One of my favorite middle school events in the years before COVID was the Chinese New Years Assembly. Put together by my amazing friend and colleague, Neil Bray, it features music and skits by students and culminates in a lion dance by a local family troupe (the Ha family). This year, we were happy to have the Ha family back at school for an in-person event. I caught a bit of the dance on video:
Category Archives: Andrew
The National Cathedral
One of my favorite places in the DC area is the National Cathedral. Despite my irreligiousness, I have always found places of worship (of any religion) to be compelling. In boarding school I used to sneak into the chapel and sit on a pew to read. At Oberlin I enjoyed Finney Chapel in the same way. Overseas, I’ve spent a fair amount of time at Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and Jewish shrines, mosques, and temples. Most such places create a sense of awe and peace, calming my thoughts and providing space for contemplation.
The National Cathedral certainly has heaping portions of awe. I discovered it in late high school when the west towers were still under construction. I think my friend and D&D buddy, Dan Williamson, (“Toby,” back then) was the first to introduce me to it. It was free to visit, so I used to swing by fairly regularly to wander around or find a comfortable nook to read in (or to scribble notes for my next D&D adventure).
Ever since being damaged by an unusual earthquake in 2011, it has an entrance fee to help cover repair expenses. (Repairs are ongoing, hopefully to be completed in 2025.) Between that and getting out to DC infrequently, I have only visited a handful of times in the past few decades. It remains as magnificent as ever.
One thing that I appreciate about the cathedral is the history and culture that is woven into its art. There’s a grotesque (like a gargoyle) of Darth Vader. There are busts and statues of presidents and historic civil rights leaders. There are stained glass windows commemorating Native Americans and the moon landing. On our latest visit, we learned that the cathedral recently decided to replace two windows portraying Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson with designs by Kerry James Marshall.
We visited as a family on the Tuesday after Christmas. Here’s a haphazard selection of photos from our visit.
Faculty Family Fun
Kudos to my colleagues Neil and Diane for organizing a faculty gathering at Afton State Park earlier this month. Families were welcome at a large group site. Some folks brought tents and stayed overnight. Many others stopped by to enjoy the fire for a portion of the evening.
Sarah was out of town, so I brought our three kids plus two extras. They basically ran off into the woods and only emerged occasionally for hot dogs and s’mores. Social gatherings like this have been few and far between since COVID struck, so the time felt quite special. We didn’t stay overnight, but had a lovely time spending the evening with a stellar group of people.
Cookies
Believe it or not, when Sarah and I went to the fair on Labor Day, it was the first time that we ever bought Sweet Martha’s cookies. They are a legend at the fair and we’ve always seen people walking around with their pails or cones of cookies, but we’ve always been drawn to other foods. We couldn’t justify the pail, so we got a towering cone (the smallest size you can buy). They were good, but very sweet. We only managed to get through about half of them.
Griffin’s First Day of Eighth Grade
First day for this 8th grader (and his 8th grade teaching dad)!
Widji 2022
This year marked Andrew’s third trip as a chaperone with the 7th grade at Camp Widjiwagan along the boundary waters in northern Minnesota. This trip was different for a number of reasons. First, Griffin was a seventh grader, so he was on the trip too! It was pretty great to be able to share this experience. This year we also went up in March rather than January. As the normal January date approached, COVID rates were spiking, so the school and camp made the wise choice of postponing. It was a bit soggier than usual, but we had no issues with the pesky virus, so it was well-worth the wait.
My gifted colleague, Bobak— social studies teacher, photographer, and videographer—documented the trip for posterity. I’ve pulled a set of photos from the larger collection to share here. Most of these include Griffin, but some just help set the scene.
Here is Bobak’s “Widjimasters 2022” video compilation:
Pumpkin Juice
Our first face-to-face role-playing game of 2022 took place at Hogwarts. The kids took on the roles of second-year students and pursued the mysterious disappearance of a popular prefect. Besides drinking a great deal of pumpkin juice, the protagonists had to sneak into the restricted section of the library, avoid getting detention, complete a long herbology assignment, and discover the secret entrance to the warlock’s tunnel. The game culminated in a magical battle with an evil wizard.
Luminary Loppet 2022
The 2022 luminary loppet took place on Saturday, February 5. It was a lovely evening of mild weather after a long, cold week. (Temps in the teens rather than hovering around zero plus wind.)
We’ve attended the event most winters, though it doesn’t always make it into the blog (see 2011 and 2017). It features a beautiful ski/walk/snowshoe trail that winds around the surface of the Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis. The trail is lit entirely by ice luminaries (frozen columns, blocks, or spheres that contain candles). It’s otherworldly, to say the least.
Oliver wrote a book about the experience at school. Each page features an illustration and a caption (in the blue bar). I’ve added typed captions additionally in case you aren’t adept at reading Oliver’s calligraphy.
COVID-19 in Wastewater
This is not breaking news or anything, but I’ve been fascinated by the predictive power of analyzing the quantity of COVID-19 in metro wastewater. (See the live graph, updated weekly.) The rise and fall of the viral load in our wastewater accurately predicts the approximate number of reported cases about 6–8 days in advance.
In the screenshot below, you can see the massive spike of cases in January. You can also see how quickly it peaked and began to fall. The high point in wastewater was around January 10. Cases continued rising for another week or two, but then started falling rapidly. This information is exceptionally helpful to schools who are in the uncomfortable position of needing to make weekly decisions about whether to stay open and how to handle staffing challenges.
Another element that they are tracking in our wastewater is the type of COVID-19 virus present. The chart below shows the rise of delta (in blue) followed by omicron (in red/purple). Let’s hope we won’t need a new color anytime soon.
Swamp Thing
I don’t know what this thing is, but it was fun to paint. I especially like all the weird eyes bursting forth at random.
