Friday!

OPEN WIDE:  Our day started off at the dentist for the kids. 

Fortunately, it's a happy visit for them. Their dentist office and staff (Lakeview Kids Dentistry) is terrific.  The kids love going there, in part because there are monitors on the ceiling so they can watch cartoons or movies. They each got good reports, as well as the standard 'floss more' directive.

From there, we were southbound, for our Friday Winco-in-Kent shopping trip, which is south and east of Seattle.

We were already east, and beautiful Lake Washington was visible from the dentist's office, so I thought we'd drive along it instead of the same ol' boring I-5 trip.

Honestly, I'd forgotten just how friggin' BIG Lake Washington is. It kept going and going and going. 

We made one stop along its shores - at petite Day Street Park.

It was pretty but LOUD, what with cars and trucks whizzing overhead, west to east and east to west over the I-90 Bridge.

There was some pretty impressive ivy growing up one of the supports under the brdige. 

After our stop, we kept heading south. And south. And south. The lake felt like an ocean. Turns out Lake Washington is the second biggest lake in state, after Lake Chelan, on the Olympic Peninsula.

FROM SCRATCH: This afternoon the kids worked on high tech Father's Day cards. Instead of putting Crayola to paper, they created little animated Scratch videos. 

Here's CJ's (if the embed doesn't work, follow THIS LINK: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10866647/

 

Click on the green flag to launch it.  

And here's Annabelle's - http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10866629/

EYES IN THE SKIES: No, I'm not talking about the NSA (though many other people have been this week, now, haven't they?). 

We run out onto or deck or into our yard regularly to catch a glimpse of the ISS flying overhead (if you've never done that, you really should. Repeatedly. Go to spotthestation.gov to sign up for email alerts when the ISS is headed your way).

Of course, if we can see them, they can see us. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can follow a life video feed from the ISS. 

At various times you'll see a map showing the ISS's path in orbit, internal shots of the station when the crew is on duty, exterior shots of the ISS, and Mission control communications. 

Two words of warning: 1) Be patient, the video can take a second or twenty to load initially and 2) there are 'loss of signal' periods, during which you'll see nothing other than a blue screen.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/9408562



Free desktop streaming application by Ustream

Bridge to Ballard

URBAN HIKE: This afternoon we were in search of an adventure. I decided it would be interesting to go somewhere we've been thousands of times before, but never been, in a way. ...

We decided to park at Fisherman's Terminal, at the southwest end of the Ballard Bridge, and then walk across the bridge. It sounds simple enough, but it's a heavily trafficked area, there's construction everywhere around the south end of the bridge, and there are surprisingly few entry points to get on the bridge. You can (and we did) wind up going quite a ways out of your way at points.

It was a very urban hike. We passed many a homeless encampment, tons of graffiti and litter, and inhaled far too much auto exhaust. I'm hoping the walk was still good for us, however. It ended up being a 2.5 hour adventure. 

It was cool to get to see things we can't see from the car, like what's over the east side of the bridge. We saw a 1908 boat being restored, and marveled at its big ol' wood beams in its hull.

And I just loved the flower box on the dilapidated building on the pier. Can you spot it?

We checked out the bridge tender's quarters like never before. 

We finally reached the break in the bridge, where it separates when it lifts. We peered at the sparkling water below.

Here's CJ living dangerously. Good thing no big ships came! ...

As we got nearer the east end, the kids knew a Top Pot Donuts awaited in that gray building you see beyond the big boats.

At the east end of the bridge, we stopped to admire the iconic Mike's Tavern sign. The place has been in the family for three generations, and has been featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives."

South Ballard has also become a destination for microbrews. Within a few blocks you'll find Maritime Pacific, Reuben's Brews, Peddler Brewing Co., Hilliard's, and NW Peaks. We stopped by NW Peaks for the first time ever today. It's cozy (translation - tiny!) and it's dining (quaffing?) area is mainly a small patch of blacktop surrounded by chain link and plastic tables dotted with bird droppings. Such ambiance! But we enjoyed it nonetheless. The hard working owner was very friendly and knowledgeable, and we were thrilled to have a place to sit for a few minutes.

On our way back across, I was actually quite happy to see we got stuck by a bridge lift. It gave us a chance to get a real close look at the opening mechanism (so quiet!), and more time to soak up the view.

