basketball/food taboos/my child's on a sports team?

BASKETBALL 

So we joined Alan's ESPN's NCAA bracket challenge group called "Drink Milk and Play Ball." Fun. I have 2 entries and Glen has 1. We would've had the kids do it too, but we joined late and the deadline was looming. I hope they forgive us (Ryan may hold a grudge).

Now, there may be some of you out there that don't know that we are the un-sports-orientated family in both our extended families. No exaggeration here--if it weren't for the fact that for some weird reason I often remember to watch the Kentucky Derby once a year, there would be years where we probably hadn't had a single sporting event on for the whole year. Honest, I'm not kidding. Though I must admit that we've seen more since Andrew started going to BYU.


Anyway, so other than the team from St. Mary's winning and really messing me up there, I think I'm doing OK. I did pick Ohio to beat Georgetown, you know...in one of my entries...and I picked Marquette in one as well. Too bad my 2 good picks weren't both on the same entry. My "Beth 2" entry is at 97.7% and my "Barbara" entry is at 89.4%. Whereas Glen's is at 39.1%. I realize it's still mighty early. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow. The only one with 100% is Madison...and I want to know if she really picked her own teams or not. She's good.

I confess, I have not chosen my alma mater BYU to win in either entry. Glen picked BYU. I picked Kansas in one and Kentucky in the other. But I would love it if BYU won. Go Cougars!

FOOD TABOOS
Eric gave his oral report in Anthropology tonight on Food Taboos. The 3 cultures he chose were the Zulus, the Sherpa, and from Rwanda the Tutsis, Hutus, and Twas. For those of you that read  "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwanda Holocaust" by Imaculée Ilibagiza if you had heard Eric's presentation before reading the book you would have better understood the relationship between the tribes. Because the Twas are the lowest of the 3, there's kind of a rule that the Tutsis don't eat certain things mainly because the Twas do.

Which shows one of the interesting things...part of Eric's report talked about 2 of these cultures' creation beliefs. Totally fascinating. Forgive me if there are errors in the details but the basic gist is: In Rwanda the 3 tribes have the cast system they do (Tutsi are best, then Hutus, then Twas) because 3 men were given milk to keep over night. One man (ancestor? of the Twa) drank his milk right away. The Hutu line was next because although he didn't drink any, he fell asleep at night and spilled a little milk. The Tutsi line had all there milk left in the morning, so they are the highest tribe. And I believe they still don't drink milk.

Funny/gross fact: The Tutsis did not even discuss food and eating until about 1990 because if you eat that means you poop; therefore it was not a topic to be discussed. (which brings up that while I was subbing 6th grade today I had to read out loud part of the book "Double Fudge." Of course it was the part where Fudge is talking about broccoli making his friend's pee smell bad and he knew this first hand. Then is got even grosser than that. I'll spare you, but I think I should get a bonus for reading that out loud.)

I know this is getting long, but I want to share one more thing I learned in Eric's report. The Sherpa believe that we used to be gods. But we became impure by eating something that was "dirty" (maybe an apple?) and thus man became polluted and was no longer a god. And certain things we eat now can make us more dirty and we become closer to animals than to gods.

I could say more, but I'll curb my enthusiasm for Eric's report. Great topic and I think he did a great job choosing cultures to go with it. I just hope the teacher agrees.

SWIMMING TEAM MEMBER
As mentioned above, we are not a sporting family. Andrew played t-ball one year...I believe he was in kindergarten at the time. I don't think any of us enjoyed it. The other kids didn't play. Then we actually had a few years of soccer...4 kids at the same time. It was more enjoyable than t-ball, but a bit crazy. Eric was great. He'd stand in the middle of the field and watch (or not) the ball and the kids go from one end of the field to the other. Fun. Hannah did 5th and 6th grade girls' volleyball (which is a one month season). Oh, Ryan did play basketball one year (7th grade?). Wow, we have more sports experience than I realized.

But as far as school sports...theatre and debate team are the closest we got. You know, a little stage combat. And remember Andrew and Adam acting out a scene from "The Princess Bride?" Athletic moves involved, you know. And some in slow motion, too.

No school sports until now, that is. Ryan, the one child who doesn't participate in theatre by the way, is now on the swim team (mainly because of his cousin Brent being on the team, but Ryan does really enjoy swimming). This was only the first week. After the first day Ryan wasn't happy. He was the slowest person on the team. Seeing how rarely he swims, I'm not surprised. But we are happy and excited for him. He has some grades to bring up, but hopefully it will all work out well for him.

PS Totally unrelated. You have got to check out Karen's blog and see the adventure she and her friends are having. The link is also on my sidebar. The St. Louis Idiotarod? (no they didn't participate) What a riot.