FINITO: Today, we finally put the Singapore Math 4B books to bed. We should have had them done weeks/months ago, but we've been spending time on other things.
I played "The Final Countdown" while the kids finished their last few problems. I'm not sure if they were motivated or distracted by it. ;) This, my friends, is some hair!
We always ceremoniously put the books into the recyling bin when we're done. Today, I thought it would be fun if the kids threw them off the deck, two stories up. Here's the windup ...
And here's the pitch! Can you spot the two blurry books?
Afterward, there was a celebratory dance party. Here's what that looked like ...
BY COMPARISON: This afternoon, we headed for Chuck's on 85th, which is either your favorite spot to drink beer or eat ice cream, depending on your age.
Whilst there, we played a couple of board games, including Apples to Apples, where the dealer/judge throws down a green card and the rest of the players have to throw out the red card (one of seven they have) that they think best matches the green card. Whomever the judge deems the winner gets the green card. First one to eight green cards wins.
I got off to a good start, but since I ALWAYS LOSE, I didn't get my hopes up, even when I'd collected seven of eight necessary green cards.
However, when I saw THIS green card - phenomenal - I knew the game was mine.
SEEING GREEN: Do you see what I see? Amidst all the leaves of green? It's a big, honkin' green bell pepper!
We've tried to grow peppers in years past, with no luck, but our early and often summer has helped our cause this year. The pepper you see above is considerably bigger than my fist. We're thrilled.
The kids harvested some green beans today, too.
See them trying to hide from us? Well, CJ and Annabelle hunted them down and plucked them.
And then they ate all 8 of them, raw. Delicious and nutritious!
UP AND AWAY: Thanks to a Facebook post by Spaceflight Now, we caught the live, steaming coverage of a launch of an Ariane 5 rocket from Guiana Space Center, Kourou French Guiana (that meant the countdown was in French!).
On board were the Alphasat, reportedly Europe’s largest and most sophisticated telecommunications satellite, and the INSAT 3D satellite. It launched right on time, at 12:54 our time. Here's one of the rocket bells igniting with T-minus one second until lift off!
Today's launch marked the 56th consecutive success for the Ariane 5 rocket since 2003. That's an impressive track record.
The Alphasat was also carrying four Europeans Space Agency demonstration payloads: an environmental and radiation testing sensor from Efacec (Portugal); the Aldo Paraboni Q/V-band experiment from Thales Alenia Space (Italy) and Space Engineering (Italy); a star tracker from Jena-Optronik (Germany); and a laser communication terminal from TESAT (Germany), provided by the DLR German Aerospace Center.
HOOPLA!: We learned today that Seattle Public Library has become a part of a new streaming video and music service called Hoopla. We had to check it out, of course!
Hoopla allows users access to thousands of movie, TV and music titles online. You can stream it through the Hoopla Web site, or via its iOS and Android apps.Turns out SPL has offered this since March, when they became the first public library system to do so.
We quickly browsed their educational titles and saw a Weston Woods animation listed. The kids have enjoyed many a Weston Wood storybook-turned-cartoon, so we fired it up, so to speak. The video book was called "Whitewashed." It was based on a true story about an incident that took place in the Bronx in 1992, when a young schoolgirl was attacked and her face was painted white.
The video we watched was about a half hour long. It was a long half hour, IMHO. And the animation was showing its age. In fact, I would say it wasn't state of the art in 1994, when it was made. Nonetheless, the story kept the kids' attention. They were pretty surprised to hear racial slurs (including the 'n' word) in the cartoon. I told them it was appropriate for the story being told.
When it was over, CJ said it reminded him of the movie "42" in some ways. I found a lesson plan about the show, which included some vocabulary and points to ponder. We talked about the show, and were curious to get more details about the actual incident. However, because it happened in 1992 (on Jan 6, to be specific), before the Internet boom, there wasn't much to be found online. I did manage to dig up a New York Times story from '92, with a headline "61 Acts of Bias: One Fuse Lights Many Different Explosions." It touched briefly on the original incident, but most of the story was about crimes that came afterward, in retribution and frustration.
