Brand New Scouts

Our Boy Scout troop has had a membership problem for the last couple of years.   This past year we were down to eight registered boys, only six of who ever came to things and two of those were graduating soon.

Things were looking grim.

But then, through a series of visits to Cub Scout pack meeting, even more phone calls and quite a bit of pleading, we got a brand new bunch of fifth graders to join the troop.  This week we had our first Court of Awards ceremony where they all received their first Scout rank.

Now look close.  Can you tell the new guys from the old guys?

It might be tough to sort them out, but here's a hint:  There's four new guys, four old guys and two leaders in this shot.

Here, I'll point out The Boy for you among this crew...

There he is!

Not long ago The Boy was the new guy in the troop.  The troop in those days was also suffering from a membership problem because a bunch of the guys were ready to graduate.  Can you find The Boy in this picture?

No need for a big giant arrow to point him out here!

Primitive Camping

I don't mind camping. I can say that I actually like it. But what The Boy is doing this weekend is beyond my comfort level.

They are primitive camping which means they are taking everything with them that they'll need, hiking to an open spot in the woods and making camp. No running water. No electricity. Not even a port-a-potty. Horrible by any standards.


Here's The Boy with all of his gear. It weighs right around thirty pounds. Fun!
And here's the crew that's going.
All bright and happy now. We'll see how they look and feel on Sunday!

Four Day Weekend

A four day weekend, smack in the middle of October, is a beautiful thing.

We spent Day One doing absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. We didn't even take Marco on a walk. The highlight of activity was watching three episodes of Fringe back to back. I think I did a load of laundry...maybe not.

Day Two was a bit more active. The Girl and I experimented making mini stuffed french toast pockets for an outdoor cooking competition. The Boy and Man suffered through the taste testing for us like champs. They both kept coming back for more and more. Later, The Boy left for a weekend camp out with his troop. It was cold and rainy. I'm so glad they had a cabin and not tents like they were originally planning. The Girl and I spend the evening watching Once Upon A Time in Mexico because even though there's lots of guns and blood and explosions, that movie is a chick flick. Big time.

Day Three was another Cross Country meet for The Girl. This one will be remembered for the mud and the cold. It was a big sloppy mess the entire time. Kids had mud kicked up their legs all the way to their faces. This is a teammate of The Girl's who really got covered.

This is The Girl. Her shoes were entirely caked and then filled with mud. I thought they were ruined for sure, but a trip through the washing machine brought them back.

After a long shower and a rest, the three of us along with The-Other-Girl-In-Our-Lives took off on a Sweetest Day adventure. We went into Coventry to have dinner at the Mongolian BBQ. The wait was lengthy so strolled (More like sprinted. It was really cold.) up the road to Big Fun.

As I was taking this picture, someone knocked on the window. It was my sister and my BIL Jim in the neighborhood for the exactly the same reason as us! As Professor Horrible would say, what crazy wacky happenstance! (The reason shall be revealed soon.)

We tried to convince The Man that he should buy this fez, but he talked himself out of it.



It was still a bit of a wait at the restaurant when we got back. The girls were losing all hope.

Eventually we got our table and ate and ate and ate until we could eat no more.

Finally it was time to go the theater which was our true destination for the night. In honor of Weird Al's 50th birthday, the Cedar Lee was showing UHF. There was an accordion player who knew every Weird Al song and took requests.

There was a Wheel of Fish that everyone got to spin to win a prize. Here's The Sister with the soundtrack she just won.

When UHF first came out, we sat in practically empty theaters to see it. Seeing it in a room full of people who all love it and sing along was such a fun experience. And there was birthday cake too!

On Day Four (Damn, this is taking forever!) The Girl and I went to the before mentioned outdoor cooking competition. The cooking had to be done in a fire circle and you had to bring all your food and cooking supplies. We choose to make stuffed french toast, in little bite sized pieces, served with bacon and fruit. We wanted to do a tropical theme, so the fruit was kiwi, pineapple and strawberry.



Table setting to your theme was part of the competition.



Our dish doesn't look like much just sitting in a big pile, but it was tasty, even cold. That's powdered sugar in the coconut cup.

We didn't win the grand prize, but we did win the Yum-O Award which includes a giant bag of butterscotch chips and a huge box of Nilla Wafers. Strange prizes but better than the troop that won the over-sized bag of Cheerios.
Back to reality today. For the kids at least. I'm going for the five day weekend!

Presenting... The Boy

The Christmas cards are getting mailed today and I always put a "Come see our blog" sticker in each one. In preparation of the oodles of new visitors The Cafe is sure to receive, here's the first in a series of spotlights on us.

The Boy

Last Saturday, the Boy Scout troop was headed out to a Lake Erie Monsters game at The Q. Somehow our Troop Master got 12 loge tickets and decided to take the troop instead of his beer drinking buddies. The Boy was pretty vanilla about this whole trip.


You are going to have such a good time! Those loges are cool!


Whatever.


I've never even been in loge! You're going to have to tell us all about it!


Yeah.


You wait and see. You are going to be really impressed!


Hmph.


Five and half hours later, The Boy burst through the front door filled with news. That-loge-had-a-special-elevator-you-went-up-into-a-carpeted-hall-and-a-little-room-that-had-couches-and-tables-and-a-balcony-with-more-seats-where-you-could-watch-the-game-and-it-had-it's-OWN-BATHROOM!

Cool.

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Do you remember taking Health in the eighth grade? I'll give everyone a chance to shudder now.

The Boy is in Health right now and this past week was the project where an egg becomes your baby and you have to keep it safe for five school days. The Boy ended up with a pretty little pink egg, a girl named Alice, which he carried around in the bottom half of a juice container.

The first day of the project was Monday and that night was the Winter Concert at school. Very politely The Boy asked if I would babysit Alice during the concert. Of course I would! The Girl found a little Christmas basket with ribbons on it and padded it with a Christmas towel. There was no way I was taking Alice out in a plastic box to her first concert. She looked very pretty. The Boy looked like we had all lost our minds.

But he needn't have worried. At the concert I saw at least seven other parents with eggs in little baskets. Two other "grandparents" sat with me and we all showed off our babies. I spent the concert sewing the edges of new Christmas ornament together. (Just sitting at school events makes me antsy.) A friend leaned over and asked it I was making an outfit for the egg!

Everyday during the week the Boy would come home with an update on who dropped their egg and killed their baby. There was even a death certificate that they would have to fill out. The Boy made it all the way until Friday afternoon and then he dropped her. But she didn't break. She only got a crack. The Boy was reported to "Egg Services" for potential abuse. Harsh project! I asked him if he learned anything about being a parent.

Not really, he said. It's just an egg.