Training Log Archive: barb

I sent Linda (teacher, mentor of Julia) a note describing what Julia has been doing in her classroom. Got this back: "Keep all this for future use. Maybe we could work together, at some point, and start building a manual for teachers for K-8 on orienteering. Julia would be a great collaborator." And I will point out that Linda is NOT an orienteer!

With David, who has a fine new bicycle, to his appointment in Arlington.

For the new school, I need to find videos or books that explain what orienteering is. (I am a little reluctant to go to the NEOC library because I was such a delinquent borrower. Heh heh... I think I need a personal secretary.) Julia, the teacher, said she explained what orienteering is, and the kids got really excited about it. She told me she thinks some of them might become real orienteers.

Yesterday Julia lent me some of the reflections written by her students on their first map-related interactions with the kindergarten reading buddies.

"We got a packet explaining about a map and giving us examples of keys. We read a few pages then showed them the map we made in class. We used symbols and numbers on our map to represent objects."

"Today I had fun teaching my book buddies how to read a map. It was kind of hard since most of them don't know how to read, but it was a fun challenge. When I read the packet I was pointing out all sorts of things. Most of the time they took a long time to figure everything out. It was fun teaching them about maps. I would do it again" And you will, Zane, you will!

"Ryan and I made them search for clues that will help them find things on the map."

"It made me happy that I was teaching someone about something they didn't know that much about. It was a little hard at first to teach my buddy because she didn't speak that much English, but after a while when she understood it better, it was fun and interesting to both of us."

"I think my book buddy liked the maps because he liked finding stuff with the key on the map."

"It felt weird because I was in charge and like a teacher."

"Working with my buddy taught me how to explain things to others."

One kindergartener is high-functioning Down's syndrome. Julia said he was very excited by the maps and really got into it.

...

The New Yorker has an article about Maja Mataric, who was in grad school with me at the AI Lab. What with that article and the one about Spiderwoman a little while ago, it's interesting to be of an age where my contemporaries and acquaintances are being profiled in New Yorker articles. Maja is working on robots to interact with autistic kids; the article includes some fine nay-saying by Sherry Turkle.

There was also an intriguing article about how people who hang out with other like-minded people become more polarized, and how that's magnified by the internet. Perhaps AP is an example.

...

David spent the last couple of evenings reading this stuff for History homework:

A spectre is haunting Europe...
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms...
The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie...
The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe...
The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation into a mere money relation...
All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind...
National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature...
Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, governments, and systems of taxation, became lumped together into one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national class interest, one frontier, and one customs tariff...

Watched the 5th graders make maps with the kindergarteners. Wow, those little kids are little!

NYTimes article about humans having evolved the ability to run long distances. Maybe this speaks to why I, a rather out-of-shape human, can be fairly comfortable "running" 100k or doing a rogaine, but can't keep up with even casual joggers around the Charles river or at a 5k race.

This is more like learning than teaching, because Julia pulled together a fantastic curriculum for her kids so far...

I met with Julia, the 5th grade teacher at the school I haven't worked with before. Linda, the awesome 1&2 grade teacher at Graham & Parks school, with whom I have done orienteering activities for 7 years, mentored Julia back in 1999 when she was a teacher-in-training. They are still in touch and Linda encouraged Julia to get in touch with me.

Previously Julia and I had agreed on a rough outline of orienteering activities for her classroom throughout the year, leading up to a trip to the Fells in the spring. She wanted to do the orienteering in the context of her kids' relationship to their kindergarten reading buddies. I brought her a couple teaching-orienteering books I have purchased from the Bermans over time. This time I got to hear what she's done so far. And I really didn't lift a finger other than to meet with her!

She had the kids make maps of their classroom, and revise them over time, adding a legend. They also read several books from their library about maps. Then they started talking about how to teach map-making to the kindergarteners. Each student wrote down a plan for how to teach their reading buddy. Then they got together with the reading buddies and read them part of a book about maps. Then they shared the maps they'd made of their classroom, with a mystery object marked on the map (a foot-high penguin, but not a real one, because it had to stay stationary). Today they'll prep for tomorrow's reading buddy activity: making a map with the reading buddy of the kindergarten classroom.

