Someone Turned 19 Today

As is tradition, a Cherry Cheesecake was served for breakfast in bed.

All candles were blown out in one solid breath and delicious cheesecake was then served.

Presents then followed.

Things will be Done next.  Happy Shenanigans may ensue,

Then after Things are Done, Thanksgiving dinner will be prepared and served .

Amazing how the years fly by and the firstborn is now 19. She's an amazing, smart, and beautiful young woman now.   She just signed her first lease ever for a shared apartment to begin next year as a Sophomore at University.

Happy Birthday Abby!

Abby On To The Next Stage

Moved Abby to her dorm today.  She's officially off to begin her next challenge at University to study micro-cellular biology.

Move in was smooth and helped her get unloaded, unpacked, and organized within a couple hours.  

The room's bed, drawers, and bookshelf are modular and can be moved around to make a loft/half/loft or bunk bed.  She chose the half-loft and so we lifted the bed up and got it all setup on top the the drawers and shelf and she gets some storage out of it underneath.  Got her desk moved as well and her room looks quite nice.

The room really is rather nice and spacious and given what we're paying for room and board it better be. Only downside is there's no AC for the room, so they've got a fan running and need to get another one. 

She's rooming with a friend of hers from middle school that has a business major compared to her science major, and such differences in their fields of study should be good for both of them. They're both pretty solid organizers and their room looks great.

She is all setup now. Once she was all done unpacking, then she was off for an orientation meeting and we headed home.  

We did say we wouldn't rent her room out while she's gone, but it sure feels strange that she won't be in her room now.

Seventeen In Quarantine: Happy Birthday Abby

So Abby turned Seventeen today.  Pretty crazy, because I remember her like this like it was yesterday.

The birthday began, as it always does, with cherry cheesecake that Tash made from scratch.  As usual, it was excellent and a fine way to kick off a birthday celebration.

Then presents, which she enjoyed.

After that, she had virtual school and I worked from home.

Next, since she desired deli for lunch we did takeout at our local deli and I went and picked it up.

Then I went to the office as I had things that needed to get done there, and soon Tash came home and took the kids to get their nails done.

I got home late from work after getting some things done on tight deadlines, but in time for dinner, which was, as Abby had desired, takeout sushi from her favorite sushi restaurant, which was excellent.

With so many things being closed, this birthday was kinda centered around her favorite foods.

After dinner she and Leah went off to watch some sister movies and tv shows.

She's declared she had a great birthday and is starting to feel like she's seventeen.

Forensics - The YETIE

The Michigan forensics competitive season was cut short by the Wuhan virus.

While the season was cut short with in-person competitions halted and no regionals or state finals to be held.

The Michigan Interscholastic Forensics Association decided to hold for all state competitors The Year End Tournament for Individual Events - The YETIE.

MIFA and its legion of enthusiastic organizing volunteers really did an excellent job organizing the tournament under very short notice and they made it work, as did the many volunteer judges who judged this video competition.

Each contestant submitted their piece via video - one-shot takes only, no video editing allowed, and with the same time constraints as with in-person events.

The videos were then judged by the same standards as if the contestant were there in person.

Some moved on to the Semi-Final round, Abby among them, and then to the final round.

The final results have now been announced and the award ceremony was conducted virtually.

The online video award ceremony began by featuring each of the High School senior competitors - this was their last high school forensics competition.

Then in alphabetical order, each category was announced.

In oratory, Abby took second place in the state!

The kid has got some definite forensic speaking skills.

Saturday 4N6

4N6 being the way Forensics is oft referred to by the participants. Saves space and makes for shorter URLs for accessing schematics and tabulation results.

Yesterday the competition was held at MSU. This made for a long day.

This was especially so as Abby returned from her winter break school Civil Rights History trip to Atlanta and various cities in Alabama at Detroit Metro Airport on Friday at Midnight.

So I picked her up then, then got to Okemos at 1:30 am, checked into a hotel and got a few hours sleep starting at 2am before getting to the tournament at Wells Hall at MSU at 7 am. The question is should I have been charged for a night's stay by the hotel considering we were only there during the morning from 2 am to 6:40 am? The things you think of on a lack of sleep.

