Sunny Friday

LIVE! IN CONCERT!:  Tonight, after what seemed like weeks and weeks of practice, the kids finally got to perform in public. Just one short song - less than three minutes. "We are Going to be Friends" is the name of the tune, a sweet little ditty by Jack White of White Stripes fame.  

The performance was in a small commons area at the learning center where they take a couple classes a week. It was a really fun variety show - lots of talented kids doing everything from fiddling to animation, reading poetry to dancing. 

Here's a (rather crappy) cell phone video (from me) of their performance. The resolution is so low, you can't really tell they looked terrified a good part of the time, ha ha. 

https://youtu.be/LFuKlgOoa3s
They felt really great afterward, though. They performed without music and were happy they remembered all their lines and kept on time. Good for them. Practice might not make perfect, but it sure helps!

HOT STUFF:  When we were walking the dogs this afternoon around 2 p.m. we were all feeling the heat. 

We later learned that on this day in history in 1724, Fahrenheit invented a precise thermometer.

Thanks to a thermometer, we can measure the heat here in Seattle 77 degrees today, and even some place much, much hotter - our sun!

By doing a little reading on NASA's Space Place Web site, we learned the surface of the sun is almost 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Yowza.  And its corona, a hazy layer of hydrogen gas encircling the planet, is even is over 200 times hotter. 2,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit, by our math. 

Credit: NASA/European Space Agency, 1999

For fun and education, we played "Solar Tricktionary" -  a quiz about different science terms involving the Sun.  Get all the answers right, and NASA seems you a "Space Place Solar Weather Guru!"

In keeping with our sunny thoughts, we listened to (a very young sounding) Marvin Gaye singing "Sunny," and Donovan's "Sunshine Superman."  (Donovan is celebrating his 50th anniversary as a recording artist this year, incidentally.) Love his music!

Coincidentally, both "Sunshine Superman" and "Sunny" were released in 1966, apparently a very good year for sunny songs. 

Open for Business

GRAND OPENING: Today was the Big Day - time to open shop at a micro craft fair (10 tables or so, I'm thinking), in an off-the-beaten path (no general public) spot. (In other words, pretty much the crafters were just buying stuff from one another.) Probably a perfect debut for MPA's maiden voyage. 

We had quite an assortment of items. We had sunflower strawberry cupcakes and 'fossilized' cookies, with bake sale proceeds benefiting No Kid Hungry. 

We had spirit gloves (pom poms on the ten fingertips), and 'crayondoliers' - crayon carriers you can wear, like a sash or an ammunition belt (Bee's wearing one in the photo at the top - some of the others are displayed on the middle of the table in front of her).

And last, but definitely not least, were Annabelle's community of pet rocks. 

They were a last minute addition to our lineup. On Tuesday afternoon I suggested she make some personality-plus rocks for the event. They cost nearly nothing to make, and I knew she'd come up with some cute ideas just using found items in our craft scrap drawer.

People LOVED them. Specifically, the adults at the fair loved them. It was so funny watching them squeal with delight and figure out which rock spoke to them.

One of the things that helped sell them was that each came with a birth certificate.  We quickly took mug shots this morning and Annabelle and CJ pasted them onto a certificate Annabelle designed.

All in all, it was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. 

AIRPLANE AFTERNOON:  We ducked out of the craft fair early because we had to head to Pacific Science Center for a sneak preview of "Living in the Age of Airplanes," a documentary about how air travel has impacted humankind. 

Narrated by Harrison Ford, it was a gorgeous, thought-provoking documentary.

 I'll let the kids tell you a little bit more about it, CJ first. ... 

On May 28th, 2015, we went to the Pacific Science Center to see Living in the Age of Airplanes, a documentary about the history of transportation, more specifically, aviation.

I expected the movie to be more about the technical aspects of aviation, but it turned out to be more about transport's history, especially that in aviation. The film pointed out that for the vast majority of human history, walking was the only form of transportation. During that time, there was no infrastructure, which meant no cars, no trains, and, most importantly, no planes.

The film featured a quote by Bill Gates stating that the airplane was like the original World Wide Web, in that it shared ideas and values all across the planet. The film also points out that when there were no means of long-distance transportation across land and sea, several civilizations around the world rose and fell without ever knowing of each other's existence. Living in the Age of Airplanes also states that the wheel was only invented around 5000 years ago, and during that time, we attached wheels to some animals so we could go at three miles an hour, which is still a relatively slow speed.