In November & December, Julia will have her kids make maps of the garden outside her room, and repeat many of the same activities but with the garden. Later I'll come in with my version of the map and set a proper orienteering course for the 5th graders. Then the 5th graders will use my map to set a course for the kindergarteners.

In January we'll start with the older kids on contours and start working up to the Fells trip. Maybe the reading buddies will work on reading other books and drawing imaginary maps of the places in the books...

Anyway, I was so impressed at Julia's ability to turn these vague ideas into concrete classroom projects, with a great development over time.

One issue that hasn't been worked out yet is MONEY! The trip to the Fells will cost > $200 just for the bus transportation. She's not supposed to ask the parents for money. She's still looking into where to get the funds. It would be so cool if there were some funding source just for transportation for orienteering trips for schoolchildren...

Dreams included
Living and working off in the direction of Nahant but the place was more like Lynn; ended up on a train without any cash; Bill rescued me by running after the train and jumping on and making the train slow down and we jumped off. I thought that was very resourceful of him.
At work, found an application that allowed me to surf around and see what was on the screens of other computers. Some were surfing around across other screens too.
Still at work, two guys I didn't know came in and were asking why my PhD thesis was so derivative, and whether I had help from a man to get the work done. I was indignant and angry.

Whoa. Stewart is a little more Rude Pundit than I'd remembered.

C • woah++ 2

Started working on the latest school map...

Race at Fresh Pond. David finished in 21 or 22 min; Katia in 18.

Katia & Giovanni are visiting! Katia is starting as faculty at Harvard in January.

C • Holy cow! 1

Work commute.

Heard from Julia at the Morse school. Today her 5th graders worked with their kindergarten reading buddies to make maps of the classroom. She said it went well; I'm looking forward to talking to her next Wed to find out details. Next project is to make a map of the outside of the school, and then have the kids use it the way they used their classroom maps, to find stuff. It's pretty neat that Julia is just going with this project; I'm not even in the classroom and it's happening...

Heard from an ex-colleague of sorts (he was a big person in the Legal department and I was just me) about a project he is doing along with a few other people, like the founder and ex-CEO of Millennium. They want to teach entrepreneurship to Cambridge kids. I sent back suggestions ("can you incorporate the idea of socially responsible companies?") and put him in touch with a school committee member I know. I guess I'd be more into it if they were proposing to teach kids how to create non-profits or do science or something. Well, I can get into it; it's just didn't make me jump up and down when I first read it.

...

Note from Julia at the Morse school:

My class has been working on map making using ideas from the orienteering book you left with me. We will be meeting with our buddies Thursday and hopefully reading a lower level book to them about maps. Also, I thought the students could share their maps of our room with their buddies.
We've worked on keys, directions, etc. Fifth graders also did some writing: "How will you explain to a kindergartener what a map is?" Students had to identify 6 key components of maps and write about how they would teach this to K's. Also, "How would you help a kindergartener make a map and use a key?
Same process as above, 6 key ideas, write about it. (I hope this sounds like the correct approach.)

My hope is that next Thursday 5th graders will be working with their buddies to create a map of the kindergarten room. I'll let you know how it goes.
Any, and all feedback welcomed!

To work & back a couple times.
To the high school for parent-teacher[-student] conferences. David trained for cross-country rather than join me, which was fine. Things are good. David should be in honors English & History. Not a big deal for History, where he's got a Totally Awesome teacher, but the level of discourse in English would be a better fit in Honors. His challenge is that he is a slow reader and writer. Afterward, I had a phone meeting outside the school about next year's computational biology conference happening in Boston; I'm involved in "public outreach" and my dream is to bring Baba Brinkman here for a performance, but I suspect that won't happen... Then David and I biked over to Toscanini's and talked about school and stuff, and then I biked back to work and David continued on to home. It's neat that David is biking; today marks the day he transitioned from not wanting to ever bike because it's scary and confusing to do so in Cambridge, to loving the convenience and perhaps the experience of biking.

