Science Olympiad and Flag Football

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K triumphantly holds his school's trophy aloft triumphantly*

Science Olympiad
The 2012 Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad was held yesterday at Pioneer High School, and, usual, K and his fellow competitors from Lawton did very well. K earned two gold medals. His first was for Straw Towers, in which straws and straight pins are used to build a structure that is both tall and able to support a certain amount of weight. His second was for Write It, Build It. In that event, two students write a detailed description of an object, and two other students build the object with only the writing to guide them. The objects are typically collages of foam, paper, and other materials, with no particular order or pattern.

Lawton, for which I am a co-head coach, received the overall second place trophy for the 2nd and 3rd grade events, and the overall first place trophy for the 4th and 5th grade events.

I'm so proud of K and his teammates, who studied and practiced very hard, and I am really grateful to be a parent at a school where so many parents devote huge chunks of their free time to coach and volunteer.

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M's flag football season has come to an end. His team did well, finishing 4-2, although their last game was a loss in the playoffs. Mark had an outstanding year on offense and defense, and he (and I) liked the coaches and the other players. It was another good experience for flag football.


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Now that Science Olympiad is complete, I have to figure out how I'll spend some of my free time. K's soccer season has already started, so I know I'll be spending Thursdays and Saturdays at practices and games.

We're going to do some work in the basement one of these days. Some painting is in order.

It's also time to get back to the small-scale elevator project, as I've neglected it long enough.

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I hope everyone is having a great spring so far - our lawn almost needs to be mowed again. I'll put that off for a while. Maybe it will stop growing.

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* Yes, I know I wrote "triumphantly" twice.

Washington, D.C.: Several Million Tourists Plus Us

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I know it's unusual for visitors to Washington, D.C. to take pictures and then share them with friends and family, but you know me - I'm so unique and unpredictable.

The boys outside the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. They're wearing their sweatshirts and jackets because it was pretty cold and windy that day.

They get really ticked off when you climb over the barrier and play this piano. I mean, it really gets them riled up. (Smithsonian American Art Museum, more information can be found here)

The new Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, near the FDR memorial. It's quite imposing, and can be seen across the Tidal Basin from the Jefferson Memorial.

The party-time tradition of a beautiful woman jumping out of a giant cake was begun by the unlikely suffragist trio of Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, who emerged from an 800-pound loaf of whole-wheat bread at the 1851 birthday celebration for then-president Millard Fillmore.

The capitol, as seen from the front of the Rayburn House, an office building for U.S. Representatives. We met an intern for John Dingell in Rayburn House, who led us underground to the capitol for our tour.

After our tour, given by a different intern from Dingell's office, we were given the rare opportunity to ride this mini-subway train from the capitol back to Rayburn House. Had any of of our representatives been working that week, we probably would have had to walk.

You have to go? Get your own! These are mine.

The interior of the amazing Library of Congress.

This is the famous view of the Washington Monument, as seen from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. There's nothing more beautiful than the reflection of the Washington Monument in the reflecting pool when it's not under construction. If you want a picture of that beautiful reflection, you'll have to come back when the renovations are done. A good portion of the mall was dug up, with piles of dirt and construction equipment. It wasn't quite as majestic as we've seen it in the past. (Little known fact: The Washington Monument is 555 feet tall because George Washington himself was 555 feet tall. His portraits show him as normal size because showing him at actual size would have required more oil paint than was available at the time.)

Here are the boys outside the King Street Metro station, across the street from our hotel. We parked the car when we got to Virginia and didn't get into it again until after we had checked out - the subway got us everywhere.

On our way back, we stopped in Pittsburgh to visit J's grandmother, who just turned 98. She's still as sharp as ever and it was good to see her again. We celebrated with a small cake at dinner, courtesy of her retirement community's dining hall.

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