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MAKE AND TAKE: Forgot to post this gem from yesterday - it's a helmet Bee made in her art class. I  wish I had captured the fine detailing on the top and the back of it. From this angle, it looks a bit like something from a horror movie. ;)

She also made a fun ring toss game out of a one-liter pop bottle, some paper plates and some tape. She, CJ and Kirby played it today and had loads of fun.

WALLY WORLD: The kids have their l-o-n-g break between classes (3.5 hours) today, so we had time to kill. They played some math related games on the ever popular coolmath-games.com.

In one game involving ramps, gravity, momentum and other physics principles, CJ demonstrates how NOT to park a car.

The kids also played outside some. but it was really cold, so we didn't last too terribly long.

We would up going up to Wal-Mart in Lynnwood. Yee haw. There, we spent some time tooling around the toy aisles, looking for the worst toys we could find. This one was a contender. It's called a "Lots to Cuddle" baby ...

but to me it, it looks like Winston Churchill. A fine world leader, but lots to cuddle? Maybe notsomuch.

EASY OUT: In the kids' LEGO class, they're given kits to complete and when they're done, they get a photo taken of the assigned project. After CJ finished building a LEGO bird today, it was a chance for him to do a free build. How did he spend his free-form, liberated time? Well, he took about 30 seconds to craft this before raising his hand to let the instructor know he was done and calling it good.

"It's a shrunken head," he explained.

INCOMING!: Got an email today letting me know our rocket is on its way - w00t! 

Weeks ago I learned that a model SpaceX Falcon 9 (rocket) and Dragon (capsule) Flying Model Rocket Kit would be available in the future. I signed up on Amazon.com to get a notice of when it became available, and yesterday that email came. We immediately ordered a rocket and it was shipped today. We should have it next week, which is good, because we need to get going on it!

Back on the day I attended the NASA Future Forum, it was announced that NASA had granted SpaceX permission to combine a couple of upcoming missions and gave them the go-ahead to dock with the ISS sooner than expected. If all goes accordingly it will be a historic event -  the first time a commercial spaceship has visited the orbiting science laboratory.

The launch is scheduled for Feb. 7. We want to launch our rocket on the same day (weather permitting)!

CRAZY NEIGHBORS: We found out that the ISS would be orbiting overhead at 5:01 p.m., rising in the west. So at 5, the kids and I beat feet to the top of our lot and stood there, scanning the skies. The neighbors probably think we're crazy, as we can pretty frequently be spotted standing outside, scanning the skies. Next time maybe we should do it wearing tinfoil hats. ...

It wasn't until about 5:03 by my cell phone's time that I finally spotted it, to our WSW. It wasn't as bright as we're used to - I think that's because it's not quite as dark as it has been at 5 p.m. recently. In this photo, along with the kids you can see a bright planet (Jupiter or Venus, I'm ashamed to admit I'm not sure which), and just above and to the left is a light spot that's the ISS.

FYI: I used Photoshop to put the halos around the planet and ISS so you could see them better.

Another successful ISS sighting. I love how the kids never tire of seeing it. :)

MARK YOUR CALENDARS (& DON YOUR HELMETS): According to an AP report, fragments of the ill-fated Russian space probe Phobos-Grunt are expected to come back from whence they came on Jan. 15. As you'll remember, it was aiming for a Mars moon but never made it out of Earth's orbit was launched on Nov. 9. Per the AP story, "The failed spacecraft weighs 13.2 metric tons (14.6 tons). Most of that weight, about 11 metric tons (12 tons), is highly toxic fuel." Hopefully, most of that will burn up upon re-entry. Fingers crossed. ...

TRICKY DICK: Did you know, it was 40 years ago today that good ol' Richard M. Nixon announced that "the United States should proceed at once with the development of an entirely new type of space transportation system designed to help transform the space frontier into familiar territory," per NASA's "Image of the Day" info..

In this photo (image credit NASA), President Nixon and Dr. James C. Fletcher, then NASA Administrator, discussed the proposed Space Shuttle vehicle in San Clemente, Calif.

Image Credit: NASA

The real thing wound up looking a lot like this model. The Space Shuttle did, indeed, help make the space frontier (well, at least Earth's orbit) familiar territory. Ironically, that's also when and why a whole lot of people lost interest in what NASA was doing. After all, Star Trek taught us that space exploration is supposed to be "to seek out new life, and new civilization - to boldly go where no man has gone before!"