Sledding in Carnation

We went sledding with Morgan's siblings on Monday and Tuesday. There is a great hill near their house. What did I learn? Pavement covered with one or two inches of snow, in many regards, isn't all that different from regular pavement.




Mitch looked stellar in his Viking attire for the festivities.

What I Learned Last Night (A Lesson in Stupidity)

As Mitch and I were driving home from the Seahawks game last night, we witnessed a pretty bad wreck on the Redmond-Fall City Highway. In fact, we narrowly missed being in the accident ourselves (I'm talking a matter of feet and milliseconds here). Mitch called in the accident, and we ended up out in the snow for a couple hours directing traffic, waiting for the State Patrol, and filing witness reports. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt. I will sum up the story with a list of things I learned, in chronological order, thanks to the "driver at fault":

1. If it is snowing, don't drive.

2. If you do choose to drive in the snow, make sure you're sober.

3. If you choose to drive in the snow drunk, make sure you're not driving a VW Rabbit.

4. If you choose to drive your VW Rabbit in the snow drunk, make sure you don't get into an accident. You will lose to a Ford Explorer.

5. If you get hit by a Ford Explorer in your VW Rabbit while driving in the snow drunk, make sure you don't leave the scene of the accident.

6. If you leave the scene of the accident (which you lost after driving your VW in the snow drunk), and you choose to dive into the bushes to hide, make sure they're not blackberry bushes.

7. If you drive your VW Rabbit in the snow drunk, get destroyed by a Ford Explorer, and leave the scene of the accident by running down a private drive and jumping into the blackberry bushes, make sure you're wearing more than a sweatshirt and jeans.

Let it Snow...

Bellingham was re-blanketed in snow yesterday, this time more than just a dusting. School is cancelled, and Morgan and I are mustering our courage to go out and play, despite high winds and low temperatures.

Yesterday there was less wind, and when I left Shuksan Middle School at 2:00, I went straight home to rig together a way to pull sleds behind my bike. I wiped out before I even left the parking lot, much to the excitement of the Life Skills students playing outside! It was a shaky ride home, but with my cross tires on it was better than it could've been.

I met Mark at Woburn and Sunset, and we made our way to Woodside. The roads weren't as fast as we had hoped, because there was not yet a layer of compact ice under the snow. Instead, we went to the short but steep hill across the street, alongside a set of stairs. A few runs there was enough to give us our kicks. I wish I had a photo of Mark with the icicle eyebrows he developed on one of his runs!

Jamie showed up just as we were leaving, and demanded that I pull her behind my bike. I did feel a little bad, so I obliged. To be honest, I did not thnk a bent coat hanger would work to pull the sleds, let alone with her in them, but they held up.

The bike was an adventure to be sure! Two wipeouts and a dozen or so close calls kept my heart racing at all times. I would definitely try it again in the snow, but I may want to look into some studded tires...

Holiday Decorations

Tommy didn't go out into the woods this year to cut down the "perfect" Christmas tree. Instead, we walked to Broadway Park and ripped a smallish branch off an evergreen tree. Also, Shari cleaned out her Christmas ornaments to reflect her more sophisticated decorations - so we decorated our branch with the fragile Swedish snowflakes she bestowed upon us.

Our other decorations:

Christophersoned!

I used to be pretty good at ultimate (frisbee), playing 5 years for WWU. I wasn't the best player on my team, but we had a darn good team; in 2006 we were ranked 12th in the nation, and that among Division I schools. It was fun to be good.

A few of my closer friends dabbled in the ultimate world for a year or two, and got pretty good also. Still, I played for 5, and it was fun to play a sport with all my friends where I knew I was the best player on the field.

All that changed yesterday. I went out to play a little bit of pickup, and was utterly destroyed on numerous occasions by my friend Mark. This was not a situation where he got the best of me on one or two plays; I'm talking about the entire game. I won't go into the details, because that would be boring for anyone not familiar with the game. It also should not have come as a surprise, Mark has been playing ultimate as of late, and I have been out riding my bike. But regardless the reasons, I had to come to grips with a good friend of mine surpassing me in a sport that had been "my thing" for so long.

I read an article by Mike McQuaide in AdventuresNW on the topic of competition (if you're interested, the magazine is free on stands around downtown). It basically spoke to the notion that competition is about you and your friends pushing each other to do better, not about being a testosterone-overloaded jerk.

I'm glad that I have friends with whom I can compete, however informally, and remain just as good of friends with after facing off on the field/track/whatever.

Advent Conspiracy

I like this.

Christmas can [still] change the world.



I also like: Moooo

Buy Local Week 2008

Buy Local in Bellingham!

Dec 1-7 is Buy Local Week. I am going to get a passport, go to local businesses, have them stamp my passport, and then turn it in for the chance to win prizes. Yay! I love prizes.

Team Dejong

Yesterday, three packages showed up on our front door. After two hours of figuring things out, we had a brand new bike! This bike is super cool. We bought it used, but it was custom built for people of similar proportions to Morgan and myself. This is something we were unable to find in an off-the-shelf tandem. It comes apart via six couplers, allowing us to package the bike up into two airline sized cases and take them anywhere!



It has a lot of time saving features, like mini-couplers for the cables that allow for dismantling the bike without disonnecting brakes and derailluers all the way. My favorite part is that we were able to assemble the entire bike with 3 allen wrenches, a spanner, and a pair of pliers. The pliers may not even be necessary in the future.


It may be because of the steeply sloped top tube, but I look like a giant next to this bike. You can easily see why it was tough for Morgan and I to find a bike that fit us! After our first test-ride with the new bike, the smoothness really stood out to us. Cruising through the Lettered Streets on one of my bikes I usually am getting rattled all over the place. This frame absorbs and dampens road vibrations incredibly well. I was also shocked at how light the frame is. It can't be more than 30 pounds.

