Festival of Trees

Kennedy Kreiger hosts an annual Festival of Trees in Baltimore at the State Fairgrounds every year.  Kennedy Krieger is an institution which focuses on the education of children who have severe disabilities.

This was the first year our family had ever been.  The Cow Palace was filled with trees and gingerbread houses decorated by members of the community, and then donated to Kennedy Kreiger.  The items were then sold, and the money goes to benefit the children of Kennedy Kreiger. 

Pictures of the trees are below.  I still haven't figured out how to add text to the pictures from my phone, but at least I know how to add the pictures from my phone!

Enjoy!

From the Cats

Happy day, it's Friday.  This is Tiger and Luna, and we've taken over the keyboard this morning in order to bring you the feline view of the week.

Tiger here- The boys have been working up at the camp.  They were home for the day earlier this week to do laundry, swing strings, feed us catnip, and dangle the magic shiny feather thing around for us to chase.  Luna got her ears cleaned out! (not funny, tiger)  And we both crawled up on the boys and took turns sleeping on top of them when we got the chance.

The girl has been fun to chase around this summer.  Luna does a very good job at waking her up each morning.  (thank you for noticing my hard work)  She likes to sit on the pillow and lick the girls' nose until she wakes up.  It's funny to watch her try and flick Luna away and put stuffed animals over her head.  Luna will bat the animal away and go back to work on her nose.

Luna here- in my defense, if she'd get up before 10, I wouldn't have to lick her nose.  Mom has already called her a couple of times before I go in and finish the job!

It's rained a lot here the last couple of days.  Thunderstorms mostly, but we'll take any kind of water we can get.  We're a couple of inches short for the month and the flowers are very dry.  I like butterfly watching in the garden... we've got to keep those flowers happy!

Tiger here- I caught a mouse this week.  I was so proud of myself, I brought it inside for Mom.  It was still mostly alive. She needs to learn how to mouse.  She's spend less time at the grocery store if she could just catch a few mice in the back yard and fry them up for dinner. 

She wasn't happy with the mouse.  I dropped it at her feet, and it ran for a paper bag.  Mom screamed, and I kept trapping the mouse and dropping it back at her feet again.  I wish I could have told her that if she'd stopped screaming long enough, she'd actually be able to catch the mouse and kill it herself.

Don't you hate when you have to finish a job for somebody?

(Luna's note- it was really, really funny the third time Tiger brought the mouse back to Mom's feet!)

When the Brakes Fail

I wish this was just an imaginative title for a post.  The brakes on our car failed last week while my husband was driving our daughter home from camp in the city.

He went to take an off ramp from the Beltway, and the brakes were not working as he entered the deceleration ramp and went into the curve.

Fortunately, this was not the tight, inside edge of a clover leaf ramp.  this was a long, curvy, but mostly straight ramp with grass on the left side, and woods on the right.  The ramp is an uphill ramp, with a stop light at the top of the ramp.

My husband mentioned that he noticed the brakes were having problems before he entered the exit ramp, and his foot had been off of the gas pedal and on (and on and on) the brake pedal for quite some time before he hit the C/D ramp, and he had his emergency flashers on.  His car had slowed to 40 mph, and was continuing to slow, but not fast enough to stop at the light.  He lowered the car down to 3rd gear, and then to 2nd, hoping the weight of the engine would slow the car down more.

As they entered onto the exit ramp itself, he pulled on the emergency brake, and lowered the gear down to 1st as they went up the hill. 

Miracle of miracles, the car slowed as it went farther up the hill, and he was able to pull safely into the grass on the left side of the ramp.  The car stopped about 10 feet into the grass.

I got a rather shaky call from my daughter, explaining what had happened.

My husband just shrugged it all off and said "It really wasn't that big of a deal."

We towed the car to a garage.  They showed us the remains of the brakes. 

Today, I am thankful.  Very thankful.  Very, very thankful, that this story had a happy ending.

Travel safely!

Super Hero Summer

As far as movies go, this summer we've had a plethora of Superhero movies based on Comic Books.  The Avengers and Spider Man come quickly to mind.

I saw The Avengers with my middle child over Mother's Day weekend.  What an amazing movie!  I am so in awe of that movie.  I was especially touched that the directors seem to have gone to great lengths to find an actor who is very reminiscent of Bill Bixby, who originated the role of Bruce Banner on the television series back in the late 70's, early 80's.  Iron Man was new to me.  I've never been a big fan of Robert Downey, Jr, but his portrayal of Iron Man sold me on his acting abilities.  And Thor... *sigh*... what's not to love about Thor?

