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I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. I’m not really worried about having a day where I don’t do something for scouting, but I have been a bit concerned that I would have time to write a blog post every day. Eventually I figured I would run out of hours in the day and have to double up the next day. Well that day was yesterday, hence the doubled up post today. I’m collecting days of Scouting.

Yesterday (Day 19) was dominated by hosting a birthday party for the six year old Daisy Scout in our house. It is slightly scouting related, since she had half of her Troop here among the guests at the party. The thing I noticed (while watching a group of girls work quietly together on a craft) is there is a big difference between boy and girls at this age. Last year’s Tiger Den Leader experience taught me one thing: if you don’t plan every second, the boys will plan it for you. Usually that means a game of chase or a game of tag. Something loud and very disruptive. These girls were happily working together with no danger of a game of chase spontaneously erupting.

Other than the party, the scouting things I did yesterday included:

• Dropping off a Bear Handbook to an Assistant Den Leader that volunteered to take over the den for the Bear year.
• Scouting out a park with a fire pit to see how well it would work for our outdoor pack meeting/campfire in April. Turns out it has these cool totem poles as a back drop!

For today (Day 20) I:

• Confirmed the start date and schedule for the God and Me class we are hosting at our church.
• Helped haul Girl Scout Cookies to get them delivered. Get them out of my house. They are ruining my girlish figure!
• Bribed my mother-in-law to sew the patches on a second uniform for me, so I can take it to Wood Badge. Don’t judge me, she’s the one with the super-awesome sewing machine!

So tomorrow is a teacher work day at our kids’ school, so I’m going to enlist their help redesigning the crossover bridge. See you on day 21!

Twice a month on Mondays we get together for a den meeting with seven rowdy 7 and 8 year olds. These boys have done a great job this year getting through the Wolf badge requirements while having a lot of fun along the way.

Tonight’s meeting was all about Achievement 9, Being Safe at Home and on the Street. The guys brought their bikes and we had a great time with a bike rodeo and reviewing safety rules. We completed the Bicycling Belt Loop while they were at it. After practicing the flag ceremony a few times we called it a night, and will meet up tomorrow night to do the opening flag ceremony for the City Council.

I started today with a trip to the family doctor to get my health form signed for the upcoming year. A couple of days ago I asked the virtual round table on Twitter if my Wood Badge course would require more than parts A and B of the BSA Heath form. It turns out that for the two-weekend course it isn’t necessary. Good news since it makes paperwork easier!

Then I remembered something. I am attending a week long course at Philmont Training Center in July. It will require part C and D as well, so I might as well do it now! So I am one step closer to that adventure too.

As the man says, I’ve been everywhere. All over the geography of this city of ours. Today I spent a lot of time in my car for scouting. There were a lot of small things I had to get done in preparation for the Blue and Gold Banquet tomorrow.

Among other things, today I:

• Spent a small fortune at the candy store so my son could decorate a camping themed cake for the cake decorating contest at the banquet.
• Picked up leader appreciation awards from the engraver that weren’t ready when I was there last time.
• Stopped off at the scout service center to buy Good Turn coins to give to the pack leadership as a thank you for the last year.
• Talked pack planning for an hour in the scout shop parking lot with one of our Assistant Cubmasters after I ran into him in the store.
• Folded banquet programs.
• Talked to Jr. Webelos Den Leaders about their preparations for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the Blue and Gold (first for me as Cubmaster). Why do I feel like this is the night before the Super Bowl?

Well here we are, end of the first week of the 100 Days of Scouting, and while that is a great milestone that doesn’t seem to be the focus today. Being February 14th, today is Valentine’s Day!

[Archery Belt Loop. Valentine's Day. Cupid. Oh come on, I thought it was clever!]

Since Valentine’s Day is about the one’s we love, it seems fitting to pause for a moment today and remember why we do what we do. As Scouter Adam has pointed out before, sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the “being Cubmaster” part of Cub Scouts and neglect the “being a parent” part of Cub Scouts.

So today I signed the two of us up for our District’s Cub Scout Winter Adventure at Camp Tahosa. It should be a fun-filled day of sledding, ice fishing, and generally tromping around in the snow. While I let everyone know about the event, we aren’t going as a Pack or as a Den, but as a Cub Scout and his dad. I am really looking forward to spending this whole Saturday hanging out together.

And of course don’t forget your significant other on this Valentine’s Day! They put up with a lot for this Scouting obsession, regardless if they share it or not. Neglect at your peril, or the arrows you see may not be Cupid’s, but from the bow that was stashed in the garage next to the camping equipment!

As is often repeated around Scout Sunday or Scout Sabbath, the twelfth point of the Scout Law is “A Scout is Reverent“. Since the Boy Scouts of America is not tied to a specific religion, much less a specific denomination, the religious emblems recognized by Scouting are created and administered by the different faiths.

