CHILLY: This morning brought bright blue skies, but frigid temperatures. Ken called us early to tell us his car was frozen shut. Fortunately, he was eventually able to chip his way in.
We saw lots of frost on the roads as we made our way to West Seattle this morning, to Family Learning Program classes at the Southwest Teen Life Center.
There was a small lake covered in ice in the parking lot. The kids had fun testing the strength of it.
By afternoon, it was just another puddle. BLUE FRIDAY: The Seahawks continue their post season march. This weekend, the Atlanta Falcons are the opponent. Today, The Powers that Be declared it Blue Friday, and sportsfans were supposed to wear their Seahawks gear. Count us in!
Thanks to a Facebook post, I learned about a cute lil craft project - a little Russell Wilson doll graphic you can print out at home.
Annabelle lovingly crafted her little Russell this evening. It was a little tricky, requiring a lot of tiny, precise cuts. Hold still Russell, this won't hurt a bit ...
She was happy with the outcome, though. Except she lost his facemask. We'll have to hunt it down. Can't have Wilson out there with no facemask come Sunday.
GOT A MINUTE?: If you have two minutes to spare, check out this cool video compilation chronicling the history of the world, from Big Bang through Obama. (Thanks to Nonnie for the link!)
GOODWILL HUNTING: Yesterday we had a few minutes to spare before their science class, so we stopped at Goodwill in Shoreline. It was quite the shoppers' paradise there, let me tell you.
For just $49, we could have taken Barbra Streisand home with us. Someone had spent HOURS and HOURS on this enormous (about 3-by-4 feet) portrait of her. And they managed to make Bab's nose look even bigger than it really is. ...
And we found a horrifying clown in the toy department. It's eyes opened and closed. Super scary.
Annabelle really wanted to buy this basketball, since we had just heard on the radio that the Seattle Super Sonics might rise again (via the Sacramento Kings moving here).
But I told Annabelle that I didn't think we needed a basketball with a hole in it (you could actually feel the air streaming out when you held it).
But the Bestest Thing Ever was this plush. ...
We call him the Afronana.
It's a stuffed banana. With an afro. And no eyes. How it ever wound up at Goodwill, I'll never understand. I mean, who could bear to part with such an absolute TREASURE?
. PRESIDENTIAL: Since the inauguration is just a few days away, I thought it would be a good time to do some learnin' 'bout the presidents. Specifically, I'd like the kids to learn all the presidents names, and be able to recite them in order.
To that end, today we watched and listened to the Animaniacs' song featuring all the presidents (well, up through Clinton) over and over again.
We also read along with a narrated book online, "So You Want to be President?" written by Judith St. George, with illustrations by David Small. We accessed the video through the BookFlix site via the Seattle Public Library site. The 23-minute video shared all sorts of factoids about the office and the men who have held it. Rather than tackle the subject chronologically, the book examines presidents in other ways, physical characteristics, hobbies, education and personality. It was entertaining and informative.
LANDSAT UPDATE: This morning, we watched a live press conference about the upcoming launch of the latest satellite that's part of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission. A collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological survey, the Landsat program has a 40 year history of monitoring the Earth's landscape from space. Data collected from the satellites is used for everything from farm to forest management. This new satellite is the eighth in the Landsat series, which started in 1972.
The next Landsat satellite is scheduled to be launched on Feb. 11. Here's a photo of it installed on a horizontal frame after the satellite completed thermal vacuum testing at the Orbital Sciences Corporation facility in Gilbert, AZ.
Photo credit: Orbital Sciences Corp.
We put in for the #NASASocial to attend the launch. Notices go out on that Jan. 18, so our fingers are crossed. ...
WATERWORLD: In science class yesterday, the kids had a chance to mess around with sand and water while learning about how geological formations like the Grand Canyon were made. Fun!
FIT FOR A KING: January 8 marks three big birthdays in our household: Musician David Bowie, 65, Stephen Hawking, 71, and The King himself, Elvis Presley, who would have been 78 this year.
As we've done the couple of years past, we decided to dust off the "Are You Hungry Tonight," a collection of Elvis' favorite recipes.
CJ was lobbying for the old standby - peanut butter and banana sandwiches, but I told him this year, I thought we should expand our horizons. So we got crazy and made BLTs and macaroni and cheese per the recipe in the book.
No surprises in the BLT recipe - bread, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo. The recipe did note note that Elvis liked his bacon not burned, but very crispy. That's the same way CJ likes his bacon.
The mac and cheese called for American cheese (ewwwww!), elbow macaroni, dry mustard, a little flour, some salt and pepper, onion, and milk.
The kids made a shopping list and off to Albertson's we went. We took less than 5 minutes in the store (hooray!). As dinnertime approached, the kids read the recipes and we tacked the mac and cheese first. We boiled the noodles, and while those cooked, the kids dug into the American cheese. I don't believe either one of them has ever eaten or handled it before. Turns out they liked it. They tore it in bits, and we added some grated cheddar, as well.
