Twenty One Pilots - Bandito Tour

Grace and I went to the Wells Fargo Center last night to see Twenty One Pilots (TOP to save me typing), her favorite band, and her first concert. We went with our good friend neighbors from across the street, their daughter, and another neighborhood girl. They are in college now, but share the love of TOP with Grace. We drove down together, did the apparently mandatory yellow duct tape thing, and got there plenty early. We had the ritual pre-concert slice of pizza, and were impatient for things to start.

Grace (middle) and older neighborhood friends

The show started at 7. Or more accurately, the first of two opening acts started at 7. Opening acts were Max Frost (meh) and Awolnation (which started meh and grew on me). Each played 25-30 minutes, with a half hour-ish in between, and then another half hour to ready the stage for TOP.

Awolnation

The crowd was very young, being mostly high school, college aged and young adults, with a healthy scattering of parents such as yours truly escorting the younger ones. When the band (of two people) took the stage there was Beatle-esque squealing and screaming and some crying. Not at all like the subdued old-guy classic rock geezer band shows I usually attend these days. Very different. And refreshing. Grace did her share of squealing, and screaming, and a bit of crying. Fun. Lots of energy. Opening song was Jumpsuit.

Opening number with burning car

The show was a lot different than what I am used to, much of which is a reflection of the nature of the band. Twenty One Pilots these days is a drummer (Josh Dunn) and a guy who writes the songs and does everything else (Tyler Joseph). Obviously, a live show with two people requires lots of recorded tracks, which my generation would have largely regarded as cheating/sacrilege, but... it was done very well.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the show was amazing. Great music, fantastic lights, props and stage show. Good banter between songs. A tremendously fanatic and dedicated fan base. And a lot of very creative things. At one point, a figure on stage believed to be Tyler Joseph (but who hadn't sung or played anything in a little while) did a back-flop into a hole in the stage. Seconds later he appeared on a small platform in our section, about 6 rows and 20 feet behind us. So the figure on stage was obviously a faked stand in. People went nuts (Grace included). He was so close... :-)

Tyler Joseph appears 6 rows behind us

Without going into any great detail, I liked the music more than I expected to. Grace's favorite song is The Judge (our show's version here).

Lights and Screens

Clever staging also made for a great viewing experience. At one point, a big long rack of lights lowered from the ceiling, and proved to be a bridge from the main stage to the "B" stage on its upper surface.

Lights lowered to make a bridge to the "B" stage

Tyler used the bridge to get to the "B" stage right in front of us, and Josh worked his way through the crowd to join him. They did a nice quiet set from the "B" stage.

"B" stage right in front of section 102

Tyler was very good at the in between song banter with the audience, and there were a number of cute running themes throughout the concert. One of them was the challenge to be the best audience on the tour, and to remember that it was't simply being the loudest single crowd moment, but that "it's an average". The teasing about "remember, it's an average" ran through the show and was amusing (you can hear him say it during "Trees" below at about the 1:24 mark...).

They played a solid two hours, and really were terrific. A highlight was their final number "Trees".

More lights and screens

It was a great night for Grace, and would have been worth it to me even if I hadn't liked the show at all. The fact that I liked it as much as I did was a nice bonus. The joy on her face was priceless.

I think she will remember this for a long time.

Art and Arcana - A Visual History of D&D

Perhaps in an effort to recapture lost youth, but perhaps simply because I have always loved it, Dungeons & Dragons has been a part of my life again over the past 5 years or so. Part of that has been to read some books on the history of the role playing game hobby (specifically D&D), watch some YouTube videos by Tim Kask, Frank Mentzer and others who were involved in the formative days of D&D, etc...

So it was with a good deal of interest that I saw that someone was going to be publishing a book on the visual (art) history of D&D. Co-authors included Michael Witwer (author of Empire of Imagination, a biography of sorts on Gary Gygax) and Jon Peterson (author of Playing at the World, the definitive history of D&D). I have, and have read, both of those books, and loved both of them.

