Ultimate Frisbee Postponed

We just made the decision to postpone the Ultimate Frisbee program until tomorrow, Thursday, July 15 at 7 pm down on our lower lawn. The weather report looks a good bit better for tomorrow. Sure, I know, playing in the rain is more fun, but lightning would have shut us down, and the potential for injury goes way up when it's wet, so we're going to play it safe. See you tomorrow!

PC Gaming

Just wrapped up our Intro to PC Gaming program. A big thank you to Tim for suggesting the program, agreeing to present it, and doing a great job with it! You can download a list of links to some of the websites that he talked about here. Not a great program for pics, but a few here anyway.

What Mrs. N's Been Reading - Shiver

Just finished Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver. I really liked this one! It's told in alternating points of view - that of Grace, a young girl who had been attacked by wolves six years earlier, and Sam, who was a member of the wolf pack that attacked Grace. Sam and the other members of his pack are actually werewolves. They live relatively normally during the summer months, but the cold weather brings about their change into wolves. They change for a number of years, but eventually reach a point where they remain wolves for the remainder of their lives. Grace has been fascinated by the wolves since her attack. Actually her attention is focused on Sam, who called the other wolves off of her during the attack, before she could be seriously injured. Sam and Grace have been watching each other for 6 years, and finally meet while Sam is in human form. Their bond has already been developing, and quickly becomes stronger. As they fall in love and winter approaches, Sam tries to avoid telling Grace that this will be his last summer in human form. This one was very well written. You really get inside the heads of the 2 main characters and connect with them. There's plenty of back story fleshed out, and some side stories about members of the pack, attacks on additional kids, Grace's dysfunctional family, some horrific events in Sam's young life, etc. to keep interest up. Some mature content, but nothing graphic or explicit, even with the wolf attacks. Highly recommended! Look for the sequel, Linger, coming soon.

Enjoy

Weekly Challenge - July 19-24, 2010

Complete the Sudoku puzzle. If you enjoyed this one, sign up for the Sudoku Tournament on Wednesday, July 28.

Supersize Trouble

This is one of my all-time favorite programs! It's just silly enough to be an awful lot of fun! We took a break from it last summer and tried Live Clue. Everybody loved that one too, so we'll probably alternate between the two. As usual, we filled two game boards, and everyone had a blast! If you can't tell from the pics, we use giant inflatable dice instead of the Pop-o-Matic (if someone's willing to build me a giant one of those, I'd be forever indebted to you!), and the kids are game pieces moving around a giant board. If you missed it, pics below. Look for Clue next year.

Tie Dye Pics

Tie-dye is a perennial favorite here. We had over 50 kids this year! It's always a lot of fun and cleanup is much easier than most people would think, so look for it every year for the foreseeable future. As I say at school visits, "When you guys stop coming to it, we'll stop doing it!" The only disappointing part for me is not getting to see the finished products. So if you came, wear your your shirt the next time you're in the library, and find me and show it to me. Some pics below, if you missed it.

Weekly Challenge - July 12-17, 2010

Here's next week's Challenge, a little early for a change, instead of late:

You pull out a page in the newspaper and find that pages 8 and 21 are on the same sheet. How many pages did the newspaper have?

Good luck!

What Mrs. N's Been Reading - Demon Chick

Just finished Marilyn Kaye's Demon Chick. This is another one that takes a different look at life after death. As the story starts, Jessica, whose mother is an incredibly charismatic politician running for president, is about to turn 16. Little does she know that her mother's success is due to a pact that she made with Satan before Jessica was born, promising to hand over her first-born daughter when she turned 16. Jessica finds hell to be a bit different than she expected. It's basically a lower class suburb, where there are fast food places but no fresh fruits or vegetables, no books or magazines other than contraband and no one gets older, gains weight, or changes physically in any way. There is TV, but the only thing that is available to watch is the lives of ordinary people on earth. When Brad, the demon who now owns Jessica, watches Jessica's mother and sees a memo outlining her plans for world domination and destruction (she has promised an end to poverty, but hasn't said that she plans to accomplish that by simply getting rid of all of the poor people, and she has plans to stir up unrest in other countries), they try to find a way to stop her. The only way they see to do that is to sneak Jessica back to earth, with Brad watching her. Brad is actually a decent guy who ended up in hell because of one bad decision, and Jessica finds herself developing some feelings for him. But while on earth she also hooks up with real hunk. Can she stop her mother? And what's going on with these two guys in her life (or afterlife)? A fun, quick read. Some mature, but non-explicit content. Enjoy!

Bhangra Dance Video

I finally got a chance to download and look at the video from Tuesday's Bhangra Dance program. I wasn't able to stay for this one, and now that I see the video I'm even more bummed about that. It was great! Our instructors were fantastic - everyone has it down pretty well at the end. And the best part is how really apparent it is, how much fun everyone was having. That's what it's all about! Just watching the video clips had me smiling. Enjoy!

Video Game Day Pics

We had a real nice group turn out for an afternoon of open play video gaming. I got to hang out at this one for a change. We had the Wii out with all of the sports games, the Gamecube with Smash Bros, and the XBox 360 started with GH World Tour and ended with Call of Duty. Thanks for the cleanup help guys! See you in July!