who knew I could do THIS!!!

So Saturday after dropping off Brad and BEFORE the robotics event started we decided to kill a few hours in Nashua (the "BIG city in comparison).. we ran some necessity errands then stopped at SAVERS ...  they had just opened up one in TX before we moved so I kinda knew of it but decided it would be a hoot even if we didn't find a thing.. BUT I found THIS!!!

I could see the potential Ben was having a hard time the thing that tipped the scales and I KNEW I must have it.. we had driven Ben's TRUCK!!! so we could get it home YEA!!!

and the best part

your reading correctly 25$!

Ben was skeptical I told him I wanted to put it in the Kitchen in between our laundry area and our back living room.. he insisted it wouldn't fit.. I insisted it would he was right (by about 6 inches.. yea not even close)

so change of plans.. it will go in the front living room and be a place to charge phones, ipods, laptops (in the middle counter-ish looking area) we can still store table cloth's and other kitchen stiff (I'm thinking Rubbermaid stuff) but it can also be a place to put mail and extra office/school supplies etc..

anyway on with the story..

I knew immediately I had to get the supplies or the above monstrosity would live at my house and we'd get complacent and not do anything with it just live with the UGLY..

so we went on to Brad's competition had fun then Sunday night I took it apart filled some holes w/ wood puddy and was set to prime in the morning

went off with out a hitch.. BUT realized I was going to need more than 1qt. of paint because I nearly used the whole quart of primer and I figured I'd need at least 2 coats of paint so back to home depot I went

got the bulk done.. then had to decide weather or not to keep the top doors.. when I was going to put it in the kitchen I figured I'd keep the doors off and put my green plates for display but because I'm going to be changing what we are storing and the purpose I think closed storage would probably do the trick especially because the middle is already open... so doors go on (too bad I already had filled all the holes where the doors and magnet closer's attached.. oops!)

this is what I thought I was purchasing



when installed I realised it was a drawer pull not a cabinet handle



this is what I opted for in the end (kept the drawer pull on the drawer)

  found hardware.. put hardware on the doors hated it.. put it on the drawers loved it.. back to Lowes to find hardware for the doors..

Finished product.. I love it.. my plan was to have it up and working by Friday.. an I did it!!! even a day early... and I may even wait to put anything on it until tomorrow anyway I did some paint touch ups so it wold be nice for it to dry completely!!

I'm proud of my self.. receipts total $82.oo (including the buffet it self!)

all in all I love it (flaws I can see and all)...

ta ta

Nerds will rule the world one day

the game arena before the event stated

So yesterday we had the GREAT pleasure to take Brad to his first Robotics scrimmage.. the actual events that start to count (as far as points and moving on to regional and national meets) start in 2 weeks but this was an event designed to get all the teams a chance to take their robots out and see what they could do..For the most part it was FASCINATING!!! I mean REALLY FASCINATING>>>

So below I'll take you through what the nuts and bolts of First robotics competitions

So the object of the whole thing is to create a robot that can do a series of things hopefully in these pictures I can re-create what we saw and you can be as amazed as we were that high school students made all these amazing robots!

 So the first thing each robot is asked to do is move autonomously meaning WITH OUT anyone controlling it to forward and put an inflatable YELLOW tube on a row of pegs.. again this was AMAZING these robots were programmed to put these things up there.. some reminders this was the first time these robots had been tested in an official capacity so although we were totally blown away we really can't wait for 2 weeks to see the REAL competition and see these robots with all the bugs worked out...

So after the autonomous round the students can take the controls and then they need to get as many inflatable shapes on to the pegs the more they get one the more points they get..

they get DOUBLE points if they put the shapes in the same order as the First logo (only 2 teams did it all day)

1922 is Brad's team robot.. they had some trouble with their ARM (that can grab the shapes)so they were playing all defence, trying to prevent other teams from getting to the pegs or the inflatable shapes..

NH Senator Kelly Ayott

 

NH Governor John Lynch

The other neat thing about the event is it seemed to be a time for the GOVERNOR and one of the State Senators (later I wondered why SHE felt like she could miss that big budget vote in Washington yesterday but i digress) to come out and proclame what an amazing thing this whole event was (and it WAS) and how great would it be if all schools could have these programs etc. etc.. go education etc. etc. I dont want to deminish what they said it was great but it was a bit of grandstanding in my humble opinion..



Will-i-am at the FIRST kick off.. video is NOT imbeded go to the first link above to watch if you want..

 I started connecting all the dots as to WHY all the kick off stuff was done in Manchester NH and why on Earth such a famous singer would come to PO-DUNK NH (yep I said it)..to kick off this years festivities a few weeks ago..

The short reason is this guy..Dean Kamon he invented this  and lots of other things (see the link on his name to find other stuff).. he started the FIRST organization and he's from NH ie: the headquarters of First...

I have to say his little speach was very moving, he talked about his vision for this organization that engineers would team up with students in motivating their interestes in Math and Science.. and I have to say seeing all these kids in this gym all so excited and cheering when something they had a hand in making does something amazing was AMAZING!!!..
so thats what we did yesterday..
Brad had a great time.. Ben and I felt far and away out of our league as far as the intelligence levels in the room... we got a smart kid and YES we do believe Nerds will rule the world one day were at least glad one of them will be our kid...
tata

I'm lucky

So I am almost finished reading

it's a book I stole borrowed from my mom over Christmas.. I like it allot it was written in the 50's and it's about a girl in England who was in a prisoner camp (I use prisoner in the loosest of terms) and it follows her life after and when she comes into some money from an inheritance she goes about to do good things, she puts together the means and plans to build a water well in the town she was encamped in then goes to find a man who was very kind to her whom she thought had been killed because of a good dead he had done.. anyway I like the book so far, I have to remind my self at times that it's not only an old book it's also set in the 20's and the author is ENGLISH so some of the use of words or language is a little off..

BUT that's not the point of this post.. I have an amazing Mother you can see how awesome she is here  or even here she LOVES to read as do all of my grandparents and aunts and uncles (her parents/siblings etc)... she wanted me desperately to LOVE reading as much as her and for lots of reasons it didn't come to me as naturally as it did for her.. I think I as her first born she was disappointed that I just didn't like it.. I wanted to be moving, talking, screaming or singing ANYTHING but sitting still and reading...

I have come to really love reading now that I'm a grown up (so they tell me, jury is still out) but I'm still a reader that the book must grab me pretty quick, I'm prone to put down a book and never pick it up again if I can't "get in to it".. and I probably only read a hand full of books for enjoyment each year...

BUT what is so great about my mother's awesome love of reading is that it has SKIPPED a generation... Hunter is a veracious reader I have a hard time keeping him in books (i know high class problem) and thankfully he has a grandmother who I can ALWAYS call to get a recommendation on a book or more likely she'll get a call that goes something like this

me: hey mom I'm in Sam's club have you heard of this book "xxxxx" is it appropriate, is it good.. would hunter like it???
mom: I haven't heard of it but I've read lots by the author, he's good and really geared towards Hunter's age etc. etc. get it!!!

there isn't many authors my mom doesn't "know" (know in the, I've heard, read,seen something about him/her kind of way)... I've even been known to call her when we are mid book report and a kid is really stuck and we are boarding on nervous breakdown stage and she can ALWAYS talk a kid down and talk through the book and reminding of theme, analogies or plot...

another awesome thing about her is my kids absolutely know (and now really expect) that for Christmas and birthdays they'll get a book from Grandma and something fun from Grandpa.. my Mom would argue that books are fun too but you get the drift..

see I told ya I'm LUCKY!!!
ta ta