Pi Day!

 

PI A LA MODE: We were up and at it early today. Lots to do - after all, there's only one Pi Day per year.

Yesterday we bought apples with apple pie (pi?) in mind and by 8:30 we were slicing, dicing, seasoning and cooking the Fuji apple pie filling.

Annabelle wanted to use the science cookie cutters we recently acquired, so we stuffed beakers and an atom with gooey apple goodness.

The house smelled great by 9 a.m. I didn't sample any of the goods, but Annabelle pretty much inhaled her atomic pi pie.

Once we got up to the kids' Shoreline school, we found that someone had staged a big Pi Day demonstration in the lobby of the school. Students were invited to measure the radius of two circles marked on the floor, and then use the 2*pi*R(adius) formula to figure out their circumference.

CJ and Annabelle each gave it a go.

The kids got their science tests back from last week. Annabelle got the 100 percent she predicted she'd get. CJ got a 90, and he wasn't very happy with it. I told him it was still an A (barely!) and that he did a good job, but if he wanted to do a better job, he should remember how he felt today and use that as motivation to do better next time. He and I both know that he totally knew the two he got wrong, so he either wasn't paying attention or he entered his answers wrong. If he takes more care next go round, he'll do better.

R2: While we worked on science and math this morning, we kept our eyes and ears on the ISS, as well. For up there, the Robonaut was being put to the test.

photo: NASA Robonaut 2  in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station

To be honest, a lot of it was pretty darn boring - static shots of Robonaut not doing much. But there were spots of great excitement, where it actually moved and performed a task. And Dan Burbank, the NASA astronaut shown working with Robonaut 2 today, made a good point - that part of Robonaut's great value to the space program is it can do tedious work, freeing live astronauts up to do other things.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: Tonight we celebrated the first televised Mariners game by having ballpark food and CeeJ and Bee's big brothers over for dinner. The Mariners looked great - they hit the ball hard and with some regularity, which would be a HUGE improvement over the 2011 season. Hope springs eternal.