Today I went with the boys to see Spiderman.  Another excellent movie.  It's not the version I originally saw back in the day, but I really enjoyed the special effects and the acting.  Seeing Martin Sheen and Sally Field in the role of Peter's Aunt and Uncle was an unexpected pleasure. Oh, and the special effects.  It goes without saying that the CG special effects were off the charts, blow your mind fantastic!

One big thing I noticed today is that the authors are no longer writing wimpy, helpless roles for women.  No longer are they just sitting by helpless, and hapless, waiting to be rescued.

In Spiderman, when Gwen faces down the giant lizard man - not once, but twice - I was impressed.  When she used her brains to help solve a very large problem (and looked smoking hot while engaging in science related activities!) I was in awe of the genius who wrote the plot.

In the Avengers, the Black Widow is a gorgeous, beautiful, smart, intelligent, kick ass woman who can take care of herself.  My personal favorite scene in the movie is at the beginning.  She is being held captive by an evil criminal overlord.  And she's wearing her classic little black dress. When it is time for her to exit the scene, she breaks free of her bonds- by herself, and gets rid of the bad guys- by herself, then picks up her stacked black high heeled pumps, straightens her dress, and sashays out of the room.

Stan Lee, thank you for writing strong roles for women!  No longer are we relegated to be beautiful but stupid, or smart but ugly.  You are writing roles that show women in all of their glory- strong, smart, beautiful, and capable of solving any problem that comes their way in a well thought out, well reasoned manner that doesn't make them look hapless and hopeless.

You are truly showing the beauty and power of women.  We are amazing, we are powerful, we are smart.  We have the power to change the world.  Thank you for capturing this!

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

Derecho Wind Storms

Last week, we had a pretty phenomenal weather event roll through the Mid-Atlantic:  A Derecho Wind Storm.

Winds of 70 mph destroyed homes, trees, and our power grid.

I'm sure that by now, you've seen pictures of the damage around the Mid-Atlantic region, and seen the close up pictures of how bad the damage was in and around the DC Metro area.

Our power is up and running now, and I have a few observations I'd like to share:

1) Gas runs out quickly.  If you are fortunate enough to have a generator and a garage or shed to store gas in, keep the tanks full.  Fill a new can as soon as you use it up. 

2) Generators make life bearable.  Keeping the refrigerator running and the fans moving the air made life not quite as miserable.

3) Sleeping outside in tents or screened in porches can get downright chilly.  That's right.  When it's miserable in the house, it gets downright cold overnight in a tent.  We live in the outer suburbs, and felt quite safe sleeping in a tent.  Many of our neighbors spent the night outdoors, also.  It was a great bonding experience!

4) Solar Powered LED lights are a thing of beauty.  I have solar powered garden lights.  Put them out in the morning, they charge in the sunlight.  Bring them in at night, and they lit the house without danger of fire.  The only problem we had was that we couldn't shut them off! 

5) Hot showers are a wonderful thing.

6) Cooking can get tricky when the power is out.  We used our grill.  I experimented with our solar oven.  We have a propane camp stove that we used.  We also have a fire pit and cast iron cookware that we used.  The best thing about this is that we used it outdoors.  Yes, we have a gas stove, but we didn't really want to heat up a hot house by using a gas stove. 

7) Food at the store runs out quickly.  Since I am a home canner, we have a lot of food that was safely stored in the basement, ready to be heated and eaten.  I heard that the lines at the grocery store were long, and that they'd had to throw out everything from the freezer and refrigerated sections due to the power outage.  I stopped by the grocery store this afternoon, and a lot of the aisles are still very low.  According to the store manager, they've been wiped out.  They just can't stock the shelves fast enough.

8) This was an awesome time to meet the neighbors.  Spending time out of doors, trying to stay cool, heading down to the lake to fish, we ran into a lot of people we've only ever had a waving acquaintance with.  Nice to actually learn their names and talk with them for a while!

9) Solar Powered cell phone charges have moved to the top of my "must have" list.  My birthday is at the end of the month, and that's now the ONE thing I want.  Yes, we could charge it with the generator, but we had to pull a fan out in order to charge the phones.  Next time, we'll have a solar charger.

