Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Go Kart Update

HELLLOOOOO, viewers!!! I am super excited about my go-kart because the whole thing is starting to come together. What I mean by that is I bought my engine (also first Craigslist deal), and I primed my frame and it is ready for me to paint. I bought a nearly new 3.5 horsepower engine that was bought for the same purpose as mine but was never used other than to see if it worked. My dad and I had to drive to Lawerceville on Saturday to get it. My dad thought it was going to be in a shady part of town, but  it was in a wealthy neighborhood and the man was just as nice.
The I primed the frame on Friday with the assistance of my dad. He gave me some tips to reduce painting errors, and I am proud to say there are no paint runs (An area where there is so much paint it starts to trickle down). I did about ninety percent of the painting, but I will paint it myself only with the green paint I received. Once I paint the frame and let it dry I will be ready to start building the systems onto the frame.

My Predator 99cc 3.5 HP engine 

The primed frame next to my engine 

Monday, March 18, 2013

SEM

I have some crazy news! Starting this September I will be attending Wyoming Seminary in the Wyoming Valley in northern Pennsylvania. I am so excited and can't wait to go. The reason I am going to SEM is mostly because of wrestling, but I also wanted hard academics and SEM defiantly has them by being a college preparatory school. I already received text messages from some of the wrestling team, and it sounds like they are just as excited as me. The only struggle now is to get up to 106 pounds from 92, but I know I can do it in six months. I will have to work hard this summer to gain the weight, but I am ready for the challenge. Also they said that by my sophomore year (I think) they would have a brand new wrestling facility.
I have wanted to go to a boarding school since I thought of where I have wanted to attend high school. Before I visited the school I thought that I wanted to go to Blair Academy in Blairstown New Jersey. It had a bigger campus and it was number one ranked in high school. Also one of my friends is attending Blair, so it would seem that Blair would be the better choice, But when my dad and I arrived at SEM I changed my mind instantly. It is kinda of in the middle of an old town, and it has a homey feeling to it. I knew right away that it was the school for me.
My dad and I sat through a seminar about the school, and it was very interesting. The people doing the seminar told us about campus life, school work, classes, and athletics. After the seminar all of the students attending the visit got paired up with a senior from the school for a shadowing day. I went with my student tour guide to two of his classes, so I could get a feel of how the classes worked. We went to Civil War history and drama. In history we had the "strictest" teacher in the school, but even after hearing that I enjoyed my time in his class. After that it was off to drama, and I wasn't sure I would that class. As soon as we started the class I loved it, and it was mostly because of the hilarious teacher. We were reading a script from a book that was definitely not suited for younger children. The teacher was constantly over explaining the love related scenes in a funny way that made the class almost die laughing. I had a ball on my tour, and I really liked the smaller school. I believe that those are the main reasons I chose SEM not because it was better on paper, but that it was better for me.

Thank you for viewing my blog.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Polish Polish Polish

Guess what? I finally got all of my Polish recipes. First off, what am I doing? Our school is doing a national food week for each of our countries, and I am doing Poland. Why did I pick such an odd country? The reason is Julie, my wonderful step-mother, is Polish and Italian. One of our other students, green house girl, was already going to do Italy, so I did Poland. It sounds like Julie will be doing all the work, but that is the exact opposite of what is going to happen. I have recipes and tips from Julie, now it is up to me to cook our school of 7, including the teachers, lunch.  


For an appetizer, we have Kielbasa sausage. What I am going to do is simply make the sausage, cut it into small pieces, and use ketchup, barbecue sauce, and/or make honey mustard as a sauce. 

For the main course, I will be making stuffed cabbage rolls or Galumpkis if you use the Polish name. I got this amazing picture from Designs by Pinky while looking for a yummy picture. This is similar to a stuffed pepper, but this has more of a crunch. The last time Julie made this my family ate every bit of it. 


Lastly, I will be making jam kolaches. It is basically a sugar cookie with jam, or preservatives wrapped up in the middle and baked. I want to use blackberry jelly to get a unique flavor of sour and sweet. It is optional to put powdered sugar onto your cookie. Julie and I made a batch with blueberry preservers topped with powder sugar, and they tasted amazing!


I can't wait till next week! 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Soda!

I have not been blogging lately,but that is about to change. Today, I was attempting to make the flavoring for the soda. It looks and smells awful. I never thought that oils could smell so bad. Here are some pics with captions of what they are, and why I posted them. Also, check out our new student: everyone go follow http://atticusconn.blogspot.com/.

Thats me with my oils and the flavoring in the bowl
The flavoring is not completly mixed in.
La Petite, Mrs. Kolbeck, and I went for a walk at the Kennesaw National Battlefield.
Me at the state tourney, and I won!!