I am SO Losing My Brackets and A Long Busy Sunday

In the family March Madness pool, I was doing ok til Syracuse lost.....I had them going to the finals. Then I was still doing ok until Illinois lost ...ok, call it wishful thinking, but I had them going all the way. I thought I might still be ok as far as points if everyone else had a few upsets. Nope. Kansas lost and it was all over. I'm toast. I only hope that Duke goes down (sorry Meem).

So this wasn't from this weekend, but it was from this week and it was just so damn cute. I almost put in the picture of him after the presentation of the colors CAUGHT IN A PICK. But I JUST couldn't...but damn it was cute! The morning started out bright and early, as it was Girl Scout Sunday at 9:00 mass , when the Girl Scouts all congregate together, any religious medals that have been earned are given, and the Girl Scouts play a part in the mass - bearing gifts, doing readings, etc. After mass, the Girls always have a hospitality reception. You know what that means. GOODIES! Donuts, muffins, cakes, breads, COFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! It was the 7th graders responsibility to run the hospitality, so we were there for quite a bit, considering Girl had to be at church by 8:30 and we didn't get home until shortly after 11. I had 4 cups of coffee if you count the one I had at home before leaving for mass. Bing-BIng - BING! Riccochet Rabbit (anybody remember that?).

When Girl and I arrived home from mass, PC and Princess, who had spent the night with us, had already left for their daily run-around, LargeBoy was still asleep, he had only slept for 3hours at the lock-in, and SmallBoy was hanging out working on his comic book. I swooped him up and took him out to buy a compass for his afternoon scout meeting. We knew that we'd find one at Target. We scored. $2.99! Unfortunately, we bought the wrong kind. Ours was this great little hand held thing that clipped onto a belt loop, small, compact. What they wanted was one that you could tell the degrees of your directions. Oh well. Someone's always willing to share at these things and, well, at least we can still tell what direction we're going - perhaps I should keep it in the car ( I am "directionally challanged"). Here, Cubmaster G is teaching the boys how to determine how far away things are when reading a map. Surprisingly, all of the boys were QUIET at this point...very VERY unusual.

After teaching the boys how to read a map with a compass, he set up a giant land compass and put markers on some of the trees and posts in the forest preserve. The boys were then charged with the task of using the compass to determine the direction and the degrees from a central point where they stood to each marker. They did pretty well. SmallBoy and I switched a couple because we wrote them in the wrong places, but this was a very good lesson for both of us. After the boys had finished that, he began the first part of the next lesson, which is to help them keep track of how far they have gone on a hike. Each boy was given a piece of 350 cord, ten beads and a piece of thread. The boys were to fold the cord in half an make a simple knot at the end, then, using the thread, attach 5 beads, make another knot, and attach the remaining beads, close it up with one final knot and attach it to a belt loop or zipper. I was a bit worried that this task would prove incredibly challenging for SmallBoy, so I demonstrated how to make the first knot, and how to use the thread. I shouldn't have been surprised when he easily "performed the operation." He was so proud. We were one of the last ones finished, but I will definitely take the "blame" for that, as I supervised VERY closely.

The day was beautiful, a tad on the chilly side, but the sky was bright with the late winter sun. It was getting on in the afternoon, my guess is probably 4:30 or so. Scoutmaster wanted to take the boys on a hike through the woods - he's fantastic with this. We walked up a sled hill at the beginning (or end) of the trail, where the boys used aimed their compasses at the Sears Tower to get a reading on it's direction from where they stood. After the all concurred that it was just about 70 degrees East of us, we all set of to hike the trail that runs along the Des Plaines River. Excited boys, trails, tree roots, several kids who have difficulty focusing and paying attention, and a few, like mine, who have difficulty being aware of where they are within their surroundings. Hmm....can you guess how many kids fell down? Yeah. Lots. Regardless, we stopped and saw 8-10 deer grazing. They were very well aware of our presence, but seemed to be unaffected by us. They kept their distance, but none perked up a tail, and none ran. We even got to see a male with antlers. It was really cool, but they were too far to take a picture, even with a zoom. This spot in the picture was right as the river, which is a north/south thing, takes a turn and heads east. Rocks in the water provided an almost waterlike sound as the river traveled up, around, and over them. The Cubmaster asked everyone to close their eyes and be silent to hear nature and what it really sounds like. Me, well, I heard the waves lapping on the beach in Michigan, thus beginning the craving for summer weekends...ok, so that craving started as soon as we pulled away from PC's family's house for the last time, but this sort of jump started it for this year.

NCAA tourney starts back up tonight. I'm pretty much screwed as I had Illinois, Syracuse, Kansas, and Carolina all going far, but no more points for me. Oops...hey, I had to take the Illini all the way. It's a loyalty thing. Nope, not an alum, but still.....From here, it's GO BRADLEY!