The Flat Hat: Men's Golf: W&M sets school record for 54-holes at Sea Trail
We're going to have to get CollegeGirl interested in the golf team! William and Mary participated this past weekend in the Sea Trail Intercollegiate which is just across the bridge from her grandparents' beach house. The Tribe placed fourth out of 19 teams.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
CollegeGirl Update: Dining with polMom in Richmond!
While the boys and I were out camping, CollegeGirl paid a surprise visit to Richmond!
Her way-cool Saturday history class had traveled up to historic Saint Mary's City, Maryland which was the site of the fourth permanent settlement in British North America as well Maryland's first capital. It has a living history center with costumed interpreters similar to Colonial Williamsburg.
After spending the day attending court, being put in the stockade, learning about tobacco farming, and climbing aboard the replica square-rigged ship Maryland Dove, the class headed back to Williamsburg and decided to stop in Richmond for dinner at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. In an act of daughterly devotion that earned many, many brownie points, she phoned her mother at home to ask if she would like to join them. polMom was so excited that she called us out at camp to let us know she was going to see her.
Her visit was brief but she did fill in some of the holes that her Facebook account didn't provide. She's still has major love for William & Mary, enjoys her classes, and is apparently still doing well. She didn't miss a beat from high school and is still quite the social butterfly, participating in lots of clubs and activities ... some of them of questionable legality. She's very proud of completing the traditional Triathlon, a set of three tasks to be completed by each student prior to graduation. I won't post the tasks here but feel free to check out this Wikipedia article on W&M traditions and see what you think of our saintly daughter.
She hangs out a lot with her fellow Dinwiddie Hall dorm residents in which have really seemed to bond into a great social and support unit. Dinwiddie is the smallest of the freshman dorms and is also the furthest away from the academic campus tucked back in the woods by Lake Matoaka. With only 44 students in the dorm, the setting is almost familial and the residents do a lot of activities together, recently forming the Flying Lemurs intramural team.
Apparently, the local WaWa on Richmond Road is something akin to a religious site and has even prompted the creation of a "Cult of the WaWa" group on Facebook. CollegeGirl and her hoard wait until the wee hours of the morning and creep across campus in the dark of night on their pilgrimage for late-night (actually early morning) snacks. If you're thinking of sending something to her, one of these would be a welcome gift.Apparently there was blackout last night in Williamsburg which triggered a crisis amongst the many Wawa fanatics. CollegeGirl posted this at 1:08am this morning:
Was anyone else part of the 50 or so people waiting in front of WaWa after the blackout? Wawa closed?? I about died...Hopefully we'll hear more from her in the days ahead but were very grateful for even the brief time she was able to spend with her mom.
Laid-back Scout weekend
Our Boy Scout troop camped out at our local scout reservation this past weekend ... just for the heck of it. We had originally planned to travel over the mountains to Lake Sherando but the group campsite was already booked every weekend in September by the time we got our ducks in a row. In attempting to come up with an alternative we were reminded of desire expressed by some of the boys during summer camp for a campout just for the sake of going camping. No structured activities, no big event, but just camping for the fun of it. So we got a reservation for a campsite in Douglas Fleet and actively engaged in non-planning of activities.
And it was great!
Aside from the rain while we were setting up on Friday night, the weekend couldn't have been much better. On Saturday and Sunday we were blessed with perfect camping weather. Bright sunny skies with highs in the upper 70s and lows at night down around 50. Absolutely beautiful.
Through a reservation quirk we also had the entire reservation to ourselves. Turns out that the council office shouldn't have allowed us to camp as there was a big triathlon taking place on Sunday. The camp director, who I know pretty well, stopped by on Friday night to ask how we managed to get a reservation. After we discussed the circumstances he said we'd be fine as we would be leaving before the activities took place and even though the organizers were setting everything up on Saturday we should be okay using the trails and such.
While no formal activities were planned, the adult leaders (all 3 of us), and the older Scouts all said they'd be happy to help anyone complete rank requirements or teach Scout skills. This worked out extremely well with some motivated youth learning woods tools, fire building, knot tying, lashings, cooking, plant & animal identification, among other topics.
Around 2pm we led the Scouts on a 5-mile hike using the new circumferential trail that goes around the reservation. Again, the weather was perfect and everyone got to see whole sections of the camp that we hadn't been to before. Near the start we stopped by to admire the new shooting area at Brady Saunders before diving into the woods and heading over to the Cub Camp side of the reservation. This was nice because we took "Angelo's Trail" over which is a nature trail dedicated to one of the boys from our Cub Scout pack who died when he was just eight years old.
