Carousel Acres And A Kid's Birthday

Leah's birthday celebration began, as it should, with a cherry cheesecake.  Then presents, then we piled in the car.

For Leah's birthday we took her to a petting zoo, Carousel Acres, to get some animal time in. While now a full-on young adult, she still loves hanging out with animals.

Quite an array of animals are at Carousel Acres, most are rescues and there's quite a variety.

What happens when a Donkey and a Zebra love each other very much? 

You get a Z-Donk.  I did not realize you could get a donkey/Zebra hybrid but indeed you can, and here it is.

The Z-Donk:

Certainly not a typical looking animal. Rather calm and enjoyed the kids brushing her out.

We then went to the parakeets.  The parakeets, after we entered their facility decided to swarm us like a scene from The Birds (the bird seed in our hands didn't hurt).

 

 

Much fun.  Having birds flocking to your hand and calming standing on it to eat is rather fun.

 There were reindeer (No grandmas were run over in the taking of this picture).

 There were also lots of goats to pet. Goats do indeed enjoy a good petting, and compete with each other for attention and a turn.

 

Bunnies also got pets. And there were many other animals to see, including kangaroos, wallabys, kookaburras, horses, and even pigs sloshing in the mud.

Lots of fun was had.

Then we went to a celebratory lunch at Guernsey Dairy in Northville - they have the best fried chicken anywhere and about 50 flavors of ice cream to choose from  - all made right there at the dairy. 

It was an excellent birthday celebration. 

Getting The Kid Back To School

 

With all the weather on Friday night/Saturday getting the kid back to U Florida from Michigan was quite a challenge.  

The original plan was DTW-ATL-GNV leaving at an ungodly early 4:45 am from DTW, so needing to be at the airport ugly early.

 

Fun was driving to the airport in the snow. 

Snow that not a plow had touched at all.  In fact while, driving I saw all of one plow on the entire route.

 

The roads leading to the highway were absolutely snow covered. 

The highways themselves had no lane markings visible under the snow.

 

Thankfully the snow was not slippery icy stuff but more of a packing-snow type, so while slow going, it was reasonably safe going. 

Oakland County seems to be busy spending money on DEI rather than basic competencies like snow removal.

 

DEI and other progressive gee-gaws are luxury spending that, while a waste of money, should only even be considered after you have your core competencies down pat. Sadly they're sexier to Democrats than things like safe and clean roads.

Get to the airport at 2:00 am, the flight was soon announced as cancelled due to the mess in Atlanta.  Weather will do that.

Got her rescheduled to Jacksonville (would have to have had her Uber all the way to Gainesville but it was something) and got her through security at 6am for an 8 am departure.  Should be good as a direct flight bypassing Atlanta, right?

 

Wrong.

That flight was then cancelled due to lack of crew availability due to the weather messing up the system.

 

Then, I got her rescheduled back onto a later DTW-ATL-GNV flight at 10 am, which then was pushed back to 11 am and then was announced for boarding which was a good sign.

 

The flight boarded. But there was then a 1 hour delay sitting at the gate due to Atlanta being stacked for receiving aircraft.

 

They then got clearance to go, and they were off without incident around 1pm and landed in Atlanta. The ATL-GNV flight, then got rescheduled quite a few times but they got clearance to go around 6pm and she finally got back to Gainesville.

 

Upon landing, the pilot wished them all a happy semester and “Go Gators!” which was a very nice touch.  She met friends on te plane as it was mainly students heading back and shared an Uber getting to the dorm.

Through all the delays and weather trouble, the Delta  customer service reps were super helpful in rescheduling her flights and working to get her there.  

 

Thanks to Delta, the flight crews, and all the customer service representatives for all their hard work yesterday under some very trying circumstances. 

 

Having around 2 hours of sleep and hanging around the airport for hours trying to get her home did not make me a happy camper.  But she got there safely and that's what matters.   We could not get here there earlier to beat the weather as the dorms weren't open for students to return until Saturday, which is stupid. 

 

But she's now safe and sound in happy warm Florida.  I'm done shoveling out from the latest snowfall and back at work. 

Kid Turns 21

Where does the time go?

Abby turned 21 this weekend. She came up from university with her boyfriend to celebrate her birthday with us.

Leah flew in for the celebration and to spend the Thanksgiving Break together.

