Football Follies

BOW DOWN: This weekend we took a field trip to Husky Stadium, perhaps the most picturesque field in college football. At least from a distance. ;)

We hopped a chartered boat at the foot of our hill which took us right to the game. It's an excellent way to go - no bothering with traffic or parking and you get to enjoy a scenic cruise to and fro. Unfortunately, the boat ride was the highlight of the evening. ;)

For the eighth time in a row, the Dawgs lost to the Ducks. And in a way, that wasn't the worst part of our night. I've pretty much grown used to that outcome at this point. :/ The worst part was that it was a night game. Unlike the good ol' days, when you'd buy your tickets months in advance and know the day and TIME of the game you'd be attending, now TV drives everything, and the game time isn't set until a couple weeks before the game. We found out not too long ago that our tickets were for a 7:30 start, which is pretty late and cold for a family with a couple of little kids. That, and when the game doesn't start until that late, the game-goers have SEVERAL extra hours to tailgate ahead of time, which means by gametime there are a whole lot more people who are seriously schlitzed. That public drunkeness * 10 results in it being a LOT less family friendly, shall we say. The low point of the evening was a drunk guy older than me who decided he could singlehandedly solve the bottleneck problem as hundreds of us waited to work our way into a tiny entrance gate by starting to shove people. Chaos ensued and he's lucky (and we're all lucky) someone wasn't seriously hurt. Most unfortunately, Annabelle was one of the many people jostled and it scared her badly and set her off on a crying jag. Once things had settled down somewhat, I did make it a point to turn around and 'congratulate' the jerk on being such big bully that he made a 7-year-old girl cry.

Then, we made our way up to our seats. Somehow, Ticketmaster, despite their technological prowess, did not manage to inform me that our seats were two rows from the very top of the stadium (stratosphere) and that the view was somewhat limited by the hanging down press box. Nice.

By halftime, the kids were cold and hungry and so I took them and we wandered around checking out the sights and sounds of the stadium and its views before we headed back to our boat. Upon arrival, the captain herself said she couldn't let us on because the whole boat was an open bar until the fourth quarter. Oh. Really? At that, I wondered aloud how it could be that no one told us in advance that the boat my kids rode over and had a ticket back for was off limits to them but open to other non ticket holding comers during the game. How could that be right? In fact, it couldn't be, because that would be very WRONG to deny my tired, ticket holding children boat boarding. Miraculously, the rules changed and we were allowed to get on.

Eventually, the whole gang (two grandparents, the two biggest brothers, their friend and Christian) all made it back to the boat and we had a lovely ride home.

IMHO, the remodel of Husky Stadium can't come soon enough. Our experience there Saturday was, by far, the worst time I've ever had. From seats to egress/exits and concessions, the stadium's beat. It's a top flight location but the facility is the absolute dregs. Time for onward and upward!

I WANT MY JETPACK: Didn't someone in the not too distant past predict we've have flying cars and jetpacks by now? What's the friggin' hold up? This morning's email from NASA served up a look at NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless jetpacking his way in orbit 25-plus years ago (on Feb. 12, 1984). MCandless ventured further (320 feet) away from the confines of his ship than any previous astronaut ever. A nitrogen jet propelled backpack (previously known at NASA as the Manned Maneuvering Unit) made it possible.

IMAGE: NASA
Have I mentioned I want my jetpack?

RETRO 'ROID: We've been watching news of the approach of Asteroid 2005 YU55 (catchy name, 'eh?). Tomorrow it will do a (relatively) close flyby of earth - just 860,000 miles away, which is closer to us than our own moon. NASA made available the latest tracking photo it has of the asteroid. I have to admit, it looks very 8-bit to me.

IMAGE: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When I saw it, I couldn't help but wonder if Space Invaders are far behind.

METAL METTLE: Regular readers know, thanks to Minecraft, the kids have been asking lots of questions lately about elements found in the Earth. Today, CJ asked me what the hardest metal is. I didn't just answer with a blank stare. I also gave him an, "Uh ..." And then we promptly hit up the Google. ;)

Simply by typing in "what is hardest metal" we got some great hits, one of which told us that the hardest known metal is steel alloy. That led to a discussion about what an alloy is and if you're mixing something, is it really The Hardest Metal? (BTW, steel alloy is made by adding carbon).

We also learned that carbon steel is surpassed in hardness only by very hard nonmetals, such diamonds. This info fed right into what the kids have learned in Minecraft, where diamond weapons are the most coveted.

By reading further, we learned about the Mohs scale. I am ashamed to admit, I'd never heard of it before today. :( But I'll never forget it now! The Mohs scale of hardness ranks elements on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the strongest. Elements are rated according to their ability to resist abrasion or scratching. The scale is named after this dude (below) Friedrich Mohs in 1812. Mohs was a mineralogist from Germany who wanted a simple way of testing minerals' toughness. What the mineral could scratch, or what could scratch the mineral determines its position on the Mohs scale.

Since he worked in the field, Mohs wanted a simple way to rate things, and used his fingernail, a penny, glass and a knife to scratch and rate elements.

Interestingly, back to that hardcore high-carbon steel we started with - well, it only rates an 8 on the Mohs scale, while a diamond ranks a 10 (and a ruby rates a 9, in case you were wondering).

WISE WORDS: Both of the kids are under the weather, with stuffy sinuses and scratchy throats. This morning, when they were curled up on the couch and I handed them each one of G'ma's chocolate chip cookies, Annabelle observed, "Everything's better with a cookie."

Truer words were never spoken.