Fabric of Our Lives

photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER ROCKET: While we were lounging in bed in the wee small hours of the morning, another rocket launch was taking place. Rather than get up at 3-ish to watch it, we settled for neat-o footage after the fact.

Hurled heavenward today was the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP for short), "a critical first step in building the next-generation Earth-observing satellite system that will collect data on both long-term climate change and short-term weather conditions," according to a NASA press release. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will use the data from NPP as part of its weather forecasting. You can watch the launch by following this link: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=117952441


This morning's launch was from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California - that's relatively close to home compared to Florida. I'm thinking we might need to combine a Disneyland trip with a Cali rocket launch in the future.

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: From a Facebook post today, I rediscovered something I'd seen, oh, 40 years ago. It was an appearance by Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." I absolutely remember seeing these clips back in 1972, when they first aired. By following the link here (http://www.alworden.com/mrrogers1.htm) you can see Al and Fred in the Mission Control launch room, see Al model an astrosuit, field questions about the moon mission and talk about what it was like to be stuck on the capsule while his astro pals putted about the lunar surface.

It was neat to be able to show CeeJ and Bee the clips, not just because it was interesting astro info and me sharing part of my past with them, but because they have actually MET Al Worden just a couple of weeks ago. How cool is that?!

IN STITCHES: Most of today was dedicated to getting the kids' Halloween costumes together. I (finally!) finished Nyan Cat (hooray). Bee loves it. Our immediate family and one guy at the fabric store may be the only ones who know what it/she is, but oh well.

CJ's costume is coming together nicely. He's going to be an old school Nintendo controller. I built the frame for it today, sewed the device, and cut out the details for it. Christian is gluing it even as we 'speak.'

QUANTITY, QUALITY: We did some language arts, science today and math today. The math was about capacities. Here, Annabelle is pointing out that there are two cups in a pint and two pints in a quart.

Sunny Day

SLUGGO: CJ took this photo so he could share this rare, exotic creature with you. It's a leopard spotted slug and he's certain that it's worthy of a scientific journal. Or at least the MPA blog. :)

If you look closely, you can even see its slimy, sluggy trail - cool!

TO THE TEST: Thursday typically means two classes in Shoreline for the kids - music and LEGOs. But this morning we had to skip music so that Annabelle could take a Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), the "easyCBM" (Curriculum-Based Measurement), an assessment for math, and
"Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)," an assessment for reading. Why all the testing? Good question. It's to see if she qualifies as Highly Capable under Shoreline Schools guidelines.

For a lot of families, this test would be a Really Huge Deal, as it could change the trajectory of where their child goes to school and the curriculum they'll be studying. For us, well, not so much - at least not at this point. We'd just be business as usual. But first grade is when Shoreline tests students whose families are interested, and I figured there was no harm in having her take the test. There's nothing wrong with keeping our options open for the future.

Annabelle thought the two hour testing was lots of fun. She got to hang out with some kids her age and she said the questions were easy. :)

While Bee did her thing, CeeJ and I hung out and did our thing. We surfed the 'Net on my phone and read some magazines. One of the mags prompted us to discuss whether or not we'd really care to spend "Every Day with Rachael Ray." We both decided that would not be the greatest thing in the world. We went for a long walk around the expansive Shoreline Center campus. We made our way to the football stadium and found a long jump pit at one end. CJ gave it a go. A couple of gos, actually. There was definitely more jump than long.

MR. GOLDEN SUN: When Annabelle finished up at 11 a.m., we headed back to Seattle, did some math, Halloween costume work and then we enjoyed lunch with  Dr. Jonathan Cirtain, a solar scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Lucky for us (and the couple dozen others logged into the NASA Chat Web site), we got to ask questions of one of the world's preeminent solar scientists from the comfort of our own home. What a fantastic educational opportunity!

We watched others' questions and read (and often re-read) Cirtain's answers for about the first 20 minutes. We learned so much about solar flares, sun spots, magnetism, and more. Fascinating stuff- and a lot of it pretty heady for a 7- and 8-year-old, but I think the kids actually understood most of it. They were especially interested in what Cirtain had to say about our sun eventually turning into a brown dwarf (and the inner planets of our solar system being toasted in the process) several billion years from now.

I asked the kids if they had any questions they'd like to ask the solar scientist. They came up with, "What gives the sun its color?" Happily, our question made the cut. You can read Dr. C's answer below.

