Sorry I don't have any pictures of the girls for you this week. They did have a slumber party with our neighbor, Faith on Friday evening, but I wasn't there, so I didn't get any pictures of that. I'll try to do better next week.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
24 January 2010 - Google Visit
Intersession has effectively taken over my life the last couple of weeks, so I don't have much new to post. I did take my students on a field trip to Google Pittsburgh, where my friend Scott does some of the most advanced supercomputing currently in use in a commercial applied setting. We left with all of my students convinced they need to go work there now.
Sorry I don't have any pictures of the girls for you this week. They did have a slumber party with our neighbor, Faith on Friday evening, but I wasn't there, so I didn't get any pictures of that. I'll try to do better next week.
Sorry I don't have any pictures of the girls for you this week. They did have a slumber party with our neighbor, Faith on Friday evening, but I wasn't there, so I didn't get any pictures of that. I'll try to do better next week.
17 January 2010 - Intersession and Carnegie Science Center
This Intersession I decided to teach a class on supercomputing. I was able to get some money to buy some components and allow my students to assemble the machine themselves. 
They were happy during the hardware phase of the project, but when it came to programming the thing and I started teaching them C, they were less enthusiastic.
For Martin Luther King Day, the girls had a day off school, so we went to the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The girls had a lot of fun there. We also checked out SportsWorks, a new part of the science center focused on body and health. My phone died though, so no pictures of the girls on the bungee trampoline or the you-yo, unfortunately. This is in the Science Kitchen. The guy was making caramel apple flambe.
The girls were making a pipe maze for a ball to follow here.
Jessica played air hockey against a robot built by Carnegie Mellon University. She scored on it, but lost 3-1. I played it to a 0-0 tie.
They have a whole room dedicated to model trains. The guy told us there were 250,000 handmade mini-trees in the display, which was designed to model Pittsburgh throughout the four seasons of the year.
They were happy during the hardware phase of the project, but when it came to programming the thing and I started teaching them C, they were less enthusiastic.
For Martin Luther King Day, the girls had a day off school, so we went to the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The girls had a lot of fun there. We also checked out SportsWorks, a new part of the science center focused on body and health. My phone died though, so no pictures of the girls on the bungee trampoline or the you-yo, unfortunately. This is in the Science Kitchen. The guy was making caramel apple flambe.
The girls were making a pipe maze for a ball to follow here.
Jessica played air hockey against a robot built by Carnegie Mellon University. She scored on it, but lost 3-1. I played it to a 0-0 tie.
They have a whole room dedicated to model trains. The guy told us there were 250,000 handmade mini-trees in the display, which was designed to model Pittsburgh throughout the four seasons of the year.
Monday, January 11, 2010
10 January 2010 - Sledding
The first week back from Christmas break wasn't a very successful one. School was canceled for the girls on Monday and Friday due to snow, and was delayed two hours on Wednesday. Not that they really needed to cancel mind you, but they did, so we went sledding.
We went to the college's softball park, which has a really good hill. Jessica got good at making fast long runs on the track we carved.
We even made a train and Joanne took a video of us:
Being trapped indoors for most of the week by snow and cold, we had to find things to keep us (the kids) out of trouble. We started Jessica's science fair project. This year, she's testing to see if salt water or tap water evaporates faster.
Madeline got more babies for Christmas, and she brought them all down (the old and the new) to snuggle and watch a movie.
We also wound up with several Easy Bake Oven creations. Jessica made this cake.
Emily made a Happy New Year donut. She made one for me and one for her.
When we were at Toys-R-Us in Times Square, Jessica got a make-your-own-sticker kit. The girls were occupied for hours making stickers one day.
We hope you're staying warm, wherever you are this winter.
We went to the college's softball park, which has a really good hill. Jessica got good at making fast long runs on the track we carved.
We even made a train and Joanne took a video of us:
Being trapped indoors for most of the week by snow and cold, we had to find things to keep us (the kids) out of trouble. We started Jessica's science fair project. This year, she's testing to see if salt water or tap water evaporates faster.
Madeline got more babies for Christmas, and she brought them all down (the old and the new) to snuggle and watch a movie.
We also wound up with several Easy Bake Oven creations. Jessica made this cake.
Emily made a Happy New Year donut. She made one for me and one for her.
When we were at Toys-R-Us in Times Square, Jessica got a make-your-own-sticker kit. The girls were occupied for hours making stickers one day.