Buying Art & Arcana was a no-brainer. And not to be regretted.

An Amazing Book...

This is a big thick coffee table sized book of terrific production values. It covers the development of D&D from a visual and artistic point of view. It has early art, later updates, and a study of the development of the art and iconography of D&D through the various editions, dating from c.1975 through the current day.

It's an informative and instructive work of obvious love by the authors, and has triggered many a "memory lane" moment for me. My history with D&D is the very first "white box" edition of ~1976 (?) (which I thankfully still own) through AD&D (1st edition) with a little Second Edition, but then with a 25 year hiatus between ~1990 and 2014 (5th edition). I recognize the "earliest days" art, and the modern stuff, but not the 2+ decades of intermediate development. Fascinating stuff.

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in D&D and/or fantasy art in general, especially at the Amazon discounted price...

Kill Team - Space Marines

We've had enough fun with our first couple of Kill Team games that painting some other forces seems to be in order (as well as expanding the Tyranid force, but that's a different story...).

I have bought a box of Space Marines, and have worked through what I want the paint scheme to look like.

Space Marine Sample

The rest of the box is assembled and primed, with some more painting to follow soon. I hope.

It's fun to be painting again. (Bifocals rule!). Next on the paining table for Kill Team will be to expand the Tyranid force with a few small bugs (termagants and hormagaunts), as well as a larger bug or two (tyranid warriors).

A box of Eldar Guardians has also been assembled and primed.... (yes, I know, they don't call them Eldar anymore...).

Kill Team - First Playings

Ryan has finished painting a nice big batch of ~20 Imperial Guard (which are called something else now by GW and the rest of the world but not me) and I have finished my 8 Genestealers, so it was time to push some figures around, shoot some ray guns, and kill humans with weird alien bugs.

Over the past few weeks, Ryan and Josh and I have gotten together two or three times to work our way through these rules. We've started with the basic rules, did OK the first time out, and gotten more fluent with the rules the next couple of sessions. The rules are very typical GW: roll to hit, roll to wound, roll a saving throw. Every army has their own chrome galore.

Genestealers stalking Imperial Guard

We admittedly aren't great at using our forces yet, but the bugs have beaten the humans every time out so far, no matter who is playing what. Once the bugs get into contact with the puny humans, they don't stand a chance. Ryan's dice rolling doesn't help.

Tyranids and Imperial Guard

As much as I bash GW (maybe not here but certainly in real life), their figures are very nice. Vastly overpriced, but nice. And the terrain is very nice as well (and equally overpriced). That said, I've bought a bunch of different pieces as can be seen in these photos in various stages of painting, and have created a couple of foam boards to put the terrain on.

It's been fun. I'm working on some space marines and Eldar now, or whatever they call them these days...

Kill Team - Genestealers

Ryan, Josh and I have gotten together a number of times over the summer and into the Fall to do something gaming related while our D&D campaign is on a fairly lengthy hiatus.

One of the things we have talked about doing is to paint up some science fiction miniatures and have a go at Games Workshop's Kill Team, a game of skirmish combat in their Warhammer 40K universe. With some limited prior exposure to WH40K, I have no interest whatsoever in diving into that army-level game, but I will admit to liking the quality of the miniatures and having an interest in painting a few of them. Tyranids, or Starship Trooper style "space bugs" struck a chord with me.

So Ryan has been filling out an Imperial Guard force, and I have been painting up Genestealers for a Tyranid force.

Tyranid Genestealers

We have played a few games. The painting has been fun. The games have been fun. Additional troops have been purchased and are in various stages of completion. Terrain pieces have been bought and are in various stages of progress as well (as can be seen in the picture above).

My only regret... Grace took one look at my finished genestealers and said: "cool. cotton candy explosion."

Sigh.

Julia Turns 20

Somewhere in here recently, Julia turned 20, which boggles the mind.

