Summer Festival

Kissy Missy and I went to the Mt. Pleasant Summer Festival at Island Park, saw some people, ate some fair food and watched fireworks. The festival has suffered from attendance problems in past years, but this year seemed to have brought out a lot more people than usual.

One of the most remarkable things at this year's festival was called a Dutch fatball -- a flaky pastry, deep-fried, filled with Bavarian creme, chocolate, Dutch apple, cherry or French lemon. A guy named Mike Arsulowicz, from Belmont, sold them.
I'm still playing with video and iMovie, learning some different techniques. Lisa Yanick from the Sun shot some of the video, I shot some of it and did the editing.
We ran into a couple of Robert's friends -- you'll catch them.

... the leaders and best

It was just a regular business-sized envelope, but the big block "M" in the return address got my attention -- maybe more than Andrew's.
It was a simple invitation from the University of Michigan College of Engineering to attend what is frankly a recruiting event.
It's called the Engineering Summer Symposium for Scholars. It's by invitation only to "top high school students like you from Michigan and throughout the country." The Michigan engineering school shows off its stuff. Among other things, the students will let the potential recruits play with Michigan's solar-powered race car.
Andrew plans to attend the Aug. 3 session, which features, among other disciplines, space science. We've always said Andrew's a space cadet ...
Michigan.
Wow.
Hey, Andrew! Can you get me some tickets to the State game?

The electronic litter box

This is just silly. That's all, just silly.



I've been learning to use iMovie. Obviously, I'm dangerous.
But these are more kitty kat pix.

Sophomore Guardie

It was just too much for Robert to have all the fun with the Mt. Pleasant High School marching band -- now his sister's getting in on the action.
She's signed out a band flag for the summer to practice the visual moves that go along with a great band presentation. It's a nylon flag on a 5-foot aluminum pole, and the idea is to synchronize it with the other flags. It's impressive when it works right.
Katherine has been told "If you make it through the second day of Band Camp (in late August) and only say 'I can't do this' twice, and only throw up once, you'll make it."

Someone thinks I know what I'm doing

This is a report from spring semester from my Student Opinion Survey report. Students are asked to grade the instructor. In this survey, 4 is best, 0 is worst. Click on the image for a better look.
This was an 8 a.m. class, by the way.

The Dean's List

Matthew called me tonight, very proud of himself -- and a little surprised. He's on the Dean's List. Matthew's a student at Grand Rapids Community College, preparing for what he hopes will be a degree in law enforcement.
He had soured on college after a semester at Ferris a few years ago, and went to work in the suburbs of Grand Rapids. I can't say anything -- I'm the guy who did college on the Nine-Year Plan, and that seems to have worked out OK.
But Matthew's back at it; funny how it feels unfinished, somehow. He says he worked his tail off, actually studied and got results. The Dean's list -- while working almost full-time.
Way to go, guy.

Concert choir

Friday was the last day of school -- and Katherine received GREAT news!
As a sophomore, she will sing in Mt. Pleasant High School's Concert Choir.
During her freshman year, she was a member of the all-girl, SSA (soprano-1, soprano-2, alto) Clarion Choir.
Now, she'll be singing with the more prestigious SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) Concert Choir.
The Blue Lake choir with which she sang the first year and the International Choir both were SATB choirs.
Way to go, kid.

Robert gets excited

It's kinda hard to tell when it's over.

Here's looking at you

Minden and München (above) continue to grow. They're eating like mad and are full of such an incredible amount of energy.
And clearly, being Siamese cats, they are establishing who is in charge. That's Minden settling in on Kissy Missy's shoulders, while München is content to be cuddled.
That's nights. Mornings, I'm a rugby field. They wake me up about dawn with a full-scale kitty rugby scrum on top of me.
We're used to this.