Pinewood Derby, Part I Research & Development

For those unfamiliar with the Boy Scout tradition of Pinewood Derby (such as myself a few years ago) it involves a block of wood, a dream of a fast/cool car and lots of sanding, paint and wheel assembly. Then race day, boys hooping and hollering and parents, esp. dads, hyperfocused on a big screen projecting up the wall, displaying times and placement of racing cars.

Ben, being Ben, hit the computer and interviewed the resident Subject Matter Expert, The Partner, to research and develop a design for his car (final design at right). He chose a wedge design to streamline the car and increase speed through minimization of drag and the color yellow with, of course, racing stripes.

He then discussed the design and plans for building with his co-builder, and they began cutting and sanding the block of wood.

(This is where the pictures of Ben using the electric sander and sawing the wooden block would go. If Mommy wasn't made so nervous by the thought of her baby using sharp and dangerous tools that the pictures would have been blurry from the shaking.)

Since the Pinewood Derby includes a Sibling Class, Mina got a chance to design and build her own car and race. So she drew up a plan as well. Not quite as streamlined and built for speed as her brother's, Mina designed a car that looked like a big, purple bird. Eyes, plumes of feathers and all.

Mina's car crew was more expansive than Ben's, including me to purchase the bird eyes and feathers. She and I discussed types of birds, feather placement and color selection. The design was passed, pretty much without comment other than, "The car should look like a purple bird" to the The P for body development.

Which highlights another aspect of Pinewood Derby: the adult co-builder. Ben and Mina are fortunate in that they have a mechanical engineer, who spends his free time designing and building parts for race cars, as a co-builder; I think they're even luckier in that they have a co-builder who expects each to actively participate in the build and understand why each step proceeds as it does. Ben designed, sawed and sanded the wood, glued wheels, painted primer and two coats of final paint color on his car, added weights (in the back and he can tell you why), and accompanied me to the post office to assess final weight. Though he likes to win, Ben also has an appreciation for the development of the car from plan to race day.

A couple weeks, some elbow grease and a few coats of paint later, the cars were ready to roll.

Tune in tomorrow for Pinewood Derby: Race Day!

Boy Scout Popcorn Sales!

It's that time of the year again: popcorn sales to fund this year's Boy Scout pack activities. I opted to create a blog post about the event since it seemed the easiest way to have Ben make his pitch to as many people as possible, limit my involvement/increase his in the sales effort and create a good reason for me to get back on the posting wagon (b/c having fallen off over a year ago just wasn't enough).

So, imagine a knock at the front door, you swing it open and heee-re's Ben....

Products on the list can be found here. Please do not order online (unless you really want to) as Ben will not get credit on his order form.

As Ben says in his pitch, I will be following this post up with daily posts on his (and Mina's) involvement in his pack's Boy Scout activities. Really truly daily.

For those linking from work or Houston area, you know where to find me to order. For those linking from far away who want to order, please e-mail me, and we can discuss payment/delivery terms. If you don't feel in the popcorn buying mood, that's cool. Girl Scout cookie sales start in the nest few months. ; )

Tomorrow Pinewood Derby, Part I Research & Development

We survived Ike!

The horizontal rain came in under the doors and windows, the wind blew over our willow tree and almost all of our backyard fence, and the twins slept right through it!

We lost electricity Friday evening, just before the outskirts of the hurricane moved over us. All landlines were down as well, but water never failed.

Thanks to The Partner's willingness to drive up north of Dallas and his dad's to drive down from Okla, Sunday night we had a generator keeping the frozen stuff frozen, fresh milk in the fridge and lots of charcoal, just in case.

Electricity was back on for good Tuesday. There are still lots of people without it, and some still w/o water as well.

We're among the lucky ones for that. If you count that we have no roof damage, so no leaks or mold to deal with, no ruined furniture of carpet to drag out to the curb, we're among the -very- lucky ones. We have a lot to be thankful for, and are.