I browsed around the Hoopla site a bit and saw they had a nice selection of documentaries and science-related titles. We'll definitely be tapping into Hoopla in the future - it's just one more free, easy resource to add to the 'tool box,' so to speak.
MUKILTEO MONDAY: And I'm still playing catch up from this weekend. We went so many places and saw so many things, I couldn't fit it into one manageable blog post.
Monday we went to Everett to get our car serviced at the dealership where we bought it a few months back. However, when we got there, the dealership said despite the postcard they sent us telling us to come in, it wasn't due for service. So, we drove to Everett for nothing.
Wanting to make lemonade out of lemons, we decided to go a bit further norther to Mukilteo. It's a gorgeous little town right on the Sound - very picturesque.
There's a park near the ferry terminal, with a pretty lil' lighthouse.
On the grounds of the park is a plaque letting us know Capt. George Vancouver and crew anchored off shore in 1792, and came aground at the point. They named the place Rose Point after all the wild roses growing.
The grounds around the lighthouse were impeccably tended and super colorful on the day we visited.
As this ferry approached the Mukilteo terminal, I couldn't help but wonder it it was right about where Capt. Vancouver dropped anchor.
The lighthouse was built in 1906, and it's one of the few wooden lighthouses in the Pacific Northwest. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it has a fixed non-rotating Fresnel lens and a modern fog signal, both of which help boaters navigate the area during inclement weather.
It's not tall as far as lighthouses go - just 36 steps to the top - but it gets the job done. Out front there's an old steel triangle that was used to get the attention of folks back in the day. It's still plenty loud!
There are a couple of other buildings near the lighthouse, including an interpretive center and a gift shop. I would have liked to have seen inside, but it was closed the day we visited. Bummer.
PLANE AS DAY: We're still whittling down the pile of swag from the Seattle Science Expo more than a month ago. Tuesday afternoon, the kids read a colorful brochure from The Boeing Company and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. It was called "How Do Things Get Made? ... Like and Airplane."
It told a bit about different jobs at an airplane manufacturing facility, such as engineer, mechanic, and quality inspector. The backside had a word search and a maze, and instructions on how to craft a paper airplane.
CJ and Annabelle followed the directions and were happy with their paper flyers. The crafts both did loop-de-loops quite well.
COASTAL: We've had a string of gorgeous days, and we're trying to take full advantage, even if it just means popping down to the kayak launch about five minutes from our house for a half hour of sun and surf.
It was low tide when we arrived. The kids wasted no time wading into the water, which they reported was warmer than usual.
The tide started coming in as they sloshed around not too far from the rocky beach. Pretty soon, it looked like Annabelle was way out in the sound!
I sat on the barnacle-covered beach, watched the kids and flipped over a few rocks, looking for crabs. It only took me three rocks before I found this camouflaged guy.
He was the color of a frog and a the size of a quarter. Interesting.
DOWN SOUTH: Wednesday we did the I-5 day tripper to Vancouver and back. Our goal was to visit a beloved family member who's very, very ill. It was a long day and tough thing to do, but we're so glad we made the trip.
While my mom and I went visiting, the kids and Grandpa R played 18 holes of putt putt golf at the iconic Steakburger restaurant on Highway 99 in Hazel Dell.
Oh gosh, the memories I have there of when I was a kid. My mom and I went there after we concluded our visit, we headed to Steakburger to meet them. I couldn't help but look around for the jukebox, hoping to plug a quarter in and hear "Indian Reservation (Cherokee People)" by Paul Revere and the Raiders. But the jukebox was nowhere to be seen. :/
However, they still had around a couple dozen flavors of thick milkshakes, and CJ had his first 'Steakburger.' He loved it, except for the pickle, which caused him to shudder dramatically, LOL. But he powered through it.
Here are the kids on the 18th hole.
Grandpa R shot par, which is fantastic. Don't think I've ever done that on this course - and that's dating back to the early '70s!
THE DAY EARTH SMILED: NASA has begun sharing images of Earth taken by the Cassini spacecraft on Friday, July 19, which was also known as "Wave at Saturn" day. This one's my favorite so far. Look, there we are!! The bright white dot just below Saturn's (awesome!!!) rings. Can you see us smiling and waving - from 1.44 billion kilometers away?!
