ONE MORE TIME AROUND: Our day started glued to CNN and NASA TV watching shuttle Discovery take one final fight. Piggybacked atop a specially outfitted Boeing 747, Discovery was moved from Kennedy Space Center and flown to Dulles International Airport in Washington DC. Its final wheel stop will the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.
Discovery is the first orbiter retired from NASA’s shuttle fleet. During its service, it completed 39 missions, spent exactly one year in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times, and traveled 148,221,675 miles.
In this NASA photo, Discovery bids adieu to Kennedy Space Center for a final time. It's pictured flying over the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (which I got to tour during the Mars Science Laboratory Tweetup last November).
It was fun following the move on Twitter. Tweeters from all up and down the Eastern seaboard were posting photos of the mission. NASA, of course, posted images, too. The amazing photo at the top of the page shows Discovery soaring over the U.S. Capitol building. If you click on the photo to see the large version and and look closely, you'll notice workers standing on the scaffolding around the capitol's top. Man, what a view they had!
Here, in photo from NASA's Flickr stream, the 747 is coming in for a landing at Dulles.
EARTH MOVERS: Many physical changes have been taking place on 'campus' the last few days. All of last week we had an excavator on site. In all, he dug up and hauled out 110 yards of earth from our parcel. Curious, considering the bid we were given said there were only 24 yards to remove. That's right, somehow our dirt multiplied by over 300 percent! Sure it did ... I explained to the kids that the bid was a very 'good' example of BAD MATH. And who gets to pay for that bad math? Well, that would be us. Super not awesome.
Today, the concrete contractor came and set forms for the foundation footings. Tomorrow, we should have a concrete truck here. That ought to be interesting. Right now things mostly just look like a big muddy mess and it's pretty hard to envision the end result. Oh, and the noise. Have I mentioned the noise?
Good times.
FLY TIME REVISITED: I directed the kids to each write a report about their iFLY experience of yesterday. First, we brainstormed what types of information might be included in such a report. CJ suggested the fact that they got certificates, and info about the tunnel itself. Annabelle suggested the flight school (hand signals and such), gear they had to wear and what flying felt like.With those thoughts in mind, they set about writing their reports.
Here's Annabelle's take:
My experience at iFLY was very fun and exciting. You get to fly into the air in a wind tunnel. You fly in the huge tube with fans on both sides (top and bottom). The tunnel reuses the air while it blows.CJ wrote the following:
You have to go to a school class about a 10 minutes long. you learn hand signals like stretch legs (shaped like a counter-clockwise Y), bend legs (the last one except bended fingers), chin up (press pointer finger against chin, or put it in the air), and relax (stretch out thumb & pinkie).
We finally got gear after out class and here it what they gave us: a helmet, a suit, a pair of goggles, and a pair earplugs, to block out the loud sound of the wind tunnel.
Then we finally got to fly! it felt really fun and you were like, "SO MUCH WIND! AHHHH!" and you get lifted up. One time I accidentally did a back fly. A back fly was when you flew on your back! I felt proud. And I bet mom & dad did too. There were other types of flying too. Belly fly (aka basic fly), back fly (above), sit fly (flying in a sitting position), and head down (you fly head down, I bet it's fun).
After flying, we got our flight certificate. It shows how well you did while flying that day. We walked out ready for next time we were going to fly at iFLY!
iFLY is a place where you can do a simulation of skydiving. Flying in iFLY can make you nervous, or it can can be exciting. Flying is easily the most important part of iFLY, as without it, it would be misleading.
Hand signals are also a very important part, because you wouldn't know what to do without those signals. There are four of them, the first one telling you to bend your legs, the second one telling you to straighten your legs, the third telling you to put your chin up, and the fourth telling you to relax.
The certificate is actually the most important part, because you could not graduate without it. The certificate contains six boxes to check, but I'm going to let you figure out what they are.
There are four pieces of equipment that you have to wear, first being the flight suit, second being earplugs, third being goggles, and fourth being the helmet. When flying, make sure that you do not take these off for any reason.
In the flight tunnel, there are lots of equipment, One being the air from the bottom, then there are the windows, and much much more. Without these equipment, the iFLY air tunnel would be almost useless.For some reason, CJ's made me LOL. He has an interesting writing style. Reminds me a bit of his big brother Kennedy around the same age.
SHAKE YOUR GROOVE THING: Annabelle has been asking for a "Just Dance 3" game for the Wii for weeks, and last week I guess it became old enough that there was a significant price break ($20 less than it used to be when first introduced). So, we ordered it (along with Just Dance 2). Today we tried them out for a good 45 minutes sold. It's fun and good exercise and the kids like the fact they can compete against each other while doing it.
CJ was going for broke, especially during "Hey Ya." He was definitely shaking it like a Polaroid picture (if you know the song and its lyrics, that will make sense).
DEAREST DIARY: CJ is in the process of re-reading all of his "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books (often with Annabelle reading over his shoulder).
Today, he asked me when the next book in the series might come out. I told him I didn't know and suggested he check the series' Web site. He did so and while he didn't discover any new books in the offing, by following a link to the official "Diary of ... " movie site, he learned that there will be a new "Diary of ..." movie - specifically "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" - coming out on August 3. The kids were pleased with this development.
NIMBLE FINGERS: Today, CJ asked about typing tutor-type games. I told him we could find one, no problem. I remembered the BBC had a typing tutor, and after a quick Web search I found their Dance Mat Typing, "an introduction to touch typing for children aged 7 - 11 years." The game/tool features four levels, each divided into three stages. Typists begin at Level 1 and build up your skills gradually through to Level 4.
The first lesson started off in the home row (no surprise!). Annabelle informed me she found this awkward and said it slowed her typing down. I explained "home row" theory to the kids and encouraged them to use it.
Annabelle played up to Stage 11 in Level 4. CJ had had enough learning by Level 2 of Stage 4.
Annabelle said she took an assessment as part of one of her exercises and it told her she types 28 words per minute with 97-98 percent accuracy. CJ did not report in with stats.
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