Andrew's Identity Crisis

Andrew and I pulled into a parking stall at K-mart. I needed to run inside for a few things, and thinking of being quick I turned around to Andrew and said "Lets go inside, shall we?" Andrew quickly replied with his nose all scrunched up "I'm not Shallwe, I'm Andrew!"

Spring Piano Recital

Joshua sang every word with his loudest voice, but the video still only picked up the sound of the piano. Too bad. He always steals the show with his Billy Joel performances.

The recital went really well. All of my students were well prepared, and enjoyed their pieces. It's amazing what a difference that makes. Michael wasn't there to help out tonight, since he is on antelope island with the deacons for a camp out. I was a little nervous at first to put on a recital without his quiet yet steady support, but all turned out well. The Drollingers showed up in force and set up and took down chairs. Andrew just played in the toy department the whole time, which kept him out of my hair. It was a very satisfying night.

The Karma Fairy

Have you ever noticed that people tend to get what they deserve? Michael called me yesterday with a wonderful anecdote to demonstrate that very principle.

It was a rainy wet day and Michael was driving in a hilly area with a truckload of plants and trees. He was also pulling a large trailer loaded down with plant life. Michael knew the conditions were slick, so he was driving slowly. On the way down a steep hill he slid a bit and banged up the bumper of his bosses new truck. Not too badly, but enough to ruin his day. So already in a bad mood he finished the journey to the shop with his load of plants. When he got out of the truck a car pulled in behind him. A lady, angry and confronting, jumped out and demanded to get Mike's license plate number and declared that she was calling the cops. Michael listened to her calmly and finally deduced that she was upset not about the slide on the hill, but something else entirely. She had been following the trailer very close and a few one gallon plants had fallen off the back. Michael admits that he was at fault and that he should have tied the plants down better. But the woman wouldn't stop haranguing him. She took his license plate number and called the police. Michael got back in his truck and started to drive out again. The woman yelled at him "Where are you going? You need to wait for the police!" Michael responded "I'm going to go back and pick up my plants. Have the officer meet me there." So the woman called the police again and then proceeded to follow Mike's truck back to the spot where he had lost plants. Back on the road Michael picked up the plants, tied them down more carefully, and endured the lecturing of the angry woman. The police officer arrived, looked at Mike's license, and casually said "Lost some plants, huh? Well...be more careful next time." The officer started to walk away when he was stopped by the woman. "Is that it?" she demanded. When she realized that no one was going to give Mike a ticket or cart him off to jail the woman returned to her car. Only then did she realized that she had locked her keys in the car with her dog... and the motor was still running. Without saying a word, Michael drove away knowing that the karma fairy had just made a visit to a poor angry woman in Logan Utah.

Pinewood Derby 09'

We are not cub scout leaders. Josh is not in cub scouts. Did that stop us from building a car and racing in the Pinewood derby? Nope. We (Mike) built a car to challange all the 8-10 yr olds. we actually didn't compete in the heats, but after the races we gave everyone a chance to come beat our car. No one could. We now have two undefeated cars-- the last one was against the Elders Qourum a few years ago. I posted a few pictures of that one as well. This years car was a snake. We went a lot more extensive on the wood working part (all by hand since we do not own a band saw). The design allowed to incorporate a 'quick start' feature. The paper clip and mouse on the front allow the car to start fractions ahead of the other cars because of the way the starting pole falls. In addition we cut the wheels again. This time we went with an H shape to give a little more stability and alignment but still redusing wheel weight and friction. The axles were polished and beveled like before. This time we put all the weight in the car instead of on top. It is all encased in the head part of the car. For some reason we didn't think to race the old car against the new one. The snake's best time was 2.73 seconds-- not sure what the last one was. I think the first car would have beat the snake because the wheel weight is so much less, but I'm not sure. The quick start may have made things very close. Anyway, can't wait until next year-- Josh will be 7 and one year closer to building his own car.