Ups and Downs

ROLLER GIRL: Watch out, world, Annabelle has a new pair of roller skates. We were gifted them by a lovely woman on the "Buy Nothing" Facebook group we belong to. Awfully generous, wouldn't you say?

Annabelle is taking her first, tentative steps (or stomps) on them, just trying to semi-gracefully make her way from one side of our porch to the other - a perilous 5.5-foot journey, I'd estimate. She'd been outside about four minutes when the dogs and I heard a rather thunderous, house-shaking THUD!  The pups started barking and I ran for the front door. Annabelle had already picked herself up and was back to her stomping. Way to keep on trucking, Annabelle!

STUCK THE LANDING: Big news from Team Bezos today. Blue Origin, with headquarters just down I-5 in Kent, Washington, successfully launched and re-landed a capsule-carrying rocket. That's a big feather in the cap of Blue Origin founder and financier Jeff Bezos (of Amazon.com fame).

Check out this video of the flight that happened on Nov. 23, at the Blue Origin spaceport in West Texas.  https://youtu.be/9pillaOxGCo

Poking around the Blue Origin Web site today, I saw that they're taking reservations (well sort of). One headline read" INTERESTED IN RESERVING A WINDOW SEAT?"

Why yes, please.   The text continued, "You can start your journey now by filling in the following information. ... " It just asked for my name, email address and the number of seats I was interested in. No deposit required. :) The page went on to say, "By providing your information here, you’ll receive early access to pricing information and tickets when we open reservations. Our New Shepard space vehicle will carry a new generation of explorers and adventurers – we’re looking forward to flying with you!"

And so, I filled out the form. Why not?!

TOMB TIME:  This afternoon, the kids and I spent two hours building a tomb. Well, kind of ...

A few days ago, I posted a painting Annabelle was working on of a life-sized Egyptian woman. As part of an art class she's taking, multiple students' Egyptian-influenced paintings will be installed in a tomb - a space formerly known as a janitorial closet off a women's restroom. Yes. Really. It's all about imagination!

Today, the task the kids and I took on was covering the closet's walls with blue butcher paper. Lots and lots of blue butcher paper. It sounds simple enough. And I suppose it is. I guess perhaps it's just that none of us are particularly gifted at hanging wide swaths of butcher paper on walls. 

We finally found our groove and even had a bit of fun with the process, coming up with and singing as many songs as we could think of with "blue" in the title. The acoustics were pretty good in that little tomb! :)

Here's a (super blurry) picture with happy kids after we had finished.

TWINKLE TIME: Holiday lights are starting to go up all over town, making this pretty city sparkle even brighter.