Slice Maneuver

Pete and Sam played some golf with Dad today at Sterling Park.

After finishing his Saturday morning run with Brian on the Ashburn Fit Trail, Dad headed off with Pete for their 11:20am tee time. They played 9 holes and then met Mom and Sam on the picnic tables for lunch. Dad swapped out Pete and Sam's bags on the pull cart, and headed out with Sam to play the back 9.

Dad very nearly got a hole in one on #13. When they got up to the green, Dad's ball mark was about 2 inches from the hole, and the ball rolled about 3-4 feet by.

Pete started off with a really nice tee shot on hole #1 - pin high and just a bit to the right of the green. He also finished off with a great six-foot putt on #9 - dead center. In between, he had several shots that he called "disasters" (but they weren't that bad). Sam had quite a few good shots using his chipping technique that he has dubbed the "Slice Maneuver". He also had several two-putts, and mostly three-putts on the other holes. And he nearly met his goal of chipping in - on #11, he hit a 30-foot chip that came just short of rolling in.

It was a fun day at the course for all.

That evening, Dad helped Pete work on some of the exercises for his Drivers Ed / Health class that he is taking over the summer. Then he went out for the rest of the night with Chandler, not seen again until late the next day.

Watch Tan

Pete has developed an impressive watch tan this summer, due to the requirement of his employer that he wear a watch as part of the counselor dress code:

Above is what it looked like after the first week. It actually got even sharper as the summer wore on. By Auugst, it almost looked like you could really tell time with it.

The End of Oversight

Today is officially the 10th anniversary of this blog.

Yep, exactly 10 years and 1,383 posts ago this blog was started on 7/22/05.

Pete and Sam have come a long way in these 10 years. When the blog started, Sam was 19 months old. Today he decided to order a ukulele, a transaction which consisted of: giving Pete $55 cash, and Pete ordering it on his credit card, with 2-day shipping from Amazon Prime that he had signed up for on his own account.

Mom and Dad were out of the house while all of this transpired. Dad was at a Willowwacks concert, and Mom was at One Loudoun with her friend, listening to some outdoor live music. Dad learned of the ukulele purchase around midnight, when Sam casually mentioned: "by the way, I bought a ukulele and it is coming on Friday".

Yes, things have changed a bit since 2005.

Building Museum

Mom, Dad, and Sam went to see "The Beach" exhibit at the National Building Museum.

They met Maddox, Rider, and Katie at the Wiehle Metro station and took the new Silver line to the museum. After riding up an escalator that sounded like a saxophone busker, they made their way into the museum to be greeted by the 2 hour line.

Dad took Maddox and Sam to Subway for some lunch (and then McDonald's when Subway was closed). Then they played (and sword-fighted) for a while in the Work Build Play exhibit.

Finally, it was time to go to the beach!

Slurpees

Dad, Pete, and Sam walked over to 7-11 for free slurpee day. You could tell it was free Slurpee day by looking at the floor:

They were actually pretty well organized. The employees were serving the Slurpees, which Dad liked but Pete was not very happy since he could not do his traditional assortment of flavors.

Mini-Vacation Wrap-up

The "staycation" idea got off to a good start with the trip to Six Flags that everyone seemed to enjoy. But the remainder of the family vacation did not go as well. Mom and Dad had a list of about 20 activities to do, but Pete and Sam were more interseted in relaxing at home. Each day they convinced Sam to almost go to the Symington water park at Ida Lee.

Mom and Dad took advantage of the time anyhow to go out to lunch a few times and do a Scavenger Hunt in the Broadlands. They eventually got stuck on the following clue:

Here are the unused activities that they have saved up for a future vacation:

• Tennis
• Par 3 golf
• Hike
• Museum - Portrait Gallery/ Newseum
• Camping
• Ice Skating
• See a show
• Movie
• The Zone
• Rock Climbing
• Zip Lining
• Fishing
• Pool
• Boating
• Biking
• 
  

Mini-vacation Day 3

The original plan on this hot sumer day was to go to the A. V. Symington water park, but the boys were too worn out from Six Flags. So Mom and Dad went to lunch and brought home Subway. Then Dad announced that at 6:30 they would be going to play mini-golf and then dinner.

It was a spirited game of mini-golf. Mom won the hole-in-one contest by scoring one early on in the match. There was also a family 2 streak going until one of the latter holes (at least one person gets a 2 on the hole). Other than Pete refusing to accept some of Sam's score calculations, a fun time was had by all.