We threw in the flour, mustard, and S&P, but skipped the onion at the kids' request. They stirred in the al dente noodles, which melted the cheeses.
We poured it into a baking dish and then the kids poured the milk over it, per direction. It was topped with a little more cheese and a few pats of butter and into the oven it went.
Then our attention turned to the BLTs. The kids sliced the tomatoes (I think that's a first), under the watchful eyes of The King.
They prepped the lettuce and assembled the sandwiches.
Dinner was a huge hit - everyone loved it.
(Note to self: Guess we need to try to find a Bowie or Hawking cookbook before next year.)
MATHNET: Today we spent some time making sure the kids were back on track for the classes that resume at their Shoreline school tomorrow. That meant checking science homework, and making sure they were up to date in math. One of the things they do in their weekly math class is watch a segment of "Mathnet."
"Mathnet" originally appeared on the children's show "Square One Television," which aired form 1987-1992. show. And once you get past the very '80s fashions and production values, it's pretty good. :)
CJ and Annabelle finished watching "The Case of the Ersatz Earthquake," a compelling tale about a psychic who said she could predict earthquakes and was trying to blackmail a city to pay her for advance warning of the next one. The show is entertaining, and it encourages problem solving and using logic. Good stuff.
PRACTICE: Out of nowhere, today CJ said, "I think I should try shaving practice."
I told him if he started today, that would definitely make for way more than enough practice, as he's probably about 5 plus years away from needing to shave.
Given that, we didn't break out the shaving cream and razor.
HAWKISH: This weekend, the Seattle Seahawks were on the top of the minds of a lot of Pacific Northwest people - including us! They were playing in the first round of the playoffs, at Washington, against the Redskins.
We'd volunteered to host a party during the game on Sunday, so Friday and Saturday meant some pre-party hunting and gathering for us. For the big game we make three kids of cookies, we bought Skittles (as a nod to star running back Marshawn Lynch, whose mom used to give him that candy for energy when he played youth football). We made a variety of appetizers, stocked coolers, decorated the house, and even painted faces. Here, Annabelle's sportin' some Seahawk blue on her cheeks and lips.
I'd show you a photo of CJ in his facepaint, but it didn't last long. Within a few minutes he complained that it itched, so off it came. At least he tried. ;)
We had about 15 people here watching the game and it was great fun - except for the first quarter, when the 'Hawks quickly got down by two touchdowns. Fortunately, before the second half, the real Seahawks showed up, and by the third quarter they were cruising. It's so unusual for a team I'm rooting for to win in the playoffs, I'm not quite sure how to act. ...
Of course we're having another party for next Sunday's playoff game. And hopefully two more parties beyond that! Go Hawks!
BRUSH OFF: Big news from the planet Mars. Curiosity used its Dust Removal Tool for the first time, on Jan. 6. The DRT is a motorized, wire-bristled brush at the end of the rover's arm.
Below, you see the spot DRT brushed on rock target Ekwir 1. It's about 1.85 inches by 2.44 inches.
IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Wonder if I could get NASA to give me a rover to sweep the dust off our floors. ...
LIGHTS, CAMERA: Annabelle has been busy in her room over the past couple of days. She's been trying to film a "documentary" of sorts - a film about one of her stuffed animals, Bunnybelle, playing an online game on the laptop.
So far all of the footage has wound up on the cutting room floor for one reason or another. Hopefully in the next day or two, we'll have something to post here.
BYE, BYE, LOVE: The kids' homework for guitar this week has been practicing plucking out the notes for "Bye, Bye, Love." I listened in as I painted ponies, and they were plucking out notes, alright, but it sounded nothing like the oh-so-familiar-to-me song.
I told the kids I thought it would be lots easier for them to play the song if they heard what it sounded like, and so we found a version of it by the VERY young Everly Brothers.
CJ wanted to know what year the show was made. I told him I had no idea, but that he and Annabelle could do some math detective work and figure it out.
I asked them what they *did* know from the clip that could be used as a clue. After about 15 seconds, Annabelle struck upon the fact that the eldest of the brothers, Don, said he was 20. And so I asked them how they could use that info to find out what year the show was filmed. CJ correctly figured out if they looked up Don's birth year and added 20, that should give them the show date.
We turned to Wikipedia and learned that was born in 1937. The kids quickly figured out that the show was taped in 1957. Gotta love math. REDISCOVERY: Over the past couple of days, CJ has rediscovered all of his vintage games and gaming systems. I think perhaps us getting the Famicom up and running a few days ago spurred that.
And so, he's been playing Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Sega, Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom, Super Famicom, Super Nintendo and I'm sure there are some I've left out. And when he's not playing the games, he's researching them and the consoles. He's quite the repository of retro game information. Maybe someday he'll be curator at the Videogame History Museum.