I think this campout may become a staple for us in September as it doesn't require a lot of pre-planning and was very well received by the boys who went. We do our annual program planning in August so September is always one of the harder campouts to plan because of the short amount of time available to make reservations, secure equipment, line up transportation, etc.
A great way to spend the weekend.
And it was great!
Aside from the rain while we were setting up on Friday night, the weekend couldn't have been much better. On Saturday and Sunday we were blessed with perfect camping weather. Bright sunny skies with highs in the upper 70s and lows at night down around 50. Absolutely beautiful.
Through a reservation quirk we also had the entire reservation to ourselves. Turns out that the council office shouldn't have allowed us to camp as there was a big triathlon taking place on Sunday. The camp director, who I know pretty well, stopped by on Friday night to ask how we managed to get a reservation. After we discussed the circumstances he said we'd be fine as we would be leaving before the activities took place and even though the organizers were setting everything up on Saturday we should be okay using the trails and such.
While no formal activities were planned, the adult leaders (all 3 of us), and the older Scouts all said they'd be happy to help anyone complete rank requirements or teach Scout skills. This worked out extremely well with some motivated youth learning woods tools, fire building, knot tying, lashings, cooking, plant & animal identification, among other topics.
Around 2pm we led the Scouts on a 5-mile hike using the new circumferential trail that goes around the reservation. Again, the weather was perfect and everyone got to see whole sections of the camp that we hadn't been to before. Near the start we stopped by to admire the new shooting area at Brady Saunders before diving into the woods and heading over to the Cub Camp side of the reservation. This was nice because we took "Angelo's Trail" over which is a nature trail dedicated to one of the boys from our Cub Scout pack who died when he was just eight years old.
I think this campout may become a staple for us in September as it doesn't require a lot of pre-planning and was very well received by the boys who went. We do our annual program planning in August so September is always one of the harder campouts to plan because of the short amount of time available to make reservations, secure equipment, line up transportation, etc.
A great way to spend the weekend.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Getting behind again!
Whew! Lots of stuff going on and I'm once again behind in my blogging. I don't know how people do this every day. However, I'll try and post a few updates tonight after the Scout meeting. Lots to talk about so stay tuned!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Not Just an American Shrine
There's another way to keep up with CollegeGirl. She's taking a very cool history class on Saturdays that focuses on the history of the Tidewater area during the colonial and revolutionary periods ... pretty much from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to the death of Thomas Jefferson in 1826. In return for giving up the bulk of her day on Saturdays, the classes are conducted as field trips to various sites around the Tidewater area.Part of the class is writing a journal and they're available for viewing online. You can read CollegeGirl's journal by clicking here. For those technically savvy family members, you can also subscribe to her journal entries via the RSS feed icon on the upper right-hand section of the webpage.
Her first entry is entitled "Not Just an American Shrine" and provides proof that she's actually attending class, enjoying the experience, and can still write very well.
Enjoy!
Dude, Where's My Bus?
Another banner day for the transportation department of Henrico County Public Schools.
Pretty much the same story as last week. No bus pick up for OlderSon. Call the transportation office and, sure enough, the shuttle's already left Freeman for Highland Springs. This one has a couple of additional features, however.
"The normal bus didn't run today because it had been vandalized." Okay, where was the substitute? "Oh, he says he drove the whole route, your son must not have been at the bus stop." No, he was at the bus stop for almost an hour. "Well, the driver said he ran the whole route." I guess he was wrong because my son is still here. "No, your son must not have been at the stop." Yes, he was ... for an hour now. "Are you sure he was at the right place?" He was standing under the street sign for Sweetbriar and Woodberry roads ... yes, he was there. The bus was not. "Well the driver said he ran the whole route so we let the bus go to Highland Springs."
So again, polMom has to drive OlderSon to the other side of the county. When they get to the school OlderSon is, of course, late. When they check in at the office with the many, many other students who are also late they try to give him an unexcused tardy.
Pardon me? He didn't get a bus this morning. "Yes, then he's late." No, you don't understand. The bus never came for him. "Uh, huh. He's still late." No, we live on the other side of the county, his bus never came, they released the shuttle when they shouldn't have, and we had to drive all the way out here. "That's a long drive. I'm sorry. He's still late."