Stockings for the Troops.

Our family again this year had the honor of participating in Operation Santa through Marine Moms.

A very sweet lady, “Honey”, at the flea market/auction facility done the street donated all the material for the stockings. We were chatting during one of my biweekly browse-throughs and I happened to mention the project. She immediately led me to a room filled with Christmas-y stuff waiting to be sorted and arranged for a Christmas room, and told me to take what I could use.

(I hadn’t noticed when I took the picture that the table, sewing cabinet and foldable tray I bought from that market are in the picture as well. You can also see the box for the new sewing machine I bought for the project when I broke my ‘old’ (a little over a year old) one.)

The kids sewed cuffs and a few extra stockings for themselves, the S.O. contributed manufacturing know-how, tools and fleece, and Mommy sewed all the pieces together. Once the stockings were complete, sister Jennifer and her MDA friends and co-workers stuffed and mailed the stockings.

From our family to the each Marine who received a stocking, may you return home safe and sound, sooner rather than later.

Happy Halloween 2006!

The Princess and the Power Ranger. Its illustrative of their differing personalities that Ben took some convincing to change his costume, and even that only moved him from a red ranger (costume for last 3 years) to a green, while Mina has been Tigger, Eeyore and Hello, Kitty, prior to becoming Cinderella.

4 Legged Family: Bentley

Bentley's the most lovable cat - almost the most lovable animal - I have ever seen. Lovable or overwhelmingly needy, sometimes the distinction's fuzzy.



I adopted Bentley after my beloved Phanar passed away. I was convinced that Abby was pining away, and felt the house was unbalanced with only one cat (there being two in the house of everything else). Bentley, like Abby, got picked because he had been at the Brazoria County Humane Society the longest and had recently lost the companion cat he was brought in with to an earlier adoption.

I'll skip the rant on anyone who would knowingly adopt only one of two cats raised together.

Bentley, though declawed, is be far the most destructive animal in our household, 2 legged and/or 4 legged. And it is only my extremely strong belief in full responsibility for the lives I bring into my home, again 2 legged and/or 4 legged, that has prevented Bentley from being summarily returned to the Humane Society. Because his destructive habit is one small step short of that which would overcome even my feelings of responsibility: he chews on books...paper, cardboard, computer cords, stiff tablecloth edges. We've lost computer functions and book value due to Bentley's gnawing habit. Fortunately for him, he's learned to not/been prevented from doing much further damage lately.


Which is good, because he's also the most affectionate of the members of the household. When the twins were younger and not quite as empathetic of the pain a strong neck hold could have on a living creature, he still insisted on being right between them (usually slung between them). He wraps himself around Cousin Camille during her visits, again regardless of her affectionate rib breaking hugs, and, if no 2 legged friends are available, will rub up and against Emma and Dexter. During bedtime story time, Bentley is a regular on Ben's bed and must be picked up and thrown out before bedtime, regardless of how many times he was swatted away for chewing on the bedtime story.

4 Legged Family: Emma

Emma's the Lab mix that didn't mix well with the Dobi-mix, a mismatch that resulted in our adoption of Dexter.

Our Emma Lynn is the quintessential Labrador: a highly trainable and begging to please, tolerant and loving family dog, given to easy weight gain if left unexercised. Somewhere among the thousands of digital images I have failed to print out of the twins when toddlers, there are more than a few of Mina laying across Emma, sitting on Emma and, book propped up under Emma's nose and Mina leaning against her, reading to Emma. And Emma looking pleased as punch to be so used in each.

In her younger days, Emma was involved in agility practice with my sister. Emma was great at it, over the jumps and bridges, through the tunnels and likely to stay forever until released. These days, due to under the table feeding by the twins, treat tossing from the S.O. and the cessation of former jogging practice with me, Emma's a little too round for going over or under anything.

But, she's still a sweetheart. There's just a lot more of her to love than there should be.