I was happy they thought of the question. I'd never even stopped to wonder why our sun is yellow before. :/

In case you're wondering, here's a bit more about Dr. Cirtain from the NASA Web site: "Dr. Cirtain is an expert in Heliophysics and is the Hinode project scientist as well as the co-investigator on Hinode's onboard X-Ray Telescope. He also has served on the science team for the Atmospheric Imaging Array, an instrument on the recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite. Additionally, Cirtain serves as the principle investigator for two sounding rocket experiments: the High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) and the Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Instrument, or SUMI. Hi-C will be launched from White Sands Missile Range on June 19, 2012 and SUMI will complete its second launch on June 12, 2012, also from White Sands." 

An impressive lunch date, wouldn't you say? How cool is it that we could be sitting here at our home in Seattle tapping into a resource like him in real time?

The entire transcript of questions and answers will be available on the chat page soon.

NORTHBOUND: After the NASA chat, we ripped back up north for their LEGO class. We took Kirby with us this time, much to the dog's delight. While Annabelle worked on a boat of some sort, and CJ finished up a battle ship and then worked on a "free build" (making whatever you want), Kirby and I walked the perimeter of the campus for 45 minutes.



Number 9

STITCH IN TIME: This afternoon, the kids' Science Explorers class continued to explore textiles. The 'lab' portion involved a whole bunch of 5-8 year olds hand stitching a pillow. I know, I know, sounds simple enough. It's 'just' a straight running stitch, after all. But have you tried keeping a dozen plus primary schoolers in needle and thread? There are these things called knots that make it hard. That, and the fact that instead of just stitching up and down/through the fabric, they have this habit of wanting to go out and around the edge of the fabric, which means their thread has to be cut and you pretty much have to start over.

There were a number of frustrated souls in that class today, including CeeJ and Bee. But those two had to wait, because I knew that I could help them at home. Instead, I helped their classmates. Sorry, (my) kids.

TODDLERS & TIARAS: This afternoon, Annabelle spied some eyeshadow laying around the house. It was a leftover of a Halloween party I was getting ready for last Saturday.

Anyway, she found the makeup and said to me this afternoon, "I know how to use this. Can I put some on?" My first thought was, "She's watched YouTube more than me. She probably knows how to do the perfect Kardashian smoky eye." And so I shrugged, and said OK.

I (quietly) laughed when Bee emerged with her smoky eyes. (and eyebrow). I have to admit, I've never been a fan of blue eye shadow on brown eyed people myself. Or course I didn't tell her that. I told her she looked beautiful. :)

BARF O RAMA: On our way home from celebrating our 9th anniversary dinner tonight at McMenamins Queen Anne, we came up behind this car (happy anniversary to us!). Normally, I'd NEVER put a car with its license on my blog but clearly this one WANTS to be here.

Go ahead, Google or Yahoo! to your heart's content. Why anyone would plan ahead for barfing is beyond me.

Darn Yarn

OVER UNDER: We started our morning off with doing some homework related to the textiles unit for the kids' science class. Above are weavings they did in class last week. Our homework was doing a similar weave, but in-the-round. If they did it right, they'd each have a little woven basket when they were done. Turns out that was a big IF.

Actually, CJ did a fantastic job on the over-under-around process. Annabelle, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster, repeatedly forgetting to turn the weaving board over and do the other side. Instead, she'd double back. That, and sometimes instead of alternating the over/under pattern, she'd duplicate it. I'd say the expression on her face here about sums it up her experience.

I spent much of the day working on Annabelle's Nyan Cat costume.  So far, so good - but it's taking longer than I'd like, of course.

When it came time to stuff the tail, I realized I hadn't bought any fiberfill, nor did I have any in stock. Being the cheap/lazy/resourceful person I am, I started looking around the house for things I could cut up and gut. (Many a stuffed animal was shivering in its tracks, let me tell you!)  Fortunately for the stuffies, I found a small travel pillow that was expendable. We used its innards to fill out the kitty's tail. 

HAPPY BOY: This may look like an ordinary Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) cartridge, believe you me, it is not. It is (drum roll/choir of angels singing here) EARTH BOUND ZERO (named "Mother" in Japan), a game that was never released in the United States.  

