Back for Break

Mom drove out to Harrisonburg after school to pick up Pete. He made it back in time to play his trumpet with Sam and the band at the Broad Run / Tuscarora playoff football game.

Snow Cones

Sam scooped up some snow from the back deck and was eating it. Dad had a bite, and decided he would get a whole cup. This eventually escalated into a full-blown snow cone extravaganza. Sam found the old snow cone syrup on a high shelf in the pantry.

New Lease

Pete signed his lease today and is officially set for his housing next year. Apparently he seems to like going to JMU (or at least hopefully he does).

Skosh

Sam and Dad talked for a while about the word “skosh” as Sam was getting into bed. Sam said his Science teacher told them that the proper procedure for focusing the microscope lens was “turn it all the way to the left, and then a skosh to the right”. Dad had to convince Sam that skosh was a real word. And then they had to look it up on Google to see how to spell it. Sam asked Dad what term he had searched for, and it was “move over a scoche.”

Height

Sam is just about as tall as mom now. Mom’s shoulders are a smidge higher, but the tops of their heads are within about one centimeter of each other.

Broken Heater

The upstairs heater has been broken for almost a week, so Sam has the radiator space heater running in his room. The guys are coming tomorrow to install the new heater, which may be a problem since Sam is hoping it will be a snow day.

Lesson Learned

Dad was getting ready for bed around 11:30pm, and was looking for Sam to say good night. He finally found him in the basement, sitting with his Chromebook. Sam said “I came down here to write this one thousand word Science paper that is due at midnight, since I just started it tonight and it is due by midnight.” Dad asked Sam if he had learned from this exercise that he should get an earlier start next time. “Nope, I pretty much learned that you can write an entire paper on the night that it’s due.”

Talent

Sam asked an interesting question today: “Do you think the most talented person in the world is famous?” Dad said probably not. A lot of layers to pull apart there. Oh, this conversation was all while he was sitting at the computer playing Super Smash Bros with headphones on.

New Jacket

A few days ago, Pete texted Mom "I think I am going to need a warmer jacket before Thanksgiving break." Mom found a jacket on Amazon which Dad ordered and had sent to Pete. He wore it out in the cold on Pokémon Community Day and said he did not even notice the cold. Hopefully he will not lose it like his previous jacket!

Senior Night

Today was Senior Night at the Broad Run football game. Sam said they gave a decent halftime performance, even though their heart was not into it and several people were missing.

Also this evening Mom explained to Sam why dividing by a fraction is equivalent to multiplying by its reciprocal. This was a bit of a landmark, since it was a math discussion and Sam did not end up crying about it.

Schedules

Pete asked Dad for his advice on his Spring class schedule. He sent Dad two sample schedules. The first was impossibly full, and the second was the same with yet an additional Discrete Math class. Dad said the second one was fine, as long as Pete wasn’t feeling too overburdened by his existing schedule (which was also too much, in Dad’s opinion).

Band Awards

The band had a get-together at the Lakes Rec Center and gave out their end of seasons awards. Sam got the “Lil Theorist Award” and “Most Likely To Leave Something Out on the Field Award.”

Too Old

Sam went to sleep over at Travis’s mom’s house. William is coming for the evening, but is not sleeping over. Apparently William’s mom decided that he is “too old for sleepovers.”

Delay of Game

Sam woke up today and thought it was Sunday. But when he went to watch football, it was not on. That is when he realized that it was actually Saturday. He was happy that it was only Saturday, but sad that he would have to wait a day to watch football.

Pot Dealer

Catherine and Sam came into the kitchen around midnight. They came to grab all of the pots and pans for Catherine to bring to Pete during her weekend visit. He needed them for some mystery project. Hopefully he does not need the lids, since those are still sitting in the kitchen. Dad convinced Catherine to leave one pot behind, so at least spaghetti and soup are still a possibility for the next few weeks, until Pete comes home for winter break.

Last Football Game

Tonight was the final football game of the season (it got moved up to Thursday due to the forecast for hard rains on Friday). Which means it was also the final marching band performance. A lot of Sam’s friends are seniors this year (including Brad, Ryan, and Mitch) so it will be interesting next year when they are gone.

Blue Ridge Grill

Tonight was the last night before Nana and Poppy headed back to Myrtle Beach for the holidays. So the gang had dinner at Blue Ridge Grill, after which Sam went to play with Shadow for a few minutes. Dad did some trivia while waiting for the food to arrive – most of which Pete was the first to call out and answer.

SAT Score

Today was the day that Pete found out his SAT score of 1500, meaning he can probably go to almost any college that he chooses to. This was without any practice or exam prep classes. He’ll have to decide if he wants to take it again. He will probably take the ACT test first, so he has that for the schools that require it.

Be Prepared (to do Nothing)

Tonight’s Boy Scout Troop meeting was even more insufferable than the typical meeting, which is saying a lot. One bright spot was that Sam was commended by the Scoutmaster for dipping the Troop flag during the opening ceremony (which most people forget to do) and he did a good job learning about the Bowline knot (see picture above). But it was downhill from there. Thirty minutes doing absolutely nothing while the Senior Patrol Leader tried to figure out what was going on the following week at the “Open House”. Sometimes he would take a break from doing nothing to chastise the Scouts for making too much noise; then go back to doing nothing again, once everyone had quieted down suitably. After this, they broke out into small groups to do absolutely nothing for the remaining 45 minutes. Dad’s job was to supervise one of the groups and tell them every 5 minutes or so what they were supposed to be doing, immediately after which they would return to doing nothing. Somehow there was still more nothing to be done at the end of the meeting, so it went 15 minutes long for the 20 minute closing ceremony.

Haircut

Dad took Sam to get a haircut. This is always a crapshoot, since he doesn’t know how to describe how he wants it. (Which is “not too short” and also “not too long”). Today a guy cut it, who Sam had not seen before. Initially, Sam thought it was too short. But later he warmed up to it and it was a pretty good cut. They took a few pictures so they can show them to the stylist next time.