Motion Picture

SEEING RED: Well lookie here - what did we find in our alley side planter box today? A strawberry! It's small and it's hard, but it's RED! Yes, it's almost July, and yes, we have only one ripe berry.

"Can we split it?" Annabelle asked.

Of course we can. :)

LIFE IS A HIGHWAY: We were out the door at 10 a.m. and headed to the movie theater to see "Cars 2" - the long ( years) awaited sequel to "Cars."

While I am no NASCAR fan, "Cars" will always hold a special place in my heart because it's the first movie that CJ was over the moon for. He love Love LOVED it and amassed a respectable little Cars action figure collection.

Today was the movie's opening day, and since it's such a popular franchise, I expected the theater to be full. Boy was I wrong. There were less than 20 of us there - and upon reflection I can see why. First, my adult ticket's face value was EIGHTEEN FREAKIN' DOLLAR$. For a computer generated cartoon!!! Geezus, seriously, what gives?! (Can you tell I don't go to the movies very often?) Thank GOD I had purchased a Fandango special ($9 for two tickets) through LivingSocial a couple weeks back. Of course, that special didn't cover the super duper extra exorbitant cost of IMAX movies, but it did give me a $30 credit toward tickets for CeeJ, Bee and me. Warning- bad cell phone photo below ...With that financial hit, I did something I've never done before - I brought bottled water into the theater. That's right, I'm a smuggler. But good gravy, with ticket prices $18 for adults and $12 for kids for a matinee, they had $42 from us before we even walked in. I did spring $8 for a large popcorn the size of a pony keg. It kept the three of us in food for two hours, so that was a good "investment."

We watched lots of previews, most notably one for the upcoming new Muppets movie - hooray! Can't wait for that - it will be out at Thanksgiving.

Finally "Cars 2" came on and right from the start, I was a bit put off. It started with a BUNCH of new characters. Where was Lightning McQueen? Why are we with a bunch of unfamiliar characters on a crabbing boat named the Northwestern (yes, after the boat on the "Deadliest Catch," character voiced by captain Sig Hansen)?

After a protracted period involving oil rigs and espionage, we FINALLY saw our hero at home, in Radiator Springs. But let me warn you, if the racing scenes and Lightning McQueen are what you loved about the first movie, you're going to be disappointed this go round. This movie was dominated by new-to-us characters (all I could think was "guess the want to sell more merch!) and Tow Mater, the goofy, doofus tow truck from the first movie.

I was disappointed, but the kids enjoyed it, so who cares what I thought? (Though I will admit, when I got home, I felt somewhat vindicated to read several early reviews which shared my disdain for the sequel compared to the original.)

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Despite threatening clouds and light rain, we struck out this afternoon on a short ride/run to the Lawton school playground. Check out the photo below. Notice anything missing? ...

Not until we got to Lawton did CJ realize he'd forgotten his helmet. DOH! First time we've ever done that. So, we walked his bike home. :(

At Lawton, the kids were playing Troll on the Bridge. I asked them to look at said bridge and tell me what kind it is. I was rather disappointed that neither one of them immediately responded, "Suspension!" Bee's first guess was "beam" and CJ was mum. :(
Eventually, they each noticed the chains SUSPENDING the bridge.

TECH TALK: Late last night and this a.m. I'd exchanged several messages with the gentleman who sold us the defective Famicom Disk System. My pointed, well-researched emails paid off - he'd issued me a rather generous partial refund by 9 this a.m., and now I'm actually looking forward to getting the replacement belt, cracking the unit open and performing the repair. In the big picture, CJ and Annabelle will derive a lot more satisfaction and knowledge doing that than just a plug-and-play approach.

In Review

REINFORCEMENTS: Today we did some follow ups to topics we've covered over the past couple of days. For instance, in math, we reviewed writing and saying dollars and cents. I was a bit bemused that the kids both missed the same problem in their exercise today. They were suppose to use numbers to represent fifty five dollars and five cents. Each of them wrote $55.5 WRONG!!

Naturally, I didn't yell, "WRONG!!" at them. Instead, we talked about the importance of the decimal point and how when talking dollars and cents, if the number is just to the right of the dot, it's in the tens, not the ones. They saw the error of their ways. And we'll give it a go again tomorrow.

We also revisited our recent readings about solstices and equinoxes - or should it be solstii and equinox? Or ???

