Tag: scouts

Everybody’s goin’ off the deep end

A blow-by-blow account of my weekend:

  • Friday morning: arrive at work, unload bike bags, drop off bike at Bike Gallery for repairs next week
  • Friday: work, trip planning & preparation, Max ride to Gateway Transit Center (no bike)
  • Friday evening: Tina and boys pick me up at Gateway TC, dinner at El Sombrero, shopping at Costco, strained right calf walking to checkout line
  • Friday night: organized trip items at home, haircut, Tivo watching
  • Saturday morning: woke up early to finish organizing trip items, discovered that I didn’t have my travel papers, emailed office admin and a co-worker to help retrieve it
  • Saturday morning (continued): packing for camping (Tina had pre-organized) using our new roof rack, meet up with scouts for 9:30 am departure to Beacon Rock
  • Saturday morning (later): Arrive at Beacon Rock @ one hour later, setup camp as rain begins, twisted right ankle stepping in mole hole, helped John setup portable canopy near our tent
  • Saturday: huddled under canopy and cooked occasionally, skipped 1.5 mile hike up Beacon Rock because of rain, calf and ankle – Graham disappointed
  • Saturday evening: enjoyed Boy Scout Campfire including two flag retirements
  • Saturday night: retired early and muddily to bed, slept well despite the loud nearby campsites, awoke twice to urinate, wiped my muddy feet on my pants before getting back in bed
  • Sunday morning: awoke @ 7:00 am, struck camp and packed for home
  • Sunday morning (continued): Breakfast at Charbroil’s in Cascade Locks, drove home
  • Sunday morning (continued): Arrived home, checked email and received missing travel info, showered (while Tina unpacked the car), packed my bags (using this list), cleaned cat box, put out recycling, drove to airport
  • Sunday afternoon: waited at airport and started writing this

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 1046
Weight lost: 60 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed last week: 40.5
Current reading: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Says & Expressions by Charles Earle Funk, The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, CSS Web Design for Dummies by Richard Mansfield
Recent listening: DrugMusic, Broken Boy Soldiers by The Raconteurs, John Prine
Recent viewing: Mythbusters, NBA Playoffs First Round, The Simpsons, Medium
Recent playing: Virus 2
Recently accomplished: Groceries, Scout bike ride, camping, paid bills
Imperative To Do: RMA old Tivo drive, backup Thomas, backup Graham, backup Tina, bank deposit, renew BTA membership, sift through inbox, cat box, mow lawn

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 964
Weight lost: 59 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 5.5
Hours billed last week: 41.5
Current reading: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Says & Expressions by Charles Earle Funk, The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, CSS Web Design for Dummies by Richard Mansfield
Recent listening: DrugMusic, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday, Collision Course by Jay Z with Linkin Park
Recent viewing: NBA Playoffs First Round, Medium, Full House
Recent playing: Virus 2, MotorStorm
Recently accomplished: Recycling, cat box, weeding, learned 10 or more knots, trimmed dead wood from rhodedendrun, hauled gorilla racks from work, shifted junk around in garage
Imperative To Do: RMA old Tivo drive, backup Thomas, backup Graham, backup Tina, bank deposit, renew BTA membership, sift through inbox, prepare for bike and camping weekend

Rockets burning fuel so fast, up into the night sky they blast

As I mentioned earlier, we learned how to make a rocket with a plastic water bottle and power it with vinegar and baking soda. Tina got all the supplies to use at Graham’s next Cub Scout meeting but it was cancelled due to poor attendance. Tina took Thomas to Boy Scouts and Graham and I stayed home and shot off about 30 bottle rockets. I snapped a few pictures and made this movie.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor

Last weekend Thomas and Graham competed in the district pinewood derby races. Graham didn’t place, but Thomas came in 3rd in his division. He was actually disappointed at not doing better. There were also a number of other activities that we did in between races, including CO2 rockets. What fun those are!

Graham continues to get seriously into listening to music. Mostly he listens to They Might Be Giants and The Bobs, but he still asks me for a Song of the Day every few days. He’s proud that he has learned the words to many TMBG songs.

Thomas is still very interesting in learning how to program computers. He found a bug in one of the examples in the Logo book I got for him and has decided that fixing the bug will be his first test. He spends a lot of time in his room playing Runescape, an online role-playing game, with his friends. Occasionally, he’ll move over and play his bass for awhile. I love that he does it for enjoyment.

Tina and I have gone back to Phase I of the South Beach diet and have started losing weight again. Last week I lost 4 lbs. and feel confident that I’ll be up to 60 lbs. lost soon. Tina’s already there. We’ve decided we’re not celebrating until we get to 75 lbs.

This weekend Thomas and I were supposed to go camping with his Boy Scout troop, but somebody messed up on the reservations. Instead, they are having three consecutive day camps at a nearby park. The next weekend, Thomas and I are biking out to adjustable dumbbells Oxbow Park with the troop for another weekend of camping. It’s about a 14 mile ride, so it will be interesting to see how all the boys handle it. They’re young so they should be fine.

In a few weeks, Critical Path is moving offices. The new office is just across the street from us.