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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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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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Happy Mother's Day!
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A few cranes have returned to the pond near our house. I’ll post pictures of them when I get a good one. In the meantime, here’s a picture from Mattias Adolffson.
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Happy Mother's Day!
Speaking of famous women, a common lament in the science community is that the question “who is your favorite female scientist?” is usually answered with “Marie Curie”. Was that your response? I have a different one. Among my favorite female scientists is a computer science instructor I had at MSU named Helen Spence. She was programming computers in the 1940’s, and teaching Physics and Computer Science at MSU starting in the 1950’s. She retired shortly after the second of two classes I took from her – the first was CPS311, where we learned two languages: C, and a Motorola chip’s assembly language. The second class was a continuation of that class, in which we dived into the details of the PDP-11 machine language.
Her ability to plainly explain the topics, and her no-nonsense approach to exercises and exams, made her one of my favorite instructors/professors of my college years.
Mrs. Spence passed away last year.
On this site, there are sound files that capture a series of interviews with her. . I haven’t been able to get to all of them yet, but I like the MSU project that produced these recordings.
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A Jacquard loom at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI.
Speaking of female scientists (and engineers), I’m reading a biography of Ada Lovelace, a friend and collaborator of Charles Babbage, who invented (but wasn’t able to build) a computer that was run by perforated cards, which we would now refer to as “punch cards”. It was based on the input cards that drove the Jacquard Loom.
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Spring Happenings
Now that spring and summer have both arrived, basically at the same time, the boys’ activities have moved outside. M is back playing with the Ultimate Frisbee team (he did play some cold games, though), and K is playing outdoor tennis, after having been inside all winter. K tried out a few different new racquets at his last practice – as kids get older, they sometimes need to get a new racquet that’s heavier and helps them produce more power. K’s current racquet is very light, and won’t work well for most older teens or adults.
Since I’m now one of the people in charge of making sure the Science Olympiad runs like a clock, I have been occupied with formatting schedules, drawing maps, and staying in close contact with the others who are responsible for other parts of the tournament. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. May 30 is the big day.
Links
You might find this site useful: if you want to make a poster out of an image or document you’ve created, you upload it to their website. You tell it how wide you want it to be, and it creates a PDF file that contains pages you print at home. Then you tape them all together and you have a poster. h
You probably knew there were some WWII Japanese subs that actually carried airplanes with them, and the planes could be launched into the air from the sub itself.
Christmas is only 7 months away. Maybe you should buy me one of these lockpicking practice sets now, just in case.
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Happy Mother’s Day! And safe travels to Mom and Mary! Take lots of pictures!
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A few cranes have returned to the pond near our house. I’ll post pictures of them when I get a good one. In the meantime, here’s a picture from Mattias Adolffson.
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Happy Mother's Day!
Speaking of famous women, a common lament in the science community is that the question “who is your favorite female scientist?” is usually answered with “Marie Curie”. Was that your response? I have a different one. Among my favorite female scientists is a computer science instructor I had at MSU named Helen Spence. She was programming computers in the 1940’s, and teaching Physics and Computer Science at MSU starting in the 1950’s. She retired shortly after the second of two classes I took from her – the first was CPS311, where we learned two languages: C, and a Motorola chip’s assembly language. The second class was a continuation of that class, in which we dived into the details of the PDP-11 machine language.
Her ability to plainly explain the topics, and her no-nonsense approach to exercises and exams, made her one of my favorite instructors/professors of my college years.
Mrs. Spence passed away last year.
On this site, there are sound files that capture a series of interviews with her. . I haven’t been able to get to all of them yet, but I like the MSU project that produced these recordings.
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A Jacquard loom at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI.
Speaking of female scientists (and engineers), I’m reading a biography of Ada Lovelace, a friend and collaborator of Charles Babbage, who invented (but wasn’t able to build) a computer that was run by perforated cards, which we would now refer to as “punch cards”. It was based on the input cards that drove the Jacquard Loom.
