Trefethen

We visited wine country on Saturday. As usual, I love to see Shannon, and I got a bunch of small toys to play with, so it was pretty fun. Even cooler is that I learned that my photo of "skull guy" was featured on the Trefethen website as part of the shots taken of their Halloween decorations. Apparently, several people asked about which member took the shot and they were surprised to discover that the "member" was a 6 year old boy (at the time of the shot).

My first publication---cool!

Best Game Ever

Last night was the best baseball game ever. It didn't start out that way. There was a lot of traffic, and it was very cold in the ballpark. Once the game started, it got even worse. The A's pitcher, Dama Eveland, was rocked for 3 runs in the 1st. But the A's came back and took the lead off of Dice-K in the bottom of the innning. The scored stayed that way until late in the game. Then, the Sox managed 2 runs to tie it all up.

Now even though it was a school night, and even though I had to get up early tomorrow, and even though I had a playdate after school, and even though I had baseball practice, and even though I had scouts after that...Daddy let me stay up for the game. (Clearly someone with the right priorities). I stayed up really late...and got on TV!



And, happily, the A's won in 12 innings. What an amazing game.

Check out the photo highlights here

A's v Sox April 14, 2009

Let's go Oak-land!

Happy Easter

I got up early this Easter Sunday to hunt for eggs in the yard. I was so excited that I neglected to put on shoes or change out of my jammies. I found 24 out of 33 eggs left around. There was lots of good stuff in the eggs including chocolate, magnets, and toy cars.

After this, we went to church, and I had to wear a collared shirt. Yuck. I hate collars, and I hate buttons. But I put up with it and ended up wearing my Easter outfit all day.

After we returned, I hunted down the remainder of the eggs and participated in a photo shoot. Mommy has the family photos, but here are some Aidan ones.

Happy Easter.

New Shoes

My feet are getting bigger. I got some cool new shoes over the weekend. Some silver sneakers to replace my "bouncy ball" sneakers and a new set of spikes. My spikes are customizable--you can change the color and logos of them with inserts. Right now, they're red since I'm on the Red Sox. I like my new stuff.

First Game of the Year

Yesterday was our first game of the year. Daddy was pretty nervous because I hadn't been hitting well. We went out early in the morning for extra batting practice. Well, it really paid off. My stance was much nicer, and I crushed the ball twice.



I also made some excellent fielding plays at second base. We rotate positions, so I played third, left-center field, and second over the course of the game. My best plays came at second.



My coach thought the improvement was remarkable. One of the coaches said I was 500% better than the preceding week.

Interested in your own copies of these lovely pictures? You can make prints using the Snapfish album I've uploaded here.

Opening Day

It's opening day in Little League although our first game is tomorrow. There was a big parade where all the Little Leaguers marched around the big field. Interestingly, San Ramon Valley is one of the most successful Little Leagues in the country. It has more LL World Series appearances than any other Little League.

There were more than 400 Little Leaguers in attendance.

Aidan Morgan - Handicapper

I might have found my one true calling--sports betting. As you know, I did very well at pigskin pick 'em this past season. This is my first year filling out an NCAA bracket an guess what, I'm in first place! Thanks to Villanova's win over the Dukies, I vaulted over Mommy and Auntie Max to claim the lead. If Pitt wins the whole thing, I believe I'll be the champ.

The Carrier

As you know, I've been battling strep throat these past 6 weeks. We finally found the problem. Turns out that Daddy is the carrier. He's apparently had a low grade version of strep for a while only it got worse this weekend. He went to see the doctor today and, despite not having any tonsils, he still managed to get this illness. He's now on Cephalexin and will not be contagious by tomorrow. In the meantime, we're trying hard to avoid passing the disease back to me.

Masterpiece

It was kid generated art week this week at school. This is a project that I've been working on since the beginning of the year. I made flowers. They're made from fired clay, and they're really colorful. I sculpted them, made some patterns in the flowers themselves (one contains my initials another has a nice pattern of eraser circles in its center), and painted them. My teacher helped with mounting them on the green sticks and setting them in the vase. They're a lovely centerpiece.

Happy Trails

To Daddy's Miata. The Junior Giants guys came to pick it up yesterday. While he was sad to see it go, I think his new car is a lot cooler. You can talk to it...and it talks back. We went for a ride this weekend, and I asked it all sorts of things. It also has an actual rear seat, which is a big plus. Daddy likes it because it's quick as can be and corners well. I like the color. Now we have a whole fleet of red cars.

OOTM: After Action Report

Our team got a medal for Odyssey of the Mind. Also, a number of judges commented about my energy and how I made them laugh. We had a cool after-party yesterday with iced cookies. Yum. I think I ate every cookie. I can't wait to do it again.

Happy Trails: Bobby Crosby

In their attempt to make sure that none of my A's t-shirts contain current players, the A's have signed Orlando Cabrera to replace Bobby Crosby. See press release below:

Free-agent shortstop Orlando Cabrera has agreed to a one-year, $4 million contract with the Oakland Athletics, who also are closing in on a deal with veteran infielder Nomar Garciaparra, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney on Monday.

