Quilt class tonite so need to put together an early supper.   Daughter and 3 girls arriving Friday sometime from the soggy north coast.  Then the fun begins!!

JetmamaDiDi wrote:

View, unobstructed wrote:

At the spelling bee...just wanted to say hello.

Vmmmom, wish you would check in. Everything ok?

Hugs to all. So busy today.

How'd your granddaughter do, View? 

She didn't advance into the oral round, nor did I expect her too.  All the children in her school's 5th grade had to try out. They didn't volunteer to, and they didn't have much prep.  But she won her school's bee which made her a participant in the county Bee.

I will say that one little 5th grade girl - and quite petite besides - made it into the oral round and held her own through about 1/2 of the elimination.  I am sure we will hear of her in future years.

The winner was an eighth grade girl - and the only one who received a perfect score in the written preliminary round.  The runner up was an 8th grade boy.

It was great for my granddaughter to take part and learn so much about the process though. And she did see two girls she knew...one from her church, and one who used to go to her school before moving to a different part of town.

There is a little bit of luck involved I noticed though....in that they call the kids up alphabetically, but seat them as randomly as possible.  Then the words to spell are read in order as the come from the Scripps National Spelling Bee.  You may get a word you've at least heard of....the person next to you may get something way "out there"

The best gal won IMO.  And she and the boy go to the state Bee.

I watched a documentary on the Bee a couple of years ago.  It was soooo interesting, but the STRAIN, STRESS, ANXIETY, TEARS....I don't know that I would want all that for my child.  I do think they win a lot of $$$.

from WikipediarizesThe winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee receives a $40,000 cash prize and an engraved loving cup trophy from Scripps, a $2,500 savings bond, a reference library from Merriam-Webster, $2,600 in reference works and a lifetime membership to Britannica Online Premium from Encyclopædia Britannica, $5,000 cash prize, and an online course and a Nook eReader from K12 Inc.All spellers receive Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged on CD-ROM from Merriam-Webster, the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, which is a $100 U.S. Savings Bond, a cash prize from Scripps, and as of 2015, a Microsoft Surface 3 with keyboard and stylus. These cash prizes are determined based on the round in which the speller is eliminated. They range from $100 for a speller eliminated before the Quarterfinals to $12,500 for the second-place finisher. In 2014, the $100 cash prize for all spellers eliminated before the Semi-finals was replaced with educational tools from Microsoft. All other prizes remained unchanged.

 
 

View from the Crow's Nest wrote:

JetmamaDiDi wrote:

CEK40 wrote:

Quill pen

So we go even farther back in time now Gabriele...however I never used a quill pen except in art class...LOL

 
PORCUPINE QUILL

One of my favorites...

PORCUPINE MEATBALLS
 

Had to google that, view.  Just to make sure you don't actually consume the animal, like guinea pigs or dogs are eaten in other parts of the world.  Pleased to find out that not everything that comes on four legs ends up in the kitchen at your end of the world. 
 

Last edited by gabriele (2/22/2017 7:58 pm)

nycmonthly.com
8 Things You Probably Never Knew About Maks | NYC Monthly

Although often referred to as the “bad boy of the ballroom,” Maksim Chmerkovskiy is surprisingly pleasant and talkative over the phone–a fact that this reporter attributes to the clear joy involved in becoming a first-time dad to newborn Shai, his son with fiancée and fellow pro-dancer Peta Murgatroyd.


Hopping on a phone call just a few days before announcing his and Murgatroyd’s official return on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, Chmerkovskiy opens up about his former dislike for dancing, the importance of partners and his biggest responsibility yet.


1. He Takes Being a First-Time Dad Very Seriously…

“It’s just very hard because, when it comes to yourself, sometimes you can let your guard down and say ‘I’m going to have a cheat meal today!,’” he explains. “With [a son], you can’t do that. It’s 100% all the time or you’re a shitty parent.”


2. …But Knows How Important Moms Are

Chmerkovskiy is quick to praise Murgatroyd’s mommy abilities: “She’s handling everything very well and I’m just kind of being the clown a little bit, trying to keep her happy,” he says. “For the most part I think we’re a good team with this whole thing. Literally, in the beginning the father is like a plus one.”


3. He Never Particularly Enjoyed Dancing

Born in the U.S.S.R., the 37-year-old was first introduced to dancing at a very young age when his parents sent him to a boarding school for the arts. “I got chosen for the ballroom [dancing] class and my parents said sure,” he recalls. “I really didn’t like it. True story, it wasn’t my thing.”


4. Feel Free to Call Him a Science Nerd

While discussing his initial reluctance to dance (“It wasn’t my thing,” he repeats over and over), Chmerkovskiy reveals his perennial interest in all sorts of sciences. “I was more of a scholar,” he explains. “I went to school for gifted and talented in academics and I was a chemistry and biology major.”


5. A Disastrous Childhood Accident Almost Prevented Him From Ever Dancing Again

While discussing his life as a 12-year-old, Chmerkovskiy brings up an accident that occurred right after he started working with a new dancing partner: “I had a massive accident, I blew up my leg. I was sledding down the hill, flew into a metal pole and I tried not to hit it with my head so I pushed off of my leg and my leg just got wrapped around the pole and I shattered my femur bone.”


6. He Has That 12-Year-Old Partner to Thank for His Eventual Career

Following a long hospital stay that was completely financed by the well-off parents of the girl he began dancing with, Chmerkovskiy returned to his day-to-day life with a new perspective. “When you come back from something like that [accident], it was already way passed what I wanted to do [or] what I didn’t want to do,” he says. “It was like now you’re doing it, this is it, you’re in it.”


7. He Initially Refused to be on Dancing With The Stars

After moving to the United States with his family, Chmerkovskiy opened a bunch of dancing schools all around New York. “I hung up the phone and said please don’t ever call me again,” he recalls doing after first receiving a call from the producers of Dancing with the Stars. Eventually representing the US in the British Open Championship and dropping out of Pace University because of the challenges involved in competing professionally while attending classes, Chmerkovskiy received another call by the show’s producers—and, this time, accepted their invitation.


“I joined the show because I was between partnerships, I decided to give myself a second to breathe and maybe step away from competitive ballroom dancing,” he says. “We always struggled financially and so the show became [the] sort of opportunity that you were waiting for.” He is quick to point out that “it wasn’t about the money, it was more about let me attempt this and see what I can do with this opportunity and the rest is literally history.”


8. He Shares True Friendships With Some of His Former DWTS Partners

When asked about his partners on the show that catapulted him to international fame, the dancer is surprisingly candid: “Not all were awesome,” he says. “Let’s be real.” Who did he really enjoy working with? “I love Amber, she’s amazing, I had a great time,” he says about his last partner, Amber Rose. “I won with Meryl Davis, so I have to mention her,” he utters while remembering his only win on the show. When talking about Erin Andrews, his partner on season 10, Chmerkovskiy is clearly passionate: “[That] season […] was very hard for both of us,” he remembers. “She was going through a lot and it was very public and I tried my best to help, I wasn’t [able] to help with a lot of things but I did my best and we’ve been very close.”

View from the Crow's Nest wrote:

JetmamaDiDi wrote:

CEK40 wrote:

Quill pen

So we go even farther back in time now Gabriele...however I never used a quill pen except in art class...LOL

 
PORCUPINE QUILL

One of my favorites...

PORCUPINE MEATBALLS
 

 
(painted) TRIGGER FISH (humuhumunukunukuapua'a!)

Last edited by JetmamaDiDi (2/23/2017 12:43 am)