Rambling #1 --  The Tour de France started yesterday in Monaco.  I usually do not give a second thought to this bicycle race.  It is not on my list of interesting things.   This year, though, my curiosity has been piqued.   It all started a few weeks ago with this thread on the4Real Learning forums.   They discussed about doing a unit study of sorts on the TdF  by reading books  from the country or town that they cycle through, learning the geography of that area and making food that are well-know in that area  as well.  I loved this idea.   I couldn't  pull this off for this year but I thought this would be doable for next year.

I decided yesterday to just look at the race  and see what it was all about.  My kids were less than thrilled about having to watch it.   As the cyclists  sped their way through  the streets of Monaco, though,  Rocky's interest began to bloom.   He was interested in Lance Armstrong's  placing.  After the race was over,  he was still talking about it.   Later on that afternoon we went for a walk  down to the gate that leads to the creek.   Rocky and Mia  staged their own Tour de France on the way back.  Rocky was really starting to get into this.

I had plum forgotten about the race this morning but  my faithful race watcher reminded me.  We had missed the beginning but was able to see  the last five minutes of the race.  It was different today.  They all raced together rather than one at a time  like they did yesterday.   Obviously,  I need to do some more TdF  research  to figure this all out.   It didn't really matter before but now that I have a little guy who has interest in this,  I need to pull my weight  in the  knowledge department. 

Rambling #2 -- We continued with our 'fun math'  on Saturday.   We have reached Archimedes in our history reading.   That guy was a very smart cookie.  He came up with  exponential numbers,  buoyancy,  Pi,  the lever and the pulley.   Whew!  That is alot from one human.   My two younger kids really could have cared less about  Archimedes  but I plunged ahead for Mia's  sake.  At least she pretended to care.  We  used a bagel  to figure out  circumference,  diamter and Pi.  We read the Sir Cumference  story  about Pi  (I love those series.)   We then played around  with  our math balance.  This is when  Missy came alive.  She enjoyed  putting  the tags on the numbers and figuring out what numbers balance each other.   We didn't do as much with this  chapter as we have done with others  but  you can only do so much when the interest of your audience is low.   My math mantra  kept ringing in my ears:  There is always next week.   There is always next week.

Rambling #3 -- Yesterday,  the news was filled with  the murder of NFL star  Steve McNair.  This will come as a surprise  to no one who knows me in real life, but  I didn't have a clue  who McNair was, but my  husband,  my obsessed avid  sportsman, knew exactly who he was  so I listened to the TV coverage  right along with him,  feigning  showing  interest.   The two things that did get my attention  was how everyone  was saying what a great family man McNair was and  how he continually gave back to the community.   This seemed to be at odds with the news report.   The man was found in his apartment with his girlfriend.   Girlfriend / family man  is a contradiction  to my way of thinking.   The actions of this man during the last  48 hours of his life  are not those of a 'great family man.'    He may have done amazying things for the community (and Yay for him for doing so)  but maybe he should have  given a little bit more to his family.   Now,  I am writing this  only from what I have read in the news.  I may not have the whole story.  I  sincerely hope that  I do not.    HIs family deserves much more  than this.

So ends my ramblings.

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Posted by emyrose