Adorable/Awkward/Hilarious/WTF?! child moment of the day

So a bunch of kindergartners are in the tech lab using the paint program (killing time while their teacher grades stuff) one of the girls wanted to tell me that she went to a Greek dinner/dance with her father. While she was explaining what they did and that her Greek last name was... she said some word with a thousand syllables that sounded pretty Greek... right after she said her last name, some other boy from across the room pipes in: "Eh, it's all Greek to me."

Not the world's greatest joke by any means, but this was a four year old! Also, the timing was incredible, he hit his cue right on the mark, no pause, no hesitation, and delivered the line without stumbling. Nice job, kid.

11 to 17

That was the score of the first Student vs. Faculty basketball game held today, Wednesday, January 20th 2010 at the school where I work. It was a brilliant game and one truly deserving to be played on today, the 118th anniversary of the first game of basketball played in a YMCA training session in Springfield, Massachusetts. According to one of my colleagues, it was 118 years ago today that James Naismith, a Canadian originally, came up with the game based on an old game he played back up in Canada called "Duck on a Rock." Knowing nothing about Duck on a Rock I can only assume, using stereotypes and prejudices, that it involved shooting ducks while they roosted on rocks and then trying to toss their stiff, lifeless bodies into peach baskets while bouncing a hockey puck off of a curling stone at one's side, all the while singing "Oh Canada" in a booming voice.

However, I digress. This post is really about beating young children in sports in order to make us older people feel better about our selves and to teach these kids that losing's ok and that it will always be the outcome when they go up against us. I must hand it to the students though, they did go on a bit of a run including the only 3-point basket of the day and several second chances converted due to aggressive offensive rebounding. I'll also give a shout out to their ball handling skills, lord knows I couldn't dribble as well as they do when I was their age (and, in the case of some of these kids, I still can't).

Winter Super Adventure Club!

Not to be confused with the South Park version, we actually go out into the frigid Chicago winter and seek out the meager outdoor adventures the midwest provides because we love to explore and be outside.

This was the first adventure I was a part of the activities and I look forward to continuing my involvement. We embarked early Sunday afternoon for Herrick Lake, a Dupage county forest preserve on a search for snow shoeing and cross country skiing. Farmer and I had never snow shoed before so we chose to give that a try while the rest of the group chose the much more high speed activity known as cross country skiing. What I learned from the experience is that snow shoeing, while cool and effective in deep powder, on the packed and groomed trails of Herrick Lake, they simply made walking more funny looking. All was not lost, however, Farmer and I did cut through the woods a bit where the powder was deeper.

Afterward we stopped at REI where I got a sweet new coffee/hot beverage mug.

Then we went over to DAMITZ!!!'s house for some delicious tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches (which I ordered with mini weenies inside, pretty good call if you ask me). I was able to make it home just before my food coma completely set in, and felt wonderfully satisfied. Thanks to Ms. DAMITZ!!! for putting it together! Let's do it again soon!

Gnarly old oak

Juice is vicious from the ground

I've been doing some Crossfit, so now I can hold up trees.

Snow shoes make you jump really far, like those shoes from the Mario Bros. movie (I started this leap right next to Becky there).

Most likely singing.

Adorable/Awkward/Hilarious/WTF?! child moment of the day

Today, as one of the second grade girls was walking out of the room where her "indoor recess" had been held after lunch, she was singing "I like to move it, move it! I like to move it, move it!" While doing a dance that greatly resembled the running man...