As is tradition, breakfast on her birthday was a cherry cheesecake.

After cheesecake, she received her presents.

The kid is now legal to drink and celebrated with her first order of alcohol at a restaurant, and then buying a bottle of Ciroc at a store that she brought home and mixed her very first cocktail, with fresh-squeezed lime juice and including making her own simple syrup.  It was a rather tasty cocktail.

We along with her boyfriend, finished her day with a further celebration and birthday cake and she had a great day.

Scuba Diving The Devil's Den

Devil's Den is a spring about 40 minutes from Gainesville that offers some fun diving practice in fresh water.

The UF Scuba Club had booked some of the gear setup areas with tables and it was very nicely organized. We arrived and the group all geared up and headed into the spring after checking in, doing waivers, paying the entrance fee and rental needed equipment.

Entry is through a tunnel heading downward and you need to mind your head as its rather tight.

Even though you enter through a cave entrance, there is direct sunlight through the ceiling of the collapsed cave.

That hole is rather pretty when viewed form under the water:

There's a nice platform set up that you then enter into the water.

There's a mound of rocks and rubble piled in the middle of the spring with deeper areas to the sides.

There's a few fish wandering about the spring;

There are some swim-throughs, meaning an overhead environment, but it was always a pretty quick transition through them,. and you can still see daylight,  and some swim-throughs turned out to end in blockages that require you to turn around which got a little tight but was fine.

 

There is a cave entrance, but entry into the cave is strictly prohibited.

Most springs with caves have the standard Grim Reaper with the "No Non-Cave Trained Divers Should Enter" sign.  This one is an outright prohibition.

Lights were needed as it was dark in the spring, and a lot of particulate in the water made for some difficult photos.

Leah loved her first certified dive experience, and she did great for a first dive as a certified diver without an instructor present, and did a very good job as a dive buddy.

We had a nice 54 minute run time with a max depth of 52 feet. The temperature ranged from 72-75 degrees depending on where you were in the water which made for a comfy dive.

A great dive and a great time with the kid.

High School Level: Completed

Today was the Senior Clap-Out to celebrate the very last day of High School for the graduating seniors.

They would walk through the school being cheered by the other students and then to the door.  Leah would be walking among them, graduating summa cum laude.

Parents awaited for the door to open and the seniors to come out and to cheer them on.  This included a parent in a T-Rex suit to mark the festive occasion - wish I'd thought of that myself.

So, at 2:30pm they walked out the door for the last time as students to the cheers of their parents.

Quite an emotional moment, many of the female students (and moms too) were tearing up. A very proud moment as well to see these kids walk forward into their futures.

All that remains are her IB exams, and then she's done with high school completely.

The Michigan State Mock Trial Competition

As Leah's team had advanced after winning the County finals to the State finals, I drove ugly early this morning to Lansing and the Ingham County Circuit Court Courthouse for the State-level competition.

Leah's team had both a Plaintiff and Defense team and she was on the Varsity Plaintiff team.  Leah gave a great opening, did a solid direct and cross examination and all the kids on her team did a fine job indeed. The Junior Varsity Team also made it to the state finals and did very well too.

We then watched the Varsity Defense side team battle another team's Plaintiff side.

It was a fun fact pattern that had a few annoying holes but was designed to be able to be argued either way.   I believe the fact pattern was weighted a bit towards defense-side but was a fun one to work with, but it had an error regarding one of the exhibits in that it, per the rules of evidence, couldn't be admitted by either side with the way the fact pattern and witnesses were arranged - the fact pattern was missing a witness that could get it admitted.

I had ordered in pizzas for the team so we had that for lunch as we waited for the initial results after the end of the second round.

Unfortunately, both the Varsity and JV team failed to advance to the semi-finals, but I'm very proud of their effort, and that they won the county level and they got this far.

That's the last high school competition for 6 of them as they graduate and go on to bigger and better things.

Darn good bunch of kids.

Proud Parent Moment

So last night was Senior Honors Night at the high school.

Leah will be graduating Summa Cum Laude and was awarded for doing so. She's also going to be honored for leading the Mock Trial Team and multiple other activities that she has done.

Not bad for a kid that went through High School under Covid protocols and all the issues with learning and stupidities and anxieties that it entailed. 

