Thursday, October 22, 2009

Pinewood Derby


Last week was our annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. For anyone who has never had the privilege of participating in this boyhood rite of passage, I am here to tell you what you are missing.

1. 1 month to get the car finished, and yet 99.9 percent of the work gets done the night before.
2. Blowdryers running right up until the minute we leave to dry the paint job.

3. 8-year-olds executing feats of engineering around the level of the average M.I.T. student.

4. Fathers insisting that their scout really did most of the work themselves.

5. 30 families crammed around a 20 foot race track.

6. 30 dads discussing the finer points of "bracket-ology."

7. And the noise, oh the noise!

8. 250 lectures...MOM: You need to be a good sport even if you win/lose

9. WINNING CUB SCOUT: niener, niener, niener

10. LOSING CUB SCOUT: tears

11. 2 hours of chaos and pandemonium in order to watch your son's car race exactly twice for a total of 7 seconds.

12. Awards Ceremony..every car gets a certificate..even if it means awarding a prize for "most creative use of duct tape."

13. After the hours of work, and the meaningful award, car and certificate have disappeared--never to be seen again--within 24 hours.

14. Next year we get to make 2 cars.

What will I do when all my little cub scouts are grown? There's nothing quite like the spectacle of grown men competing vicariously through their sons. Despite the madness of the event, I really will miss this someday.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Feline-anthropy

Meet Grendel.

He is loyal, affectionate, and despite the threatening look of his underbite..gentle. I am the sun about which he orbits. He daily aspires to simply lay at my feet. When I say jump, he says, how high. He would throw himself in front of a bullet for me.

And here is Cheezit. He is superior, aloof and infinitely bored. He interacts with me on his terms only. He allows me to feed him and occasionally to pet him.

So why is it, I like the cat so much more than the dog? I guess I'm that girl who always liked the guy who wasn't really interested. Figures.

It also doesn't hurt that the cat is the only other creature in my home who can clean himself.