We had an early morning again today, arriving at the venue to be first in line again at our door of choice. 
We waited until the doors opened and we headed to ideal scouting location in the stands. Our top secret super surprise knitting project, the prop for our Chairman’s presentation, and largest hat that we’ve made so far, took its place of prominence with us in the stands.
Did you know that K-Bots are everywhere? Not only are they dressed up in purple and hats cheering on our team, but they are also dressed up in volunteer shirts, helping out the entire competition.
K-Bots are also in disguise as University of Waterloo students. Today we were thrilled to have Harry with us once more. He graduated last year, and is now studying civil engineering.
Several of our founding mentors came to cheer us on as well. Thanks so much JNo and Mike for making the trip to see us! We miss you.
As matches were played, our scouts took their places and recorded data on each robot. It takes a lot of focus to be a scout. Everyone worked really hard today to take great notes on everything that happened.
After the first few matches we found ourselves in 4th place in the rankings! We didn’t last there for very long though.
A series of various technical glitches were worked out during the day. We were glad of our time on the practice field when we were able to get it.
Several of our matches were played in rapid succession, so quickly that we could not return to the pit for any repairs.
At that point, we had to change batteries and make adjustments while in queue for the next match.
This morning our Chairman’s team made their presentation to the panel of judges. We believe strongly in our team, and how we’ve knit ourselves into the fabric of our community this year.
After the presentation, we were ALL smiles! 
We ate lunch outside on the grass. The food choices at the regional have been so great. We are eating very healthy and tasty food. It is even better to be able to eat it in the fresh air!
The wildlife spotting of the day was a Canada Goose that was violently pecking at the door to the Physical Activities Center! 
We were ahead of schedule this afternoon, so between matches there was a competition for humans to balance the bridge. Pairs of big and small people were chosen to test their skills.
As with most things on our team….it all starts with a hug. The bridge was quickly balanced after that!
As scouting continued, all of the data got entered into a computer database to be analyzed for our scouting meeting in the evening.
“I entered over 4000 numbers today!” -Sawyer, grade 9
.At the close of the day, we joined many other teams in some lively dances like the YMCA and Cotton Eye Joe. 
Awards were presented, and we took home the Imagery Award in honour of Jack Kamen.
The Imagery Award is in honor of Jack Kamen, Dean’s father for Jack’s inspirational dedication to art and illustration, his gifted creativity and devotion to FIRST. The Imagery Award celebrates attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration from the machine to the team appearance.
We joined the other teams for the biggest pizza party we’ve ever been to! 
Eating dinner together like this is a fun way to wind down after a busy and sometimes hectic day.
When we returned to our hotel, the entire team got to hear the final version of the Chairman’s presentation–good job team, it sounded great even at the end of a very long day!
Our scouting meeting was a very crowded one! We projected our database onto the wall and made our optimal pick list for tomorrow’s alliance selection. We are very thankful to our scouts for the great data that they collected, and to all of our photographers for making sure that each robot was represented well.
Tomorrow will be an exciting day. We’re all going to bed early to prepare!
It was great that so many parents came to see us off at the bus. We know that parents will be cheering us on, and watching the 
Our precious cargo got seats on the bus with us.
We had a pretty great bus ride. There was a lot of music and dancing….and for a brief time, there was a nerf-gun war….We had many games of MASH, and giggles about what everyone’s future life would be like.
One of our K-Bots has forgotten their hat. Hats are an important part of our uniform. When hats are lost or misplaced or forgotten, they are often replaced…but with hot pink accents. This hat is starting off with a beard! It will grow over the course of the tournament.
When we arrived at our hotel, many of us took time to relax. Parents and teachers will be glad to know that some of us got right to work on homework and assignments.
Others took advantage of the time to catch up on sleep.
Our chairman’s team has been working very hard, and takes all opportunities to practice their presentation.
We are looking forward to sharing the story of our team with the judges at Waterloo. To help pass our message along, we created a little book. Time was tight, so the book got shipped to our hotel, and we got our first look at it today!
After the pit crew loaded our robot and equipment into the venue, we gathered at East Side Mario’s for our dinner. Our team is so big we take up 2 huge tables!
We had a delicious dinner, and enjoyed the time together. Our big purple family meal times have really bonded us together this build season.
This evening’s business included a strategic meeting for our pit crew. There are many tasks to complete before noon tomorrow. We need to re-attach all of our components that we removed to work on between competitions, and then start calibrating our robot for this event.
With a list of priorities firmly established, everyone headed to bed. Lights were out by 10:30PM. It’s the start of a busy few days, with early wake up calls for breakfast bagel parties!
We’re adding final touches to our top secret project. We’re sewing with some pretty awesome thread….
….which will conduct electricity to light our LEDs. 
We also took on the very important task of doing the bagel math. Our team does breakfast bagels at 6AM. It’s important to calculate the amount of cream cheese needed for all of those bagels! This competition we will bring 120 bagels.
This year we were lucky to find some bagels on sale!
