And Sow it Begins

DIRTY WORK: For a change, we never even left the house today. Instead, we concentrated on getting caught up on school work and getting our seeds into some potting soil.

First, the kids carefully filled up the starter tray with soil. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, though that's my own fault. I gave them small spoons and scoops to work with. When we were nearly done, it occurred to me that I should have dumped the bag of soil atop the tray and we could have spread it out and filled the cups. Oh well, next time.

The dogs were incredibly helpful during the process, of course.

Once the tray was filled, we took into the house and planted some seeds.  They were all supposed to be under a half inch of dirt per package instructions, so I had the kids each make a "proper depth stick" by making a mark on a Popsicle stick  1/2 inch from its end.

Annabelle planted watermelon seeds first. She's hoping they're fruitful.

CJ carefully read the instructions on the pumpkin seed packet. We have had ZERO luck with pumpkins in the past. Maybe this will be our year.

The kids made markers to help us keep our seeds straight. 

We're looking forward to the growth of our garden for the months to come.

WEIRD SCIENCE: You have to love the topic for this week's lectures in our "Understanding Einstein: The Special Theory of Relativity" Coursera class this week. It's called, "The Weirdness Begins." How intriguing!

And, as advertised, it didn't take long for things to start getting weird. Today we learned absolute time cannot be defined, that leading clocks lag and about the relativity of simultaneity.  Heady, fascinating stuff.

NEEDLE POINT: This weekend we were happy to have the chance to meet a nice couple from Regina, Saskatchewan, for breakfast. We (virtually) met them through a Facebook group of space fans, and they were passing through Seattle on their way back home from a month-long cruise. 

We thought we'd make them some space shuttle and Space Needle cookies as a little welcome gift. When I got done decorating those, I let the kids get busy making their own custom Space Needles. 

It's fun to color outside the lines, so to speak.

SUPER SONIC, OH YEAH!:  Yesterday we watched Facebook, Twitter and spaceflight related Web sites for updates on Virgin Galactic's big day. It was the first flight of SpaceShipTwo (SS2) with a rocket engine strapped on.

I love, Love, LOVE the look of this bird. It's like something off the cover of a sci fi novel. 

Virgin Galactic was the world's first commercial spaceline. Yesterday's flight marks the entrance into the final phase of vehicle testing prior to commercial service from Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America in New Mexico.

SS2 launched over the Mojave Desert, after separating from WhiteKnightTwo, its carrier aircraft. SS2 reached a height of 55,000 feet, where it fired up its rocket engine for 16 seconds. During that burst, SS2 reached a speed of mach 1.2 

They released video of the flight today.

The company will continue to expand their testing, and looks to have a full space flight completed by the end of this year.