Parentheticals

Ever since Mike got the printer fixed the kids have been demanding more and more 3d printed toys. He got all of his parts for his games printed, and is now printing pokemon, pachyderms and princesses. Both Mike's and Alison's teaching has remained quite busy. Alison even has one of her students trying to get all of the classes that they will miss while we are in Italy scheduled during the upcoming week. We will see how well that works. Alison and the kids went to Thanksgiving Point. We heard that there are no field trips to Thanksgiving Point on Monday mornings, so it's the least crowded time of the week. We usually meet some homeschool friends there. This week we played in the water erosion exhibit (a sand and water table) and then rode ponies at the farm. This week our homeschool schedule stopped working. This happens about every 6-8 weeks, and Alison usually enjoys coming up with a new one. But this time she was really hoping it would last one more week until we l

This week Alison and the kids went to the zoo, thanksgiving point, and the library to get Italian books (to get in the mood for Italy). It was a busy week. Rea took some pictures at the zoo. Here is one of the best ones: On Monday Mike started another semester of teaching CS 101. This time he is teaching two classes simultaneously, which has been so far doable. Finals might be a little crazy, but aside from finals, the first week of a new class is the hardest part. On Tuesday, Mike was biking to work, and both of his brakes on his bike quit working (half way down a hill). He finished his trip very carefully, and then when he went home, he fixed them both (replacing the disk brakes pads, and tightening the pad brakes). Hopefully that won't happen again. We are leaving for Italy in 2 weeks and 2 days, so we have been spending a lot of time getting ready for that over the last week. The kids are watching muzzy, and we are trying to remember all of the last minute things that

I just noticed that this blog has gone 4 years without a comment on it! I know that people read it, and even talk to us about it, but apparently it doesn't incite people to comment on the blog. Early this week Mike looked into getting a Masters degree. He could get a 100% tuition grant, but only after he has worked at this place for a full year. He is probably going to do it, so that everyone will have to call him Master Brown. He also started to bike to work again, since he has a job that is so close to home. The hill is still a killer, but it is still doable. The kids went to Martial Arts class this week on Tuesday. They enjoyed it as usual. At the same time Mike went to the BGDG meeting, and he played one of his games, and also a game by another member of the guild. On Wednesday was Timmy's date night. He chose to have ice cream and a movie. It was fun. On Friday Mike realized that we needed to get international drivers licenses to drive in Italy. We got some the s

On Monday Mike was home for Labor Day. We had a bit of a barbecue, played some "Space Game" (which is a board game that Mike is making that the kids really like), and also bought a lot of food at the Macies case lot sale. The kids wanted to have a parade, so we all rode bikes around in the road with streamers attached (and thus we had a parade.) For our date night Alison and I had our 9th anniversary date (a week early because the play was closing this weekend). We went to the OBT to see "that infernal nonsense Pinafore" while the kids all stayed home with a new baby sitter, who they impressed by teaching about the many edible weeds in our yard. It also turned out to be Salt Lake Comic Con, so we walked around before the play and saw cool costumes. The kids went to a board breaking class at their martial arts school. We didn't realize that this week was board breaking, so Timmy just had to sit and watch. Boards cost $5, which is supposed to be earned by

Alison and the kids went outside a lot this week, and almost every day the kids got to play with the Dalyais. That made it one of the best weeks for the kids. It's nice to have good homeschooling friends. It also gave Alison time to work on rewriting the science curriculum she loves into a more usable form. Alison has also been working about two hours every night this week (one time she had 5 back to back English classes). She made almost $200 last week, which is pretty good considering all that she does is teach on the computer from 5:00 - 7:00 (before the kids get up). On Tuesday Mike went to his design guild meeting, and presented his witch hunt game. He made a 9 card version of it, which was very well received. Mike also got back a rejection from a publisher for "The Citadel of Madness" this week, so he is going to shop it around a bit more, as he thinks that it is a great game. While he was at the BGDG, Alison and the kids went to their martial arts class. It h