Such stupidities included  having doors and windows in the classrooms open to the outside in winter for "ventilation" when they finally got back to in class teaching, and it was one of the many particularly stupid things that were done.

To celebrate after the awards, we went out for ice cream to celebrate her great achievement.

25 days are left this school year for her, then her exams, and her High School days will come to an end. Still waiting on some university decisions at this point so we don;t know where she'll be going yet.

For some dumb reason the administration has decided not to allow departing senior quotes in the yearbook, even after they had previously been ok'd.  Apparently some were spicy so the boneheads decided to yank them all.

Leah's had been "So long high school, and thanks for all the ulcers."

The kid did real well for all of that. I'm quite proud of her efforts and outstanding results.

The Kids Are More Than All Right - Indian American Students Association Show Edition

Saturday night I went to see the International Academy's Indian Students Association's annual show.

Leah was a part of the Senior Fusion dance act, proving that while you don't have to be Indian to be in the performance.   A lot of her friends are Indian and wanted her in the performance so she took part and had a great time.

There was a lot of talent on display. 

The show began with the singing of the National Anthem followed by the National Anthem of India.

There were then a variety of dances from Bangra to Bollywood, and even some K-pop.

Some dances were impressively athletic displays of skill:

The show included a solo playing a violin Indian style.

I've never seen a violin played like that, and it was rather amazing. Had a very Indian sound and reverberation that was quite different from classical violin or fiddling. and while quite different, it had a very beautiful sound.

The Senior Fusion Dance was a mix of six dances and all the graduating seniors taking part, so it was a full stage and a lot of fun.

Lots of effort and lots of time spent practicing went into putting on this show and it really showed.  This was a bunch of great and enjoyable performances. The show raises money for charity and takes place every year.

Great bunch of kids and a great performance.

Begun The Water Wars Have!

High School Water Wars that is.

Expect to see lots of Seniors running around in public with water guns trying to soak each other to survive and win a cash prize and bragging rights.

The Water Wars have rules - while drive-bys are allowed, the driver may not handle a water gun while driving.

Impressively,  the rules prohibit using urine or acid as a substance in your water gun.   That this needs to be a rule indicates that some high school seniors are seriously damn stupid.

Leah being a senior is participating.

Being a chip off the old block she tooled up and went out and bought multiple water pistols - on the practical theory that while two is one, and one is none, twenty should suffice.  

The water pistols have now been hidden everywhere close at hand for her - in her car, school bag, purse, everywhere, place in ziploc bags to prevent leaks.

She also bought a super soaker for planned offensive actions.

Sadly, Leah suffered her first defeat and got eliminated in the present round yesterday - her boyfriend served her up to an enemy team by picking her up and carrying her to the ambush site.  Damn traitor.  

Seriously though, there is no way as a boyfriend I'd ever allow such a thing to befall my girlfriend. Verily, Abby's boyfriend during water wars in their senior year went out of his way to protect her, and she returned the favor by water gunning a competitor that was trying to get him - as one does.

That betrayal probably didn't do much for moving their relationship along, just saying.

So she lost this round, but revenge is being plotted for the next, and given it is Leah, revenge is going to be served ice cold.

Ice cold water, that is.

Cyberbullying To Imminently Backfire

High School kinds can be dumb.

High School kids can be cruel.

In this case we get a lovely combo of both.

It seems that a little bint by the name of Maria happens to, for some unknown reason, really, really dislikes Leah.  She also really dislikes a few other girls at the school as well, likely because they don't put up with Maria's drama. 

In reality, Leah has nothing to do with Maria and doesn't hang out with her and doesn't say a word to her at all as she doesn't need the drama but somehow and for some reason she's living in Maria's head rent-free.

So this slag Maria decides to take a shot at cyberbullying.

She decided to grab headshots from three girls's Instagram accounts, including Leah, then put them on a emailed/social media posted poster, complete with a QR code no less, asking everyone she sent it to to vote on which one of the three girls they think are "prego".

For the record, none of the three girls are "prego".  This is just an attempt to embarrass them in the school and start some malicious rumors going, and likely for Maria to feel good about being the center of the resulting shitstorm. 

Leah had found out about this plan a couple weeks ago as Maria showed the draft to a student who knew them both, and the student wisely told Maria not to do it, and told Leah and the other kids about it. 

So the matter rested for a while as everyone though Maria had thought the better of it.

