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.)
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.
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:
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.
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!)
It’s the first day of school at SPA. This is Griffin’s fourth year on campus, and his second year in the upper school. It’s Maggie’s first time, joining the seventh grade. (This is Andrew’s 15th year.)
Griffin has spent the last three weeks on a canoe trip managed by Camp Widjiwagan in northern Minnesota. This year his crew traveled up to the Quetico area in Canada.
Griffin went with his good friend Murray. We pick them up tomorrow but just received this group photo from camp. Looks like a great crew!
This weekend we joined our friends Ellie and Kelsey and two of their kids at Wild River State Park about an hour from Saint Paul. It was our first time tent camping in years and Piper’s first trip. She was amazingly well-behaved—nervous when we bumped into some horses on the trail, but she never barked.
Chef Griffin has outdone himself once more. The kids have a new cookbook based on a video game that they love: The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook. This isn’t the first recipe that they’ve tried, but it was certainly the most complex. Maggie, sadly, was out this afternoon, so Griffin was the primary cook with Oliver as sous chef. Served in pineapple bowls, this curry looked as spectacular as it tasted!
Griffin participated in a local fencing tournament today which was very exciting to watch. This was a small tournament, so Griffin’s cohort included high school and adult fencers. He was up against some extremely experienced fencers. And he is still a beginner. As always, he entered the fray with a positive attitude and had a lot of fun. His first words at the end were something like “That was fun. I’m glad I did this.” I appreciate that positivity.
Fencing tournaments begin with pools where you have short bouts to five points with each member of the pool. This establishes the seeds for the elimination rounds. Griffin won his first of five bouts in the pool. The other four opponents were far better than he was, though he did manage to score a point against one of the best fencers in the tournament.
To our relief, in the first elimination round, Griffin faced an opponent at his level. In the elimination bouts, you win with 15 points, so they last longer. Griffin took the lead initially, but then his opponent tied it up. They were neck and neck up to 12-12. Then Griffin found a hidden reserve and landed three quick touches to win, 15-12, with barely 5 seconds remaining on the clock.
His next opponent was the #1 seed of the tournament. 😬 Alas, no Hollywood victory. Griffin was soundly defeated, 0-15. To our great surprise, however, his opponent did not manage to win the tournament. Indeed, he was ultimately defeated in the final round by the fencer from Griffin’s pool that he managed to score a point against.
I see at least three things to be proud of here. First, and most importantly, Griffin’s positive attitude and sportsmanship. Second, Griffin’s hard-won victory in an elimination round. Finally, the fact that he managed to score a touch against the tournament champion!
Here are a few pictures of Griffin in action.
