Art & Park

WOODSY: After class today, we headed to one of favorite neighborhood destinations, Discovery Park. The kids rode the zipline and the dogs sniffed around for a half hour. 

Later in the afternoon we returned to the other side of the hill, this time our destination was the Magnolia branch of Seattle Public Libraries. What enticed us to visit there today was news that they have a drop in art workshop on Thursday afternoons.  Annabelle was super excited by that idea, and was the first in line waiting to get in.

Their project this afternoon was making a 'galaxy in a jar.' The process involved putting a layer of stretched out cotton balls into the bottom of the jar, adding glitter, adding a tempura paint and water mixture, and repeating the process layer-by-layer until the top of the jar is reached. Annabelle preferred to call it a nebula in a jar, given its cloudy appearance. 

While she had fun, CJ and I toiled with more practice for the state standardized math test. Good times. There was one answer on their test we're both convinced they have wrong.

WE'RE MELTING: We started our morning helping on a community art project. Local students colored plastic cups with Sharpies, and we melted them down to make them look artsy. The project is inspired by some of Dale Chihuly's work.

I just happy that after about six hours of working with a heat gun, melting plastic and kids, there hasn't been a single snafu - not even a close call.

It's a good exercise, really, as it involves learning about the safe handling of tools and requires good communication between the heat gun wielding person and the tooling person.

DRAGON DOWN: Yesterday, SpaceX's Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, carrying over 3.700 pounds of important cargo, including science and technology samples. Dragon had been attached to the International Space Station since April 10. When it arrived it was carrying 7,000 pounds of supplies. Dragon is currently the only station resupply spacecraft able to return a significant amount of cargo to Earth.

           Photo: SpaceX
One of the things Dragon had during its return was the spacesuit worn by NASA astronaut Tim Kopra during a January spacewalk. Engineers on the ground want to get a close look at it in hopes of determining what the source of water leaking into it that meant an early end to the spacewalk after Kopra reported a small water bubble inside his helmet.