MY NAME IS MUD: This is going to be a short post. Two of the fingers on my left hand suffered puncture wounds today, so typing is clumsy.
It was Day Two of renovations at Rick's house. The kids mostly entertained themselves on their laptops, playing games and reading wiki articles, while Christian, Rick and I worked on re-framing the area where we tore out a wall yesterday, and there was lots more painting to be done.
The kitchen's electric green accent wall received a second coat, as did the "watersprout" walls in the living room.
We installed multiple drywall patches around the more-than-doubled-in-size opening between the living room and kitchen, and began the mudding and taping. I ran out of mud at about 6:30 and we called it a day, dragging our tired, dirty selves home to Magnolia wondering if could possibly make it until midnight. We'll see.
We did watch the ball drop live in Times Square, and, of course, talked about how we were 'just' there three months ago!
On our way home from West Seattle, the Great Wheel was putting on quite a light show. The lead photo and the following were the best I could do with my point and shoot camera, riding in a car going 50 MPH on the viaduct.
HOME WRECKERS: We spent the better part of our day at Rick's 'new' house in West Seattle. First order of business - tearing out a wall, of course!
There was a 3-foot section of wall serving no purpose between the living room and kitchen. Before he puts new flooring it, it simply had to go. Everyone got in on the act, wielding the sledge hammer.
Annabelle was even game to rip at it with her hands (in super oversized gloves).
A couple hours later, the opening was wide open - well, except for a couple studs holding it up until we get the beam in tomorrow. This shot is from the living room toward the kitchen (don't mind the random clothes washer in there).
We also got started on some painting. There was a fun SEA Green (part of Glidden's NFL Team Colors line). It's the electric green from the Seahawks' uniforms, and now on an accent wall in Rick's kitchen.
Rick also got a good start on painting his living room a nice celery color. Tomorrow, we'll be back for more.
CHRISTMAS MIRACLE: The A1 item atop CJ's Christmas list was a bag of chips. Sounds easy, right? Well, sure, as long as they're not Pepsi flavored chips from Japan.
Frito Lay makes the intriguing product, but not for the American masses, unfortunately. Ever since CJ read an article about them months ago, he's been wanting some badly.
I ordered some in early December from a Japanese retailer via Amazon. They should have been here in plenty of time for Christmas, but they didn't arrive and the seller didn't provide tracking information as they'd promised. Not good.
Finally, after a couple of sharp emails from me, the seller kinda sorta admitted they'd just taken my money and not sent the item. That's what we call stealing 'round here. They issued me a refund, but what I really wanted was the chips.
I managed to find some on eBay, and won the auction the late Sunday night before Christmas. Right away I messaged the seller and asked if there was any way he could overnight them (I'd pay, of course!) so that they'd be here for Christmas.
This seriously good human in California did just that. He mailed them out midday Monday, and by noon on Tuesday, a mailman was knocking at the front door, delivering them. AMAZING!!!
CJ was very surprised and happy.
We all tasted them, and I have to day, they *did* taste a bit like Pepsi. They even had a little fizz. But mostly they tasted like plain Cheetos with a bit of lemon flavor. Interesting. AWARDED: This weekend's mail brought some certificates and stickers the kids have been anxiously awaiting since completing the Big History Project modules
They had fun doing it and it was very educational. Check out the web site: www.bighistoryproject.com
BEST OF: This time of year, Web sites and newspapers are full of "best of" 2013 lists. You had to know I'd provide you with a link to NASA's Best of 2013.
First, there's an interactive Web site where you can read up on this year's developments about everything from commercial space programs to Voyager 1, asteroid mining, this year's astronaut class, the ISS (which celebrated its 15th anniversary), Curiosity and MAVEN on Mars, Landsat, Kepler, and much more. Check out the page here: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/YIR13/index.html
"Selfies" were big in 2013, thanks to social media.
However, despite the millions of pics snapped, I can't think there's a better
self portrait in 2013 than this one ...
taken by NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins,
Expedition 38 Flight Engineer, whole on the second of two late December
spacewalks. You can see Hopkins' fellow spacewalker, NASA astronaut Rick
Mastracchio, in Hopkins' visor.
BIG OWIE: If you can't stomach icky nasty injuries, this is the time to sign off. But I feel compelled to document CJ's worst injury to date - a big ol' gash on his right shin.
