West Seattle Way

THE WANDERERS: On Fridays, we have 1.5 hours to kill between the kids' morning classes and afternoon class at the Teen Life Center in West Seattle. Today, rather than going to Target, like we usually do (boring, right?), we struck out for the shops and sights of California Avenue.

While it might look like the kids stumbled into a parade today, what 's really going on is they're upside a colorful mural on the West Seattle post office. Originally painted in 1992 by Gresham, Ore., artist Lanny Little, it features a Wizard of Oz float with lots of parade watchers (including several scary clowns) standing alongside the West Seattle Post Office. The scene is called "The Hi-Yu Parade,"

Refurbished in 2007, the mural was bright and completely graffiti free. How refreshing!

Of course, after learning the title of the mural, I had to look up what the heck a "Hi-Yu" parade is. Turns out the West Seattle parade has been hosted by the West Seattle American Legion Post 160 since 1935. making it one of the oldest community events in Seattle. Per the parade's Web site, the annual event includes participants from the Hi-Yu royalty. 

But that answer didn't satisfy, so I had to dig. And dig. And dig. Several broken links and misfires later, I finally found the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival Web site, where we learned that the event was named in 1934 in a community contest, and that Hi-Yu means "much, plenty, abundance" in native Chinook jargon. So there you have it. 

WHEN YOU WISH UPON A PUMPKIN: One of our stops today was The Sneakery, "Seattle's premiere sneaker and sock store." I could spend a fortune there. In fact, I would, if CJ's wish upon the Magic Wishing Pumpkin nearby had worked.

We were delighted to find a gold (spray painted) pumpkin along busy California Avenue with a sign exhorting people to "Touch a Pumpkin, close your eyes ... Make a wish ... Don't make pies!"

The pumpkin also offered a stern warning to not even "think of stealing or smashing these wishing pumpkins! Harming them will cause you to consider using drain cleaner as mouthwash ... Thus preventing you from kissing the person of your dreams."

We didn't smash the pumpkin. Instead, the kids each made a wish on it. Annabelle hoped for cake (since pie was not an option, apparently). CJ wished he was the richest person on Earth.

RESERVOIR DAWGS:  After the sock store and the post office, we still had time to kill, so we hit a West Seattle park we'd been meaning to visit: Myrtle Reservoir. It holds a special place in our hearts and minds, as Christian wrote the program that runs the water treatment facility there. :)

Seattle is in the process of covering all of their reservoirs and once they do, they put a park atop them. Sweet! 

The kids enjoyed the playground at this park lots. There seemed to be lots of looping and circular elements.

There was also a neat-o music making board. When you pulled back quarter and eighth notes, the sprang forward and hit chimes. It was surprisingly loud. Like church bells loud!

Before leaving, we climbed the steps to the top of the park. It was fun guessing what would await us. The kids' guesses ranged from a skate park to a wading pool Instead, it was just a circular sidewalk, a couple of benches and some concrete blocks. Kinda boring, until we got to reading the info atop the blocks. They were in a starburst pattern of sorts, and each had a Seattle neighborhood name and elevation. Below, the kids sit on the Magnolia block. From it, we learned our neighborhood (the hazy line in the distance in this gray-day photo) tops out at 392 feet. (Funny, it feels a LOT taller than that when you're driving up Dravus, pushing a stroller up any hill, or driving down from our place in the snow. ... ) The informative art let us know that West Seattle is the highest of the hills (Beacon, First, Queen Anne) in Seattle. Who knew? I always equate West Seattle with its beaches. :)

DIGGING IN: We also had some inside time today. CJ's programming class was canceled this morning, so while Bee was doing her Bollywood thing, CeeJ and I hung out in the Teen Life Center. We checked out their pool, and wished we could dive in (it was closed), and then we wandered into the rec room. Some kids were playing a rambunctious game of foosball, but a ping pong table stood untouched. I asked CeeJ if he wanted to give it a go. He's not played ping pong before, and let's just say he didn't take to it like a fish to water. 

"Well this is embarrassing!" he said, after managing to hit it BACKWARD for about the fifth time. :)

He did get a little better at it after about 10 minutes, but soon he was ready to hang up the paddle, for Harry Potter awaited.

CJ started reading "The Sorcerer's Stone" a few months back. He got about 70 pages into it and stopped for some reason. A couple of nights ago he picked it back up at bedtime and he's been packing it around ever since. 

"I'm really digging in this time," he's informed.

As of my writing, he's just one chapter shy of finishing the 17-chapter  book. Go CJ!