We had a nice look at some boats heading for the Ballard Locks ...

and Fishermen's Terminal. Our neighborhood is the hill in the background. 

Back at Fishermen's Terminal, we checked out acres and acres of nets, hundreds of pots, and the always interesting boats. We found this short, stout one sitting on the dock. I bet these are pretty hard to sink.

BUGGED OUT: At the Science Expo last weekend, Seattle Children's Museum was giving away little Ziploc bags with recyclable items (straws, cups, scraps of paper, etc.) in them, as well as a little sheet encouraging kids to make their own bugs.

We plugged in the glue gun and the kids got busy. About a half hour later, they'd produced these...

CJ's in on the left, Annabelle's is on the right.

I asked them each to write a paragraph or two about their bugs. Here's the 411 about Annabelle's bug:

SPECIES FEATURES Species Name: Sluggus Maximus, AKA the Flying Slug Common features: Derp eyes, shell, wings, dual  tails, orange and yellow cottonballs, antennae Eats: Is an omnivore, eats small seeds, tiny flies. Where: Seattle, Washington. Origin:Sluggus Maximus was growing inside a slug egg, when suddenly some extra DNA poured in, leading to the mutations that resulted in wings, a shell, antennae, tails, and its signature poisonus cottonballs.When sluggus maximus emerged from their egg, its wings were all crumpled, and after 3 months it would be able to fly. PERSONAL DATA Name: Charles Gender: male Likes: loop-de-loops, soil, flying Dislikes: being grounded, not being able to find mud, failing a loop-de-loop Family: Slugs, no Flying Slugs yet.

And here's what CJ came up with ...

Common name: Troll

Scientific name: Artemis Maximus

Biography: In 2013, a bug was found in the MPA house. This bug was named Troll, and it appeared to have evolved from spiders, having hatched from a spider egg with genetic mutation along the line. His full scientific name is Artemis Maximus. One of the things that makes him interesting is that he only has 4 legs, and all of them are different colors, although there is a 0.001 / 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 chance that they will all be the same. Artemis Maximus is omnivore type of animal.

Know When to Fold 'Em

SUGARY START: Straight out of the gates this morning, I had some cookies to decorate to give as a gift to the kids' science teacher, a Harry Potter fan.

I am one of the few people in the world who has never read a Harry Potter book or seen a Harry Potter movie, so I wasn't exactly rock solid in what I was doing. Fortunately, I had the Internet and the kids (who have read the first book and are working on the second) as resources.

I guess they were OK because the teacher seemed to like them. :)

Today was the kids' last science class for the year, and also the last ANY class for the 2012-2013 school year. They have visions of an endless summer stretching before them. I have a feeling we'll still manage to do some learning. ;)

GONE FISHING: Earlier in the week we were up at Group Health, and as is the case with so many medical offices, there are fish tanks to be found there.

The kids asked me why this one fish seemed to be hiding its face in the sand.

I told them perhaps it thought it was an ostrich. ... 

But upon further examination, as I walked to the other side of the tank, I'm kinda thinking the thing went to the big aquarium in the sky. ... 

EAT YOUR VEGGIES: At the store today, the kids were both very taken with the lovely assortment of cauliflower. CJ talked me into buying the purple and gold ones. "They're Husky colored," he reminded me (as if that was necessary). Now, we'll just see if they'll actually eat it.

FOLD IT: We like puzzles and we like science, on Saturday at the Seattle Science Fair Expo, we learned how people can help solve puzzles for science. Cool!

Foldit (http://fold.it/portal/) is a Web-based computer game enabling users to contribute to important scientific research. Created by University of Washington researchers, the puzzle game uses the power of 'crowd sourcing' to help scientists solve the mysteries of protein structure. While scientists know the genetic sequence of proteins and many of their functions, there are many questions about the twisting and turning amino acid chains.

That's where the 'game' comes in. Instead of relying on computer programs to calculate the myriad of protein shapes, UW researchers are hoping humans can figure it out faster. There have been a number of remarkable breakthroughs to date.

The Foldit booth at the expo featured several laptops and several nice young men in UW shirts facilitating. The kids didn't hesitate before settling in to stations and starting to unfold things. (Sorry, I realize 'things' is not a very scientific term.)