He got it the night after Christmas, when he learned that running in the pitch black is a Bad Idea. He tripped over a bounder and landed on it. Needless to say, the rock won, puncturing his leg but good.
The only good news was that he happened to have his accident in close proximity to a retired surgeon, who was able to clean the wound, pull the puncture perimeters back together, tape it up tightly and save us a trip to the ER. (Thanks, Bops!)
It happened Dec. 26, and he's been pretty hobbled ever since, though he did make the mistake a couple of days ago of playing hide and seek with Annabelle, where the competitive spirit made him forget his injury and so he ran around and jumped more than he should have, busting it back open a bit. :/ That earned him a trip to Group Health, where they cleaned it again and dressed it and just said to be more careful and keep a close eye on it, which is what we're doing.
He's going to have an awesome scar, in the shape of a 7.
BACK IN TOWN: We made the six-plus hour drive from the Central Oregon coast today back to the Emerald City. It seemed to take too long, but I guess that's what happens when you have six animals with bladders packed into one Honda Fit. :0
When we finally made it back to Seattle, we saw the Great Wheel was sporting Huskies' colors, a hat tip to the Huskies playing in the Fight Hunger Bowl this evening.
One of our pit stops was in Centralia, at McMenamins' Olympic Club. We've always like McMenamins' for their unique art work and craft beers, but now that we bought McMenamins passorts, with prizes for hitting stops, we're especially motivated to stop. We make sure to get our passport stamps at each stop.
Each McMenamins has its own vibe, and perhaps the coolest thing at the Olympic Club is the women's restroom off the pub. "So many choices! I don't know which one to use!" Annabelle said of all the faucets.
And so, she tested them all. And yes, they all worked.
And here is Ms. Annabelle sporting a French fry mustache.
Tomorrow will be unpacking, cleaning, and finding new homes for all the great Christmas gifts.
This is a short one- turns out sitting in a car for several hours with one or more Havanese on your lap is exhausting.
FEASTIVUS: Another night, another holiday feast of roast beast (apologies, PETA et al). The vegetable dishes were every bit as delicious as the meat. This was part of Christmas dinner in Siletz.
There were some decadent desserts, too. Mine contribution ended up being a bona fide cake wreck! I made a six layer banana cake with peanut butter and marshmallow filling, butter cream frosting, topped by toasted coconut and ringed in Whoppers malted balls. Apparently that was all a bit too much for the cake dish it perched atop. As I was smoothing the buttercream, the cake went for a roll off the stand and down onto the counter, next stop kitchen sink. I was able to catch it before it hit the sink, but let's just say it was a little worse for the wear. We got it back up on the cake stand and I made it look mostly OK externally, but it was still super unstable. As soon as I started cutting it after dinner, it basically exploded. Sigh.
This morning brought bright sunshine here, near the Central Oregon coast. We went for a little walk.
Peeking through the moss covered trees, we could see the Siletz River
This canoe didn't quite make it to the Siletz, though. ...
Annabelle had a one-sided conversation with this fisherman ...
And we admired another friendly-faced, statuesque riverside resident.
We'll be heading back to Seattle tomorrow, after a week of being holiday road warriors. I bet our fish will be happy to see us.
RIVER KIDS: The kids spent a few moments along the Columbia River on Christmas Eve. It was so foggy, they couldn't see the Oregon side across the way! We stopped for a bit of Christmas cheer at McMenamin's along the Columbia. It was full of people in ugly holiday sweaters, and travelers on their way to or from Grandma's house.
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: Sorry no post yesterday. The Internets must have been overloaded with people trying to check Santa's status on the NORAD site. We were certainly checking, with CJ giving us updates throughout the day. Annabelle had a case of the Bah Humbugs due to the computer foiling her.
THE WINTER OF '68: Forty-five years ago, in December of 1968, the Apollo 8 crew flew from the Earth to the Moon and back again. Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders were launched atop a Saturn V rocket on Dec. 21, circled the Moon ten times in their command module, and returned to Earth on Dec. 27. The Apollo 8 mission's impressive list of firsts includes: the first humans to journey to the Earth's Moon, the first to fly using the Saturn V rocket, and the first to photograph the Earth from deep space. As the Apollo 8 command module rounded the far side of the Moon on Dec. 24, the crew could look toward the lunar horizon and see the Earth appear to rise, due to their spacecraft's orbital motion. Their famous picture of a distant blue Earth above the Moon's limb was a marvelous gift to the world.