And, thanks to a hot tip from a definitely-in-the-know MPA reader, we checked out a really awesome BrainPOP video about bridges. How in the know was our tipster? Well it just so happens she WROTE the lesson for BrainPOP. Bravo, Firstmute! I have to say, CJ and Annabelle were wildly entertained by the bridges video and they learned something too, as evidenced by their acing the related quiz.

DEAR DIARY: To get a little bit of creative writing in, I had the kids crack open their "Diary of a Wimpy Kid D-I-Y" books.

I asked CJ to write and illustrate a cartoon. He didn't waste any time getting it done.
In case you can't read it, it says, "Bet you can't survive this jump! - Dude."

"Oh! Sure I can!" says the skateboarder, followed by "See!" in the final frame, with the other skateboarder replying, "That's I-I-I-Impossible?!" CJ was very pleased with himself for thinking to add the word "Dude." He thought it sounded a lot more authentic. :)

Annabelle's writing prompt was to fill out her backstage/pre-show demands list for when she's famous and on tour. What a fun idea! Her demands are as follows:

• 30 pounds of Pepsi


• 20 pepperoni pizza


• 1 gumball machine


• 1 ice cream maker**


• 25 pairs of sunglasses


• 1 popcorn machine


• 1 neon "Snacks" sign


• 1,000 ice cream cones (because, duh, I have an ice cream machine)


• 1 giant big-screen TV

**ice cream flavor must be triple chocolate

Sounds reasonable, don't you think?

42: Yes, it's Jackie Robinson's jersey number but it's also the answer to life, the universe and everything - if you believe what you read in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

CJ came across the 42 reference when trying to beat the aptly named "Impossible Quiz" (an online video game). I explained to him the book tie-in and told him the story of the first time I read the book.
I was around 17 and had just started a new temp job doing data entry. I took Hitchhiker's with me to read on breaks. What a mistake! I remember reading it and basically blowing Diet Pepsi out my nose I was laughing so hard. I told CJ I was sure everyone thought, "What's wrong with the new girl?" He thought that was hysterical.

CRAFTACULAR: Annabelle was on a crafting tear today, from 7 a.m. until bedtime around 10:30 p.m.

One of her creations was a train, made from a box we got at Costco today. Truth be told, after I emptied the box, I tossed it out on the porch, to carry down to recycling on my next trip to the alley. When Annabelle saw me do this, she looked at me like I shot the dog.

"But, but, I can MAKE something out of THAT!" she protested.

Back in comes the box.

And so she made a train, on which CJ was a reluctant passenger.
Today she also put a few touches on her revolutionary PFD (personal flotation device). It's made out of her popped bike innertube (which she patched with duct tape and reinflated). She attached recycled water bottles for added buoyancy, and on the front is half a recycled milk jug, to which she taped a whistle. (On the inside the jug there's a small sign that says 'for emergency use only.')
Nice work, Miss Bee!

GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS: Today we got a very special delivery - a Famicom Disk System we'd bought via eBay.

The good news is it came quickly, and looked to be in good shape. It fired right up to the system power up screen, with good video and sound but ...

when we inserted game disks, the fun was over. The unit made an awful buzzing sound and it wouldn't load the data.

These units are notorius for their rubber drive belts failing and we're pretty sure that's what's going on here. The good news is they're readily available for about $15 and we're pretty handy and could likely replace it successfully. The bad news is I bought this unit because it said it was tested and works. And it didn't. I wrote the seller and I have to give him props for responding within an hour and offering a refund. CJ was SO excited to get the box, and so disappointed that it didn't work right out of the gate. But he's done enough research ahead of time to be aware of the belt problem and he understands it's old and in need of service.

We're going to mull over our options - whether to return it, or offer to accept it for some $$$ back. Stay tuned ...

Bridging the Gaps

A scene from our morning adventure

ATTENTION SPANS: CJ was up at 5:15 today. Hooray. :/

Actually, as much as I'd like to sleep in, I do like getting our day started early. And that's just what we did.

We were reading a library book, "Superstructures - Fabulous Bridges" before 8 a.m. It began with a brief history of bridges - some dating back to B.C. The book detailed common building materials (concrete, stone, iron and steel), and it outlined the four basic bridge types - the beam, the arch, the suspension and the cantilever.

Then, noteworthy bridges were profiled, including the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, Sky Harbor in Australia, and Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (it's 23 miles long!!). We also learned about the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan, the world's longest and highest suspension bridge. And who could forget France's Millau Viaduct? Its towers top out at 1125-feet - taller than the Eiffel Tower!