The mandatory "presents at the kitchen island" photo

She is in a "super senior" year of high school, meaning that she is still under the age of 21 and part of the school district, but is beyond her normal senior "graduating" year. She marched with her class at graduation, but will spend the three subsequent years in job training and other life skills work before transitioning out of the school district and into the Delaware County program.

Rather than going to the high school building, she is picked up by a bus and taken to an apartment rented by the district. Job coaches are based in this apartment, and work with a dozen or so kids to develop life skills such as cooking and cleaning, laundry, and shopping. Several days a week, each of the kids is transported to a job site where they work on job skills. Julia has worked at at least 7 or 8 different places, trying a number of different types of work, and is building toward the day when she will have some sort of job placement, with assistance, to continue on in life.

It's a great program, and a good step forward into an uncertain future.

Thanks Dad

I'm not sure what it is that makes me think of Dad tonight (which I often do, but tonight I happen to be sitting at the computer...).

On June 22, 1980 Dad took me to my first concert - John Denver at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Dad has passed. The Spectrum is now a parking lot. I'm not a 14 year old kid any more (at least not outwardly). My youngest is as old now as I was then. All of which is hard to believe.

Thoughts of Dad remain a comfort to me now, as does the music of John Denver. The first thought that comes to mind when I remember Dad is that he did everything he could to make sure that Dave and Chris and I had a good life. Which we did. And still do.

John Denver and Cass Elliott singing Leaving on a Jet Plane in 1972. And again in the classic Wildlife Concert (with Goodbye Again).

Rocky Mountain High from the Wildlife Concert. Maybe someday Dave will show me how to play this on guitar... And Sunshine on My Shoulders.

And lastly, a favorite... Calypso.

I remember playing all of these songs on Dad's stereo in the living room at Ridge Lane. Vinyl LPs I still treasure to this day, even if I no longer have anything to play them on.

John's last public performance before his untimely death. Boy From the Country, 10/5/97, one week before his ultralight plane crashed off Catalina Island (when he was barely older than I am now)...

Things change, and yet the echoes of the past reverberate down into the present. I was 14 years and 4 months old when Dad took me to see John Denver at the Spectrum. The Wells Fargo Center has long-since replaced the Spectrum as the primary south Philly concert venue. Grace will be 14 years and 4 months old when I take her to see Twenty One Pilots at the Wells Fargo Center for her first concert this October.

Someday, perhaps, if I am lucky, she will think back.........

A New Chapter

I ended the last school year with a post on Turning Pages, primarily about Grace's end of middle school, end of competitive gymnastics, and looking forward to high school.

Well, high school is upon us soon and things are already ramping up. We had to make sure to end our week in Avalon on the Friday of the week, because freshman orientation day for pre-band camp was on Saturday August 11. Grace had been warned by neighborhood friends that she would hate the first few days of band camp but after that she would start to like it. So she went for freshman day. She came home. We asked "how was it?' Shockingly enough, the answer was "It was great!!" Go figure.

Freshman clarinet at band camp

The rest of band camp week went fine. We went to see the parents' view of the show on Friday at the end of the week. It was...rough around the edges...but had promise. Most importantly, Grace was having fun.

Section day, orange clarinets (at least some of them)

There would be two football games with performances before the school year even starts (8/24 and 8/31 - of which we won both). The performances would start with the first parts, and would add on more and more as the season went on.

Happy clarinet

Grace was apprehensive about high school, but had a bunch of advantages going in. She had new friends from band camp, and some 10th and 11th graders that knew her from middle school. Gina and Savannah from the neighborhood (class of 2017 with Julia) had also been clarinets, so Grace had an indirect connection to some of the juniors and seniors in the clarinet section who were still around, and who knew Grace's older friends. She also knew a lot of upper classmen that were involved in the drama club and the musicals (because of Julia's and Mom's involvement over the years, and herself having spent a lot of hours at the high school after her middle school day while Julia and Mom did their thing). Having a lot of friendly faces in the school, even if only casual acquaintances, would prove to be very helpful.

