Monday, May 21, 2007
Full weekend
Last weekend was great. On Saturday we spent eight hours at the Maker Faire. I had really wanted to go to it last year but I think we were on vacation. This year I decided I would make it and it was worth the effort. I wish I brought my camera because I could have taken thousands of pictures. The San Mateo Fairgrounds were packed with hundreds of booths of inventions and free crafts for kids and adults to make. Jace made lots of art projects and enjoyed the huge Lego train set and the inflatable whale to run around inside of.
I made a ybox which is a device you connect to the TV and the Internet and it will display things like weather or news or whatever you program it to do. I was really intimidated to solder (especially because we were being filmed for some kind of documentary) but I found it to be really easy and I only burned myself once :) Only a few participants were allowed because it was a long project and they give everyone a free ybox kit worth ~$100.
Other fun things:
Right after the Maker Faire I hurried back across the Bay to Tracy to play poker. Since it was in Tracy we stopped at Sonic Drive-In which is a nice treat. There were fourteen people playing poker and I got fifth place which is okay but didn't pay out any money. The more people that play, the worse I tend to do.
Yesterday Samantha attended a Mother's Day luncheon with her Mother's Of Brentwood (M.O.B.) group. They went to Cap's and it sounded like it was a good time. So I took Jace and Rez to the Brentwood Aquatic Family Complex and Jace swam around for a couple hours. He was only supposed to be in the shallow end with all the little kids but once he swam under the rope over to the medium-depth pool. I had to run over there with Rez in the stroller. Jace was actually swimming and wasn't touching the ground (a first). However, some kids started splashing around and getting water in his face so he panicked a little and swam to the edge and I pulled him out. The lifeguards didn't move during this so maybe they knew he'd be ok... but I'm not trusting his life to some high school kids working on their tans.
Yesterday afternoon we went to the park to try to help Jace learn how to play baseball since he seems interested in that. We had tried doing this a week earlier but when I was showing him how to use the bat I shattered the cheap plastic ball. So we had to go to the store to get some whiffle balls. He actually hit the ball a few times yesterday and when he throws it usually goes straight :)
Needless to say, Jace slept very well both nights this weekends.
I made a ybox which is a device you connect to the TV and the Internet and it will display things like weather or news or whatever you program it to do. I was really intimidated to solder (especially because we were being filmed for some kind of documentary) but I found it to be really easy and I only burned myself once :) Only a few participants were allowed because it was a long project and they give everyone a free ybox kit worth ~$100.
Other fun things:
- Human-powered amusement park rides.
- Fire trucks that shoot flames.
- Lots of electric cars, scooters, motorcycles, skateboards...
- Steve Wozniak was there (I couldn't make his speech).
- A variety of crazy welded-together bicycles for anybody to try to ride (a few people were bleeding afterwards but they didn't care).
- Huge robots battling each other in a steel cage.
- Multiple self-playing drum and guitar bands.
Right after the Maker Faire I hurried back across the Bay to Tracy to play poker. Since it was in Tracy we stopped at Sonic Drive-In which is a nice treat. There were fourteen people playing poker and I got fifth place which is okay but didn't pay out any money. The more people that play, the worse I tend to do.
Yesterday Samantha attended a Mother's Day luncheon with her Mother's Of Brentwood (M.O.B.) group. They went to Cap's and it sounded like it was a good time. So I took Jace and Rez to the Brentwood Aquatic Family Complex and Jace swam around for a couple hours. He was only supposed to be in the shallow end with all the little kids but once he swam under the rope over to the medium-depth pool. I had to run over there with Rez in the stroller. Jace was actually swimming and wasn't touching the ground (a first). However, some kids started splashing around and getting water in his face so he panicked a little and swam to the edge and I pulled him out. The lifeguards didn't move during this so maybe they knew he'd be ok... but I'm not trusting his life to some high school kids working on their tans.
Yesterday afternoon we went to the park to try to help Jace learn how to play baseball since he seems interested in that. We had tried doing this a week earlier but when I was showing him how to use the bat I shattered the cheap plastic ball. So we had to go to the store to get some whiffle balls. He actually hit the ball a few times yesterday and when he throws it usually goes straight :)
Needless to say, Jace slept very well both nights this weekends.