BALLOON MAN:  FYI, skydiving daredevil Felix Baumgartner is set to try to skydive from stratosphere on Sunday, Oct. 14 at 6 AM MDT (5 a.m. for we Pac Coasters).  According to the Red Bull Stratos Web site, meteorologist Don Day says the weather, so far, looks favorable. Let's hope he's right this go 'round. Those who read an earlier post this week know that winds wreaked havoc with the 55-story balloon that was set to take Felix aloft on Tuesday, Oct. 9. 

BTW, the mission's site calls the balloon "a 40-acre dry cleaner bag' and notes that at launch, the balloon and capsule carrying Felix will stand taller than Seattle's Space Needle. Wowza!

The Autumn Leaves

DRIFT BY MY WINDOW: A little over a week into October, our yard has become a colorful carpet of dead leaves. Time to do some cleanup before it gets out of hand. ...

We made short work of it. I manned the electric blower and the kids took turns scooping up the leaves and putting then in a yard debris bag. 

It's only just begun. There are lots more where this came from. 

SOME STORIES: We watched another Scholastic collection of stories on DVD today. This one contained "Crazy Hair Day," by Barney Saltzberg, where a poor student gets picture day and crazy hair day switched up on his calendar. Next was "Petunia," by Roger Duvoisin, the story of a silly goose that becomes a bit too self important for her own good. "How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?" was written by Jane Yolen. It takes viewers through a day with a dinosaur, from recess to show and tell. "Monty," by James Stevenson, was about an alligator taxi who needed a vacation. The last story was "Will I have a Friend?" another story about school. It was written by Miriam Cohen. 

The stories were a bit primary for CeeJ and Bee, but enjoyable nonetheless. 

MATH MAVENS: The kids solved another problem in the "Math Mavens" series by Scholastic. This one was "The Case of the Hatcher Hotel Heist." It was a fun problem 

PAW PRINTS: For science, the kids continued their work with fingerprints. Their homework today offered bonus points if they could come up with a paw print of a family pet. 

So, they used a pencil to deposit a bunch of graphite on a piece of paper, and then rubbed Kirby's paw on it. 

They then applied tape to Kirby's paw and tried to lift a print. However, in the first go round, what they wound up lifting were tufts of Kirby hair. (Never fear, it didn't hurt the dog.) 

Guess we'll have to give Kirby a little pedicure and give it another try. 

KING FOR A DAY: Today, the Pacific Science Center announced a contest for third- and fourth-graders. The announcement notes that at just 9 years old King Tut took the throne. He ruled ancient Egypt for just over 10 years, until his death. 

The contest asks, "What would a 9-year-old today do as pharaoh?" Kids Tut's inauguration age have until Oct. 28 to submit a poster and an essay sharing what they would do as pharaoh for a day to win an opportunity to be treated like royalty. Fun. I'll have to see if CJ is interested in participating ... 

Lil Punkins

PAPER PUMPKINS: This morning I came across an article with a headline "Celebrate the Season with 20 Fun Fall Arts and Crafts."   The article listed dozens of fun Halloween-y craft ideas. After looking them over, I decided the first one we'd tackle would be these groovy looking pumpkins.

To get started, we first had to cut strips. The kids each needed two 11-inch ones, two 9-inch ones, two 7-inch ones and one 6-inch one. Once those were cut, they were stacked atop each other, long to shortest and then back up to longest (11, 9, 7, 6, 7, 9, 11) and gathered so that their ends were all even at one end.

Once the even ends were stapled, then it was time to match up the other ends, like this ...

Then, it was time to staple those together, add a couple of leaves and we had ourselves pretty little pumpkins!

GOTCHA!: Despite losing an engine shortly after liftoff on Sunday, the Falcon 9 rocket managed to deliver the Dragon capsule to orbit and this morning. At 6:56 Eastern time, as Dragon flew within 32 feet of the ISS, the capsule was snared by flight engineer Aki Hoshide of Japan, using the Canada arm.  Then Expedition 33 Commander Suni Williams docked the capsule to the ISS,  Today, the ISS crew worked on pressurizing the vestibule between the Dragon and the space station and preparing power and data cables. When I was reading all about it at about 8 this morning my time, I read the capsule was expected to be opened on Thursday morning, just after 6 a.m. East Coast time. Imagine my surprise when I visited NASA.gov this afternoon around 2 and saw the ISS crew floating into the Dragon. Wow! They didn't waste any time. NASA has a video of the opening here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=153679981

The capsule is expected to call the ISS home for 18 days.

BAREFOOT BANDITS: The kids were reading about fingerprints in their "Ideas and Inventions" book, and in one sidebar there was mention of a barefoot burglar who took his socks off his feet and put them on his hands, so as not to leave fingerprints. But, of course, what the dork didn't realize is that footprints are also identifiable.

