Another busy week

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 we need to do in order to leave.

We tried to get the minivan's ignition re-keyed (those hondas have horrible ignitions, and the key will seize up all the time in the lock), but we weren't successful because every time that we tried to call the guy he didn't show up before the end of the day.

Worst case scenario we will have to take it to the dealers (that would cost more and take longer, but we really don't want a repeat of the issue from the trip to North Carolina on this trip (for those that don't remember, the key got stuck in the lock, and then the car wouldn't start, and we had to call up a friend at 5 am to get to the airport)).

Rea and Timmy broke boards at martial arts, and Sara was not interested in trying. They mostly seem to be enjoying it.

Mike now has appointments with 5 publishers at Spiel. He is really excited to pitch his game, and has high hopes.

On Friday we got our "final" piece of carry-on luggage at the DI, and also a copy of the board game "Dr Eureka", which we played at SaltCon, and was fun for the whole family.

Friday night we had a game night with the Guertlers, and Dalyias (families from our ward), and played Dominion, Tsuro, and Space Cadets: Dice Duel. The kids ran around in the back yard and had a great time.

On Saturday Mike fixed the 3d printer again. It is now printing canoes for one of his prototype games which he will be taking to Essen.

On Sunday we had the primary program, which went well. Sara was both the kid that sang the loudest, and also that fell out of her chair. All of the kids did their parts well, as did Alison. Gideon was passably reverent and obedient, but was in no mood to go to nursery after the program ended.