No Kegle this year but we keep the Stinky Shoe

Yesterday we held the 2nd Annual Kegel Challenge which is a bowling tournament that our troop puts on with Troop 799. The idea was to have a fun and friendly competition with another troop in our area to meet new Scouts and to broaden our Scouting horizons. It's actually a lot of fun and is helping to forge some links between the units. Last year, each PLC attended a troop meeting at the other troop and 799 joined us on our annual ski trip to Timberline (as they will this year as well).

The tournament works this way: each Scout and leader bowls a game. The six (this year seven) highest-scoring Scouts from each troop then bowl a second game. The highest combined score of those teams wins the coveted Kegel trophy which is a bowling pin. All other Scouts also get to bowl a second game for fun.

There is also a competition among the adult leaders for an equally-coveted prize: the Stinky Shoe award. This is a size 14 bowling shoe (that's not really stinky at all) that we've fashioned with brass plaques on the bottom. The premise is similar to the Kegel challenge except only the top three adult leaders from each team compete. Plus the boys are a lot better behaved than the adults. There's quite a bit of trash talking down there on that last lane.

The results this year were the same as last year but with bigger margins. The Scouts from Troop 799 retained the Kegel by 52 pins with a score of 632 to 580. Last year they won by four pins. And also like last year, the adult leaders from Troop 737 keep possession of the Stinky Shoe by a whopping 110 pins with a score of 449 to 339. Last year the margin was a mere two pins. But since the ultimate goal was to have fun I think we all won.

OlderSon, YoungerSon, and myself all competed and I think it's safe to say that none of us are destined for the PBA any time soon although after posting a 72 in the first round I hit my stride and got a 146 in the second round which I think is about the best game I've ever bowled.

... and the hotel was great.

Clay held the IT Architecture meeting at the Doubletree Paradise Valley Resort which was really, really nice. The picture above is the view from my balcony/patio which overlooked both the putting green and the South Pool. The landscaping was beautiful (obviously), the room was neat & spacious, and the meeting facilities were ... just okay. I guess it's hard to make big rectangular rooms interesting but it was quite a let down from the rest of the beautifully appointed resort.

My room was on the other side of the very large property from the lobby area. It was quite a hike going back and forth from the room but the surroundings made it a pleasant trek. I passed a sign several times pointing the way to the "Sonoran Desert Cactus Garden" before my curiosity got the better of me and I went to check it out. Wow. Very cool. OlderSon is a huge fan of cactus so I went back several times to get photos of it in different light. Glad I made the effort.

Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Scottsdale there are worse places to stay than here.

Architecture in Scottsdale

I ran across this quote from James McGovern's Enterprise Architecture blog about a tech fest he attended:

Having a conversation, even for one minute of something that isn't the dog and pony show is like methadone. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel but wonder if you are strong enough to take the first step. The journey is long and as you progress, you realize that others around you are caught in the same trap and also are struggling.

It pretty much sums up my feelings about the big IT Architecture team meeting we had out in Scottsdale last week. It was great to spend time with a group of colleagues who were (mostly) committed to looking at the strategic view of the company. A nice change from the day-to-day tactical demands of the enterprise.

And it was really nice to meet all the people I only knew as a voice on the other end of the phone. Of course I got to see the core EA team members: Andy, Mike, and Jim along with Rodney, our newest EA member from Concentra who I met for the first time. Also got to meet the other dozen or so IT Architecture team members which was particularly nice since I rarely talk to any of them outside of the biweekly conference call. Getting to sit down with them and talk casually about their work was extremely valuable to me.

I also finally got to meet Stan, the SVP I've reported to for almost a year but never met. He came with Maria, our (newish) CIO, to deliver a presentation on approved projects for 2008 and along with their vision for architecture. I about cried when Maria talked about how Enterprise Architecture was near and dear to her heart and how important she felt our efforts were. It's one thing for our team to talk about it but having the CIO in charge of several thousand IT professionals come out and say how it important it is made the 4500 miles and many, many hours of travel time worth it.

Unpacking Halloween

YoungerSon and I went over to the storage place to put away a couple of things from the house but also to bring back our huge amount of Halloween items. Four big bins plus several trash bags full of foam and plastic pumpkins. We do Halloween up pretty big and we've collected an inordinate amount of decorations and such.

Our discovery last year of Fun-Kins, realistic hollow foam pumpkins, was a big turning point for us. We've always done very elaborate pumpkin carvings and tried to have about ten pumpkins out for Halloween. Unfortunately, because of work, school, Scouts, clubs, etc. we were carving them later and later. The past couple of years we were carving them right up until 6pm on Halloween. These new foam pumpkins let us carve them in the evenings days and weeks before Halloween and we get to reuse them year after year.

For instance, I've been carving the same Virginia Cavalier pumpkin for years. It's very detailed and takes me quite a while to get it all carved up. Some of the cuts leave only a very thin strip of flesh to hold things together. As the pumpkin ages over the evening, it begins to sag and fall apart as you can see in this pic from 2005. Last year, however, I carved it into a foam pumpkin and could get it just how I wanted it. Better yet, it's just waiting to be put out this year so I can spend my time on a new pumpkin design.

polMom just finished a new William and Mary foam pumpkin last for CollegeGirl. She made a one with a real pumpkin last year because CollegeGirl thought that making a permanent one would tempt fate and she might not get into W&M. No worries about that now so polMom created an absolutely beautiful pumpkin. We'll have to get pics of it up after CollegeGirl gets to see it this weekend.

Jott is very cool.

I am sitting here at lunch with Carl and Mani and we are just talking about Web 2.0 technology so I want to demonstrate the very cool technology that I had found, so I am going to give them my blog site address and let them go to if after lunch and they can see that when I am saying here right now is showing up on the blog site as we speak.
Click here to listen

Powered by Jott

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.

