Laying Low

BETTER DAYS: Yesterday it was obvious CJ was coming down with a cold. Today it was in full bloom, which was a Major Bummer, since Friday is his Scratch programming class.

By the time we got down to West Seattle at 10:30 or so, it was apparent that having him hacking and sliming in a small room filled with computers and people would be a bad idea, so CJ sat out (see photo above). We read a really interesting book, "Tombs and Treasures," but he would have MUCH rather been in his programming class.

Meanwhile, Annabelle enjoyed every minute of her Bollywood class.

She has a practice tomorrow afternoon to help get ready for the Bollywood dance performance at the NW Folklife festival a couple of weeks from now.

UPDATE: I'm sure you're dying to know how meal beetle Runt is doing. He/she/it is alive and well - and it's a bit bigger and a LOT darker than it was a few days ago.

Two Air Force Ones

PRESIDENTIAL PLANES: This morning we were going to make a quick stop at The Museum of Flight in south Seattle just to drop something off. We ended up having a bit of an adventure!

As long as we were there, I thought we should pop over to the Space Gallery to see what was new in relation to the Space Shuttle Trainer that will be installed in the months to come.

As soon as we walked in the Gallery doors, a couple of very friendly volunteers immediately engaged us. One of them said something about Air Force One arriving this morning. Knowing that a vintage Air Force One was in the museum's airpark all the time, my mind immediately remembered that President Obama was coming to town today for a fund raiser and a speech, and that meant THE Air Force One would be arriving. I never thought about it landing at Boeing Field! The volunteer informed me it was due to arrive at 11:45 a.m. - that was just about 90 minutes away. "Well, that changes everything!" I said with a smile. (That smile quickly turned to a grimace when I realized I hadn't brought my good camera along on the visit since we were just supposedly dropping something off. Drat!) 

With that bit of news, we decided to hang around for awhile. In the spirit of the day, we toured the Special Air Mission (SAM) 970, the first presidential jet plane, which is now on display at The Museum of Flight. The specially built Boeing 707-120 was delivered in 1959 to replace Eisenhower's Super Constellation.

Walking through it meant we were treading in the steps of  presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, as well as Nikita Khrushchev and Henry Kissinger. Oh, and we were treading on the paw prints of Johnson's beagles, as well. They used to fly aboard the jet, and even had their own doggie door to the presidential conference room.

Since we were the only ones on board, we took our time looking around and spent a few minutes ogling all the switches and dials in the cockpit.

Though SAM 970 was replaced as the presidential plane in 1962, it remained in the presidential fleet, carrying VeePs and VIPs until June of 1996.

As we were walking away from the vintage Air Force One, I couldn't help but start humming, "Hail to the Chief." And, naturally, that led to a conversation about the President of the United State's "theme song."

I told the kids when I hum the song, I can't help but think of the made up lyrics from Jack Lemmon's character in "My Fellow American" (1996): "Hail to the Chief, he's the chief, and he needs hailing! He is the chief, so everybody hail like crazy!"

For whatever reason, that always stuck with me. ... CJ and Annabelle found it hysterical, especially James Garner's alternate version in the same movie: "Hail to the Chief, if you don't I'll have to kill you. I am the chief, so you better watch your step, you bastards."

Ah yes, high comedy. ;)

Incredibly, until this afternoon, I don't think I've ever head the official lyrics to the song. I pulled it up on YouTube and found a version with the correct lyrics.  And now, in the interest of true education, here they are:

Hail to the Chief we have chosen for the nation,
Hail to the Chief! We salute him, one and all.
Hail to the Chief, as we pledge cooperation
In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call.
Yours is the aim to make this grand country grander,
This you will do, that's our strong, firm belief.
Hail to the one we selected as commander,
Hail to the President! Hail to the Chief!

According to the Library of Congress, the song borrows lyrics from Sir Walter Scott's poem "The Lady of the Lake" from 1810. Scott's poem included the line "Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances!" 

By 1812, a tune called "Hail to the Chief" was staged in Philadelphia's New Theater, with music "partly composed, and partly selected, by Mr. J. A. Jones." The Library of Congress reports, "Among the tunes that Jones selected to include was James Sanderson's 'Hail to the Chief,' written for one of the London productions." "Hail the Chief" gained popularity in the U.S. and it was Julia Tyler, the wife of President John Tyler, who first requested the anthem be played specifically to announce the President's arrival on official occasions.

Where were we? Ah yes, THE Air Force One, and President Obama. ...

After checking out a few of the kids' favorite exhibits in the main building, we headed to the museum's cafe, which has a wall of glass fronting the runway at Boeing Field. It was sunny enough for us to sit out on the patio and wait for the president's plane.

