Blockheads

BRICK  BY BRICK: It's nearing the end of the month, so the kids and I are working on our monthly birthday bulletin board. This month's theme is LEGO. We decided to build three LEGO structures, which will be populated by an assortment of LEGO 'minifigs' (little LEGO people).

There was a lot more math involved than one might think. We wanted to make sure to get the scale correct. 

ONWARD: This morning we took one last quiz and then the unit test on the topic of linear word problems for our Khan Academy Algebra course. We all passed with flying colors, though one of the pupils had to give it a few gos. ... For whatever inexplicable reason, CJ (unbeknownst to me) took the test three times WITHOUT USING PENCIL AND PAPER. Yeah, well, that doesn't work so well when the test is about graphs and tables, let me tell you. I mean, he passed the test, but he likes to get 100 percent, so he wasn't pleased it wasn't perfect. I compelled him to do it with the proper tools, and writing things down and drawing things and lo and behold, 100 percent. Hopefully he learned from the experience. 

ON YOUR MARKS: We had to run to Bellevue today to pick up our 'race' packets for the Tunnel to Viaduct 8K that is taking place this Saturday. During the event, we'll be among the first to walk from Seattle Center through the new Highway 99 tunnel under the city, and then back to Seattle Center up and over the soon-to-be-demolished Viaduct. 

I'm not worried about walking the 5 miles. I am worried about the throngs of people that will be there. It was cRaZyToWn busy just picking up the race packet, and people have all week to do that. I can only imagine what it's going to be like on race day. 

RI-DICK-ULOUS: On the way back from the running shop, our navigation software sent us across Lake Washington and down Interestate 5 (instead of back down 405, on the east side of the lake). I hadn't really planned on being in Seattle today, but when we were sent there, I mentioned to the kids that it is Dick's Drive-In Restaurant's big birthday celebration today, featuring 19 cent burgers. I asked if they wanted to stop. Of course they did. The Capitol Hill location was our nearest one.

Naturally, it was a madhouse. I dropped the kids and then went to find parking (which, mercifully, was surprisingly easy). What wasn't easy was making one's way to the front of the line. Why? Well, because people kept spontaneously forming lines in front of the place. There were only three windows open. There should have been three lines (or one long one, that splits when you get to the front). Instead, there was just a mosh pit, and from the pit, several lines extending out, with new lines forming alongside those all the time). I told the kids I wasn't 'feeling' waiting that situation out, and so off we went, no 19-cent burger.

One consolation for everyone was that on our way back to the car, we discovered a cool candy and soda shop, Rocket Fizz, where one can find all sorts of crazy candy and soda pop.

CJ was pretty tickled to find "Doomsday Lemonade," which has a label urging people to "Taste the Apocalypse," it was ''bottled in honor of the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-Un. May world peace prevail."