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.

Nothing could be finer ...

Getting ready to leave the beach
Originally uploaded by stepol

... then to be in Carolina. As long as we're at Sunset Beach, that is! We made our annual Labor Day pilgrimage down to Soft Days, my parents' beach house and now their retirement home from September to May. We're always happy to be there but our happiness was slightly tempered this year by the absence of CollegeGirl who just started at William and Mary and had classes ... even on Saturday! I think this is the first Labor Day weekend in her life that she hasn't been here and her absence was felt.

However, it is Sunset Beach so we did manage to have an excellent time. We had a couple of overcast days but mostly the weather cooperated to provide some quality beach time. The boys covered the four Bs: beach digging, boogie boarding (is that two Bs?), body surfing, and even boating. OlderSon found an inflatable two-man boat in the attic and rigged up a bicycle pump to get it inflated. They gleefully paddled around in the surf, first with a paddle and a shovel and then with two brand new paddles we found up at the new Waves shop just over the bridge.

We thought the parents wouldn't be down until Friday but were pleasantly surprised to see them on Thursday night where they joined us for quiche night. YoungerSon has been asking to have quiche for weeks so we took the opportunity to make it at the beach. We actually had three quiches: a spinach and artichoke quiche that YoungerSon made, a Quiche Lorraine that I threw together, and a single-serve ham & cheese, egg white-only quiche that OlderSon made. We served them up with grapes and some great strawberries we found at the world's most upscale Food Lion.

Dinners are always a big event at the beach and this weekend was no exception. Friday night was our big spaghetti and meatball dinner. Sissy and Peter from next door joined us on Saturday night for gourmet pizzas. We had four to choose from: a BLT pizza, a Margharetta pizza with fresh mozzarella, olive oil, basil, and tomatoes, a taco pizza, and finally a pizza with brie, herbs, onions, and olives. Sunday night finished the weekend up with grilled sirloin and roasted cauliflower. On Saturday night, Peter also brought over his new ice cream maker so the boys could try their hand at homemade ice cream. Unfortunately, we didn't let the chiller chill long enough and we had to settle for (very tasty) milkshakes.

We were particularly pleased to see the old pontoon bridge still in operation. The plans for installing the mammoth 65-foot McDonald's arch bridge that will make Sunset Beach just like EveryOtherBeach are currently on hold because even after two rounds of bidding, the prices quoted are still way too high. NC's transportation department estimate is now at about $26M and the lowest bid came in around $32M and they are bound by law to keep the price no greater than 10% over the estimate. So not only is it back to the drawing board but, because of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the cost of bridge materials is going up and the state is looking at more critical bridges that should take precedent over this one.

On Monday morning we managed to get up early enough to make a final trip to the beach and it turned out to be the best weather we had all weekend. After soaking up those final rays and getting the last breath of sweet salt air we went back up, got lunch and headed home. It's always sad to leave but we'll look forward to returning in the winter.

$70 for crayons?!?

No, not really ... but close.

polMom was being a nice sister and trying to take advantage of a sale from OfficeMax that offered boxes of crayons for a penny a piece which is a great deal because they're normally 99 cents a box. She thought she'd get a bunch for her sister the teacher to use but she didn't inform me until we got in that it was limited to three boxes per person. She handed three each to both of the boys and handed three to me but I balked. I said it felt like we were cheating the system (everyone reading this already knows this will come back to haunt me). She just rolled her eyes, took the three boxes herself, and headed to the checkout.

I proceeded to wander around the store with the warm cloak of self-righteousness tightly wrapped around me. I grabbed some padded CD mailers I thought I might be able to use which looked like they were a good price. After wandering around for a bit, OlderSon came up with an HP DVD840i Lightscribe DVD+RW drive in his hands that had been marked down to $40. I knew we had to have it.

We had just sent CollegeGirl off to school with a brand new laptop that had a Lightscribe DVD burner. For the brief period it sat in the house I thought of all the creative things we could do with it (none of which I will actually follow through on) like making DVDs for family members.

So, we bought the DVD drive for $40. Of course we had to get the expensive Lightscribe CD-Rs or what was the point of the drive. A set of ten (with jewel cases) was another $12. And the mailers that looked like they were $5 turned out to be actually $7.50.

And I forgot to get the three boxes of crayons when I checked out. Bad move.

polMom totaled up the costs on the way home. Cost for my stuff that we didn't come for: $70. Cost for her and the boys for what they did come for: 9 cents.

But the DVD drive is very cool!

Evan Almighty at the Byrd

The Byrd
Originally uploaded by moonshinerr

After attending an Eagle ceremony for one of the Scouts in our troop we decided to spend part of our evening last night at one of favorite Richmond landmarks: the Byrd Theatre. The theater opened in 1928 and has amazingly managed to survive practically unaltered for almost 80 years. Today, it shows second-run movies for only $1.99 so we try and go down whenever a family-friendly movie is playing during the 7:15 slot.

Normally we'd try and go on Saturday night because that's when Bob Gulledge plays the mighty Wurlitzer organ that rises up out of the orchestra pit. I think we'd pay $2 a piece just to watch Bob play even without the movie. There's many a time we got polMom to go see a movie she was ambivalent about because of that Wurlitzer. However, we were at the Braves game Saturday night with the troop so we came to the organless Sunday showing instead.

Both of the boys thought the movie was funny and polMom liked the family-firendly message (she said it even redeemed Steve Carell in her mind a bit). I thought it was worth $2 ... everything is better when played at the Byrd. I think the movie could have been a lot funnier as what few jokes there were fell pretty flat. The kids loved the slapstick stuff that went on during the ark construction but I really wanted something more substantial to happen. But again, a nice evening out for about 20 bucks.