Tired or not, Abby gamely pushed on, and I gamely judged the rounds I was assigned. I also helped a first time judge with the process for their first tournament and helped answer questions on scoring, judge preparations, etc. Scary that I actually am regarded as knowing what I'm doing enough to be training another judge and making sure they have their stuff ready to go.

But yet again, someone in judge scheduling hates me.

The tournament was held in Wells Hall with a secondary site at Berkey Hall. Check in and all main ops were in Wells. The MSU organizers assured us it wasn't too far away.

Well, "not too far" is a relative term. It's a solid 15 minute walk away, and wouldn't you know it, my judging schedule had me first in Berkey and then immediately back to Wells Hall. Why this always happens, I don't know. I need to figure out who to bribe or beg forgiveness for unintentionally slighting in scheduling office to get them to stop running me around from building to building for these tournaments.

It was bracingly cold, and I only had a sweater on as Abby didn't have a winter coat with her coming straight from Atlanta, so I had given her my winter coat. Suck it up and walk faster, right?

So I judged those two first rounds, impromptu and storytelling, and I was on standby for the third and not needed, and was scheduled to do extemporaneous for the semi finals.

Impromptu was interesting. The quote competitors received and for which they had to give a 5 minute speech with 1 minute or so of preparation after seeing the quote was from a famous MSU alumni. (All sections used MSU alumni quotes, never the same quote in a different section).

4 out of six competitors missed the main point of the quote. 2 competitors got it.

One of the two was an exchange student from Korea, competing in forensics for the first time, nervous as hell, and competing in her second language, and she got it. Talk about guts - you're in a foreign country, in a language you're not fully comfortable with, and you're competing by getting up to give a speech in that language based on analyzing a quote you just received and you have about one minute to develop. In short, she did amazing and made an excellent personal speech, not a canned response as many competitors do, but based on applying the quote to her own life. That kid should go far in life.

Since Abby's school placed 3 competitors in extemporaneous, and thus had competitors in both semi final sections, I was pulled off judging that category, as you can never judge your own school, which makes a lot of sense. I spent the time talking with some other judges that also had been unassigned those rounds and it was some decent conversation.

Then I wasn't scheduled for finals as all judging assignment except for Duo had come out. I was going to just take it easy and either find a place to nap or go watch a performance when one of the organizers asked if I could judge Dramatic Interpretation finals as they had just lost a judge for it and needed one stat. While I was tired, I was qualified to do it having not judged DI this tournament, had no competitors from my school in the finals, and they needed someone to step in, so I did it.

Glad I did.

The performances were amazing. Fantastic to see how really good these kids can be. Awesome and moving performances, great interpretation of the materials and really hard to say absolutely who was best as the performers really gave it their all.

In a not unusual result, the judges in finals were not in lockstep. It turns out the performer I chose as 1st had been first in all of his previous rounds and semis - he was just that good, and he did take first place at the tournament and deserved it. But, the other judges put him in 2nd and third respectively.

I matched my second choice with the judge that put my number one in third, and matched my third place with the judge that had put him second. Interestingly enough, while we all had different rankings for the fourth, fifth and sixth place all of use had the same performers ranked 4, 5, or 6 by all three of us. Since you're not allowed to discuss the performances with the other judges, it's neat to look over the final rankings when they come out and see how you differ.

Abby made it to Semis but missed making it to finals. Not a bad performance for having about 4 hours of sleep and coming off a week of travel with lack of sleep while having fun and learning, and no time to practice her performance. Proud of her for committing to show up regardless and compete. She refused to let her team down and was there with them the whole day and celebrated a lot of her teammates placing in finals in their respective divisions.

We got home at 8:30 pm, ate dinner, and both passed out at about 9:30 last night after another full day of competition.

Forensics Saturday Summary

Yesterday, Abby and I got up at yet another ungodly early hour to head out for the forensics competition. Of course it was snowing in the morning and streets had not yet been cleared at that hour so getting to her school by 6:00 am to meet the bus for the ride to the competition was fun. On the upside, there's very little traffic that early in the morning on a Saturday.

This time it was to the Birch Run invitational, held at Birch Run High School and Elementary School.

A very well run tournament, they had enough time baked into the rounds so that judges could complete their evaluation sheets and get them back to the Tab room without having to race around like chickens with their heads cut off.

That was nice. I judged Sales, Impromptu, and 9/10 Poetry which surprisingly was not that bad, and far less angsty/angry than previous poetry sessions I've been stuck judging.