EPIC FAILURE: Especially for Puget Sound area dwellers, no talk of bridges would be complete without mentioning the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It opened in July of 1940 and collapsed in dramatic fashion just four months later.

We watched a couple of videos about the disaster, including one that seemed to be produced shortly after the event. The film clearly shows one car was still on the bridge when it went down. It was amazing to watch its driver miraculously make his way off the bridge. From another source, we knew there was a dog in the car. Turns out it was a cocker spaniel named Tubby. A UW professor walked the wildly bouncing bridge to try to rescue the dog, but Tubby was too terrified to get out of the car. She went down with the bridge. Annabelle and CJ were distraught at this development. I quickly pointed out to them that Tubby's body was never found and so maybe, just maybe she dog paddled her way to safety, right? RIGHT?!? Why of course, that's what happened. :)

BRIDGE WALK: There's lots of water 'round here, which means there are also lots of bridges, too. It's not uncommon for us to cross four bridges in a day. We're almost always in a car while crossing then. I thought today we'd change that.

We parked along Nickerson Street in the north end of Queen Anne and headed for the Fremont Bridge.We walked on the west side of the bridge.

That meant we passed the bridgetender's quarters.

Once across the bridge, we had to check in on the commuters who never seem to catch their bus. We also had to pay homage to J.P. Patches. By continuing eastward just another couple of blocks, we found ourselves under the Aurora Bridge. There, there is a neat sculpture that doubles as a pretty photo frame. We walked east a mile or so and arrived at Gasworks Park. There, we had a good view of the Aurora Bridge, which was now behind us.

We enjoyed the scenery for awhile. We continued eastward. I wanted to walk all the way to I-5 but CJ started protesting rather frequently. He was clearly still feeling puny from a cold that materialized on Monday. So, we turned back toward Fremont. We paid the Troll a visit on the way back.

All in all, our jaunt took two hours. We were back home before noon and went on with the rest of our day - reading, pulling weeds, tending the garden, and other garden variety stuff. Oh, and Bee had a special ballet class - Dancing Dolls. She adored it, of course.

Down & Out

FLAT AS A PANCAKE: It was such a beautiful morning, I decided we simply had to get out in it. We harnessed and leashed Kirby, the kids got their helmets on and mounted their bikes and off we went, down the hill with the intention of traveling to Terminal 91 - the beach closest to us.

We were well on our way when Annabelle announced, "There's something wrong with my tire."

On the tight turn on the trail to Terminal 91 it went flat. Completely flat.

"Sorry kids, field trip's over," I announced. Kirby was OK with it. She'd already done her business. ;) And at first, CJ was OK with it. In fact, he was downright lollipops and rainbows.
"Look on the bright side," he said, cheerily. "At least we still get to enjoy this nice day."

Aw, that's sweet. :)

But about a half mile later - all uphill, pushing a bike - CJ had changed his tune. "This is humiliating!" he declared. LOL.

I told him it wasn't truly humiliating, it was just a big bummer. Tonight, Christian took an inner tube and tire off CJ's old bike and put them on Bee's bike. So her "Princess" bike no longer has two fancy white tires, but she's OK with that. (The bike was a bit bedraggled and $12 from Goodwill to begin with.) Bottom line: We're ready to roll again.

IT'S ALL DOWNHILL: From here on out, the days will be getting shorter (at least as measured by hours and minutes of sunlight). Booo! That's why I'm more inclined to celebrate the winter solstice than the summer solstice.

I did feel compelled to do a little learnin' 'bout the solstice. So, we watched a BrainPOP video about the solstices and equinox. I'm pretty sure we watched the exact same one a year ago today. But that's OK. In math, concepts are revisited, cemented and built upon all the time, right?

The video was well done and the kids understood the concepts, based on the fact they both aced the written quiz afterward. Go team MPA!

DOWNHILL RACER: Pretty much all day, every day we're home, Annabelle is crafting. She creates and recycles so many things, I couldn't possibly detail them all here.

