Live, from Magnolia

HERE COMES THE SUN: This morning's sunrise was a beauty. As the full glowing orb appeared, there was a thin strata of clouds running along the top of Queen Anne Hill. I went out onto our new roofdeck to take a photo. I didn't think it would shoot well, since the lighting was so harsh, but this one turned out OK.

We all returned to the roofdeck a bit later this morning, because I heard helicopters hovering overhead for several minutes. I knew that meant Magnolia was making news.

The KIRO 7 chopper was easy to spot, so I hopped to Twitter and found out that a bank in Magnolia had been robbed in a 'takeover' (guess that means where the gunman orders everyone to the ground - hey, I learned something new today!). Fortunately, no one was hurt. This is the latest in a series of bank robberies in our 'quiet' neighborhood. I think we're an easy target because everyone knows that there are almost NEVER any police in Magnolia. I mean, the only time you'll see one is AFTER a robbery or burglary. ...

MORE EARTH MOVING: In science class, the kids had fun playing with water and sand again, learning about erosion, land formations. Here, they have a couple meandering rivers which, over millions of years, might form canyons.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: Annabelle set up her print-for-sale station again last night. This morning, when she got up, she found one of her pieces of artwork gone, and some $ and a note left behind.

Later today, we got photographic evidence that it is now on display. ...

GADGET GURU:  CJ has amassed quite a collection of gaming consoles and peripherals. Sometimes, he likes to try them in odd combos, to see if they'll work. Here, is a Frankenstein he came up with today. ... 

On the bottom is a SupaBoy, made by Hyperkin. It's an after market portable gaming console which will play Super Nintendo and Super Famicom games. Into it, CJ inserted his Super Game Boy. That device allows people to play Game Boy games in their Super Nintendo consoles. Atop the Super Game Boy, is a backward Game Genie. That allows players to hack Game Boy games by entering 'secret' codes. In the Game Genie, he has inserted a Game Boy game cartridge (in this case, "Kirby's Dream Land"). So, in effect, he has 'tricked' an aftermarket device meant to play standard Super Nintendo games into playing a hacked Game Boy game. Pretty cool!

HOPES AND DREAMS: As I've oft lamented here, there's no Apollo, there's no Shuttle program, there's no way other than a Soyuz rocket to get U.S. astronauts beyond Earth's gravitational pull right now. Yes, private companies, like SpaceX, are ramping up to handle low Earth orbit duties, but what about to infinity and beyond?

That is, hopefully, where Orion comes in.  Today, NASA released and artist's rendition of what the capsule Orion might look like atop a European Space Agency Service Module after it's launched by a NASA Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

The press release said this is supposed to go down, er, up, in 2017. Fingers crossed. ... 

TEN YEARS AGO TODAY: These fine people climbed in Orbiter Columbia at Kennedy Space Center. It would be their last day on Earth. Though they completed their mission aboard the ISS, on their voyage home the shuttle and all on board were lost.

                                 Image credit: NASA
Here's a iink to an interactive slideshow about STS-107 and it crew from NASA's site. ...
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/sts107/index1.html