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Spring Happenings
Now that spring and summer have both arrived, basically at the same time, the boys’ activities have moved outside. M is back playing with the Ultimate Frisbee team (he did play some cold games, though), and K is playing outdoor tennis, after having been inside all winter. K tried out a few different new racquets at his last practice – as kids get older, they sometimes need to get a new racquet that’s heavier and helps them produce more power. K’s current racquet is very light, and won’t work well for most older teens or adults.
Since I’m now one of the people in charge of making sure the Science Olympiad runs like a clock, I have been occupied with formatting schedules, drawing maps, and staying in close contact with the others who are responsible for other parts of the tournament. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. May 30 is the big day.
Links
You might find this site useful: if you want to make a poster out of an image or document you’ve created, you upload it to their website. You tell it how wide you want it to be, and it creates a PDF file that contains pages you print at home. Then you tape them all together and you have a poster. h
You probably knew there were some WWII Japanese subs that actually carried airplanes with them, and the planes could be launched into the air from the sub itself.
Christmas is only 7 months away. Maybe you should buy me one of these lockpicking practice sets now, just in case.
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Happy Mother’s Day! And safe travels to Mom and Mary! Take lots of pictures!
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Friday In The D
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Small Plates Detroit, on Broadway St. in Detroit
J and I were in Detroit last night. The evening started at Small Plates Detroit, a restaurant our friends Ann and Jeff introduced us to. The idea is to have several different small dishes, and share them between you, rather than buying one big entree for each person.
Then it was on to the Fox Theater to see Steve Martin and Martin Short in their two-man show, "A Very Stupid Conversation". The two comedians talked about their careers, telling funny stories of their encounters with other celebrities like Frank Sinatra, and about their lives growing up, and odd experiences they've had. Martin Short sang a song and danced, and Steve Martin played several bluegrass songs with his band, The Steep Canyon Rangers, who were set up on the side of the stage during part of the show.
A view of the Fox Theater's lobby from the balcony hallway.
For an encore, they announced that they were contractually obligated to do an encore, then performed a musical number that counted down the time until they were allowed to leave the stage ("...one more minute...").
We walked back to our car past Comerica Park, where the Tigers were, unfortunately, losing badly to the Cleveland Indians.
A fun date night for J and me. We should do it again soon.
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Small Plates Detroit, on Broadway St. in Detroit
J and I were in Detroit last night. The evening started at Small Plates Detroit, a restaurant our friends Ann and Jeff introduced us to. The idea is to have several different small dishes, and share them between you, rather than buying one big entree for each person.
Then it was on to the Fox Theater to see Steve Martin and Martin Short in their two-man show, "A Very Stupid Conversation". The two comedians talked about their careers, telling funny stories of their encounters with other celebrities like Frank Sinatra, and about their lives growing up, and odd experiences they've had. Martin Short sang a song and danced, and Steve Martin played several bluegrass songs with his band, The Steep Canyon Rangers, who were set up on the side of the stage during part of the show.
A view of the Fox Theater's lobby from the balcony hallway.
For an encore, they announced that they were contractually obligated to do an encore, then performed a musical number that counted down the time until they were allowed to leave the stage ("...one more minute...").
We walked back to our car past Comerica Park, where the Tigers were, unfortunately, losing badly to the Cleveland Indians.
A fun date night for J and me. We should do it again soon.
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Road Trip: North Carolina
Be sure to choose the correct rhyming city name when driving south...
Easter Sunday
We left Ann Arbor around 8:30, and headed south on 23 to I-75. The weather was good and the drive was uneventful, fortunately. We hit Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. (Tennessee is known as "The Volunteer State", but it should be known as "The No Rest Stops on I-75 State".) The scenery got better the farther south we drove. I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I would have liked, but the rest of the family was able to. The roads got more twisty in North Carolina, going through the mountains. We arrived in Asheville around 6:30 pm.
