Mach 5

This Saturday, Handsome has his Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. You know, the race with the little cars they carve from blocks of wood, sand, paint, slap some wheels on the sides, and run on a track in little tiny 6-man dead heats. Wednesday (that's two days from now, for those of you paying attention) we have the official weigh-in. There's a 5 ounce maximum to race.  I have a problem.

What the heck does five ounces of carved pine look like? I don't have a postal scale handy, despite my job.

Besides, we are a little behind on this project. We still need to seal the wood (which will affect the weight), paint it (which will affect the weight) and mount the wheels (which will, yup, you guessed it, affect the weight!)!

All this after I finish shaping the car body, which I am not quite done with.

Now, Handsome is pretty relaxed about this.

"We need to work on your car," I say, and he's right there with me, looking at it.

"Yup," he says. "I know." And he goes to watch television.

It actually is quite my fault that we're this far behind, since I do keep forgetting about it.  I did start working on it with him recently, and his den leader gave us quite a jump on the project by cutting the block into the basic shape with a band saw and power sander.

The only thing is, here are some pretty basic Pinewood Derby cars:

And here are some more fancy ones, most likely made by experienced racers and wood-workers:

And here's the car Handsome decided he wants for his, make that our, first Pinewood Derby car:

The Mach 5? What am I, @#$%ing  Geppetto? Seriously? Does any parent out there wonder why I'm freaking out here?

I haven't got time to talk, I have to get sanding!

Talk to you later!