Tuesday was Primary day and I took the kids with me to vote in between baseball practices.
I am an independent and Maryland has closed primaries (I wish they would change that) so my ballot included nothing but Board of Education options.
Kiernan had some good questions about the parties and what they were for. I told him that their basic difference sprang from their ideal size of government. That Republicans generally thought that government was too large. That they wanted fewer taxes and fewer government programs. I told him that republicans usually didn't want to pay for things for other people. I told him that Democrats generally wanted bigger government and were perfectly willing to have more taxes in exchange for more government programs.
He asked for examples of each. I told him that examples came in a couple of categories. That Republicans and democrats had big differences in what they thought the government should be involved in. I told him that many Republicans that that the government should not collect taxes to pay for things like art programs because they were unessential. I told him that Democrats thought arts were essential for culture and so the government should collect taxes to pay for those programs.
He asked for another example so I dove into the healthcare debate.
I told him that he could use his grandmas as good examples. Nana is a hardcore Democrat and things that the government should collect taxes so that everyone in the whole country could have healthcare, meaning go to the Dr. when they are sick and also meaning everyone got the same insurance and the same kind of treatment. Kiernan agreed that this was the best policy.
Grandma Scearce is a hardcore Republican and feels that she should not be forced to pay for other people to go visit the Dr. that she feels that everyone should pay for themselves. Kiernan agreed that this was the best policy.
He was quiet for a while and then said "What is daddy?" I said that daddy was a Democrat. Kiernan said that he would like to be like daddy.
I told him that this is what most people do when choosing a party.
He is still interested in this topic so if you see him feel free to offer him your version. The more he hears from people who differ the better.
At work I got a huge pile of technical stuff to read. I am now solid enough on the day to day lab bench work that I am moving into data analysis and more technical discussions. I am feeling quite dense but am proud of my self and more and more sure that this move was a good one. I took the spring semester off to give my brain fully to learning this new stuff and I think I will also skip the summer semesters. Its frustrating because I feel like I'm not getting anywhere but probably for the best.
This week had Bring your child to work day.
Kiernan is old enough and I arranged it with his school for him to take the day off and to do his work at home over the weekend.
I was selected to be a group leader for eh 6-7 year olds and wasn't sure what to make of that. It turned out to be fairly irrelevant but Kiernan was quite pleased with me, so that was good.
We got to the Germantown facility at 8 in the morning and registered and got badges and safety equipment and shuttled off to breakfast.
After breakfast we had a safety talk and a tour.
The building has changed a good bit since I worked down there so it was fun for me to have a look at the new robots. The kids were excited and a little overwhelmed and startlingly underwhelmed by various sights. They were the most excited by going into a cold room and least excited by clean-rooms.
After the tour they got 3 labs to try.
These were a mixed bag. The first one was over in about 30 seconds and involved balloon sound amplification. Mostly the kids just wanted to play with balloons. That is what they did for the next half hour.
The next lab was on non-Newtonian fluids. In this lab they made corn starch mixtures and great big messes.
The third lab was about scientific Superheros and about Qiagen products. The leader of that lab really held their attention and was wise enough to provide the kids with several cool hands on opportunities like coloring and air pressurized friction reducing balloon and CD races.
Then it was off to lunch with good veggie options and delicious cake-pops.
The kids ate and watched Inside Out.
After that the day was over. I could have taken him home at this point but skipping the whole morning from work (though excused) was swamping everyone else and I felt bad about it.
So we went back up to my actual lab and Kiernan ran various scientific experiments on dry ice with water, ethanol, and soap.
He took good notes on everything and even did a little summery of what he had seen throughout the day. While I was waiting for a thermocycler (a machine that heats things or cools them on a timer) to finish I took him for a walk.
On the walk he asked me to talk to him like a scientist. He wondered if everyone could tell that he had been a scientist helper today?
He measured many things and wore his safety goggles everywhere.
It was pretty great.
We have been working on getting him off of his medication (for stomach acid) and on the day of this adventure he had none and seemed fine.
Unfortunately on the weekend he started to get sick.
He threw up and we couldn't tell if he was sick or the acid had come back so we put him back on on it and hoped for the best.
On and off he seemed fine. We ran out to celebrate independent book shop day. I was so pleased to get my hands on this limited edition Neil Gaiman coloring book and a surprise book for the kids as well.
While waiting for the book shop (Curious Iguana) to open and just after the purchase we took advantage of downtown Fredericks food scene and hit up a Vegetarian/Vegan doughnut shop (Glory Doughnut) and got some amazing huevos rancheros.
As it was rainy all weekend and Kiernan was sick we spent the rest of the time inside cleaning and cooking and occasionally entertaining Aunt Lore.
Megan and I cooked and chatted and even had a sleep over.
She refused however to even taste my first try at Cuban style empanadas.
She did eat black beans and rice and yucca and restored my faith in her appetite.
And that was the week.
Hopefully next week will have less bucket and less laundry.
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