Very Merry

SCENES OF THE SEASON: Thought I'd start by parking a trio of very merry photos here. The first and the second ones were were taken at the winter carnival at the kids' once-a-week Shoreline school. 

The third one was also taken on Monday, when Mr. and Mrs. Claus visited Chuck's on 85th, one of our favorite hang outs.  Nothing like a classy holiday photo in front of the beer cooler, right?!

MOLECULES IN MOTION: Today in science class, the kids had fun doing a few experiments with water. One was as simple as racing water drops down wax paper on a slope. 

The other demonstrated how water molecules expand and contract, depending on how warm or cold they are.

Yesterday, we spent a little time in the kitchen whipping up some presents for the kids two Shoreline teachers. ...

They liked them, which pleased us greatly. :)

PHONE HOME: NASA's number one network is turning 50 this month, and what a half century run it has had.

Beam Wave Guide antennas at Goldstone, known as the "Beam Waveguide Cluster." Each antenna is 111.5-feet (34-m) in diameter. They're located in an area at Goldstone called "Apollo Valley." This photograph was taken on Jan. 11, 2012. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

Deep Space Network (DSN)  is NASA's worldwide radio telescope array. It has been communicating with spacecraft throughout our solar system for decades now. DSN is made up of three facilities: The one in Goldstone, CA (pictured above), one near Madrid, Spain, and the third in Canberra, Australia. Together, they offer 24/7 coverage of the solar system, communicating with 33 spacecraft currently. 

NASA has a Web site all about DSN's anniversary, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn50/, and part if it lists some of the network's claims to fame. For instance, DSN showed us the first moonwalk, and the first-ever image of Mars, the first imagesd of Mercury's surface (1974). DSN relayed "The Pale Blue Dot" shot from Voyager 1, and transmitted data letting us know the craft had made its way into interstellar space.

INTERNATIONAL: This evening, we headed to the International District for some holiday shopping. Our destination was Uwajimaya.  On our way in, we had to stop and admire the Christmas-y colored lights atop the Seahawks' stadium.

Inside, it was wonderfully colorful, with thousands upon thousands of new-to-us things to check out.

The kids loved the big dragon hovering over the aisles.

We lingered at the live seafood counter, where CJ and Annabelle saw their first geoducks, I do believe.

We found the items we were after, so it was a great trip.