She would also sign up for the drama club and participate in the fall musical, which was High School Musical. She would be an ensemble member (a cheerleader), and because of her gymnastics background, would be the one to do some tumbling routines on stage. Hopefully she will like it. If she does she does. If she doesn't, well, so be it. If nothing else, she would get to spend some after school time with Mom, who has accepted the responsibility of a 2-year (minimum) stint as a sub-contracted school district employee in charge of costumes for the plays.

So that's where we will end August. On the threshold of lots of new things. Exciting. A little scary. New. Fun.

Avalon 2018

We got back yesterday from our now-annual tradition of a Monday-Friday week at the Windrift in Avalon (on the Jersey shore). This was year 5, and it is a comfortable and easy little vacation trip to do.

I never really went to the Jersey shore as a kid (we went to Ocean City, Maryland), so it tool a few years to get more used to where things were, what there was to do, things we should be aware of, etc... We are past that learning curve now (mostly), and we have settled into a routine.

The pool at the Windrift (3 girls under the umbrella)

Usually we go with Amp's sister and her family, but a medical thing prevented them from going this year. So that was different. We all missed them, and it seemed odd to be there without them, but it was relaxing in the sense that we only had to worry about our own schedule. Planning for 4 is easier than planning for 8.

Monday involved dropping Ryder at the dog sitter and then driving down. We couldn't get into the hotel early, so we drove the 20 minutes or so to Cape May to meet up with a friend of Grace's (another Grace) and spend a few hours shopping and wandering Cape May's quaint (if touristy) downtown. We then headed to the Windrift, checked in, and spent some time at the beach. We had dinner at the bar/restaurant in the hotel, and then finished out the day with a brief trip to the boardwalk in Wildwood. Grace is getting bolder with the rides she wants to do.

Tuesday was a lot of alternating pool and beach time, with the mandatory brunch at Uncle Bill's Pancake House in Stone Harbor (overpriced and overrated), but still worth doing. I guess. We had dinner at Water Lily, a Japanese place in Stone Harbor that was pretty good. We then went to the upper end of Avalon and played the traditional round of pirate mini golf, followed by ridiculously large single scoops of ice cream at the Buccaneer.

Wednesday was more pool and beach, and a dinner return to Water Lily, at the request of the kids. Which was fine with us. We then drove up to the boardwalk in Ocean City to meet another school friend of Grace's and spend some time in an amusement park there (Castaway Cove). This was my first time to that boardwalk, and while they all seem pretty much the same, Ocean City seemed a little nicer than Wildwood. Not that it matters. Rides. Ice cream. Whatever.

Thursday was more beach and pool, with breakfast at the hotel, lunch/snacks by the pool and dinner at Tortilla Flats in Avalon. Then we headed back to Wildwood for one last night on the boardwalk, killing time, eating polish water ice and riding some rides.

Rip Tide - Morey's Piers - Wildwood

Friday was little more than sleeping in a bit, getting packed and ready to leave, and heading home. We had lunch at Stone Harbor Pizza and briefly strolled the shops on the main drag one last time, then got on the road. We made good time, with a brief stop at the Hobby Lobby in Vineland off route 55, and were at the dog sitter's to pick up Ryder by 3. We were all happy to see the dog. I think he enjoys being part of a pack at the dog sitter's, and gets some refresher training while there, but he also seems very happy to come home again.

Fetching Ryder from the Sitter

We had good weather, with mid-80s temperatures and fairly high humidity. Lower humidity would have been nice, but we only had a quick passing shower or two, mostly overnight. With as much rain as we have had this summer, we could have had a total washout. So we got lucky in that regard.

I think the kids are already looking forward to next year.

