Meanwhile, at the Cosmodrome ...

WALK THE DOG: I forgot to report yesterday that the kids took a step toward independence. For the second time ever, CJ suggested he take the dog for a walk around the block. I both love and hate this idea.

I love it because he's showing a desire for some responsibility and independence, which is great, but I hate it because it means he is out of my sight and on the mean streets of Magnolia for an eternal 60 seconds or so.

Yesterday, CJ did a loop to the north and lived to tell about it (phew). In fact, he was feeling pretty saucy, and suggested a loop to the south. This time Annabelle insisted upon accompanying him, which made me twice as nervous. Despite that, I sent the three of them off (gulp), and then snuck down the alley about 50 feet behind them, and once they hit the end of the block, I flat out ran back down the alley, tore up the three dozen stairs from the bottom of our lot to the top, and met them at the gate (panting). I do believe Christian thought I was crazy.

Have I mentioned I don't like them striking out on their own yet?

MR. CURRICULUM: CJ had schooling on his mind this morning. Before 7 a.m. he was pitching an idea that his music teacher should use "Classroom Connection" to market her class to people not in it already. Next up, he suggested that his yoga class adopt a "world of animals" marathon. I told him that sounded great and he could share that thought with his yoga teacher this afternoon.

Then, he weighed in that he likes science, "except the times when I have to get my hands dirty and get dirt under my fingernails. Those are the worst." Poor Mr. Tactile Sensitive. I told him that there are many kinds of science, and most of them absolutely do not require getting your hands dirty. And really, there's no reason that he couldn't be wearing gloves for some of the stuff they do. I can't think of a single experiment/exercise in science they had where his wearing gloves would have been a detriment. I'll have to remember that in the future.

RUSSIAN ROCKET FIRE: All morning and early afternoon, we had NASA TV on, so we could watch the launch of Expedition 28, a launch of a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. On board were NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawam and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov - who represents the first second-generation astronaut (his father was also a cosmonaut who reached space).

The launch was set for 1:12 p.m. Seattle time (just after 2 in the morning Kazakhstan time). The NASA announcer informed is this type of launch vehicle (Soyuz) been used in various configurations since 1963. Wow. And here I was thinking the space shuttles were old-ish.NASA TV showed the dramatic blast off, and I was also surprised there was a real time cockpit camera for the launch - something I don't recall seeing on shuttle launches I've seen. I noticed a stuffed pig hanging above cosmonaut Volkov (his son had given it to him) and pointed it out to the kids. I asked, "Have they left the Earth's atmosphere yet?" They both replied "No!" I asked how they knew how and they both said because if the capsule had, the pig would be floating. Excellent! I was also pleased that Annabelle asked what types of experiments or new equipment Expedition 28 had on board. :)

Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov are scheduled to dock their spacecraft with the ISS on Thursday afternoon, where they'll join Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian space agency and Ron Garan of NASA.

Speaking of Garan ...

DISCOVERY OF THE DAY: I was poking around the NASA Web site today, reading bios about the NASA astronauts on board the ISS right now, including Ron Garan. I followed one link after another and eventually found myself on a Web site called Fragile Oasis. Turns out it's an organization founded by Garan, "established to unite in the common goal of sharing our humanity and improving our world. Let us inspire, recognize, and help each other in our collective quest to make life better on our planet."

Garan's a good writer. The Fragile Oasis Web site is definitely worth checking out. He'd posted his first ever video blog from the ISS and I was rather mortified to see that NO ONE had commented on it yet. Well, now one person has. :)

LOSERS: Doing music homework is part of our Tuesday routine. Um ... except for today. I couldn't find the homework list. It wasn't in Annabelle's folder. It wasn't in CJ's folder. It wasn't on our homework-y thingees bookshelf (which I recently, eh hem, cleaned and reorganized).

So, the kids went homeworkless to music. Embarrassing. I told the kids to let their teacher know I'd misplaced the assignments. :/ Their last week of "Young Musicians" is next Tuesday.

FINISHED: CJ finished reading the "Great Illustrated Classics: The Wizard of Oz." I asked CJ what he thought about it. His review: "In all there were 22 chapters, and each one of them has lots of pages but Chapter 22 only has one. I would give a 10 out of 10 - a great book!"

Not bad at all. To date, unless it is of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series, he's been mostly "meh" about books - especially chapter books.

THE CLAW: Thanks to a SpongeBob episode "Skill Crane," where Squidward tries repeatedly and unsuccessfully to snag a toy out of one of those &%*^ claw machines, CJ began obsessing about said machines. He and Annabelle are constantly begging me to underwrite their attempts on the machines, and I am constantly saying NO because the things are rigged so that you don't win. That said, I told him, "I'm sure there are videos on YouTube telling you how to beat those machines. Sure 'nuff, we found a couple. The first one we watched was by a group called Brainiac and titled "Funfair Physics" which sounded cool enough. I liked their approach.

We watched another video, this one from the Howcast series, that was less science based, more focused on grab-the-prize techniques.

GOING APE: Realizing it's been waaaaay too long since we've done a formal art lesson, I cued up Activity TV and since Donkey Kong has been on our brains in a big way, I chose a cartooning lesson about how to draw an ape.They were both very pleased with their final drawings, which is awesome. Guess whose ape is the pink one?

FEED THE CHILDREN: I gave the kids some rice at lunch time and for "fun" I gave them chopsticks to eat with. They were nonplussed. Annabelle had a small measure of success, but CJ wasn't having it - literally! The poor boy was starving. "Screw these chopsticks!" he declared. :0 I gave him a fork and a Look.