OK, I've (finally) checked out a few videos of Alan Grayson and I can't help it, I love him. Maybe it's because of my latest hobby (making jam) and his Huey Long jam on the lowest shelf for the little guy comment. Or maybe it's because he's smart, I agree with everything he says, and he is a laugh riot.

There has been a coyote sighting in our neighborhood. Ah, an article.

C • Where there are chickens 2

Local orienteering meet, Wrentham, green course. Raining.

Made relish for the first time. Green tomato and cabbage relish. The green tomatoes, cabbage and peppers were from our garden.

About 1 quart of processed green tomatoes
1 processed yellow onion
About 1 quart of processed green cabbage
3 processed green bell peppers
1 processed jalapeno pepper
(by "processed" I mean shredded in a food processor)

Soak the above with 2 T salt overnight.
Drain, and boil for 3 or 4 minutes with:

1 T cinnamon
1/2 T allspice
1/2 T cloves
1 tsp pepper
2 C sugar (brown sugar is fine)
1/2 T mustard seed
1/2 T celery seed
pinch chai masala (optional)
pinch ajawain (optional)
pinch kalonji (optional)
1 1/2 C white vinegar
1 T lemon juice
1 C water

Can in jars that have been sterilized. I don't think you need to boil them for long afterward because of the vinegar and lemon juice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Also made pickled green cherry tomatoes. Similar recipe. Put hot pepper, cut up onion, garlic cloves, spices in bottom of jar, then the green tomatoes. Pour boiling vinegar/water mixture over, and I boiled it after sealing it for a little while.

for C

With Isabel and Dave.

Tonight Dave, David and I finished watching the Bourne trilogy. Since Matt Damon is a graduate of not only David's high school (Cambridge Rindge and Latin) but also, allegedly, of Izzy's school (Graham and Parks), I would periodically throughout the movie call out, G and P! CRLS!

David says the math teacher (Steve) says Matt was kind of a cut up in class.

Now, imagine, if the junior high kids had been going off to the woods back in Damon's day on the annual orienteering field trip -- maybe orienteering would figure big time into Hollywood movies by now!

C • Bourne trilogy 1

To school for morning meeting with principal, who shared the results of her survey of the community. Then later to Central Square to pick up our vegetable share. Beets, fennel, other root veggies, greens, green peppers.

Last night I made green tomato lasagna:

2 large green tomatoes, sliced thin
1 large eggplant, or 2 medium, sliced thin
1-2 zucchinis, sliced thin
lasagna noodles
ricotta cheese
fontina or mozzarrella cheese, or both; grated or sliced thin
grated parmesan cheese

1 lb mushrooms; these were from the farm share, all one mushroom really
greens from about 8 beets
big can of tomatoes or fresh tomatoes peeled, optionally seeded
1 onion
6 cloves garlic
olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp tomato paste (could be more)
2 Tbsp red wine
small amount of baking chocolate (optional)

Sauce:
Saute garlic, onion, mushrooms in olive oil. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, lemon juice, beet greens. Cook for a while, then add the chocolate.

Grill the eggplant, zucchine and tomatoes.
Cook the lasagna noodles.

In a large lasagna pan, layer the following 3 times (1/3 of each in each layer):
sauce
grilled veggies
noodles
cheeses

Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

C • Yum 2

David told me that yesterday the 9th graders had an assembly for GLBT Coming Out day. One of the girls he knows from junior high talked about coming the the realization that she is bi, and talking to her family about it. Others spoke too. The kids in the audience applauded the speakers with enthusiasm.

Things are different than when I was a kid!

