Illuminating

LIT UP:  Tonight marks one week in our new place. The kids were probably too young to remember a lot of the remodeling we did to our last home. This go-round, they'll not only have a front-row seat, but they'll be helping.

Wanting them to feel at home, we've decided a first-order-of-business is getting the kids' rooms put together. 

Both of their bedrooms need light fixtures that were a little more contemporary and 'them.'

We took down this fixture in Annabelle's room, and I promptly set about trying to rehome it. In fact, it's blowing up on our local Buy Nothing group right now. I think 20-plus people want it! (We'll do a drawing for the winner in the morning.)

Up in its place is a fabulous chandelier we scored from our previous Buy Nothing neighborhood group.  It's a bedazzled fixture that was removed from a multi million dollar mansion. 

A couple of nights ago, the kids helped Christian install it. 

Tonight, we finally got the lightbulbs for it.  And now, it's  a show stopper dangling from Annabelle's ceiling! And it was free!!!!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Buy Nothing?

MEANWHILE, ON MARS: This morning's email included an update from Jet Propulsion Laboratories regarding the amazing Mars Rover Opportunity's latest accomplishments.

Landed on Mars in 2004, and working many years beyond its expected/planned mission duration, Opportunity recently recorded a panoramic view on the Red Planet, before entering the upper end of a fluid-carved valley on Mars that descends the inner slope of a large crater's rim.

You really should go to the NASA website to see the larger image: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA21723

In its press release, NASA notes, "The scene (in the photo) includes a broad notch in the crest of the crater's rim, which may have been a spillway where water or ice or wind flowed over the rim and into the crater. Wheel tracks visible in the area of the notch were left by Opportunity as the rover studied the ground there and took images into the valley below for use in planning its route."

The photo was taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) during a two-week driving moratorium in June 2017, while rover engineers were diagnosing a temporary stall in the left-front wheel's steering actuator. According to NASA, "The wheel was pointed outward more than 30 degrees, prompting the team to call the resulting vista Pancam's "Sprained Ankle" panorama. Both ends of the scene show portions of Endeavour Crater's western rim, extending north and south, and the center of the scene shows terrain just outside the crater."

Fortunately, NASA's team was able to straighten the wheel to point straight ahead, and now they're using the steering capability of only the two rear wheels. The right-front wheel's steering actuator has been disabled since 2006. 

Overall, Opportunity has driven 27.95 miles (44.97 kilometers) since landing on Mars in 2004.

Creature Feature

BUGGY:  Yesterday morning, we had a visitor. Check out this beauty of a beetle!

Christian discovered him on the screen door, right by the head of our bed.

I posted the photo to Facebook, and before too long, the visitor was IDed as a June beetle, one of several types of Scarab beetles.

It's scientific name is Cotinis mutabilis. The critter is also known as the figeater beetle, the green fruit beetle or fig beetle. Per Wikipedia, it belongs to the subfamily Cetoniinae, comprising a group of beetles commonly called flower chafers since many of them feed on pollen, nectar, or petals, and its habitat is primarily the southwestern United States.

We're definitely western U.S., but not south, that's for sure. We do have a fig tree in our 'new' yard, so I wonder if that's why the beetle paid a visit.
It's interesting to me that even though we really didn't move that far (15 miles), there is a big difference in the bird and insect population from old to new. Gone are the seagulls we saw so often, living near the sound and Locks at our last place. And here there are hardly any crows, while we had many a murder of them in Magnolia. Also, no robins yet, whereas our last place was teeming with them. 

Our new "campus" has some small birds of prey I need a closer look at to try to ID. And we have a few hummingbirds and I'm working to attract more! We have an abundance of bumblebees and so many dragon flies. 

It's fun getting to know these unfamiliar environs. 

SCHOOLED: CJ is in the midst of his first summer school experience. He is about halfway through a three-week programming class through Seattle Public Schools at Seattle Center. I'll let him tell you more about it. ... 