Frankly, I'm not certain how CJ ever found out about it, but for months (and I mean like six months), he has been obsessed (and I mean like OBSESSED) with getting a copy. Problem is, they go for well over $100 on eBay and they're all from Japan. More than we were willing to spend/risk.

Resourceful CJ managed to find a stateside supplier who, um, supplies the game by somehow taking a different old/other game cartridge and converting it into Earthbound. I have no idea how he does it and I'd be willing to bet that it's not entirely (or at all) legal. But the price ($30) was right. And so, in August, we ordered a game. And we waited. And waited, and waited. No game. About 3 weeks ago I wrote the guy asking what gives. He apologized and said it would go out that week. It didn't. And so last Thursday I sent a less polite inquiry, reminding the man that taking someone's money and not giving them the product you promised them in return is, in fact, stealing. Remarkably, that same afternoon, it was mailed.

CJ played it for the first time last night. It's an RPG (role playing game), and honestly, after watching a few minutes of it, I don't quite understand why it was a MUST HAVE. But what do I know?

TANKED: While I was sewing this afternoon, CJ came running upstairs to show me a candy corn he was about to eat. Due to some manufacturing flaw, it was all orange, missing its white tip and yellow base. "It looks like an external tank!" he excitedly told me. (That's the big orange fuel tank the space shuttles used.)

photo credit: NASA, of course. It's STS-116, in case you were wondering.

I'd show you a photo of it, but it was devoured immediately after his declaration.

ACTING UP: CJ had acting class today. While he did his thespian thing for 1.5 hours, Bee and I hung out in the hallways and stairways of University . It's a cool old building. I love the look, smell and sounds of it. It reminds me of my grandparents' former home on Queen Anne hill.

Our waiting/down time gave me a chance to get to know my new phone better. Today I messed with some of the camera settings on it.

Miles and Miles

The old homestead

HAPPY TRAVELERS: We spent a fair amount of the last three days driving. On Saturday, we drove down to Vancouver, visited G&G for about an hour and then drove to Portland. There, the kids got to hang out with their cousins Maggie and Ben and their parents, while we old folks went to a murder mystery dinner at a friend's house. The dinner was lots of fun, and neither Christian or I was the killer, in case you were wondering. But Christian did guess who the killer was, so we won the Best Star Trek Pumpkin ever, which my friend Holly hand painted.

After the party, we picked the kids up and headed back to The 'Couve for the night. They had fun with their cousins, playing games and watching Toy Story.

Sunday morning, after a lovely breakfast, we went to the kids' old stomping grounds and our former backyard, Felida Park. Here's a view from the roof of our old house. The shrubs we planted about 5 years ago are quadruple their size now - they look great!

The place was slamming busy due to a couple of soccer games. We got the last spot in the parking lot. Our first stop at the park was the spot that has the engraved bricks. After a couple of minutes of searching, we found the kids' bricks. Annabelle's was in need of some TLC, so Christian spent a couple of minutes rooting the moss out of her letters with the tip of his Leatherman's knife.

The kids played on the playground for a few minutes and then we walked around the paved path and nearby our old place, checking out what has changed and what hasn't. Then it was into the car for the 3-hour ride home.

VIADOOM: Upon our arrival back in Seattle, we did not take the Viaduct home, per usual. We couldn't because they're tearing it down. Its closure/demolition will mean about 90,000 cars will have to find alternative routes on already awful-and-clogged Seattle streets. Good times.

That said, it was kinda cool seeing the heavy equipment eating through the concrete and rebar. The section where this piece of heavy equipment was in the photo yesterday is GONZO today. Here's another photo I took yesterday ...

And now check this demo video out!

CAR WORK: Monday was out of the ordinary not in the cool, "extraordinary!" way, but in the way that we had to buy, pick up and install a new washer and dryer and of course the whole process was tortuously slow and mostly infuriating. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that my Severe Unhappiness at the Complete Incompetence of the 'customer service' folks at the Bellevue, WA, Lowe's store resulted in us getting four-year service contracts for free on our new high efficiency washer and dryer - from the Renton, WA, store. That, and we got $160 off the washer and $250 or so off the dryer price, so in the end, I will swap happiness for cash, yes I will.

While killing time at Lowe's, we got to check out their super extensive display of Christmas decorations. Have I mentioned it's not even Halloween yet?

What with all of our running around, the kids did math and language arts in the back of a Toyota extend  cab today.

Which is better than not doing math or reading at all.