Wednesday Why's

Random questions on this grey Wednesday...

- Why don't all the delivery people ring the doorbell when they leave a package? I totally understand that some people have signs asking that you not ring the doorbell. But. If I don't have such a sign, is it too much to ask that you take the second to push the little button alerting me to the fact that there's a package so that it doesn't sit outside for hours at risk of being taken? I've been fortunate so far but know people who have had packages taken. And, for the most part, someone is always here to grab the package. Just saying.

- Why aren't there hooks on the walls near the sinks in more women's bathrooms? There are hooks inside the stall doors (usually)...like they *know* we have a purse or jacket we don't want sitting on the floor. Doesn't it just make sense that we don't want to set those same things on the floor when we're washing our hands?

- Speaking of public bathrooms, why is there that gap in the toilet seats? Seriously, is there some secret purpose I don't know about? No toilet seats in private bathrooms have that gap right up front...why are they there in public bathrooms?

- Why can't I order things online right now (or, say, on Cyber Monday, for example) and have them set with delayed shipping so that they don't ship for a couple weeks? I like to get my shopping done early and really appreciate being able to have things ship directly. But I don't want packages to get there too early. Would it really be that complicated to let me take advantage of prices and convenience *now* and then set the shipping date for later?

- Why don't they print those giant award checks on some sort of sturdy *rollable* material? They could then just tack them to giant foam board for the pictures but the recipient could much more easily roll it up and take it with them. (Just thinking about that article I shared yesterday about Nathan's company's big win. Leith had difficulty trying to figure out how to fly home with that big check...that they really wanted to be able to display at the office. He managed, but the giant check took a bit of a beating.)

- Why don't visors in cars have an optional flip down sunglass screen? For us short people, that would be freakin' lovely. The visor often doesn't block the sun for me...having a visor sized sunglasses-material screen to flip down would be awesome.

Okay, I'll stop. :) (I should go be productive or something, lol.) Seriously, though, if you have any answers to these Why's, I'd love to hear them!!

The last two weeks...

Went quiet there for a bit. Sorry. Here's a quick run down of what's been happening...

- Micah and Asher wrapped up the last week of our second session of homeschooling. Thanksgiving week was our "off" week. They both also had karate and continued helping black belt candidates in their training and checks.

- Just before Thanksgiving, Micah got sick and shared it with Nathan. Micah saw the doctor this morning...who reiterated what I'd already been saying--he's no longer technically sick. He's been fever-free for days, his ears and lungs and such are clear, the congestion is greatly decreased. Given his annual battle with croup and his continued smaller stature, his throat is simply too small and is, thus, irritated from the coughing of last week (which has meant much less eating and drinking which is part of what spurred the doctor visit finally). Given his age now, though, the doctor won't give him the steroids typically given for croup so we're just waiting it out. Fun times. Mostly he's just angry about not being able to talk, lol.

- Noah had classes, his annual well check appointment and JOAD practice. He didn't have anything over Thanksgiving week, but picked up Micah's cold recently so missed his first two classes today.

- Asher had his second on-street driving session and remains my sole teammate on Team Healthy. On Thanksgiving, while others were concentrating on napping and breathing, Asher and I went on a 5K walk:

- Given the sickness and the general lack of enthusiasm I was met with this year, Thanksgiving here was very quiet. We ordered pre-made food and picked it up Wednesday night and ate it over the next few days. On the bright side, I didn't overeat at all, lol. 

- The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Noah and I spent another day with Habitat for Humanity. The weather cooperated much better than last time and we got to help frame in the upstairs of a duplex!

Do you see that? Together with 6-7 others, we framed in the exterior of that whole second floor. First we assembled each section then we stood them up and braced them all. It was pretty fun...and rewarding to see the progress.

(Great day...but...by that night, Noah had started the downward trend, healthwise. And, I'd jammed my right index finger during boot camp earlier in the week so had that taped up. But, it's hard to hammer without your right hand, when you're right handed, and I ended up overcompensating for my finger such that now the rest of my hand hurts. Still. Totally worth it.)

- And, yesterday, Nathan (being finally mostly over the cold) flew to San Francisco with his fellow founders to meet with investors. He arrived home late last night/early this morning and things are looking good on that front. In fact, here's a quick article about their company and how well it's doing. Yay!

So that's pretty much what's been going on here. We're back to homeschooling and normal activities for the most part, though Asher and I are the only ones really operating at full capacity. Healthy thoughts to all!!

