Field Day

Pete had Field Day at school last week. I think in the pictured event he is trying to transfer marbles from a pool to a frisbee using only his foot. Fun!

Loudoun county sets their school calendar to go until some crazy date like June 19. Then whenever there is a drop of snow, they can close school. But then they still have a bunch of days left over at the end of the year. The kids cleaned out their desks with about 2 weeks of school left. This had mom and dad wondering what they planned to do for the rest of the year.

As far as we can tell, the topics covered in the last two weeks are:

- Field Day

- Movie

- Pizza Party

- Kickball

- Another movie

- Heads down on your desk Day

- Wash the windows Day

Yeah, He's Good

Pete is so good at T-Ball, he hits with his eyes closed. Or so it seems, based on his picture. You would think in the age of digital photography, that they could take a second picture. I bet that would be cheaper than printing up forms and processing refunds. Anyhow, I guess I'll have to photoshop in Derek Jeter's eyes when I have a few minutes.

Trivia Round-up

Here are the answers to last week's trivia questions:

Thursday - Mystery Photo: It is a picture of Sam's legs

Friday - Eating Without Money: Pete learned that if you don't have enough money to pay the check, you have to wash dishes. He wanted dad to go without money so that dad would have to wash dishes. Congratulations to Aunt Stacey for guessing the correct answer.

Eating Without Money

Pete would like Dad to not bring any money the next time we go out to dinner.

You can guess why by posting a comment. I will post the answer next week.

Mystery Photo

Sam and dad took some pictures of objects around the house, for Pete to try to find. The above picture was Sam's idea. Pete found it without much difficulty.

Break With a View

After hiking up to the summit of the red trail overlooking Potomac View, it was time for a break. Pete and Sam are shown sitting on the bench Pete called the barbecue. Pete shared with everyone one of his "alternate" versions of Yankee Doodle that he learned at school. (I will just say that it ends with "and barbecued his weiner").

Sam declared that if we don't find our way back to the car, we can just sleep in the park on the benches. Pete and Sam then proceeded to argue for a few minutes over who will get to sleep on the highest imaginary bunk.

The red thing on the bench is the bouncy brain toy Pete took from the geocache.

Claude Moore Geocache

We had fun doing the only official geocache at Claude Moore Park in Sterling. Pete and mom were greeted by a snake when removing the container. Here are Pete and Sam looking through the toys. Their process of choosing a toy is generally: (1) look through lots of cool toys (2) choose to take another bouncy ball. Although it may appear that Sam walked to the cache, this is actually part of the 43 seconds during the hike that he was out of the "flying backpack".

Football Challenge

With a little research, Pete and Dad figured out that the father of the best player on Pete's T-Ball team played in the NFL for 12 years as a defensive back. So Pete and Dad decided to do the only sensible thing, which was to challenge them to a game of 2-on-2 football. The date for this game has not yet been set.

Pete and Dad practiced a bit over the weekend, including in the rain on Sunday. (Good practice for balance, and learning to catch the slippery ball). These are the offensive plays that Pete has learned so far:

1. Buttonhook
2. Stop and Go
3. Over the Shoulder
4. Criss-Cross
5. Hail Mary*
6. Pitch
7. Hand-off

* Note: sometimes Pete will say a little prayer during the Hail Mary, depending on how much space he has created between himself and the defender.

Sam has been the stand-in so far as defensive back. The plays may prove to be more difficult against a taller opponent.

Strangle Belt

One day Pete had his karate belt tied as shown above. I'm not sure what the story is with this. I will just have to post the picture and hope that Pete can provide a reasonable explanation in Comments.

Haircuts

Here are Pete and Sam after haircuts at the mall and then a brief hike/geocache in the woods next to the Sportsplex in Sterling. **Note, this was Sam's first haircut outside of the house. He did a great job with no complaining. In addition to the Webkinz, they are holding up the little bouncy balls that they found in the cache. We have accumulated so many bouncy balls, I think during a future storm our house will bust loose from the foundation and start bouncing down Ashburn Village Blvd.

Pete's hair looked a lot shorter as he was getting it cut, but you can see in the picture (about 1 hour later) that it immediately reverted back to it's pre-cut style. I think he has a little button somewhere that he can just squeeze to make more hair come out. Note, the style he agreed to when we looked through the book at the hair place was the "Ashton Kutcher".

