Happy Father's Day!

K, after splitting some bumpy cake with his mom


M, full of diner pie.

Happy etc. and so on
If you're a father, Happy Father's Day! If you're not a father, Happy Father's Day anyway.

We went to Henry Ford Museum today to see the Titanic exhibit. It had a lot of stories about the ship, the people, and there were hundreds of artifacts on display. Every time I hear about the Titanic, I'm really glad I wasn't anywhere near it when it went down.

The museum recently remodeled their automotive history section. We didn't see as much of it as we would have liked, but we'll go back soon and see the rest.


He's several years away from driving, but M has already picked out his first car.


I want one of these - not because they are comfortable or easy to pedal, but because I want to ride it somewhere and fold it up while everyone watches.

The on-site diner, which formerly did not serve food, presently serves food. We had cake and diner pie for a snack in the afternoon. We cleaned our plates (J and K split a dessert.) M and I had our own pieces of lemon meringue pie.



What's left of the diner pie.

I love looking at the industrial equipment there - the steam engines that drove the belts that powered the machines, the milling machines, lathes, and so on. This drill press looks like it could drill through anything, but was actually created to make holes in donuts. Before it was retired to the museum, it was used by Hostess to hollow out Twinkies (to create space for the creamy center). The rumors that it was used to drill holes in steel panels used on the Titanic were neither confirmed nor denied by the staff at the museum, mostly because I made up the rumor.


So many uses for this drill press...

Beef: It's What's For Dinner
We came home to an All-American meat meal of steak and steak kebobs, using some grill kebob cookers that J and the boys bought me for Father's Day. Dinner was, as you might expect, beeflicious. (It's a word, look it up.)

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It is my understanding that even though everyone is done with school for the summer, I am still required to return to work on Monday morning, as I do every Monday morning. I'm going to have to look into that. I'm not sure who to ask, though - maybe my congressman?

Everyone have a fun, safe, and father-y Father's Day!

Yes, Someone Does Work Here

Wow - the guy who runs this place has been invisible lately. Maybe some pictures and various news tidbits will help get him back on track.

In the past few weeks, we've been pretty busy - the elementary school's Ice Cream Social, some trips to the pool, M's school tennis match, several floor naps, and a quest into the world of electric motors (torque vs. speed). Here are a few pictures to sum up some of our activities:


K is living the good life at the pool (Not shown: the haircut he got shortly after.)


The boys and their piano teacher, Mrs. Waller, at their annual recital. All of the students did a great job - I'm always impressed.


K pursues the ball at his last soccer game of the season.


M playing tennis for Slauson's Sixth Grade tennis team. He's the top-left player. They played their matches against the other Ann Arbor sixth-grade teams at the U of M tennis facility, which was gorgeous.


Our new Yamaha piano, complete with a lot of music. All of us have been playing lately. It even makes me sound good.



In search of a motor for the elevator project, I decided to go with a configurable gearbox whose speed and torque can be adjusted by adding or removing sets of gears. It was harder to put together than I thought it would be, although my Japanese language skills have improved. (Actually, there are enough English instructions inside that I finally got it working.)

A Few Other Notes
Today we went to the Food Gatherers "Grillin'" picnic. We've been going for quite a few years now, and always enjoy the food and entertainment.

The kids and J have one more week of school and work, respectively. My work continues and continues without end, regardless of season, so I hope the three of them appreciate their time to do some new things, and will allow me to live vicariously through them.

Disappearances

The Great Disappearing Blue Spruce

This tree recently disappeared

M was partly responsible for the disappearance of the tree

A lonely stump, which was removed later in the day. There wasn't much to the roots.

A tree tipped over last fall, as previously reported here, and it has been staked up ever since. We knew the time was coming when we would have to take it down, especially since we figured it had the same poor root structure as the other one that came down.

This morning, M and I finally cut it down and sliced and diced it. There are still some branches needing to be cut smaller, but the trunk and the roots are already taken care of.

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Baseball Disappearances
We all had a first last night - we went to a U of M baseball game. The Wolverines were playing Nebraska, and we took over a chunk of the stands with our neighbors. The neighbors across the street one way are U of M fans, and some neighbors the other way are Nebraska fans. So we had a colorful group. In the fourth inning, a Nebraska player made a ball disappear over the left-field wall, but the Maize and Blue got the win, 6-4.

A little later, Justin Verlander's bid for a no-hitter disappeared with one out in the ninth. That's OK, though - he'll have plenty of opportunities to get his no-hitter.

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Late birthday present?

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To everyone in my family who is traveling, or soon to be, please travel safely!

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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March Miscellany

The boys in this tree have had their identities hidden because, frankly, I don't want to admit I know them.

Sweltering March
I don't know if I've ever turned up the ceiling fan on March 22, but this has been a very odd winter and spring. It's not too early to have the air conditioner checked.

My Pet Bird for Fifteen Minutes

A real-life Angry Bird?

On Monday morning, this bird was sitting on the light that hangs from the ceiling above my desk at work. I'm not sure if he was Angry or not, but he did make quite a mess on my chair while I was talking to one of our facilities management staff about getting a ladder to remove him. I'm not holding it against him - he obviously leads a full life and has plenty to eat. Plenty.

Restaurant Spelling Test

Eat at Iztarg!

Whenever I'm in downtown Ann Arbor, I like to eat at Iztarg. Actually, it's Gratzi, but I read left to right, so I'm going to argue that whoever put up these banners put them up backwards.

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March Madness

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We asked the flag football coaches to put M in a position where he can best help his team.

M snaps the ball to the quarterback during the first game of the season, which his team won.

K is a reliable volunteer for the "National Read To A Cat" initiative.

What's New?
Seems like we're pretty busy but, at the same time, there's not much new going on. M is playing volleyball after school two days a week, as well as flag football on Saturdays. K is practicing and studying hard for Science Olympiad, the competition for which is next month.

I'm working (still!) on a few small boxes, one is poplar, and one is pine. I'm putting the finishing touches on them and hope to have some pictures out someday.

First World Problems
A recent meme on the internet is that of the "first-world problem". A first-world problem is something we complain about that would sound absolutely ludicrous to someone in a third-world country, or to someone who is struggling to get by.

Examples:
* "Oh darn! My iPhone is low on batteries and now I won't be able to play Angry Birds while I'm driving the school bus on the field trip."

* "Remember that microbrew beer I discovered at that tiny bar in the hills of Tibet? I can't believe Applebee's doesn't have that on tap!"

* "My BMW M3 is due for an oil change, but I'm so busy this weekend with our trip to Aspen and little Ashley's debutante ball."

* "What a waste of my time! This blog is not funny, and he's not a very good photographer, either."

B-ball Game
A few weeks ago, J, K, and I went to the Saline vs. Pioneer basketball game. It was pretty exciting, with Pioneer winning at the last minute, although we were surprised at how few people were there to watch it. At halftime, players on the Pioneer team chose a teacher or counselor that made a difference in their lives, and each teacher was introduced and got a round of applause from the audience. It was nice to see teachers and education professionals be recognized like that.

Link
I haven't seen anything like this before - I want to see it float!

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