August Random Tidbits

Our lot was one of the ones on the outer edge of the development, facing the woods and stream valley, which didn't have a lot premium. This was because we have a drainage basin behind us. Which is just a depression with a bunch of grass that deer and groundhogs and rabbits and foxes play in. I don't think I would trade our lot for any other in the development...

Summer blues and whites and greens

I've been lucky enough to be able to work out of my home office a decent bit this summer. Not having nearly two hours of commute in a day is nice. Cutting down on the dry cleaning bills is nice. And last but certainly not least, it's nice to have Ryder come into my office, plunk down on the wing chair across from my desk, and keep me company off and on throughout the day.

Ryder keeping me company while I work

The new house at the River is done, which is a whole other post, but we went down for part of a Saturday to see it, and Grace was anxious to get some fishing in. She caught a good sized catfish and a handful of small white perch. I caught a pretty good catfish, a sunfish and a perch. Julia fished with us for maybe ten minutes and caught a perch and a large sunfish. Not bad for an hour or so.

My fisher girl

It makes me happy that the girls like to fish with me.

Office Renovation

We painted our home office in a dark hunter green almost twenty years ago (could it really have been that long?!?). I loved the color then, and still do (mostly) now, but things could definitely use some touching up at a minimum after all these years.

Old Hunter Green wall color

When we had all the new windows installed back around Christmas 2016, the old dark wood blinds in the office didn't fit the new window openings, so they went. We didn't have anything to replace them with, so Amp decided that she would make roman shades. Which is still the plan. In the meantime, we have hung old sheets over the windows for privacy. Ugh. I've also been planning to paint the woodwork. Most of the other new windows have been done as we have repainted other rooms, but not in the office. Ugh again.

Old paint, new windows, bare wood, classy sheet curtains

The first step to a new paint job is picking a wall color. I originally thought to do a very similar dark green color, but then after a bunch of back-and-forth decided on a medium beige (Sherwin Williams "Shiitake").

As long as we were repainting, I wanted to put crown molding up. The office is one of the few rooms left in the house where we could realistically do crown molding where we haven't already done so.

So with a number of days off around the 4th of July holiday, I got started on the project. I hung new crown molding. To my surprise, this was probably the most level ceiling and square-cornered room in the house, which made the crown molding easy to do.

Lots and lots of prep and priming

Then came a whole lot of filling, sanding, gouge fixing, other minor repairs and prep work. This is often the longest and most tedious part of the job (especially in a room with bare woodwork that needs to be addressed), and it certainly was here.

Next came two coats of white on the ceiling, a primer coat and two coats of bright white semi-gloss on the crown molding. Then a primer coat over the very dark walls. Then two coats on the walls. Then two coats on all the trim and baseboards. After a primer coat on the bare window woodwork.

New crown molding and wall color

All told, I spent decent parts of 4 days doing all the various steps and waiting for the different coats to dry.

Beautiful new office

I'm thrilled with the results. I did love the dark green, but the lighter/brighter colors make the room seem more warm and inviting, especially at night when it is dark outside.

We've also purchased the material and other components for the new roman shades, and will be getting to that as time permits.

Next - Finding a way to deal with the two-story family room (and the last of the unpainted new window trim). Looks like scaffolding or ladder sets are in my future. That room needs a refresh desperately, and will be like this project only about 5 times bigger...

Ruins

I follow a number of crafting web sites for D&D ideas. One of my favorites is Black Magic Craft, and a recent video on modular ruins showed such a nice looking end product that I actually decided to try this out for myself. The video is here.

Two things I will say up front. First, the end result really looks great. Second, this is a time-consuming, fiddly, pain in the butt project. But worth it. If you are into this sort of thing.

Without the Proxon table hot wire cutter, I wouldn't even consider attempting this. With the Proxon, it is fiddly but possible.

You begin by milling a great many individual stone blocks. A great many... I did both large and small sizes. You then build walls, stone by stone. Mine, as in the BMC video, are based on heavy duty cardboard. Some model railroad talus is glued on in bunches afterward.

