Blue Skies

BELIEVE IT OR NOT: This afternoon - bright blue skies and tall palm trees, with fronds waving in a gentle breeze. That happened to us. In our neighborhood. In Seattle. In January. Sweet!

It started off like most every other day this week, 50 shades of gray, thick quilt of clouds overhead and no promise of the sun. But mercifully today, by noonish, we could see patches of blue, and by the time we got home after the kids' a.m. classes in West Seattle, it was a full on sunfest in our 'hood - and it wasn't freezing out, double bonus.

We needed to take advantage, so we leashed up the dogs and headed up to the park. 

There, Annabelle became fast friends with a little boy about half her age. They played rocket ship and other games involving travel and sound effects.  

CJ was working on some new personal bests for himself - specifically jumping off the big (pseudo) boulder with no spotter. 

It took him a couple of coaxing trial runs, but he managed his solo jump eventually - and immediately wanted to know what the world record is for jumping off something with no parachute. Apparently, he's already thinking about his next jump ... 

In the park, we were happy to spy this year's first daisies. 

Could spring be far behind? (Wait, don't answer that! ...)

X MARKS THE SPOT: On our way home from the park, the kids and I noticed something in the sidewalk we've never spotted before - a gold-toned medallion with the words U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey Reference Mark on it.  

So obviously, it was some sort of survey mark. The smaller print on it instructed us to "WRITE TO THE DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON, D.C. FOR INFORMATION."

Um, no thanks. We'll use the Internet. And so, we found the National Geodetic Survey's home page: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/

There, we learned the Mission of NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is "to define, maintain and provide access to the National Spatial Reference System to meet our nation's economic, social, and environmental needs."

We also learned that the NGS "provides the framework for all positioning activities in the Nation."  That's a pretty big job, no?

Christian poked around on the NGS Web site and he learned that what we found today is Reference Mark 1, and it's referencing the marker SY4744 in a parking strip east of Bayview Park. which was "monumented" in 1934 by the Washington Geodetic Survey. 

NGS data is used to make decisions about everything from mapping and charting, to navigation, flood risk determination, transportation, land use and ecosystem management. No wonder there's a $250 fine or risk of imprisonment for removing the marker!

CAST OFFS: After an hour in the park, the kids still hadn't had enough of the great outdoors, so they rode their scooters in the ally for a few minutes. 

At one point, Annabelle came charging in the house to report a scientific discovery of great import. "I think it's an opened insect pupa skin," she proclaimed. 

We checked it out and I'm sure she was right. 

That, or it was an old Smarties wrapper ... ;)

MIDNIGHT ON MARS: Curiosity continues to break ground on the Red Planet. The latest "first:" the first nighttime image sent back from Mars.

Below is a Martian rock illuminated by ultraviolet LEDs. Taken on Jan. 22 by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera, at the end of a robotic arm. 

The rock, named Sayunei, is in the Yellowknife Bay area of Gale Crater

Sock it to Me

FIGHT CLUB: This morning, the kids got off to a rousing start with a few rounds of Pillow Punchers.

They're over-sized boxing gloves that usually don't hurt too badly when you get socked by them.

Kirby and Laika even got in on the act, going mano y mano (perro y perro?) along side the kids.

Fortunately, the fight session ended with no hurt feelings or bodies on all four counts. 

ORDERLY FASHION: We're still working on learning all of the U.S. presidents, in order. We've listened to the Animaniacs' song about presidents a couple dozen times, but we're still not there yet. 

So today, I had the kids find a list of the presidents in order online, and had them write their names on portions of index cards. 

I also had them write the # in order of , as well as which terms the officeholder fulfilled. In writing down the term fulfillments  I was pretty amazed to look back at how tangly so many of the terms were. In my lifetime, the only exception is Nixon, who, um, 'left' partway through his second term. But during the 1960s and back to the beginning before, there were all sorts of blurred terms for various reasons.  

GOT SCIENCE?: This evening I took an online quiz from The Union of Concerned Scientists. I was proud to score 100 percent in a challenge that "pits your knowledge of climate change against public officials, media personalities, and political hacks." Those guys can't fool me! 