But yesterday, for some undetermined reason, Maria decided to launch it.  During school time. All around the school.

That was a big mistake. Big. Huge.

So it got reported to the principal and that slag Maria seems to be getting in trouble as a result - which is a good opener, for starters. Hopefully the school will apply some appropriate sanction.

You see ticking Leah off by spreading false and malicious rumors about her is just a really bad idea, and Leah is not going to let this matter simply drop. I've stated to Leah that all options short of lethal force have my blessing and backing to put this cyber-bullying slag in her place.

Leah smiled and stated she was going to handle it. When Leah smiles like that, slags better start running.

Prepare the popcorn, stuff is about to get real.

Oh, and in Michigan such statements are defamation per se, with damages presumed. This could get fun and quickly.

December Kid Trip

In the last week of Decmeebr, I took the kids to Playa del Carmen in Mexico. A  nice holiday trip for them to de-stress, and a reward for the  both of them  doing so well at school.

A nice flight to Cancun was followed by the longest wait ever to get our luggage.  They processed it at a speed of about 1 piece of luggage ever five minutes. Seriously, it was the slowest luggage processing  I've ever seen. Took over 2 hours to get our luggage and get out of the terminal.

We got to the resort and checked in a bit later than we had hoped as it was dark when we arrived.

 

 So we had dinner, which was a great Mexican buffet, and they mixed a nice Margarita. We got our rooms in order and went to sleep.

The next day we got up and hit the beach, but before we reached it, we got to check out some wildlife.

Of course there were iguanas.

 And there was the cutest rodent known to man, the Agouti:

There were even Agouti babies for more cuteness:

They're cute, and they were all over the place.

The beach was spectacular.

We got a lot of sun, swam, had lunch at the beach, and took it easy the rest of the day.

Kids got a little too much sun, especially Leah.  Luckily I had brought aloe along and it was sorely needed.

Heckuva great day.

The next day, we were off to get some culture and see one of the newly proclaimed modern wonders of the world.

The Kids Are Alright

Drove out to Grand Rapids (on the west side of the state about 2 hours and a bit away) to spend the day at the High School Mock Trial Competition.

Why all the way to Grand Rapids?  Because the closer competition got shut down last Saturday due to the snowstorm and this was the only location where they could go. Oh, and we had to be there by 7:30 a.m.

Add to the fun of the extra distance  that this week, unlike last Saturday, over half of their team had to take their SATs today and they were a little behind the 8 ball.  Not a single senior was able to attend, and for many this would be their first competition.

Oh, and their designated teacher couldn't make it either and it was beginning to look a little grim as to whether they could even qualify to go as a result.

Leah decided that they were not going to give up but that they were going to compete and set about making it happen.

To make this work, Leah contacted the Grand Rapids Section, and then had me set up as the designated coach so the team could attend, they put together the pickup team and off we went. So, I got to wear a badge with the Teacher's name crossed out and my name hand-written in, so I was very official-looking.

The Mock Trial Competition staff in Grand Rapids were great - they graciously accommodated getting our team into the competition due to the weather cancel and they did a fantastic job running the competition. It was very, very well run.

For a pickup team, with some of them having to learn their parts in hours, not the days or weeks that everyone else had, they did really, really well.

Teams have to supply timekeepers, witnesses, and attorneys.

You could tell our team took it seriously.  Our witnesses had their parts and the complex set of facts down pat.  Two of them ran circles around opposing attorneys cross-examining them and had us in stitches at times with how well they were doing and how into their parts they got, even putting on accents and mannerisms to match the roles.

People that had to step into parts in a matter of a couple days put in the work and turned in some impressive performances.

Our Prosecution team went first round and it was kinda rough as some had just gotten their part two days (or less) before today, and it had two freshmen competing for the first time.  Still they put on an excellent effort and did the school proud.

Leah was on the Defense team and was in the second round. She and the team did really well, losing the round by a single point.  It was darn close.

Then Leah had to fill in a spot in the third round on the Prosecution side and had 12 minutes to prepare for her part over lunch, and she did it with style.  She really got into the part and dominated the opposing side's witnesses, including catching one who contradicted their affidavit allowing her to utter the classic line: "Were you lying then or are you lying now?".

I wanted to stand up and cheer - sadly as the coach, I had to remain silent during the round. 

