In my life this week…

The week started off with an event put on by my wife’s work. She works for a creative company with lots of very talented people. So this was an evening for all those people to show off their talents. It was an amazing production. There was a live show featuring a wide variety of musical acts along with some humor, dance and other talents. Out in the lobby there were other artists including paintings, sculpture, pottery and a fellow that makes his own swords and other medieval weaponry. His “Do Not Touch” sign also had the warning that they were sharp.

There was also a Lego contest where they were give a box of Lego that must be used, a limit of 100 additional piece and whatever other items. My wife and kids made the roller coaster from California Adventures. The roller coaster part was K’Nex and they had a huge line of mini figures waiting to get on except poor Yoda who was too short. We won one of the three prizes and received some company merchandise.

The bathroom is coming along. A lot of little detail things happened this week but culminated in the tiling of the tub enclosure. There is going to be a border going around the edge and the top.

I’m Cleaning…

We spent all day Saturday cleaning and doing yard work. Grandpa volunteers at a house for recovering addicts and brought some to help with the yard work. The yard looks as good as when we moved in and the tree in the front yard has had a severe but needed haircut.

The kids and I tackled the basement. This was an absolute disaster ie it was difficult to walk a straight line anywhere. We made lots of progress but this is going to be a long term project. At least now we have room to work. We got 2 bags of garbage, a bin of recycling and finally got rid of our old TV. I needed the help of one of the guys. I can lift it but with my arms stretched out I didn’t fit up the stairs. I also took all our DVD’s out of their case, most were already out, and recycled the cases. I guess that makes one more bag.

With access and the knowledge that I have a truck coming on the weekend I wanted to get all the large stuff out. That consisted of Margaret’s old dresser. You know it is not of good construction when you are able to tear it apart with your bare hands. It is in the growing pile for the truck to take to the dump. Also gone is an old office chair that was hiding in the storeroom. The more open basement let me see some easy items to get rid of specifically an old computer, VCR, receiver, PVR and modem.

In our homeschool this week…

Shelly the snail got more expensive. My wife decided that glass bowl wasn’t working and that she needed an actual aquarium with aerator and filter. I think she was right. She had stopped moving and that is a sign of a stressed snail. My wife did some research online and discovered that a lot of what the pet store told us wasn’t correct. We have corrected all the issues and she has been moving around well. We decided to pass on adding a second snail when we learned that they breed like rabbits and quickly over populate. I am not willing to deal with that so only one snail.

Philip is just about finished with the snap circuits. He has been recording each circuit and explaining how they work. Next week we will make a penny battery and a potato one.

Both kids have been reading poetry, specifically the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the The Song of Hiawatha. I remember that from my youth but now I am trying to remember if it was from school or my mother.

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