Ice and More

Sunday was a full day. I was so privileged to visit with friends from forty plus  years ago and hear them speak twice, sharing amazing stories of their work in Eastern Europe and beyond.

Mike was busy most of the day with The PhyXTGears as they hosted 15 other teams to attempt to play this year's game--Logomotion.

(Photo courtesy of Team 1720)

Monday I  got the results of the cardiolite stress test and found out that my heart function (81) is the best the doctor has ever seen for a person my age. The radiating chest pains and shortness of breath were definitely NOT heart related. The bruises from blood draws and the culprit rib cage injury are now almost gone.

We heard that son Stephan finally made it to Alaska.
Tuesday was the beginning of the Single Block Competition. We watched Stephan and Luba at work the next three days via web-cam at Site 29.

(Photo courtesy Ice Alaska)

 The newly named robot, Pivots, was shipped according to the strict deadline.

Earlier in the week we experienced a storm. Wednesday our trees were still sparkling with ice.

I stopped by the daughter's place and got to see her new king size bed, huge, fills the room!

There's a story behind it. Just before Christmas, Leah received a phone call telling her that she had won a bed to be delivered the Monday after. She had no idea how this came about. A day or so later I remembered that weeks earlier I had come across a giveaway online by a furniture store in Muncie and put in her information. I don't ever usually pay attention to those ads, but that one caught my eye because I knew that they desperately needed to replace their bed. That was my little Christmas miracle.

For her birthday I found the perfect king-size bedding.

Friday we woke to the most beautiful snow of the season, four to six inches fell through the night. Photos do not do justice to the splendor of our snow-covered woods.

Online we viewed Stephan and Luba's finished piece. You'd best go to the website and visit some of the other ice art creations as well.

Today, Saturday, we found out that theirs placed eighth out of twenty eight in the abstract category.

This was a BIG day for granddaughter Kayla--her audition for the Ball State University dance program. She was understandably nervous.

And now we must wait for the decision. Only 10-15% of those who apply are accepted into the program.

Starting tomorrow we will be following Stephan and his team as they carve 50,000 lbs. of ice in the multi block competition. We spend a lot of time watching online. It is addicting.