For my time and efforts, I'll be receiving a "Got science?" sticker for my car. Sweet!

OL' FAMILIAR: Today, I received a Tweet letting me know that a photo of CJ I have parked on Morguefile was used by a blogger. 

I checked out the link and found it was used by a woman who's a writer living in good ol' Vancouver, USA. Small world, as for many years, I was a writer living in Vancouver. 

The blog post is about how kids can get their works published. Cool! I'll have to have the student body here at MPA check out some of those avenues!

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: We would be remiss if we didn't mention that today marks the 9 year anniversary of rover Opportunity landing on the planet Mars. Built for a 90-day mission, that "Energizer" rover is still going, and going and going! As I said to the kids tonight, "That rover has been working on Mars longer than you've been alive, Annabelle."

Right now, it's working in the Matjevic Hill area of the Red Planet. Here's a photo recently taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam). 

                                          Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.

In case you're wondering (I know I was!) the photo above is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) straight-line distance or 22 miles (35.5 kilometers driving route distance) from where it landed 9 years ago. 

Midweek

LEFTOVERS: This shot was from yesterday, at Seattle Center. Sometime over the past couple of months this super cool steel squid was added to the courtyard just northwest of Experience Music Project. 

A placard next to it dubbed it the "Parking Squid," so we were thinking it's supposed to be used as a bike rack. And sure enough, when we Googled "Parking Squid" today, we learned it is a sculpture by Susan Robb. It was commissioned by the Seattle Department of Transportation in 2009, and was installed in 2012.

MORE PONIES: Today Annabelle used the ever-favorite General Zoi's Pony Creator tool to create these trio of ponies, inspired by "The Animaniacs."  

I "made" ponies today, too. I just about have Rainbow Dash and Annabelle's custom Honey Bee ponies finished.

THE QUEST CONTINUES: The kids are still participating in the Math Quest at their Shoreline school. Each week, they get a packed of math problems, and if they get the problem correct, they get to roll a die and move that number of spaces on the Math Quest map.

Today, CJ received noticed had earned enough points to have a showdown with an ogre (it involved rolling dice).

He went to the office and rolled. A 6 would have won the ogre battle. Unfortunately, he rolled a measly 1, which means he'll have to do some more math, but that's not a bad thing, right?!

Annabelle should have her shot at the ogre next week, while CJ awaits a rematch.

Hello, Tuesday

UPGRADES: While most of America was sleeping, CJ was getting upgraded to Windows 8. Why? Because he's a software pioneer. ;)

CJ also had the BURNing desire to get hooked up to Skype, although he has no one he needs to Skype with at the present. Apparently, that is a moot point. What's MOST IMPORTANT is that he has the Latest and Best software. Whatever. ...

THE CENTER: Stir crazy after spending three days working on the roof (that would be me and Christian, CJ and Annabelle not so much), we decided to strike out into the big city this afternoon.

Best and first stop - always Seattle Center. It just can't be beat!  Outside of Experience Music Project (EMP) we found the remnants of the Guinness Book of World Records' Biggest snowball fight (with 5834 snowball fighters). Cool!

So, although the Official Snowball Fight itself was limited to those 18+ in age, CJ and Annabelle enjoyed the leftovers, and tonight we learned that not only did Seattle snowball throwers set a new world's record, they raised $50,000 for charity. Pretty cool!

We ventured inside EMP, as well. There, the kids 'played' a really big electric guitar.

Afterward, we drove down south, toward West Seattle. The fog has been absolutely smothering the past few days. We could barely see ferries on the Sound. ...

We also cracked the new math books and put the finishing touches on some more ponies today. Good times.

Do Solemnly Swear

Photo credit: White House

NUMBER 45: This morning I came downstairs to find Annabelle had turned "Strawberry Shortcake" on the television.

IMHO, "Strawberry Shortcake" is a poor choice any day of the week, but today it was an especially awful option, as the 45th presidential inauguration was underway at the same time. We switched channels, post haste.