Lo and behold, just a minute or two after the appointed time, Air Force One approached from the south.  You can see it approaching here. (In case you're wondering, that's part of a Boeing WB-47E Stratojet in the foreground. I thought that would make for a much more interesting photo that just a plane in the distance.)

There was a pretty good crowd on hand to see the plane land - not to mention all KINDS of security, including a bomb-sniffing dog working the parking lot. 

I was glad Christian was able to escape work (just a couple miles up the road) to see it land along with us.

This shot (with no zoom) is about the closest we got to the President. Do you think he saw us waving!? :)

We stuck around for awhile and watched (from a few football fields away) them push the stairs up to the plane (in the distance, at about 10 o'clock in this photo).

Christian caught this video on his cell phone ...

And in a good news/bad news scenario, while Christian got stuck in traffic on his way out, he did get to see the presidential motorcade heading from Boeing Field to a fund raiser in Medina.

All in all, it was pretty cool to be able to walk through the very first Air Force One and watch the very latest Air Force One land all within one hour, eh?

COMMERCIAL TIME OUT: In addition to the Air Force Ones (!), we managed to squeeze in some other sights at The Museum of Flight. For instance, we checked out the latest in the still-evolving Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.

A good portion of the current displays there are dedicated to the future of spaceflight and commercial companies' roles. The kids sat on a bench and watched videos of private enterprise tests and lift offs, including from SpaceX, Blue Origin and Boeing.

Thanks to a big poster near the video monitor, we learned that Sacramento-based, Aerojet has been building rocket engines since 1942, and that Aerojet's first rockets were Jet Assist Take Off rockets for the U.S. military during World War II.

Aerojet has been involved in the U.S. space program since its infancy, providing engines for both the Gemini and Apollo missions. In 2002, the company purchased Redmond Rocket Center, a company based in Redmond (just east of Seattle). RRC had been home to the Rocket Research Company, which had been building rocket engines since 1962. Today, Aerojet Redmond specializes in Attitude and Orbit Control Systems for precise maneuvers in space. Thrusters designed and built in Redmond have been used on Titan Missiles, on NASA's Voyager probes, on Viking Mars landers and more recently on the Mars Science Laboratory! In fact, right now Aerojet Redmond rockets are providing in-space propulsion for MSL, keeping it on course. And the sky crane that will help lower Curiosity to the Red Planet's surface will use Aerojet engines, as well. How 'bout that.

Now, I wonder what we'd have to do to get a tour of their facility. Hmm ...

And in other "commercial" news, over in the main building the kids always *have* to visit the exhibit about old time television in the way-back days of the Apollo missions. For whatever reason, they love watching snippets of vintage commercials and television shows ... like "The Banana Splits," as pictured below.

Buggy!

GRATUITOUS DOG SHOT: I rarely post pictures of Kirby, but in case you're wondering how she spends her days, the shot above just about sums it up.

THE FAB ONE: Big BIG news here. We have a BEETLE! That's right, a nurtured-tenderly-from-a-mealworm-through-pupal-stage-to-a-full-fledged-adult MEALWORM BEETLE (more formally, Tenebrio molitor).

His name was String when he was a mealworm, but Annabelle thinks a new name may be more fitting. His new name is Runt. Guess we'll have to wait to see how much he/she/it grows before we know if that's an appropriate name.

In less inspiring news, it appears the last of CJ's waxworms is dead. He looks black and, well, crispy. However, CJ isn't ready to pull the plug for fear that the creature might just be in a morphing process.
 
As he put his waxworm back away on its shelf, CJ declared "I'm going to give him a (sun) shade just in case he's going through a rough pupa (stage)."

Good idea, CJ.

CARTER AND THE KING: I woke up thinking about King Tut this morning. That's not so random, right?

Well really, it's not *as* random if you live in Seattle right now, as magazines, billboard, bus ads and more trumpet the arrival of the exhibition of the Boy King's artifacts beginning May 24.

Anyway, imagine my surprise upon firing the PC up this a.m., I learned, via the Google Doodle, that today was the 138th anniversary of Howard Carter's birth. Carter was the archaeologist who discovered Tut's tomb in 1922. No wonder I woke up thinking about Tut! ;)

photo: The Library of Congress (USA) via Wikipedia

Via the Christian Science Monitor site, we watched this short video, "Howard Carter: Tutankhamun's Wonderful Things."  The video was photos with captions set to some very cool Egyptian music. The kids and I dug it (get it? get it? DUG the video about the archaeologist?!).

Afterward, we hopped over to BrainPOP. There, we watched the video "Egyptian Pharaohs."

It told about the immensely powerful kings and queens of ancient Egypt, how they were worshiped as gods, and how their authority was sometimes a double-edged sword. (For instance, if you are god like and disease or drought hits your people, they might be pissed at you.).  We also learned a bit about scepters, crooks, flails, sarcophagi and more. The video also covered how the Egyptian monarchy finally came to an end when Cleopatra the VII committed suicide.

