Bluesfest

For the first time since we moved here, we finally made it to Famous Dave's Bluesfest. We missed the first band, but caught the other two. Both boys whined about going "...but I don't like the blues!!" and complained until the band started. Then they started getting into it and tapping their feet. By the end of the night, they were on their feet in front of the stage having a good time. They came to the realization that maybe they actually like blues.

Last week, CP and I took a free bass lesson at Guitar Center. It was good for CP to talk with a real musician and get some tips and pointers. He really paid attention to the bassists in the blues bands. One of them had a bass like the one he plays, which made the music all that much better.

Speech Camp

CP finished up his summer speech camp yesterday. It ran for a week at the high school from 9:00 to 5:30 every day. He worked with some college coaches on a humorous piece. 

CP has really enjoyed the forensics program. All of his friends are involved as well as most of the cute girls in his class. It's fun to see them all in their suits up in front of an audience speaking with confidence and vigor. 

Silk

Our neighbors spent two weeks in China. While there, they visited an official state-run silk factory, where they got to see the process from cocoon to finished product. JP is busy looking for patterns for the yards of beautiful fabric she now has. 

I am enjoying my embroidered silk robe and shiny underpants. 

Selfie Saturday

Our favorite activity is relaxing on the deck in the afternoon. 

Cloudy Day

In addition to our beautiful sunny weather, we now and then get clouds and rain. 

Formula SAE

Lincoln plays host to the Formula SAE event. This is the third year of five, and we're hoping to get it for another five years. Teams from around 80 universities built 600cc mini indy cars and competed in all sorts of categories. I took a day off work and judged the business case presentations for the electric cars. Some of the teams were amazing! Over 200 people from the area volunteered to judge events and help run the event. Here's more info on the event: http://students.sae.org/cds/formulaseries/west/

The teams are judged for design, cost, weight, straight line acceleration, skidpad acceleration, endurance (15-mi race), handling, noise, and a business case. Most of the cars will do 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds. The electric cars run 300 volt batteries and most have 100 hp motors and weigh about 400 pounds. With their sticky tires, they can pull 2 G's on the skidpad!!

Friday was sunny and hot at the airport. The drivers all had to wear firesuits under their racing coveralls. We were hot sitting in the stands. My friend volunteered as a starter - he stood out in the sun all day at the starting line. 

The boys had fun for about 20 minutes. Then GP started asking "Can we go home now?" "How much longer are we staying?" 

Roses of Summer

Nebraska is blessed with the perfect climate for roses. We have two bushes out the back door that produce 50 new blossoms per day. They keep JP busy. You can tell that it's summer when her arms are all scratched up from pruning. 

Dogs

We babysat our neighbor's dogs for a few days. The girls next door helped us by taking them for a walk every day and brushing their fur. We're used to M with her non-shedding poodle hair. Our house is now full of orange hair that isn't J's. 

Hungry Mouths

This year we had a pair of robins build a nest in the backyard spruce tree. They had a brood of four chicks that all made it out of the nest. It was fun checking up on them every day. By the end, there wasn't enough room in the nest for four fledglings.