As part of a school thing this week, I needed to find a baby pic of myself. I found the perfect one. Not sure when this was taken, but since David is in it, and he was born in February of 1973, it must be after that.
Baby Pic
Oliver’s Eighth Birthday
Oliver’s birthday was celebrated in multiple chapters. First, he invited some friends to a ninja gym. Then, we celebrated as a family at home. Special breakfast: daddy’s waffles. Dinner: Punch pizza and cupcakes. Finally, we joined Sarah’s parents in Courtland to celebrate a third time.
The framed print above is the bespoke dungeon that I wrote about a few years ago. I finally managed to get it printed and framed. Now we just have to key it and run it as a real adventure!
The video clip below shows an example of one of the challenges at the ninja course. Marci is a pro!
Griffin’s First Drive
Griffin passed his written test yesterday and picked up his official learner’s permit this morning. Although we’re planning on doing a bunch of test drives at Grandma and Grandpa’s house over the next few days, he couldn’t resist driving the car up and down the driveway before we left.
Our first order of business was learning that the brake pedal is not the gas pedal. (Fortunately, for our garage door, this is why the car won’t start without your foot on the brake.)
Fencing Silver Medal
Griffin attended the 2024 TCFC November Challenges
tournament with the Twin Cities Fencing Club. This was a small, local tournament, but it was Griffin’s best showing to date. He won four of seven bouts during the pools segment. Then he won two of three elimination rounds, earning second place overall in the tournament.
In each of the photos below, Griffin is on the right side of the strip. In the video, however, he’s on the left. (Mismatched socks may be his visual trademark.)
Griffin scores his first point in this video clip.
Griffin’s Art and Music
I’ve mentioned Griffin’s interest in musical composition in a previous post, but I haven’t shared many examples of his other creative outlet: art. He spends much of his free time creating pixel art and composing music for various video game projects. (Indeed, he has just confirmed his first paid commission!) Here’s a sampling of some things he has been working on recently.
And here are a few of his recent compositions:
Final Cabin Tidbits
To round out this trio of cabin posts, I took a few other random pictures of the sorts of things we did at the cabin this weekend: deflating and stowing the dock, touching up some trim paint, adding some non-stick strips to the wooden dock, role-playing games, other dice games, and a marvelous jigsaw puzzle (a gift from Grummy who passed along her love of puzzles to Andrew). We also prepped the well and pump for winter and put the snow shovels up on the covered porch lest they be irretrievable if anyone visits after the place is buried in snow. (We’ve learned that the hard way.)
Lest one think that we live an irredeemably charmed life, I should also mention that we did face a few challenges. For example, although the cool weather meant that there were few bugs outside, the black flies love to hibernate under the cabin roof. When the place warms up, they emerge in droves. Herds of droves. Hordes of herds of droves. We swatted and cursed at them, but our only moderately effective solution was to vacuum them up multiple times per day.
More Construction
The kids got very excited to build a “tree-ish house.” They started by extending a small treehouse that the built last year. This was cool, but took up a lot of prime real estate and interfered with the view from the cabin. After some discussion, they chose a new plot in heretofore unexplored territory. (It’s only about 30 feet west of the prior spot, but it’s screened by trees.) They enlisted Sarah’s professional help, removed the old structure and built a new, improved one. The sounds of hammers and saws filled the woods today.
The first picture below shows them beginning to deconstruct the first draft house. The rest show the new one. (And Piper, of course!)
Cabin Time
We made it up to the cabin for a long weekend. The weather is perfect: highs near 70 and lows just below 50. It’s dog heaven for Piper. The kids are engaged in a construction project. We saw the comet from the dock last night. A jigsaw puzzle is underway and we played a shockingly close game of Farkle. Not a bad way to recharge in the midst of a very busy autumn.
Note that while “GO MOM HQ” sounds like a worthy homage to Sarah, it actually stands for “Griffin, Oliver, Maggie, Olive, and Murray.” (Olive and Murray are two of the kids’ best friends who regularly come up to the cabin with us.)