The other teams thought our team were seniors and were dumbfounded to learn that the top players were juniors along with some sophomores and freshies.

The other teams also put on some excellent performances, and everyone really put in a lot of effort and it showed - a bunch of serious, studious, and also fun-having, well-mannered kids.  

So yeah, the kids are alright.

While Leah's school didn't advance to the State Finals this year, they put on a fantastic effort and this team is only going to get better. I think they would have made it had the full team been there as originally planned.

Next season for Leah's high school, I will be their official coach and involved in getting ready from Day 1, and we're going to really whip them into shape and start training on hearsay and evidentiary foundations early and often.

Water Wars: Abby's First "Kill"

Water Wars are well and truly underway for the senior class this year.

A quality time where disparate teams come together and try to get the other teams out by soaking them with water.  It can happen anywhere, anytime, any place except in school or any school property, nor at their work (going to or leaving work is ok), nor moving vehicles  for safety.  

Oh, and the soaking has to be on video to count, which is then posted online as proof.  Kids are in teams with each team paying an entry fee. Winning (surviving) team at the end of Water Wars gets to keep the money.

Other than that, it's game on. If you get invited into someones house by anyone you can get them there, or outside. Some Seniors have even dressed as Amazon delivery people to get access to their targets.

For Spring Break there was a truce, but it's on now.

Yesterday, a member of an opposing team, Sava, contacted Abby's younger sister Leah to help her get Abby out.

Sava forgot Rule #1 of Family: You Don't Ever Take Sides With Anyone Against The Family.  

Leah did not forget this rule.

Instead, she played double agent role to a T, and let Sava know when Abby was home and she would help by getting her to answer the door and have her ambushed there.

We decided to ambush the ambush-er. So Abby ambushed her.

Abby first was going to hide in the bushes but I noted that:

 1. Her clothing stood out like a sore thumb (Camo is not in fashion among this year's senior class); and

2. She'd have to be there for quite awhile and be uncomfortable as she didn't know exactly.

Instead I suggested and she then did  have the doorwall to her room open with the screen and blinds still in place so she could ambush her ambusher from a place of comfort. Since no one ever looks at that doorwall when they're looking at the front door it was a good setup.

So she did that and she and her boyfriend (who is on an opposing team but they have a boyfriend/girlfriend truce) set about to wait.  Yes, she has a boyfriend now. 

Didn't have to wait too long.

Sava came onto the porch and Abby got her with a water gun on video, thus taking her out of the Water Wars.  Abby's first kill, and Sava is out of Water Wars.

This however got complicated as by posting the video on the Water Wars feed, it clued in Abby's team that her boyfriend who took the video was at her house, so they came to get him.

Abby had to explain she wasn't a traitor to her team but she had a truce with her boyfriend.  

This was somewhat reluctantly accepted by her team.

 Tense moment but since he made it into his car he was safe, she jumped in the car and they headed out to picked dinner they had ordered.

They then got followed for a bit by Abby's team as they hoped they would stop somewhere close where he could get out of the car so he could get caught, as following a car is ok, but no speeding, breaking laws,  etc, is allowed.

Her team came back to the house to try and get him again, and I let them know that they had gone out to dinner and wouldn't be back until late.  This was not exactly accurate, but since he's her boyfriend, he becomes an honorary member of the family (so long as he acts honorably) so see Rule 1 above.

Good for the Seniors to blow off some steam and have fun with Water Wars and its funny to watch them be very aware of their surroundings at all times and see then hatch cunning plans to get others out.

Some Teen And Adult Drama

As I've said before, Covid is causing lots of anxiety and mental health problems, and exacerbating existing mental health problems - and there's lots of mental health problems to go around, especially in high school right now.

Let's take T/S for example.

T/S goes to my daughters' school and is in Leah's grade.

She's T/S because her actual name starts with T but she's recently decided she's a male gender and wants to be called S(name) or They as her personal pronoun.  Hasn't actually "transitioned" and this is instead a mental health problem writ large and one helluva way to get attention and be treated as a special snowflake.

If you dare call her by her actual T name you're apparently "dead-naming" her and that's bad.  The woke high school is apparently ok with this and going along with it and the kids have been conditioned to refer to her as "they" and her new gender name.  Rules of reality do not apply, and apparently you can call yourself Emperor of The Americas and everyone is expected to nod, accept it, and play along with your delusion.

