Welcome to the Wilcox Family weB LOG, your source for the latest Wilcox news, anecdotes, and rants; and, as Jack Benny quipped on his first radio show (March 29, 1932), “There will be a slight pause while you say, ‘Who cares?’â€â€
Nichelle has been experimenting with making custom cakes for the kid’s birthdays. Like most things she attempts, she’s done great right out of the box. She invented some cool new techniques this time, and I was able to lend some engineering expertise.
Halo “Warthog” Cake, made by Nichelle.
Halo “Warthog” Cake, made by Nichelle, with model for comparison.
NaNi often makes sure that I stick to my diet, “No cheating, Dad,” and helps encourage me when exercising. (Nichelle sets the diet and the overall schedule; you should consider using her if you need a very reasonably priced personal fitness trainer.)
Last night NaNi rode her bike with me while I ran two miles, as she often does.
Everyone really enjoyed seeing her out riding, with me running along right behind her. I got comments like, “She’ll make sure you keep your speed up,” and everyone we passed greeted us with big grins.
On the final block of the two miles, I sprinted ahead of her. As I passed her, she called out, “Now, that’s what I like to see!”
What a kid.
A couple of days ago, Naomi said, “Dad, I made this for you!”
Naomi’s “Whimsical” Drawing—Click to see full detail.
Inspired by Hook, Naomi drew people parachuting from a burning airplane. Guess who doesn’t have a parachute? (I love the little frown face she put on me.)
That’s one sarcastic kid we’re raising.
Okay, I’m going to show off a bit.
My Mandarin homework at the Chelmsford Chinese Language School this week was to write a paragraph about Naomi. Most of this we have covered in class, but I got some help from my friend Shenghan to make sure the grammar was correct, and still managed to make one mistake in with the suì character, which I have since corrected.
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我 |
有 |
一 |
个 |
女 |
å„¿ |
。 |
她 |
å« |
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娜 |
奥 |
ç±³ |
。 |
她 |
五 |
å² |
了 |
。 |
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她 |
é•¿ |
ç€ |
黑 |
黑 |
çš„ |
头 |
å‘ |
。 |
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她 |
喜 |
欢 |
è·³ |
舞 |
。 |
娜 |
奥 |
ç±³ |
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是 |
一 |
个 |
亮 |
é—ª |
é—ª |
çš„ |
女 |
å© |
。 |
Here is the same text with the pinyin inserted:
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wÇ’ |
yÇ’u |
yī |
gè |
nÇš |
ér |
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tÄ |
jià o |
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我 |
有 |
一 |
个 |
女 |
å„¿ |
。 |
她 |
å« |
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NÃ |
à o |
mÇ |
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tÄ |
wÇ” |
suì |
le |
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娜 |
奥 |
ç±³ |
。 |
她 |
五 |
å² |
了 |
。 |
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tÄ |
zhÇŽng |
zhe |
hēi |
hēi |
de |
tóu |
fà |
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她 |
é•¿ |
ç€ |
黑 |
黑 |
çš„ |
头 |
å‘ |
。 |
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tÄ |
xÇ |
huà n |
tià o |
wÇ” |
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NÃ |
à o |
mÇ |
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她 |
喜 |
欢 |
è·³ |
舞 |
。 |
娜 |
奥 |
ç±³ |
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shì |
yī |
gè |
lià ng |
shÇŽn |
shÇŽn |
de |
nÇš |
hái |
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是 |
一 |
个 |
亮 |
é—ª |
é—ª |
çš„ |
女 |
å© |
。 |
Mandarin makes learning Spanish seem very easy by comparison. There are no Chinese-English cognates, and just learning the different tones is daunting. The “pinyin” phonetic aids help, but I still struggle with pronunciation, and, ultimately, need to memorize all the charcters. (Growing up in China, my teacher learned each character by being required to write it 1,000 times.) Of course, I occasionally have my rudimentary Chinese good-naturedly laughed at, such as a few weeks ago when I said, 我的太太ä¸å¥½ã€‚ My wife is no good, rather than 我的太太ä¸èˆ’æœã€‚My wife is not feeling well!
I’ll post a translation in the comments in a few days. In the meantime, you might have fun figuring it out. (Hint www.chinese-tools.com offers some excellent tools for working with Chinese, including a dictionary and input method editor.)
NaNi (now age 5), loves to dance. After her ballet class, while another group was rehearsing for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” she improvised this.
Toward the end you can see her looking into the studio room to see what the older students are doing in their rehearsal.
Naomi studies Ballet at Gate City Ballet, in Nashua, N.H.
; "Naomi in her angel costume and makeup from Gate City Ballet's Nutcracker")
Naomi in her angel costume and makeup from Gate City Ballet's Nutcracker.
Both NaNi and Nichelle were in a production of “The Nutcracker,” put on yesterday by Gate City Ballet. NaNi got the part of an angel, and Nichelle was one of the dancers at the party in the beginning.
;)
<
The performance was originally scheduled for last Friday and Saturday, but had to be postponed because of the ice storm. Another snowstorm arrived on Friday, so two performances were set up on Saturday.
; "Nichelle, onstage, during the party scene.")
Nichelle, onstage, during the party scene.