Building ruins from single foam bricks

When the pieces have been built, they are then base coated with a mixture of Mod Podge and cheap black craft paint. This serves as both a base coat and a level of protection for the foam.

Undercoat black-tinted Mod Podge

To have a useful amount of these pieces, you need lots of them. Lots of stones. Lots of gluing. Lots of painting.

Lots of pieces in various stages of progress

Painting of the pieces, for me, is the same as my painting scheme for generic Underdark terrain or any other stonework. A dark gray heavy brush. A medium-light gray dry brush, fairly heavy. Then a light grayish-white dry brush to pick out the highlights. On some pieces, perhaps not those shown in the picture below, a final wash of brownish-black tones down the brightness and makes the ruins a little dingy.

A couple of finished pieces

A good project, with a very very nice end result, but not for the person for whom this degree of fiddly-ness would make them run screaming from the room. Admittedly, I have a high tolerance, at times, for this degree of relaxational fiddly-ness. But at times I felt like running screaming from the room.

I have done a decent number of both large and small block walls, pillars, etc, and will post another pic of a final set-up soon.

Thing 2 Turns 14

Somewhere recently, Thing 2 turned 14, which is very hard to believe.

Grace, Ryder and Julia

Grace is in the summer between middle school and high school. Always one of the smallest girls in her grade (maybe 3rd shortest out of ~150 girls), she has had some growth spurts, and is now somewhere in the middle of her classmates in terms of height (ok, well, maybe not the statistical middle, but certainly well above the bottom end now...). Grace is only an inch shorter than Julia, who is in turn a couple of inches short of Amp. Grace is looking forward to the day, somewhere in the future, when she is taller than both of them. As unlikely as this always seemed, it now seems quite likely.

High school starts in ~10 weeks. Marching band camp is in 7 weeks. Braces are expected to come off in ~4 months.

Changes all over the place. She thinks it's all great. It spooks me a little bit. I'm happy for her.

A Special Wedding

We had the great honor to attend a very special wedding this weekend. Emily, founder of the BYC Spirit special needs cheerleading squad, got married.

Emily founded the Spirit squad while she was still in high school, and Julia was one of the original members.

BYC Spirit with the Happy Couple

The Spirit squad was, and still is, an amazing thing. Kids with all sorts of disabilities get to be part of a cheer squad, have very nice uniforms, practice every week, and attend 5 or 6 weekend cheer events over the course of a school year.

Grace and Bella

They generally open the competitions with their routine, get big trophies and standing ovations wherever they go, and serve as an opportunity for these kids to be special. In the good way. As I have written before, the reception the Spirit squad gets everywhere they go is amazing, and never fails to bring a tear to my eye.

Kings Mill, Aston PA

Emily graduated high school, went of to college, and never missed a beat with the Spirit squad. She comes back for practices, and still runs the whole thing. Designs the routines. Organizes the volunteers. Runs practices. Runs fundraisers. Schedules competition appearances. Goes to the competitions.

As I told her Dad at the wedding, Emily has done more in her young life to help others and have a true impact on their lives than most people have in their whole lives.

The wedding itself was wonderful, on a hot day in June. It was at the King's Mill renovated old mill building on 452 in Aston, along the creek. The facilities were very nice (and I loved the old building). The wedding was outside, and then we headed in for the reception as it started to drizzle.

The importance of the Spirit squad as a thing in Emily's life was apparent. Maybe a third of all attendees were past and present Spirit squad members and their families (including us). As befit the occasion, there was music and dancing, food and drink, and a good time was had by all.

It was an honor to celebrate the big day of someone who has had such an impact on Julia's (and our) life.

Footnote: Julia stopped doing Spirit a year ago, but Grace continues on as a helper coach volunteer. Grace helped out in Julia's last couple of years, and when Julia stopped doing it Grace surprised us a little bit by saying that she wanted to continue. So for one practice a week during the school year, and 5 or 6 weekend competitions, Grace goes and is the helper-buddy of a few of the littler ones.

