Merrill Tribe Blog

Star’s Rest

Sat, 4 Feb 2012 12:51:21 -0800

Star’s Rest in Sunol was this month’s Scout backpack trip. There were several new Scouts who were fairly rambunctious throughout the night and into the early morning. Samuel was annoyed, Aaron slept with earplugs (his secret weapon for Scout trips) and didn’t mind. The view is great - obviously you get to see the stars, and Samuel was insistent that the sun didn’t set until around 2am because he could still see the glow from over the hills. We laughed and explained that that was the city lights. It took him a long while to believe us. Saturday morning they geocached in the area. Aaron had to stop them at one point as they were heading into a blasting zone. They had to come home empty handed without finding any caches. But, Samuel did come home with poison oak on his face - nice welts on his cheek and forehead started appearing Sunday evening. Lovely.

Science Guy

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:51:33 -0800

Lawrence Livermore National Labs is the 5th grade field trip (other than 5th grade camp). They spent a couple hours with a scientist who did all sorts of fun experiments with the kids. Jared got to drink “Boiling Ice Water”. They played with liquid nitrogen, air pressure (blowing up marshmallows), made “elephant toothpaste”, and electricity (human Statue of Liberty). They really made science explosive and electric. Needless to say, the kids were captivated.

Wedge II

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:46:33 -0800

Jared’s last year racing in the Pinewood Derby. Aaron’s 7th car. Our accumulative 7th loss and no placement. Style over speed is definitely our strongpoint. Jared named it the Wedge II (as in wedgie or wedge 2) - clever.

Overflowing

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:46:30 -0800

We had a week overflowing with sickness and toilets. James had an infected finger after smashing it in the door. I had both strep and a sinus infection, Jared smashed his toe with the wooden cutting board - it ended up infected, and Luke was sick as well. All four of us were on antibiotics, and all for different illnesses. Then, Sunday evening while we were eating dinner, the toilet didn’t stop running and overflowed onto the carpet. So much water that we had to pull up the carpet, rip out the padding and replace it. Aaron tried drying things out with a blow torch. Only Aaron has a portable blowtorch (for starting campfires when camping with the Scouts), and only he would try drying out a room with it. I came home after a meeting to a freezing house with all the windows open - he explained that he felt a little light headed and needed to get fresh air in the house.

Dodgey

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:46:37 -0800

Samuel’s “legacy” to Wells Middle School was instituting a Dodge Ball Tournament between Wells and Fallon Middle School. A friendly annual rivalry between the two Dublin Middle Schools. He researched, wrote up the rules, the waivers, got the staff and Principal on board, contacted Fallon and got them to agree, planned the dates, the elimination games (to be held during lunch hours at each school), and made a trophy. Each grade level will have a team (6, 7, & 8) as well as the staff. Whichever school comes away with the most wins, receives the trophy. He was on a team who took it seriously and practiced several times between December and mid-January. The did drills, they ran, they threw, and they played. And then humiliation. They lost to the other 8th grade Wells team during the pre-tournament elimination game. So, after all the planning and build up and excitement, he doesn’t even get to participate.