When Pigs Fly

DRILL, BABY, DRILL: Today, in a borderline desperate measure to help the kids learn their multiplication tables, I decided to throw a pig at them.

It might sound harsh, but rest assured, it's a really cute pig - rotund, neon pink with a red tummy. That, and it has a fuzzy hide and fiberfill for innards - what's not to love?

The idea was to try to get a little reflex and muscle memory involved in this whole X times Y = whatever equation.

We started this morning with 6s. The kids have 6x7 down pat, as it's answer is also the answer to life, the universe and everything. 6x0, 6x1 and 6x2 are also locks. Turns out the others are all wildcards. :/

Our 'game' went like this - I'd say 6 x ___ and then lob the pig at them. They got one point for catching the pig and one point for answering the equation. Let's just say they got waaay more pig points.

"I'm so tense and sweaty," Annabelle said after a 20-minute session of 6x__s. 

Later in the day we did the pig fly game with 5x ___. Shockingly, they were better at the 6s. We'll be repeating this.

DEAL O' THE DAY: Midday we went to the big Goodwill store on Dearborn here in Seattle. There we made a great find - a complete, unopened model rocket kit with electronic remote ignition and 2 engines for just $4.99. Sweet!

We've decided we'll use it as our test rocket before we launch our SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon capsule. Here, CJ shows just how talented he is. He can hold a rocket and read a book, all with his eyes closed!

LOST AND FOUND:  We received a rather surprising call on our way home from Goodwill. It was CeeJ & Bee's oldest brother Rick, telling us his car had been stolen. Um, BUMMER!

I immediately told him that I thought he'd get it back, and to call the non emergency number for Seattle police. When I ended that call, I told CJ and Annabelle I had a feeling Rick's truck was still in our neighborhood, and that I wanted to drive around for a few minutes and look for it. We checked out a few streets within a few blocks of Rick's place, but we didn't find the truck. I called him back and learned that's because his truck had just been found - only three blocks from his house. It was parked blocking a driveway in the neighborhood, and was in the process of being towed. I picked Rick up and we went to the tow yard. The good news is, Rick got his truck back with no apparent damage in short order. The bad news is, it cost him $130 some dollars. BIG BUMMER.

A couple hours later we gifted him with a locking club for his steering wheel that came with an $1000 anti-theft guarantee. Hope that helps.

WE'VE BEEN WARNED: Last night, CJ let us know that he was going to make a move and "it's going to be expensive." He said his movie was going to be a live action story based on the game Portal 2. For props, CJ said he needed every single Portal 2-related product in the Think Geek catalog.

And so, last night, he started adding up the items. This morning, even before hitting his laptop (gasp!) he went back to the math.

BTW, first words out of mouth this morning were, "I need a green screen. How much will that cost?" I suggested to him that a green screen could be rather easily and inexpensively made. That idea was quickly dismissed by him, saying, "This needs to look LEGIT."

Oh, OK, CJ.

So he showed me a "legit" greens screen kit on Amazon.com. Amazingly, it looked suspiciously like a few overpriced green sheets. ... He agreed with my observation, and then we watched a couple of YouTube videos about building a green screen.

By this evening, he announced he was planning to scrub his movie plans, as the budget seemed too big. I told him that might be too hasty. For instance, some fools put up $250 million for the disastrous "John Carter." We encouraged him to come up with a script - or at least a good "treatment" - and then we'll talk.

Mixed Bag

A rather boxy shark created by Annabelle in LEGO class today

TO BE CONTINUED:  A couple days back, I asked the kids to write a story using a prompt from the "Voyages in English" section of Loyola Press' Web site. It read: 'You wake up one morning feeling a little strange. As you walk into the kitchen for breakfast you discover you have a super power."

The kids started stories, but in giving them instructions I specifically told them they had to include reactions from family and friends in their stories. They neglected to do so, so today, we revisited their stories. ...

CJ:

I woke up one morning feeling strange. I felt like I had water in my head, maybe even blood or lava! As I came to the kitchen for breakfast, I asked for some Reeses Puffs, but then I realized that I had the power to levitate!

I went outside to play with the Frisbee, but thanks to levitation, it brought the Frisbee to a whole new level! After a while, I went to a barn, but then I realized that this levitation had a mind of its own. It lifted the barnyard up then crashed it, it made a NASA rocket go crazy, and much much more.

I went to the hospital, So I could stop this levitation. I asked the doctor "CAN YOU GET THIS LEVITATION POWER TO GO AWAY!!!!!!??????" The doctor said,"Okay, but this will require a lot of surgery." After a while, the doctor said "Sorry, But it looks like this is impossible."

