On December 8th, 2001, teams of maniacal young engineers descended upon the
family mansion. Their mission: to create as much chaos and mess as possible -- and
to create magnificent Junkyard Wars Ping Pong Propelling Machines.
Armed with popsicle sticks, glue guns, cardboard, duct tape, and miscellaneous
junk of all kinds, they turned a perfectly acceptable garage into a disaster area in
under two hours.
The ensuing battle for Ping Pong Domination was without mercy, as teams
bent the rules in every possible way. In particular, the two adult teams were
particularly devious, setting a bad example that will scar the children for a long
time. Robert's brother Timothy devised a paper airplane to which he attached
a ping pong ball, and at one point was drubbing the other adult team, who had
constructed a trebuchet!
They then one-upped him by filling their ping-pong ball full of water, and
edged out a victory.
Prizes were not only give out to the best performers, but also to the most
elegant machines and to the machines that failed in the most interesting and devastating
ways.
Robert expects to be finished cleaning up the debris -- and not sleeping
on the couch anymore -- sometime in early spring.
