Why was I foolish enough to think that we could relax after Molly’s commencement? No school, no water polo games, just some time to catch up on things.
We’re done now, right? (Mike Q. photo)
OK, now we’re surely done, right? (Mike Q. photo)
Well water polo keeps coming back like a bad bean burrito. Turns out that the father of twins on the water polo team just happens to be the photographer for the Michigan House and Senate. So on Tuesday the water polo team got a special tour of the State Capitol building. This included recognition in both the House and the Senate chambers, and a photo op with the governor.
In the State Capitol building. (Mike Q. photo)
In the Capitol.
With Sam Singh our local House Rep. (Mike Q. photo)
With Gollum, our Lt. Governor. This guy drips slime. He looks like he is selling insurance or used cars. Or both. Candy little girl? (Mike Q. photo)
Molly shaking hands with Governor Snyder. (Mike Q. photo)
Selfie with the Gov. For a Republican he has a sense of humor. (Mike Q. photo)
The team with the Gov and a proclamation he signed saying how great they are. (Mike Q. photo)
Anita came out for commencement. So of course we had to do the Putt-Putt championship of the world. At an indoor black light putt-putt course no less. It don’t get much better than this. Well, maybe the place in Florida that had alligators in the water trap. I won’t say what handsome, suave, debonair devil won the Putt-Putt World Championship with not one, but two hole in ones.
Lindsay in the giant shark jaws.
Molly checking out the octopus
Molly doing a shot.
Anita sizing up the situation.
Lindsay being eaten by the dinosaur.
Lise doing her hole-in-one dance.
Then Thursday was the end of the season team party. The girls were given their awards, varsity letters, and team gag awards. Molly got her varsity letter, academic all-league, and academic all-state. Not bad at all. Since she always has a goofy face in water polo pictures she was given the bad picture gag award.
Championship game shot with an award winning look. Yes, the opponent’s hand is legal.
Molly has an interesting corner shot from a really bad angle in what is usually considered a dead corner. The coach said he didn’t want anyone attempting a shot from that corner except Molly. In his words, “Only Molly can hit that corner.” I believe he designed a play around her hitting from what is usually an undefended corner. When the coach was talking about Molly he mentioned her hitting a shot he didn’t think could be hit. He said Molly won the “No. no, no, no, – Oooh good” award.
Getting her awards.
Water polo buds.
Then we started in to the graduation open house circuit for the weekend. Some of these things are major soirées with large tents, piles of food, and DJs. We had a “can’t miss” on Friday night and several on Saturday. Just to add to the frenzy, on Saturday Lise and I ran over to Port Huron for a project grand opening ceremony. Two hours over there, attend the ceremony, two hours back, and then hit the next open house. In this case it was for an Indian friend of Molly’s. So lots of really good Indian food. It was all vegetarian which helped average out the large pieces of pig and cow we ate at the Friday open house. Two hours after the Indian open house it was off to a dessert only open house for a water polo teammate. No scrapple at any of the open houses so far. These people just don’t know how to feed a party.
The grand opening was for a habitat restoration project along the St Clair River. The habitat restoration is integrated in with a riverfront walkway right in Port Huron. Lise helped a bit with the planning and she designed the interpretive signs. The whole project was well received and Lise’s signs got rave reviews. This was the first time she integrated sculptures into the signs. People loved them.
Mudpuppy sign.
Mudpuppy sculpture on the sign.
Turtle sign.
Turtle sculpture on the sign. We heard a little girl ask if the turtle was real.
So today was the first day in some time I could get out to play. Dragonflies have been flying for a couple weeks but I just couldn’t get out. Today was way too windy for many odonata or good photography but at least I got to sit in a wetland for a couple hours. Not as good as Sand River but I was happy.
Mating dot-tailed whitefaces.
Damselfly exuviae. The aquatic phase of a dragonfly or damsel fly crawls out of the water and breaks out of its skin to become a flying adult. The remaining shell is called the exuviae. If you have enough of these you could probably make scrapple.
Slender spreadwing damselfly with exuviae still attached.
Newly emerged (teneral) slender spreadwing damselfly. Without its wings spread.
Immature 12 spotted skimmer. The spots will come in later.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 