After that, I went home for my birthday party. After getting home, I saw my friends saying "HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you...." They found out I had the power to levitate things. I was about to bite my cake, but then it splattered in my face due to levitation. (Luckily not the candles.) My parents took me to the hospital, only for the doctor to tell them that he got me previously and it was impossible. After that, my parents (and friends) had to keep me in a indestructible room where there was a lot to do, for example, make a castle. (Not to mention that I was the only one in there.)

Bee:

One day I woke up and felt funny when I was heading for the kitchen to eat breakfast. I felt like I had gills! I looked at the fish tank and sorta wanted to jump right in! I asked myself, "Why do I want to jump in there?" so I went to the kitchen and ate my Alpha Bits. And right after that, looked in the mirror. I did have gills! I was so startled I almost fell over!

I decided I wanted to go swimming. I just wanted to test my gills! And so I went to the beach and dove underwater in my swimsuit and flippers. I stayed in there longer than ever before. My gills worked! Now I don't have to worry about losing any air while I'm underwater.

But when I went home my dad was shocked to see a had gills! My mom was too. My dog even sniffed my gills because she thought they smelled "fishy" get it? Fishy? OK, so when I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed, I made sure to splash water on my gills so that they wouldn't dry out overnight. When I woke up, I still had them. But I'm used to them now.

THEY WRITE THE SONGS: In music class, CJ and Annabelle each got a bit of time to experiment with writing an original composition. Here's what they came up with (visually). Since there is no staff, it's going to be hard for you to read along. ;) If I were really on the ball, I would have taped them humming the songs for you.

CARROT TOPS: Our RootVue planter continues to entertain. We planted carrot seeds back in mid-January and they've been growing well ever since. In fact, they are quite clearly outgrowing the planter, so today, we did our second thinning session. The kids each plucked a couple of juvenile carrots out and inspected them.

I re-planted the culled carrots in a box outside because maybe, just maybe, they'll continue growing.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME: Mark your calendars now, for a once-in-a-lifetime event is coming in June 5, when Venus will cross between Earth and the sun. How rare is it? There have been just 53 transits of Venus across the sun between 2000 BC and 2004 AD. The first recorded transit was in 1631, though it's likely it had been witnessed before.

NASA just released Part 1 of a short movie called "The Transit of Venus," which does a great job of describing the rare occurrence.  The kids and I watched it this afternoon.

After we watched the video, we hopped to the NASA Web site all about this year's transit: http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/

Your best bet for viewing is to head to Hawaii. (Doesn't THAT sound nice?) As it did during the last historic transit, Hawaii will be hosting astronomers and star gazers for the event. Check out the Transit of Venus trailer: http://youtu.be/T0QpXNT5AT8.  I sure hope it isn't raining here in Seattle on June 5.

GREAT GRAPHIC: Today, via Twitter, I learned about a great graphic showing "US Space Travel: A Timeline of Manned Flights. I'm not going to copy and paste it here, because I don't know who owns it - but you can take a look at it via this link: http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17gbhan0n17mejpg/original.jpg

LAUNCH MADNESS: NASA's "5 in 5" - the launch of 5 rockets in about 5 minutes was postponed Wednesday night. Called ATREX, the mission is to measure winds high above our Eastern Seaboard. (You can watch a video about the mission here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/atrex-nightlight.html)
 
The latest word is that the launch will go no earlier than the night of Saturday, March 17. A decision on whether to count for March 17 will be made late Friday afternoon. When it is a go, the ATREX mission will be web cast beginning 2 hours before the opening of the launch window at this link: http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast. The launch window opens no earlier than 11 p.m. EST and closes no later than 6:30 a.m. The public can call 757-824-2298 to confirm the launch window opening time.

Pi Day!

 

PI A LA MODE: We were up and at it early today. Lots to do - after all, there's only one Pi Day per year.

Yesterday we bought apples with apple pie (pi?) in mind and by 8:30 we were slicing, dicing, seasoning and cooking the Fuji apple pie filling.

Annabelle wanted to use the science cookie cutters we recently acquired, so we stuffed beakers and an atom with gooey apple goodness.

The house smelled great by 9 a.m. I didn't sample any of the goods, but Annabelle pretty much inhaled her atomic pi pie.

Once we got up to the kids' Shoreline school, we found that someone had staged a big Pi Day demonstration in the lobby of the school. Students were invited to measure the radius of two circles marked on the floor, and then use the 2*pi*R(adius) formula to figure out their circumference.

CJ and Annabelle each gave it a go.