Based on an episode that happened this weekend I'm just going to call her Little ShiT.

While Leah was with me on the  Mackinac Island trip, Little ShiT was with two of Leah's friends at the mall.

Little ShiT was seen by those two friends to shoplift at the mall, which freaked both of them out completely and they told her to stop, put the items back and what the hell was she doing? 

Little ShiT initially put the items back, but then shoplifted them yet again to the other kids' dismay, who wanted nothing to do with her at that point and didn't want to be near her.  One of the other kids actually went into a panic attack over it as yes, Covid anxiety and the fact her companion was thieving right in front of her caused that.

Drama at the mall does not stay at the mall.  

While Little ShiT apparently made a clean getaway, this didn't end the matter. 

She started accusing the kids who were with her at the mall of not being her friends and having a little text war over it.  In her texts, Little ShiT actually admits to the thefts even as she tried to gaslight her friends as to what actually happened and attacks them for hurting her feelings and betraying her and starts guilt tripping them.  No shit.

The group then dragged Leah into it Saturday night after we got home on the text chain and Leah  defends her two friends who were with Little ShiT and tells Little ShiT straight out that she cannot be putting this on her friends who told her not to steal and what Little ShiT did was wrong. Period. F'ing dot.

Little ShiT then apparently calls in some adult backup.  Hence the Adult Drama part.

Little ShiT gets her dad on the chat and Dad starts calling the kids on their phones screaming at them for daring to accuse Little ShiT of being a thief.  Funnily enough, Dad uses Little ShiT's "deadname" in his text and phone demands and the sky does not crack open.

Leah has not told either of us what is happening at this point, but Leak blocks the call.  Smart kid, but she should have pulled us in as soon as another adult starts dipping in, if not before.

But Dad does call and yells at two of the kids, including the one with the panic attack leading to another panic attack and to the other kid.  Real tough guy, yelling at kids for daring to do the right thing and telling his Little ShiT not to be a thief.

The panic attack child at this point is now worrying for her safety from both Little ShiT and Little ShiT's dad. Causing another panic attack. 

Other kid, whose mom happens to be an attorney, and mom hears Little ShiT's Dad yelling at her kid over the phone as it happens and takes the bullying of her child by Little ShiT's dad rather personally - as she should.  Fireworks ensue.

So far it is calm at school but Little ShiT is apparently rather pouty. 

I will continue to monitor and if Little ShiT's dad tries to contact or threaten Leah then I will come out to play. 

A Birthday And The First Day Of School

Today Leah turned 15.  

It is also the first day of school for the kids.

So it began with a cherry cheesecake with 15+1 candles, flowers, and presents:

And it continued with them getting in Abby's car and heading off to their first day of school as a Senior and a Sophomore.

They're both growing up a little too darn fast. Leah has already begun driver's ed and Abby is starting to apply to colleges.

Father's Day 2021

First off, Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Father's Day here was excellent.

It started off with some coffee and the kids bought me some new cargo shorts and a new cover shirt both form Columbia at an outlet mall, which was very nice of them. 

And of course the card:

Touching card it was, yes, hmmmm.

Then we headed off to Kensington Metropark for a nice couple hour hike.

After that, we had built up an appetite so we had a delicious lunch at O Sushi Japanese and Korean Restaurant, where we barbecued meat Korean-style right at the table which was awesome, tasty, and perfect. 

Then we headed to Barnes and Noble to browse the stacks for a bit as we were early for our next activity.

The next activity:

Axe Throwing.

Yes, axe throwing.

Because there's no better activity on Father's Day than to have your kids learn how to throw lethal weapons with skill, grace, and style. 

Axe throwing is harder than it looks, and a heckuva lot of fun to do.  The kids got it down before we did, but we managed to stick a few in the bull's eye as well.  So it was a very fun family activity and highly recommended.

It was a fantastic Father's Day.  I hope all you dads out there had a great one as well.

A Chip Off The Ol' Block

Leah as a high school freshman decided to try out this year for the school's mock trial team.

She made the junior varsity team and in her first competition, a regional one that feeds into the state competition.  She totally crushed it, on the prosecution side, on Zoom, no less.