Image Credit: NASA
The photo was captured with a they custom 70 mm Kodak Ektachrome ASA 64 color transparency film loaded into a custom Hasselblad 500 EL camera with a 250mm prime lens set to 1/250 second at f/11.
On Christmas Day, , * ** three humans orbited the Earth. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders
There's a video about the 45th anniversary of "Earthrise" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE-vOscpiNc#t=28. Christmas Eve 1968 was when the trio read Genesis from on high, as well. It wa the most watched television broadcast of all time at the time.
XMAS EVE STROLL: We spent a bit of time Christmas Eve morning watching the tail end of the spacewalk.
Approximately six hours into Tuesday's spacewalk, NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio finished installing a new pump module on the International Space Station's truss. They bolted the ammonia pump in place, hooked up the four fluid lines that help route ammonia through the unit and attached five electrical connectors. It was the second spacewalk on Christmas eve, the only other 1999 servicing the Hubble STS-103
Astronaut Mike Hopkins works outside the International Space Station during a spacewalk Dec. 24.
Image Credit: NASA TV
This "Season's Greetings from NASA Television 2013" gives me some great ideas for next time it snows in Seattle!
COASTAL: Our Christmas travels continue. We're down near Newport, Ore., now, visiting more family. We all had a wonderful swim earlier today, and another fabulous feast awaits. It's the most wonderful time of the year, indeed.
Wherever you are and whomever you're with, we here at MPA hope you have a holly, jolly holiday.
SOUTHBOUND: We left Seattle Saturday midday for a holiday junket. Saturday night was a fun family party in Lake Oswego. The sunset over the Columbia River was gorgeous as we crossed the I-5 bridge. My crappy cell phone camera certainly didn't do it justice.
PUZZLED: Sunday, we mostly worked and played around G&G's house in Vancouver. Annabelle found a brand new bamboo puzzle in a box, and decided to give it a go. She labored on it for a few minutes and when she had it completely disassembled announced with great flair, "I did it!" LOL.
Um, no, Annabelle, you're done when you have reassembled the puzzle. Above is a 'before' picture. Looks pretty complicated to me.
We were invited to visit a remarkable, century-old estate in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland Sunday afternoon. What a wonderful, beautiful history lesson that was for all of us.
WISH LIST: Today, we worked and played around G&G's house again, and the kids went to see "Walking with Dinosaurs" with the grandparents." CJ reports, "It was OK." I think it got a bit more enthusiastic review from Annabelle.
While they did that, Christian and I did a little shopping. We did NOT buy this "Mars Explorer" Barbie for Annabelle (or CJ).
I have taken a few photos of our travels, but I stupidly forgot to bring the cable to link my camera to the computer. Hopefully, I'll have it tomorrow. MEANWHILE, ABOUT 18,000 FEET OVERHEAD: Saturday, we watched part of the spacewalk undertaken by a couple of NASA astronauts in attempt to repair an ammonia leak on the ISS. The views were astounding.
Here is a photo of flight engineers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins, who completed a 5-hour, 28-minute spacewalk, to remove the faulty pump module getting suited up for the spacewalk.
Their spacewalk went mostly well - they were able to get more of the repairs done than anticipated, so they may be able to finish the task in two spacewalks rather than three. The second spacewalk will commence on Christmas Eve, at 4:10 Pacific time.
Though the clouds blanketed most of the sky, we were able to catch a few glimpses of the ISS tonight, as it flew over just before dinnertime.
Here's hoping their spacewalk goes off without a hitch.
LET IT SNOW: As we headed for our beds last night, we had visions of waking up under a white blanket ... of snow!
And lo and behold, the forecasters got this one right. Above is my view out of the upstairs window this morning. Not too many people down on the golf course today (that big white patch in the distance)!
It was just a small window of white - the snow started around 5 a.m. and was expected to be gone by noon - so the kids didn't waste any time getting out into it.
There were snowball fights ...
and a snowman was built.
I watched some of the action from inside. ...
But I kept going back outside to take more photos.
Tonight, the snow's just a happy memory.
SCIJINKS: We spent a lot of today prepping for the week-ish we'll be spending on the road, but we managed to shoehorn some school-y stuff in. For starters, I had the kids check out SciJinks - Weather Adventures. It's a NASA site geared at students, and all about weather here on Earth, as well as in space.
