It's been a long, long week at work with several late nights. Tomorrow I head to Chapter MATHCOUNTS here in San Diego. I'm optimistic that our SDMC kids will come out on top. Last year, we had the top two kids, and the year before I volunteered as a grader and met Michael V., which ultimately led to the formation of the SDMC in the first place. (Funny story - I graded Michael V.'s papers at Chapter. He got a perfect score, so I decided to seek him out and ask him if he wanted someone to help out preparing for state. This was before I started AoPS, so I had tons of time on my hand. I was trying to figure out how not to sound like a nut when I went up to him and his parents and asked if they would like me to work with Michael. I introduced myself to them, and before I could really get into my spiel, Michael started jumping up and down exclaiming 'You wrote the book!' The rest, as they say, is history - Michael made national MATHCOUNTS that year after a bizarre tiebreaker and went to MOP last year.)

Last year I gave a brief talk about the SDMC at the Chapter MATHCOUNTS. I'm not a great salesman, I'm afraid. It only netted one student, as far as I know. But he notched a 144 on the AMC 10 last week, so I'm thinking he has a pretty good chance at Chapter this year.

And while I'm at it, special props go out to all those of our students who have made State MATHCOUNTS around the country already. I haven't been able to hear how everyone did, but I have heard that PiggyPi & uberl33mage won their chapters here in CA, and LynelleYe is headed to state to compete with them. Our Miller group won their chapter again and will defend their state title in March. I'll be there in Davis to see them, and I hope MCrawford gets to speak at Irvine for the Southern CA contest.

That's all I know about CA MATHCOUNTS - what's going on in the rest of the country?