The Annual "Insley" Family and Friends Picnic is in the usual place (on the lake, not at the park with the zoo from 5 years ago) on August 23, 2008.  2pm-???
Hope you can make it.
Let me know if you need directions.

At M & P's school, we've been running a Math and Science club on Tuesday mornings, before school starts.
The last 6 weeks have been spent building model rockets.

The launch was yesterday morning and (IMNOHO) was very successful.
14 of the kids built their models, along with mine and the other parent's.
The launcher was built one Saturday afternoon, with our kids helping to saw and solder.
B built the control box and it all looked very cool.

The weather was a concern: on Monday evening, the forecast was for thunderstorms and heavy rain.
Luckily, we were launching between 10am - 10:30 and the rain didn't start until 10:45.
All of the models launched and flew straight.
M's went significantly higher than the others: either she has some special rocket building powers, or the engine was mis-labeled.
3 were lost in the trees on the way down

The whole school walked over for the launch.
Hearing the kids counting down, and the shrieks and shouts when the rockets went up, was really great.
I suspect more attendance for next years club!

HT to Tulio for tons of help, as well as pointers to really great resources.

I'll try to post pictures later.

On the way home yesterday, we were just behind a car as it spun out on the expressway, went up the embankment, rolled and hit a tree.  It was all more horrific than I can describe
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rollover_webfeb11,0,6034122.story

Scattered Pictures in my mind

* C vaulting over the fence after checking on a boy in the street. It's  -2F/-19C and he doesn't have his coat. 
I see it wrapped around a body near the car.

* Silence except for a girl's hysterical sobbing. It stops, briefly, and starts again.
She can't believe / accept that she was the driver.

* Ambulance, police cars, fire trucks. Stretchers and bags, all the tools of the emergency response.
They move quickly, efficiently: focused on people first. Assessing injuries.  Asking witnesses to stay, bystanders to move along.

* A young girl, slim, dark hair and eyes.  Her eyes are so huge, like a manga drawing.
Her mind can't accept the reality around her -- so it doesn't.
She doesn't know where she is, or who is with her, or who was in the car.

* The ambulances are gone. The police squad car leaves, lights and sirens running. The emergency road crew starts to tow the car.
Suddenly, bright happy dance music cuts through the sound of the sirens and saws, coming from inside the mangled husk of the SUV.

It was a very nice weekend with lots of fun activities.

There’s a race called the TriState that runs over Labor Day weekend.

It starts Friday night, going from Chicago to St. Joseph, MI.  Most boats arrive sometime Sat morning.

Then there’re lots of parties on Saturday.

The next leg is on Sunday, from St Joe to Michigan City, IN.  More parties on Sunday night.

The final leg is on Monday, from Michigan City back to Chicago.

C and our son D did the first two legs.  On Monday, I drove out and swapped places with C, so I got to sail the last leg.  The winds were strong at the start but petered out after the first 3 hours.  And then dropped more and more over the afternoon.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish the race in the time limit.

However, a wonderful time was had by all.  Due in part to the lack of wind, we ended up with lots of birds stopping by and eating the flies and bugs.  D swatted some of the flies and put them on his glove.  The bird hopped up and ate out of his hand.  It was pretty cool.  We also had a bat stop by and find a dark quiet place in the boom housing.  It slept there for many hours and finally got booted off when we needed to flake and pack the sail.

A. (who got sunburned on my legs even with 30spf and multiple applications)