Tonight was the GT class "Night of the Notables!" Alex's class has been learning all about a historical figure of their choosing who was 'notable.' Alex chose Harry Houdini, which is awesome. The kids wrote out and memorized about a 5-minute talk describing who their notable is/was, then dressed up in character as that person, and presented their talk from memory at the high school performing arts center. Alex did great! For his costume, we rented him a tuxedo, so cool. As for the rest of the class, there was a large variety of notables, such as Amelia Earhart, Archimedes, Al Capone, Lance Armstrong, Malala, Mother Teresa, Jesse James, Coco Chanel, Grace Hopper, and many others. The presentation went off amazingly well, and the kids all looked great.

Again my annual mis-pick of the final four: champion Michigan State, Syracuse, Louisville, Arizona. I am such a homer.

Komets scout night was last night, and it's probably going to be one of the last scouting functions Alex participates in. He's not interested in going on to Boy Scouts, no matter how much we try to nudge him to. Honestly, he probably would have quit a long time ago if I hadn't been a leader. Anyway, the hockey game was excellent: the Komets played the Florida Everblades, and after a scoreless first period they started scoring fast and furious. There was a period of 3 goals in about 20 minutes of real time, and the Komets won 5-2. The best part, though, was running into the Boschains kind of out of the blue. The kids and I (Beth didn't go) were walking down the aisle to the restroom when Gary and the kids came the other direction. By the 3rd period, the rest of the scouts had left (the game was too late for them) so I called Gary and asked if they wanted to come join us at our seats. We were closer to the ice than they were so they did, and we watched the rest of the game with them.

Well, Beth and I pulled the trigger on the used minivan that we went and looked at last weekend. It's a 2008 Chrysler Town & Country, which doesn't have the best reviews but the '08 seems to be the best of all recent model years. I took it to Ab & Tom's before we bought it to get it checked out, and they didn't find much wrong with it other than needing work on the rear brakes and power steering hoses. They knocked off some money for that, and they gave us $1000 in trade for the Suzuki. Never been a really inspiring vehicle, that Suzuki, but it was serviceable...although I won't miss it. We definitely wanted a better vehicle to take on spring break to Alabama next month. Anyway, we now are minivan owners again. Took them forever to get it detailed and released to us, though.

I'm trying to enjoy a relaxing Sunday while at the same time working myself up to get our taxes done like I've been trying to motivate myself to do for a few weeks now. It's been a fairly busy week, Monday was Chess Club and Alex's visit to a Boy Scout troop from Sacred Heart (the one his friend Tim is in). Tuesday Missy missed school (and Beth missed work) because at about 2 am she started throwing up every hour, which lasted until about 9. Tuesday was also the weigh-in for the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby, and I was working on nailing in the wheels for everyone, which I think is the most critical part, no pressure. One guy was polishing the wheels, one was weighing the cars and doling out extra weights, one was drilling holes in the bottom of the cars, one was straitening and beveling the nails for axles. Alex needed more weight on his car and didn't want to glue on the lead weights everyone else had, so I had to work over my lunch hour the next day to melt some alloy and add it into drilled out holes in the bottom of his car so we could come back Wednesday evening to weigh him in. Missy also missed school Wednesday because she was still pretty worn out and not feeling well, but she was well enough to go to the weigh in, since she had her own car, the Unicorn car, which was over-weight so we just entered her unofficially. Bible study at our house on Friday, Colt was there so the kids were occupied. Saturday was the Derby. Overall it went really well, Alex with the "Orange Blue Blazer" placed 4th of the Webelos so he didn't get a trophy, but he did win two heats so he seemed good. My Camcar seemed popular, and I still need to get some movies on the Facebook page, it came out pretty cool. There was also a carry-in/Subway lunch provided but we didn't stay for it because Gretta called and asked if we needed a babysitter. We weren't going to say no. So Beth and I looked at used minivans for a bit as it got colder...and colder...and colder...until we couldn't walk around outside any more and went for dinner and just a bit of shopping. While we were at Carson's, the car totally iced over so we ended the date right there and took Gretta home, probably just in time because the roads were getting BAD. Today has been generally lazy. Sam came over for a couple hours to play with Alex but that's about it.