Grounder Grounder Throw Throw

Here is Pete having a catch with cousin Shayna. She doesn't have a glove, but she is tough. She can catch with her bare hands.

This is the part of the yard where Pete and Dad like to play catch. The order must be grounder, grounder, throw, throw. Pete has become quite adept at fielding grounders. In his last T-Ball game, he had the best play we have seen this year. Playing second, he fielder a sharp grounder and then ran over to tag second base before the runner got there from first. The game was at Pete's elementary school. This meant that Dad and Sam could walk over and visit their friend, Tunnel.

Outdoor Achievement Award

Pete and I attended our last cub scout pack meeting of the year. Pete received his Outdoor Achievement Award patch, which he promptly ate.

Learning about the outdoors - check.

Showing respect for your equipment - still a work in progress.

We went outside for the second half of the meeting, where we shot off some water rockets and threw pies at the Scoutmaster.

Pete did quite well in scouting this year. He attended every pack meeting, all but 1 den meeting, and all but two outings for the year. He will also be attending scout camp for a week this summer.

Play Doh Snack

Don't worry, Sam is not getting ready to eat Play Doh. It just happens that the cotton candy Pete and I found on the counter is exactly the same color as the Play Doh he had been playing with.

Here is Pete's yummy cake. Maybe it is Play Doh, maybe it is cotton candy. You will have to take a bite to find out.

Networking Webkinz

Pete and Sam have figured out how to simultaneously log in to Webkinz.com and network their characters so they can visit each other's rooms and play games against one another.

We were watching something on TV the other day about what you want to be when you grow up. Sam said a pilot, and Pete said a computer scientist. I was thinking about this later, and decided that I think Pete would be a great lawyer. He has a razor sharp memory, strong command of language, and refusal to believe he is not on the correct side of an issue. These are the same qualities I always marvel at when I see lawyers testifying before the Supreme Court.

Caterpillar

Here is the caterpillar that Sam befriended at the last trip to the playground. We found one for Pete also. I believe Pete named them Caterpaul1 and Caterpaul2. Whenever Sam finds a friend at the playground, I am reminded of the motho incident.

Also notice Sam's shirt. When Sam wears this shirt, Pete and I like to point out that the shirt is 4 years older than Sam.

Trailside Geocache

Dad took Pete and Sam to Trailside Park. It takes its name because it is located just a few feet from the famous Washington Old Dominion Trail.


We have been there many times before, but this time we went to find the geocache that is located in the woods just about 100 feet away from the playground. Pete claims that he will be able to remember the spot so he can bring mom back to see the cache some time.

We also played the ice cream game. Sam was in charge of ice cream flavors, and Pete was in charge of handling the money and toppings.

Crazy Hair Day

One advantage of Pete's dreadfully long hair is that it gives him a number of options for Crazy Hair Day at school.

We did not have things such as Crazy Hair Day when I went to school. However, looking back at some of my pictures, I think we just treated every day as if it were.

Sam Tilts at Windmills

Since mom went to Myrtle Beach for 4 days to celebrate Mother's Day, dad got to spend an extended weekend playing with Pete and Sam.

If everyone in the world could spent four days hanging out with Sam, I am convinced that mankind would be far happier.

- Sam is overjoyed to do any activity. Ask Sam if he wants to help sweep the grass. Or stack some blocks. Or if he likes cereal. You will get a response such as in this video.
- If you take Sam to the playground, and then to Wendy's for lunch, when you sit down to eat lunch he will say "this is the best day ever".
- Sam will don a suit of plastic armor and attack Pete with no military objective and no hope for victory. When he has sufficiently recovered from his injuries, he will put the suit back on and attack again.
- At the end of one of those days where everything goes wrong, if you ask Sam what was the worst thing to happen he will not understand the question and will not be able to remember any problems that occurred.
- When playing a video game, Sam is thrilled to watch the opening credits, select a character, and achieve Game Over.
- Sam loves to watch someone else do something successfully. His joy is unaffected by whether he can do it.
- A few minutes after coming into the house from jumping on the trampoline, he will decide that he wants to jump on the trampoline again.
- Sam selects clothes based on comfort. Style is not relevant.
- When playing a game, after a player achieves victory Sam would like to continue playing until everyone has won.