Her team of 4 (two on prosecution, 2 on defense) drew an honorable mentions at the regional and then got slotted as a wildcard entry for the State Mock Trial competition, and was notified they got the slot six days ago for the competition being held today on Zoom.

Did I mention she also had to do half of the Defense team side as well for this competition as one of the Defendant team members dropped out, and learn and prep for it it in less than 6 days?

As such, she's been up today since 6:30 am, ensconced in the home office all to herself with the door securely shut and without direct contact except for food, water, and tea deliveries per the rules to prevent any hint of impropriety or assistance.

We've been watching her on Zoom on mute from another room.  Occasionally even yelling at the screen at the judges for bad evidentiary rulings - ok, well,  that may have been just me.  

She's absolutely fearless and had one opponent in an initial round giving up completely on his objections in the face of her responses.

She did her 2 initial rounds, one on the prosecution side, one on the defense side and then her team advanced to the semifinals, so she was one of the top 4 teams in the state. 

In the semi-finals, her team came in either 3rd or 4th in the state (we're still waiting on the official scoring), which is the farthest in the state competitions that her high school has even gone, and not bad at all for a first time competitor and her team. 

She's finally able to be out of the room, 12 hours later, totally exhausted, but is going to watch the final round.

The kid is fast-thinking on her feet, and can deliver excellent direct and withering cross examinations. She's also getting bumped up to the varsity Mock Trial team as a sophomore next year as she did so well this year. 

Much parental pride here.

Stuff Kids Say - High School Edition

The kids just returned back to school (via Zoom from home) after their break (also at home).

Leah reporting on her school day today while we were together eating dinner:

"Just finished the drug and alcohol unit in Health - Now, I know how to make a killer Long Island Ice Tea!"

The kid's got perfect timing, and yes, some liquids were coughed up in response.

Abby's First Independent Drive

Her first drive as driver-in-command, with no parent or other controlling authority present, she chose to take her sister to Starbucks for some sister time sitting down with a couple hot chockys and enjoying her first trip.

While only a mile and a half from the house, both parental units were a bit nervous, especially as that area is right by a busy intersection and there's a lot of idiot drivers in that area.

She made it there and back with no problems (we knew that would be the case, but you worry anyways) and she enjoyed her independence in doing so.

A couple hours later she took her sister to her Volleyball team practice at school. Again a close trip but again without any parental guidance, and on the way back completely alone in the car.

As expected, she did it with aplomb and no issues.

The kid is sure growing up fast, heck they both are.

A Day That Will Live In Driving Test Infamy

Abby had her driving test today.

Wish I had some happy news to reportas she is a quite capable driver, but she didn't make it out of the parking lot.

As reported to me by her and Tash who was there, the testing arrangement stank to high heaven and was not a reflection of reality at all.

First, the examiner had lost her voice and was hard to hear.

So examiner is outside the car, has Abby first start the car and then drive forward, stop where she indicates and then has to back into a spot with small cones bordering it, followed immediately by pulling out and parallel parking at a very weird angle.

Not something you would ever do in real life, and Tash notes the angles were strange, you would not try to back into the spot indicated from that starting position in real life, the cone spots don't match up to the angles for the actual striped parking spots, and the cones very low and hard to see. You also wouldn't immediately try and parallel park from that angle either.

Oh, and you have to do both maneuvers with a total, of 6 wheel movements.

Not reflective of actual driving at all, kinda designed for failure.

I daresay even Murphy's Law or Keads would've had a bit of trouble pulling that off within those parameters, especially when not driving the samll driving test car for the test.

So the examiner fails her on that, but cheerfully notes that she should come back and take a lesson with them for the parking section so she can see how its done at those angles and then take the test right after and oh, she may want to rent their car for the test which is smaller and has a backup camera.

See where this is going?

In other words, administering the driving test is $60, failing her and then "suggesting" a lesson and then another test would net them another $120 so its kinda in their interest to fail them out with this BS setup and collect $180 plus more with the test car rental rather than pass her and only make $60.

Yep, this stinks on ice. She's not happy as she didn't get to demonstrate how well she actually drives nor how she can actually park but instead got hosed inn a made up cone land in a parking lot at an off angle.

We'll have to see if other testing centers are similarly setup or if we have to play the game and pay up in order for her to pass, though I daresay simply requesting a bribe form us of $180 to pass the parking portion of the test would have been both more economically efficient and far more above board than this baloney.