Tie Dye

Ok folks, I'm finally making an attempt to get kinda, sorta caught up. Let's start with pictures from the tie dye programs. This is a perennial favorite. It's one one of the very few programs that I run twice every year, afternoon and evening. I don't see that changing anytime soon because, heck, you can never have too many tie dyed t-shirts. If you missed it this year, pics below.

T-shirt Alert

We have a couple of abandoned items from yesterday afternoon's tie-dyeing program. There's an undyed white t-shirt, as well as a dyed one that were left. If either of them are yours, you can claim them at the Information Desk. Thanks!

Apologies

I've been running a bit behind in getting photos up for the last couple of programs. My apologies to those of you who check regularly. Life has been a little more hectic even than usual in July for me, and will be until about the end of this week. Hopefully, I'll be getting caught up later this week and the beginning of next week. Look for pics then. I haven't seen the pics from the rock concert yet, because I didn't take them and it wasn't my camera. But I'm hoping to have those to post soon, as well as from the tie-dyeing program. Bear with me. Thanks!

Turn Your Ideas into Comics

Hey, if you haven't signed up for this program yet, there's still time and space. Thanks to the generosity of CAMP (The Center for Advanced Management Planning) and our friends at Comix Connection, there will also be some great comics-related giveaways at this one. And it should be a really cool program. See you Thursday at 1:00!

Agility Training with Coy Wire

25 kids got a good workout, and the Community Room now smells like sweaty teenagers, after an agility training session led by former Buffalo Bills linebacker, Coy Wire, and Jim Launer, trainer from Most High Sports Complex. What an opportunity to pick up some pointers from the pros! And Coy and Jim are two of the nicest guys I've ever met! Attendees included participants in almost any sport you can think of, including water polo. Coy also stuck around and signed a few autographs after the program. If you want any additional info on Most High or want to contact Jim or Coy, check out their website http://www.mosthighsportscomplex.com/

And a quick inside tip - one of next week's prizes will be a free one-month membership at Most High. If you missed the program, some photos are below. You also have another opportunity next Tuesday, when Jim will be back with some other NFL players for a core strength training session. See you then!

Bonus Challenge

Here's a Bonus Weekly Challenge. From now until the end of Teen Summer Reading (July 30) just show your library card to a member of the Reference Staff and you'll get a chance in the weekly prize drawing. It has to be your card, not Mom's, Dad's, sibling's, etc. If you don't have one, now would be a great time to get one! Just pick up an application at the Information Desk.

Sudoku Tournament Results

We just wrapped up the annual Sudoku tournament. Jasmine W was our big winner of the day (wow, she was good!) with Alex H pulling in a second place. We had 16 kids participate this year, and it was a pretty competitive field. It's not a real good event for either photos or spectators, but a photo is below anyway, and kids actually did stick around to watch. They were talking about either heckling, trash talking, or just shouting out random numbers like they do on The Price is Right, but when it came down to it, everyone was respectful of those still competing and we all had a good time. Start practicing for next year! Jasmine and I both do the page-day-calendar Sudokus. I do mine over breakfast. Usually it's a good way to kick start your brain in the morning, but sometimes it's just a bad omen for the rest of the day.

Weekly Challenge July 7 - 12, 2008

Give 1 of the possible correct ways to fill in the blank in the following sentence:



This sentence has ________ letters.



Get an additional chance in the prize drawing if you can come up with all 3 correct answers.

Sleight of Hand Magic with Mike Rose

We just wrapped up another very cool program. Magician Mike Rose did a wonderful workshop on sleight of hand magic. We all learned some basic tricks that could be done on the fly with ordinary objects, and terms like the French Drop, Ramsey's Subtlety, Finger Palming, and the Two Hand Switch. Boy, I wish we would have had this one earlier in the summer! When another presenter was caught in horrendous traffic and I needed to entertain the crowd for about 10 minutes, I joked that I really should learn to tap dance or juggle for just such an occasion. This would have been even better. I'll need to go home and practice, but I now have some tricks, literally, up my sleeve in case of an emergency. If you missed it, here are some pics.

Survival 101 - A New High or a New Low?

We had our survival program last night and I gotta say I'm still laughing. For those of you who are new to Teen Summer Reading at the Fredricksen, we have a reputation for doing one good gross and disgusting program every summer. Survival was this year's gross and disgusting, and I must say, we reached either a new high or a new low, depending on your perspective. Personally, I thought it was great! Josh McKinney, a lifelong outdoorsman, presented a really great, informative program on, basically, edible stuff in your own backyard. He included information about verifying what you're eating before you eat it, making sure it's legal to take it, considering the source (Has it been exposed to pesticides, herbicides, etc?), and the benefits of eating local stuff and things that are lower on the food chain. He then got out some samples of things that he harvested, primarily from his backyard, but all from the local area. We started with some crayfish, cooked, seasoned, and offered with a side of cocktail sauce. We followed with a salad based on dandelion greens, then some pine needle tea with mint and honey. These all disappeared pretty quickly, as did the venison loin. Then we moved on to the really good stuff. I didn't try them myself, but the kids said that the fried crickets had a nice nutty flavor and were particularly good with a little honey. The fried mealworms weren't too bad, I'm told, either. Up to this point I was offering an additional ticket for the weekly prize drawing for each different thing the kids were willing to try. When we got to the live mealworms (yes, I'm talking still wiggling around in the container!) we upped the incentive to 3 tickets and got a surprising number of takers. In fact, there were no leftovers (If you don't count the 3 that were "rescued" by a few kids. Get serious, they're mealworms! Something is eventually gonna eat 'em!) A few of the kids who were willing to try those actually went back for seconds and thirds! I'm still laughing at the kid who was having trouble spearing one of them on a toothpick, so I told him to just reach in there and pick it up with his fingers. He said, "Eww, no, I can't touch it!" but he ate 3 of them! If you missed it, some pics are below.