Automatic

                
CAR TALK: Job 1 today was getting the lil Fit serviced. It was due for its first ever oil change.  The maintenance light came on on our way down to California.

We had to head all the way up to Everett for our service, as that's where we bought the car, so our service is 'free' up there. It's a nice facility, and they do the work right inside, where you can watch. The kids learned about tire rotation, among other things. We played a few games in the waiting room, and when the Fit was ready, we were given a coupon for a free car wash up the street. The Fit was filthy, so we were happy to take them up on the offer.

The kids were kind of ridiculously excited about the car wash. ;)

 "It's like a water park, but you don't get wet!" CJ said excitedly, when the brushes started shaking our tiny car to and fro.

When we got home, we spent some time trying to get the home restored to pre-costume fabrication condition, and then took the dogs for a walk to the park at the top of the hill. I was walking the dogs around when I heard a woman quizzing CJ and Annabelle about why they weren't in school.

Not that it was any of the woman's business, but Annabelle explained that they go to school once a week, and the rest of the time they learn outside of school.

"Oh, you're home-schooled. I'll bet you're smart," the woman said.

"Why do you think that?" CJ asked.

"Because I think people can learn more when there's just one teacher and two students, than one teacher and 30 students," she responded.

CJ mulled that over and a minute or so before adding, "I think it's also better because I can focus."

Interesting, and not surprising. CJ has always had great disdain for the controlled (and sometimes uncontrolled) classroom chaos.

COOL CARVINGS: In news that should surprise almost no one, when Jet Propulsion Laboratory hosts a pumpkin carving contest, the results are super cool. ...

This is Halloween

OFF TO GET THE CANDY:  Today was The Day. CJ has been counting down to This Day for about three weeks now, reminding me that I only had X amount of time to finish his costume.

Last night I was thinking I was in great shape, with only an hour or so to go to be done.

I'm not sure why I thought that. I was terribly, terribly wrong.

We were set to start our first trick-or-treating adventure at 4 p.m. today, and at 3:35, I was still rigging up a monkey's tail, having just finished the piping on his hat and his vest. Egad.

One of the things that I failed to budget enough time for was CJ's face painting and Annabelle's ringlet making.  Here, the poor monkey tries to help expedite the drying of his face paint.

In the end, it all worked out, because it had to. I kept reminding myself, "They're just costumes," and that they only had to last through a few hours' of use. Mercifully, they did just that.

Our first stop was what has become a tradition since moving to Seattle - trick or treating the business district in Magnolia.

We like to go early, at 4 p.m., when the event starts, because by 5 p.m. it becomes sooo crowded to the point of being uncomfortable.  Especially if you're wearing a hoop skirt, as Glinda would tell you. ;)  The photo above was early on, before the mosh pit.

We worked the Village for about an hour, and then had a nice dinner with Rick and Kennedy at Nickerson Street Saloon (it's a restaurant, too). Afterward, Christian and Rick took the kids out to trick or treat the neighborhood.

While they were out doing that, I cleaned up the disaster that was our house. I managed to get rid of all traces of the sewing that had taken place over the past few days, and I removed all of the Halloween decorations. On to Thanksgiving!!

The best part of the day? Throwing the *%&$^$ Simplicity 4136 pattern into recycling!

WITCHY WOMAN: One of the images NASA deposited in my inbox today was this view from their Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The infrared portrait shows the Witch Head nebula, which was named after its resemblance to the profile of a wicked witch. Cool!

Per NASA, "The Witch Head nebula is estimated to be hundreds of light-years away in the Orion constellation, just off the famous hunter's knee."

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Halloween Eve

TICK TOCK: It's a race against the clock as Halloween looms. Annabelle's outfit is 99.9 percent finished, including her crown and star-topped staff. Hooray.

Today was mostly monkey business. Specifically, flying monkey business.

This project was easier because I wasn't using a confounding Simplicity pattern. Instead, I made my own for the blue bodysuit, using CJ's favorite pajamas as a guide.

As soon as I sewed the pants up though, I thought, "Oh my, that looks a little slim. ..."  Turned out to be a bit of an understatement. Let's just say if CJ makes it through Halloween without ripping the crotch out, it will be a miracle. I triple stitched the area, and fingers are crossed. That, and he's on a restricted diet until after trick-or-treating. :)

CJ took a turn or two at the machine today. He was a Nervous sewer, but it was good that he gave it a whirl.  He also stuffed his own tail. :)

We "just" have the embellishments on his vest to do in the a.m., along with making him a hat. An hour or so tops, I'm hoping.

While we were sewing, Annabelle was working on some of her own crafting. Part of it involved a balloon. She hasn't quite mastered tying them yet, so she showed me her work around - a pipe cleaner and then some glue. LOL!

Amazingly, it worked! I couldn't believe it.

UP NORTH: We did have to interrupt our sewing marathon for math and science classes today.  The kids really enjoyed science, where they experimented with light waves, including laser lights.  In the experiment pictured below, they were shining a laser light toward a mirror, to see how the beam would bend.