It is also the time to be sure that our scouting binder is ready to be used. We have our sheets copied, and tabs labeled. Most of our equipment is still packed from GTR East, and our shooter is still being perfected! We are making good use of every minute until we leave tomorrow.
We connected the pneumatics, and are ready for testing and shooter calibration on Sunday.
We also got our new electrical box started…wiring will continue on Sunday.
Also, our top secret very large knitting project is looking more and more complete. There’s one more step to make it even more awesome!
Many thanks to all who worked hard to finish our Chairman’s video, it is looking very good. We’re taking Saturday off, and working on Sunday. Stay tuned to your email/facebook to find out the times.
…and pre-competition scouting is being started. It’s hard to believe that some teams are already headed to their first competitions. We’ll be doing the same thing in a week!
We’re working on mounting our ball launcher on a robot height platform so we can continue to work on our programming this weekend. 
Programmers are hard at work. 
Today we learned how to revive a corrupt cRIO! If you’re dealing with a similar issue, please check out our 
We have been trying hard to get an accurate weight for our robot so we know what leeway we have to add more appendages. We weighed the bagged robot, and then the bag….did you know that the bag weighs 2.5 pounds?! 
We’re working away, enjoying our lovely new work tables. Thanks so much to 
Scouting meetings have happened, and we’ve started working on a database.
Our robot must have done a lot of exercise and eaten a lot of healthy food! Today it lost some weight. We used rivets instead of bolts…. 
We cut holes in everything…
Using the vacuum is important….otherwise the 4 pounds of aluminum shavings would have ended up in the chain.
We nibbled a lot of lexan….
…and a lot of metal…
Challenges were given, and accepted….to get all the nibbling done in half an hour.
We ate MEAT….on a stick! Thanks parents for keeping us fed.
After dinner we cleaned up our workspace. “I used the vacuum! It sucked” -Sam
We packed up our gear to get to the warehouse tonight. We’re making a nest…but we feel it will be empty without you!
We’d like to thank Allan for doing such a great job for us.
This afternoon we were excited to see our new friends, the leaders from the Pathfinder group that we visited yesterday! They came to see our robot and have a look around. We hope to arrange a visit for their pathfinder group in the spring.
We had more visitors this evening when our school hosted Grade 8 information night. Many grade 8 students toured our room and saw our 2009 robot on display in the library. We’re always game to show off our robot to an enthusiastic crowd!
With more welding comes more filing–It will be an exciting day when all of these pieces form a robot!
Our bumpers got their angle today…
Our chains are being tensioned…
Our chairman’s team had a brainstorming session…
Our programmers worked hard on getting the vision system working, and also getting our old robot for try-outs ready to drive in various configurations.
Our super-top-secret project is continuing to grow larger every day…
…and we’re bending a whole lot of Lexan. 
We’ve got some little jobs around here perfect for some little fingers! We’re glad to have little friends come and work with. 
Although our team is feeling the time crunch, we’re still looking out for each other. There’s always time for a hug!
Meet chain-man, a new friend of our team. Chain-man was created when we dismantled our drive train for what must be the 10th time. Each time we reassemble it, we realize that something’s missing. We’re getting a lot of practice which will be very valuable for our pit crew!
Our team has no machine shop access at school, so we’ve had to get lots of work done via our sponsors. We want to thank Transformix Engineering, one of our gold level sponsors, for helping us out with machining and welding today. We do have access to a bending machine at school, and we’ve been working with Lexan to make various robot parts. We need to carefully lay out the pieces, then cut them out.
After we cut the Lexan, we need to file it smooth, and then we put it in the bender.
We’re working also on our electrical system. Thanks to Kraftwerk for bending our electrical box for us this year. We’ll be installing our components and wiring things over the next few days.
We’re grateful to parents and families who continue to support us as we work long hours building robots. Tonight we were fueled by quiche and ice cream sandwiches. Delicious!
Some of our mentors are working very hard on their knitting. 
This season we’re knitting little hats to be give-away buttons for competitions. We’re known for our hats!
We had a wonderful ham supper from Jan and Ann tonight, and some special treats for Chinese New Year! 
After dinner, we got right back to work. Some of us are trying to get the camera code to work properly.
Our Chairman’s video is really starting to take shape. 
…and we had a great session to edit our Chairman’s essay.
Plenty of us are working on the very confusing bumper math. 
We’re trying to make reversible bumpers again this year, but in a slightly different configuration. It’s a pretty good math problem! We did lots of research today, and called different stores to source fabric and white Sharpie markers.
Our prototyping team is looking at various ways to manipulate the bridge. We’re coming up with some good ideas! It helps to work with such a big creative group.
For those of us who are in the know…this picture marks a rather momentous occasion. We’re starting to work on the next part.
Lots of us are tired out from long hours at robotics.
Nap time is much more comfy with bumpers as pillows!
We made LOTS of cookies!
We’re thankful to everyone who is pulling strings to help us out. We are lucky to have a great support system, including our own superhero!