People on the West Coast of North American were supposed to look toward the eastern horizon at 2:30 p.m. and wave, so that's just what we did.
We were down at Seattle Center at the time. Here are the kids on the east side of the Space Needle, waving toward the horizon.
And then we darted over to the arches at Pacific Science Center, and they waved from there, too!
These "Smile at Saturn" shots are are only the third-ever images of Earth from the outer solar system. Voyager 1 got the first Earth image from distant space, in 1990. Cassini shot the second, during an eclipse of the sun, in 2006.
Another cool shot Cassini sent back is this one - where you can see Earth and our moon!
Earth is the blue point of light on the left; the moon is fainter, white, and on the right. Both are seen here through Saturn's diffuse E ring. Per NASA, "Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view." The distance between Cassini and Earth was approximately 898.414 million miles at the time of the photo. HELLO, BERTHA!: Saturday midday we headed down to the Sodo district to check out a construction project like no other. Later this month, the world's largest tunneling machine will begin eating away at the ground, creating a 1.7 mile long tunnel that runs from South Lake Union to the stadiums at the south end of town.
Here's a map of the route, on the floor of a place called Milepost 31, an information center on 1st Avenue at Main. It has displays about people and projects in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square.
From there, we were off to the actual site of the dig for an open house.
Before we went in, we had to sign waivers. CJ and Annabelle considered their legal rights carefully. I think they were the only two people in the crowd who actually read the poster!
We snaked through the crowd and caught snippets of Governor Jay Inslee and other politicians and project managers giving speeches ...
Eventually, we made our way to Bertha herself. My, what a big tunneling machine she is. The world's largest (in diameter) tunneling machine, to be exact. More than five stories of steel, right now she's situated in an 80-foot deep "launch pit."
She's names after Bertha Knight Landes, who was elected mayor of Seattle in 1926. Landes was the first woman to lead a major American city. Berth was built by Hitachi-Zosen in Japan, at a cost of $80 million.
When she starts digging, there will be workers inside the 7,000 ton behemoth, monitoring the goings-on. Bertha's 326-feet long, and stands 57.5 feet high.
We also had a chance to sign our names on a tunnel liner segment. So years from now, when we're driving through that tunnel, we'll know the names of MPA alums are there somewhere!
Once the digging starts later this month, progress of about 6 feet per day is expected.
STATION TO STATION: On the way back to our car after bidding adieu to Bertha, we stopped in King Street Station. We did so because Friday night after the McCartney concert, everyone had to go to the bathroom and I suggested ducking into the train station which, fortunately, was open past its advertised hours.
When we walked in I was stunned at how gorgeous the place was. Replete with marble columns, a mosaic on the floor and lovely fixtures, I kept saying "this is amazing, this is amazing" while frantically looking for a bathroom. The station certainly didn't look anything like the run down, kind of sketchy place I recalled from years ago.
We made a note to revisit the station soon, and followed up on that the very next day.
This compass rose is right in the lobby.
I loved the view toward the King Street exit .
I love the round interior windows. They're so ornate and unnecessary. :)
Turns out King Street Station, built in 1906, is just coming off a $50 (!!) million dollar restoration. Turns out the city bought the building from Burlington Northern Santa Fe in 2008. That was news to me.
MAYBE I'M AMAZED: How to put this? Friday night was The Best Friday Night in the History of Friday Nights. We saw Sir Paul McCartney rock Seattle with a three hour set of music spanning five decades.
But, it didn't start out so swell.
First, we had an appointment at Pacific Science Center on Friday afternoon as part of the focus/study group we're a part of there to give feedback on "The Studio" part of their Wellbody Academy.
So, we checked out their new exhibit on neuroscience. Including a cool, interactive close up of a mouse's brain subjected to some sound waves (the green 'noise').
There was also a fun biofeedback game where the most relaxed (as measured per brain waves) person won.