Mouse Trap

Mouse Trap is a board game that teaches the following important lessons to young children:
- Physics
- failure
- swearing
- never try to help
- a mouse will sit still for a long time while loud things are happening around him
- the girl at the front of Target will give you money back for a toy

With mom off in North Carolina for the weekend, Sam's first idea was to play Mouse Trap. The first observation upon opening the box was that the instructions were only in Spanish. I am not making this up - the whole thing was Spanish. If there were an English set of instructions at some point, they are gone now. By the way, if there was ever one board game where you need the instructions, it is Mouse Trap.

This is how you play Mouse Trap:
1. Open the box
2. Pull child aside and instruct him or her to sit there and not touch anything for the next 20 minutes
3. Use whatever pieces you can find in the box to assemble a Rube-Goldberg apparatus
4. Confirm that none of sections A, B, C, D, or E are working properly
5. Hand the little trap piece to child and ask him or her to place it directly over a mouse token
6. Declare "mouse is trapped"
7. Put away all pieces
8. Hide game box in farthest corner of attic (sprinkle with insulation to cover)

Flintstones

Pete and I were watching The Flintstones the other day. Sam walked up and was trying to figure out what we were watching. His question: "Why are you watching a Fruity Pebbles video?"

Ahh, Nature

Ahh, nature.

A walk down a dirt path.

Smelling the flowers.

And, of course, finding an old roll of tape and wrapping it around your fingers.

Blokus

It is nice that Sam has reached the age where he can play a full board game without destroying the game or wandering away. Pretty soon he will start developing strategies.

Here Sam is playing Blokus with cousin Shayna. We had a fun few days when they came to visit. They are moving in a few weeks to Florida.

Motivation

Dad: "Pete, take these library books and go drop them into that slot while I wait in the car"

Pete: "No"

Dad: "Ok, you can watch me return them. You will observe that I have developed a special technique which allows me to run up to the slot, return the books, and run back to the car in a world record time of 2 minutes and 12 seconds"

Pete: "Your world record is toast. Give me the books."

Prisoner's Dilemma

The Prisoner's Dilemma is the most famous of all conundrums in philosophy and game theory. It deals with a circumstance where two prisoners are given an option to cooperate with one another, or act in their own self-interest. The unexpected mathematical conclusion of the game is that each person should choose not to cooperate and to act in his own self-interest, to the ultimate detriment of both.

On occasion, such as yesterday, mom decides to play out this experiment in real life. She will tell Pete and Sam: "If you boys can agree on a place for lunch, we will go there. If you can't agree, we will stay home." It does not take a mathematician or philosopher to guess how the story ends. (Hint: there is a lot of yelling)

Of course Pete and Sam have an advantage over the prisoners in the classic game, since they are permitted to openly collaborate with one another. Thus, I am optimistic that in the next 3-5 years the boys will reach an age of reason where they will work together for the greater good.

The Truth

Sam will always tell the truth. Sometimes this will infuriate Pete.

Example:
Dad: I hope nothing happens to my food while I'm washing my hands.

[washes hands. returns. food is gone.]
Pete: Hi Dad

Dad: All right, what happened to my food?
Pete: Well, the funny thing is, it got up and walked into the trash

Dad: Sam, did you see what happened to my food?

Sam: Me and Pete hid it on the counter

Pete: Sam!!!

This was a real one that took place last night:

Dad: Sam, quick! Eat one of Pete's berries before he comes out
[Sam eats a berry]

Dad: Pete, I have some bad news. One of your berries hopped out of the bowl and ran away

Sam: And I'm chewing it in my mouth

Bedtime Routine

Most kids have a bedtime routine. Of course, you probably guessed that Pete's has some unusual elements to it. I think prior to a sleepover, Caleb's mom once referred to his room at night as the "Vegas Strip".

In addition to having the radio tuned to Hot 99.5, the above picture shows two elements of Pete's sleep preparation:

1. Say a prayer to the cross made out of K'nex pieces
2. Turn on flashing blue lights (gift to Pete from Brian)

Trampoline

I've separated our medical records into two folders - the folder after April 2007 will be labeled "A.T." (After Trampoline).


If my eyes look tired lately, it is a combination of allergies and lying awake at night thinking about these quotes from The Simpsons episode "Bart's Inner Child":

"Kids, kids: once you get hurt, move aside and let other people jump"
"Stop jumping on me! I'm hurt."