C • Things are different 4

I harvested green tomatoes and halapeno or peppers and made the following jelly last night:

Hot Pepper Jelly
3 green bell peppers
20 jalapeno peppers
3 C. vinegar, white, distilled
4 lb green tomatoes
dash lime juice
a few leaves of basil
cinnamon stick
10 C. sugar
1 pkg pectin

1. Remove stems and seeds from bell and hot peppers.
2. Cut tomatoes into chunks and process in food processor.
2. Put peppers and the vinegar in a blender and process until smooth.
3. Combine pepper-vinegar and tomato purees and all the sugar, along with the lime juice, basil and cinnamon stick, in a non-corrosive pan.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and strain into another pan. Add pectin and bring to a full rolling boil while stirring. Boil about one minute, remove from heat and ladle into sterile jars.
Yield: about 10 half-pint jars.

It turned out pretty tasty; we tried some on toast last night. It's sweet and hot, but not so hot you can't eat it. Next time I'll look for a way to bring out some richer, fuller flavor. I'm currently working on a not-hot green tomato jam whose recipe has me letting the green tomatoes sit overnight with ginger, lemon juice and sugar, so that overnight sit might help. Also, more spices.

To Toscanini's which really should result in this being a -1 rated activity.
Sadly, I am having trouble exercising so I am grasping at straws...

At the highlander, Dave & I came in 48th & 49th. Our split rankings were better in the later part of the race, which might reflect my tendency to spend the first part of the course warming up, or might reflect that I have been training to go steadily for long distances (albeit slowly). Or that we didn't have any horrible mistakes. It would help if I could just run faster, comfortably.

We met Fred Pilon on the course. Quite a few times. He'd run off and then later appear from behind or a different direction.

There are over 1000 high school freshmen entered in the boys' cross-country meet David is going to on Saturday at Northfield Mountain. That is a lot of kids. Imagine if it we got those numbers for an orienteering invitational...

Grocery store for jelly-making supplies.

Ran with David around Fresh Pond. Fast at the end.

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

Hudson Highlander, avec Dave.



Ce sont les français. François m'a expliqué qu'ils ont fait l'acquisition des chapeaux apres avoir être arrêter par la police pour un certain excès de vitesse. Et depuis qu'ils ont commencés à porter ces chapeaux, ils n'avaient pas être arrêter, pas une fois.

Ils ont an air assez "Village People", vous ne croyez pas?

C • hmmm 3

Highlander - Splits

Watched Cyrano de Bergerac in french last night with the kids. David was really really disappointed at first: another foreign film, and we had to read the subtitles. I loved it. (1)

On 9/25/09 I took 80 junior high and 20 1st & 2nd grade students on a team orienteering field trip. Teams of 4 planned their routes and how to work together over the course of 2 weeks. On the day of the field trip, they first did a white-level orienteering course to a transition area, and from there a score-O with shared "landmark" controls on trail intersections and off-trail "team" controls that were specific to each team. Finding controls (and picking up trash) translated into tickets that were exchanged for prizes at the end.

Below is a summary of the responses in the reflections the junior high students wrote.
The response was overall very positive. The negative aspects include some things that we can address with changes to the program.

Things that seem to work well, based on the responses below:

• The overall format of teams finding controls, followed by ticket exchange for prizes works. Kids had fun; they worked together well in teams; they loved finding team controls; they loved the tickets & prizes.
  
• Preparation in class ahead of time is seen by the students as useful.
  

Things we can do to improve:

• In the classroom work before the trip, talk more about what to do if you get "lost"
  
• I think the start (after getting off the bus) was much better than last year, and might be further improved by being clear the kids need to send one representative of their team to check in before starting - and maybe multiple check-in spots.
  
• The transition area needs work; Leah had the good suggestion of having several check-in stations. (E.g., 7th grade & 8th grade)
  
• Talk more about what to do if you can't find a team control. (1) try again, more carefully, from an attackpoint, (2) call Barb (sometimes I can get there and determine whether it is missing).
  

What was the high point of the trip for you?

Many students felt the high point was finishing: with a feeling of success (5), relief (9), or anticipation of snacks, tickets or prizes (11).

