Youth Group iHelp Dinner

Last night was the St. Mary's youth group iHelp dinner for the homeless at Edwards Hall. A few families in the youth group signed up to come. We arrived at 5:30 to set up, cook the dinner, and prepare for the men to arrive. Unfortunately, their bus got held up in Salinas so we had to wait over an hour for them to show up. The dinner this time was buffet-style chicken burritos with cheese, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole, and a nice salad with lots of croutons and ranch dressing. Dessert was really good Costco apple pie. Mmm...

Pacific Grove vs. Aptos High School

The next football game that we played at for band was versus Aptos High. Unlike the last game, it was in the day time, which was not nearly as nice as the previous night game. It was a very hot day at MPC, our temporary home stadium, in the upper seventies. Billy Breaker, our mascot, didn't show up unfortunately.

We did just about the same routine as last time, playing stands music for the first three quarters and then leaving. We once again also did the halftime show, in collaboration with the dance team. We played Hold On I'm Comin', Bend Me Shape Me (which the dance team danced to), and School's Out. Unfortunately when we left our team was losing 22 to zero, so it was pretty much impossible that the Breakers could have won.

Toro Invitational I

Addison Miller

At around 2:15 on Thursday our cross country team left school on a bus to Toro for the first of a few Thursday meets. The varsity team went first, followed by the girls and the JV boys, which Michael and I was a part of. We had a while to warm up and watch the other groups go beforehand.

Around 5, it was our turn. The course was 3 miles and very dusty, which made it harder than others. I got about 24 minutes; Michael got 26.

Swimming in P.E.

Today was the first day that we swam in P.E. We began by flutter kicking laps across the pool for about 15 minutes, and then reviewed the freestyle stroke. Once we were done with this, we had some relays and related activities and then had free time in the deep end with the diving board for the remainder of the period.

We noticed this funny sign on the wall near the pool:


Purchase Sign from Amazon

Frogtown Invitational

Today was my first cross country meet, in Frogtown near Angels Camp, CA. At around 5:00 this morning, we left from the school for a four hour drive. I was in the car of Tom Light, the cross country coach, with Michael, Addison Miller, Casey Reeves, Katie Nuss, and Marie Vastola. While it was still dark we listened to our iPods and slept, and took a rest stop at Casa de Fruta at about 6. When it got to be lighter we had random conversations about past classes and other related things.

About 9:15 or so we arrived at the course, a grassy park area, and had to quickly warm up because the race began at 9:30. It started on a large gravel expanse that sloped up into the dry dusty hills. The course went about a mile in the hills and then back down around the park, then back to the starting area. My time was 15:36. Casey and Addison got 9^th and 10^th place so they got medals. After we went, it was the freshman girls, sophomore boys, sophomore girls, etc. Once the races were done and we had rested and drank Vitamin Water, we got back in the district vans and headed back.

On the ride back, we switched up and I was with Casey, Addison, and Marie, plus Leif Swenson and Alec Giurten, two sophomores who I know from band. We played a fun game where one person would say a food, and the next would say a food name that started with the last letter of the previous. We kept getting stuck on things ending with e, and soon ran out of types of egg dishes, so it got really random and out of control with things like egret pot pie. We got back to the school around 3:30.




[more pictures coming soon]

Croquet at Tijmen's

After church today I went over to Tijmen's, along with Oliver, for another fun afternoon. We began by playing some assorted games including Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Double Dash, as well as Kirby Air Ride which I brought. Here's a cheat we found for how to make Kirby breakdance in Air Ride:

1) Go to City Trial.
2) Play 2 player with someone. If you can't have a Level 1 CPU.
3) Find a Time Bomb.
4) Set it in the underground area.
5) Get off of your machine.
6) Stand on the edge of a slanted wall that leads to the Underground, and jump. He should appear to be sliding on his side.
7) Be careful, slide so you get hit by the bomb.
8) When the explosion clears, Kirby should appear to be breakdancing.

After we finished playing the Wii, we went over to the field by the David Avenue school and played croquet. We did two games: one huge one that took about 45 minutes and took up the entire field, and a smaller 15-minute one. Oliver one the first game by a long shot, and in the second game it was very close between Tijmen and I but he ended up winning.

The First Football Game

Last night was the first football game for Pacific Grove this year, versus Ann Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill. We all went as part of band so we could play stands music and also at halftime. Since the PGHS stadium is being redone, our home stadium for this year is at the Monterey Peninsula College.

We met at the school at 5:30 and got our informal band uniforms, consisting of a polo shirt and a sweatshirt with black pants and shoes. Then we piled on the school bus and drove over to MPC. When we got there, everything was chaotic and Marcy Schaeffer, the drum major, reenacted the parting of the Red Sea to organize us into lines. After warming up and playing the national anthem and school fight song PG Will Shine, we entered the stadium and the first thing we saw was someone dressed up as our mascot, Billy Breaker, who skipped around the track and danced during the whole first half of the game. Every once in a while he would go around the audience in the front row and high-five everyone.

Our band took the spot in the bleachers with some assorted blips of music to play when something good happened in the game, such as Iron Man, Go Big Red, The Hey Song and many others. I have no clue how the game is played, so it was hard to know when we were supposed to play something. It was difficult because we were all extremely tightly packed in the stands, and we were required to wear the sweatshirts on top of the polo shirts, which was really hot even at 9 at night.

