The Basketball Blog

I went to a UVA basketball game with my dad and some of his friends on Sunday evening. It was my first full basketball game and it was my first UVA basketball game and it was my first visit to the new arena (John Paul Jones).

When I got there I was pretty much just bouncing off people because it was so crowded. But in some spots you could still move.

My mom packed me $20 to spend for food. I spent it on hamburgers, fries, a drink, and cotton candy, which came later. During the game there were games that people did during breaks. One was when there was a guy and they had challenged him to hit a golf ball into a hole for $50 and Pepsi combo. And he got it! There was one game where there was a contest. It was a free throw contest. One person had on an orange jersey and the other had on a blue jersey. Whoever rooted for the color who got the most free throws would get something, but I forgot what it was.

And here is a picture of the cheerleaders on the court:



And here is a picture of the Cavalier:



And this is a picture when they finished introducing all the players for the Cavaliers:



Here are the Cavaliers warming up:



And here is the scoreboard before the game started (it cost $8 millions!):



And here is me and my dad. I'm on the left and dad's on the right.



I was wearing a UVA-colored striped shirt and a glow necklace which came from the stadium.

I had a REALLY good time!

Pinewood Derby Car

For Cub Scouts, you have to make a pinewood derby car. And since I am in Cub Scouts, I made one. Here's how I did it:

My dad and I bought a block kit at Hobbytown U.S.A.

I made a picture of the car before we carved it. I made a side-view picture of the car I wanted to make that was the same size as the block. And then I colored the picture.

We started carving the car with a saw. After you cut out the design, you sand it. And after you sand it, you start to paint it.

First you put a coat down of white, then you let that dry and if your car is two colors, paint it all one color.

Here is the car painted white:



And here is the car painted both colors:



It used to be just yellow, but we don't have a picture of that. But then I just painted the front green.

Here is the car in its work station. That's where it got painted and sanded.



On my car, I took two colors and blended them together so it looks like yellow changed into green.

Next, we took care of the wheels. But we did so much stuff to the axles, I could write a whole big, fat book about it. So I won't tell you that much about it. But, I'll tell you a little bit. We sanded the axles, polished the wheels, put the wheels and axles together, and put them on the car.

After we put on the wheels, we found out that the car was a little too heavy. So while I was asleep, my dad cut a ridge out of it so it would be lighter.

Anyway, after that we put on the decals.



I put on the number ("57") and the sponsor decals. I picked enough for some to go on one side and the other.

I took a pen and drew a motor on the bottom and some scales on the front. I forgot to say that when we were painting, I painted an eye on both sides on the front of the car. It is glow-in-the-dark with bloodshot eyes.

After we took care of all the decals, we put over the car a coat of varnish. And here is the finished car:



Here is the dragon decal that I put on the back overhang. I picked out a dragon because my car is kind of like a dragon: because my car has fangs and scales, it has eyes, and is partly green.



Here is a picture of the motor that I drew. I used my mom's special pen, but it didn't work that well on the paint so I just used a Sharpie. I had already drawn a diagram of what I'd do on the motor, but I just modified it so it would look better.


And here's an angle shot, so you can see the fangs and the scales. The varnish unexpectedly crackled so it looks even more like scales.



I am going to weigh my car at the Pack weigh-in this evening to see if it is light enough to race. I'll get to see everybody else's cars! The race is this Saturday. I hope I win!