Shark Week!

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Happy Shark Week, everyone! I hope it's a good one.


Here you can see a "dinosaur" costume worn by a person on stilts at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. J and I were there for a reception for subscribers to a local news magazine.


The wording of this sign bothers J and me. How about "of" instead of "for", or how about wording it completely differently? This is an election year for the township administrators, and they're trying to curry favor with the residents in this corner of the township.


We went to Zingerman's for breakfast on Sunday. The breakfast food is as good as you would expect. I had a toasted sesame bagel with egg, tomato and arugula. M had whatever the heck this is - I know it has a fried egg but forget the rest.


This isn't one of my cats - I saw this one in the tennis parking lot at Pioneer. I just thought I'd share it with you.

Fun Links
This is a really big ship.

Here's a guy who is a master model builder and even teaches modeling courses. He shares a lot of great tips.

Another modeler shares his tips.

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The entire staff of The DEB Log wish our readers a safe and happy Fourth of July!

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K's Excellent Middle School Adventure

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K outside of his school with his Golden Bear Award. Middle school's over!

Three Years Down, Four to Go
It seems like only two years ago that M was wrapping up his tenure at Slauson Middle School, and now K has finished his eighth grade year in style, going through his school's graduation/promotion ceremony yesterday morning, and attending a dance party with his friends in the evening.


K and two friends played a few pieces as a string trio before the graduation ceremony began.

In the last three years, K played soccer, volleyball, and tennis, joined the Mathcounts team, participated in Math Olympiad, served on the Student Coucil, and got all A's for every quarter. Like his brother, he was one of the "morning announcements" crew, and was well-known for his ability to pronounce everyone's name correctly.

At the ceremony, K was one of four recipients of the Golden Bear award. The award reads: "Exemplifying the very best of the human spirit: kindness, integrity, perseverance, selflessness, and for exhibiting high academic standards."

This summer, K will go to Interlochen with the Pioneer Orchestra, take a few piano lessons, volunteer for Rec & Ed's "Safety Town", and play as much tennis as he can squeeze in.

We're really proud of his work in middle school and look forward to more of the same at Pioneer High School.

Congratulations, K!


K gives Language Arts teacher Mrs. Murphy a hug at the graduation ceremony.
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Rainy June Post

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The cats REALLY want to eat that chipmunk. At least, they think they do. My guess is they're as afraid of him as he is of them.

Catching Up
Today and tonight, we're getting the rain we've been wondering about. Everything is looking extra green in the yard, so we'll take it.

We're getting ready for the end of the school year: K's "graduation" ceremony from middle school is coming up, and M's exams are looming. I don't have a lot going on, but J and I have spent a lot of time outside getting the yard into good shape.



There are a lot of records at the Ann Arbor Salvation Army resale store.

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Book Recommendation
I just finished "Dear Committee Members" by Julie Schumacher. It's the funniest book I've read in a long time. It's a series of letters written by a (fictitious) English professor. The letters of recommendation are works of art, and rarely, if ever, does the author go to the same joke or use the same phrases to express something - there is always a new saying, metaphor, or cynical jab.

Some Links
I'm still dragging out my quest to buy a new camera. I've been getting advice on what to look for, and as always, a bigger budget gets you lots of better things. With lenses, especially. As far as new equipment, specifically digital SLRs, those who are up on the latest say you have basically two choices: Nikon or Canon. Some other manufacturers are out there, but they pale in comparison. I can get a decent camera for a good price buying used from a reputable site, like this one. Maybe I'll go that route. Or maybe I'll hem and haw for another few months.

Neat kite! That's a pretty clever idea.

Did you know adding paper to a block of sand can strengthen it to the point it can support your weight?

An impossibly detailed scale model of New York.

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Piano Recital and Picnic Pops

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If you missed it, here's a replay of K's recital piece. This is Mozart's Fantasy in D Minor, K.397.

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The day before the recital, M and several area bands played at their annual Picnic Pops concert on the lawn at Pioneer.


The Pioneer Concert Band


M is facing the camera, to the left (as you look at it) from the white support post.

Science Olympiad 2016 Wrapup

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One side of the gym at Pioneer filled with parents and friends. We filled the gym four times during the day.

On May 14, we held the 14th Annual Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad (WESO). Over 2000 students from 40 Washtenaw County elementary schools participated.

We had some good press coverage this year from MLive and the Ann Arbor schools news sites.

MLive coverage

Ann Arbor Schools


A picture of me and some volunteers at the WESO tournament site. The woman on my left is a long-time volunteer who helps supervise the academic event hallways and check-in.

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Tech Twilight


A few of us represented WESO at Ann Arbor Hands On Museum's Tech Twilight, which was May 20. We had a lot of visitors, young and old.

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Woodchuck Mania!

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You can't see him very well, but there's a woodchuck under my car.

Woodchuck Hide-and-Seek
K and I got closer to knowing "how much wood would a woodchuck chuck" today. We were walking back to the car in a parking lot, and he noticed there was an animal under the car. We tried to shoo it away and make noise, but it just kept moving towards the middle. I told K he should crawl under the car and grab it by the feet, but he didn't want to.

Nothing we did could get him to move, including honking the horn and starting the car. Finally, I backed the car out extremely slowly, with K watching to make sure I didn't squash the little guy. Eventually, he came out and we were able to leave without a major wildlife incident.

Is that the most exciting thing happening at the moment? Yeah, pretty much.

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This is what it looks like under a shower.

New Shower
You may have read about some of the problems we had with the shower remodel we did several years ago. We've never been happy with it, and it's leaked on and off the entire time. As much as it pained us to do it, we had all the work torn out and replaced with new tile and glass.

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Links
I love these furnishings and clocks made from aircraft parts and panels.

This is a great workbench.

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A Few Musical Videos (and a Bonus Woodworking Link)

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What a clever idea.

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I'm not sure what some of these vegetables are, but the squeaky ones are kind of fun.


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On a non-musical note (get it?), I always enjoy watching Jimmy DiResta make things in his shop. Some I would have no use for, like a giant mirror, but these storage bins look pretty handy.

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