At halftime, we marched down onto the track and played three songs in the concert arc formation: Gimme Some Lovin', Green Onions, and Birdland. We followed this with PG Will Shine and then marched back into the stands. We had third quarter off to mill around and talk to spectators. During fourth quarter we mingled with the band from the other school. Unfortunately, we had to leave before the game was over because of transportation issues.

When we got back to the school, everyone was informed that there was going to be a band party at the home of Kristen Sanchez so we all walked down from the school. They had assorted party foods, including chips and guacamole, and a really good punch mixture of ginger ale, orange creme soda, and orange sherbet. The house had a Wii with Guitar Hero so we all crowded in the living room and played that for the remainder of the party. Tyler Chisman challenged Riley to Through the Fire and Flames, the hardest song on the game. Tyler did it on Hard and Riley on Expert. Unfortunately, it was so packed that I had to leave before I got a chance to play.

The PG Triathlon

Today was the Triathlon at Pacific Grove which the scouts volunteer at every year. I was working the station with Matthew, his brother Michael, and Oliver. This year we came on Saturday instead of Sunday, which proved to be a lot easier than the latter. Like always, we handed out cups to athletes, but since Saturday is the elite day, most of them were in too much of a hurry to want water. The last of them came through around noon.

Around the aid station there seemed to be way more squirrels than normal. Everywhere you looked, there were at least two or three, which I managed to get some photos of. I also got some nice macros of the bees which were swarming over the lavender. After we were done working, the triathlon provided a free lunch buffet to the volunteers and athletes, with pasta, salad, and assorted fruits. The t-shirts this year were blue, which was a nice change from the mint green that they traditionally give out. I probably have four or five mint colored triathlon shirts now.

Some of the local "wildlife"...

Cobra Patrol Flag

At the last scout meeting we discussed making patrol flags. My patrol, the cobra patrol, decided to get one printed and I offered to make a vector cobra emblem. Today I started work on it in Macromedia Freehand MXa, a program very similar to Adobe Illustrator.

This is a screenshot of what I've done so far. Keep in mind that this is just a rough draft and the final will have shading, be smoother, and the cobra will have a full body wrapping around the fleur de lis.

Finally Some Nicer Weather

These last few days have been the first that haven't been really hot in quite a while. We keep having these freak Pagrovian* heat waves (75 to 85 degrees) that have been very unpleasant, especially when running up Huckleberry Hill in cross country. Yesterday, the all-day high was a nice 66° with fog all day. Perfect temperature...

Further more, I looked on the Yahoo! extended forecast and, for the first time in what seems like years, there is actually rain!



*pa•gro•vi•an - adj. of or related to Pacific Grove, CA (local slang)

Church NERF II

After the success of the first church NERF game, Michael's family and I organized a second one for today. Unfortunately, Michael ended up being sick today, so it turned out that it was just Katie and I, and Robert Sholl, a 6^th grader from church who also happens to be a scout in Monterey's Troop 43 – I saw him at Chawanakee . We forgot to make posters and didn't promote this one much, so it was no surprise that he was the only one that showed up. He decided to come at the last minute when we told him at the St. Mary's homecoming barbecue (an hour of fun with a jumphouse, cotton candy, and a buffet line with really good bruchetta) right after the service.

Since we didn't have enough people to do a normal Capture the Flag game, we had to resort to a regular "death match" where there were no teams and the object was to be the last one standing. We played this about 5 or 6 times, with breaks in between where we talked and ate popcorn, and then went home.

Hopefully next time more people will show up…

Garden Updates

As of this morning, our first two tomatoes have turned red, and there are probably 30 to 40 still green ones on the vines. Within the next couple of weeks, the yearly flood of ripe tomatoes should start coming in. ¡Me gusta tomates!

Reference.com is bought by Ask

Yesterday Reference.com (makers of Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com) was bought by Ask. I use all three of these sites regularly for schoolwork, especially the dictionary portion. It's really handy because it combines results from Webster's, American Heritage, and a bunch of other dictionary sites. They also got a translation tool that displays all the results for a word on one page, as well as a redesigned look.

The original design:

The new design:

Monterey Pine Sunset

I took this photo last night out of my window as the sun was going down.

Mac

This morning I went on a cross-country run with Michael on the Huckleberry Hill course, which took about an hour, and then went over to Matthew's house. It turns out that he found a kitten on Friday in their yard. They couldn't find an owner and no one has responded to the ad yet, so the kitten, named Mac, is staying in their house now (much to the jealousy of Pounce and King). He is an energetic little kitten who seemed to like to attack my camera:



After playing around with Mac for a while, we jumped on the trampoline and played Star Fox: Assault on the GameCube.

Grant's Eagle Court of Honor

Coming back from the church swim party, I had to quickly get into my Class A scout uniform and head over to the PG Community Center for Grant Randall's Eagle Court of Honor. Many non-scouting people who knew Grant showed up, including my former private clarinet lesson instructor, Mr. Stotz, and Sean Bell, the captain of the cross country team.

It began with a prayer and then a slide show of Grant's scouting career. After this, the normal Eagle Scout ceremonies began, with speeches from family members and mentors, followed by an open remarks section. Quite a few people stood up for speeches, including Cliff Andrews, Katherine Barretto, and Kyle Lundquist.

After the end of the ceremony, there was a pizza dinner from Papa John's and a lot of free time. Around 8:00, I went over to Michael's for a movie night where we watched Terminator II.