Go Cougars!!!

Uncle Alan scored 10 tickets to the BYU game at UW. We had to make the trip!
Playing with the cousins the night before the big roadtrip.
Signs by Jimmy.
Pregame planning - and fantasy football research.
As we got onto the 520 floating bridge, there was a TON of traffic. It took us about an hour to go the last five miles. Eric kept the mood light. After we'd been sitting in gridlock for about five minutes he said, "I guess Dino Rossi is right! We do need better roads. There is a lot of traffic over here." (Dino Rossi is the Republican candidate running for governor against the incumbent Democrat, Christine Gregoire. Rossi has been running ads on tv asking why Gregoire has spent so much money on roads, but they still aren't any better.) All the adults in the car got a good laugh.




A controversial ending, but we think they got it right!

Spokane Trip

A couple of weeks ago, we took a minivacation. We went to Alan and Laura's house in Spokane. On the way, we stopped at the waterpark in Moses Lake. The trip was a blast.

Genetic Disorder

I don't know if this is the proper forum to announce to the world that I have a genetic disorder,but I do. It is called autosomal dominant compelling helioophthalmic outburst syndrome. Fortunately, this illness is not generally life threatening (though I guess it could be if it struck at an inopportune time). Unfortunately, there is no evidence that it gets any better or less noticeable as a person ages.

Many of you have probably noticed how this syndrome affects me but probably without even being aware that it was a manifestation of my genetic disorder. If you've ever been around me when I have transitioned from indoors to outdoors, you may have noticed that I often sneeze upon entering the sunlight. ACHOO!!!

I never thought much of this. I just thought it was some kind of allergy or that I was just a weirdo in general. Then a few days ago, as I was pulling out of the parking lot from work, I saw one of my co-workers do the same thing. I asked her about it at work a few days later, and she said that this always happens to her too. A quick google search revealed that we both suffer from ACHOO syndrome.

It is basically a "disorder characterized by nearly uncontrollable paroxysms of sneezing provoked in a reflex fashion by the sudden exposure of a dark-adapted subject to intensely bright light, usually sunlight. The number of successive sneezes was usually 2 or 3."

You can learn more about my disability at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=100820 The quote in the paragraph above was taken from this website.

Baby Girl

We just had the ultrasound today. The technician said she "thought" it was a girl. She did not sound too confident though. The baby was moving around alot, so the techician couldn't get a good shot. Towards the end, the technician sounded a bit more confident, but maybe we'll end up with a surprise. We took the kids, and they really enjoyed watching on the tv screen.

Justice

The head professional scouter made things right. He had Jimmy come down to the Council office on Tuesday. He told Jimmy that they messed up and that he knew Jimmy had done his best and that he had won. He also said that they were going to do their best to fix their mistake. He asked Jimmy to come back on Thursday. When he came back, he was presented with the First Place trophy seen below.

District Pinewood Derby

Jimmy went to Districts today. If you want to know how it turned out, here is a copy of the letter I'm sending to the Council:

12 April 2008

Grand Columbia Council
12 N 10th Ave.
Yakima, WA 98909

Dear Boy Scouts of America:

I just returned from the Skookum District Pinewood Derby race. Jimmy Church is my son. His car (actually an Army truck) was number 12. He was in the Wolf category. He won every single race he was in. In fact, none of the races was even close. He won by several lengths each time. The computerized finish sign at the end of the tract confirmed that he won every race. Everyone who was there can confirm that his camouflage truck was undefeated.

Understandably, he was very excited that he must have won at least fourth place (there were only eight Wolf cars). However, as they announced the top four Wolf winners, he was not one of them. He was devastated. I spoke with the race officiators afterwards. They tried to give me every excuse in the book. I explained to them that it is possible that it was just coincidence that he happened to race against all the slowest cars, but they did agree that wasn’t very probable.

I don’t see any way this is what happened considering his margins of victory. Due to the structure of the race, he raced six out of the seven other Wolf cars. He beat every single one of them hands down, some of them multiple times. He never had the opportunity to race the remaining Wolf car. While one could possible conceive of a way he could have beaten that many cars and still not had the overall fastest time, it is nearly impossible that he would not have finished in at least the top four.

Then I asked the race officiators to confirm what place he finished in during each of his races. To my utter amazement, they did not have him placing first in each of his races. This is absolutely incorrect. He did in fact win every race. Anyone who was there can confirm it. The race officiators basically said that it must have been a computer error. This is unacceptable. There has to be human oversight and accountability.

Cub Scouts are taught to be honest. The race results should be honest too, especially if a computer and lasers are involved. Having all the fancy gizmos lends credibility to the race, which makes the incorrect results even more difficult for an eight year old to accept.

This has been a horrible experience. My son is very upset. He left the event in tears. Please don’t misunderstand. He is not a poor sport. He has lost on other occasions, and it has never been a problem because he knew that he lost fair and square. The problem is winning every race, knowing he went undefeated, expecting recognition, and then having the rug pulled out from under him because of a supposed computer error. He acknowledges that he may not have won first place, but due to this glitch, we’ll never know how well he really did.

In the future, you should do something to ensure that this does not happen again. Perhaps you could project the standings onto a big screen so that everyone can verify the computer’s results. Perhaps the track should be configured and tested before the race starts to verify that the computer is recording the results properly. (At this race, the MC had to stall for nearly 20 minutes before the computer would start working, and it was never tested after booting up). Perhaps different software needs to be used. Perhaps there is another method to fix this incompetence. In any event, this problem needs to be remedied.

Cub Scouts is supposed to be fun. The event was great and quite a bit of fun until the very end. However, I came away from this race with the realization that this was as far from fun as I can ever remember at any Scouting event, and I’ve been to a lot of them. Please don’t think that I am being a poor sport either. I am simply sticking up for my son. At this point, he obviously isn’t going to get the recognition he deserves from the District or the other cubs, but at least he will know that his dad tried to do something so that hopefully another cub in future years doesn’t have to suffer the same agony he is experiencing now.

Very truly yours,
David M. Church

Pinewood Derby

Jimmy's 1st Pinewood Derby was last Friday.

Here we are doing the final assembly


And the winner is . . . Jimmy!
Not only did Jimmy waste this kid, he actually won all his races. That's right, he was the undefeated champion. Pretty good for a first timer who designed and painted his own camouflaged Army truck!

Here he is with his winning truck and first place medal. Isn't he supposed to get a trophy?