Fore!

WIDE OPEN SPACES:  We had a long, fun, tiring Monday, attending the first day (practice round) of the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay golf course in University Park, near Tacoma, Wa.

We're wiped out tonight, so I'm going to save the full golf report for tomorrow, but highlights of the day included holding the US Open trophy ...

and watching Tiger Woods prowling the greens.

WAKE UP CALL: Exciting news came rocketing across the Interwebs on Sunday - Philae phoned home!

If you recall, Philae is the little lander which left the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft and flew to a nearby comet (Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko) last fall, before falling silent, as the solar-powered lander would up in a bit of a canyon and was cut off from a power source.

On June 14, signals were received at ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt at 22:28 CEST. For 85 seconds Philae communicated with its team on ground, via Rosetta. It was Philae's first contact since going into hibernation in November. During the transmission, the center received more than 300 data packets from Philae. 

In an ESA press release, Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec reported, "Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available. The lander is ready for operations."

Some of the data transmitted was historical, indicating Philae was awake before June 13, but not able to transmit until now. The ESA is hoping for another 'call,' as there are still more than 8,000 packets of data in Philae's memory, 

If you need or want a reminder about the mission, check out this adorable video.
 https://youtu.be/3lptDXWyxj0

and this one ...
https://youtu.be/PfIKit9o4LY

GRAVITY: Love this photo of ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on her first morning back on planet, enjoying some fresh fruit in Houston. "Enjoying sounds, smells, flavours of Earth. Doing great, but gravity is tough!" she posted Love her t-shirt (Gravity Gets Me Down).

MORNING ROCK:  On Saturday, June 13, we headed down to Seattle Center for a free concert featuring local legends Mudhoney. Though they emerged in the age of grunge, I think their sound is more straight up punk myself. Whatever you call it, it was loud and fun.
The show was actually part of the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon that was run that morning. However, since it was in a public park, people who didn't run 26.2 or 13.1 miles (that's us!) were able to wander in.

In fact, as you can see, we had no trouble getting front row 'seats'. Annabelle's the short one next to the tall ones ... 

 and CJ and a couple of kids a bit older than he were front and center. The new vanguard to Seattle rock 'n' roll :)

The show was fantastic!

Guitarist Steve Turner shredding

and singing ... 

 and hitting the pedal.

 Lead singer Mark Arm really cut loose once he lost his guitar.

Still screaming, after all of these years. :)

Guy Maddison on bass

Drummer Dan Peters

Nothing like getting your face melted off by ground shaking punk rock at 11 on a Saturday morning. It was so loud, I was coughing ... the sound waves were shaking my lungs.

Mark took occasion to partake of some 'breakfast Riesling' as he called it.

So. Much. Fun! 

It was so loud, it made me cough. I think it's because my chest was vibrating so much!