Cubs Scouts met tonight at the high school to cut out the pinewood derby cars. This time, Alex listened to me a little better, and he designed a car with a low, sleek profile that should go pretty fast. I'm also going to look into a few of the tips and tricks for making a pinewood derby car go faster and see what I can do to speed his car up. We also had a few more activities going on in the wood shop this time, to stretch things out and keep the kids interested a bit more than we usually do, and prevent the screwing around that always happens otherwise, not good for a wood shop. There were tool demonstrations and safety presentations, and I was running a little contest of sorts where I taught kids how to drive a nail into a stack of boards with a hammer, and then they raced to see who could drive it all the way in fastest. That seemed to be a big hit, no pun intended.

I am amazing. This weekend proved it. Beth's birthday was Saturday. I began the weekend by buying flowers for her on my lunch period and bringing them directly to her at work, and hanging out with her while she did her recess duty (indoors - too cold). Saturday I got Erika scheduled and we had a nice date night. First things first, I took her to Courthouse Coffee, then we did some shopping at Carson's and went out to see "Mission Impossible 4," which was easily the best one of the franchise if you ask me. We both really liked it (except for the call from work in the middle of it; gotto go in tomorrow). Then dinner at Noa Noa, which was fantastic, and neither one of us had been there for dinner before. I had reservations, but we still had to wait quite a bit because people just weren't leaving. But we didn't mind, and we got a nice romantic table in a cozy corner of the place. Beth was impressed and very happy with the evening, so much so that she said it even ranked with the famous date at the waterside in Norfolk.

The Cub Scouts went skating tonight with the kids klub from the Lemps' church. Alex did better this time, no falling and bumping heads or anything. However, a lady from the church did fall and apparently break her wrist.

Slow week. Monday we had a Hacienda fundraiser for the Lincoln PTA. Why does it always have to be Hacienda? I hate Hacienda. Tuesday the Tiger Cubs worked on picture frames for the pictures they took the last couple weeks. Today we decided to take the kids to Bremen Bounce for something fun to do, having gotten the idea from Jessica who also was taking her kids there. I hung out with Patrick and watched the NFL playoffs while the kids played, then afterwards we went to visit with the Rowes like we've been saying we need to do for quite a while. We visited and got pizza from the Wooden Peel for dinner.

Back to work this week. Christmas break seemed short. And busy. And we're right back to it. Wednesday was Kids Klub, and the first roller skating night in quite a while. The kids are getting better, but Alex fell and banged the back of his head and had to go home early. Today was a work Christmas party at the Komets game. Instead of a regular party, the ATS lab found they could spend about the same and rent a luxury box. So, they did, and invited all of research to go too. Beth and I left the kids with a babysitter and went. The Komets won the game in overtime, having rallied a couple times in regulation. I LOVE going to the Komets games! It is such a fun atmosphere. I definitely appreciated the hockey game instead of a regular party.

Back to work...sigh. This year was a bit different because Christmas and New Year's were both on Sundays, so the holiday was taken on the following Monday, which means I didn't have to go back to work until today. It's been a typically busy Christmas season. I've been off work since Dec 23rd, and we took advantage of the 'kids bowl free' offer twice right away. Judy and Neill arrived here Christmas eve on her way north, and we did the walk through of the holiday decorations at Center Lake Park (COLD) Chrsitmas Eve, presents Christmas morning (Alex got the long coveted Nintendo DSI, Missy her Bitty Babies dolls) and Christmas dinner with them (featuring a Rowe family farms turkey). The day after Christmas we all drove up to Michigan to visit the rest of Beth's family. We stayed at Ted's house (COLD) while we were there. Since the divorce, Ted has turned his new house into a real Ted house, with displays of taxidermied animals, fishing poles, lures, hunting rifles, and the like all over. He told us he decorated with all the things Jeanne wouldn't let him put out before. We did Christmas with the Pinksters at their new house, followed by seeing "The Adventures of Tintin" at Crossroads Mall with everyone and then doing the mall until it was time to go home, because Laura and Thomas and Ben were coming here on the 28th. We did another present exchange with them (you should have seen Missy's face when she unwrapped the Monster High doll...not impressed, a bit disturbed) and decided to go out to a movie (we all saw "Tintin" again...Thomas is a big fan of the books) and a nice restaurant instead of presents with the adults. Unfortunately, we wound up at Barbee Hotel, which we had thought was supposed to be really nice but was o so not all that. But anyway, it was a nice time. Apples to Apples too, you know. They were here long enough for Iris to chew through Ben's headphones, so on the 31st we went shopping in Goshen to find him some good new ones and a few other things. New Year's Eve we spent at the Joneses for the second year in a row, playing card games and Rock Band and eating munchies. The kids were up past midnight this time, and a little disappointed I would say, by the lack of anything really happening at midnight. Then all that's left is the cleanup.