I rue, I mean, Rube the day

One of Matthew's assignment for his STEM (science technology engineering and math) class was to build a Rube Goldberg machine. "What fun" he thought, "what fun" we thought.....well yes, fun for the first 25 hours then not so much. My brother implied "let him do his own project", which really he did, but after the first 15+ hours it was clear that he needed a bit of help.....after the next 10 it was clear that balloons just don't want to pop.

Finally after about 1000 trials, the machine worked - although not perfectly. It was funny that he had trouble with the train, dominoes and ball on the final trial, because those worked pretty seamlessly for the first 999 trials, but not when finally the stupid balloon popped and the radio turned on. Of course the cinematographer really stunk (me) - although you couldn't see a few steps happening, because they occurred too quickly - they did in fact take place.

Things that didn't make the final cut included a zip line and a boot dropping from a pulley-system to activate the radio.

Thing that I wish had never been thought of: "balloon popping on command"! eish.


Now Matthew has to do his write-up, but more importantly CLEAN up all the initial trials at his Rube Goldberg machine!

A few of my Valentines

Here is Carolyn with her "locker" box.


Joel and his Sojourner - Mars Rover (named after Sojourner Truth....extra good name). The real Sojourner Rover wasn't much bigger than his box!


Anna and her box of hearts (that originally did have wheels....similar to Joel's).


Matthew doesn't have a Valentine box. While he did approve of a "Valentine related" picture, he asked I use a plain picture on the blog. I can respect that :)


Here he is modeling his look without glasses, since he was fit with contacts today. (our vision insurance is pretty good. It will buy new glasses every other year, but only changing the lenses on the off year. I think that would be a silly thing to do, since glasses are pretty cheap. Instead they do offer $105 credit toward contacts in the off year....so there wasn't much to lose on this contact trial. They will especially be nice for soccer. Matthew's vision is MUCH worse than mine, so I would love him to see well all the time. At the appt. he was able to get them in and out like a breeze - unlike me, especially originally. He will take them out each night before reading for the night, so that he never falls asleep with them in.....which Ken does every night, but shouldn't.....but of course I am not his mother :)

New baby in the family

Ken's niece is expecting a baby in August. That means we will be great-Aunt and great-Uncle....yes that feels old.

I have a baby boy quilt that I made to be "gender-neutral" but it really isn't. It is waiting in the wings if her baby is a boy. I started a baby girl quilt inspired by this post

It is harder than the work I usually do, because there are non-right angles and things intertwine. I had to make a pattern and I am designing the WHOLE thing on my wall before I start. It has taken more brainpower than my usual quilt!

(the red in the design will be pink in the quilt)


It is fun, because the baby's grandmother gave me some of this fabric and some is from Carolyn's quilt. (Carolyn was a bridesmaid in the mother-to-be's wedding.)