Morgan's favorite part about the bike (other than things I've already mentioned) is the awesome stars on the paint job.

We're officially accepting name suggestions for our new baby!

Love him or hate him...

..Tim Eyman is an interesting character. I thought I'd share a good story about him that aired on NPR this morning:

Washington State Man Doesn't Lack Initiative

I read an article yesterday that got me thinking about the different ways Americans think about educational policy. To be honest, the article really ticked me off. Here's thee link:

Report: Kids less likely to graduate than parents

The article focuses on the ever present issue of school accountability. It seems that ever since No Child Left Behind was implemented, the focus has been on "hold(ing) schools accountable" for test scores and graduation rates. Obviously it is important for us to have standards for quality schools, and I don't mean for this to be a rant about the backwards policies NCLB; that topic would be better addressed in a book than a blog post. The issue I take is with media and political perspectives on why our education system is failing so many children, and what needs to happen to fix the problems. When politicans or the press talk about education, the focus is always on school accountability. If students are not succeeding, then the schools are failing.

In reality, this is only part of the big picture. Society is failing them. Their communities are failing them. Their families are failing them. Their parents are failing them.

Schools have more resources and teachers are better educated than in the past. Why then, are more students dropping out of the system? Because schools are now expected to take more responsibility for a childs development than is reasonable. The attitude of many is that schools are the sole party responsible for a students educational success. Unfortunately for children who live in a society with this perspective, schools have no control over what students are doing in the 17 hours from 3pm to 8am.

I could say more, and I was going to talk about the fuzzy (at best) math that Libby Quaid cites in her article, but I imagine that would just bore anybody who has read this far.

There are only two ways I can see the situation for many of these children improving. The first, better, and completely unrealistic idea is that parents turn off the tv and take responsibility for raising their kids. The second, more realistic, idea is to provide more opportunities for students outside of school hours. Support for homework, mentoring, and community engagement through extra curricular activities are going to be necessary if today's student is going to have a chance.

8th Grade Science: Fruit Voltage

In my science class we studied batteries.

Batteries can be made out of fruit. So each group of students brought in a different fruit to test its voltage. By connecting many fruites together, we could increase the voltage: all the way up to 4.09 volts!














Unfortunately, I forgot that to make a lightbulb light there also needs to be a significant amperage, which our fruits did not supply. Our batteries were worthless, but proved to be a fun diversion from writing hypotheses and making data tables.














I would have included pictures of my pubescent students, but it is against the law to post photos of students without permission.

Globe-Trotting

Morgan and I have talked about taking time off to travel the world since before we were married or even had jobs. Well, a couple of months ago we picked a year, and have since made and discarded multiple itineraries.

I thought it would be fun to post a list of the places we are going so that our friends and families can share about the best place they ever travelled to, the place they always wanted to go, or any other suggestions for us as we dive into trip planning. The goal is June 2011 to June 2012. Here is our current list of destinations, in very hypothetical chronological order:

The Netherlands, Belgium, France (Paris),
Germany, Switzerland,Austria,
Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia,
Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia,
Turkey (Istanbul), Greece, Italy,
India, Singapore, Taiwan
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam
China, Mongolia, Russia (Trans-Siberian Railroad)
Ukraine, Estonia, Finland (Helsinki)
Sweden, Norway, Denmark
Home!

We're hoping to do much of Europe by bike, but I'm guessing our plans will change about 500 times between now and next week, so we'll see.

Let us know you're thoughts!

Unexpected Fractions Lesson

"What's wrong with your tie, Mr. Lingbloom?"

Class had only just begun, and as I looked down at my favorite light blue necktie several thoughts rushed through my head:

1. "How on earth did the bottom of my tie get snipped off?"
2. "How can I catch the punk that took a pair of scissors to my wardrobe?"
3. "I just spent twenty minutes slicing strips of paper with a giant cutting board, and apparently I am an idiot."

I imagine I had a very entertaining look of confusion on my face as I mulled these things over, because the entire class waited for a response expectantly. "Well, I already told you I wasn't feeling well, so maybe its just going to be one of those days." I promptly hung the tie up on the bulletin board, and began the lesson I had prepared, ironically, on fractions.

I went home immediately after class on Wednesday, but apparently the story was a big hit at the staff meeting, because all I heard on Thursday from fellow teacherswas "Why aren't you wearing a tie today?" and "What was your lesson on yesterday? Fractions?"

Today I moved the tie to a more permanent location on the wall, partnered with a sign that reads "It's ok to make mistakes!"

Learning to Swim

Obviously we'll need to suck our friends in with flashy use of technology. It will be sink or swim for our blog, so this will be my first attempt at imbedding video in a blog post. Drum roll please!

The movie is of my brother and I tossing our cousin Noah into Lake Whatcom. I'm sure he had it coming, but that does not look like a pleasant landing!

Morgan and Tommy are Nerds

Morgan and I are thinking about starting a...

...blog. Despite an inability to create interesting writing, we do like the idea of having a medium to force our own ideas upon others. Kind of kidding, but there are times when I think "I'd really like to go home and blog about X... oh wait, we don't have a blog." We also figure it will be handy down the road, especially when we're travelling in a couple of years.

So here's where you come in. We need to think of a name more creative than "Morgan and Tommy's Blog." Lynn, we're counting on you. Caleb, now's your chance to make up for being topped by Lynn at our wedding. Everybody else, our expectations are low, so try and prove us wrong (I'll work on the internet sarcasm when the blogging begins)! Give us your best shot, it may go down in history!