13 responses mentioned navigating well; 10 of these focused on the student's own ability to navigate, and often to explain to the team where they were.

Many responses mentioned finding controls (29). 8 of these indicated that it was a high point to find a control after a struggle. 14 responses mentioned team controls, and 6 of those refer to finding the first team control.

Teamwork was mentioned a number of times (working together well, and getting positive feedback from team members).

Additional responses include:

• Not being pressed for time
  
• Being able to hang out with others on the team
  
• Being able to transform the experience of being lost and mad to talking and singing
  
• Resting; eating lunch at a scenic spot
  
• Getting praise, help, or not needing help from adult chaperones
  
• Receiving the compass
  

One respondent said there was no high point.

What was the low point of the trip for you?

Being lost or confused about location was the most frequent response (25). 4 students reported feeling they'd gotten the team lost as a low point.

Physical difficulty (climbing, being tired, minor injury, or feeling sick) was reported in 19 responses.

Running out of time (5)

Problems with teammates: stopping (1), screaming (1), yelling at each other (2) grabbing (1)

Missing team controls (3).

5 people said there was no low point.

Other responses:

• Transition area was slow and confusing (1)
  
• Adults were bossy and obnoxious (1)
  
• Came in last (1)
  
• Having to use the bathroom (1)
  
• Losing punch card (1)
  
• Broken compass (1)
  
• Separated from group (1)
  
• Didn't know how to orienteer (1)
  
• Good prizes gone (1)
  

Useful preparation

Most responses mentioned planning the route (34), including using the strategy of following trails (1), knowing they didn't have to get all the controls (1), and planning for what to do if they ran out of time (1).

Practicing teamwork was mentioned in 13 answers, including roles (3), bonding (2), and rules (2).

Learning how to read the map and navigate appeared in 8 answers (map reading 3, learning contours 1, checking features 2, orienting the map 2)

The test (5), homework (1) and worksheets (1) were useful.

Additional responses:

• Gear: water/food (2), maps & compasses (1)
  
• Feeling mentally prepared (3)
  
• Having lots of time to prepare (1)
  
• There was too much planning (1)
  
• Safety (2)
  
• Nothing / don't know (3)
  

What weren't you prepared for?

Nothing (12)

Being lost or making a navigation error (22). How teams dealt with it: backtrack (1), go back to landmark control (2), changed route (1), oriented the map (1), found a route (1), looked around (1), wandered randomly until found a trail (2), cooperated and stayed together (1), followed the road (1)

Couldn't find a team control (7). How dealt with it: moved on (1), Barb helped (1)

Other responses:

• picking up trash
  
• Gear problem
  
• Tired (1), tripping (1)
  
• running out of time (2)
  
• having to make quick decisions as opposed to the classroom where we had as much time as we needed (1)
  
• slow teammates (solution: have patience) (1)
  
• deciding when we'd eat lunch
  

Teamwork

Overall, 41 responses said their team worked well; 4 said their team did not work well.

What worked:

• Finding controls, good navigation, good route decisions (17)
  
• It was fun (17)
  
• Finishing; prizes, tickets (12)
  
• working together, getting along, agreeing, listening to each other, resolving disagreements (20)
  
• Followed the rules we made (1)
  
• Roles (1)
  

What didn't work:

• Being lost (5)
  
• Wanting to go different speeds (4)
  
• People threw rocks (1)
  
• Adults were terrible (1)
  
• I don't like orienteering (1)
  
• Teammates argued (3)
  
• Teammates didn't listen (1)
  
• Teammates walked ahead with other team (1)
  

C • other resppnses 2

To Leah's house at 7 am to prep for today's 5th grade orienteering field trip, then hanging controls, then riding around solving certain map issues, then picking up controls, then school - home - school (meeting with principal) - home.

Work commute...

Harvested some veggies from the garden to roast tonight: red peppers, butternut squash, tomatoes, green beans, eggplant.