We hope you're staying warm, wherever you are this winter.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
3 January 2010
The day after Christmas, we loaded up the car and headed east to Bloomfield, New Jersey to be with Joanne's brother Jerry and his wife Danae for the blessing of their baby Eden on December 27th. Here's what Eden thinks of getting her picture taken:
Jessica loves to hold babies.
This is Eden's big sister, Calista. She got a Frosty the snowman for Christmas. She likes to sing along with him: Fwah-see a snowman, what a jolly he was cold. With a corn pipe pipe and a button nose and a toy made out of coal.
About two hours from home, I realized I had remembered my church shoes, but had left my suit and dress shirt draped over a chair at the bottom of the stairs. I've been in the market for a new suit anyway, so we stopped in Allentown, PA and got this one. Without it, I would have looked pretty poor for our family photo op following church on Sunday.
Grandma Fails got to spend time with all nine of her grandkids, though Trevor didn't get to be in this particular photo.
On the Monday following Christmas, we went into New York City for the day. It was super crowded, but aside from that, we had fun. We also got to spend a few hours with our friends Jenni and Ed who live in D.C. now, but used to live in NYC and were in the city for the holiday. This is a shot of us in front of a giant (and a little too realistic for Madeline's tastes) dinosaur inside the Toys-R-Us in Times Square.
Here are the girls right after they died and went to heaven in Toys-R-Us. They each had $35 from Grammie for Christmas, and we let them go hog wild.
Here's us in Times Square with the New Year's Eve ball drop area behind us. The ball wasn't up yet. Yes, Madeline's wearing my Smashing Pumpkins hat, in case you were wondering.
Joanne in Central Park with her brother Jerry and sister Jennifer.
It didn't snow while we were in the city, but there was some snow left over from a previous storm, and a little snowball fight broke out.
Here we are in front of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. We had some food there and then headed out of the city around 4 pm. Traffic was nasty getting out of the city, but we had fun and were glad to be headed back to Jerry's house.
The next day, we played it pretty low-key and went swimming at Karl's hotel before they checked out to head home to Delaware.
We stayed the night and drove home uneventfully on Wednesday. We spent New Year's Eve at the Relief Society president's house with a few other couples from the ward. Jessica was the baby sitter -- it was her maiden voyage as a baby sitter for an extended period of time, and she did great.
Our 2010 start off great, and we hope it will be a prosperous and peaceful year for us, and for each of you.
Jessica loves to hold babies.
This is Eden's big sister, Calista. She got a Frosty the snowman for Christmas. She likes to sing along with him: Fwah-see a snowman, what a jolly he was cold. With a corn pipe pipe and a button nose and a toy made out of coal.
About two hours from home, I realized I had remembered my church shoes, but had left my suit and dress shirt draped over a chair at the bottom of the stairs. I've been in the market for a new suit anyway, so we stopped in Allentown, PA and got this one. Without it, I would have looked pretty poor for our family photo op following church on Sunday.
Grandma Fails got to spend time with all nine of her grandkids, though Trevor didn't get to be in this particular photo.
On the Monday following Christmas, we went into New York City for the day. It was super crowded, but aside from that, we had fun. We also got to spend a few hours with our friends Jenni and Ed who live in D.C. now, but used to live in NYC and were in the city for the holiday. This is a shot of us in front of a giant (and a little too realistic for Madeline's tastes) dinosaur inside the Toys-R-Us in Times Square.
Here are the girls right after they died and went to heaven in Toys-R-Us. They each had $35 from Grammie for Christmas, and we let them go hog wild.
Here's us in Times Square with the New Year's Eve ball drop area behind us. The ball wasn't up yet. Yes, Madeline's wearing my Smashing Pumpkins hat, in case you were wondering.
Joanne in Central Park with her brother Jerry and sister Jennifer.
It didn't snow while we were in the city, but there was some snow left over from a previous storm, and a little snowball fight broke out.
Here we are in front of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. We had some food there and then headed out of the city around 4 pm. Traffic was nasty getting out of the city, but we had fun and were glad to be headed back to Jerry's house.
The next day, we played it pretty low-key and went swimming at Karl's hotel before they checked out to head home to Delaware.
We stayed the night and drove home uneventfully on Wednesday. We spent New Year's Eve at the Relief Society president's house with a few other couples from the ward. Jessica was the baby sitter -- it was her maiden voyage as a baby sitter for an extended period of time, and she did great.
Our 2010 start off great, and we hope it will be a prosperous and peaceful year for us, and for each of you.
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