Camelot and Canterlot

                                      
SOMBER ANNIVERSARY: The airwaves were full of recollections about President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination 50 years ago today.

I went through a phase decades ago where I read everything I could get my hands on about the assassination. I read one article this week, an interview with one of the ER doctors who treated Kennedy, that brought up an angle I hadn't heard before. It was widely known that JFK had a terrible back, to the point of being debilitating. He often wore a brace - super old school by today's standard - rigid and high waisted.

The doctor contended that had Kennedy not been wearing the brace, he may have survived the assassination attempt, slumping over after having been hit the first time. However, the brace didn't allow him to slump, and the second shot hit him in the head. 

It made as much sense as anything I've seen or read about the shooting, and explains the video I've seen over and over and over of Kennedy's odd, upright position after the first bullet. 

I hate thinking about it, and I hate writing about it even more. Watching footage of the aftermath and his memorial is overwhelming. And it all went down before I was even born. 

I named a son after JFK. Countless sons and daughters out there are, likewise, named.

Today, CJ and Annabelle watched a BrainPOP video today about JFK. 

Afterward, they each continued to explore the site, watching educational videos and playing games. 

DEXTEROUS DINOS: Last night, the Dinos got ahold of a deck of cards and started building. 

Annabelle was pretty amazed as she approached, 'fresh' from slumber.

After a bit, the kids took the dinos' work down, and I challenged them to build their own house o' cards.

While doing so, they each gained a new appreciation for what the dinos had gone through the night before.

CJ took to it a little more quickly than Annabelle.

After many failed attempts, she was happy to get four cards up in ANY configuration and called it good.

The night before, the dinos set an example of good oral hygiene.

PONY PRELUDE: Tomorrow is The Day. My Little Pony's Season Four premiere. The adventures in Canterlot continue!

The first episode is on at 7 a.m., and the kids are all on fire about that. 

CJ is also on fire about the marathon that precedes it, starting at 3 a.m. our time. So, we've busted out the sleeping bags and I'm gonna drag them out of bed at 3 a.m so they can at least pretend they watched it all. 

We'll see how it goes ... 

The Eye Has It

PONYFECTION:  Recently, I caught Annabelle studying a couple of drawings of hers side-by-side. She was marveling at how she's progressed in the art of drawing ponies. You can definitely tell the before and after in the picture above.

Speaking of ponies, the new season of "My Little Pony Friendship is Magic" premieres this Saturday (Nov. 23) at 7 a.m. our time. We'll be watching, of course.


Prior to the season premiere, there's a MLP marathon. It starts at 3 a.m. I don't think we'll be up for that. ;)

PRETTY IN PINK:  Annabelle made a cartoon a couple days ago. ...

The text is small in this format. The first panel says MOST MAJOR TOY COMPANIES on top. The characters are saying: "We need another product, STAT!" and the other thinks, "Hmmmm."
The second character then says, "I got it!" ... We take the regular, color it pink, and say it's for girls!"

"It's perfect!" the first one declares.

It was made in response to this great ad for not-your-normal girls' toys, GoldieBlox.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFpe3Up9T_g

SAVE THE DATE: Exciting news in the inbox today. An email from Scholastic let us know they have an event planned featuring authors Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants), two of CJ and Annabelle's favorites on one stage. 

On Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014 at 10 a.m. PST, the authors will share a "Story Smashup." Students are invited to write an ending for the story.

You can learn more and sign up on line here: http://www.scholastic.com/kpwebcast/?eml=TRADE/e/20131121///PilkeyKinneyWebcast//////&ym_MID=1508572&ym_rid=5795565

ABBREVIATED: This post is going to be short, because it's actually causing me significant pain to write it. Something wretched has happened to my right eye. It's the color of Mars and burns like Mercury. Painful, and looking at light/a computer screen makes it worse. It started on Tuesday. I suppose if it's not markedly better tomorrow, I'm going to have to go to the doctor. Boo.

They Say It's Your Birthday

Last night, Dinovember continued with the Dinos having a bit of target practice. It is unknown why they were shooting darts at this apparently happy-go-lucky cousin. The large purple subject was seemingly an object of derision.

BIRTHDAYS ABOUND: Today, much of our energy was devoted to prepping for Christian's birthday. He's in good company, birthday wise. It's also Vice President Joe Biden's birthday. And Nov. 20 is also Edwin Hubble and Bobby Kennedy's birthday. Oh, and let's not forget Rodger Bumpass, the voice of Squidward on SpongeBob Squarepants.

Also sharing this special birthday is the International Space Station!

On this day in 1998, a Russian rocket lifted the first piece of what is now the largest man-made structure ever built in space.

Zarya ("Sunrise" in Russian) was the name of that first module of the space station representing 15 nations. Zarya is also known as Functional Cargo Block (FGB). It's mostly used for storage now.
                       

Just two weeks after Zayra was launched, NASA's shuttle Endeavour launched, with Unity (a/k/a Node 1) on board.  The two modules were linked together. 