In Impromptu, 5 out of 6 competitors missed the point of the quote which was interesting and only 1 got it. Impromptu is hard - they have do an off-the-cuff speech on a quote they get to see only in the room and have 6 minutes total to prep and perform - it's a gutsy bunch of competitors.

Then for Semi-finals I got to judge Dramatic Interpretation, which was 90% dark and 10% comedy. Not too bad.

I then got a pass on judging finals so I went to watch the Duo finals, which is always a great one to see as the kids doing Duo performances have some serious acting chops.

Meanwhile, Abby advanced into the Semi-finals and then the Finals in Oratory.

At the awards ceremony when Oratory was called she went up and was not 6, 5, 4 nor third. We held our breath and then it was announced that she placed 2nd overall. This was a great result.

Her teammates did well too, with various top spots awarded or close seconds and thirds, with an exceptional sweep of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in 9/10 Impromptu which is pretty impressive.

Then the bus ride home and back in time for dinner. A long but very rewarding day.

Driving By Miss Abby

The cardio health stress test continues apace, as Abby has decided she likes driving my car more than Tash's car, so I've been with her for the majority of her practices.

Today she drove to her high school, which is and will be the man reason for her getting a driver's license in the first place. We made it there no problem, not too much traffic on a Sunday aside from a bit of a jam near a church, and iut got her on some main roads and doing left turns in traffic and changing multiple lanes.

Thence we took an alternate route home so she could try merging onto a highway. Yes, my circulatory system is strong.

She did fine, traffic was light enough, and I was able to talk her through it ok. Lots of neck cranking on my part during the merge and lane changes. No permanent indentations in the armrests.

Then down to Best Buy to pickup an SD card that I had a rewards coupon for, so a 64GB SanDisk Pro card instead of costing $28 cost only $10, which is a nice bargain for a very nice and fast memory card for the camera.

She did good and parked reasonably well by the store.

Then back in the car and thence up and through a roundabout that is ranked the 2nd most dangerous intersection in the entire state, because roundabout plus traffic light - yes, really.

She did fine but did need some help on getting into the roundabout safely as it was kinda hair-raising. Again, I passed this stress test with flying colors and did not even try to curl into a ball and drop onto the floorboards, as tempting as that was.

It's interesting the things she doesn't know that she doesn't know.

For example, she was getting set in the car and I was still in the house with the keys. She got her seat adjusted, mirrors set and had the headlights full on without the car running.

I explained that wasn't a good habit to get into as it drains the battery when you leave the lights on with the car off. She didn't know that, but does now.

Other things included how far should you get over when the police have a car stopped on a road that is one lane in each direction, and traffic lights that are only flashing yellow.

I talked her through these and she did just fine. She's certainly coming along as a driver and getting smoother and more confident, which is a good thing. We spent over an hour on the road, and then to top it off, she drove herself to a friend's house in some heavy rain, which was good experience, so she definitely got her practice in today.

I figure the next driving mission will be to have her drive the gas station to teach her how to fill the car up.

That's One Way To Get A Cardio Stress Test

After 7 hours of driving with an instructor, hours of observing others drive in an instructional setting and classroom learning, Abby now has her G1 license.

She got to experience the joys of the Secretary of State office to get her license - first lining up to get a number, then over an hour and a half sitting waiting to get called up to get processed.

Good people watching though - one enraged and rather entitled lady yelling that she had her license in Detroit, moved out of state and now wants to switch her license back to Michigan but she keeps failing to being documents and she's been trying to get this done 3 times. One young lady is getting her license picture taken while she's in a costume and makeup like a baby doll - complete with pink and white makeup on her face, pink streaks in the hair and a body type really not suitable for the outfit she's wearing. I wonder if someone had her do it on a dare. That license picture is going to regrettably stick with her for a long time.

So Abby gets processed, and yes I have all the required documents, and it goes very smoothly once we actually get to the counter.

The G1 only lets her drive with a parent or other licensed adult in the vehicle, and she needs 50 hours with at least 10 at night over a 6 month period and can then proceed to a G2 license.

So I took her on her first drive at night yesterday.

This is a little disconcerting and tense as I have no additional brake nor wheel on my side of the car, its not like in a plane where you can take over from the right seat. You have to trust that she knows enough but also have to be ready to give her some hints if need be.