Last, but not least, the film states that although in the (19) thirties, flying was considered an amazing experience, today, we often get bored on flights and look to pass the time with in-flight entertainment.

Here's what Annabelle had to say ... 

On May 28, I went to a movie called “Living in the Age of Airplanes”.  The movie was about how airplanes have changed the way we travel. It was really interesting and I learned a lot. I’ll tell you a little bit about it.
 The movie starts out talking about how humans’ only transportation up to about 5000 years ago was walking. After that 5000 years, there was another 500 years where we used the wheel. Before planes there were some places in the world that were virtually unreachable by land or sea. After planes were invented, the top speed we could go at jumped from 10 miles an hour from 500 miles an hour!  The planes revolutionized the way we travel. Nowadays we take flying as a drag instead of an experience that humans weren’t even meant to experience. We really should look back and see how much flying has done for us, from connecting societies to almost acting as a time machine and letting us see history like never before.

A couple of things that struck me were the notion that at any given moment 250,000 humans are airborne, flying somewhere. The movie also hammered home the point that flight has made our planet a global market. Lovely roses cut in Kenya today can be in a vase on a mantle in a home in Alaska in under 72 hours. 

Remarkable. 

Here's a trailer for the movie. 

Living in the Age of Airplanes — Trailer #1 from Living in the Age of Airplanes on Vimeo.

Going and Going

SO SERENE:  If you look at this photo (above), you might think we spent a glorious day, relaxing along the shore, soaking up the sun, kicked back with not a care in the world.

That is not how we spent our day. Our trip to the beach was work - picking up a couple of rocks for a craft project. 

Today, we made two dozen or so intricate fossil cookies, around 20 sunflower and ladybug cupcakes, 18 custom pet rocks, and finished up some spirit/pom pom gloves and colorful wearable crayon holders. Our house looks like a craft store exploded.

Tomorrow is a craft fair at the kids' learning center, and the kids have been keen on participating. We're as ready as we're going to be. Wish us luck.

FINAL:  This afternoon, we watched the last lectures for our short (four-week) geology course, 

"The Dynamic Earth: A Course for Educators," from the American Natural History Museum via Coursera.  We also took and aced the final test, so now, pending getting passing grades on the field trip reports the kids filed about local geological features, it's just a matter of waiting to get the "graduation" certificate. 

INSTRUMENTAL:  Big news out of NASA over the past couple of days. They have selected the instrumentation that will be on board a probe headed to Europa, the intriguing, icy moon of Jupiter which is suspected to have an expansive saltwater ocean under its frozen crust. 

The NASA/JPL-Caltech photo above is a view of Europa's surface from NASA's Galileo mission. Pretty cool, no?

A new mission to Europa is still in the formulation stage.  The nine science instruments selected for the future mission were listed, as follows in a NASA press release: 

Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS) -- principal investigator Dr. Joseph Westlake of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Maryland. This instrument works in conjunction with a magnetometer and is key to determining Europa's ice shell thickness, ocean depth, and salinity by correcting the magnetic induction signal for plasma currents around Europa.
Interior Characterization of Europa using Magnetometry (ICEMAG) -- principal investigator Dr. Carol Raymond of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California. This magnetometer will measure the magnetic field near Europa and – in conjunction with the PIMS instrument – infer the location, thickness and salinity of Europa’s subsurface ocean using multi-frequency electromagnetic sounding.
Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE) -- principal investigator Dr. Diana Blaney of JPL. This instrument will probe the composition of Europa, identifying and mapping the distributions of organics, salts, acid hydrates, water ice phases, and other materials to determine the habitability of Europa’s ocean.
Europa Imaging System (EIS) -- principal investigator Dr. Elizabeth Turtle of APL. The wide and narrow angle cameras on this instrument will map most of Europa at 50 meter (164 foot) resolution, and will provide images of areas of Europa’s surface at up to 100 times higher resolution.
Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) -- principal investigator Dr. Donald Blankenship of the University of Texas, Austin. This dual-frequency ice penetrating radar instrument is designed to characterize and sound Europa's icy crust from the near-surface to the ocean, revealing the hidden structure of Europa’s ice shell and potential water within.
Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS) -- principal investigator Dr. Philip Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe. This “heat detector” will provide high spatial resolution, multi-spectral thermal imaging of Europa to help detect active sites, such as potential vents erupting plumes of water into space.
MAss SPectrometer for Planetary EXploration/Europa (MASPEX) -- principal investigator Dr. Jack (Hunter) Waite of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), San Antonio. This instrument will determine the composition of the surface and subsurface ocean by measuring Europa’s extremely tenuous atmosphere and any surface material ejected into space.
Ultraviolet Spectrograph/Europa (UVS) -- principal investigator Dr. Kurt Retherford of SwRI. This instrument will adopt the same technique used by the Hubble Space Telescope to detect the likely presence of water plumes erupting from Europa’s surface. UVS will be able to detect small plumes and will provide valuable data about the composition and dynamics of the moon’s rarefied atmosphere.
SUrface Dust Mass Analyzer (SUDA) -- principal investigator Dr. Sascha Kempf of the University of Colorado, Boulder. This instrument will measure the composition of small, solid particles ejected from Europa, providing the opportunity to directly sample the surface and potential plumes on low-altitude flybys.