Bewitching

                    
SEW STORM:  Halloween is looming. All night, in my semi-sleep, I sewed costumes. It was actually quite productive, as I figured some things out.

We spent the morning sewing, then went to the fabric store in the early afternoon. There, we picked up the fabric we'll need for CJ's flying monkey costume. I will start (and mostly finish, I hope) that tomorrow.

Today, it was about getting the Good Witch mostly done. Mercifully, the skirt is finished. It's very big, which was the goal, so mission accomplished on that.

We also tried out some hot rollers on Annabelle's hair, practicing for Glinda-like ringlets. They were ringlets - for about 5 minutes. We'll have to research on line to see what to do to make them last a whole lot longer.

BUMPY LANDING: Over the weekend, Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser made its first free flight. By all reports the flight went well. The unmanned craft was lifted by a helicopter and then released at 12,000 feet. It glided down toward Edwards Air Force base AOK, but the landing was a little sketchy.  The left side landing gear failed to deploy, so it was a rough landing. The prototype spacecraft. was damaged (to what degree has not been reported) and the runway at Edwards Air Force Base was worse for the wear, as well. 

Sierra Nevada released a video of the exercise. You can see at the end the right-side only landing gear deploy. The footage stops before the craft touches down. 

Two Thousand Mile Travelogue

WINE COUNTRY JUNKET:  The MPA student body and staff spent the last six days on a big ol' field trip, down to San Luis Obispo County, California. Our destination was Paso Robles, for a family member's wedding at a local vineyard. 

It was a bit of a drive for us, 1,000 miles down, and the same number back, of course.

We saw lots, some of which I already blogged about last week. I'll pick up where we left off - Corning, CA, - renowned for its olives. We stayed there Thursday night. 

Friday morning, we were on the road by about 7:30, I do believe. We drove in the dark for a spell, and watched the sun come up, 

Not too much later, we were driving toward Winters, California, in Yolo County. 

Off in the distance, we spied what we believed to be hot air balloons hanging in the sky. As we got closer, we knew we were right!

At first we saw two, then three, then four ... in all we saw around ten of them in various stages of flight.

This one had barely taken off. 

This one was low enough that I could see the people inside!

They were beautiful!

I sure would love to ride in one some day.

In doing a little poking around, apparently Winters is a hub of hot air balloon activity.

We continued south and eventually got to Martinez, California. It was slightly less picturesque, at least from where I-5 goes through it.  This is a Shell refinery.

However, per Wikipedia's account, the city is notable for its large number of preserved old buildings. The city is on the south side of the Carquinez Strait in the Bay Area. 

A bit further south San Ardo is a big oil field - the first we've ever seen.

Discovered in 1947, Wikipedia tells us it's the 13th-largest oil field in California. It's about five miles (8 km) long and two miles wide, encompassing about 4,390 acres.

Imagine our surprise and delight as we arrived in Paso Robles to learn that the Firestone Walker brewery had a nice pub right off the highway. We made a lunch stop there. 

We were lucky, our table was right next to posters about one of their patents related to brewing, so we got a science lesson along with an excellent lunch!

And the adjacent wall art over our table was part of the hardware featured in the patent!

From the restaurant it was less than 10 minutes to our destination, Sue Casa, a lovely, Spanish-style villa.

This photo is from the back side of the roomy residence.

 There was a beautiful pool and a lovely outdoor fireplace nearby.

 The plantings on the grounds were pretty - and exotic to us.

We saw our first pomegranate tree!

It was surrounded by palm trees and horse pastures - definitely a change of pace from living in the middle of Seattle!

The wedding was Saturday afternoon.

They even had a real live wedding bell there. :)

While walking the wedding grounds, we saw our first up-close olive trees.  Can you spot 'em among the greenery?

The wedding was at the aptly-named Carriage Vineyards. Inside the building where the reception was held, an amazing collection of carriages were housed.

The reception was lovely and lots of fun.

We made some chocolate cabernet and strawberry chardonnay cupcakes, as well as some cookies for the event.

Christian's sisters and our friend Jill decorated the cookies. Didn't they do a lovely job?!

We had to leave all-too-early Sunday morning, as we had an 11-hour day ahead of us - destination Roseburg, Oregon,  Along the way, we had some lovely vistas, including some good looks at Mt. Shasta.

  
I like this last one - you can tell we were whizzing along at about 70 mph when I took the photo.

We also got a good gawk at Black Butte (below), a cluster of overlapping dacite lava domes.

And we got a much better look at Castle Crags as we traveled back north. Super cool.

We had lovely weather for almost our entire drive home - except right when we crossed into Oregon. It started raining. How appropriate! The upside, however, is that there was a rainbow. :)

We stayed in Roseburg, Oregon, Sunday night, and were on the road by 7:07 a.m., Seattle bound. Even with quick stops in Vancouver and Centralia, we were home by 1:10 p.m., "just" 6 hours later. Really, we couldn't complain.

Two thousand miles and lots of smiles. It was a good trip.