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Last week, Josiah and Abby entered the school talent show. Abby got honorable mention for the instrumental category. She played “Colors of the Wind” on her flute. Josiah was the overall winner for the whole contest, they called it the Ultimate Talent. He played “Vesuvius” on the piano. Mugs recorded the contest and asked me to download it to the computer. I decided to go one step further and upload them to YouTube.

Mugs thought I should have asked the kids if they wanted to be posted on YouTube before doing it. I replied that I got permission from their parent or guardian.

My parents came to visit for Easter Break, and we had a good time together.  Grandma helped the kids decorate Easter eggs, and after Easter, we spent several days consuming large amounts of deviled eggs and egg salad.  Everyone had to hunt for their basket, even my Dad.  He got some help from Gabe and Zeke.  Dale hid the kids baskets, and Abby was not very thorough in her searching.  At one point, Dale told Abby that if she was any closer, her basket could bite her in the butt.  She eventually crawled under the pool table and found it.  Later, Dale had trouble finding his basket.  So, he got the “if you were any closer, it could bite you in the butt” remark too.  He was foiled by the old box of soda trick.  It works every time.  My Mom found her basket quickly.  I think the smell of  peeps and black jelly beans drew her to it.  Dale, Gabe, and Zeke were all part of the Easter production at church.  Both Gabe and Zeke did an excellent job saying their lines.  The kids sang and spoke about the resurrection and it was terrific.  My favorite bit was when one little girl sang a happy song with the saddest face possible.  There were quite a few giggles in the congregation.

Easter Eggs

On Monday, we began to “Go Tourist” as Worker used to say.  We walked around the FDR, WWII, and Korean memorials and looked around the American History museum.  At the museum, we saw Abe Lincoln’s hat, the flag Francis Scott Key saw while he wrote the National Anthem, Kermit, and the ruby slippers.  I think we were the only people not willing to stand in the long line to see Michelle Obama’s inauguration gown.  Judging by the length of the line, it was the must see exhibit.

FDR Memorial

On Thursday, we drove over to Asseteague Island off the coast of Maryland and Virginia.  The Island is a National Park and Wildlife Reserve where a herd of ponies run wild.  It is a lovely place and I was elated to feel the salt breeze, walk the beach looking for shells, and listen to the crashing waves.  A Hawaiian friend of mine once told me how she felt when she returned to the shore after living away from the ocean for several years.  “I can breath, again,” she said.  I always think of that when I go to the coast after a long time away.  The first day at the coast, the wind was wicked cold and nearly blew us off the shore.

Manrys on the Beach

Digging on Beach

The second day, however, was beautiful. We saw a lot of birds and the ponies up close, but were a bit much for the serious nature lovers at the Reserve.  We were walking a bird watching trail and came across a couple with a telescope camera observing a turtle.  They offered to let me glance in the camera.  It was amazing how clearly I could see it.  Thinking Gabe would love to take a look, I yelled out to him, “Gabe!  Come look at the Turtle!”  The woman was highly offended and scolded me, “Shh! Nature.”  I am well aware that I am a member of the loud family and have been shushed in the library, the movies, and a mass.  I can’t remember what happened at the mass, but it sent Rob and I into a fit of giggles, and we couldn’t stop.  Because my Dad marched us up to the front pew every Sunday to sit, he was not too happy with our giggles.  At the time, we had a Priest who performed Polka Mass, a most remarkable thing.  Anyway, I found her exclamation quite amusing and used it ad nauseum afterwards.

Wild Ponies

More Wild Ponies

Egret

Turtle

We stayed in the pretty little town of Chincoteague and found a homemade ice cream shop.  It was one of the three memorable eating experiences we had.  The first good meal happened when Dale pulled off the road in Maryland at a restaurant called Trappe Creek.  The guy that owns it can sure cook.  We gave him 8 ridiculously diverse orders and each one was delicious.  I had crab dip and sweet potato pie, Mom had chicken and dumplings, Dad had eggs and home fries, Josiah had a cheese steak, Dale had a fried pork chop sandwich and cheesecake, Gabe had pancakes, Abby had lasagna, and Zeke had pizza.  He just went back in the kitchen and cooked it up.  It was terrific.  We also stopped on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to eat at the restaurant on the bridge.  There we got a giant fried flounder sandwich.  When the waitress set the thing in front of my Mom, the shocked look on my Mom’s face was priceless.  I wish I had a picture.