Monday: Biltmore Day
The front of the Biltmore.
We headed to the Biltmore, a giant "house" built by the Vanderbilt family. It's really quite ridiculous - they had train cars full of money and didn't know what to do with it. They were a nice family, though - instead of just burning their cash for warmth, they hired hundreds of people to build this house and live and work there. There were so many people working on the house (and in it), the Vanderbilts built a nearby village (Biltmore Village) for them to live, shop, and go to school. Biltmore Village is still there, and now that the house and grounds are a tourist attraction, there are still plenty of people working there. No one lives in the house any more, but some of the extended Vanderbilt family still live in the Asheville area.
The home itself is opulent to the third degree, and after a while I tired of seeing one incredibly decorated room after another. The house was basically a huge hotel in which the Vanderbilts entertained and lodged family members and guests. Guests often stayed for months at a time. Our favorite part of the house was the "Upstairs Downstairs" tour, where they showed how the other half lived and worked. Employees often had up to 100 people to serve at meals, and had several kitchens and pantries to prepare those meals. There were large rooms full of china and glassware, as well as refrigerated cabinets and rooms for fruits and vegetables. We took this tour after the regular walk-through of the house and its over-the-top decorations and furniture, and it was a welcome contrast. The Vanderbilts were good to their employees, and made the house a safe and inviting place to work. At least that's what the tour guide said.
After visiting the house, we went to nearby Antler Village, which included a winery, an overpriced bar and grill, and a BBQ place that we were looking forward to ordering from until we discovered it was closed. If the kids were younger, they might have wanted to go to the petting zoo, but alas, there was little for us in Antler Village, so we ate a quick lunch in Biltmore Village and headed into the mountains to visit Chimney Rock.
Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock is a tall rock formation that juts out from the mountain. You take an elevator from the parking lot to the top, or you can climb stairs if that's your thing. There are stairways leading to several areas of the chimney and the nearby mountain, which we explored to the extent that we could climb without getting sore legs. The kids saw the highest point, while J and I enjoyed the lower areas.
Chimney Rock - the chimney part.
Chimney Rock - the chimney part from one of the higher observation decks. Photo by M.
Some advice about driving to Chimney Rock: make sure your life insurance is up to date, and get your affairs in order. The drive goes up and down and around in circles, repeatedly, dozens of times, with S shapes and hairpin turns. There are no shoulders on the roads. The highest speed you'll likely achieve is 30 miles per hour, which means the 20 miles to get there and back from the main roads takes about 40 minutes. When we got to the park, my first stop was the gift shop, where (mercifully) they sold Dramamine. I was not the first person that day to buy some. The kids and J, who were reading or looking out the windows at the scenery, were not affected by the drive in the least, while I was three shades of green.
The whole family on the Chimney at Chimney Rock, mere steps away from a sheer drop of hundreds of feet.
J and I had been to Chimney Rock before, on our honeymoon, as we made our way to Hilton Head. J correctly deduced that we had been to Chimney Rock exactly 22 years ago that day, which would have been April 6, 1993. Who would have guessed we'd be back with our two boys in 2015? Not us.
K and M show how high Chimney Rock is.
When we returned to Asheville, we had salad and pizza at Ianucci's. We all really enjoyed the meal, partly because it was good pizza, and partly because we were starved.
Day Three
M and K engage in a brain battle at Mast General Store in Asheville.
We walked around downtown Asheville, hit a few shops, and grabbed lunch at a restaurant in the Grove Arcade building. There are a lot of restaurants, art shops, and studios there.
I normally don't take pictures of my food at restaurants, but I had to take one of this Tomato Goat Cheese Bisque, served with a tiny grilled cheese sandwich on the side.
