Subject: Weekend Update: July 17-21
Date:    Mon 7/24/00 11:05am

I spent the last week at kids' camp.  Overall, I had a good cabin of
attentive kids with my buddy, Eric Magnuson, as co-counselor.  Eric's
school-teacher experience came in very handy on several occasions and
we tag-teamed with the kids.  I was very glad to have him along.

Joy went with me to camp for the first time, this year.  She had her
buddy, Linda Magnuson, in the co-counselor spot as well.  It was
particularly nice to have my wife along to wink at as we passed by
each other going from one activity to the next. (I also passed her
a few love notes which her girl thought was so cool, but got some
other husbands in a little trouble.) 

We wondered though why the Metcalfe and Magnuson cabins got all
the kids who needed medications of one sort or another.  Joy and
Linda spent half their time walking back and forth to the nurse's
cabin!

Emily was a counselor in training (CIT) and Andrew attended as a camper.
They both had good weeks although Emily got off on the wrong foot with
her counselor through a bunch of unrelated mistakes of no one's doing.

I brought my supersoakers to the waterfront for counselors and
life-guards
to use on the campers.  All were appreciative (except perhaps Stella
Rand)
of those water cannons.

Kurt Flemming was the designated speaker at camp.  He used some
prestidigitation (slight of hand) to make some of his points.  Two
illustrations stick out that didn't go over as he planned.  In the
first,
he had baked a pan of fresh brownies and invited three volunteers to
come
up on stage to enjoy them.  He told them that he had baked-in a small
amount of used kitty litter but assured them that the rest of the
ingredients were of high quality.  (Many of you recognise this object
lesson from Internet Spam; the idea that even a little refuse can ruin
an entire thing - such as a movie, book, or whatever.)  Unfortunately
for Kurt, the kids thought he was joking, despite assurances from his
wife in the audience that he had indeed added the extra ingredient.  He
had to physically restrain one girl from biting into the brownie! 
Later,
one of my own cabin kids reasoned that he would have eaten the brownie
knowing that the kitty litter was in there because the oven temperature
would have rendered it safe.  Well, that one backfired but Kurt was able
to prevent any consumption of the tainted product, thank goodness.

In another illustration, Kurt had a few kids come up to race by emptying
out tubes of toothpaste.  The winner got $1.  He offered them $20 to
anyone
who could subsequently put the toothpaste back into the tubes.  (This
illustration demonstrates that once something is said, it cannot be
unsaid;
like "you cannot unring a bell.")  Danny Reid (one of my kids) had an
ingenious idea of putting the toothpaste in his mouth and blowing it 
back into the tube.  It wasn't quite effective, but it was very
creative.
Dan left the tent to clean up the power-blue paste he had all over his
hands and face.  As he went, he high-fived Abraham Rand who proceeded to
see what toothpaste felt like on his cheeks and forehead.  Why?  I don't
know,
and neither did he!

At the flagpole each night, the directors hand out an "Awesome Attitude"
banner
and an "Honor Cabin" sign to each a boys and girls cabin.  Honor cabin
is
based on the neatness and cleanliness of the cabin.  My kids were not
too 
concerned about getting the Honor Cabin award.  Vince Crouse said that
our cabin
was unquestionably the worst he'd seen, which I have difficulty
believing
since Brian Bollinger was in the cabin just down the hill from us.
Nevertheless,
one of our kids got it in his head that he thought we ought to try,
and to my amazement the other kids agreed.  So, I did my part and
cleaned
up my bunk area.  The difference was so striking that we were a shoe-in
for
the award that evening.  I entertained the kids with my best "Rocketman"
impression when they announced Cabin 10 as the winners that day.

By Saturday, despite a good week, the song of the morning was 
"Day-o, Day-ay-ay-o.  Daylight come and me wanna go home!"
Poor Emily had to wash her clothes when we got home (Joy did it) 
because she was returning to camp as a camper the next day!  
She was one tuckered CIT.

That's about all I can say.  Most of the remarkable events of the
past couple of weeks are not suitable for an open journal such as
this.  Hmmm... I guess that makes them un-remarkable, in a way.
It was tough to come to work this morning.  I think I need a 
vacation!  ;-)

Mark
-- 
+---_-----------+ Mark Metcalfe, metcalfe@cadence.com
| c a d e n c e | Cadence Design Systems, Inc.    Phone: (978) 446-6451
+---------------+ PCB Systems Division, Technical Communications Manager