Flounder Sandwich

Our adventure took a turn for the worse when we got off of the bridge.  Traffic was bad, so I defied the GPS and told Dale to take an alternate route.  While scanning the map, I made the amazing discovery that we were near Manry, Virginia.  Dale’s ancestors had landed in Jamestown and settled near Sussex, Virginia for awhile and apparently got a town named after them.  We drove around and around and around some more stopping at various cemeteries to find old dead Manrys.  We had no luck.  The town is gone, but a guy we asked said that they still refer to the intersection as Manry corner.  Years ago, a train stopped there and it was a town, but we didn’t find anything that marked it today.  When we got home, Dale found the USGS mapsheet titled Manry.  We’ll have to give it a go another day when it’s light out and were not so frightened by a herd of cats, run down buildings, and old tombstones.

Manry, VA

My parents are now back in Minnesota for some well earned peace and quiet where they can listen to the call of the loons instead of the call of the loonies.

Grandma and Grandpa Meloch

About a week ago, Josiah and I ran a 5k race together. He’s thinking of running cross country in high school next year, so I thought it would be good for him to get a little training in before then. I laid out a 4 week training plan for him that included 4 days of running each week. He did a good job of sticking to the plan for the entire month.

At the Start

Josiah has a tendency to start out at a dead sprint. Since this course was an out-and-back course, I told him he had to stick with me for the first half, then he could run at his own pace after that. We took off and settled into a comfortable pace. After we turned around at the halfway point, Josiah picked up the pace a little, and I did my best to hang with him. That lasted for about 5 steps before I let him go.

With around 3/4 of a mile to go, Josiah was about 30 seconds in front of me. I saw him stop to walk for a few seconds and got my hopes up a little. But he started running again before I could catch up. However, with about 1/2 mile left, he stopped to walk again, and I was able to catch him! At that point, he asked how much more was left. I pointed out the sign at the entrance to the park about 1/4 mile ahead, and then he left me and never looked back again.

Josiah finished in 21:34, which is about 6:58 per mile.

Josiah Finishing

About 17 seconds later, I crossed the finish in 21:54 (7:03 pace).

Dale Finishing

Overall, Josiah had placed 9th out of 106 runners, and I had placed 12th. I figured Josiah had a good chance of getting an award for his age group, so we hung around for the awards ceremony. Sure enough, Josiah place 2nd in the Under 19 category. In the picture of Josiah finishing, you can see the kid who placed 3rd in that category. Josiah sprinted to beat him, not realizing that he was moving up a spot in the age group awards. Much to all of our surprise, I came in 2nd also for my age group, 40-49.

Second Placers

I’ve vowed to stick to small local races as often as possible from now on!

This past weekend, Josiah competed in the ACSI regional spelling bee in Atlanta, Georgia. He had participated in the district bee a few weeks back and placed second after misspelling autarky. Last year, he and I flew down for the competition.  With Dale home, we decided to undertake a family road trip.  Family discord was held at bay thanks to dvd players and nintendo ds.  Although driving 7 hours in the van while your wife quizzes your son on word after word may have gotten to Dale.  He claims he was just feeling ill and needed a little rest, but I think he decided if I was driving, I would have to stop mispronouncing words like sommelier.

I was once again struck by how much I like Atlanta.  Ros and Martyn, I take back all the bad things I said about Atlanta.  Both times, I have had a great visit.  On the way in to town, we ate at Fatt Matts Rib Shack.  The kids love telling their friends they ate at Fat Matts.  Zeke will occasionally chant “Fat Matts Rib Shack” just for fun.  The ribs were great.  We struck restaurant success again in the morning when we ate at Thumbs Up Diner.  When the waiter set before me a plate of real fried potatoes with onions and green peppers, I almost kissed him.  Anyone who makes good fried potatoes will make a friend of a Meloch.  My Mom’s fried potatoes are fought over during Sunday Brunch.

We had a day of sight seeing before the bee, so off we went to Coca Cola world for Gabe to choke on disgusting soda flavors and for Abby to dodge imaginary 3D objects.

The aquarium was once again an amazing place full of unique creatures and mesmerizing tanks.

 

We ate inside the CNN building which was cool.  As you’re walking along inside, you can watch someone reporting the news.  The kids were also thrilled to discover a Cartoon Network store and were soon debating Fosters vs Chowder t-shirts.  It was a lovely warm day and the kids had fun playing in Centennial Olympic Park.  Gabe was the first to venture into the Olympic Ring fountains.

