Cute Kid Pix August 2026

More photos that didn't make their own post...

Our son played in his first chess tournament. He was nervous but excited. He wound up with three wins and one loss, so that was encouraging. Since it was his first tournament, he was in the "unranked" group for his age. He is interested in going to another one.

Contemplating his first move

At home, we introduced our godson and his brother to Gizmos, a fun tableau-building game where players are making a Rube Goldberg device to win a science fair. 

Contemplating my next move

We went out to lunch with some visiting friends but forgot to take a picture with them at the restaurant. We exchanged photos via cell phone.

Our half of the photo exchange

Our daughter went to visit her grandparents in Minnesota. They had her working on a deck out in the woods. With enough work, it will be a tree house, though that will require a few more trips.

Working in the projects

Our dance studio, That's Dancing, had a 1980s dance, so we dressed up a bit.

Not too dressed up

Our son had a birthday outing at Urban Air, an indoor trampoline and adventure park. One of their favorite things was the battle pit, with a narrow beam on which competitors fight it out. 

Ready to challenge the champ

Blocking

The climbing area was also very popular.

So many choices

He makes it to the top

A close up so you can see him

Going down is easier

High ropes action

Spider-time

Jump and duck activity

Back home, we had some more celebrating. One of his presents was a Super Mario Chess Set, which was fun to play with. Fortunately the pieces are labeled with which chess piece they are, so you don't accidentally play Peach as a queen. For some reason, Mario is the king and Luigi is the queen, not Peach. Peach is a bishop, which is also weird. At least Yoshi is the knight!

Contemplating his next move

I was running errands and ran in to the BWI Airport to get a virtual geocache. I've been meaning to get it done every time we go to the airport, but we are always in a rush to get through security or to get home. The blue crab is a Maryland mascot and the sculpture has been there for a long time.

Glass sculpture and me

Cute Kid Pix June 2026

More photos that didn't make their own post...

My youngest had a field trip to Days End Farm Horse Rescue. It was a fun and informative visit. The school year was winding down, so the trip was not tied to any academic unit. One of the teachers volunteers there.

Brushing the horse

The other side

The first Sunday in June this year was the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, known in Latin as Corpus Christi. Our church had a procession through town (which I missed) earlier in the week but there was still some decoration outside the church.

Corpus Christi graffiti

We saw an ad for a community chess day and decided to check it out. Our youngest is a fan and has gone to several chess summer camps. He had fun playing with adults and kids, though the kids were tougher opponents. 

Getting a board ready

For Father's Day, we went to Sapwood Cellars, where I tried their speciality beer Liquid Incantation, aged in whiskey barrels with dried and whole plums. It was a bit too sour for me. I also tried Golden Door, a wheat ale, that was much more satisfactory. The brewery has a taco-themed kitchen providing appetizers and meals. Their menu includes bison, so I had to try that. It was okay, nothing special, which surprised me.

Liquid Incantation and soft pretzel

Golden Door almost closed

TV Review: The Queen's Gambit (2020)

The Queen's Gambit (2020) created by Scott Frank and Allan Scott based on the novel by Walter Tevis

Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a female American chess champ in the 1960s. She has a rough beginning. Her mom wrecks their car, killing herself and forcing Beth into an orphanage as an eight-year old. She's a bit rebellious and starts hanging out with the orphanage's janitor Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp). He teachers her chess in the off moments where they can get together in his basement work area. He's fairly good and puts up with her feistiness. It's the 1950s and, in an effort to keep the girls submissive, the orphans are given tranquilizers along with their daily vitamin. Beth becomes addicted to the pills due to the influence of a fellow orphan. 

Beth gets out when she is adopted by a local couple. The dad is a traveling salesman who is hardly home; mom stays at home and his her own addiction problems. Beth plays chess more and discovers that there's money to be had in winning tournaments. Her career takes off, leading to a jetsetting life going national and international competitions. But can she beat the Russians and her addiction?

