Robotics Competition etc.

Luke was able to compete in the Kansas Robotic League's meet at the Cosmosphere on Saturday. I knew nothing about robotic competitions until yesterday - it was a lot of fun to watch! Apparently the robot engines come as a kit from Lego, then you modify it and add features to accomplish specific tasks. The boys create a computer program which tells the robot what to do if it runs into a wall, etc. and then download it to the robot. The picture above is a maze which was timed. Luke's robot was pretty slow, but it did navigate the maze sucessfully! He and his teammate took fourth place in the Capture the Flag event. His slow robot was able to knock down the flags when other robots got stuck in corners. He loved everything about the event, and has plans to modify his robot to climb - one thing it cannot do now!

We spent Friday and Saturday working on the clinic - I painted the adjusting room, Jerry built some storage shelves and cut down a tree. We also got rid of some unsightly furniture and purchased a new cabinet for the adjusting room. Thank goodness for brothers - I KNOW I couldn't have helped Jerry get that cabinet out of the pickup and into the clinic. Mick and Stacia came by to lend some muscle. Jerry and the boys also are trying to kill moles on the property; we have to go back today to see if they bit the dust or not. I had the best of intentions to take pictures of the clinic to post here, but it didn't get done. Look for them soon!

I'm really enjoying the time change today. Moving from the Mountain time zone to the Central time zone was a plus for us since we are now in the same time zone as almost all of our friends and family (although I still catch myself adding or subtracting an hour when I start to make a phone call.... 13 year old habits die hard!) One thing we don't like about Central time is how dark it is in the morning. The kids walk to the bus stop at 7:35 a.m. and it's been dark the past week or so. Yuck! On the other hand, it won't be dark at 4:30 p.m. in December - woohoo!

It's time for me to get ready for church. I've messed around long enough this morning since I had an extra hour that now I'll have to hurry!