Simple Machines

Clara had to come up with an invention for school that uses at least two simple machines. Her creation, "The Smoother", uses an incline plane, a pulley, wheels and an axle (Thank you, Tinkertoys, for your help). The Smoother, according to Clara, can smooth out just about anything. Did your homework get crumpled? Smooth it. Pancakes too lumpy? Smooth them! Wrinkly socks? The Smoother can help! (Not that sock wrinkles are particularly problematic..)

So, here she is, creating the prototype:

In the next room, Trevor was working on an even simpler machine: my old laptop. Since being dropped on its head several years ago, there's not much this computer can do. One of its few remaining functions, though, is the ability to read aloud the words you have typed into Simple Text.
It couldn't be more perfect for Trevi, since he is so excited that he can read and write words these days (um, ya, there may be a couple of us around here who are even more excited about this whole literacy thing than he is).