The show starts off a little slow and Beth is both sympathetic and unlikeable. Her addiction fuels her ability and it seems like her best playing is when she is high. She relies on pills to win tough matches. She does not make friends with others in spite of many people reaching out to her. I almost gave up after the second episode but heard some good feedback and gave it another episode. She becomes more likable as the story develops. Her addiction is not portrayed positively (except for causing her victories). Her friends are more supportive than she deserves, something Beth eventually appreciates. Taylor-Joy gives a solid performance, depicting Beth's naivety, brilliance, and social ineptness. Beth's ability to see possible further moves is shown in different, visually interesting ways. The cast is uniformly good.

The production values are very good. The period fashions and locations are fun. The male chauvinism of the chess community is shown but not turned into some over-the-top feminist screed. Even the Russians are depicted with more depth than I expected. The soundtrack uses a lot of pop music from the era, giving the show an authentic, vintage feel.

Recommended, though there is a bit of rough going throughout the series.

Right now, the show is streaming on Netflix.

HCLS STEAM Carnival 2019

The Howard County Library System hosted its HiTech STEAM Carnival at their East Columbia Branch this year (2019 for all you far future readers). STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. The library sponsors lots of HiTech classes for students during the summer. Many of their projects were on display at the carnival, showing how science and math applies to everyday activities, especially fun summer festivities.

East Columbia Branch of the library

The carnival was more impressive than it looks here

Our first activity was riding on a miniature train that drove around the carnival. It was fun and relaxing and required very little effort on our part, mostly waving to the attendees as we passed by.

Train

A fun ride

A large catapult let kids hurl dodge balls faster and higher than ever before! It demonstrated force, inertia, and trajectory. It also made for nice videos...



A basketball-like challenge had my kids tossing different balls (beach balls, basket balls, etc.) into a high and wide net. The difference of weight made it trickier than we thought it would be.

She shoots, she scores!

A nearby arcade featured old-fashioned games like Pac-Man with controllers created by students.

This invisible Pac-Man is really hard!

The other arcade attraction was the classic carnival racing game. Players had to roll a ball into a hole to move their horse forward. The ball rolled back to a return and had to be sunk again to keep the horse going. Eight or ten successful sinks into holes meant victory.

Horse racing!

Another classic carnival game is hitting ducks. Normally players throw a baseball or something of the sort. This game had a twist--players flew drones to knock down a duck. Using a keyboard to control the drone was a challenging but my kids soon got the hang of it.

Flying a drone

Hoping to crash!

A racetrack was set up for remote control cars built by students. Players tried for fastest times or raced each other (which I guess is a variant of "fastest time" racing).

Ten80 Car Race

The biological sciences were also represented...by worms! One display had kids digging in dirt to find different kinds of worms. Worms are great because they are a key component of the bio-degrading process.

I gotta find what?

Starting to search

Found one

A jar of black swallowtail caterpillars

What child can resist this sign?

One not very scientific activity (but very fun) was an inflatable golf course. My kids played through six holes.

Starting off

Waiting for her turn

Another exercise of practical physics was corn hole.

Concentrating on his selection 

Getting down to business

The carnival also had food on offer. The kids got slushies from the Kona Ice truck while my wife and I split a muffin from a bakery.

Relaxing in the shade

The students also made a fun skee-ball game with golf balls. This game was another one that took some practice before it became easier to get the ball in the hole.

Go ball, go!

Catching air

Catching more air

My youngest did the periodic table challenge. Kids drew a card with one of the elements listed on it and then tried to throw a bean bag onto that element on a giant periodic table.

Getting tickets for success

Next door was a pinball game created by library students.

Fighting on the side of the Avengers

Across the way, a rollercoaster let children see how kinetic energy is used to send the cars flying around the track at breakneck speeds.

The roller coaster

My youngest wrapped up his day by playing a giant chess game. He teamed up with another random boy to play against an older and more experienced player. Sadly, they did not win.

Giant chess

My other two children wrapped up their day by turning in their tickets to make slime out of glue and borax (and some food coloring).

Paste to slime in little time

The carnival was a lot of fun and we'd go back again. Hopefully there will be another one next summer!