Helloween

Image: David Shankbone via Wikipedia

THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE: First thing this a.m. we fired up the TV and checked out coverage from the Northeast in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. 

Obviously, everyone who has seen any Internet or television knows, it's not pretty. Terrible flooding, mass power outages, and the death toll keeps rising. 

EarthSky had a collection of some of the 'best' (worst, really) photos and videos of Sandy's destruction I've seen to date: 
http://earthsky.org/earth/pictures-and-video-aftermath-from-hurricane-sandy

Because of Sandy, we've had the TV on a LOT more yesterday and today than we usually do. As a result, I heard this observation from Annabelle late this afternoon: ate this afternoon: "There are a lot of AARP ads."

She's right. There's also a boatload of prescription meds and medical supplies ads, too. 

HAWAIIAN STYLE: Good ol' Curiosity keeps plugging along on the Martian surface. Recently, the rover fired up its Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) to process the soil it scooped up on Oct. 15. According to a NASA press release, CheMin uses X-ray diffraction to analyze the soil. The method reads the minerals' internal structure by recording how crystals distinctively interact with X-rays.

The graphic below (courtesy NASA-JPL) shows results of the analysis. Per NASA, it reveals "the presence of crystalline feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine mixed with some amorphous (non-crystalline) material). 

What did MSL find? It concluded that the mineralogy of Martian soil is similar to weathered basaltic soils of volcanic origin in Hawaii. 

MSL being able to ID minerals in rocks and soil is important to the mission's goal of assessing past environmental conditions on the Red Planet. 

JUST PUT YOUR LIPS TOGETHER: Just before bedtime, Christian and Annabelle were both whistling away. CJ bemoaned the fact that he can't whistle.

Christian assured him he could learn. Without a beat, CJ replied, "I'm already 9. Your brain doesn't soak up much more after you're 9."   LOL!

We did a little coaching and I confessed to CJ that I can't whistle the "right" way - by blowing out. I can only whistle by inhaling. 

STITCH IN TIME: Today was our fourth trip to the fabric store in as many days. The fabric store in the days leading up to Halloween is akin to Wal-Mart on Black Friday. Not somewhere you want to be. (Actually, I don't ever really want to be at Wal-Mart). And the 'fun' for us is compounded by the fact that "our" fabric store is the only one in about a 10-mile radius in a big city, so it's a little extra BUSY. 

Today's crisis is we still couldn't find a black bow tie in this big city, so I had to make one. But now that's done. And CJ's blazer is done. I fixed his shirt (a woman's v-neck blouse transformed into a button down tuxedo type shirt), and we found sunglasses for him today. (Do you know how hard it is to find sunglasses in Seattle in late October?)

Annabelle's My Little Pony jumpsuit is done, too. Cutie marks applied, tail sewed on, she's good to go. 

Note to self and kids: Next year CeeJ and Bee are going to have to give me more than 4-5 days' notice regarding costumes if they want custom jobs.