"Yeah, I'm ok. Just pop my shoulder back in"

"I told you this was a bad idea"
"Checkmate, Mr. Trampoline"
"All right, all right...you win for now. But someday you'll rust!"
"Hey, no more trampoline. Let's jump on the car instead!"
"Each leap brings us closer to God.""

Webkinz

Say hello to Frogger and Libre.

They are Webkinz. This is what they would look like if they lived in a computer.

If you have not heard of Webkinz, all I can say is that I think you will. For example, on the news between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Star Student

Congratulations to Pete for being named 1st grade male P.E. Star Student for April. His class was also named the star class.

Bingo

Above and below are the only 2 pictures from bingo night last Friday where Pete and Sam are in the same frame together.

There were 10 bingo games. Pete did his own cards, and Dad and Sam shared cards. They ended up doing about 4 or 5 games when they weren't getting pizza or running around.

Mom was running around because she was the co-chair for the event.

There was also a raffle with 81 prizes. This is not even including the bingo prizes. I remember the good old days when raffles had 1 or 2 prizes. The kids got to pick which prize to go for. (Yes, our house is still full of tickets and envelopes.) Pete bought 50 tickets. Sam got some tickets too. Pete won some card games and a cool family fun pad.

This photo should give you some idea of the mass of humanity that attended this event. You may be able to see that Pete and Sam have the best seats in the house (thanks Jayne). There are also about 200 people in the bleachers that are off the left edge of the picture.

Pete's Shelves

Above is a picture of the new shelves and desk that Mom and Dad put up in Pete's room. Thanks also to Aunt Stacey for coming up and helping Mom paint the room.

Despite all of the objects in this picture, I believe only one of them has been mentioned in this blog before. Take a guess, then click here to see if you are right.

Contest: Why Is the Shower Curtain Closed

There is a good reason that the shower curtain is closed in the above picture. It is the first time it has been closed in a long time.

If you want to enter the contest, add a comment with your guess for why the curtain is closed. Closest to the correct answer is the winner. I will post the answer on Monday April 30.

------------------------

Answer: Pete and Sam are taking a bath. They are playing with squirt guns. They were squirting water all over the bathroom. Rather than take away the guns, dad came up with the idea to close the shower curtain.

Winner: I think Melly Mel had the closest guess.

Cheezy Pleezyoid

Sam woke us up about 4 times during the night on Sunday night. He said he was worried about Cheezy Pleezyoid. I have no idea what deep recess in his brain this character came from, but it is such a cool name I almost think it was worth the lost sleep. I think this would be a great name for a Boss in a video game. Espacially a video game with a pizza theme.

Later on Monday he changed the name of his enemy to Cheezy Pleezy. Apparently, this foe can be thwarted by spraying some ant killer over Sam's door.

Weekend Activities

Here are some things Pete and Sam did this past weekend:

Friday
- went to Bingo at Pete's school. Mom was the co-chair for this massive PTA event that featured about 500 people.

Saturday
- marched in the Little League parade. Dad was a traffic control volunteer, so Pete and Sam walked with mom in the parade
- Pete had a piano lesson
- went to Open House at Pete's sports camp
- went to party on our street that had about 100 people. It was a going-away party for one of the neighbors.

Sunday
- went to church
- went hiking and geocaching with cub scouts at Balls Bluff park
- helped mom and dad assemble a trampoline

First Tee-Ball Game

Pete had his first tee-ball game on Tuesday. It has been very cold this April, so the playing conditions were windy with temperature in the 40's. He played pitcher, catcher, and first base. They rotate the positions for each game.

Note, there was no score or winner in the game. Because the teams in the field are almost never able to record an out, they just let everyone bat three times and then the game is over.

Photo Analysis

Just as art historians analyze the great works, you can often look at Pete/Sam photos and extract the story therein.

Cousin Skyler: "I wonder what is at the top of those steps? Probably Sam's room. When they are not looking, I will head up there and put his trains into drawers."

Sam: "That Skyler is formulating a plan. I'd better keep an eye on him."

Pete: "Why do I have the feeling that I am reading this story to myself?"

Tony Hawk Pro Skater

Sam has started to develop some proficiency in Tony Hawk Pro Skater.