Feeling stiff from the rogaine, and feet a little sore. Didn't get any big blisters. Had been quite worried about the left big toe which was suffering from what felt like a blister deep under the nail, after the 50k. The night before the rogaine I punctured the nail with a hot needle and let it drain some. It still hurt a lot. But after the rogaine, it was fine! Weird.

My feet were wet most of the rogaine, and I think I need to waterproof my shoes (grey light hikers), which used to stand up to the wet much better. It didn't rain too much at all, but there was a really fine snowfall up as we approached one of the highest points. I have a photo I need to suck off the camera.

Brought too much food, but the homemade bread worked great. It was yummy and kept my tummy settled and happy, throughout the race. Ingredients:
1 fresh egg
1/2 C water
5/8 C buttermilk
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp molasses
2 1/2 C bread flour
1/2 C wheat flour
1/2 C oatmeal
1/2 C bulgur wheat
1/4 C quinoa
1/2 C sunflower seeds
1/4 C finely chopped walnuts
2 Tbsp gluten
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp SAF yeast

On the drive back to Seattle there was a fine view of Mt Rainier from several angles.

About the rogaine:

No cougar sightings, much to John's disappointment. No idea how often the cougars sighted us. John was somewhat comforted in his disappointment by sightings of what he claimed was bear scat. I know this was meaningful for him by the excitement with which he several times proclaimed he'd just seen some bear poop. Somehow I never saw it myself, so I can't vouch for it. Not that I even know what it looks like. Ah, wait, let me google... ... oh, I think I did see some bear scat, come to think of it. I saw this on the trail, and something like this around where the blueberries or huckleberries were, and it was purple-y. I wouldn't recommend clicking on the links if you don't like looking at pictures of excrement. My, bear scat can look all different sorts of ways!

The map materials were full of useful information. I say "map materials" and not just "map" because Mr. Bone gave each team not only regular old maps but also shading-rendered LIDAR data and an aerial photo. The last two items could have been very useful in route planning because they give information that you never normally get from a rogaine information: how thick is the forest. Now this information does not jump out at the uninitiated the way various shades of green do; however, with a little tutelage (not the Kantian kind) from Eric, it was possible to understand that the unnaturally bumpy areas on the LIDAR map were places where the high thick canopy of runnable older trees prevented the signals from properly bouncing off the ground. And that the darkest carpets in the aerial photo were older forest and more open.

The forest was full of ex-roads being reclaimed by Nature. In the altitude data you could make out old road gradings that weren't on the map, which might help you be not too discombobulated when you came upon them while climbing a steep hillside. And not being discombobulated was important, so that you could focus on remembering which ghost road was the one you wanted to get back down to when you were done punching and signing and contemplating the list of those who'd already signed in and stretching and taking the photo at the control.

And then there was the map itself, which I overheard an experienced competitor refer to as the best rogaine map he'd ever had privilege of using. Eric computed the contours from LIDAR data. He added trails that went nearly all the way to many controls (this eliminating that annoying luck factor in many rogaines where some competitors find a tasty trail and others do not) (but actually getting to many of those many controls once the trail ended was often a piece of work, let me tell you); I guess he must have traveled all these trails himself so he could mark them with one of 8 or so different symbols varying in color, width and dashed/dottedness indicating their exact character and mood. And in a new innovation, Eric added little numbers (1, 2, 3, or 4) in various useful places to tell us how thick it was around there. Which saved my team from making a very bad decision to try and go cross country from 47 west toward one of the 100-pointers, or would have, if we'd even had the guts to get to 47. I like the use of numbers because it wouldn't have been possible to add area features with their self-important accuracy-implying boundaries.

Eric refers to his mapping as "open source", and in fact all of the source materials are freely available (aerial imagery and LIDAR data), and that is pretty darn cool. Mind you, all the extra work Eric put in on the map (contour-computing and trail-walking and vegetation-number-estimating, for example) is valuable and deserving of remuneration so I'm glad he was able to put on the rogaine and get people to pay him some bucks, though I'm sure the hourly rate we paid was a pittance.

