Above and Below

STAR GAZING:  Last night, we had our eyes on the skies, as a showy night sky occurrence was going down, the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. 

A conjunction is a celestial event in which two planets or a planet and the moon or a planet and a star appear close together in the night sky. Conjunctions have no real "astronomical value," per NASA, but they are pretty nice to view. :)

Here's NASA's Bill Cooke talking about the planetary conjunction of Venus and Jupiter

We're on the west side of a steep hill. While we get to see sunrises, we never get to see true on-the-horizon sunsets. And the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter was going to be on the west horizon. That meant we needed to go up the hill.

We piled the kids and dogs in the car about 9 p.m. and off we went.  When we got to the top, we had this lovely view ...  Venus and Jupiter in super close proximity!

After seeing that, we got greedy. We wanted the planets *and* the sunset *and* the water. And so, we headed to what we call "Eagle Beach," because on a couple of visits there, we've seen eagles up-close-and-personal. Its less fancy name is 

As soon as we arrived, the colors reminded me of a Hawaiian sunset.

And then I reminded myself we were there looking for planets dancing. Can you see them? They're lovely!

Even lovelier with the kids in the foreground!

Here's a NASA video about the planetary convergence.

UNSHAPELY: "Simple Trick Shows How To Draw A Perfect Freehand Circle Easily," read the headline, alongside an article I was reading online. I asked the kids if they'd ever read that tip.

  

"Clickbait!" Annabelle warned. 

I should have listened to her. Instead, we spent a couple of minutes watching a YouTube video ... 

Specifically, THIS YouTube video. https://youtu.be/zR3wbEudD1I

And then, with our new-found knowledge, we produced these lovely circles.

Um, wait, no, not quite ... 

 Very Not Good.

 Getting better but wait ... oh, that darn bump!

Suffice it to say, it was click bait. 

Yeah, OK, if we practiced X amount of times and everything was perfect, we could draw a perfect circle freehand. But, well, reality.

We talked about what needed to happen to make it work. One is the perfect pivot/plant point. The other is the perfect hold of the writing instrument. 

And we talked about how perfect is hard to achieve. Oh well, it was worth a try!

IN BLOOM: We've been taking long walks about the 'hood for the past few days, admiring flora and fauna.

Hydrangeas are in full bloom in these parts right now.  We have one in our yard (a transplant we got off Craigslist.com last summer), which is a lace cap variety, like the one below. 

I explained to the kids, as we were walking that hydrangeas are interesting in that the color of the flowers can vary widely, depending on the type of soil they're planted in (pH is a big factor).  

FISHY:  One of our projects today was cleaning out the goldfish tank.

We have had said goldfish for at least 8 years, maybe longer. We've called our two fish Annabelle Fish and CJ Fish for all that time.

As we were draining and refilling today, Annabelle asked how you can tell a boy or a girl fish. I told her to do the Google while I drained and scrubbed and refilled. While doing so, I looked down at Annabelle Fish and noticed a bulge on her right side hindquarters.   Instantly, I thought, "Oh no, Annabelle Fish has a tumor!"  

Meanwhile, Annabelle is rattling off characteristics of female fish and she said having a bulge on one side was sign of breeding season/and egg build up.

How 'bout that!?

It might also explain why Annabelle Fish has, from time to time, kind of burrowed to the bottom of the tank and hung out there for a couple of days.

As she reviewed characteristics of female and male goldfish, and we checked off our observation points over the last eight or so years, we've pretty much concluded that Annabelle Fish is For Sure a girl, and CJ Fish probably is too (though she isn't maybe as fertile).  Interesting, enlightening exercise, cleaning the fish tank was.