My New Title

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The mug says it all. This is as good a compliment as I'll get from my boys, at least that they'll say out loud (or in mug form).

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Science Olympiad and Muddy Pipes

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Finally!
First, what you've all been waiting for: the boys playing their recital pieces. They had their recital a few weeks ago, so they dusted off their pieces and made a special recording.


Clementi's "Sonatina" Op. 36 No. 6, played by M


Schumann's "Winter-time (II)" by K

Drainage Update
I know you're itching to hear the update on the French drain that runs between our yard and our neighbor's. It's been backed up for a while, and we hired someone to put a camera in the tube and see what was in the way. They identified an area where silt and roots had pretty much blocked off the pipe, so we opened it up and cleaned it out. I just cut the tube in one place, pulled the ends up one by one and cleaned them up as far down as I could reach (yes, it was gross.) That was a few weeks ago. I have been waiting for a break in my schedule to finally put in a clean-out PVC "T" in the problem area. Here are a few pictures of today's muddy adventure.


The french drain before the repair. It was cut open a few weeks ago to clear out a blockage.


This is after the first of two cuts. Mud Pies for all.


The full repair. The drainage tile is connected to the PVC with a rubber connector and hose clamps, and PVC part is a "T" shape with a screw-in top, so I can dig it up a little bit next time it gets clogged and clean it out from there.

Science Olympiad
This year's Science Olympiad had a new schedule: 3 hours each for grades 2-5. This gave us a 12-hour tournament day, with a few hours surrounding that schedule, so many of us were there for a solid fourteen or fifteen hours. Add on the 6 hours for setup the evening before, and that was a lot of standing and walking. I enjoyed a lot of sitting the following day.

The tournament went very well. We had a completely revamped schedule, a brand new computer programming event, and over 2000 Washtenaw County students participating. Things went so smoothly, in fact, it would be easy to forget we're an all-volunteer organization, from top to bottom.


I have six Honorable Mention medals lined up and ready to present. Those went to two different teams with three team members each. If you don't split them up like this, they're easy to get tangled. I'm not wearing my glasses in this picture because it was the end of the day, and we had been loading the truck in the rain, and I took off my glasses so they wouldn't get all rainy.


Here's me giving some students Honorable Mention medals at the third grade awards ceremony. The colorful, tie-dye shirt is our uniform of sorts - it makes it easy for people to find us if they need something.

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