Turning Pages...

It's been a busy week around here, with Grace finishing up her middle school days, and looking ahead toward high school.

Hard to believe.

Doors close. Others open. Time passes. It's the way of life, but sometimes difficult to wrap your head around. Especially for parents...

And pardon the gushing to follow, but she has made us very proud.

Last night she had her last practice for the Xcel Gold gymnastics team at Roth's Crosspoint Gymnastics. She loves gymnastics and would like to continue to do it, but the team practices are a 100% overlap with marching band practices in the late summer and fall, and it is more important that she be a part of this school-based activity with all of her school friends. So after the practice last night, there were many tears, lots of hugs, and a generally bittersweet time. It's nice to know that so many of the team members like her.

CPG team banquet, early June

Leaving something behind that you still care about is difficult. To say the least. But the friends she has made will continue to be her friends. While many of them don't go to the same school as her, they live in the area, and she will be able to keep in touch. Some will inevitably fade away. A few won't. That's life. There is already a sleepover on the calendar for next week...

Grace and her buddies

She has grown a lot through her short competitive gymnastics career, and made a lot of good friends. She is part of a gymnastics team, but ultimately, when it is time to perform, it is just her and the judges, and facing that challenge for two years, and ending up on the podium often, has been terrific for her self confidence. And there have been those handful of times when she was number 1, at the top of the podium, when mommy and daddy pride really got to shine.

And I can't say enough about Coach Bill and Christina at the gym. Bill was an olympic caliber gymnast for over a decade, a member of the US national team for many years, the first US men's gymnast to score a perfect 10 in international competition, and he has a skill named for him in the "book of rules". Beyond all that, he is a caring and compassionate coach. CPG is what you would want a gymnastics program to be - a community.

Grace and Coach Bill Roth

Today she had the final 8th grade awards assembly, and the official end of middle school. She's had a good run, and has done herself proud. Today she got the team Social Studies award (4 people selected out of ~90 kids), to go along with a team English award in 6th grade and a team Science award in 7th grade. I'm proud that she has done so well in different subjects over her three middle school years.

Social studies subject award

She also got a distinguished honor roll award (straight A's in all 4 quarters of the year), making 11 out of 12 quarters of distinguished honor roll in middle school. She's still bitter about that one B+ in math for one quarter last year... Which doesn't bother me at all, but I kinda like the fact that it bothers her.

Distinguished Honor Roll all 4 quarters of this year

A note on parental expectations. We like that Grace does well. She is bright, and we expect her to do well. At this level, if she doesn't do well, it only means one thing - she didn't put in the basic amount of work necessary to do what she should have been able to do. Things may well change as the years go by and things continue to get more and more difficult. And that's OK. As long as she is putting in the effort, and doing the best she can, then I am OK with that.

Lastly, I have greatly conflicted feelings as I watch my little girl grow up. Maybe we should have put her in the pickle jar when we had the chance, but that opportunity is gone. So I guess we just have to watch her grow up and enjoy it for what it is.

8th grade send off dance (Grace at right)

But as for today... It's been a good 36 hours. A very good 36 hours.

Mariano Rivera Foundation, 2nd Annual

Last spring, Julia's special needs baseball team had the opportunity to have Mariano Rivera pitch an inning to them during one of their games.

This happened as part of the day's events that were the first annual Mariano Rivera Foundation 5k run   as a Brandywine Youth Club event.

BYC Phillies with Mariano Rivera

We were lucky enough to get a repeat of this as part of the second annual event. It was a rainy day, but rather than cancel the game part of the event, they moved it to a school gym in Wilmington. The baseball game turned into a wiffle ball game.

Julia and Mariano

None of that mattered, as the kids had a lot of fun. Julia, leading off for the BYC Phillies, lined a nice single into the outfield, and can claim to have a perfect 1.000 batting average against the best relief pitcher in baseball history. Go Julia!