The very first image that flashed on our screen was a statue. "That's the Statue of Freedom!" CJ declared, much to my amazement. I didn't know that, myself. It sits atop the U.S. Congress, and CJ tells me "it's MUCH older than the Statue of Liberty." Where did CJ learn all this? He says he read it on Wikipedia. I asked him if went looking for a Statue of Freedom article, and he said, 'no,' that he'd followed a link from the Statue of Liberty page.

Photo credit: The Architect of the Capitol (a fabulous Web site: http://www.aoc.gov/?home=y)

Made by Thomas Crawford, it's 19 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs about 15,000 pounds. The statue was hoisted above the capitol building in late 1863, in sections, with the final section, its head and shoulders, placed on Dec. 2.

A striking image at today's inauguration were the five enormous flags draped on the front of the capital. We noticed that the flags had different star fields. Two of them were "Betsy Ross flags," with 13 stars in a circle. Next to them were flags that reflect the U.S. flag that was adopted when the President-elect's home state became part of the United States. In Obama's case, that was Illinois, which entered the Union on Dec. 3, 1818. That flag featured 21 stars. In the center was the familiar 50-star flag.

We listened to Myrlie Evers-Williams deliver the invocation. A life long civil rights advocate, she was the first woman ever to do so. And Richard Blanco broke all sorts of ground when he recited the inaugural poem.

Born in Spain to Cuban exiles, Blanco was the first Hispanic, LGBT person and youngest-ever to recite a poem at the swearing-in ceremony.


We LOVED the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir's performance of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The 280-voice choir knocked it out of the park!

We heard Kelly Clarkson sing a crazy good version of "My Country 'Tis of Thee," James Taylor performed a lovely rendition of "America the Beautiful," and Beyonce sang the national anthem. And, of course, we watched V.P. Joe Biden and President Barack Obama be sworn in.

What a sight it was to see the Capitol Mall filled to capacity - a sea of humanity, people of all ages and colors, waving American flags. Here's a photo of that same area taken just the day before, by the ISS.

                                Photo credit: NASA, of course
While Obama was giving his inaugural speech, CJ said, "It must be hard to memorize all this!" At that point, we had a quick lesson about the Teleprompter.

After the swearing in ceremony, we kept the TV on so we could see the parade. We were especially hoping to see the NASA paraders - including a replica of the Curiosity Rover, along with MSL science team members.

                               Photo credit: Bill Ingalls, NASA
And the Orion space capsule was accompanied by NASA Astronauts Lee Morin, Alvin Drew, Kjell Lindgren, Serena Aunon, Kate Rubins, and Mike Massimino.

                                 Photo credit: Bill Ingalls, NASA
Unfortunately, the coverage we were watching (MSNBC) didn't show either. Drat! In retrospect, we should have tuned into C-SPAN. ...

This morning, Christian found the official 57th Presidential Inaugural Ceremonies Guide for Producers and Correspondents in PDF form.

It included the inauguration schedule of events from start to finish, and even included the recipes for all of the delectable dishes to be served at the inaugural luncheon. There were wonderful things like Steamed Lobster with New England Clam Chowder Sauce; Hickory Grilled Bison with Red Potato Horseradish Cake and Wild Huckleberry Reduction; and last but not least, a dessert of Hudson Valley Apple Pie with Sour Cream Ice Cream, Aged Cheese and Honey.

I wanted to make something from the luncheon for our dinner, bust since Mommy spent an hour plus painting ponies today, followed by 7 hours working on the roof, it wasn't, unfortunately, going to be any of the above. So the poor family had to settle for Sautéed Spinach. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
8 oz baby spinach
¼ cup shallot, minced
½ tablespoon olive oil
pinch sea salt
pinch cracked black pepper
Directions
- Pre heat a large heavy bottom sauté pan on high heat.
- Sauté shallot in oil until tender.
- Add the baby spinach and season with salt and pepper cooking only until spinach leaves are wilted. Remove from pan and hold warm.

It probably won't shock you to learn the kids weren't thrilled with the dish. I told them that if they ever wanted to be president, they had to eat their spinach. They managed to choke it down. :)