I’d actually never seen “The Nutcracker,” although, like most, I was familiar with the music. I was very impressed with both the overall quality of the production for a relatively small ballet company, and the skills of the dancers, especially the children. Later I learned that GCB is quite well known in this area for doing such excellent productions.
; "Nichelle at the end of her scene in The Nutcracker, by Gate City Ballet")
Nichelle at the end of her scene.
Since the school year began, I’ve been teaching Lego Robotics two morning’s a week at Isaac’s new school, the Academy for Science and Design Chartered Public School, in Merrimack New Hampshire.
Many of you know I’ve been teaching Lego Robotics twice a week at the Academy for Science and Design, in Merrimack, N.H. As a function of the class, we had two teams competing in the FIRST LEGO League branch of the FIRST Robotics program, founded by Dean Kaman. (See http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/ .) The ASD is a chartered public school, now in its second year of operation.
At the “MindStorms Madness” qualifying tournament in Merrimack, N.H., on Saturday, the two teams from the ASD came away with three trophies:
The team I officially coach, Robotic Revolution, won first place in the Technical category (Robot design and programming), and will go on to compete at the state competition on December 6 at Nashua South High School.
The other team I taught (but did not officially coach) won 2nd place in Technical, and got the top score during the seeding matches. (Sadly, they were eliminated in the finals.)
The photos from the slide show above are available here on PicasaWeb.
I’ll update this post with more details about the team and the event sometime in the next day or two.
; "Naomi, our Geek Girl")
Actually, that’s my propeller beanie.
Growing up in our household, it isn’t likely that Naomi would be able to escape the culture of Geekdom that pervades it. Still, she has proven herself to be independently minded in a number of ways. For example, she has developed, without our influence, her own belief in Santa Claus, which none of the boys did. (We chose not to foist the Santa myth on the children, but she’s picked it up on her own, from television and other media, and adheres stubbornly to his existence.) She is crazy about ballet and girl clothes, and can even dance beautifully while using a hula hoop, both activities being entirely self-taught.
Still, she plays World of WarCraft (we joke that she has a level 5 Piercing Shriek) and Halo, loves Star Wars, Lego, and “Dr. Who” (although we had to cut back on the last one, as it was giving her nightmares), and reads MegaTokyo. So, here are a few of the more interesting ways she makes us smile, as we rub our hands together and laugh maniacally:
When I saw them go on sale at ThinkGeek, Nichelle insisted that I buy a Flux Capacitor replica. So, one Sunday, when I was bringing the Flux Capacitor to church to show off (we have a Geeky church), Naomi exclaimed, “Dad! We forgot to bring a second lot of plutonium!” Then, she ordered, “Mom! Get it up to 88 miles per hour!” and started chanting, “Do it! Do it! Do it!” (Back to the Future has always one of Naomi’s favorite films. It’s also where she learned to swear … and then of course not to swear.)
The other day she casually remarked, “The Mach 5 rules; the Mach 6 drools.” (Yes, we are Speed Racer fans as well.)
A few weeks ago, we went out for go-carts and putt-putt golf, and in the lot was a small, shed-like (TARDIS-like) building with double-doors on the front. NaNi called out, “Look, Dad, a time travel machine!”
And she likes science as well, including begging to go places like the Museum of Science. We were talking about the moon, and I asked her, “Where does the moon gets its light?” She responded, “From the sun.” I was thrilled, impressed that she understood reflectivity as it applies to moonlight at four years of age. Then she said, “Yeah, the sun turns into the moon at night.” We’ll keep trying …
; "NaNi mocks Isaac in the time-honored manner.")
NaNi mocks Isaac in the time-honored manner: “Look, I’m Isaac … Duuuuuuh.”
; "This is why I practice saying No every day.")
; "NaNi, on her second day riding.")
NaNi, on her second day riding.
; "This is the scene that made Nichelle all teary-eyed, NaNi taking off up the street with Isaac.")
This is the scene that made Nichelle all teary-eyed, NaNi taking off up the street with Isaac. (We threatened to send her off with a Brides magazine in one hand and a college application in the other.)
;)
; "Cuteness, as usual.")
Cuteness, as usual.
; "My two sweeties, in DisneyWorld without me.")
The two weasels (Nichelle and NaNi) went to DisneyWorld without us.
; "Phil taught Naomi to blow bubbles. I couldn't even chew gum without swallowing it until I was 6.")
Phil taught Naomi to blow bubbles. I couldn't even chew gum without swallowing it until I was 6.
; "Sky Venture, Indoor Sky Diving, Nashua, New Hampshire.")
Sky Venture, Indoor Sky Diving, Nashua, New Hampshire.
; "Isaac at Sky Venture, Nashua")
Isaac at Sky Venture, Nashua.
; "This flight suit makes me look fat.")
Indoor skydiving: This flight suit makes me look fat.
;)
There’s a really amusing story that goes with this picture, but I need to wait a few years for Nichelle’s anger to calm down before I can tell it.
; "Isaac and David with Jim, a former sailor on the boomer USS Henry Clay")
Isaac and David with Jim, a former sailor who served on the boomer USS Henry Clay. This was taken at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut, home of the world’s first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus.
; "Isaac and David at the helm stations of a nuclear submarine.")
Isaac and David at the helm stations of a nuclear submarine.