We wanted to see more of North Carolina's natural beauty, so we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway. Unfortunately, it was raining, so we didn't get the good views one would normally get on a clear day, but we still had plenty to see. There were tunnels along the way, and going through them was different from the tunnels we saw on the highways: the car's headlights, and the road's reflective paint, were the only source of light when not at the ends of the tunnel. As we got higher, it started to get foggy, and we weren't comfortable continuing up because we couldn't see. We turned around and pulled over before heading back. At this point, as responsible parents who are only interested in the safety and security of our children on a twisty, rainy, and foggy mountain road, we agreed the best way to proceed was to hand the keys to M and let him drive us back down. He did a good job in the tunnels and around all the curves. Here's a video of him navigating a tunnel.
Disco-ball pig at Luella's BBQ.
For dinner, we went to the north end of Asheville to Luella's BBQ, a small local restaurant we were encouraged to try by some friends. Apparently, the word is out that this place is good, because even though it was not very big, we saw license plates from seven different states in the parking lot.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Biltmore Village McDonald's. It's decorated to fit the Biltmore Theme with woodwork, a player grand piano, and fancy light fixtures. The food is the same as a regular McDonald's, though. Since I was full, I didn't have anything, but the kids were interested in dessert so they had something or other.
The ceiling in the McDonald's in Biltmore Village.
Day Four
The drive home took a little longer than the drive up - we had some traffic snarls around Cincinnati and Dayton. We got a snack and filled up with gas at a quaint Tennessee town, where one local was heard to say to another local "have a good'n!". M drove the final stretch home (this time without any tunnels) and we were reunited with our cats once again.
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Ultimate Frisbee - Michigan style
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M, indicated by the yellow arrow, plays Ultimate Frisbee to a packed house at Pioneer's Hollway Field.
Ultimate Cold
Today, M played with the Pioneer High School Ultimate Frisbee team against Northville High School. They played at Pioneer's football stadium. It was 38 degrees, with 20 MPH winds, and most of the time it either hailed or snowed. At least his team won, so it wasn't a total loss. My fingers are still thawing out, I'm not sure how M's hands are doing.
An action shot at the Ultimate Frisbee game.
Speaking of wins, Michigan State's basketball team beat Louisville to advance to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament. Go State!
In warmer news, here's M taking his mom's van through the car wash. His mom appreciated it.
Important Statistics
According to the software I use to publish this blog (Blogger), this is my 308th blog post. That calls for some sort of celebration I think, like a cupcake or a free day off work.
M, indicated by the yellow arrow, plays Ultimate Frisbee to a packed house at Pioneer's Hollway Field.
Ultimate Cold
Today, M played with the Pioneer High School Ultimate Frisbee team against Northville High School. They played at Pioneer's football stadium. It was 38 degrees, with 20 MPH winds, and most of the time it either hailed or snowed. At least his team won, so it wasn't a total loss. My fingers are still thawing out, I'm not sure how M's hands are doing.
An action shot at the Ultimate Frisbee game.
Speaking of wins, Michigan State's basketball team beat Louisville to advance to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament. Go State!
In warmer news, here's M taking his mom's van through the car wash. His mom appreciated it.
Important Statistics
According to the software I use to publish this blog (Blogger), this is my 308th blog post. That calls for some sort of celebration I think, like a cupcake or a free day off work.
Music and Sports!
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M and his sax trio play at Zingerman's Roadhouse at the Pioneer Band Gala. His was one of several ensembles chosen to entertain the crowd at this fun event - and who doesn't want to eat food from Zingerman's? A beautiful night well done by the dedicated Band Parents.
K shows his form while serving at the first Slauson Middle School volleyball game. K plays on one of three teams made up of 7th and 8th graders.
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M and his sax trio play at Zingerman's Roadhouse at the Pioneer Band Gala. His was one of several ensembles chosen to entertain the crowd at this fun event - and who doesn't want to eat food from Zingerman's? A beautiful night well done by the dedicated Band Parents.
K shows his form while serving at the first Slauson Middle School volleyball game. K plays on one of three teams made up of 7th and 8th graders.
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