Fri, 17 Feb 2012
Jefferson CityThe third annual Robot Rumble in the Rotunda actually got an official name this year. They called it the Jefferson City Invitational. We got to be one of 16 teams representing the more than 100 LEGO teams across Missouri at this mini-tournament. The purpose was to promote science, technology, engineering, and math education to legislators. Only four of the boys were able to miss school to go, but they had a great time. Since Marc couldn't go, another parent went with me. We all left early on Thursday morning and arrived at the capitol two hours later.
We set up and explored a little of the capitol. The is a museum on the ground floor of the capitol. Kevin found a gun
and Thomas found swords.
We were excited because we got to visit with our state senator, Tom Dempsey. He was very nice and talked to the boys for awhile about robotics. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of the boys with him. We gave pins to him and his secretary. We visited a few other offices to hand out our pins.
Our tournament was set up right in the rotunda, which is a very pretty place.
We visited with other teams and shared ideas. Hopefully we learned things from others.
The tournament was pretty casual, and unfortunately we didn't score as many points as we were capable of, but we finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. It was a respectable showing for a rookie team, especially considering that we had completely redesigned our robot and started from scratch with the programming at the beginning of January.
We had a snack between rounds.
And got our picture taken.
We got a certificate for our efforts.
After the tournament, we had a quick lunch and then toured the Governor's mansion.
And then went back to the capitol for an extensive tour there. The team members all asked lots of questions and I think were impressed by the building and things we saw.
Paintings…
And architecture…
Our guide was very knowledgeable, but they did have to correct him at one point when he misidentified a type of Greek column…
We saw stained glass.
And fossils in the floor and walls.(built with native limestone…
We all got to use the state seal.
We saw busts of famous Missourians.
Anyone recognize this one? The team is studying the circus in one of their classes right now. So they all knew that this is a famous hobo clown.
I hope the trip was worth a day off school. We had a lot of fun and it should have been a memorable day for all..
Happy Valentine’s Day
There hasn't been a lot going on, but I want to try to write a little more regularly. We have all been kept busy with the usual routine of school and church. Thomas has played a little church basketball. The games are on Saturdays. They only have one left.
Melody has been busy with school. She also started taking voice lessons and is enjoying that. To point out how boring our times have been, she made me take a picture of the time two weeks ago when I caught a wooden spoon in the blender and had "wood smoothies". Quite newsworthy, huh?
To encourage me to write, Melody also took pictures of our recent snowfall. Yes, we did finally have a little snow. The kids didn't get a day off school, but it was pretty.
We have all been passing a cold around also, so no one has felt very good. Marc is lucky to not be here. I felt especially bad on Valentine's Day, so it was just as well that we had a long-distance romance that day. I wouldn't have been a fun date. Marc surprised me with pretty balloons and chocolate covered bananas and apples. Yummy. I look forward to our postponed date.
Thanks you, Marc. I love you.
I had to pull myself together long enough to finish the pins that I had been working on for our robotics tournament in Jefferson City. We like to have hand-outs, so I cut up another motherboard to make 100 more pins. I'd not done this when the weather was nicer, so had to use the tile saw on the back porch in weather in the teens. It was very cold. And my fingers got wet and frozen. But they are done.
And now we are all ready to go. I'll write about the tournament in a separate entry.
Sat, 04 Feb 2012
JanuaryWow. Marc just told me that he posted in his blog. Not to be outdone, I am going to write quickly also. The whole month of January I just felt behind. I didn't get my Christmas decoration down until halfway through the month. That is a new record in lateness. We usually do them on New Year's Day. Anyway, I only posted once and only took a few pictures during the month. Let me try to catch up quickly.
We only had one snowfall during the month. The kids got one day off school, but it's still looking like an unbelievably mild winter. We've had days in the 60s.
I mentioned that Marc's job funding was uncertain. It was still uncertain on the 15th and his boss was busy getting married ( and so not entirely focused on this issue), so Marc didn't want to wait until the 31st to learn that the funding hadn't come through. Although he'd liked the job, he decided to take a short term contract that came up. I think we were both excited about the adventure feel of the job that he decided to take. It is in Anchorage. The pay is real good and hopefully will be good experience for him. He flew up there two days ago. I plan to live vicariously and appreciate the adventure also. And maybe the whole family will get a chance to go visit on spring break. At least that is the current plan. So, for more info you can check out Marc's blog. He says he's going to write regularly. What else is there for him to do?
I've got a couple more really busy weeks around here and then maybe I'll get caught up and write again also.
Jan Dill Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 09 November 2008
Page modified: 31 December 2009