Today, one of her projects was a sunburst shaped vehicle meant to let CJ and her slide down our hillside. She arranged several pieces of cardboard in a pinwheel fashion, held together with a liberal amount of duct tape. (I can't tell you how much Annabelle loves duct tape. You should have seen her when she saw the sale sign on duct tape at Fred Meyer today. It was like Christmas for her. She chose two rolls - Funky Flamingo (neon pink), and a leopard pattern. CJ threw a flame patterned one in the basket.) But back to today's project. They carried Annabelle's contraption up the hill. They were just sure they'd be flying down the hillside in no time.
But, alas, it didn't even move an inch.
We talked about reasons it didn't work (the cardboard was too thin and they were too heavy and there was too much drag/friction). Back to the drawing board!

SUMMER SESSION: Bee started a short (3-week) summer session of ballet today. That meant CJ and I had 45 minutes to kill in 'town.' We went to the library. There, I handed him a copy of "Captain Underpants" by Dav Pilkey. Christian and I read that book and a few others in the series to him probably three years ago. I don't know if he recalls that, but I thought he would enjoy reading the book on his own now. I was right.

He sat down in the library, started reading it immediately, and within about 90 seconds, he was laughing much too loudly for a library. Excellent. :)

I think he got to upwards of page 100 tonight.

BLUE BELLE: Today after ballet class Annabelle's teacher asked me if we brought treats to the recital. Why yes, yes we did, I replied. I knew the teacher was in big demand that night and I figured she didn't make it back to the treat table. But she said she saw someone carrying a ballet shoe cookie and wondered where it came from. And she asked if we brought chocolate dipped strawberries, too. The (Seattle Parks) community center buys the cake and punch, but lots of families brought lots of other stuff. I'm impressed that she pinpointed us for the cookies and berries. I guess it must have been by default - it was Bee's first recital and those must have been new entries on the after party table. Clearly, that woman doesn't miss a thing.

In other news, I also picked up copies of Bee's Ballet I photos today. Because I'm not in the habit of putting other people's kid's faces on my blog, I thought I'd get creative with this. So, it's a class full of Annabelles!!! Can you spot the real one?

The real Bee was front and center.

Likewise, the real Annabelle was front and center on this one, too.

Anchors Aweigh!

CLIPPING ALONG: Today was a looooong but fun day. We finally cashed in some Living Social vouchers we had for a boat trip and whale watching excursion to the San Juan Islands aboard a Victoria Clipper vessel. Pictured above, it was a sweet ride, indeed. :)

We knew boarding started at 6:45, so we wanted to be getting our boarding passes before then, as early meant better/window seats. We were up at 5:50 and left home at 6:20. We did get there early enough to get a nice window table that became our home for most of the next 5+ hours - three hours from the Seattle waterfront to Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island.

On our way out of town, we passed our neighborhood. Here's the moorage we frequently jog/bike down to, where the restaurant Maggie Bluff's is also located.The lighthouse at Discovery Park, in our backyard (pretty much).
Here we are, leaving Seattle behind - at least for the day.
It was about a three hour boat ride up the sound, between the mainland and Whidbey Island. We took a left at Deception Pass and went under the bridge, between Fidalgo and Whidbey islands.
The currents were strong here, with whirlpools in spots.

We docked at Friday Harbor, a few people got off, a few got on and then we were back out on the water, in search of orcas.The naturalist on board (Stephanie, who was AWESOME) said she'd heard the J Pod was in the area today and promised us that we'd see whales. And that we did, in Haro Strait.
As we made our way home, naturalist Stephanie made the rounds offering to help try to ID whales by their dorsal fins. I showed her this picture, and we believe they are Tahlequah, Double Stuff, Rhapsody, Oreo and Blackberry. We also saw several eagles today. Here, just to the left of the column, there is a big eagle's nest on the ground.

And below is a bald eagle in a tree, in Deception Pass.

Other wildlife spotted included a couple of harbor seals who did a nice job of blending into the boulders along the shoreline.

And we got a glimpse of a couple of Dall's porpoises (which looks like a mini version of an orca).

We also saw a number of lighthouses today, including this one on the east side of Kitsap Peninsula.And right now, I can't recall where this lighthouse was (I should have taken notes, darn it!)As we were closing in on Seattle, Stephanie, the naturalist, asked the kids if they'd like to visit the bridge. Yes, please!

Annabelle took a couple of photos there (I'll post those tomorrow). Here's a shot of them next to the captain (you see mostly a hooded CJ; Annabelle is in front of him- you can see her hand on a camera). Lots more photos and stories to share, but I'm calling it quits for the night. I'm beat and I feel like I'm still on a boat - the desk is listing slightly to and fro. :o