sensei Zander

Today Zander and Adon got to talking about Zander's karate training. Zander has been taking classes twice a week at Kovar's Satori Academy for about six weeks now; Adon has been coming to classes once a week and watching with me. Adon is interested in signing up for classes, but we decided to wait until soccer season is over. In the meantime, Adon offered to exercise and practice moves with Zander if Zander teaches him what he's learning in class. So, Zander put on his gi and assumed the role of sensei for Adon. To his credit, Adon showed Zander the respect he should as the student in this situation, even going so far as to say "yes, sir!" when appropriate. Too cute.

wild and windy typhoonigator!

Wow, a nice windy rainy storm today. We have learned about different forms of weather, and classified clouds, and different wind speeds, so the boys are excited to see some real storminess. We even made an anemometer, but I think it would fly away in this storm! As usual, Zander wants to got out and run around in it, and Adon wants to snuggle in the couch and read a book. Of course, we have to be careful about falling branches and so on, but we can go explore a little bit.

We will probably go to Bouncetown today too -- we bought a few play sessions in advance; today would be a perfect day to go use them up. My old daycare teacher used to sit all the kids down on a rainy day and try to tell us about how we felt friskier because of all the negative ions in the air, but we just wanted to run around bouncing off the walls. Zap this!

Of course, I am going to have to ride my bike to school in this mess later. That'll be interesting. I just waterproofed my jacket and backpack last week, and bought a new set of yellow rain gear... I have a funny removable rain guard that attaches to my seatpost and blocks the spray from my rear bike wheel, too. I'm actually excited about riding in the rain, how weird is that?

Discovery Museum

We had further arthropod contact on Sunday; we went to the Discovery Museum, and they were hosting the UC Davis entomology department's display of live bugs. They had hissing cockraoches, walking sticks (the kind that look a little more like twigs with leaves), scorpions, spiders, and a live termite colony that had been collected from a redwood in Golden gate Park 12 years ago! They've kept it alive in a big petri dish all this time.

They also had a pretty good collection of pinned bugs on display, including some cases with just California species.

We saw some live amphibians, like this monster; and some tortoises and turtles, both inside and out at the pond.

We also played in the space display and caught the planetarium show:



The Discovery Museum is pretty small; they do a good job with what they have. It's nice to be able to take a quick trip locally and experience some decent science! We timed it so we would be there for the live animal discussion and display, the entomology exhibit, and the planetarium show; otherwise it would be hard to justify the cost of admittance.

They do have an interesting program occasionally available, their simulated space launch. It's conducted in a large simulated mission control center with 15 or 16 people assuming different roles during the simulated launch. Adon's interested; we may send him to it a little later in October or to the one in November. Check it out here.

the scouts

Adon was officially welcomed to the troop at a "Court of Honor" this week, and was awarded his "Scout" badge, the first level that you attain in scouting. The troop also gave him his troop neckerchief and slide, pictured here. Erika also received her first "Mother's Pin." She gets a commemorative pin for every level that Adon attains, to wear on a ribbon. I guess Dad just gets to say "That's my boy!"

Zander went to his first Cub Scout den meeting last night, having practiced all the requirements to get his Bobcat badge. Now that he's signed off as a Bobcat, he can start working on his Wolf badge, which is much more comprehensive. He has already completed the fitness requirements for Wolf (it's Zander, duh), and has worked on a "windlass" project as well. He's loving it! Looks good in his uniform, too --

Super Racer Dude, by Zander

Hey! Now you can email my action figure! He's got the number 199, he races dirtbikes, and loves being flung around. He's tough. Just send an email to:

superracerdude@gmail.com

Here's his picture: