In the Books

FRIDAY FINAL:  You know your son's math exam probably didn't go as well as it could have when he emerges from the school saying he drew heavily from lessons learned in this book (above) during his test.

"Ruh roh!" as Scooby Do would say. 

So, it didn't go as well as we might have planned and practiced for. Or hoped for. 

Oh well. It's over now!

I am looking (mostly) forward to getting the kids' results back, so we can learn more about the test, and learn more about things we need to be working on. 

FEELING SWEEPY:  This afternoon, the kids got caught up on their gambling hobby.  Just kidding - kind of. ... Our local Albertsons grocery store has a game going whereby you get tickets for a Monopoly-themed game every time you shop there. 

As the kids were tearing open the tickets today, in hopes of winning fabulous prizes, CJ asked where the word "sweepstakes" came from. 

To the Internet! ...

According to the Merriam_Webster dictionary online, the origin of SWEEPSTAKES is Middle English.  A swepestake is someone who wins all the stakes in a game. The word was a hybrid of swepen, which is to sweep, and stake. MW reports its first known use was 1774.

We all want to win a Tesla really, really badly! Unfortunately, the only 'prize' we scored today was a ticket for two more free tickets. Whoop-di-do.

GEOLOGICALLY SPEAKING: The kids are inching ever closer to being done with their research report about a local geological feature.  

In recent days, we have learned the Puget Sound area was carved out by the Vashon Glacier between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.  This short YouTube video, "Vashon Glaciation Animation," which shows the process.

YAMMERING: We're still plugging away on our "exotic" produce experiment. A couple of days ago I bought a sweet potato and a yam, and I knew at the time I was going to forget which was which. Fortunately, Annabelle was able to find a checklist online for similarly troubled people.

We had sweet potato oven fries tonight. They are not the kids' new favorite thing.

Plugging Along

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE:  Lookie what we've spied growing in a big pot in our back 'yard.' A sunflower! Actually, we have half a dozen of them, already, still struggling to shake their shells!  It seems like it was only a week or so ago Annabelle pushed the seeds into the potting soil.  

It's hard to believe this sprout will be six feet tall before long. We planted it from a seed harvested from last year's sunflower forest.

DOWNWARD DRAGON:  Don't know what you were doing at 4:37 this morning, but we were standing on our deck, watching and waiting for an International Space Station flyover.  

Normally, we view ISS flyovers during more sleeper friendly hours, but today's flyover was special.  We knew that a little after 4 a.m. our time, the SpaceX Dragon capsule was going to be released from the ISS.  We were hoping to see Dragon trailing the ISS during the flyover.

When I awoke, I was happy to see clear skies, but worried about how bright it was already. Dragon is so small (compared to the ISS), I was afraid we wouldn't be able to see it (we being just Christian and me - I wanted to let the kids sleep since they had testing this morning).

When the ISS appeared overhead, I thought I could see a faint dot off its port side.  Christian saw it, too. At other times, it almost looked like an extra bump on the ISS.  Mission accomplished, we spied the Dragon!

Just a few hours later, the capsule splashed down, in the Pacific Ocean, about 150 miles southwest of Los Angeles. 

On board is over 3,100 pounds of scientific materials, including research on how spaceflight and microgravity affect the aging process and bone health.

Dragon also brought samples for the Osteocytes and Mechanomechano-transduction (Osteo-4) investigation. The investigation is important to help determine how to mitigate the effects of microgravity on the function of osteocytes, the most common cells in bone, during long-duration space missions. 

At the present, Dragon is the only space station resupply spacecraft able to return a significant amount of cargo to Earth. That makes it a rather valuable asset to the U.S. space program, doesn't it?

SHOTS FIRED: We continued our 'shot of confidence' tradition today in preparation for the hours-long test the kids had to take.

This morning's poison? Er, I mean, inspiration? Mountain Dew Sangrita Blast.

CJ, whose head had clearly not seen a brush yet, drank it right down.

Annabelle drank it, too, with a tad less enthusiasm.  "It's ... awful," she declared.  The thumbs up is for having finished it, not a product endorsement. 

Their "Smarter Balanced" state test today was on reading.  Tomorrow is the final test - another math go-round.  

We'll sure be glad when this week's over. This going-to-school-every-day-stuff is cramping our style. ;)

Try a Papaya

PRETTY PRODUCE:  Our march of the new (to us) produce month continues. Recently, we cut into a papaya for the first time. Tangerine and pink - so beautiful!

We're getting a bit better at trying out new fruit. For instance, this go round, we thought to read online what a ripe papaya looks like. Turns out, the one we bought a week-plus ago was absolutely not ripe.

So, we put it in a brown paper bag for a couple of days and waited. The dark green turned more golden, and it developed what looked like bruises in a couple spots (which is actually a sign of ripening).

Annabelle read instructions about how to cut it aloud. First, you slice off the top. 

 Next, you cut it lengthwise.

Boy were we surprised when we found these inside! They looked like little eggs. They're papaya seeds, of course.  We read up on whether or not they're edible. They are - but they are bitter, tasting almost like pepper. Some save them, dry them, and ground them up.

One source said you're supposed to eat a couple of them for good luck, so we did.

"Instant regret!!!" shouted CJ, running for the sink. (I didn't think they were that bad at all.)

We cut the rest of the skin off it, sliced it into spears, and ate some. More of it went in our smoothies this morning. It had a very mild taste - almost like a melon meets a peach.

CHECKMATE:  After multiple fits and starts on what should have been a simple project, I'm calling it (our custom Seahawks chess table) done. 

It started as a wood-toned freebie table from a neighbor. We sanded and sanded it, painted it Seattle gray, gridded it out, painted the Seahawks' blue and green for squares, and found enough cards to stage a Seahawks v. Packers match up. The hardest part ended up what should have been the easiest part - just putting a coat of clear acrylic on the top. For whatever reason, the first two times I did that with two different products it was a DISASTER, and back to the drawing board. Ugh. 

Now, we're going to donate it to a local school to be auctioned off for a fund raiser.

I hope the school makes a little money from it. 

TESTING, PART DEW:  Today was the second of four days of state mandated academic testing. The kids each had a reading test today that involved them writing a passage with several paragraphs.

I was rather surprised (and not in the good way) when Annabelle came shooting out of the testing HQ after just about 45 minutes.  I asked her how many paragraphs she wrote, and she said four. In that amount of time, given the other questions and all the reading she had to do, let me just say I can guarantee you it wasn't her best work. That, and the instructions had said to write SEVERAL paragraphs. That's not just a couple. In fact, it's more than a few.  And she had at least four adults in the know (including me, her dad, her teacher, her brother the teacher and another teacher), tell her this weekend that several usually means around seven. It's definitely not four short ones.  So, let's hope this morning's lackluster effort is eclipsed by her three other tests.  Here was today's token pre-test motivation - a little shot of "Baja Blast."  

Maybe tomorrow she gets more. Or less. 

MORNING LAUNCH:  A little after 8 this morning, we watched (via the United Launch Alliance Web site), the launch of an Atlas V rocket. It was carrying a number of noteworthy items, including the Air Force Space Command 5 (AFSPC-5) satellite, some Cubesats, and the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (or mini space shuttle, which flies top secret, robotic-driven missions for the military).  

Also on Board: The Planetary Society's LightSail-A.  LightSail™ is a citizen-funded project.  The small spacecraft has a large, reflective sail measuring 32 square meters (344 square feet). This test flight is in preparation for a second, full-fledged solar sailing demonstration in 2016.

LightSail's sail uses the sun’s energy as a method of propulsion—flight by light.  As the Planetary Society Web site explains, "Light is made of packets of energy called photons. While photons have no mass, a photon traveling as a packet of light has energy and momentum."  There is lots more to be learned on The Planetary Society's site: http://sail.planetary.org/index.html
After its sail is deployed, you can try to track LightSail in the sky (dawn and dusk are the best times) via this Web site: http://sail.planetary.org/missioncontrol

COMING HOME:  Early this morning (at 4:04 a.m., Seattle time), the SpaceX Dragon capsule will depart the International Space Station, headed for a splash down in the Pacific Ocean, and the end of a successful mission.  Dragon will be carrying some 3,100 pounds of research samples and equipment.  This capsule is the one Christian watched launch live, in person from Cape Canaveral, so you know we'll be watching its return to Earth, as well.

    Photo: NASA/ISS - ISS043E193779 (05/14/2015)

Buried

TIP TOP: Blue skies made for a sparkling Space Needle this afternoon.  We headed to Pacific Science Center to see the traveling "Pompeii" exhibit, on its last U.S. stop before the artifacts are returned home to Italy.

It's a timed entrance event, so while we were waiting for our turn to enter, the kids rolled around a 4,000 pound ball of granite, all by themselves.

At 3 p.m. we entered the exhibit. This gentleman - or gentlemen, as it turns out - was one of the first to greet us.

Interestingly enough, when you looked closely at the statue, a work in marble believed to have been made between 27 B.C. and 68 A.D., you see that the head was an add on. So apparently the original body lost its head and some early Roman emperor lost his body. Overall, it's a beautiful sculpture nonetheless. 

Nearby was another gorgeous marble head. This one body-less.

We saw furniture, garden statuary, jewelry, housewares, ancient frescoes ... all unearthed in the years after Pompeii was rediscovered by explorers in 1748. 

As Pompeii was excavated, it turned out, ironically, that the volcanic ash had acted as a preservative. Much of the city appeared almost exactly as it had on that fateful day 2,000 years before. Buildings were intact, everyday objects were plentiful, right down to food in the cupboards in some cases.

Annabelle and I decided these gladiator shin guards would not be so great for a modern day soccer player.

I quickly quit taking pictures so I could just wander and look at the collection. 

I did take a couple more at the very end, however, when the casts of humans frozen forever in time by the of the mammoth volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius on August 24, 79 A.D., that smothered and buried the busy seaport in more than 12 feet of material. 

Pompeii:  An entire city, gone, in an afternoon, with no warning and no way to escape.  

Not exactly an uplifting experience today, but it was certainly interesting and educational.

ROCKIN': While driving to and from Winco in Kent this morning, we listened to all the Week 3 lectures in our geology class, The Dynamic Earth: A Course for Educators.  Lots of plate tectonics in today's talks.  Afterward, we aced this week's test. The kids need to get busy on their research papers for the class, though. They're due this weekend. 

To the Test

A SHOT OF CONFIDENCE:  It's going to be a weird week for us. We have to be, gasp, CONFORMISTS. The kids are taking the state mandated reading and math tests in order to be in compliance with The Law.  We're normally non conformists, but I'm OK with being normal at least one week out of the year. ;)

We did what we could to get ready. We took the practice tests online, more than once. We reviewed test taking skills and talked about what The People are seeking out of test takers. 

Right before today's tests, I had the kids each take a shot of confidence (in the form of Mountain Dew). 

Post test, they both reported feeling confident about their experiences today. CJ said he thought three things helped him:  The practice, the two shots of Dew Shine and his lucky shirt. When pressed further, he said he thought practice helped him most. :)

CONSTRUCT: This weekend had fits and bursts of decent weather. During one of those fits, I suggested the kids take a Nanoblock kit they've had forever up to the rooftop deck and work it out.

And so, they did.  Isn't it lovely?

CAN YOU DIG IT?  We're continuing our exploring-produce month. This weekend's introductions included turnip.  Gorgeous, isn't it?

I made a pot roast in the crockpot with lots o' remnants of our experiments this month. Funny, when all was said and done, I couldn't taste the difference between turnip, parsnip, and daikon.