The kids got their science tests back from last week. Annabelle got the 100 percent she predicted she'd get. CJ got a 90, and he wasn't very happy with it. I told him it was still an A (barely!) and that he did a good job, but if he wanted to do a better job, he should remember how he felt today and use that as motivation to do better next time. He and I both know that he totally knew the two he got wrong, so he either wasn't paying attention or he entered his answers wrong. If he takes more care next go round, he'll do better.

R2: While we worked on science and math this morning, we kept our eyes and ears on the ISS, as well. For up there, the Robonaut was being put to the test.

photo: NASA Robonaut 2  in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station

To be honest, a lot of it was pretty darn boring - static shots of Robonaut not doing much. But there were spots of great excitement, where it actually moved and performed a task. And Dan Burbank, the NASA astronaut shown working with Robonaut 2 today, made a good point - that part of Robonaut's great value to the space program is it can do tedious work, freeing live astronauts up to do other things.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: Tonight we celebrated the first televised Mariners game by having ballpark food and CeeJ and Bee's big brothers over for dinner. The Mariners looked great - they hit the ball hard and with some regularity, which would be a HUGE improvement over the 2011 season. Hope springs eternal.

Silver Ball and Silver Screen

WORLD VISION: From the latest "Highlights" magazine the kids received, we got the idea to color coffee filters with blue and green markers to resemble the Earth. It was a fragrant project, as they used Mr. Sketch markers.

Once they ink was applied, we misted the filters. Messy, messy, messy, that was. I was glad the ink wasn't permanent!

After their globes dried, this is how they looked. Pretty!

DAMN DIVISION: The exercise from the math book today was back to long division. That caused CJ some consternation and he completely forgotten how to deal with dividing a one digit number into a 2 or 3 digit number when the first digit of that larger number wasn't big enough to have the numeral divided by it. (Yeah, that's really clear - not. I know. Sorry.) But here, for instance: divide 6 into 543. For whatever reason, he wanted to add the 5 and 4 to make 9, instead of treating them like 54, as he should. And yes, he did have nearly identical examples we went over together which he could have referenced. He got panicky and weepy about it, which isn't cool, and only made it worse, so he had an opportunity, shall we say, cool down.

Once he chilled, we went over it again and he felt really silly that he a) couldn't get it himself and b) that he'd had a meltdown over it. Hopefully by tomorrow it will just be a bad memory.

FANTASY: To get some writing in today, I went to the "Voyages in English" section of Loyola Press' Web site. From there, I clicked on their 'writing prompts' ideas and selected the topic of fantasy fiction. From the list generated, I selected this prompt for the kids: "You wake up one morning feeling a little strange. As you walk into the kitchen for breakfast, you discover you have a superpower."

I told them that yes, this is schoolwork, but it is totally something they could have fun with. Before they started writing, we talked about expectations. Like, I expected they would describe what "feeling a little strange" was like. Also, there should be info about how they discovered what their superpower was, and how their friends and family reacted.

They each spent about 20 minutes to come up with their stories.

Here's CJ's:

I woke up one morning feeling strange. I felt like I had water in my head!, Maybe even blood or lava. As I came to the kitchen for breakfast, I asked for some Reese's Puffs, but then I realized that I had the power to levitate!

I went outside to play with the Frisbee, but thanks to levitation, it brought the Frisbee to a whole new level! After a while, I went to a barn, but then I realized that this levitation had a mind of its own. It lifted the barnyard up then crashed it, it made a NASA rocket go crazy, and much, much more.

I went to the hospital, so I could stop this levitation. I asked the doctor, "CAN YOU GET THIS LEVITATION POWER TO GO AWAY!!!!!!??????" The doctor said, "Okay, but this will require a lot of surgery."After a while, the doctor said "Sorry, but it looks like this is impossible." After that, I went to home for the rest of the day.

I told CJ I wanted to know what happens next, so he might have to continue his story tomorrow.

Here's Annabelle's story:

One day I woke up and felt funny when I was heading for the kitchen to eat breakfast. I felt like I had gills! I looked at the fish tank and sorta wanted to jump right in! I asked myself "Why do I want to jump in there?" so I went to the kitchen and ate my Alpha Bits. And right after that, looked in the mirror. I did have gills! I was so startled I almost fell over!


I decided I wanted to go swimming. I just wanted to test my gills! And so I went to the beach and dove underwater in my swimsuit and flippers. I stayed in there longer than ever before. My gills worked! Now I don't have to worry about losing any air while I'm underwater.

I told Annabelle she needs to continue her story, as well. They were both supposed to include how family and friends reacted to the new superpower.

