Bits and Bots

It's been a very busy last few days, trying to get everything booked and registered for this robotics tournament in Atlanta next month (not to mention trying to fundraise the $$$$ to get us there!). Still, we've managed to squeeze in some other fun stuff this week.

We spent yesterday at the Irish Cultural festival. Asa and I took our fiddles and went to a fiddle workshop, and then Mackenzie and I took our new bodhran (pronounced something like BOW-rahn) to a workshop given by this very interesting guy (and terrific drummer). He was very engaging, weaving history and personal experience with technique. While we didn't come away knowing a whole lot more than when we started, we at least got an idea of how to hold the drum and the tipper (stick) and to play a few simple rhythms. While we were doing that, Wayne took Asa to a step-dancing workshop. When Mackenzie and I got there, Wayne was up there dancing with Asa and the rest of the group. It's fun to try new things (and he's definitely a few better candidate to do any kind of dancing than I am, he's got rhythm and I've got two left feet!).

As a family, we've been enjoying some retro TV nights watching old Simpson's episodes, or DVDs of 3rd Rock From the Sun. We all love good physical comedy, and John Lithgow is in his finest form in this show (other favorites along these lines are the Pink Panther series with the incomparable Peter Sellers, and Fawlty Towers with the superb John Cleese, as well as old silent movies with Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and the like.

















The weather is getting good, so we took our first family tandem bike ride of the yea, running some errands and then ending up at a park down by the river. The kids look so huge on the playground equipment, especially compared to all of the smaller kids. It's strange sometimes to look at these big independent creatures and think how small they once were.