And let there be a wall!

Gotta break some eggs to make an omelet

And the "inspector general" has to check out what all the noise was about

Roughing in

A bit of a 'bump' getting home

A three hour delay on the tarmac made it impossible to make our 52 minute layover connection to Pellston. We ended up leaving the airport and Adam took us to his house for the evening. Turns out he had to come north anyway for work, so we tagged along, had a good time "hanging", and were still home sooner than the flight Delta offered to get us home on (the next day at 7:48pm!)

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks

Gotta join Harry at Hogwarts

Turned out to be "only" 60 minute wait, half the published "120+" outside the castle!

Welcome to Hogsmead!

Butterbeer anyone?

Waiting for our marching northmen

They were one if three high school bands to lead the Electric Light Parade at Disney's Magic Kingdom.

Orlando palm trees

Maybe it was worth it to get up so early!

"Welcome to Alpena?!?"

WTH?! THIS is why I had to wake up at 4:20, to sit in Alpena for 45 min?
Ugh

Uuuggghhh!

Why does our flight have to have us checked in before 5am!?!?

Torn out

In the beginning...

Traverse City FIRST Robotics!

Here is a video of one of our Qualifying matches in Traverse City:


We were bumped out in the Semi-finals, but we think we are headed to the State competition!

Home after snow storm

Missed all the fun, but get to help dig everything out...



When I got home last night:


After things got pushed out:


The next day, Sunday:


Picnic anyone??!!?

Crazy weekend in Gull Lake

This was the first of two district competitions for Petoskey team 3618 in the First Robotics Competition. From check-in at 5pm Thursday through the final competition Saturday afternoon, it was non-stop action. 36 teams from across Michigan met in Gull Lake and played 12 matches each to qualify for the Elimination matches.

The top 8 teams (Petoskey was #7 after 72 Qualification matches!) then had to select 2 other teams to round our their Alliance, who would then work with them to get through a double-elimination bracket to finals. Petoskey ended up being team captain #5.

We ended up being beat out on our first two trials of the Quarter-final Elimination rounds by rookie team Boyne City #4, but it was an exciting time and the kids learned so much.

We took home the Engineering Excellence Award sponsored by Delphi!

Next weekend is Traverse City where 40 teams meet in a similar event.

Guess what still starts?

Even after sitting 7 weeks!

Morning commute

County truck helping another out of the soft shoulder.

Party time!

"2012 Rebound Rumble"

Went to Traverse City today to learn what the FRC 2012 project will be for this year's 6-week robotics challenge for High Schools across the nation. In the end, the summary of this years game can be found in this 3:24 YouTube video.

FRC is an acronym of an acronym:
FRC = [FIRST Robotics Competition]
FIRST = [For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology]

The local high school that I am a mentor at (Petoskey High School Paladins #3816) has until February 21 to design, build, wire and program a robot that does as many of the elements of the game as possible.

Go Team!