The kids checked out its front page, and then I suggested they check out the "Fun and Games" tab. Once there, Annabelle immediately chose "The Bad (Weather) Joke Machine."
She yukked it up and read all the jokes to us, including one about the Emerald City. ...
Q: How do you predict rain in Seattle?
A: If you can't see the Space Needle, it's raining. If you can see the Space Needle, it's about to rain.
They both checked out Weather folklore, and Annabelle played Spectrix, a game where you combine colors to reveal information about weather and the environment. They also checked out Weather Tricktionary.
All in all, it's a great site, and one that we give six thumbs up.
FESTIVE FUNK: The kids got their groove on today with a fun Merry music machine. It lets you combine numerous musical elements into a high tech holiday symphony. Check it out: http://us.moo.com/merrymusic/
KEEP ON TRUCKIN': While so many on Earth gear up for holiday festivities, Curiosity keeps toiling away on the surface of Mars, and the livin's not easy.
Curiosity has been tackling some tough terrain in recent weeks. The team is going to take some photos of the treads, and plans to plot routes to future destinations that a little bit smoother.
CAN YOU DIG IT?: With great fanfare, the world's largest rotary drill started tunneling along the Seattle waterfront . Its job is to dig out a subterranean roadway with will replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Things got off to a bumpy start, with a workers' strike that idled it before it could even start. (Wait, if it hadn't started, it couldn't really be idled, could it?) Any way, Bertha eventually got going on July 30, but then ran into some sort of plastic-y strands that made its progress screech to a darn near halt. It finally got past that, and now it's been idle again for days and days, as it has run into something the huge cutting face can't handle. Not good. Not good at all. They thought they had a workaround, involving pilot holes, sending 'divers' down, and more, but Bertha is being inundated with ground water, so the delay is at least another two weeks.
To date, Bertha (which is 5 stories tall, might I note) has gone just over 1,000 feet on its 1.7 mile path from Sodo to South Lake Union.
Trying to make lemonade out of lemons, the Seattle clam chowder powerhouse Ivar's has a contest. "Tell us what you think is blocking Bertha for your chance to win Ivar's Chowder for one year (one cup per week). The most creative answer will win. And, just by entering, you'll get to dream of the grand prize with a coupon for a free cup of chowder."
POM PROJECT: I almost forgot, here (finally) is a photo showing what all those pom poms we made awhile back were for - several pairs of 'spirit' gloves. Not necessarily the most practical apparel, but fun. ;) Go Hawks!
I LIKE PIKE: After a couple hours of schooly stuff, we set out to do some holiday shopping. Destination: Seattle's world famous Pike Place Market.
We totally scored on a parking spot and headed for the excitement with no trouble. It was a glorious scene - still waters on the bay, ferries, the Ferris wheel - I'd love to share the beauty, but my camera lens malfunctioned for most of the morning. :/
We saw market pigs, of course. ...
And even a market bigfoot!
We made the rounds, and on our way back to the car, we made our way by Piroshky Piroshky Bakery, a market legend.
The kids pressed their red noses against the glass and looked at me beseechingly.
"Look at how long the line is," I noted.
"Sometimes you have to be patient," CJ pointed out.
The kids had each picked out something, but when we actually laid eyes on the creations, I pointed out how friggin' HUGE they were and suggested they split something. Specifically, I suggested they split an "Oskar's Star," described as "a delicious buttery dough topped with chocolate, sweet cream cheese and sprinkled with hazelnuts" on their Web site (where it's spelled Oscar's Star, BTW).
They sat out at Victor Steinbrueck Park, enjoying a phenomenal view.
But I don't think they noticed the view. ;) They were too busy digging in.
They *did* notice the birds, however. Many, many birds. Pigeons and seagulls who wanted to share their bakery treats.
And these birds were brazen, as they're used to tourists (and so locals, no doubt) sharing morsels with them. The kids managed to keep them at bay by flapping and kicking.
We did enjoy watching this seagull perched on the fence overlooking the sound.
I am thrilled to announce We are Officially Done Christmas Shopping! Woo-hoo!
But we're not done baking. ... Tonight we cranked out a couple dozen more Seahawks Santas for Rick's co-workers, and put the finishing touches on a few more pairs of pom pom gloves. Tomorrow, there's packing, wrapping, baking and more in store. 'Tis the season.
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