Have you ever seen those cartoons where the person's face will get redder and redder and then steam will start to come out of their ears (with a little whistling noise) while their eyes begin to bulge from their sockets? Because that's how I imagine polMom as she stalked back to the car and called the transportation department.
She managed to get a hold of a nice lady who, again, assured us this would never happen again. Plus she said she'd call the school to tell them not to make our boy all tardy.
Can't wait for tomorrow.
Pretty much the same story as last week. No bus pick up for OlderSon. Call the transportation office and, sure enough, the shuttle's already left Freeman for Highland Springs. This one has a couple of additional features, however.
"The normal bus didn't run today because it had been vandalized." Okay, where was the substitute? "Oh, he says he drove the whole route, your son must not have been at the bus stop." No, he was at the bus stop for almost an hour. "Well, the driver said he ran the whole route." I guess he was wrong because my son is still here. "No, your son must not have been at the stop." Yes, he was ... for an hour now. "Are you sure he was at the right place?" He was standing under the street sign for Sweetbriar and Woodberry roads ... yes, he was there. The bus was not. "Well the driver said he ran the whole route so we let the bus go to Highland Springs."
Pardon me? He didn't get a bus this morning. "Yes, then he's late." No, you don't understand. The bus never came for him. "Uh, huh. He's still late." No, we live on the other side of the county, his bus never came, they released the shuttle when they shouldn't have, and we had to drive all the way out here. "That's a long drive. I'm sorry. He's still late."
Have you ever seen those cartoons where the person's face will get redder and redder and then steam will start to come out of their ears (with a little whistling noise) while their eyes begin to bulge from their sockets? Because that's how I imagine polMom as she stalked back to the car and called the transportation department.
She managed to get a hold of a nice lady who, again, assured us this would never happen again. Plus she said she'd call the school to tell them not to make our boy all tardy.
Can't wait for tomorrow.
A weekend of Cheerful Service
OA Fall Service Weekend
Originally uploaded by stepol
OlderSon and I spent the weekend out at Camp T. Brady Saunders to participate in the Fall Service Weekend for the Nawakwa Order of the Arrow Lodge. The Order of the Arrow, or OA, is the Boy Scout's national honorary society for experienced campers, based on Native American traditions, and dedicated to the ideal of cheerful service. They hold service weekends in the spring, summer, and fall to complete work projects at the camp.
Also, Scouts who were elected to the OA go through an Ordeal after which they are welcomed as full members in the Lodge. For the second session in a row, OlderSon was an enlangomat which is a guide or big brother to the ordeal candidates. OlderSon was in charge of the Eagle Clan group of candidates and once again performed his job well. If he serves again in the spring he receives a special red elangomat sash to keep.
The camp was hit by two pretty brutal storms in August so much of the work to be done involved cutting up fallen trees and dragging brush out of the camping/activity areas and back into the woods. I spent most of the morning doing that but also worked in the administration building at the Cub Camp fixing computers and doing web work that the council wanted done.
Early Saturday afternoon I got to take a break to see a father/son combo from our troop go through the Brotherhood ceremony. After 10 months as an Ordel member, OA members can seal their membership by going through the Brotherhood ceremony which I did just this past June. Going through the Brotherhood process is probably the best way to go through a service weekend. You learn a lot about the customs and goals of the OA program that kind of flew by during your Ordeal weekend. Also, the Brotherhood ceremony is very well done and I really enjoyed even just watching it as a participant.
After dinner, the three of us went back down to the OA circle to see another member of our troop, actually our current SPL, go through the Ordeal ceremony and be inducted as a new member. Again, a great ceremony that's always performed well by our award-winning ceremony team. We had a lot of new members so they actually ran three ceremonies with performance by the Lodge's dance team in between.
The weather was great and OlderSon got to use the Hennessy Hammock tent that he order back in June. He had just missed out on using at the last backpacking trip to Three Ridges (polMom called when we were halfway to the mountains to say that it had arrived). He had glowing reviews about it so I think it will be a staple in his camping experiences from now on.
This weekend also marked the 98th night of Scout camping he has done since joining the troop in March of 2004. The troop's camping again this coming weekend which will be nights 99 and 100 for him. That earns him the cool National Camping Award for 100 Nights and Days of camping. Actually, Scouts may include camping that they've done with their family while they were Boy Scouts so in reality he's well over the number needed. There's a Court of Honor coming up at the end of the month so it'll be cool if he gets it at that ceremony.
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