Even More Improbable Physics

The Rowdy Teen And His Well-Behaved Basketball



via Atom Eyes at Metachat

The Main Event

A little late, but what the heck....

So our youngest graduated from high school this month. It was crazy trying to get to the end of the semester and get everything done in time for our out of town visitors- my mom (Nana) and Mrs. Doohickie's parents (Grandma and Grandpa).

When the big day came, my son was ready to go. Here he is with Nana in the background as we were leaving.



Considering the class of '09 was 500 strong, they were pretty efficient with keeping things moving along.



Once everyone was seated, they sang the national anthem.



The anthem was sung by the senior choir members including our son. He's the tall guy in the back row.



After the speeches they started the production line to recognize the graduates. They didn't actually get their diplomas at graduation; this whole thing was just for show.



Mrs. Doohickie was impressed with the metal our son got...



...until she read it. I think it said, "The wisest man in all of Oz" ;- )



Time for the family portraits: Me, the graduate, Mrs. Doohickie and my older son



The graduate with Grandpa and Grandma



And a picture with Nana



One chapter closes and another begins. This past week, he went to freshman orientation at Texas Wesleyan University where he'll be going in the fall.

This News Just In:

Abe Vigoda is alive



(I thought you might want to know.)

Space Invaders!

Somehow, this is not what I pictured when I played the game.



Maybe I should have.

Fourth Months of Art School Boiled Down to Two Minutes

The Making of Deadline is pretty cool too.

via richat at Metachat

More Demonstrations of Improbable Physics

The Well-Behaved Gymnast:

The First of the Lasts

It's been a hectic month that has seen many "lasts" of my parenting career.

My youngest son graduated from high school in June. Leading up to that were several events that we would be doing for the last time. I didn't get pictures of all of them, but here are pics from the first of the lasts.

The event was his last choir banquet. He joined choir as a sophomore so we really didn't get as involved as we did with band, but the choir banquet was always a nice event. The last two years it was held at a country club; this year it was held in a fairly recently renovated hall near downtown call the Marquis on Magnolia. Here is a closeup of him that night; I have to preface the pic by pointing out that these are CCPPs (crappy cell phone pictures).



The hall itself was interesting in that it had two seating areas on either side of a grand spiral staircase that came up in the middle of the room. This pic was taken from our table, looking across the staircase to the other end of the hall.



While we were there, a strong storm raged outside. A tree got blown over onto someone's car in the parking lot.



We had a pretty good dinner- Italian. The program included giving out several awards. One thing they do that is kind of unique is they have "senior wills" where the graduating seniors pass a piece of themselves, a bit of advice or whatever, on to the underclassmen. Our son passed on the perseverance & fortitude needed to do both band and choir, since he was in both. (They often conflict with each other and each is a sizable time commitment.)



That was the first of several lasts. There was the last choir concert, the last band concert, and the last band banquet. The band banquet was bittersweet for me because we'd been pretty involved with band, for eight years with both of our sons, we and knew several of the other band parents well, but that tie has been cut.

The Mantra

My son's piano teacher stated this a few minutes ago:

I can do music; the rest of my life I'm unqualified for!