Annabelle had shoehorned her way into a station a bit a ways away from us. Before too terribly long, the UW guy manning her station caught our attention to inform us, "She's really good at this."

Christian made his way over to the station to see what was going on and the UW rep told him that one reason Annabelle was so good at the 'game' was because "she reads the directions. No one ever reads the directions."

I'd encourage you to give Foldit a chance yourselves. BoingBoing called it "Wasting Time for a Good Cause."

Upon Further Reflection

LEFTOVERS: We're still wading through all the great resource sheets and swag we brought home from the Seattle Science Festival. 

For instance,m on our way, in we found this new sculpture on Seattle Center grounds. Just north of the food court/Armory building, it says it's the exact center of the Center. The sculpture also gives some history of the Armory at Seattle Center, long before it housed a Starbucks and a Subway.

Today at lunchtime, the kids looked through a couple of pamphlets we picked up about tesselations, or "the tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps" (per Wikipedia).

There were a few tables and displays at the Saturday science expo featuring tesselations. I don't think I ever knew that is what they were/are called. ... I thought it was just 'fun with patterns.' :)

One of the photos I forgot to post yesterday was of CJ extracting some fish (herring) DNA at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 

And on our way out of the event on Saturday, we saw (for the first time) the installation of the John T. Williams memorial totem pole. 

We'd seen it as a work in progress for a couple of years, since not too long after Mr. Williams, an accomplished wood carver, was walking in a crosswalk near Safeco Field in 2010 when he was gunned down by a Seattle Police Department officer. 

The totem pole was carved primarily by his relatives, and it is gorgeous. 

GULLIBLE: This afternoon we were out popping some tags, in search of a book shelf for Annabelle's bedroom. Of course, we found everything BUT that. It was a great day of treasure hunting. :)  One of the things we found was a classic Battleship game. We decided right away to donate it to one of our favorite places - Chuck's Hop Shop, where people enjoy good company, good ice cream, and did I mention they have 30+ beers on tap?

Anyway, as the kids were breaking in the Battleship game there this afternoon, at one point Annabelle looked up, and said, "Look! It says gullible on the ceiling." 

Of course, we all looked up, and it did, indeed, say gullible on the ceiling, on a tiny little label stuck to a beam. 

We kind of shrugged at it, but then Annabelle explained to us it is an Internet meme. Specifically, from this ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b_bUNSM3Vo

LOL! Meanwhile, as we're all staring up at his ceiling, Chuck of Chuck's Hop Shop fame asks us why we're all staring at his ceiling. Annabelle says, deadpan, that, "It says 'gullible' on the ceiling."

Luckily, when Chuck looked up, it didn't cost him a lung. 

We then explained it was part of an Internet meme, and that the only reason we knew this was because our 8-year old told us so. 

Chuck thought that was pretty funny, and said he suspected one of his employees was behind it. 

UP AND AWAY: While most of American slept, the Chinese space program took another giant leap forward. Today, they launched a crew of three for what will be the nation's longest stay in space yet. 

Here's video of the launch. 

It's worth noting that Beijing plans to have its own space station and their astronauts on the moon by 2020, which is the same year the International Space Station is scheduled to retire.  It will be interesting to see how these next few years shake out. 

MADE THE GRADE: Awake with the dawn, about the first thing I thought of today was that we'd get to know what grade we got on our peer-reviewed creative projects in the "Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity" class. We know we've already passed the class via the quantitative route, but we did the qualitative exercise as well, to fun and a challenge. 

Happy, happy, joy, joy, our projects (CJ's poster/poem, Annabelle's humorous animation and my Einstein inspired cookies) each got high marks from a panel of peers. That meant we passed the class every which way - w00t!

Space and Science

BREAKFAST WITH AN ASTRONAUT: We were up extra bright and early today, all excited about what our morning held in store. The very first thing to do on our 'to do' list was heading to Pacific Science Center for a sneak preview of the new "Destination Station" exhibit. That's the prize we won for finding a toy astronaut hidden at a Seattle landmark last week, in a contest NASA held in order to spread the word about the exhibit's arrival in the Emerald City. Here's said toy, with a freshly minted astronaut autograph on it. :)

Before we left home, I had two local news stations on the TVs, hoping to see a live spot from the exhibit, so we'd know which astronaut we'd get to meet. And sure enough, one of the stations did a live broadcast from the event with NASA astronaut Drew Fuestel.  