That was all well and good and interesting, of course, but on the way home from Pacific Science Center 'round 4 p.m. we noticed that traffic southbound, into town, was bad. Epic-ly, horribly, bad. Like I've never seen in in the 5+ year we've been here. We rebooted our plans and basically left as soon as we got home (and picked up RIck and Ken).
We headed toward Safeco Field, the site of Friday night's Paul McCartney concert, at 5 p.m. We were in the car for 75 minutes for what is usually a 10-minute trip. It was horribly frustrating, needless to say.
We finally parked about three blocks north of King Street Station around 6:15, and started walking south. Our plan was to catch dinner at a restaurant near Safeco Field before the show but we eyeballed lines and called a few places and all the waits for a table were 2+ hours - well beyond show time. So guess what/ The kids had hot dogs from a street vendor for dinner and they loved them and we saved lots of money. Win!
We headed into the stadium shortly after 6:30 and made our way to our seats.
If it were a baseball game, we would have had some of the best seats in the house. But for this particular occasion - the first big concert in the history of Safeco Field! - we had the kind of cheapish-seats. But still, they were fantastic!!! We had one of the big ol' speaker trees pointing right at us, and the stage had a couple of huge screens showing us closeups of all the action, so no complaints here!
Kennedy and Abby were up on the landing by he left field foul pole. Can you spot him waving at us?
Paul opened with "8 Days a Week" and that started our journey to Nirvana (no pun intended).
I'm 47 years old and have been going to lots o' concerts since I was 12. I've seen icons like David Bowie, Queen and Lou Reed multiple times. I've seen The Hottest New Band too many times to count.
True confession time, I'm a HUGE Wings fan, and a BIG TIME John Lennon fan, but not so much a Beatles fan. But this was the best show ever. I mean like EVER Ever. CrAzY gOoD. Three hours of wall to wall waves of music that overwhelmed all of us present. Seriously, the Seattle show created so much buzz (people posting on social media DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!?) that by Sunday morning Paul McCartney was trending in the top 10 nationwide for Internet searches.
Wasn't it nice of Sir Paul to use University of Washington Husky colors during the concert in Seattle? ;)
There were too many high points to count. Hell, the whole thing is a high point. Case in point- read the Seattle Times' sports editors' take on it ... Or the Seattle Times music critics' review. The bottom line is, it was pure magic, from the first chord to the last.
Sir Paul wowed on piano ...
On guitar ...
on ukelele (during a special tribute to George Harrison), and on bass, of course.
The kids (pictured here, looking awkward) LOVED the show.
Seriously, when Paul and friends started singing "All My Loving," they started squealing like Ed Sullivan circa 1964!
At one point during the show, I looked over at CJ and he looked absolutely stricken.
Alarmed, I asked him, "What's wrong?!"
"I'm trying not to cry," he managed to choke out. No wonder. Paul had just finished singing, "Here Today," a song he wrote about what he would have said to John Lennon, had he had the chance. Heartbreaking.
I managed to maintain my composure, until Paul went and sang "The Long and Winding Road" followed by "Maybe I'm Amazed," which, he noted, was written for his late wife, Linda. It ripped my heart out, in the best way.
The largest visual spectacle of the night was during "Live and Let Die."
If you look at the bottom of the picture above, you can see Paul in his white shirt crouched, ears covered, during the explosions!
We'd studied up on "Out There" tour set lists before the Friday night show, so I could make sure the kids knew and enjoyed the songs, but Seattle's set list was special. For instance, after morphing "Let Me Roll It" into "Foxy Lady," Paul talked about what a "sweet guy" Jimi Hendrix was, and how cool it was to hear Hendrix had performed "Sgt. Pepper's" live just two days after it was released way back when.
The concert was amazing, but the encore was ridiculous. Wait, what, who's this joining The Fab One on stage? Well it's Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear, the surviving members of Nirvana. That's when the concert switched from epic to sublime. (See Dave behind Paul?!)
"Sirvana" was mind blowingly amazing. I mean, totally "Out There," per the name of Paul's tour.
"Cut Me Some Slack," (written by Grohl and McCartney for Sound City documentary) was hardcore old school rock, and "Helter Skelter" ran off the rails, just the way John Lennon would have loved.
