Wings, The King, and Other Things

FLUTTERBY: We spent most of the weekend outside. Christian and I put in a pair of 11 hour days working on the addition, putting the plywood decking down over the ceiling joists, to serve as a substrate for our roofing system which we hope to have in place before the rains return.


I don't know if the first weekend of July is peak butterfly season, but man oh man did we see lots of them this weekend. I think I saw more butterflies over the past two days than I have the two previous years. 


FIT FOR A KING: Starting about last Friday, CJ remembered that we have a copy of "Are You Hungry Tonight: Elvis' Favorite Recipes," and he became semi-re-obsessed with it. In particular, he was fixating on the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. 


We rounded up the ingredients (easy - just banana, peanut butter, bread and butter) and made it on Sunday morning. CJ mashed the banana while I lightly toasted the bread.

Then he spread the banana on one slice, peanut butter on the other, and we grilled it in a pan with melted butter.

 We cut it diagonally and put fancy toothpicks in it, just like in the book.

CJ thought it was delicious. I'll have to take his word for it, because he wasn't sharing!


DAWN: We actually did some school-ish work today. I pulled out some of the sheets a friend had picked up for me on your tour of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They were both about NASA's Dawn mission.


CJ did the crossword puzzle, while Bee completed the color-by-number.

Then, they both hopped to the Web site all about NASA's Dawn mission. Launched back on Sept. 27, 2007, Dawn's mission is to characterize the conditions and processes of two of the largest protoplanets remaining intact since their formation - Ceres and Vesta in the asteroid belt.


Here (from of Gregory J. Whiffen of JPL) is a simulated view of Earth from Dawn. It gives you an idea of just how far from "home" Dawn is. 

Right now, after having spent nearly five months surveying the giant asteroid Vesta, Dawn spacecraft has begun its  final major science data-gathering phase, orbiting Vesta at an average altitude of 420 miles (680 kilometers) above the surface. Around August 26, Dawn is expected to break away from Vesta's gravitational hold and depart for the dwarf planet Ceres. That journey is expected to take 2.5 years. 


The kids spent some time poking around the Dawn Web site especially for kids. There, they each read a story (Professor Starr's Dream Trip), and played an online game, "Charge Simulator." 


Annabelle also discovered a board game on their Web site (Race to the Asteroid Belt - PDF here), so we printed it out and the kids played it. I was up on the roof working while they were playing, but based on the noises I heard coming from the house (squeals of delight and disappointment), I think they enjoyed it. 

RAINMAKER: We've had four days in a row of mostly sunny weather, which means we've had to actually (gasp!) water our vegetable garden. The corn, carrot and pumpkin plants seem to love this warmer weather.

THEIR LITTLE PONIES: The kids had some fun messing around with the fun My Little Pony creator by artist/coder General Zoi this evening.


Here's Bee's creation. She named it Sapphire Star.

And here is CJ's version of the pony "Cupcakes" (a fan fiction pony created sometime in late 2010 or early 2011, he tells me).