It's a shame that Rivera pitched for the hated Yankees, but he's a really nice guy nonetheless. If there's a third annual next year, I'm sure we'll be involved.

Fallingwater

After leaving Grace's Xcel states gymnastics tournament, we had plenty of time left in the day, and were able to do something that we (especially Amp) had been wanting to do for a long time - see Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. The Wikipedia entry for Fallingwater is here, and is worth a quick read. I won't recap it in any great detail other than to say that it was designed and built in the 1930's as a vacation retreat for a wealthy department store owner and his family.

Fallingwater is best known for its use of cantilevered concrete terraces built around a central fieldstone core. This was an ambitious and new construction technique, and was not entirely successful. Immediately upon the removal of the construction supports, the cantilevered terraces "showed significant deflection" (they sagged pretty badly). It got worse over time. A major renovation in 2002 fixed this.

Fallingwater from the main entry bridge

The main things that struck as we went through the guided tour were (1) this place is super cool, and (2) this place is TINY.

Girls at Fallingwater

The house looks large from the outside, but almost all of this square footage is contained in the public and private terraces that are attached to every different space (common areas and bedrooms). The common area on the main room that is the dining room, living room, sitting room and library is one open space that would still be considered small by modern standards.

Three levels of Fallingwater

Compared to the common areas, the bedrooms were tiny and would be dwarfed by many college dorm rooms today. The design was really interesting, the way things flowed was fascinating, and the overall vibe was amazing. But everything was small. And this was a rich family's retreat house. The whole thing highlighted how different things were in that time than they are now (with regards to size/space).

Iconic view from downstream

This house is on many "places you need to visit before you die" lists, and I would agree. I like visiting special places such as this, and it was a treat.

Photobombing the iconic view

It also isn't a huge commitment to visit, if you happen to be near Pittsburgh. The cost of the guided tour is not excessive, and goes to the conservancy that maintains the landmark. The tour is less than an hour in length, and there isn't a whole lot else to do here, there than wander some paths through the wooded property (which in and of itself isn't any different than any other stroll through some paths through the woods anywhere...). A single morning or afternoon is all you need to do this.

So you are really just here for the one hour tour (which is the only way into the house).

You should do it if you can, and you like design or architecture or history.

Pennsylvania States - Xcel Gold - 2018

We knew that Grace had qualified for States, and would be going no matter what, but we didn't know exactly what date and time her Xcel Gold group would have their reporting time. It turns out the answer to that question was 7:45 on Friday morning. So that meant a day off from school on Friday, and a departure after school on Thursday afternoon.

The trip out the turnpike was uneventful (other than the fact that Grace doesn't like tunnels, of which there are 3 or 4). We had picked both girls up around 1:30 and were on the road by 2:00. This got us to the hotel in the northeastern suburbs of Pittsburgh by about 6:30.

Running into a teammate of Grace's, and one of her good friends, they told us that their family had eaten at a Primanti Brothers chain outlet just a few minutes down the road from the hotel. We went there to do the tourist thing. I know that Primanti Brothers is the famous place in Pittsburgh where you get a sandwich and they put cole slaw and french fries in the sandwich.

A Primanti Brothers chain store...

We pretty much universally agreed that the classic Primanti Borthers sandwich was....meh. Not bad. But not particularly good either. Bland. Nothing special. Meh.

...and an overrated sandwich.

As for the meet itself, Grace did very well. 9th in beam. 13th in the all around. No bad for a state-wide competition.

My baby's name in lights at States!! 9.2 in Floor.

As always, I am happiest knowing that she is part of a team, doing the best she can, and having fun doing it.

My baby at States!!

This will be a great memory for Grace.

Grace and teammates

The meet started around 8:30, and all the awards ceremonies and everything were done by about 1pm.

We left the Pittsburgh Indoor Sports Arena and headed southeast to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater... but that's a story for the next post.