TASTY!: We thoroughly enjoyed today's new-to-us produce experience. It might not be much to look at (my bad, blurry cell phone photo doesn't help), but the golden nugget mandarin is delicious, and definitely a new favorite!

SHE'S GONE:  This weekend, we were sad to learn of the passing of Nina, the beautiful gorilla who lived in Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo since 1968.  

We had seen Nina many times over the years, and it was always a melancholy experience, really, seeing such an intelligent creature forever captive. 

This photo I took of her a couple of years ago reminded me a bit of "American Gothic."

We're sorry she's gone, but I guess she's finally free, in a sense.

SALLY:  Late last night, I was helping CJ with some homework and we pulled up Google and the doodle was the Space Shuttle and its Canada arm.  CJ quickly grew annoyed with me because I kept playing with the doodle, saying, "Canada arm! Canada arm!"

Today, we learned the doodle was one in a series honoring America's first female astronaut, Sally Ride. A victim of pancreatic cancer, she would have been 64 today. 

This morning, we tracked down the story behind the doodle. Doodler Olivia Huynh explains it all here: 
https://youtu.be/AvfpnyRW8Io

PARTY PARK:  There are many, MANY things we already love about Seattle Center and now there is another - the awesome new playground for kids young and old!

I'll let the pictures do the talking ...

AMAZING.

Memorial Day, 2015

REMEMBERING:  This Memorial Day, though thousands upon thousands hit the road, we stuck close to home. And on Memorial Day, rather than visiting a local cemetery, we talked about members of our family who served in the military. We're fortunate, neither side of our family has lost a family member in service for generations (as far as we know). Many families cannot say the same. 

We talked a little bit about the differences between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. 

The photo at the top of today's page was posted by the University of Washington. It's a Memorial Day tribute organized by Husky United Military Veterans on the Husky Union Building lawn.

EAT YOUR WEEDS: As we continue to eat new-to-us produce this month, we read with interest a Seattle Times' story about eating foraged weeds. Of course, one needs to know what they're doing before embarking on such an adventure, but it's an intriguing thought.

In other news, one of the new-to-us taste treats we tried this weekend is jackfruit
(a/k/a Kha-nun ขนุน). 

They're not too friendly - or tasty - looking on the outside ...

"Panasa" by Krupasindhu Muduli - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panasa.jpg#/media/File:Panasa.jpg

but the jackfruit's inside is inviting, and intriguing!

Annabelle found some instructions about how to cut it up. The steps included cutting out the core, and then cutting out the yellow pods, removing the fibrous white strands between them, and removing the pit. Then, the fleshy yellow part was left to eat. 

They tasted a bit like a pineapple meets a melon, but they're not anywhere near as juicy or acidic as a pineapple.  Interesting, and something we'd eat again.

MAKING AND BAKING:  This week, there is a craft bazaar for students at the local learning center the kids attend, so we spent a few hours this weekend crafting to have items to offer. We made yarn pom poms for the spirit gloves we are making, and fashioned a few crayon bandoliers (or crayondoliers, as we like to call them).

Annabelle is still thinking about making some Pet Rocks for adoption, and we are definitely going to make cookies and cupcakes. The edibles will be offered for a donation to "No Kid Hungry." Here's a short public service announcement about the campaign.

We've set up an MPA page on the "No Kid Hungry" site.  We have a goal of $50 in donations. I think that's doable.

Speaking of baking and donating, we did some baking this weekend, whipping up a batch of delicious strawberry cupcakes.

The recipe made a half dozen too many for us and our company, so we posted the leftovers on our "Buy Nothing ..." group. They were gone in no time. :)