Garden Harvest

BOUNTIFUL: We continue to pluck things off plants 'round her. Today's harvest = a couple of squash (I forget what kind, but Christian says they're cucurbita pepo, or 'grey zucchini.' Now I have to figure out what to do with them. They don't look grey to me. And I think this is going to be the extent of our broccoli, so we better savor it. 

Meanwhile, the corn and tomatoes continue to grow. Here's hoping there's enough summer left for them to be seen through to fruition. 

ON THE MOVE: Big news from the Red Planet. The Mars Science Laboratory is on the move! For the first time since touching down Aug. 5, Curiosity has put its wheels in motion and did some motoring around. 

It was announced today that NASA approved the Curiosity science team's choice to name MSL's touch down site Bradbury Landing, in honor of the  the late author Ray Bradbury. He would have been 92 years old today.

Making its first movement on the Martian surface, Curiosity's drive combined forward, turn and reverse segments. After the test drive, it was roughly 20 feet (6 meters) from the spot where it landed 16 days ago. Here is a post-run photo, taken by a front Hazard-Avoidance camera, which has a fisheye lens. 

Image:  NASA/JPL-Caltech 

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: Yesterday, we accompanied Rick on his rounds to a couple schools to the south where he had job interviews. While he got grilled, we played in neighboring parks. 

Look at how much fun we had! Here, Annabelle lies in the grass moaning, after falling off a(na actually really neat-o) spinning piece of equipment and bruising her tailbone.

And here, CJ looks like he's miserable and in the pokey. He's actually on a play structure, promise.

Though the pictures don't prove it, we did have lots of fun and got some good exercise.