Gone Missing

ALL APOLOGIES: It's been DAYS since I've posted and I have a whole litany of excuses. They are as follows. ...

First, we left town midday on Wednesday to head south to Vancouver, where we're hosting my parents' 50th anniversary party Saturday afternoon.

Upon arriving in Vancouver, it has been a whirlwind of workworkworkworkwork. Thursday and Friday I was baking by 6:30 a.m. and wrapped up about 15 hours later. I'm wiped.

Whilst I've been preoccupied with marshmallows and powdered sugar (So. Much. Fondant), the kids have managed to keep themselves entertained and amused and they've had a few short field trips (three parks and the newish Vancouver Public Library).

Tomorrow is party day and after that I will collapse. And then revive and upon the return to 'normal' we'll be back to the blog in full force, with photos and everything!!!

Happy weekend to y'all!

Reach for the Stars

PARK IT: Yesterday, while I was out running errands, Christian took the kids to the park. Because of the long, drawn out construction project here, we haven't spent nearly as much time at parks as we need to/should be. Sigh. 

LIVE, FROM MARS: This afternoon, the kids and I tuned into NASA TV, which isn't exactly unusual, but what we were watching was a first in our solar system's history. We listened to a song being broadcast for the first time from the surface of Mars. Pretty cool.

The tune, by will.i.am, was called "Reach for the Stars."  will.i.am. is a HUGE advocate of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and math) education, and he puts lots of time and money into promoting it and inspiring students. "Today is about inspiring young people to lead a life without limits placed on their potential and to pursue collaboration between humanity and technology through STEAM education.  I know my purpose is to inspire young people, because they will keep inspiring me back," will.i.am said this afternoon.

IMAGE: NASA/JPL

In addition to debuting the song, the hour-long program was full of good news and inspiration. Astronaut Leland Melvin talked about how he overcame barriers and naysayers to become an astronaut, and Adam Steltzner, head of  Curiosity's sky crane team, talked about his circuitous route to his current job. And it was announced that will.i.am's i.am.angel Foundation and Discovery Education are teaming up to bring a groundbreaking youth engagement initiative to bring STEAM education to millions of students nationwide. The new program is called  i.am.STEAM and it's designed to inspire and cultivate the next generation of problem-solvers and innovators. 
Today will.i.am urged students in attendance not to just find a job, but to make their own jobs - to be developers. 

Follow this link and you can see some of will.i.am's remarks, and the song's debut: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1131


IN BRIEF: This one's going to be short. I've been awake since four a.m. making lists and lists and lists in my head. And we had an early trip to Kent this morning, tagging along with Rick to yet another job interview - and the happy news is he was offered the job, hooray! The rest of the day was hunting and gathering and stacking and sorting stuff for my parents' 50th anniversary party on Saturday. Won't be long now. Tomorrow we'll be hitting the road to head south to continue party prep down there. 

One Giant Loss for Mankind

SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAS HAPPENED: Saturday afternoon we were (passively) watching the U.S. championships of the Little League World Series. Christian was in the addition hanging dry wall and when Tennessee seemed to have California creamed, I decided to run over to Fred Meyer for who knows what. Anyway, as I'm crossing the Ballard Bridge, I got a text message from Christian. It read, "Neil Armstrong has died."

Gulp.

Apparently CJ has been watching the LLWS broadcast when they broke in to announce Armstrong's passing. And because he knows all about the Apollo program and the moon landing, he knew that the flash notice was a bad thing. Apparently he went to find Christian and reported, "Something terrible has happened," and said that Neil Armstrong had died.

Because of how I found out about Armstrong's passing, I do believe I will forever think of Neil Armstrong each and every time I cross that bridge. He was - and is - a true American hero.

I think the world 'hero' is over used. I'm a bigger sports fan than most, for sure, and there are phenomenal sports stars, but unless they're carrying someone from a burning building, I don't think I'd call any of them a hero.

But if you want to know what a hero looks like, check THIS out.  It's a video of Armstrong test driving the lunar landing module. Before it crashes into a fiery inferno, watch, for him to eject at about 10 o'clock.


You might have to watch it a couple of times before you pick up his ejection. It's amazing that he's alive, let alone that he was humankind's first moon walker.

TUNE IN: Tomorrow, history will be made. In the history of music here on Earth, countless singles have been released. But never in the history of mankind has a song has its debut broadcast from Mars to our Big Blue Marble.

That's what's going to happen when will.i.am's single "Reach for the Stars" comes out Tuesday at 1 p.m. Pac Coast time. The event will be broadcast here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

I was fortunate enough  to get to meet will.i.am at the Curiosity TweetUp last November when Curiosity launched, and he talked about the single then. Can't wait to finally hear it!