Bot Competition

It has been a crazy day today. Well actually all week I guess. Rose is in the orchestra for YVCC's production of Cinderella. She has had rehersals and or performances every night this week. She also had YYSO rehersal on Mondy night. Today she had a YYSO performance. She had a solo part in one of the movements from "Carmen" and she also played duet with one of the oboe players. Then she had two performances of Cinderella. In the meantime, Glen is competing in the robot competition at the High School. After I watched Rose's YYSO performance I went over to the high school to see Glen. His team finished second over all. He is so relieved that it is done. And so am I. Not just the robot competition but also the whole busy week.

WIBC

I made a quick trip over to Seattle yesterday to see Rose perform in the Western International Band Clinic concert. There were actually two concerts with two bands each but I only went to the 10:30 am concert to see Rose. I saw her at a distance before the concert began and during the concert I could see the top of her bassoon. Afterward we did get to talk for a minute before she had to run on to other things.

She went Friday with the band director and four other students from her school. They had clinics and listened to several bands over the time they were there as well as played in their own concerts.

It was a nice day in Seattle. The sun even shone a bit and the view of Mount Rainer was impressive.

The concert was at the Double Tree Seattle Airport Hotel. It is a big hotel and the ball room was big enough for the concert. The only problem was that the seating was all at floor level so it was a bit hard to see the participants but they sounded pretty good.

It was a nice day for a drive. The only blip in the weather was just a bit of wind from Snoqualmie pass to about Issaquah.

Peas, Fall, and Other Thoughts

As you can guess this picture was not taken today. The pea blossoms in this picture just made me think about work. Right now we are in the process of labeling peas that were grown a while ago. The idea that food can be processed so that it can be stored for a long time is quite an invention. I know that salting and drying of meat has been around for a long time but the method of canning as preservation is really quite new, like maybe 150 years or so.

Anyway as fall is now upon us and it will not be long until we see snow and possibly some really cold weather it is good to know that we had a good harvest this year and we have been able to "can" food so that there will be a supply for this coming winter.

We also had a chance this summer to do some dry canning for ourselves. Sugar, flour, and other staples are good to have just in case there is a disruption of supply to our local stores.

Saturday I was able to help out at a DI event where the church is able to provide furniture, bedding, and clothing to those in need. I was a little surprised that the quantity of things provided this year was actually down a little bit from the past few years. (I have been involved in this for about the past four or five years.) I think that is a good thing as perhaps not so many are in need right now despite the economic downturn. Perhaps it is just that the downturn has not trickled down yet. We shall see.

Cars Again

Remember a few weeks back I posted about how we seem to be in the time of car troubles. Well, I guess they are not over. The van began making an odd noise and when I pulled in the driveway tonight coolant leaked out onto the ground. Now I know where the noise was coming from. It appears the water pump has gone bye, bye. Anyway we can't get it into the shop until Wednesday so we are down one car for a couple of days.

Puss N' Boots

For some reason Glen's face in this scene reminds me of Puss 'N Boots in Shrek. Maybe the picture doesn't exactly catch it but I sure saw it when I saw the play for the first time. I ushered again tonight--well actually I was the ticket taker which is a lot of fun because I get to see all the people come to the play and I get to watch the play too. I think tonight was the biggest audience so far but I think Thursday's audience was more responsive.

Glen's Project

I do not have any pictures to post today. Glen has them in his camera and has not downloaded them yet. We poured concrete today. At first it did not look like a real promising day as it was raining pretty hard between 6 and 7 am. Glen cancelled the concrete based on the weather and we went down to the park to do a little prep work. There were quite a few people who showed up. Some of them were there to help another scout in Glen's troop work on his project but when the rain let up we decided to go ahead. Glen called the ready-mix place and they had a truck to us within about an hour and we got the pour done. We had a lot of help and most of it was pretty good. Some of the boys found it more fun to play than to work but all of the adults dug in hard and many of the boys too. We had the pour done and finished by about 2:30 and that was even with a break for lunch. There is a lot more to get done but at least now it is down to a managable project.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I did not know that the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame could be so funny. Here are a few pictures of the play.