I had her drive to her old middle school as she has now driven the route in the day a few times to give her something familiar for her nighttime driving. She did good,and we did some practice parking and driving all around and then came back drove through the neighborhood for a bit and then back home for a good first experience.

I am rather impressed with her driving instructor. She's driving quite decently if with some standard new driver hesitancy and slow speed, but I'm impressed with how far she's come already, and she'll get there. It doesn't hurt that she really pays attention to what she's doing and what is going on around her.

49 more hours to go until her G2.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Teenager Day

Not only is today Thanksgiving but is also a momentous day for Abby.

Abby turned 13 today. Yes, my house now contains a teenager. It's amazing how time flies.

We had a surprise party for her yesterday. When she came home form shopping with Tash, she was surprised by her friends popping out from the kitchen yelling "Happy Birthday!".

Then we took all seven kids to Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them in 3D.

It's a darn fun movie and if you like the Harry Potter series, this one will fit right in as a prequel of sorts. Worth seeing and enjoying in 3D at the theater.

Then we came home and made homemade sushi (no raw fish though, just make your own rolls). The kids all enjoyed rolling their own dinner. Then dessert which was apple pie and ice cream.

After that, the kids had a sleepover in the family room and Abby woke up this morning to a Happy Birthday song and the traditional cherry cheesecake, and presents from her friends and family.

A great time was had by all.

Now we're cleaning up from the party and preparing for Thanksgiving.

May you all have a very happy Thanksgiving.

A Proud Fatherhood Moment: Abby's Bat Mitzvah

This weekend was Abby's Bat Mitzvah celebration.

A Bat Mitzvah is the ceremony where a 12 year old girl is called to the front of the congregation and up to the Bima (essentially the pulpit) to take her place as a full-fledged member of the Jewish community and to read from the Torah.

To say she did fantastic would be an understatement.
Even more introverted than her father, she got up in front of a crowd of about 385 people and delivered an excellent Dvar Torah (an essay on the portion she read where she applies it to today) that she wrote completely by herself. It was written so secretly by herself that she did not let her parents hear it until she delivered it.

She then perfectly recited not one, but two Torah portions and her Haftorah reading (which was quite large), followed by the Ashrei and some other blessings, again all perfectly. Typically you do one portion, but she had practiced and studied so well that she had mastered it early and they asked her if she wanted to do another one and as she never is one to under-achieve, she said ok and then did it with style.

It was a large audience because, in addition to her Bat Mitzvah, there was a 95th birthday celebration, a 65th Wedding anniversary (yes, the couple has been married for 65 years and are still going strong!), and an engagement ceremony for the granddaughter of the 95 year old. Quite a day full of life events indeed.

Abby took it all in stride and did a fantastic job.

A very proud father I am.
It's amazing to think how far she's come and developed in 12 short years.

Leah also did a great job reciting the closing prayers which are traditionally reserved for the younger siblings to chant at the end of the service.

Family came in from all over the US and Canada, and Abby's best friend from summer camp came all the way from Ithaca, New York to be here for the celebration.

While I typically don't post photos of my kids on blogger, but, since others this weekend took pics and published them on Facebook, they're out, and after all it's a special celebration so a few will do here.

Abby Holding The Torah

Reading Her Portion From The Torah

After the practice, ready for the real thing

These photos are from the practice held on Thursday as picture taking is not allowed at the Synagogue on Shabbat itself.

To say that I am beside myself with pride for the incredible devotion, effort and wonderful result of the hard work that she put into being ready for her day would be an understatement. The kid is more than all right, she's awesome.

She Went To Bed At 11 And She Woke Up At 12

Abby turned 12 today.

The kid is growing up fast.

This morning we had our traditional cherry cheesecake for birthdays, with hers having 12 candles, sang her happy birthday, and gave her some presents.

Since it is a half-day at her school, she's invited her friends for a lunchtime party today, so she's going to have a great birthday indeed.

Number 1 Child Returns

Abby returned from sleep-over camp yesterday. We picked her up from the bus and she wanted to head straight home.

At 25 days, it was the longest time she's been away from home.

She had a great time, met new friends from all over the US and Canada, and had such a good experience that she wants to go back next year.