In keeping with our theme, when we got our exercise in doing 45 minutes of "Just Dance 3," we had to attempt the choreography to "Night Boat to Cairo" by the band Madness.
We have tickets to see the Tut exhibit on May 28. Can't wait!

CHEEZED OFF: This afternoon we took a 'field trip' to the Grocery Outlet. That's always interesting, as you just never know you will find there. Actually, you DO know that you will find items at or near their pull date, as well as cast-offs-from-other-stores, plus some damaged packaging items.

The find that most intrigued the kids today was a special edition box of Cheez-Its featuring three different flavors. The marketing gimmick was to try to get consumer to sample them and then vote for their favorites. Well CJ thinks Cheez-Its are The Best Food Ever, so his curiosity was piqued. He studied the box and was crestfallen to learn that the national voting was over. Sigh.

I quickly buoyed his spirits by telling him we could do our own vote. He was all over that and immediately started formulating election rules and regulations. When we got home, he wrote them down.

The rules:
1: You may only vote for the top 3 candidates.
2: You may not vote for multiple candidates.
3: All voters must vote privately.
4: All voters must enter their sub(mission) by code.
5: All voters must vote in the bathroom.

That's right, people. Only the FINEST voting booth for you 'round these parts! (BTW, CJ reminded each and every one of us to lock the bathroom door behind us for the Ultimate in privacy.)

In case you're wondering, the "top 3 candidates" were the flavors in the box: Baby Swiss, Cheddar Jack, and Colby.  And the "sub by code" he spoke of was the number real contest voters were supposed to text to the Cheez-It people to register their vote.

Per CJ's specs, I printed out four ballots. They looked like this ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Only vote for 1 of the following:
Baby Swiss – BSW1
Cheddar Jack – CHJ1
Colby – COL1
Write your submission by CODE here: ____________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We voted in youngest to oldest order, per CJ. After the polling was over, he fetched the box from the top of the toilet tank and brought it to the kitchen to read the results. The first ballot he pulled out was for BSW1; the second was for COL1; the third was CHJ1. The fourth ballot would be the tie breaker! (So suspenseful, isn't it?!)  And the winner was ... COLBY!!!!

Three voters chose to reveal their private picks; Annabelle voted for Colby, CJ for Cheddar Jack, I voted Baby Swiss. By process of elimination, we know that Christian voted for Colby, too, though he refuses to divulge the contents of his private ballot. :)

Testing 1, 2, 3

HAMMER TIME: This afternoon, CJ and Annabelle took on a monumental construction project. They built the Space Needle!

No, not the original, but a neat-o LEGO kit sent to us by a fellow space fan. Somewhat ironically in a geographic sense, she (who lives in Pennsylvania) got it for us across the country, in Washington DC at NASA headquarters. Long way for the Space Needle to travel, considering it's about 2 miles from our house. :)

The kids put the kit together quickly. I can tell their weekly LEGO class has helped them read and follow directions much more quickly than they used to.

While they were building, I figured the kids needed some construction music. I cued up some old P, P & M. Music to the ears. :)


BEANSTALK: Among (many!) other things, we planted green beans a couple of weeks ago. Seemingly overnight, they've burst onto the scene!

HANGING OUT: Long day on this end. We left home during rush hour this a.m. to make our way to Shoreline. CJ was due to take the Measurement of Student Progress test for the first time. (It's an annual thing we Washingtonians do for students in grades 3-8).

We got to the testing site plenty early so I had CJ get his adrenaline going by running around outside for awhile. At 9:30 I walked CJ to his testing room and wished him luck. We found out that the reading test would be this morning, followed by math in the afternoon.

While CJ tested, Annabelle and I hung out.

Most of our time was spent waiting in the school library, where we got a number of things done. Annabelle handcrafted a couple of Mother's Day cards (not pictured here so no surprises are ruined), and I got caught up on some reading and calendaring (is that a word). I had a backlog of NASA-related webinars and such I wanted to get written down before the dates passed.

If you're at all curious about NASA's fabulous webinars, check out their Web site here:

http://neon.psu.edu/webinars/

CJ did get a one-hour break for lunch. When I asked the kids what they wanted for lunch, I was meaning the question to be, as in what type of food. They took it to mean McDonald's. Doh! Oh well, I figured Big Test Day was a special event, so I caved. 

CJ ordered chicken nuggets and at the counter I asked for honey mustard sauce. CJ is a super picky eater and to date he's been a strictly ketchup guy. After one tiny dip in the honey mustard, he declared, "I have a new favorite continent!" 

That's right, the "continent" of Honey Mustard. 

MEANWHILE, TOWARD MARS: Did you realize that there are less than 100 days left until Curiosity reaches Mars?! It's still on target for an August 6 landing.