CJ was displeased with the lack of details about the crime and criminal. I told him there has been more than one barefoot bandit, and pointed him in the direction of the local legend, Colton Harris Moore.

I also found a game online for them called "The Case of the Barefoot Burglar." They had to read clues about a crime scene and then 'convince a jury of their peers' (or, their mother in this case) of which suspect was guilty. I won't tell you who they fingered, so as not to spoil it if you care to give the case a go.

DIG IN!: Mars Science Laboratory had taken its first scoop of Martian soil. Check out this cool, split-screen pic from NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

The left photo is the Martian soil post scoop. The scoop, on the right, is 1.8 inches wide by 2.8 inches long. Curiosity continues to perform as planned. Amazing that there's a mobile science lab rolling 'round on the Red Planet.

NOTE TO SELF: In my Internet travels today I stumbled across a Website called STEM-Works (http://www.stem-works.com/). It's a project of Southern Methodist University providing a resource for people who are passionate about getting children eager to learn about science, technology, engineering and math. Looks like I need to dig around on the site some more.

Hard Day's Night

                                Photo courtesy of & © Red Bull Media House

O-FER-TWO:  Let's just say last night was not the most restful night's sleep I've ever had.

My 'problem' started when I read a Tweet from the closest-to-my-house (Klondike Gold Rush) National Park saying this: "Robert Service wrote of them, but you don't have to go to the Klondike to see them tonight. Look NE around midnight to view Northern Lights."

OMG!!! OMG!!!! The Northern Lights are so totally on my bucket list, and when I read that I flipped out. For you see, for whatever reason, for most of my life I thought the only way I could see the Northern Lights was to travel to the Arctic Circle or Norway or some other point far, far north. And then not too long ago I saw a photo of Northern Lights over Mt. Rainier. And then a photo over Mt. Hood. And then one, just a couple of months ago, of the Northern Lights OVER MY NEIGHBORHOOD in Seattle. Srsly?!?!. It was both reassuring and infuriating, knowing that the Northern Lights were visible OVER MY HOUSE while I sat blogging one night. Grrr.

From monitoring NASA solar flare news (we all follow those, right?), I knew that there was some activity and so my Northern Lights radar was in High Alert. That Tweet by the NPS sent me over the edge.

I went to bed at 11 last night, setting the alarm for 11:45. And 11:55. And 12. And I was up through all of those. Nothing to see except light pollution over Crown Hill to our northeast. And then I reset the alarm for 12:30, and 12:45 and 1. And so my night went. I kept (without alarm assistance) getting up every 15 minutes until 2 a.m., when our skies suddenly clouded over. DRAT. That wasn't even in the forecast. Back to bed. But not for long. ...

For, you see, I had alarms also set for just three hours later, at 5, 5:15 and 5:30 a.m. Why? Well that would be the skydive-from the stratosphere - Felix Bumgarteners's dive from 120,000 feet above Earth - a/k/a Red Bull Stratos.  We were so SO geeked about this event. A man in a spacesuit freefalling at the speed of sound, hurtling toward Earth with live coverage? Yes, please!

So, I got up at 5 and saw there was a weather (wind) delay. Held true at 5:15, and 5:30 and so on. Aargh. So the doggies were happy we were up and partying at that time, and I was glad that I didn't have to wake the kids until I KNEW it was on. Which happened, well, never. :( The kids woke up on their own 'round 7:30 and there was still no launch time.

However, soon after they were up, it was announced the launch/weather was  GREEN for around 10:30 our time. We were SO excited.

While we were waiting, on Wired.com we read a story about the physics of the flight, and how Felix is expected to exceed the sound barrier. We also read a story in the Seattle Times about what to watch for and expect during the expedition.

At 10:30 the live broadcast came on and we watched the 55-story balloon that would carry Felix to the stratosphere be inflated. And then we watched the poor, poor souls who were hanging on for dear life to the balloon's tethers try to manage their jobs. And shortly thereafter, 1t 10:42 our time, the launch was scrubbed for the day.

As of my writing, no new launch day/time has been named. Per Red Bull Stratos "At this stage the mission team is closely monitoring possible new launch days before a green light is given for another countdown. Progress will be communicated as it happens."

So there you have it. Certainly we'll be monitoring the situation.

WRITE STUFF: Today via a Facebook post by someone else, I learned about The WriteAtHome.com Blog and Web site. Some interesting resources there, including a graphic with 200 ways to say went and 100 ways to say 'said.'  What great resources for teachers and students - and writers of all ages, really!.Check out the links!

