Scott's First Pinewood Derby

Since Scott turned 8 on Sunday and this week he is in Scouts for the first time, he was able to participate in the Pinewood Derby tonight. This was our 13th Pinewood derby. That's a lot of cars. Poor Jason. So, the other day Jason asked Scott what he wanted his Pinewood Derby car to look like and to draw it on the block of wood.

So Scott drew a Truck. When you asked him why he wanted a Truck he said, "Because when Jared had a truck he won first place."

So a truck it was, below is what that truck looked like. Scott painted it black and yellow. Hawkeye colors.

Here is what some of the competition cars looked like

Scott watching his truck race down the track.

And wouldn't you know it, Scott won First Place.

So the moral of the story is this: If you want to win the Pinewood Derby, make your car into a Truck!

Allergies, who needs them?

On Monday Caleb had an allergy appointment. For the last year or so he wakes up sick and doesn't seem to get better until later in the day after having spent time away from home at school, work or church.

In the allergy testing they tested for all allergies to see what he is allergic to.

Sad to report that his number one allergy is cats. We have two cats, so this creates a problem. We have a short hair tabby named Calvin, who we've had since just after Scott was born so he is just about 8 years old. Also a Blue and White British short hair cat named Big Mac.

We don't want to take them to the pound, instead we want to find them both a good home. So if you know anyone that can have one or both cats, please let us know.

Scott's 8th Birthday and a Tree

Scott turned 8 yesterday! He was excited to open presents and have cake!

There was a very large Ash tree in our back yard and we decided to have it removed for several reasons. Here are some pictures of the process.

Science Denial

The title comes from a talk by Michael Spector. He is a journalist at the New Yorker who talks about various subjects such as GM foods, vaccines, and our desire to believe anecdotes before evidence. I found his talk to be interesting but not entirely without fault. In light of several of the posts we have made as a family, I thought that I would post a link to his talk. It is just over 16 minutes long but I think it is worth it. If for nothing else than to provoke thought on the issue.

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_denial.html

There is no point here

Have any of you seen the latest Burger King ad? It's one of the best since the "I'm on a horse" Old Spice ad. To be honest, the King gives me the heebie jeebies but this last ad is great. I love when large corporations can step back and make fun of themselves. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, it's great. The commercial starts with the King breaking into McDonald's headquarters to steal the recipe for the sausage egg biscuit or muffin (I don't remember which). It ends by saying that BK's new sausage egg biscuit is not unique but at least it only costs a dollar.

Michelle and I made strawberry freezer jam on Saturday. We had never tried to make any kind of jam before and I must say, we hit a homerun our first time at bat. It is kind of hard not to when you mix strawberries and sugar. We had some yesterday for Easter dinner with Sandy and Larry (friends from the Cedar Rapids area) and I had more this morning on toast. I probably could have gone through half a loaf of bread this morning if I hadn't been in such a hurry. I think maybe next time we will try at least one batch with Splenda.

It looks like most of my tulips are going to make it this year. Last year, the rabbits waged war on my tulips and crocuses. They tried again this year but only got a couple of them before I began sprinkling pepper and red chilli powder around the flowers. That seemed to work.

One last thing. This morning, Caleb again was slow to get out of bed. When he finally dragged his rear up the stairs, he complained that he was tired (well, go to bed earlier) and that me getting him up so early in the morning (it was 6:00 - so not that early) was adversely affecting his academic performance. I thought he was joking. He was not. I laughed at him and told him to get upstairs and get showered to which he responded, "You just don't understand," again, in all seriousness. Why is it that teens don't think their parents understand? He's no where close to as busy as I was as a junior in high school. The funniest thing about teens is that they all think they are so unique. So unique in fact, that nobody else in the world can possibly understand them - particularly not their parent who were never teenagers themselves or had to do biology homework, or go to seminary.