The Lindenbergs

I found out Friday afternoon that I'll be working on a 3-week billable project in New Jersey. My Monday morning 6:30 am flight was canceled (we got socked with fog), and I've been waiting on standby ever since. Worst case scenario is I take a confirmed 5:15 pm flight after waiting around in the airport since 9:30 am...

This weekend was fun. Pierce and I finished his Pinewood derby car. He picked a design last week from a Pinewood Derby book he got about a year ago. Cutting and shaping was done last week with he and I sanding, painting and assembling it on Saturday. Its a good looking car, but I don't think its as fast as the car we made last year (we tested them out on the kitchen floor).

Pierce enjoyed the build, but had to be dragged away from his multitude of other activities to get it done. Pierce's troop has a geezers race for parents and friends who'd also like to race. I asked Nora and Anna if they'd like a car this year, but they demurred. So I made one for myself. Its a replica of the Ecto-1, the car the Ghostbusters drove in the first GB movie. The car started out as a foam shape surrounding the derby wood block. I ultimately covered the foam shape with Bondo to better shape and sand it (as well as prep it for painting). In an effort to reduce weight, I routed out all the foam (leaving the Bondo shell) and cut the pine block to a bare minimum. Unfortunately, the car is still wildly overweight and probably will be disqualified and not allowed to race -but it was fun making it.

Pierce and Anna did Tai Kwan Do a couple of times last week. They both got their first (blue) strip on Wednesday for having memorized their "C" form. Saturday morning met with a lot of protest from Pierce about not wanting to "clutter up" his free day, but once he got to Tai Kwon Do they both had a great time.

Anna and Nora have been aggressively selling girl scout cookies and deliveries were made this weekend. Anna was less-than-keen to get started, but seemed to have a lot of fun once the process started. Nora pre-printed receipts for each of their customers and Anna filled in names and amounts for each delivery. Anna had so much fun with the receipts she made extras to give to Pierce and me. Nora tells me that Anna wanted to explore each house where a delivery was made.

Nora scheduled a cub scout field trip to an art exhibit at the near-by community college. Almost the entire den showed up (which was good), but the exhibit was wildly weird (which I'm not sure was good). There were a lot of abstract, 3-d pieces/sculptures that the kids got a little too close to. The exhibit was essentially empty, so pretty much every guard in the place (politely) followed us. Eventually the kids got the hint...

-Eric (Dad)