Today I arranged to start a God and Me class at our church. We don’t charter a Pack through our church (used to have a Troop years ago, but no longer) so all of the Cub Scouts are in different Packs around the city. Eventually I would like to see the church have a yearly class for each program, but I figured we could start small with the God and Me program for 1st-3rd grade and build it from there. We will send out invites to every 1st through 3rd grade kid in the church, but I confirmed with the parents of the Cub Scouts I know to find a time that worked for most of them.

I took the course literature to our pastor, confirmed the meeting days and times, and double checked everything with the church administrative secretary (because she really knows what’s going on ). I’m really excited to kick this off, and get another aspect to our church youth program off the ground!

I may have found our family activity for next month…



Looks like a blast!

2010 was a pretty good year.

• We took a family road trip to Texas to see a niece and nephew that had moved there from Colorado. Got to see Cadillac Ranch and the Big Texan on the way there and spent a morning at the National Scouting Museum



• I finished my PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and my family (including my Mom, yay!) was able to make it to my graduation.
• Learned how to Geocache and introduced it to family, friends and the Wolf den.



• Took a family road trip around Wyoming, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We even found some geocaches along the way.



• Traded in my Tiger Den Leader role for a Cubmaster role in my son’s Cub Scout Pack.
• Took my son to the Central Wyoming Council’s Centennial Rendezvous with his cousins and Grandpa.



• Volunteered for two days at Adventure Base 100 when it came to Denver, and took the family on the day I didn’t work there.



• Attended University of Scouting for the second year, actually getting to take classes this time, since I spent the whole day in BALOO training in 2009.
• Continued my outdoor training by taking the Webelos Leader Outdoor Training and Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills combined course.
• Had a fantastic Thanksgiving with my side of the family in Wyoming.
• Had an equally great Christmas my my wife’s family at home in Colorado.



• …and now a quiet New Years at home with my wife and kids.

2011 is shaping up to be a good year too.

• I have been invited back to my hometown troop to give the sermon on Scout Sunday.
• I’m signed up for the spring Wood Badge course WE5-61-11-1
• We’re going on a family trip to San Francisco to visit my sister and her family.
• A summer full of scout camps, including Cub Scout Day Camp with our District and Cub Scout Resident Camp in Long’s Peak Council
• I signed up the whole family to go to the Philmont Training Center in July so I can take a Cubmaster Training class

While 2010 was a pretty great year, I am excited for the potential of 2011. Looking at all the plans we have it may be busy, but I am sure it will be worth it in the end. I wish each of you health and happiness for you and your families as we start off in 2011, and when we look back on it a year from now I hope we will all see it as time well spent.

Happy New Year!

This was in the Calvin and Hobbes RSS feed yesterday.

I think it applies equally well to Dads and Scoutmasters.

Since school wrapped up there hasn’t been a lot of activity on this blog. I do apologize, but really it has been due to a shift in how I spend my time. While I was working on my PhD all my “spare” time was spent working on research and writing. I was up to my eyeballs in sciency-researchy things.

It’s a bit different now. I spend my time on Cub Scout stuff. As I just put on the updated “About Me” page, I was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout when I was growing up. I became an Eagle Scout in 1989 (Yay Troop 13!). After losing track of the scouting program in college I got back into it when my son reached the age to join Cub Scouts. Going into it I knew I wanted him to have a great time, and what’s the best way to make that happen? Well we have a fantastic Pack in our neighborhood and we both agreed it was the group for us. I was the Tiger Den Leader for that first year, and it was a lot of fun. We had 6 boys in the den and spent our time learning about the community we live in and getting familiar with the scouting program.

We had so much fun that after that first year I was asked to be the Cubmaster, responsible for the program we brought to all 70 boys that span first through fifth grade. I started with that in September, and I am still having a blast!

I haven’t been posting these things to the blog, thinking I would be diving back into the science before too long. But after looking at my tweets and facebook updates for the last year, there’s really no reason why I should incorporate all of it into the blog. As a scout leader, I use the internet as a great resource when looking for ideas and inspiration. I might as well add my part to it, providing my experiences for others to come across. And the other nerdy stuff will still show up on occasion.

So here’s your fair warning: there will be a lot more posts related to Cub Scouts, the Boy Scouts of America, and specifically our pack.

This year I have been attending the opera, attending the opening night for both Madama Butterfly and The Pearl Fishers for Opera Colorado. And while the opera is entertaining, mostly it just gives me an excuse to wear my kilt.

You’ll notice I’m the only guy in this picture. That’s because my friend Neil faked two weeks of pneumonia in order to get out of it. But don’t ask him, he still claims it was legit.

As an added bonus, and because I have done this in a past life, and because it is also set to opera, I give you a production of VDOT Opera: