BRACE YOURSELF: Big day for CJ. He's sporting a heavy metal smile tonight.
He's pretty uncomfortable, but he's being a good sport about it. Speaking of uncomfortable, yowza, orthodontia is expensive. ... HOT SPOTS: It was a warm one today, again. Upwards of 85, I'm guessing. To help beat the heat, the kids dangled their legs in water while eating lunch at the Locks this afternoon.
And this evening, we went down to a little rocky beach on the north shore of Magnolia. There were lots of ferries, sailboats and cargo vessels on the Sound tonight. CJ and Annabelle launched a small surfboard.
No surfing was done, but after a bit they managed to at least bob around in the water on it.
The mountain was out today, majestic as always.
NEWS FROM NASA: An email from our national space agency let us know about a new NASA Education program, 'Science WOW!' By signing up for weekly“Science WOW!” email, we'll be receiving science education offerings delivered “Weekly on
Wednesdays.” In the announcement, NASA told us, "Science
starts with a question, and so does "Science WOW!" Each week's message
kicks off with a science question and a link to where you can find the
answer. "Science WOW!" also highlights an awesome science education tool
each week. These featured resources will include NASA apps, interactive
games, 3-D printing templates and more!" Sounds great! We're looking forward to the first "Science WOW!" message, scheduled to be sent on Aug. 10, 2016. People can register their email address and be added to the list by visiting https://www.nasa.gov/education/sciencewow/. SO LONG, LITTLE LANDER: Sad news from the European Space Agency. The Philae lander, which touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014, is now in the big sleep, so to speak.
Adorable cartoon: ESA
The end came when ESA switched off the Electrical Support System Processor Unit (ESS) on the Rosetta spacecraft, which delivered Philae to the comet. The instrument was used to communicate with Philae but, as Rosetta nears the end of its own life, it needs as much power available as possible.
Photo of Philae on the comet: ESA
Rosetta's days are numbered, as well. The spacecraft is expected to have a planned impact on the comet in September this year. Now, though, we must say farewell to Philae. And in two months, there will be another sad goodbye as the Rosetta mission ends. ONE MORE: The kids are still singing Weird Al songs nearly nonstop a couple of days after the concert. Today, they asked me to play this video. To the tune of Lorde's "Royals," it's called "Foil," and it's hilarious.
WONDERFULLY WEIRD: Last night, the dogs and I dropped Christian and the kids off at the zoo. You'd think they'd be there to check out the wild animals. Instead, they were there to enjoy the antics of Weird Al.
Here's a (too short) snippet from Annabelle about the event. ...
At the Woodland Park Zoo, as part of their ZooTunes program,
Weird Al Yankovic played a show as part of his “Mandatory Fun” tour. The show
included many classics, such as “Perform This Way”, “Party in the CIA” and, of
course, “The Saga Begins”, but it also included a few songs I haven’t heard
before, such as a parody of Piano Man about Spiderman. It was a fun concert
even though we were somewhat far from the stage. We brought our own chairs and
a blanket, so we were comfortable. It was great, because we had a view of the
stage from where we were. The show has fun and I would encourage you to go see
him, or see a concert at Woodland Park Zoo!
CJ had a bit more to say. ...
Rarely, our family visits the Woodland Park Zoo, which, as its name implies, is a zoo with several animals on display (however, several animals there are *not* from the woods). However, when we visited last night, we went to the property for another, very different reason. We were going to see "Weird Al" Yankovic.
According to their website at thezoo.org, the ZooTunes concerts at the Woodland Park Zoo is a tradition that has been going on for more than 30 years. Attending the ZooTunes concerts will supposedly help "save animals", though I don't understand how. At this year's ZooTunes event, there were around 9 different artists performing, one of which was "Weird Al" Yankovic, who performed on the 26th and 27th. Dad, Annabelle and I went on July 26th, and we stayed for about 2 and a half hours.
Before the performance started, there was a clip show featuring small bits of unrelated shows and media. This lasted for a bit before the show actually started. When Weird Al performed the first song on the setlist, "Tacky," a parody of Pharrell Williams' "Happy," he actually walked on the trail to the stage while performing the song, like he did in the music video. After he was done performing the song, there was another clip show, except this one was a little different. Instead of just random clips put together, the clips in this one had a common theme: Weird Al was in all of them. Afterwards, he performed "Lame Claim to Fame," which, according to Wikipedia, is a " Style parody of Southern Culture on the Skids." The concert was very fun, with several parodies of famous songs, but it's a shame that the Mandatory Fun Tour is going to end on September 14.