Cabrera, 34, will replace Bobby Crosby as Oakland's starting shortstop. Cabrera hit .281 with eight home runs and 57 RBIs and stole 19 bases for the White Sox last year.

The Athletics have had substantial talks with Garciaparra in the past 48 hours, and the player's choices are between the A's and retirement, the sources said. Oakland also is negotiating with veteran reliever Dennys Reyes.

If Oakland were to sign Garciaparra, Crosby could be moved to a utility position. Cabrera is a two-time Gold Glove winner at shortstop, having won the award in both leagues (2001 with the Expos and 2007 with the Angels).

In 1,572 games, Cabrera is a career .274 hitter with 105 home runs and 684 RBIs.

The Detonators

It was a rainy weekend, so we enjoyed a couple of episodes of "The Detonators." It's a show about demolishing structures. We decided to put the information learned on the show to good use in checking how large a wedge one needs to make in a cylindrical tower (like a toilet paper tube) to bring down the building. According to the formula, the size of the wedge, W, needed to bring down a structure like this is

W = D^2 / 2 H where D is the diameter of the structure and H is the height. We quickly measured our tube to learn that its diameter is 2" and its height was 8". Using the formula, it revealed that we need a 1/4" wedge or larger. To test the theory, we first cut a too small wedge in the tube and simulated the explosion by placing a block under the tube in the area where the wedge was cut out. Removing the block simulated the explosion. The theory seemed to work, the tube didn't fall. Next, we cut a larger wedge, one that was just a bit bigger than W. Redoing the experiment, we got the expected result--the tube fell.

Then we did another experiment. We chopped down the height of the tube. According to the formula, the old "successful" wedge will no longer work for the shorter tube. A test confirmed this. We then expanded the wedge and obtained a positive result.

Finally, we tried some building implosions. The one that we were able to simulate caused the building to fall in a particular direction by means of timed explosions starting in the direction you want the building to fall. To simulate this, we built a base of small blocks connected by tape. We then placed a sheet of wax paper over the base to enable us to pull out the blocks in a timed fashion. Finally, we built the building on top of the wax paper from colorful blocks. We also set up some nearby buildings that were not supposed to be harmed if the explosion went according to plan. This test was also successful. We triggered the desired chain reaction.

The one that we weren't able to simulate was an implosion of a building into its own footprint. They do this with timed explosions in the center of the building and moving outward. Despite many attempts to get the timing right with blocks, we couldn't do it. Still, it was very cool to put the principles of the detonators to the test on our small scale experiments.

Blockbuster!

My recent film, The Railroad Crossing of Doom, has turned out to be a Youtube blockbuster. It's had more than 100 views in the past week. Since I love the disaster genre, I'm starting on a follow-up, DHL Deathflight!, The picture above is a sneak preview.

Odyssey of the Mind

Today was our performance of "Candy Factory" in Odyssey of the Mind. MY role was "salesman", and I was the star of the show. The idea is to think of healthy sorts of candies and show how eating well and enjoyment go hand in hand (well sorta--I still like Kit Kats and donuts even though they're not all that healthy). Anyway, it was very exciting getting ready for the show. We did pretty well though a lot of my colleagues seemed to forget what they were supposed to do. I reminded them from time to time. The judges really enjoyed the show and laughed a lot at our zany antics. I really enjoyed it, and hope to do it again next year.

Little League

Today was the first day of Little League. It was just a practice, but I was excited nonetheless. This year (and perhaps for several years) I'm on the Red Sox. While I'd most prefer to be on the A's, the Red Sox are a good second choice. I hit the ball hard today and did well at fielding too. Baseball is great.

Stuffy X Games

As you know, I love to make up stories with my stuffed animals. This weekend was Stuffy X Games. The stuffies took turns doing crazy stunts--jumps, half pipe, and so on. The viewers were supposed to text in their votes for the best stunt. It was sort of like a TV show, so I would tell the viewers to text "A/1" if they liked the first contestant the best. It ended in a four way tie!

The picture above is of a stuffy named "roar". He's named that because I wasn't sure if he were a bear or a lioness when I first got him. I figured that since both creatures roar, that was a safe name for him.

Mario Kart Expert

While I've tried lots of things in my life, Mario Kart is the first thing that I'm so passionate about that I've become an expert. I get up early every morning to practice. Usually, this time is spent experimenting. I run through various courses slowly and then quickly to learn all of their tricks and shortcuts. In the evenings, I mostly play for real, trying to win. There's an online mode and I usually finish near the top of every race I enter. I've even surpassed Daddy (who seems quite good at video games) in skill. I'm an EXPERT Mario Kart player. Sure, it's not the most useful skill in the world, but it sure is fun.

Ring and Sing

I performed today in bell choir and children's choir. It was our most deluxe bell performance ever. We did kumbaya. Everyone had to play separate parts and keep time. It went really well. We got a big round of applause at the end. As usual, our press agent (Daddy) was on hand to record the proceedings. Check out the highlights here

New Toy

Check out this video of my newest toy, a magic eraser. It lets you write all sorts of interesting things on whiteboards.