He can now do the following:
1. Boardslide

2. Handplant

3. 360 Ollie
4. Select an arena by request (e.g. warehouse, mall, streets of Minneapolis...)

5. Say "That's what I'm talking about, baby"

Red Belt

Congratulations to Pete on getting his red belt at karate.

The red belt test is the first of the very difficult tests. Pete had to pass a fitness test, including running several miles. He also had to fight in sparring matches, and demonstrate all of the forms and combinations for the white, gold, orange, green, purple, and blue belts.

In the picture above, Pete is putting on his sparring equipment.

If Pete is able to continue with his progress, the next belt would be Brown belt, followed by Black belt.

By the way, there is a new rule when he is fighting with Dad and Sam which is that Pete is not allowed to kick anyone with a full-force kick.

Grassbox 2

Pete and Dad are very excited about the new addition to our yard - Grassbox 2.

The original Grassbox lived for one summer at our house in South Riding. I'm guessing it was probably the summer of 2002.

I'm not sure if any photos exist of the original Grassbox. We will be posting some pictures of Grassbox 2 later in the summer. Until then, you will have to use your imagination.

Easter Leftover Photo Wrap-up

This photo was taken just after Pete broke his basket, tossing it around BEFORE the egg hunt even began. You can see that he is trying to hide the fact that it is broken.


Here is Sam desperately looking for a pink, blue, or green egg. I wonder where one could be?


Believe it or not, we found this guy sitting in the front yard on Easter Sunday.

Tricky Questions

Some questions are harder to answer than others. The other night, we were sitting around and Sam asked this:

If your toes are on fire, is that blood?

Four Square

I learned some interesting things when I reviewed Pete's April class newsletter, which noted that they will be learning the four-square writing method this month. I know this is a cutting edge method, because it's not even in Wikipedia yet. I do plan to add it, however, when I have a moment.

The first observation I gathered from reading about the four square method is how school is so different than it was 30 years ago. Today they have four square writing methods, and crazy grids for multiplication. All we had was a pencil and a prayer. I think now I know why my writing is so rambling all of the time. I think I somehow learned the seven heptagon method.

My second thought was that I really enjoy these class newsletters. I think maybe I will be learning some things better by teaching them to myself the second time around.

A final thought struck me about the irony of four square. When you go to school playgrounds, many of them have Four Square grids painted on them, but I suspect that the students haven't the slightest idea what the boxes are for or how to play the game. So I guess four square has moved from the playground to the classroom, with each genaration left knowing about one and not the other.

In summary, school newsletters are interesting and the four square method is an easy way to write something without having to worry about going outside the box. By the way, this blog post has been written in the four square writing method. For a nice overview of this exciting technique, click here.

Easter Egg Hunts

It seems that every year there are more and more Easter Egg Hunts. This year we had the following:

1. Friday night there was an Easter Egg / pizza / movie night at the karate school. Pete and Sam both went (along with Pete's friend Brandon), so mom and dad had a romantic trip to Home Depot and Toys R Us. There were 80 kids at the event. Pete won an Easter basket (see picture, below) for finishing in first place in a competition they had. The competition was not egg-related. It involved various physical feats. Apparently Pete also won the other competition they had, so they gave the prize for that one to the second place finisher. This is also the event where Sam collided with another boy, who ended up with a broken nose.


2. The Easter Bunny left eggs scattered throughout the house for the kids to find Sunday morning.

3. Later Sunday morning, there were some egg hunting activities at Church. Pete won a large candy necklace for finding the match to his egg. They also had a little petting zoo, with bunnies, chicks, and lambs. The poor animals were outside in about 30 degree temperatures (April cold snap we have had for almost a week now). Sam also got a little stuffed lamb that he calls "lamby". Coincidentally, I think this is what God called Jesus.

4. Sunday 1:30 was the annual Merrywood Court Easter Egg Hunt (picture below - of course Pete is the only kid not plainly visible in the picture). This year they color-coded the eggs, with color restrictions on each of the age groups (to make sure the little kids could get some of them). The best part of this event is that everyone says the pledge-of-allegiance before the hunting can begin.

5. Sunday evening we did some additional in-house egg hunts. First mom hid the eggs, then Pete, then Sam, and finally dad. The best part was when Sam hid the eggs. We usually give little hints to help each other find things. For example, "If an egg is what you seek, walk three steps forward then take a peek" or "to find an egg in all this junk, look for something with a trunk". But Sam's hints are the best because they have no subtlety. They are always like: "If you want to be the winner, look on that shelf right there". Then he points to the egg and starts screaming.

