Charles and Corwin had last Thursday and Friday off from school. Mom foresightfully arranged to have to be at a conference those two days. I am sure she did it out of love, so that the boys and I could bond more fully.
Thursday passed in a haze of gaming and sleep, but Mom decided that a repeat for Friday was unacceptable. She therefore decreed that, since the local university was having its annual Engineering Open House, I would take the boyen and Gang Of Four there for the day. Anwen and Josh’s brother Jake came along as well, as the two of them had been placed in Anwen’s gaol for the day. We also brough along Amine, who is a candidate member for the Gang of Four. Keith was supposed to show up later, but he never arrived.
On the way over, we had a discussion about sisters (Anwen being the sole representative of that demographic). After the standard disparagement of older sisters, the talk turned to younger sisters. I pointed out that little sisters can get away with anything because they are little sisters. Amine confirmed that his little sister could, but then started detailing the transgressions that got him in the most trouble. Segueing from that, it came up that Alice had broken my laptop and everyone said “wow, I’ll bet she got in trouble for that!”. “No”, I replied. “Why not?” was the chorus. To which I could only respond “Because she’s a little sister!”. Duh!
Jake, Jack, Josh, Corwin, Amine, enjoy simulated simulated flying
I think the boys had a good time. The favorite exhibit for the older boys was an RC flight simulator, which had an RC airplane control wired to a computer with a big screen running an RC airplane simulation. Oddly, there were very few other visitors1 so the boys were able to spend a lot of time there.
In the same building was the place that Charles liked the most. It was a boat building exercise, where the kids were given a budget which they could spend on various boat parts and then try to sail the boat across a large box filled with water. I did most of the actual boat building, but Charles provided much of the high level design and did some of the assembling. His boat made it across on the first attempt, which made him very thrilled. Luckily this was the last place we visited during the day because Charles didn’t let go of his boat until we got back home.
The rest of the crew tried it out as well and had a lot of fun with it. They had more trouble than Charles because they set loftier goals (for Charles, just making it to the other side without capsizing was a win). Anwen became very involved helping Jake with his boat.
We went to one set of exhibits in the Material Sciences area because Josh had some vague memory of free candy somewhere at the event, which turned out to be there. It showed how you could mix various base material together to get something useful (candy!). There was also a “Polymer Slime” making exhibit which was very popular with the crew.
Charles finds a comfy seat to wait for the crusher to start up
We went to see the concrete crushing, of course. The older boys thought it was very cool, but Charles, who originally was eager and happy (as you can see in the photo on the left), became very frightened once things started, running to the back of the room and cowering under his coat. Somehow (remembering from last year?) he knew that it would be very loud. When the concrete exploded he broke down in to tears and wanted to run out in to the hall. I kept him back because the noise was over and I didn’t want to get separated from the rest of the crew. Charles was fine a few minutes later, so he may recover.
The other boys thought the crushing was The Cool and when they handed out memorial samples of the concrete afterwards, there was much joy. Charles wanted a piece as well, and then had another break down when his piece turned out to be smaller than Corwin’s. Jake managed to acquire 3 or 4 pieces and so had to put some in his pockets, where the sharp edges cut through his pants and then bit in to his legs, slowing down his walking speed. I suggested that he could take the concrete out of his pockets, a suggestion that fell upon him like a revelation.
We also watched one round of the robot contest. It’s set up as sort of a extreme task exercise. The real scoring is accomplishing some specific tasks, but the robots are allowed to “interact” during the round. The robot that won the round did so by disabling both other robots. One it managed to flip up on its back and the other was pushed half off an edge so that it couldn’t get back and the operators didn’t want to risk permanent damage by making it fall the rest of the way. The boys liked it but there’s a long set up time between round they didn’t want to endure.
Instead of waiting we headed off for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant that is a favorite of Corwin and Charles. The boys had mostly corn chips with melted cheese. At one point Amine started putting hot sauce on his corn chips. Other boys of course had to match him, apparently not realizing that due to the style of cooking at his house, Amine has a far higher tolerance for spicy hotness. Jake was the first to load up.
Dad: Jake, I think you’re making a big mistake you will deeply regret.
Jake: [responds with a look combining disparagement and resignation to the dictates of male bonding, then eats the chip. Of course, it is far too much and he starts chugging water.]
Dad: Did you learn anything from this experience?
Jake: [nods vigorously while drinking]
I have my doubts about the amount of learning Jake experienced, but it was clear that Corwin found observation insufficient for it, as he was the next to try it (this from the boy who screams in dismay at the very suggestion of having hot sauce put on his food at home). Corwin also claimed to have learned something, which is possible as he mentioned it at lunch the next day. But I have my doubts there as well.
Gallery with additional pictures.
1 Of course, one of the reasons we went Friday is because that’s the less busy day.
Sorry we never hooked up at EOH. We didn’t make it to campus until 1:30. We went straight to Kenny Gym and watched a few rounds of the robot contest, then to Loomis to check out the physics exhibits there and, of course, the Bubble Room where Isaac and Alison had a good time. We had to leave by 2:45 to get to a friend’s house.
I have not had the chance to thank you for taking Josh and Jake. Jake was really excited about his concrete pieces. Beth made sure that he brought them home, as opposed to leaving them at her house. Anwen looked no worse for wear. You are a brave man to take that much immature testosterone out in public!
I am sure that Beth was motivated purely by concern for you to not have to deal with the psychic distress of Jake missing his concrete. I was insufficiently attentive and managed to let Charles leave his polymer slime behind somewhere which was the cause of much misery that evening.
Anwen was great, a real trooper. She ended up handling which ever of Jake or Charles was being more … challenging at the time, while I kept my eye on the Gang of Four.
The boys were mostly good, even if the mess they left at the restaurant guilted me in to leaving an enormous tip (while the others contributed, the mess did seem most intense where Corwin had been sitting).
You can tell Jake that as a result of this write up, he now has his own page. Note what he’s carrying in the picture.
We never made it Loomis at all. We could have done another entire day without having to repeat anything.
I was reminded this evening about Josh hassling Anwen on the final drive to Anwen’s house. She was pestering the 3 J’s about helping her on her paper route should her mom not yet have arrived home. This lead to a discussion of Anwen being (for bossing purposes) an adult. Josh made the claim that my presence removed Anwen’s provisional adult status, but that she would recover it as soon as they were all dropped off. What practical difference this made, I couldn’t discern. Jake, on the other hand, I could understand — he wanted to know what his cut of the paper route profits would be.
LOL! That is a perfect summary of the boys. Josh is all about adjusting the rules to suit his needs. Jake, however, is all about money. He LOVES allowance day and is always planning his next purchase.