I think she actually grew a few inches while she was away and likely gained some more wisdom as well and lost a baby tooth while she was there.

The first thing she did on returning home after hugging the Jett was to give her bookshelf a hug.

That's my girl.

After that was a hot shower for her, and a festive welcome home meal.

This was followed by the washing of tons of camp laundry.

She had a glowing review of the camp, its activities, her new friends, and most especially its awesome counselors that now Leah is all fired up to go with her next year.

Thanks To Brigid

For Abby's birthday, Brigid of Home On The Range kindly gave her an e-copy of her book The Book of Barkley: Love and Life Through the Eyes of a Labrador Retriever to Abby as a birthday gift.

Since Abby loves reading, it's quite the perfect and thoughtful gift for her. Abby was amazed and thrilled to find out it had been given to her by the author.  It's also Abby's first e-book.

I expect she will highly enjoy it and it will do her good to gain knowledge and wisdom from a strong female role model like Brigid.

Thanks Brigid. Your kindness and thoughtfulness is highly appreciated by us.

Abby's Birthday Present

We decided to give Abby an unusual birthday present.

We got up early this morning and drove an hour and a half from Orlando to Crystal River, Florida and went to River Ventures.

For Abby turning 11 we booked a tour to swim with Manatees.

After a safety and rule briefing we got on our wetsuits and headed to the boat.  Everyone had a mask and snorkel and was required to carry a noodle for flotation (and also to differentiate you from all the other snorkelers on the river at the same time) as the idea isn't as much to swim but to do a dead man's float breathing through your snorkel and watching Manatees.

Thumbs up and Abby's 11 and ready to go.

Both kids did great getting used to snorkling very quickly, and along with another family on the boat we got ready to swim with manatees.

So we headed over to observe a manatee in the river.  It was a large male that was named Hugh.

Oh, the Hugh Manatee!

The kids were amazed to come face to face with a sleeping Manatee.  Every 15 minutes or so, he would rise to the surface, take a breath and go back down to sleep on the bottom.  Basically you let sleeping Manatees rise (and don't get in their way or bug them). Very big and very cute but not very interactive.

Then we moved on toward the Manatee Sanctuary to get a more interactive experience than just one sleeping Manatee and we were not disappointed.

There were many manatees in the sanctuary, where we could not go - you couldn't even touch the boundary ropes, but there were many manatees that went swimming out of the sanctuary right by us and it was amazing to watch.  Note that as endangered species, you can't reach out and touch or chase a manatee, they have to come to you, and these ones swam right by.

How close do they come by? Very Close indeed.

Leah and a Little Manatee

Here's a video of a close pass.

A cute baby swam by along side its mother as well.  Cuteness factor was off the charts.

It was a great experience to snorkel beside these gentle giants.

Abby announced it was the best birthday ever.

Happy 11th Birthday to Abby

One of the main reasons we took this trip now is it coincides nicely with Abby's Birthday!

She turns 11 today, which is simply amazing.

She's a darn good kid - smart, dedicated and hard-working, a great reader, well behaved and very observant.

Even at eleven, she still has a great capacity for wonder and excitement, without cynicism even as she often has a perfectly timed sarcastic or ironic line.

She was luckily picked to be the new wizard for the Ollivanders show, and she was the wizard to whom the wand called.

It was so very well done with the actor behind the counter doing it perfectly like the scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - having her cast spells at objects that then moved and had effects in response as he worked to find the right wand for her.  She loved every minute of it and believed it.  Of course, she had to buy the wand that selected her, and so it was done.

Even as she turns eleven and just lost a tooth, she still believes in the tooth fairy or at least she believes in the money that magically appears when she puts her tooth under her pillow.

Happy Birthday Abby, and we're going to do something special for you today on your birthday as well.

Baby Blogging Time - The First Tooth!

Introducing my daughter Abby to the Blogosphere: Abby meet the Blogosphere Blogosphere meet Abby As you can see, she's pleased to meet you. At Seven Months, we have the signs of a first tooth. We also have a 1 am and 4 am wake-up crying and screaming sleeping cycle which is making this blogger a little less than clear-eyed and focussed at times. I don't know if there is a "Babies of the Blogosphere" Carnival yet, but I'd be pleased to host one if there's interest. I claim the cutest baby prize though, completely objectively of course.
The First Tooth