Timely

HAPPY HAPPY:  The dinos were ready to party first thing this morning. Apparently they've had Christian's birthday circled on their calendar for awhile now! :)  Party animals, they are. :)

SALTY: Our language arts and social studies reading today included reading a "Time for Kids" article about Israel. That meant the kids learned about the super salty Dead Sea. The extracurricular tips suggested I teach the kids about the buoyancy of salt water. OK, will do!

First, we dropped an egg in one cup of regular water. It sank. :)

Then, we added two tablespoons of salt.

That changed things. While the egg was denser than the unsalted water, once we added all that salt, the situation flip flopped. 

Though the water is cloudy, you can see the egg has not bottomed out like it did before. Interesting, no?!

AUTUMN SONGS: While the kids were working through "Time for Kids" issues about Israel and invasive animals, I played some seasonal background music for them. We started with Vivaldi's "Autumn" and moved onto "The Autumn Leaves" (sung by Frank Sinatra) and then "Falling," - a bit of a stretch but a favorite from "Twin Peaks."

 I used to play thematic music like that all the time while we were working. Definitely need to get back to that.

TICK TOCK:  Yesterday, NASA's iconic countdown clock was shut down for the last time. 

First used to tick down the seconds to Apollo 12's moon launch in December 1969, the years and Florida weather took their toll on the timepiece. 

I was so thrilled to see the clock up close and personal when I had the rare opportunity to attend the Mars Science Laboratory launch in November of 2011 as a NASA guest. 

I was so excited the night before the launch, I couldn't sleep, of course. I arrived on site more than three hours before the early morning liftoff, and here's one of the photos I took.

See that thing glowing in the distance to the right of the clock?! It's Curiosity/Mars Science Laboratory getting ready to fly to Mars! And it's still there now, roving the Red Planet! How cool is that?!

A new clock, complete with audio and video (think stadium jumbotron!) will be in its place for he December 4 test flight of the new Orion capsule. (We'll talk more about that later!)

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, the clock has been moved to Cape Kennedy's visitor center now. I hope to see it again someday soon.