10) A hand cranked emergency weather radio is a very nice luxury.  Ours came from L.L. Bean.  It has an LED flashlight on the end, and gets bulletins from the NWS, as well as all AM and FM stations.  Just a few cranks would power the radio for quite some time!

I hope everyone who reads this is safe and sound.  It's been an interesting week in the Mid-Atlantic. Stay safe!

Taking the Boys to Camp

Both of the boys are working at a Boy Scout camp.  From our house, it's a two hour drive up there and then a two hour drive back down.  Since one chooses not to drive, and the other one isn't old enough yet to drive on Boy Scout properties, I get to drive them.  You need to understand, the boys live outdoors in a canvas tent all summer.  They each have a cot, and they are up off of the ground on 4 old wooden pallets.  The flaps are open all summer long, and they each have mosquito netting over their beds, but all matter of creepy crawlies roam through their tents.

Anyway, yesterday I got set to take them back to camp.  We took our daughter off to Girl Scout Day Camp first.  As we pulled out of the parking lot, I had the windows rolled down and I saw something big fly into the back seat of the car.  I almost drove off the road as oldest child - a very calm, unexcitable 20 year old, screamed like a little girl over this big fat beetle, flying around the back of the car.  I pulled over while he tried to flick it out of the back seat, stretched across the car so it wouldn't get him.  Finally, the 17 year old got out of the car, opened the back door, and flicked the beetle out.

I should have taken that as a sign.

We headed up 95, pulled off our exit, and were within 5 miles of camp when the road was closed.  Detour, back down the way we'd come and then up route 1.  It took us 40 minutes to make that detour. 

I got the boys into camp and turned around to head out.

Herd of mini-goats standing in the road, refusing to move.  The owner eventually came out and moved them off the road.

Continue on, make the left turn onto the big road that leads back to highway 1, go 500 yards, and end up behind a line painting truck.  Spent the next 45 minutes behind that truck, traveling the 2 miles down the road to highway 1.

Go down highway 1, work my way over to 95, and traffic comes to a dead standstill.  2 lanes are closed for construction.

I finally made it home many more hours later than I had planned on.  I took an unscheduled detour through a Target because I needed to get out and stretch after sitting still for so long... and I still had an hour to go to get home. 

Argh!

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

A Day With Mr. Murphy

I went with the robotics team earlier this week to the kick-off of the Summer Reading Program at our local library. 

Mr. Murphy (of Murphy's Law) decided to spend the day with us.

We were supposed to show up at 9:30. 

So, 9:30 rolls around, and I'm sitting in front of the library with my daughter and a 150 pound robot in the back of the van. 

No kids.

9:40 rolls around, and one other member of the team shows up.  There's still no way the three of us are strong enough to lift the robot out of the van, so we begin calling kids and rousting them out of bed.  Two of them are on a cross country road trip with their dad.  Two others are enrolled at music camp for the week, and are unavailable, others are at work.. well, you get the idea.  We finally tracked down the four kids who said they'd be there.

10:00 all kids are present and accounted for.  Robot is in the library, and the little kids are coming in.

10:05 robot is working, picking up balls and shooting them.

10:10 robot stops working.  The kids, in a panic, attempt to find out why it's not working.

10:10-11:30, I and the two young ladies with me, explain to all who come to stop that they are watching engineering in action.  Just look at the way those engineers are looking for the problem.  See?  They are going through each and every possible problem and testing it to make certain that it works.

10:30 - a mother starts to argue with me that that's not what engineers do.  They solve problems!  They don't get their hands dirty!  A long discussion ensues with an older gentleman who is a retired Civil Engineer of 30 years experience, hanging out for the day with his grandchildren.  Mother ends up leaving in a snit, because "Engineers have clean jobs!  They don't take things apart!  They solve math problems!"

10:45, in desperation, we pull one of the smaller FTC robots out of the trunk of another car.  We bring it in and realize that NONE of the kids present know how to work one of the FTC bots. 

11:15 - we isolate the problem.  We need one specific tool and it will be fixed in a jiffy.  I have a van full of tools, but the tool we need is in the warehouse.  We don't have the key to the warehouse.  We track down the parent who does have the key to the warehouse.  He answers his phone, would love to help us, but at that particular moment, he's in San Diego, getting ready to go into a meeting.

11:30 - Summer Reading Kick Off Ends.  Oh, and we manage to fix the wiring without the missing tool, robot now runs fine.

What a wonderful example of the thrills of technology! 

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!