Pop Music on Jeopardy

The generation gap became apparent the other night as I watched the Pop Music category in Jeopardy. Click here to see the questions, if you want to try them before reading the commentary below.

I am quite certain that Pete would know exactly 4 of the 5 answers - Justin Timberlake, Fergie, Panic at the Disco, and My Chemical Romance - and he would have no clue about the other one. In contrast, I also suspect that most of my generation would only be able to answer 1 of the 5 - the one about Madonna. (Is she still alive?)

Play Doh With Cousins

Here Pete is doing some Play-Doh with cousins Shayna and Skyler. Sam is not pictured - he must have run out to the store for some groceries.

Play-Doh is something that used to be easy:
1. Make an imaginary figure.
2. Put Play-Doh back in container and close lid.

With the newfangled Play-Doh kits, it is more like:
1. Take out various Play-Doh devices
2. Try to squeeze Play-Doh through various molds
3. Too hard to squeeze. Ask parents to help
4. Ask parents to spend 20 minutes trying to get Play-Doh out of holes/nooks/crannies in molds
5. Try to eat creations that look exactly like food
6. Throw all devices into large bin. Don't bother trying to close the lid

Also, you may have observed the Spongebob toys in the picture. These are like the "magic 8-ball". You ask it a question, and get an answer that contains a bad nautical pun. Sam is funny because he never asks it a question. He just makes declarations.

Dad: "Sam, ask Spongebob a question"
Sam: "Ok."
Sam: "I am going to have pizza for lunch and pizza for dinner"
[shakes it violently. looks for answer]
Sam: "It says Crab-solutely!!!"

Tee Ball

Pete has started playing Tee Ball. We have had three practies so far. He is on the Texas Rangers. Here he is playing shortshop. Clearly, his fielding stance resembles that of a well-known former Texas Ranger. You can see that Pete is wearing his Rangers cap in the picture. The reason he is wearing his Eagles shirt is that the Jerseys didn't come in yet.

Last week dad and Pete had the chance a few times for their first real catch - the quintessential father-son activity. Pete can catch most fly balls if they are thrown to his glove side at eye level. He is also pretty good at fielding grounders. By the way, it seems that 99% of all batted balls in Tee Ball are grounders.

Horsepen Hidey Hole

We went Geocaching on Sunday, joined by cousins Shayna and Skyler. Shayna is the one crossing the brook in the picture. The cache was called Horsepen Hidey Hole. It was a good cache, with lots of toys and two travel bugs. Sam took a Cookie Monster travel bug. We also left a travel bug that Shayna brought from Pennsylvania.

Cousin Skyler is funny. He is at the age where he is learning a lot of words. He usually says "no" before everything. This can mean one of three things. Sometimes it means "no". Sometimes it means "yes". And sometimes it represents a whole sentence.

Examples of Skyler-talk:

"no-night-night" - This means "I don't want to go to bed"

"no-juice" - This means "I would like some juice"

"noooo" - Walking to the playground on Saturday, this meant "I want to ride on Shayna's back"

Pete Wuz Heer

Good news - in case aliens invade Earth and investigate our kitchen door, they will know that Pete was here.


On a related note, if you had bet on Sam being the first one to write on the walls then you lose.

Trip to Radio Station

Pete's Tiger Scout group went to visit a local radio station last Saturday in Leesburg, VA. It is actually in an old house that was converted to a radio station, at the end of a cul-de-sac in a residential neighborhood. The station is WAGE 1200 AM, and has been operating for many years.

They recorded their own commercial, "This is the Tiger Scouts from Pack 1151. Good morning, Loudoun County!". Then the station manager played the commercial a few times during his oldies show. We heard it back at home right after the 11:00 news.

They liked the control room. Everything was computerized. They even lock the doors at night, and leave the computer playing syndicated shows until they come in around 5:00 in the morning. The station was a fascinating mix of old and new. For example, you can see the ancient clock on the wall, in the same room with the fancy touch screen. Other rooms had racks of old magazines and tapes, next to both old and new recording equipment.

Pete and Christopher found some satellite dishes just beside the station.