Party Time

PARTY ON: This evening marked the national Night Out, an evening to heighten crime prevention awareness, increase neighborhood support in anti-crime efforts, and unite communities. 

Naturally, this meant I spent all day in the kitchen, as everyone knows the sure way to a crime free neighborhood is me making two kinds of deviled eggs (wasabi and bleu cheese & bacon), shrimp ceviche, hot wings and dozens of Star Wars cookies.

PICKING OUT THE PIECES: Amazement in the aftermath of Mars Science Laboratory's landing continues. Late Monday night, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a phenomenal photo. It shows components of the MSL landing strewn across the Martian landscape in Gale Crater. 

In the left center of the photo is the Curiosity rover. (Photo courtesy of NASA, obviously)

If you look closely at the photo, you can see the white spot that is the sonic parachute that slowed Curiosity during descent. They're about 2020 feet away from the rover. The back shell that protected the rover is nearby the parachute. The epic sky crane that so carefully and precisely lowered MSL to the Martian surface was found not too far away, and in the opposite direction, the heat shield which protected it from 3,800-degree F temps during descent was located. 

Happily, this mission has garnered the attention of millions of people around the world. And while people watched MSL land (including a huge audience watching it play out live on the large screens in Times Square), stars were born. Including "Mohawk Guy," a Mohawk-sporting Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer named Bobak Ferdowski. 

Image: AP/NASA

"Mohawk guy" did such a wonderful job of smashing the visual stereotype of mission controllers from the Apollo days (the last time, really, that people paid attention to mission control). 

In the "fun facts" file, turns out Bobek has a very local tie for us. He's a Husky! Ferdowski graduated with a bachelor's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Washington in 2001 before going on to MIT. 

HAPPY CAMPER: Today was Day 2 of Annabelle's week long "AstroGals" camp at The Museum of Flight. I was much happier with her report today than I was yesterday. Yesterday it sounded like all day was daycare-ish games. She's there to learn, gol darn it, not have fun! ;) Just kidding. Kind of. But seriously, I had high hopes and expectations that this camp would live up to its billing - or at least its name.

I was happy when she came home today with a Gemini model (complete with parachute) and tales of  Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, the first female astronaut. That's more like it. 

ON THE DOTTED LINE: Today, as soon as registration opened, I signed the kids up to continue classes in the Family Learning Program at the Southwest Community Center in West Seattle. 

That means Annabelle will be back to her Bollywood dancing (such fun!), CJ will continue his programming class (very cool!) and they will be taking a theater class together, which will be great (let's hope!).