BOARD GAME: We've kept our noses to the grindstone since Friday AM and at 3 this afternoon I declared it time for us to leave the house. Our first stop was Goodwill, to find a mug for CJ to use for his rootbeer blog. Fortunately, we were successful. On our way home we stopped at one of our favorite places, Chuck's on 85th, which is a convenience store turned ice cream and microbrews hotspot. 

One of the things we love about Chucks is they have new-to-us board games there. Our  favorite recent  discovery is the wonderful Dixit. ( Its title is Latin for "he said.") It's super fun. 

You have six (really pretty kinda abstract art) cards in your hands and if it's your turn you say a phrase and throw a card down and others throw a card down that could also match that phrase. 

We played a full game and this evening Annabelle was the champ. Go Bee!

NO REST FOR THE WEARY: Guess what's going down overnight? SpaceX's Dragon's capsule is supposed to do the grapple-and-berthing dance with the ISS. Time? 7-7:30 a.m. Eastern, so 4-ish by my clock. I'm toying with watching, we'll see. It will be streamed on spacex.com/webcast starting at 6:30AM ET, as well as at NASA.TV. 

It's hell being a spaceflight fan. ;)

Wookiee, Falcon, Dragon & Red Bull

USE THE FORCE: In case you haven't already heard, Saturday was the official Star Wars Reads day. We weren't able to get out to any of the local events (at bookstores and libraries), but we did take advantage of the online activity kit made for the occasion. (It's online here:  http://www.starwars.com/media/general/FullContent_SWReads_FINAL.pdf  - it's a big PDF, BTW.)

Today, the kids tried their hand at creating a fortune telling Wookiee. (I mean, doesn't everyone need one of those?) using a pattern from the activity kit. The directions weren't the greatest, but we managed to make it work. It's pretty darn cute. The pattern is from the book "The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee," which is in the "Origami Yoda" book series. Fun stuff!

And can I just admit here that it wasn't until today that I realized Wookiee was spelled W-O-O-K-I-E-E. I swear, I never knew that last E was there. 

FIRE IN THE SKY: Sunday evening at 5:35 we watched SpaceX's Falcon rocket launch a Dragon capsule, destination ISS.

The launch seemed to go off without a hitch, and we turned off the TV and went and had dinner with birthday boy Rick. Imagine our surprise this a.m. to find out that there was a rather significant anomaly during the launch. Turns out one of Falcon 9's engines failed. Yowza. 

This afternoon, I got an email from SpaceX explaining exactly what went down. In part, it said at 1 minute and 19 seconds into launch, the rocket's software detected an anomaly with one first-stage engine. When that happened, a shutdown command was issued. 


This morning I read some reports that said an engine had exploded, but that's not the case, apparently. Per SpaceX, "We know the engine did not explode, because we continued to receive data from it."

Once the engine went out, the flight computer had to rework a new ascent profile in real time in order to achieve the proper orbit to berth with the ISS. SpaceX reports, "This was achieved, and there was no effect on Dragon or the cargo resupply mission." In fact, SpaceX went on to point out that Saturn V experienced engine loss on two flights, and modern airliners sometimes have engine failure, and they are designed with workarounds in place, as was Dragon.

The bottom line is, the Dragon spacecraft is on its way to the ISS and is performing nominally at the present. And that's good news. They should connect on Oct. 10, and Dragon is set to splashdown on Oct. 28. More info about all of this can be found on spacex.com.

If you're interested in trying to spot Dragon chasing the ISS in the sky, check out this story on SPACE.com

FLOORED: We stayed close to home this weekend, as Christian and I were laying 200 square feet of hardwood flooring in the addition. We were both feeling that today while working on the siding. Good times. While we toiled, the kids kept busy with science and math homework, scooting in the alley, reading, harvesting produce from the garden, playing with puppies and, of course, playing their beloved Roblox. 

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH: For a few months now we've had our eye on Felix Baumgartner, skydiver extraordinaire. 

                                Photo courtesy of & © Red Bull Media House

In a few short hours, Felix will be riding in a capsule carried skyward by a stratospheric balloon. Once he reaches 120,000 feet, he's going to exit his capsule and make a freefall jump back down to Earth. 

                                            Photo courtesy of & © Red Bull Media House
He's expected to reach supersonic speeds before deploying a parachute to land. Here's a photo from an earlier test jump. ...

                                          Photo courtesy of & © Red Bull Media House
It's all going down just after 5 a.m. Pacific Coast time on Oct. 9. You can watch it live here:  http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/  As of now, we plan on getting up in the morning for the big jump!

Baumgartner has been working with engineers, scientists and medical professionals for years in preparation for this attempt, dubbed Red Bull Stratos. One important member of the team is retired United States Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger, who holds three of the records Felix will strive to break. Here's a short video (© Red Bull Media House) about the attempt. ...