In this artist's rendition (courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech), the rover is touching down onto the surface, suspended on a bridle beneath the spacecraft's descent stage (at the top of the picture). The stage at the top controls the rover's rate of descent with four of its eight throttle-controllable rocket engines.

Three nylon tethers attach the rover to the stage, as does an umbilical providing a power and communication connection. When touchdown is detected, the bridle will be cut at the rover end, and the descent stage flies off to stay clear of the landing site.

The latest info on the mission is available at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

Supermoon and Sunshine

WEEKEND REWIND: This weekend brought some much welcomed sun, and we made the most of it.

Saturday evening we took advantage of CJ & Annabelle's Mariners Kids Club vouchers, which scored us tickets for them to the game for just $1 apiece. Christian and I had to buy our way in at full price, but we got cheap seats, so it wasn't too big a hit overall.

Since we knew we'd be sitting up high, I suggested to Christian that he go ahead and get the very top row in the stadium on the west side. I like sitting there because not only can you see the field, but you also have a great view of the Space Needle, downtown, Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. Not bad for cheap seats, eh?

In case you're wondering, the little circular lights over the Space Needle (above) and hovering over Puget Sound (below) are reflections of the stadium lights in the glass I was shooting through.

Before the game started, there was a quick award ceremony. A local kid was a winner in a national essay contest with the theme: “2012 Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life.” Jackie Robinson's daughter Sharon Robinson was on hand to present the award. CJ got a thrill out of that, because he's a big Jackie Robinson fan.

Here's a taken from really far away shot of Ms. Robinson with the essayist, McCrae Leith, and Chone Figgins of the Mariners.

Now that we know about the annual MLB Breaking Barriers essay contest, we can keep it on our radar for next year.

King Felix was pitching Saturday evening, so we were hoping for the best, and FINALLY we got to see the Mariners win. It honestly feels like forever since we've been at a game that they won. The game went relatively quickly - Felix only gave up one hit and not a single run. Meanwhile the Mariners scored 7, so it was fun to watch them romp around the bases for a change.

We made a quick exit in the ninth and on our way home we passed tiny Ursula Judkins Park at the west end of the Magnolia Bridge. The scene there was jaw dropping - it was a circus of cars parked every which way and more tripods than I've ever seen in one spot. I immediately said, "That's right! It's supermoon," the  once-a-year chance to see the moon as it reaches its closest spot to the Earth at the same time its in its full phase. 

I asked Christian to zip up to hilltop Ella Bailey Park, which also has a good Space Needle vista. We weren't there more than two minutes when the big, orange full moon made its appearance.

We were lucky to see it at all - there were many clouds in the sky, but the supermoon revealed itself for just a minute or two between bands of clouds. It was quite a sight to see!

SUNNY SUNDAY: Though we worked around the house most of the day we did escape for a waterfront dinner - $4.99 worth of fried chicken and some strawberries. Cheaper than most waterfront dining experiences, to be sure. Our driftwood seats weren't the most comfortable, but it was hard to beat the view - sailboats, ferries, cargo ships and more passing by.

Dining al fresco isn't without its perils, however. One dog owner decided her dog was the exception to the "No Dogs" sign at the park, and apparently her dog was also not subject to that silly little leash law thing, either. And so, her dog (predictably) came to join us for dinner. Have I mentioned her dog was about a 90-pound pit bull? So, so great to see that dog heading for Annabelle and her plate of food. Equally awesome to see Christian wrestling the dog for Annabelle's dinner. (Frankly, I would have LET the dog have the chicken!)

Fortunately no one would up with wounds or stitches. I must say, I don't blame the dog AT ALL. In fact, as soon as we sat down and I spotted the off leash dog, I said to Christian, "We're going to be getting a visit." I mean, what dog doesn't want chicken? Too bad the dog has such an irresponsible owner. 

IN CONCRETE: Today, the pad for our new carport 'floor' was poured. Christian explained some of the goings on to the kids. (Nice paint job on the cement truck's drum, BTW.)

 Naturally, before it set up too much, CeeJ and Bee had to carve their initials into it.

CRAMMING: Tomorrow CJ has to take the MSP, short for Measurement of Student Progress, a standardized test all kids grade 3-8 have to take. We had some sample questions to study with. CJ had no problem with the math and reading involved, which was good to see. The only hiccoughs came with the weird wording of some of the questions. I told him that part of taking any standardized test will always involve trying to figure out what it is, exactly, is being asked of you.

We talked about test taking strategies  and things like process of elimination, best guesses, pacing, making sure you don't skip any questions, and so on. It's going to be a loooong day for him. Testing is from 9:30 to 2:30. Obviously, that's a pretty normal school day for most kids, but CJ isn't normal. ;)

That said, I'm sure he'll find a way to muddle through.