I found planning our route challenging because as far as I could tell Eric was presenting us with a classic Euler's bridges problem. I always hate it when I come to that realization during rogaine route planning, and I go through all the stages of denial etc., and have to insist to myself on having a suck-it-up moment before I can proceed to decide what to do about it.

More on the whole experience when I return... But let me just add: thank you so much Eric (& Eric's crew) for the gift of this lovely rogaine to all of us participants.

notes to self

r as meditation
fishing
what most would like to do besides with
veg
feet
food
cold
time @ controls
smooth navigation
time wasted
communication
maps
map book
art fair
team dynamics. the stages of a team.
man from Wasilla at the airport who made my acquaintance, ate my offered cookie, critiqued it, ranted about all sorts of things, and walked away in a sudden huff when I started doing the same back at him and left me with such a bad feeling I had to deliberately stop thinking about him
Microsoft engineer I sat next to on the plane

Walking around sunny, cool Seattle with John.

I had thought that perhaps I'd gone overboard with the whole John and bear scat thing in my previous post. Maybe he was just pointing it out, like we pointed out lots of stuff to each other. But then, we were crossing a street on our walk today, coming back from the tower toward his house, at a crosswalk, and John pointed at a smushed dog turd on the ground, with clear shoe tread castings, and noted that this poop had been in little cylinders when we walked the other direction. Observant guy, John. Reminds me of that cute scientist guy in the excellent movie "the gods must be crazy", who is s specialist in elephant dung or maybe all sort of dung.

In honor of being in WA, and in particular in Ashford: I love this article in today's NYT about hiking around Rainier. Also intriguing: pay what you wish. OK, and I like this Krugman article.

little tahoma
with john
excellent

C • Can't wait to hear more! 7

Event: Big Tahoma Rogaine
 

To school for the first junior high parent/teacher meeting of the year. This is the third year I've had a kid in the junior high, but now it's Isabel in 7th grade. People are pretty psyched because the kids this year are a great group and we won't have the same behavioral issues that slowed down the curriculum last year. They're taking more time with developing the social contract this year. There is a problem with Facebook; kids are not behaving well there.

I picked up the kids' written reflections on the orienteering trip. I can't wait to read them.

"The best moment of the orienteering trip for me was about halfway through our planned route, when we realized that we had loads of extra time. Then, just as we were strolling along, getting used to the idea, someone said loudly, it's a Friday! I was ecstatic. We were not pressed for time, and had a whole weekend of relaxation ahead."

"I think planning our route in advance really helped us out, and doing lots of activities in our group helped us with teamwork."

"My favorite moment was when we climbed up this steep hill, and came to control 110, where there was a beautiful view, a *bunch* of trash to put in our trash bag, and lawn chairs! We decided to eat lunch there, and it was perfect for that. It was like the von Trapp family came up this hill to Switzerland."

"I think the most important planning was getting to know each other better. I know this might sound sappy, but people who get along well with their team seemed more excited for orienteering."

"For most of the trip I felt discouraged because I still did not know how to orienteer. So I couldn't do anything to help my team. If it wasn't for Ben we would be half way to Canada by now."

"I can't think of anything that went well. We were always fighting, I was always getting yelled at, the adults were terrible, and we barely earned any tickets."

"I felt proud for finishing the course and it was fun to get prizes."

"I think trying to make quick decisions was a challenge. In the class we always had a lot of time to think things over."

"My high point was when we found a team control that was deep in the woods."

"My personal high point was when we finally reached P3 and we had done it all by ourselves with no adults."

"The worst moment was when Sam led me through the mud and I lost one of my socks."

"We learned to bond together and not trust Sam."

"Everything was awesome. We were practically laughing the whole time."

Packing to head off to WA for a rogaine tomorrow. Apparently there was recently a cougar sighting in some relatively populated park near/in Seattle where we've orienteered before. They caught the cougar and took it away and released it... in the place we'll be rogaining. Which is where they dump all these cougars who got too close to human populations. Great.

C • Don't worry, you don't have... 1

C • Shoot 1