SUM SENSE: The kids would have a much easier time of things if they had their multiplication tables memorized. To that end, this afternoon I found an online game called Sum Sense, where the kids are given numbers on virtual flashcards and they have to use them to form a true equation. For instance, the numbers might be 2, 9, 8, and 7 and you'd have to drag that down into place in an equation that was _ x _ = _  _ . Naturally, that would be 8 x 9 = 72. It was good practice, and I like that it was timed. CeeJ and Bee could stand to have the heat turned on under them more often.

SCREENING: This evening, after CJ's acting class, we headed to the Seattle Pinball Museum.

A couple of days ago, an email from a producer let us know that her group (Union Street Films) would be screening the short documentary they'd made about pinball ("Still Playing") there. We were interested because Annabelle and/or CJ were potentially going to be in the video, as the crew had filmed them last week at Full Tilt (another arcade). "Still Playing" is for the International Documentary Film Challenge. I checked out the challenge's Web site and watched some of last year's winners. Very interesting, well done shorts.

So right after CJ's acting class (which went "GREAT!" per him), we ripped down to the International District for the screening party. I'd cautioned the kids ahead of time about "the cutting room floor." As an example, I told them that for every 5 pictures I take, I delete 4. Harsh, but true. So they were ready to not see themselves. However, as soon as we walked in the door, one of the film crew greeted us warmly and said she was so glad we were there and she couldn't wait for us to see them in the film. Guess they made the cut. ;)

With great anticipation we crowded into the screening room upstairs at the Pinball Museum. I had to laugh, the film opened with an adult male talking about how his mom wouldn't let him go to arcades because "only the bad kids hung out there." And then ... cut to CJ and Annabelle at the arcade! LOL!

The film was clever, captivating and the footage of the kids was cute. Annabelle was in several shots - my favorite was one where there was a long row of pinball machines and she was standing in front of one in distance, dramatically draping herself over it after some apparent bit of bad luck.

As the documentary ended, CJ asked loudly if he could get a copy. :) He was assured that that would happen down the road. Unfortunately, until after the contest judging (in May), it won't be available for public viewing. Naturally, we'll let you know if/when it's available for the viewing public.

Flight of Fancy

KICKIN' BACK: We had a pretty low-key weekend. It rained and rained and rained, so we had lots of indoor time. Above is a shot of a couple of really old (circa mid to early 1990s) toys of Rick and Ken's that Annabelle was playing with this weekend. "We're all relaxing with our hands behind our heads," she  explained to me.

THE FALCON HAS LANDED: Well, at least in Magnolia, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are ready for liftoff. A couple months back we bought a rocketry kit wanting to be ready for the inaugural flight of Falcon 9 and Dragon to the ISS, originally slated for Feb. 7.

Well, that launch date came and went, as did a March liftoff. The latest is their mission might not go until late April. We're thinking we might not wait until then, and do a test flight sooner (though not to the ISS). Stay tuned.

TAKING FLIGHT: Today it was raining sideways and six shades of gray. Just ugly. What to do? Well, The Museum of Flight is the perfect rainy (or any) day destination.

"Every day is an airshow" is a tagline for the MoF, but interestingly enough, what's the first thing we see when pull into the parking lot today? A jaw dropping automobile. Specifically a Lamborghini LP 700-4 wrapped in Boeing Dreamline graphics was parked in the lot for a press opportunity.  

The Seattle Times reported on it, here: "Lamborghini's low-flying Dreamliner." The car is made of carbon fiber which is also used in the 787 Dreamliner. Today, when we went a Googling, trying to figure out what the heck we were seeing, we learned that there is an advanced composite structures laboratory at the University of Washington, thanks, in large part ($) to Lamborghini. Who knew?

Once inside, we were dazzled, as always. One of our destinations today was the Control Tower area, where you can monitor traffic at Boeing Field as well as every flight in progress over North America. CJ took the job seriously.  

In the hallway leading to the control tower, there are lots of great displays about the history of flight. We watched a neat-o video about the Gossamer Albatross, a human-powered aircraft built by aeronautic engineer Dr. Paul MacCready's AeroVironment. 

It's an ingenious aircraft, powered by a human pedaling like crazy. In the video we watched, it said it requires 3 HP to keep the craft aloft - and we humans just can't sustain that output for very long. Despite that, a Gossamer Albatross did manage to cross the English Channel (22.2 mi) in 2 hours and 49 minutes. Its top speed was 29 km/h (18 mph), and its average altitude was 1.5 metres (5 ft). It's a wild looking craft - it looks like it's covered in plastic wrap! 

We also had to visit the World War I and II crafts. We spent most of our time upstairs, with the WWI planes today.

The kids just LOVE this multi-layered map, where they can check out battle lines and more.

I leave you with this - Miss Annabelle getting her astronaut on. :)