           

                                 
The space station has continued to grow over the past 15 years. Today, it's about the size of a football field and ranks second only to the moon among bright objects in the night sky.

On the ISS's 15th birthday, NASA released this great graphic
                                                  
you can see the graphic lots bigger and better here: http://www.nasa.gov/content/infographic-15-years-of-the-international-space-station/#.Uoziu8RnFWg

How well do you know the ISS? Find out with this fun test:  [Cosmic Quiz: Do You really Know the International Space Station?]

And just for fun, here are some NASA nerds singing the ISS's praises 

Tea & Dinos

REFINED DINOS: Dinovember continues, and lookie what our dino-mic duo was up to this morning when the kids awoke. The posh pair was having a spot of tea and some biscuits (which the kids instantly recognized as the same ones they had on the Amsterdam to Seattle flight via Delta). 

SCORED: Math question on the anniversary of the Gettysburg address: How many score and years ago was the Gettysburg address delivered? I told the kids it was a race and they were to write the answer down and submit it to me. 

Hint: Today marked the 150th anniversary. 

In short order, CJ submitted: "Seven score and a decade ago."

Annabelle wrote "Four score and 70 years ago = 150 years." 

Both are right, of course.

After the brief math challenge, we watched a CBS News video: Battle of Gettysburg Day 3: A "do-or-die moment," featuring Civil War historian Allen Guelzo

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57592124/battle-of-gettysburg-day-3-a-do-or-die-moment/

SLIDESHOW: The kids each have a sound-related presentation to make in their Shoreline science class tomorrow, and today, for the first time they each put together a PowerPoint (type) presentation. (They actually used the Open Office equivalent. CJ's is about canine communication, while Annabelle addresses the burning, "What does the fox say?" question.

Speaking of PowerPoints, today is the anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Thank god there wasn't PowerPoint back then. ... http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld006.htm

ONE FOR THE BOOKS: Another day, another rocket launch. This time it was a relatively small one, from Wallops Island, Virginia. Though it wasn't the biggest rocket, it was packed with a record-breaking payload of 29 satellites for the U.S. military, NASA and ten high school student teams' Cubesat projects. The Minotaur 1 rocket lifted off at 5:15 our time.

Twenty nine more things orbiting up there. We here at MPA have been talking lately about all the things up there, as, I'm sure, anyone who has seen "Gravity" has done.  We are definitely going to go see "Space Junk 3D" at The Museum of Flight in the near future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hl28A9NfU4#action=share

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-hl28A9NfU4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


But back to yesterday's MAVEN launch for a minute. LOVE this NASA photo (by NASA's Bill Ingalls), due to its juxtaposition of the winged creatures taking flight along with the rocket. Sweet!

MAVEN Away!

Photo: NASA
ON OUR WAY!:  With great anticipation, we watched the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral at 10:28 this morning, our time.

Months ago, we'd submitted our names via a NASA portal to be put aboard MAVEN.  Here's the spacecraft in the clean room (photo courtesy of NASA/Kennedy Space Center).

In its upper righthand corner, affixed to it is a special DVD bearing the thousands upon thousands of names of folks like us who wanted to hop on board. :) The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics was kind enough to email us the photo above, as well as the closeup below, showing our "seat" on board.

We watched live coverage of the launch via NASA TV http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

More info on the MAVEN mission here: http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/features-news/events/.

BUSY DINOS:  Dinovember has taken our house by storm. They started last Thursday night, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday the dinos amused the kids greatly.

Saturday morning, they woke up to finding dinos roasting on the open fire. Er, I mean, dinos roasting marshmallows over the closest thing to fire they could find - our electric insert into a '60s vintage freestanding fireplace.

Saturday night, the dinos were super busy, because come Sunday morning, the kids woke up to this ...

The dinos had tried to build a time machine to get back to their era.

When he discovered it, CJ started wantonly turning knobs on the time machine. Horrified, I told him he's lucky we all didn't wind up back in the Jurassic period. You do NOT EVER wantonly turn knobs on a TIME MACHINE, I scolded him. Geez.

Annabelle noticed that one of the wires the dinos used to connect one knob to a receiver on the front was a wire coated in plastic. Noting that there's no way that would conduct electricity, she suspects that was their downfall.

Monday morning, the big dinos revealed they have a bit of bully in them.

They had lured some of the smaller guys into a trap, using the classic Mousetrap game.

Annabelle was delighted that when she sprang the trap, the cheese eating dinos were trapped.

They did not suffer, though. In fact, after they were freed, they enjoyed engaging in a conga line.

GUITAR GIRL: "I think this might be a callous, Mom!" Annabelle announced excitedly in the middle of "Feliz Navidad" this afternoon. Yay for callouses! That means she's been practicing more.

Speaking of needing to practice more, today I tried an experiment with my newish phone - recording a quick video clip. It's Bee, covering Macklemore.