Big Al

The budding 8th grade scientists at DRMS had to turn in their mousetrap car masterpieces this week.  Apparently they have known about this project for about a month but Chad just mentioned it to me last weekend.  And since the science teachers forgot to alert Hobby Lobby that such a project was coming up,  Every mousetrap car kit in the entire city was sold by Monday morning when I was scouring the area looking for one.  Consequently, Chad had no choice but to make a car from scratch.   Unfortunately, this meant that he and Sam had to raid the La Cueva science department for past cars, copy designs and spend a torturous hour at Lowe's looking for for materials.  (Why is shopping at that store such a nightmare, I ask you?)  After splitting several pieces of wood trying to drill holes for wheel axels, Sam was about to pull out his hair.  He had mistakenly thought we were done with this kind of nonsense after our final Pinewood Derby was joyously over.  Bummer!  Oh well.  After much frustration and about a pound of sawdust,  Big Al the mousetrap car was at last complete.  He went 12 meters but was sadly defeated by Night Train who beat everyone else after traveling 29 meters. Dang!  Chad did get an A+ on the project though so I guess it was all worth it.  I can hardly wait until Aaron gets to make one. :)