HallmarcDotNet

Sun, 22 Mar 2009

Since it was Spring break, I took one day and had lunch in the cafeteria with Thomas. Parents are encouraged to do that around here and I don't know for how many more years Thomas will want me to visit. While we were eating, the boys down the table were showing off their biceps to each other. Thomas rolled his eyes and said that they do that a lot. I thought it was funny, because although the guys around our house aren't obsessed with it, they do the same thing occasionally.

Besides lunch with Thomas, there wasn't much else that I did special. I got to take Thomas back to the doctor for strep throat again. I guess I'm glad that happened when I had time. Otherwise, it was a normal week. And on normal weeks we have our traditional Friday night pizza and movie night. I alternate between making pizza and buying it at either Aldi or Sam's club. But we have a new option. We are really excited that a Papa Murphy's opened not too far away. We used to like them when we lived in Shingle Springs. So Friday we enjoyed a Papa Murpy's pizza and cheesy bread along with our movie.

On Saturday, we had several things going on. It was the regional science fair  for Thomas as well as the robotics competition for Bryan. So I dropped Thomas' project off at the community college, packed a picnic lunch, and we all drove to Saint Louis University (SLU) for the robotics. The event this year was called Lunacy and consisted of throwing "moon rocks" in the trailers towed by the robots of your competition.I didn't get any good pictures, but team 1094 is in the upper left corner.You'll have to go to the First Robotics web site if you want to see better pictures of this event. This is really a good organization.

It wasn't as fun to watch as in some previous years, but still was fun. The weather was a little chilly, so our picnic was eaten sitting in the van in the parking garage. The sun came out after lunch so we took a couple of pictures outside. It is a really pretty campus. I like the old brick buildings. The SLU mascot is a "Billiken" and in case you've never heard of one, I took a picture. Now you know. It is supposed to be good luck to rub the tummy.

Bryan evidently didn't rub the tummy enough because his team was eliminated after the quarterfinals. So we drove back to Thomas' science fair to find that he'd come in first place in the regional fair!

I didn't see him rub the tummy either but maybe he got close enough cause I know judging at these science fairs is always a matter of luck.  Thomas was happy about the big trophy he received. And Bryan enjoyed the evening BBQ and hanging out with the robotics team anyway.   A final picture, lest Thomas get a big head about his win. How smart do you think he is to do this?