Both of the kids agreed that "Word Crimes," a play on the mega hit "Blurred Lines," was their favorite song of the night. It really is pretty brilliant.
PUPPY LOVE: We have a new member of the extended family. His name is Pretzel. He's eight weeks old, and he's adorable. We met him today.
The kids rolled around on the floor with him for the better part of an hour. CJ for scale. ;)
I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the pup or the kids. :) When he's not busy playing, Pretzel just sits around being cute.
COMING THROUGH!:A Facebook post by the Hiram Chittenden Locks a couple of days ago let us know the estuary would have an unlikely vessel coming though this morning. Specifically, it was the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) ferry Sealth.
When it's in service, the 328-foot ferry can carry up to 1,200 passengers and 90 cars. Named after the Chief of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes who befriended early settlers in the 1850-60's and signed the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855, the ferry dates back to 1982, and it was heading through the Locks to a dry dock, for some maintenance and repair.
Thinking it would be cool to see it heading through the channel by our house, first thing today, we hopped in the car, dogs in tow, and headed for the Locks, about 1.5 miles to our northwest.
We parked on the south side of the Locks and walked to the channels where the locks are lowered and lifted. It was a bit after 8, and we'd read the ferry was expected at 8:15. We heard a Locks worker tell a co-worker the vessel was expected "in about an hour," and we thought we were going to miss out. (We couldn't stick around that long due to an appointment a bit later). And so, we started the walk back to the car. As we approached the parking lot, the railroad bridge lifted.
At first, we couldn't see why the bridge was lifting. There wasn't a boat in sight. However, as we rounded the corner, we spied ferry Sealth in the distance.
Tugs were on both sides of it, and they were starting to push it toward the Locks!
It wasn't super fast, but soon enough, the ferry made its way under the railroad bridge.
First time we've seen a ferry there, for sure!
The blue sky and clouds helped make the scene even more striking.
And here, the ferry is being carefully piloted into the Locks for its trip to a dry dock in Lake Union or Lake Washington.
We're so happy to have been able to see the ferry's passing!
Another local with a camera took a video of the ferry passing under the Fremont Bridge (it's further east than the Ballard Locks.
WEEKEND REWIND: Saturday and Sunday, we had the pleasure of attending the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo.
Conveniently located at Seattle Center (less than two miles from our home), we were able to attend for awhile both days.
I'll let the kids tell you more about it. CJ's review is up first. ...
For a couple years by this point, my family has gone to the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo, a geeky convention hosted in various places in Seattle. According to their website, The Seattle Retro Gaming Expo is an organization dedicated to creating a network of gamers in the Seattle area, and providing outlets for us to express our passion for all facets of the geek culture in general, and classic videogames in particular. At SRGE, there are usually several stations, often selling video-game themed art and other memorabilia. Sometimes, a particular station will be selling "reproduction carts", or a game that was never originally released or localized being put on a cartridge, usually having been translated beforehand. One station that stood out to me was a station actually advertising a new game for the NES, known as "Mystic Searches". Mystic Searches is going to be an action-adventure game set in a fantasy world. More can be read about Mystic Searches (and the documentary being made about it) at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1316851183/the-new-8-bit-heroes-new-nes-game-and-creation-doc/posts/1622766.
On our second day at SRGE 2016, Annabelle and I checked out a copy of Battletoads, the next-to-impossible-to-beat beat 'em up game for the NES. As with most playthroughs of the game, we did not make it past the 2nd stage, the "Wookie Hole", where we descended down a mile-long pit with everything and its brother trying to kill us. Sometimes, when trying to attack an enemy, we could end up hitting each other and wasting a life. But that is part of what makes Battletoads, well, Battletoads.
THE KID IS IN: Sunday morning, we blanked our calendar to make room for a very special occasion, the induction of Ken Griffey Jr. into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
Junior is the first player to go into the hallowed hall as a member of the Seattle Mariners. Regardless of the uniform he wore, he's arguably the best to have ever played the game. He was elected on the first possible eligibility ballot for him, with, by far, the highest percentage of 'yes' votes of any player, ever.
Of course, we had to have a little party for the occasion. We made some baseball cake pops (pictured below).
We also had a number of Griffey video games to play pre-ceremony.
The induction ceremony was wonderful and moving. We're so lucky to have had front-row seats to Ken Griffey Jr.'s career.