The fountains go up and down, on and off, in bursts and starts and intense flows of water.  Most people attempt to jump in and out of them without getting too wet.  Gabe, however, decided to see how wet he could get.

After Zeke got a good drenching in the face, he decided to keep his distance.  The kids then ran around two playgrounds to dry off.  They liked the conveyor belt slide the best.

After our day of sightseeing, it was down to business and the spelling bee.  Spelling bees bring out some quirky and unique  kids and it’s always quite entertaining to watch them and their families.  At the start of the bee there were 67 students.  Josiah spelled the following words:

adjective, enlivened, egotism, impugn, uncommunicative, preexilic, sinistrous, inadvertently, abhorrence

The first word is for the practice round.  At the end of round 8, the bee was down to two students, Josiah and Peter.  Throughout the rounds, Dale was taking his job as Josiah’s Arbitrator very seriously.  He had the Merriam Websters Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition in hand and an Arbitrator Badge pinned to his chest.  Having no opportunity to arbitrate for Josiah, he began to whisper to me various opinions on the just and unjust arbitrations that were presented with Merriam Webster as his evidence.  It was a good thing the bee didn’t last much longer for I feared I would have to pry the Dictionary out of his hands.

Josiah received his next word: Euchre.  When the spelling master said the word, I knew he had lost and I knew that I was to blame.  After all that studying and testing to be undone by my favorite card game.  I had not taught my 14 year old son to play Euchre and he had no idea how to spell it.  To hear your opponent say Euchre means you’ve lost the hand.  Josiah spelled the word: Ucre and took second place.  His spelling bees are not finished, however.  He will now compete at the ACSI national spelling bee in Washington DC on May 9th.  Then, in June, he will spend a week playing Euchre at the Meloch family reunion.

Gabe’s 3rd grade teacher had told her students at the beginning of the year that they could work together as a class through good behavior, responsibility, and kindness to earn a class pet.  They achieved that reward this month.  Before voting on which type of pet to get, the teacher asked the parents if any children had allergies.  In my response, I wrote…”Much to Gabe’s disappointment, his Mother requests that it not be a snake or a spider.”  His teacher, not being fond of snakes and spiders agreed to this.  The class voted to  get a gerbil.  The teacher then told the children to ask their parents if their student would be allowed to bring home the pet on weekends.  Gabe, knowing his mother was not much fonder of small rodents than she is of snakes and spiders, came home in a glum mood.  “I know you are not going to let me, but the teacher said we had to ask.”  I wrote the teacher another note, “The class pet may come home overnight or for a weekend, but not for the summer and certainly not forever.”  Figuring that since there are 20 children in the class and we are almost to March, I hoped we might escape the year without a turn.  I had no such luck.  The next day, Gabe came running to the car at school pickup time…”My name got picked first!  My name got picked first!”  I rolled down the window and told his teacher, “We got it first?  That’s just spiteful!”  To which she replied, “It’s not a snake!”

So, the next day, Scamper was placed into the van for his weekend at the Manrys.  Carrying a glass box with a small rodent running back and forth inside was not a pleasant experience.  I cleared a spot in the middle of Gabe’s mess of a floor and set Scamper’s box down.  I reminded Gabe that he needed to make sure his door was closed all the time to protect Scamper from Patches, our cat.  The gerbil’s survival throughout the three day weekend was a bit perilous.  Worried that Scamper might be able to force his way out of the top of the box, Gabe decided to weight it down.  Not being able to find the dictionary, he set Riverside Shakespeare on top.

Patches guarding Gabe's door

The first night, Patches’ ears and nose revealed to her that there was finally something to hunt in the house.  She slept the entire night next to the inside of Abby’s closed door and would periodically reach a paw underneath in the hopes of snagging any rodents that passed by.  Of course, several times throughout the weekend, Gabe left his door open without verifying Patches’ location.  Upon being informed of or realizing his mistake, he would dash up to find Patches pawing the glass in the hopes of a live toy and tasty meal.  One time, Gabe found her sitting on top of the box.  Scamper would freeze in horror, attempt to hide somewhere, and finally resorted to turning his back on her.  I think he was trying the old “if I don’t see you, you are not there” trick.  On the occasions that Gabe would remember to close his door, Patches could be found waiting faithfully outside of it, watching underneath it for her next chance.  Amazingly, Scamper was returned safely to his class this morning.  Being a school gerbil, I find it fitting that he was saved by Riverside Shakespeare.

Patches sitting on Riverside Shakespeare