I'm back to building robots again. This one is a Hazardous Chemical Detector (what a mouthful for a toy). The robot is supposed to drive up to a cup, drop in the blue sensor, and determine if the liquid is acidic or alkaline (lemon juice or baking soda water). I need to pick up the pace on these robots, because when I got my Vernier newsletter the other day, I read an article that said the robot projects would be finished in October. I think someone forgot to tell me.
Bruce and I checked off another page in our "60 Hikes within 60 Miles of St Louis" book. We went to the Silver Lake Trail in Illinois last Friday. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day, as you can tell from the picture. This park is just off the freeway, so it was an easy drive. The lake is larger than I expected, but I think it's mainly used by fishermen. There were a lot of them out there trolling around in their little boats.
In the spirit of trying to get more exercise, I decided to take up racquetball again. I had this idea of bouncing the balls off the fence at the end of our driveway. There were originally 3 balls in this canister. On about the 4th hit, the ball went sailing over the fence and into the neighbor's yard. Guess I need to go up to the tennis courts where the fences are higher.
So far this summer, I've gotten 3 tomatoes from my tomato plant. Now that the growing season is almost over, it's going crazy putting on tiny new tomatoes. I'd look up a recipe for fried green tomatoes, but most of them are only 1/2 inch in diameter.
I turned the little pad of paper I bought last week at the outlet mall into two journals. These are called, December Dailies - meaning you are supposed to record what you do every day during December. The premise is that you are really busy getting ready for Christmas an have lots to say or lots of pictures to post. I made myself a December Daily last year, but only filled out one page. I like making journals, but not necessarily using them. I figure these two journals will get added to my storage box along with all the other journals.
I walked Bruce over to his doctor's appointment and then stopped off at Oak Knoll Park to do some sketching. This park was surrounded by evergreen fir trees so it smelled really good (I just realized that I forgot to add the greenery to the tree). I'm getting better at rocks and shading, but I still need to work on lake water. Most of the water in Missouri is so brown that it just comes out looking like mud. I'll have to figure out a way to make it glisten.