On the way home, they stopped at Pomodoro's for dinner and a Deluxe Cookie Sandwich. (And an unfortunately soupy McFlurry for Pete after Menchies closed 30 minutes before their posted closing time.)

Mini-Vacation Day 2

Day 2 of the mini-vacation started with a quick breakfast at the Holiday Inn. Everyone piled in to the car for the 10 minute drive to Six Flags America, and they arrived at the gate just around 10:00. Unfortunately, it turns out that the park didn't open until 10:30.

Once inside, they rode all of the rides on Dad's list with plenty of time to spare. There were no lines for anything all day. Here are Mom, Pete, and Sam on the Voodoo Drop in the Mardi Gras area:

The boys came up with their own names for each ride. Sam called the Wild One "The Cheese Machine". Dad called is "Blind Curve Frenzy". Dad called Joker's Jinx "Uvula" and Sam called it "Ball Twister". Here are Dad and Sam after riding Superman (aka "Blackout"):

Dad had some fun in the gift shop while waiting for everyone to ride Superman the second time:

Take back what you said about chubby mini Wonder Woman keychain!

The trip to the Hurricane Harbor water park area in the afternoon did not go as well. Before the waves even started in the wave pool, "someone" thought they saw some lightning and closed everything down. After a brief family workout at the poolside, everyone agreed to get changed and head home.

On the way out of the park, Pete wanted to try one of the basketball games. This turned out to be rather amusing. As the guy was reviewing the rules, everyone spotted a little kid underneath the booth stealing some of the prizes! Dad and Pete interrupted the guy: "that little dude is stealing your prizes!" And they all ran around the back and chased him off. Pete made shots #1 and #2 for a medium prize, with which he selected the rainbow ball pictured below:

Sam also tried the ladder climb earlier, when Dad convinced the attendant to let him do it for $1. And he got a free shot at the basketball game, as thanks for helping the booth attendant nab the little thief and recover his stolen prizes.

Mini-Vacation Day 1

Pete was unexpectedly off from work this week. So after Dad's conference call and Mom's work session on Tuesday, it was time to start the mini-vacation.

The trip began with dinner at Pizza Hut over by Dad's office. Dad brought some pencil and paper to discuss some network diagrams, but (don't ask) they ended up playing a game where you go around the table and each person names something upstairs in the house. If you name something that there is more than one of, you say the number and someone else can challenge. For example, you can say "12 doors" and someone can challenge and say that there are actually 13. The food came before they got to move on to the main level of the house or the basement.

Next Mom and Pete got to see Dad's office. Pete left a nice surprise for everyone on the white board in the training room:



At the Holiday Inn, there was a cool ice cream machine. So the boys grabbed a late night snack. Sam also created a nice comfy bed using some chairs in the room:

Paycheck

Congratulations to Pete on receiving his first paycheck on Friday!

He was a bit disappointed to see all of the withholdings - Medicare, Social Security, Federal Tax, and State Tax. He'll definitely need to file to get those last two refunded at the end of the year. We'll have to follow the election next year and see which candidates support lower taxes.

Even with the withholdings, it was a pretty good haul. It helped that he had 7.25 hours of overtime - paid at time and a half!

Summer in the Arts Explosion

Sam enjoyed his Summer in the Arts camp that he attended for two weeks in late June. Mom and Dad attended the "explosion" on Thursday which included the performances of what he learned in each class.

1. First was the Beginner Drumset class:

2. Next was the Video Production class:

3. Sam blew everyone away when playing back his composition in Music Sequencing & Recording class:



4. Here is the picture that he made for his Photoshop class:

Finally, Sam performed in the BB King medley on stage inthe auditorium.

Note: Sam also made a cameo appearance in the following recorded by two of his classmates:

One Loudoun

Mom decided that for her birthday everyone should enjoy a nice outdoor dinner at One Loudoun.

After a quick stop at Wendy's for Sam, they picked up dinner at Nando's and found a table out in the courtyard. Everyone enjoyed a nice meal, while experiencing the musical stylings of Ken Fischer.

Dad asked Pete if they should make a request, and Pete joked that he could probably play Wonderwall. Sure enough, two songs later was none other than this Oasis classis.

Of course, the meal was capped off by some custard form The Meadows.