We were to the center by 7:45 and were greeted by a person from the PR firm which facilitated the contest. She shepherded us into the display via doors we've never seen before. It was dark as space inside. Soon, we arrived at the exhibit.

We were told the astronaut was busy giving media interviews at the moment, so that gave us some time to check out the displays and chat with some of the media in attendance.

It was an intimate gathering for sure. There were only two other contest winners on hand - a family of three, and a woman and her friend. A little after 8 a.m. we were told astronaut Feustel, a geophysicist and seismologist by training, was ready to visit with us. It was great - darn near a private audience, really, and we got to ask him all sorts of questions, about everything from astronaut musicians to space sleep and dreams to mission durations and more.

He loved CJ's Atlantis shirt, since that shuttle was his very first ride to the ISS (mission STS-125). In addition to signing the astronaut that was our ticket to meeting him, he signed the space friends poster we often pack around. He was interested in it and its story, and told the kids to take good care of it.

As an added bonus, we also got to meet Josh Byerly, one of the voices of NASA. He introduced himself to us right away this morning, and his voice was oh-so-familiar! We hear him all the time on NASA TV, as the 'live from Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston' guy! And when he saw CJ's STS-132 shirt, he said, "I worked that landing!' We most certainly heard him doing the play-by-play of that shuttle mission's conclusion.  Not too long ago, he was over in Kazakhstan, being the voice of NASA for the launch of Expedition 34. "It's a whole different world there," he shared. He was very interested in the space friends poster we have, as well, and was happy to pose for a photo.

What an awesome morning!!!

If you want a glimpse, here's KING 5 TV's report from this morning:
http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/New-NASA-Exhibit-Lands-in-Seattle-210844311.html

SUPER SATURDAY: This weekend was also chock full o' science-y fun, as it was the Seattle Science Festival Expo.

We arrived at Seattle Center right when it opened, 10 a.m. Since this is the event's second year, we had a lot better idea of how to approach it this go round. We started at the indoor portion of the event, in the Fisher Pavilion, which was crowded by the time we got there last year.

Right off the bat, the kids hunkered down at the DigiPen booth to try some of the institutes's student created games.

After we pried them away from there, we headed to the Boeing booth, where we watched a CNC machine carving out a design into a composite block. And then the kids had a chance to see some green screen magic at work.

Actually, in this instance, it wasn't truly a green screen. The Boeing photographer had an awesome attachment for his camera that looked like a halo of green LED lights that allowed for this photo magic to work. ...

Coincidentally, at the (Microsoft) booth next door there was, in fact a green screen.

Eight cameras were overhead, and thanks to them and some software, CJ and Annabelle were rendered in 3D. These photos don't do the effects justice. They pretty much looked like characters in "The Polar Express." They also really liked that they could control the cameras' angles with a XBox controller.

At another Microsoft booth, the kids got to 'experience' 3D. By wearing special goggles and touching a special screen, they could actually feel the weight and contour of the 'objects' before them. Wild.

At the American Chemical Society Puget Sound Section booth, the kids got to be in the middle of a GIANT bubble. 

 They thought that was pretty cool. So did we!

I have to admit, though, I felt sorry for the people working the booth. My goodness, they must have done 10,000 squats by the time the day was over.

At the American Society of Mechanical Engineers - Western Washington Section booth, the kids were given a square of foil with which to build a boat. They were supposed to build the strongest boat they could - one that would hold lots of pennies while floating.

Here's Annabelle's craft ...

just before it met its watery grave.

Her boat held 53 pennies, in case you were wondering. It was an easy, excellent engineering experiment.

At the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics booth, the kids got to do some rocket launching toward a target.

The kids mugged for the camera at the Washington Informal Science Education Consortium booth. 

 As a reward, they each got a good ol' fashioned Polaroid picture of themselves!

 They thought it was so cool watching their ghostly images appear!

There's so much more to tell and share, and it will make its way out onto these 'pages' over the next few days, weeks and months. But I can't end without sharing that on the way into the event, we had a near brush with mayor Mike McGinn on his bicycle, near Mercer Street. He beat us to the venue, BTW.