a cup. Unless you want the gluten-free beer, which is only $7.50. Really.
The schedule has more open practices listed. I was reading this page with the practice schedule and rules and restrictions for visitors to Ford Field, and I noticed that kazoos are not allowed in the stadium. I can understand they don’t want people to bring whistles to the game, because that might interrupt play or confuse the officials or players. But kazoos? I wonder what kazoo-related incident occurred to put it on the list. The NFC East Division Playoffs Terrorist Kazoo Incident of 2006, perhaps.
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M entered the Ann Arbor District Library Lego Contest again this year . He didn’t win any medals (he peaked in 2nd grade, when he won two) but he had a very respectable entry. The quality of the entries has gone up in the last two years, and it is becoming more difficult to stand out. We’ve noticed that the judges are more interested in detail and unique ideas than they are in large or complex projects, which M enjoys making. We’ve tried to convince him to scale it down a bit, but he has his specialty and will not compromise his artistic vision. I’m going to give him a copy of Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” for his 10th birthday, it’ll be right up his alley.
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M and K are still reading their Harry Potter books after taking a break to do the summer reading program at the AA library. K is on book 6 and hoping to finish it before the movie for that book leaves the theaters. They’ve scaled the violence down recently in the movies, and this one gets a PG rating. I mentioned before that sometimes they start making the movies more violent, giving them PG-13 ratings, and excluding smaller kids from seeing them (or liking them.) Fortunately, this movie is considered more reasonable for kids. He may be able to read the book, but he's still just a seven year-old kid, and he doesn't need to have too much exposure to wizard-related violence.
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At work I was officially moved to a new team. I have been “on loan” to this team for a while, but some organizational changes have moved me over officially. As usual, it means a move to another cubicle, and I’m back in a section of the building I left 15 months ago. I’d make a map of all the places I’ve sat since I’ve worked her, but there is no way I’d be able to remember all of them.
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A few fun links:
1: Some tips on using a hand saw.
2: Do you know what the differential in your car is? If so, do you know how it works? I love the simplicity of the design of the differential, and the excellent explanation in this video. It shows a scale model of a differential, building it little by little until it's working very well. Complex things can usually be explained in complex terms, but explaining a complex thing in simple terms is an art.
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