Hi all,
Looks like I missed my every other week email last weekend, but I had an
excuse. Nick and I spent last weekend up in the cities at the state high
school chess tournament. He won his first 3 games on Saturday, but didn’t
fair so well on Sunday. They had some good players up there! His school
did well as a team, placing 5th. The chess tournament was across the street
from the Mall of America, so during one of Nick’s games, I took on the
challenge of walking the mall. All 3 floors, every inch, all in 2 hours.
I even found 3 stores worth stopping in!
Nick is down to deciding between 3 colleges. Morris MN, Oberlin Ohio (south
of Cleveland) and Knox IL (Gathers berg). It is his spring break this
week, so today he and Laurie took off on a road trip to visit Oberlin on
Tuesday and Knox on Thursday. He has been accepted at both, with similar
scholarship’s offered at each of $15k per year, which covers about 50% of
Knox and 40% of Oberlin’s fees. Probably take another trip up to Morris
then decide sometime before the end of the month.
Zack has entered a new stage of independence. Despite our objections, he
found a way to buy a motorcycle. A ‘crotch rocket’, 2002 Suzuki something
or other (I try not to look at it too closely), for $6500. He tried to get
a loan from several places, but his credit was not good enough. Thought we
were safe, but then he found a crazy friend who was willing to give him an
interest free loan. His paycheck gets pretty well absorbed by his loan and
insurance payments (insurance is $200+ per month!), and he also no longer is
getting gas or lunch money from me, but he is pretty happy with it. He also
bought quality helmets and jackets (aka lid and skin) … been a week and no
accident so far.
Laurie gave her big keynote speech last night, for the Loft grant that she
got for the past year. She said it went well.
I got myself a flu Thurs/Friday/Saturday. Apparently not the one covered
by this year’s flu shot. Bonded with our toilet in a way I have not done
since when Sue and Brad vistied and all 4 of us got sick. Such fond
memories 😉
Bruce
!DSPAM:4070dc59267622023915294!