Froggy

So. Asher's not a huge fan of biology this week. ;)

After putting it off as long as he could (assisted by the chilly weather of late and my preference for doing this outdoors), yesterday was finally the perfect day for dissecting!

As stated, we set up out on the back patio, with Nathan assisting and me reading us through the process. We sliced that froggy open and identified the various systems and parts. And this is what Asher thought of that:

But. It's done now. 

Toilets of Tomorrow

Yesterday, Micah's First Lego League (FLL) team competed in their qualifier event, along with 45 other teams. I've mostly been leaving FLL entirely to Micah and am so impressed with how well they did!

(I didn't actually get to the event until the end of the day, as I spent the morning at Noah's JOAD tournament. After that, Noah and I drove back from Longmont directly to the FLL event.)

So. Here's my understanding in a nutshell:

This was one of several qualifying events around the state. From each qualifier, a certain percentage of teams are invited to advance to the state competition in December. (From this one, 9 of the 45 teams advanced.)

The competition consists of four different parts:

• robot design (teams met with the judges, showed off their designed robot and answered questions)
• project (teams had five minutes to present their project to judges, offering a "solution" to a problem in the field of hydro dynamics (this year's topic), and then answered questions)
• core values (teams were given a surprise, timed teamwork activity to complete in front of judges to demonstrate how well the team communicates and respects one another)
• robot performance (after two practice rounds, teams got three timed rounds to try to earn as many points as possible by getting their robot to complete different missions...best round score was the score that stood)

So. Nathan got Micah to the event early and the team spent the morning getting through the first three judging events. According to Micah, things went well. He'd particularly worked on the project portion of things...writing the script and working on his numerous lines. The team, based on their project, picked the team name Toilets of Tomorrow and proudly pitched their idea after hours of practice runs. (Spectators weren't allowed at most things but Nathan took a video of the project presentation for me (and I'd seen a practice run a few weeks ago), and the robot performance rounds were open to the public.)

Noah and I arrived in time to watch the last two robot performance runs. Only two team members at a time were allowed at the table for each run:

And then we waited. :) 

The award ceremony gathered all 46 teams together where pins were distributed to all participants and then trophies were presented for each of the component parts and the overall top three.

The Toilets of Tomorrow took second in robot performance and third overall!!!

They were thrilled! And we're so proud of them all...they really did a fabulous job, especially considering this is the first time any of them has done this and that they're on the young end of the age bracket with two nine year olds, an eleven year old and two twelve year olds. Big thanks to their coaches, who, fortunately *have* done this before!

And now we're on to the state competition (which will be in December, on the same day as Noah's next JOAD tournament, of course, lol). :)

In between...

More to blog about tomorrow so here's a quick run-down of stuff that's been happening since my last post about a week ago...

- Asher and Micah have been to ten different karate things...classes, demo team practices and performances, and helping with the current black belt candidates' training. (They each agreed to help one of the candidates by being partners for self-defense drills throughout the training months.)

- Asher finished drive camp and had his first on-street driving session. I felt badly that I scheduled it during rush hour when the sun was in his face, but he handled it like a pro. We'll do some more time on our own before his next session. 

- We sampled more of the delicious pastries from La Creperie here in Fort Collins:

Um, yum!

- Noah completed job shadows at Ampt and Dresser-Rand. As part of his endorsed diploma for CEC and in an attempt to potentially line up an internship, he sent out inquiry letters to local businesses of interest to him and was fortunate enough to have an 80% response rate. He's got another one lined up for Monday at Wolf Robotics. 

- Noah's also registered for his spring classes, had archery practice a couple times, and gotten an actual hair cut (not by me). :) 

- We spent a fun family night at the theater watching the new "Thor: Ragnorok" movie...which was hilarious. 

- Nathan took me on a lovely date to watch "Once" at the Midtown Arts Center this past week. It's their final weekend, so I doubt you can get tickets now, but it was fabulous! Seriously, the actors were stupendously talented.

- Asher, Micah and I enjoyed a free local class this afternoon. The topic was graffiti and it was hosted at the Creative District as part of Hip Hop History Week with the Music District. A former graffiti artist, turned graphic designer, talked us through graffiti's place in hip hop and the different types of graffiti, along with the process. Then, we each got to try our own hand at it using paint markers...

And here's us with our "finished" pieces:

The boys started out skeptical, but we had a great time and are even looking forward to trying some more on our own.

And that's some of what's been going on around here. Happy November, y'all!