Ethan is officially now a Boy Scout after bridging to Troop 370 earlier this week. He enjoyed his five years as a Cub Scout, but it is time to move on. And move on he did. He's already away on his own with his new troop on a weekend campout on Mt. Diablo. This was the first time for him to actually backpack into the campsite.
Here is a video clip of his graduation ceremony that included him earning his Arrow of Light award, which is the only award that moves with a cub scout to boy scouting. The ceremony included scouts getting their Arrow of Light award presented to them by the Order of the Arrow.
We're experiencing a scorcher this weekend. The weather forecast shows highs today into the upper 80s, but this morning in the shade outside the backdoor the thermometer was already registering over 90 degrees. How's the weather in your area?
The Smith family has their annual Easter Egg Hunt and celebration at their house. This was the 24th year of this event that was started for their daughter who is now gainfully employed in NYC. It's been a few years since she last attended this event named for her.
Being that they have a very large piece of property, a rarity in these parts, there are many places where eggs can be hidden. Last year was the first year in several years that we missed the hunt. The kids made it this year, although dad had to stay behind as a friend was coming over to help prune trees.
The day started off inauspiciously enough with a fried egg.
The Smiths go all out for this event, barely nosing out their annual Super Bowl party for Best Event honors. There's usually quite the banquet of food provided by the hosts but also the side dishes and desserts brought by the many families that attend the event. The main event has two objectives: to fill up Easter baskets with as much chocolate candy as possible and to find the three special eggs. The candy is easy to find. There's so much candy scattered about their yard that it's difficult to make sure that all the candy is not stepped on. The hunt is started in waves starting with the smallest seekers scampering off at the sound of Dan's duck caller. That's Dan below. I think he was wearing his hunting jacket this year.
The kids were ready with their empty Easter baskets and the eager egg seekers all gathered at the ready at the official orange start line. Such a straight and evenly drawn start line is not needed for this start but would come in handy for a later event that is described below.
This is what it looks like in terms of finding candy. It's just scattered all over the lawn that seems to go on forever. Just look for the shiny foil covered candy. Some people are really just satisfied with this.
Then there's the searching and searching for the special eggs...up in trees...along fence lines and in the thickets of plant leafs.
The first egg is usually the most difficult to find for whatever reason, causing Dan to climb the steps to his official announcer's post to provide hint. "The blue egg is not where you think it is, but maybe near something blue." Or something like that.
And then sometimes you get success!
And even more success every blue or yellow moon. The story behind the yellow egg find this year was that it was Ryan who found it, but he gave it to Ethan. What a great little brother, huh?
Yes, the special thing about the special eggs is that the finders of these eggs are awarded with their very own large chocolate Easter bunny!
The final event of the day is the egg walk. If you blink, you will miss the race. Sometimes the race judges have to go to the cameras and breakdown a photo finish. Sometimes there are eggs flying every which way. It's a good thing that the eggs are hardboiled. The races are divided by age with the level of competition increasing with each age level.
An afternoon visit to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco included neon colored animals, some good food and a visit to the Morrison Planetarium. Here's a video recap:
On a story about "best fries" was an entry for one Bay Area location called Frjtz in SF. They have burgers, sandwiches, crepes, breakfast and even mussels on their menu. Will have to go check it out one of these days. Do you have a favorite place for fries?
[Gotye:]
Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember
You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was glad it was over
But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and I feel so rough
No you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know
[Kimbra:]
Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
Part of me believing it was always something that I'd done
But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know
[Gotye:]
But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and I feel so rough
And you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know
[x2]
Somebody
(I used to know)
Somebody
(Now you're just somebody that I used to know)
(I used to know)
(That I used to know)
(I used to know)
Somebody
We visited Uncle John earlier this year. He was the biggest Cal Bears fan that we knew. Red flowers are very common at grave sites, but blue ones are not. So we took some pictures and touched them up just for John. First here is the untouched picture.
The following are the touched up photos. Just what did we change?
A page of ink drawings among personal papers from 1981 released Saturday March 17 2012, by the Thatcher Archive at Britain's Cambridge University. Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was so fascinated by U.S. President Ronald Reagan that she snatched and kept this page of his doodles at a G7 summit, the former British prime minister's newly released papers reveal. Reagan left the piece of paper sitting on a table at the meeting near Ottawa, Canada in July 1981, adorned with a scribbled eye, a man's muscular torso and several heads including one that looks like a self portrait. (AP Photo/The Thatcher Archive)
This was Ethan fifth and final pinewood derby since he will be moving up to Boy Scouting later this year. He came into this race as the defending champion and probably was rooting more for his brother than for himself. He had a fast car, hitting a top scaled speed of almost 201 mph, and had Spider Turtle in the cockpit
This was the second pinewood derby for Ryan. Last year he finished just off the medal stand. This year he surprised all of us and took home top honors. It's hard to say what he did right, maybe a little help from mom, dad and our cubmaster. Ryan's car reached a top scaled speed of over 203 mph.
It was a memorable day for us in more than one way. It was Senior Day at Cal with two of the more popular Bears in recent memory playing their last game at home.
Harper Kamp after five years and countless bumps and bruises, one missed year due to injury and the firing of the coach, Ben Braun, who recruited him to Cal. When Braun was shown the door after Kamp's freshman year, Harper almost followed Kamp out the door to UNLV. He decided to stay with the Bears and the rest is history.
Jorge Gutierrez was Montgomery's first recruit at Cal. It was a lucky break for both sides as it turns out. There was a slot open for Jorge only because another player had asked out of his scholarship when Braun was fired. Jorge was available only because he was not highly recruited out of a prep school in Las Vegas.
The part of the memory will be our luck to be chosen for the pre-game experience to take in the Bears' pregame practice from court-level. The only way this could've been better was if they allowed to remain in the court side seats for the game.
This means that we also got our photo up on the big screen during the second half of the game. The kids were pretty excited about it especially Ryan. At first when I told him that we were going to be able to see ourselves on the big screen, his reaction was, "I don't want our picture up there." Later during the game, he kept asking when our photo would appear.
What made the evening perfect was that the Bears won!
Everyone went home happy. Even the larger than life posters of Jorge and Harper.
And also the large contingent of Jorge fans who were at the game wearing yellow matching T-shirts. In the group were Jorge's parents with his father trying to capture the moment with a video camera. That's his mother holding up the Mexican flag and his father to the left of the flag in the photo below.
Ethan and I were on-hand for this thriller that featured three technical fouls called and a game of "I can do better than that" between two former Golden Gopher teammates. Joseph of Oregon won the scoring battle, but Cobbs' Bears won the game. Ethan says that this was the best game that he's ever seen in person.
