Big Bang Theory

YOU ARE HERE: This morning we finally got around to blowing up the universe. It's something we've been meaning to do since CJ's birthday.

You'll all be relieved to know that in this instance, the universe was a 12-inch Beach Ball Universe. Annabelle was happy she and CeeJ could have a hand and a lung in getting it up to size. "We were the Big Bang!" she declared.

According to NASA, 'This beach ball portrays an image of the oldest light in he universe, a direct remnant of the Big Bang. This light was emitted by hydrogen gas 380,000 years after the Big Bang, long before stars and galaxies formed."

In case you're wondering where you are relative to the ball, the Earth is in the dead center, and the red band around the middle is the Milk Way Galaxy. The full sky map was produced from data collected by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) between 2001 and 2006.

The ball came with some literature which allowed us to find some great online resources that correspond with the universe, like this cool graphic showing how things came to be (at least per NASA scientists) ...

And then there is a great movie, again compliments of NASA, showing the birth of the universe: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/030651/030651_1280.mov

DEEP BLUE SEAS: We also took some time revisiting swag gleaned from HuskyFest a couple weeks back, one item being an info card with 3D graphics about the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's ship Okeanos Explorer, which was commissioned in 2008 in Seattle.

The former Naval surveillance ship is now a research vessel, bringing live images from seafloor to scientists ashore, as well as classrooms, newsrooms and living rooms. We watched astoundingly clear underwater footage of sophisticated ocean-diving robots at work here: http://interactiveoceans.washington.edu/visions11/video

More information about the program is available here: oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?: Saturday afternoon it was flashback time. The blast from the past came in the form of 1984's "Ghostbusters"  Christian took the kids to see it at Cinerama, a theater originally opened in 1963, rescued from demolition, and then renovated by current owner Paul Allen. They all gave the theater thumbs up.

Cinerama can show 35mm, 70mm and original Cinerama format films using the three-projector system, and the place has some sci-fi film artifacts from the private collection of Allen. Ghostbusters is showing as part of the first annual Seattle Science Fiction Film Festival. We also have tickets for the Wednesday evening showing of "Flash Gordon,"  I had to laugh and agree with a comment I saw regarding the YouTube video of the theme song (by Queen). It read, "This is one of the worst movies ever made.....And I loved every minute of it."

POTTED: A whole lot of planting and transplanting was going on here today.

Per instructions on the Lupine packet, before planting them, we soaked the seeds to soften them and give them a bit of water reserve. The seeds came from Husky Fest, and the flowers they produce should be a lovely UW purple. Woof! :)

We moved the "pizza garden" veggies the kids started with their "Grow'ums" kit a few weeks back. We've got peppers, basil and oregano, and the Roma tomato plants are already going gangbusters.

Today, they started watermelon, Carnival (multi-colored) carrots, and more tomatoes.

While the kids toiled in the soil at the kitchen counter, I cued up The Garden Song, a pretty little ditty, this one version by good ol' John Denver.

THE 'WORKS: Today was blustery and gray, and this morning before 7 a.m. I was thinking it might be a good day to go to Gameworks, since I knew about a half-off play coupon through Goldstar.com and a great Restaurant.com coupon as well. I hadn't done anything more than think about it (no computer, no uttered suggestion), but within 5 minutes of waking this morning, out of nowhere CJ asked me, "When's the next time we're going to Gameworks?"

Great minds think alike, I guess. ;) And so, we went.