Day 2 of 9

Our first two days of vacation are mostly driving. We left yesterday from Lawrence about 2:00 pm. The original plans were to leave early, but those were foiled when Jacob got a tuberculosis test last Thursday (required for boarding school). Turns out a TB test must be read in person three days later. So there we were on Sunday morning at the immediate care clinic having Jacob's forearm reviewed for signs of infection. Nada of course.

We had rather a blessed day in the car yesterday. The kids were all in a jovial mood, due they think to the lingering fun of theater camp. Doug points out that there was a lot of sleeping. They also played Mafia, a favorite game for which skills were honed during theater camp warm-ups. Jacob and Aidan sat in the very back of the van, and Jacob kept Aidan so entertained that we hardly heard a peep out of him. Aidan, that is. We heard lots of peeps out of Jacob. Even when his headphoneswere on he would be singing at the top of his lungs. Aidan only piped up when he had been injured in a game of tackle. How do you play tackle in the back seat of the car? Ask Aidan and Jacob.

Things are going smashingly today as well. We stayed last night in Richmond, Indiana, which is where Doug and I met 17 years and 2 months ago. We had breakfast at a Bob Evans; Doug got fried mush to show the kids what it's like. He used to have fried mush a lot when he was little at Grandma Patzner's farmhouse. Then we actually drove over to the Hill's Richmond plant, where 17 years ago I was engrossed in my business school internship and one certain information systems team leader. When we stepped out of the car in front of the plant, the scent of corn gluten washed over us. Doug and I inhaled deeply and enjoyed the memories; the kids thought it was nasty and pulled the tops of their t-shirts up over their noses as filters. We took pictures of our four children in front of the plant. Who would have thought 17 years ago that we'd be all married with four such spectacular offspring?

We headed on down I-70 toward West Virginia. We were going to dump Jacob's stuff at his school early so we don't have to haul it around all week. As we were driving, Jacob decided he needed some of Sophia's string to make a friendship anklet, and so ferocious bargaining ensued. Jacob thought foolishly that she could be persuaded if he 1) demanded the string from her loudly. After I talked him through the merits of negotiating with your subject's interests in mind, he mistakenly attempted to 2) persuade her with an offer of payment. Finally, Sophia stepped in with a compromise: if Jacob would read the book on Congress she had checked out, she would give him the string. He took her up on that and then I upped them one, and we had ourselves another deal: if they would read the book and take a quiz, they would receive a cash award, the amount based on their performance on the quiz. Sophia was enticed by the learning challenge, and Jacob was enticed by the competition and the cash reward, and Meredith wasn't enticed by any incentive at all so we told her we'd pay her a buck if she's simply read one page and take the quiz.

Here it is:

Quiz about Congress

1. What is a filibuster?
   
2. When our government was first being formed, what was the dilemma about representation to Congress? How was it solved?
   
3. What is the leader of the House of Representatives called?
   
4. What is a bill? How does one get passed?
   
5. What is the leader of the Senate called?
   
6. The two groups of representatives who make laws are together called ________.
   
7. What is the name of the document that described how our government would be organized and that made the first laws of our nation?
   
8. Are you allowed to carve your name in your desk if you are a Senator?
   
9. True or False: Only the president can declare war.
   
10. What are the small groups that leaders break into to talk about ideas and write bills?
    

Something new was learned by everyone, so we'll call it a success.

We arrived in DC about 9:30 at a rather stinky hotel where we had to wait an hour for the computers to be fixed before we could checked in, but it's cheap and so no complaining. We're off to the National Mall in the morning!