Maggie’s First Python Project
Maggie is taking her first computer science class this year. The seventh grade course meets every other day for half a block (45 minutes) during the first trimester. This isn’t a lot of time for learning and practice, but students usually dive in with gusto and Maggie is no exception. Although I do teach a section of the class, I don’t have Maggie. She’s with my brilliant colleague, Chris Collins.
At the mid point of the first trimester, we ask students to create a short project using the code that they’ve learned thus far. They are using the Python programming language. Here’s what Maggie created:
To create this scene, Maggie wrote 170 lines of code using Python’s default text editor (known as IDLE). If you’re curious, the code is appended below.
#project1
import turtle
t = turtle.Pen()
t.speed(0)
t.screen.bgcolor("midnight blue")
#ground
t.width(10)
t.color("brown")
t.pu()
t.goto(-200, -161)
t.pd()
t.goto(200, -161)
#tree 1
t.pu()
t.width(7)
t.color("maroon")
t.goto(-190, -160)
t.pd()
t.goto(-190, -60)
t.color("forest green")
t.goto(-210, -90)
t.pu()
t.goto(-190, -60)
t.pd()
t.goto(-170, -90)
t.pu()
t.goto(-190, -80)
t.pd()
t.goto(-210, -110)
t.pu()
t.goto(-190, -80)
t.pd()
t.goto(-170, -110)
t.pu()
t.goto(-190, -100)
t.pd()
t.goto(-210, -130)
t.pu()
t.goto(-190, -100)
t.pd()
t.goto(-170, -130)
t.pu()
#tree 2
t.setheading(270)
t.pu()
t.fillcolor("green")
t.pencolor("darkgreen")
t.goto(100, -90)
t.pd()
t.begin_fill()
t.circle(30)
t.end_fill()
t.pu()
t.goto(120, -120)
t.pd()
t.pencolor("chocolate1")
t.fillcolor("burlywood1")
t.begin_fill()
t.forward(40)
t.left(90)
t.forward(20)
t.left(90)
t.forward(40)
t.end_fill()
#tent
t.fillcolor("purple1")
t.pu()
t.goto(-50, -160)
t.pd()
t.begin_fill()
t.color("purple1")
t.goto(40, -160)
t.goto(20, -110)
t.goto(-30, -110)
t.goto(-10, -160)
t.end_fill()
t.pu()
t.fillcolor("purple3")
t.begin_fill()
t.goto(-30, -110)
t.goto(-50, -160)
t.end_fill()
t.pu()
t.color("purple1")
t.goto(-33, -110)
t.pd()
t.goto(-53, -160)
#moon
t.pu()
t.goto(110, 50)
t.pd()
t.begin_fill()
t.color("old lace")
t.circle(50)
t.end_fill()
#stars
t.pu()
t.goto(220, 40)
t.pd()
t.color("lemon chiffon")
t.circle(2)
t.pu()
t.goto(220, 90)
t.pd()
t.circle(2)
t.pu()
t.goto(160, 90)
t.pd()
t.circle(2)
t.pu()
t.goto(40, 20)
t.pd()
t.circle(1)
t.pu()
t.goto(20, 20)
t.pd()
t.circle(2)
t.pu()
t.goto(0, 20)
t.pd()
t.circle(3)
t.pu()
t.goto(-130, 30)
t.pd()
t.circle(2)
t.pu()
t.goto(-40, 30)
t.pd()
t.circle(1)
t.pu()
t.goto(-40, 150)
t.pd()
t.circle(2)
t.pu()
t.goto(0, 150)
t.pd()
t.circle(1)
t.pu()
t.goto(0, 190)
t.pd()
t.circle(3)
t.pu()
t.goto(140, 190)
t.pd()
t.circle(2)
t.pu()
t.goto(-160, 130)
t.pd()
t.circle(1)
t.pu()
t.goto(220, 164)
t.pd()
t.circle(2)
t.pu()
t.goto(-220, 100)
t.pd()
t.circle(2)
t.pu()
t.goto(-80, -70)
t.pd()
t.circle(1)
t.hideturtle()Oliver’s First Day of 2nd Grade
It is Oliver’s first day of second grade at Cornerstone, and the first time that he won’t have any siblings on campus. Still, he’s a veteran of the place after something like six years (preschool + K-1) and has no qualms.