Recently, I have been taking a programming class at the Seattle branch of the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE). According to their website, the AIE is a specialist games and film educator established by industry with alumni in studios around the world. The Seattle branch is one of two branches in the United States (not counting the online course), and is located in Seattle Center's Armory.
I have been going to class since the 5th, and I will continue to go until the 28th.
In class, I have worked on various different projects. Here are some of them:
One of the first projects we got to was making a version of the classic video game Pong using Javascript (technically HTML, but HTML was only used to contain the Javascript). We were first guided step-by-step by a Udemy course, and I have put a version of it on my website (linked below). At class, I was able to make a space-themed version of the Pong game (with Earth as the ball). Unfortunately, this version is not yet on my website.
Another project we worked on was animation using Toon Boom Studio. Toon Boom Studio is a popular program for animators (usually amateur ones), and it is a stripped down version of Toon Boom Harmony. With Toon Boom Studio, I have made animations of a ball bouncing, as well as a concept animation of my Pong program.
My favorite project would probably be the Neocities project. Neocities is a free web host, based of the classic defunct Yahoo! free hosting service GeoCities. On Neocities, I run a website about the Shar-Pei Hive Mind (an elaborate conspiracy theory that I came up with), along with some of my other things. My Neocities website is at sharpei.neocities.org.

Though CJ isn't thrilled with spending 5+ hours of his summer days indoors for three weeks, he is learning some good skills, and it's also a good opportunity for him to be more independent, so win-win.

VETTED: One thing we've discovered is that life doesn't stand still even though you're all-consumed with moving. There are still other things you must tend to, including a dog with a bald bottom.

Poor Laika. I'm glad she can't see her rear. It's pretty much devoid of any coat whatsoever. It's just her pale, kind of blue-tinged skin. I suppose I could have posted a photo to illustrate, but I'll spare her that indignity.

I did some Googling regarding the symptoms, and the most likely explanation was an allergy to flea bites. Even though we brush and bathe her lot and haven't seen fleas, that doesn't mean they're not there. 

We decided we needed to take Laika to the vet to get checked. But we're in a new neighborhood now, and weren't sure where to go, so we turned to the helpful Internet.

Annabelle quickly found a well-reviewed and seemingly super affordable place, the aptly-named Afford-A-Vet Animal Clinic. It is in Kent, not far from where we love to grocery shop at Winco.

We didn't even need an appointment. We just walked in with Laika a little after 1. 

She was a nervous wreck. That's kind of her perpetual state, really. Let's just say she was on high alert. It didn't help much that an enormous Pit Bull named Santana was all up in her business in the waiting room. Santana was super cute and his owner was really nice, but Laika just wasn't in the friend-making mode. 

We got into an exam room after about 20 minutes of Laika cowering. She didn't really relax in the exam room, because she knew something was up. 

Apologies for the blurry photo. She was trembling. ;)

While waiting for the vet, Annabelle and I learned lots about plants that are toxic to pets thanks to this engaging poster.

Some of the plants I'd heard were trouble, but I didn't know that the very common-round-here azaleas and rhododendrons could be trouble.

The vet did find one flea on Laika, and deemed that enough probably cause to confirm my allergic-to-flea-bites suspicion. So, she got some hardcore meds and we'll double down on our efforts to keep fleas out of the house. 

Turn the Page

DOORS OPEN AND CLOSE: Apologies for the dearth of posts as of late. We've been a little busy. 

Last Thursday, we shut the front door (and every other door!) for the last time on the original home of Magnolia Preparatory Academy.

We sold the place, and it was the deadline for vacating. We walked out about 6:20 p.m. on July 13. Moving on was a bit bittersweet, of course. We said good-bye to each room, and spent a little extra time lingering in the kids' rooms, admiring their 360-degree murals for the last time.

(Christian videoed the process. I'll have to see how those turned out and post, if possible).

The final few days in our former place, we marked many lasts. For instance, there was the last bike ride down our alley.

And I had to chronicle the last breakfast on the last morning in our home, prepared on the beloved vintage stove we had to leave behind. We had to go borrow a pan from a neighbor, because we'd already packed all of ours!

I loved that amazing appliance so much!

Of course, the sweet part of bittersweet is the excitement of moving on to a new adventure, in a new location. From Magnolia, we moved straight into a new place in Skyway, a neighborhood atop a hill at the south end of Seattle. 

From night one, the new place felt like home, so yay for that!

Kirby was happy to find a place to perch to survey her new kingdom (or queendom).

If you know us, you know we're makers and doers, and there is a lot to do at this new place. It was built in 1962, and hasn't changed a whole lot since then. In the midst of moving in, we've already started on some projects.

For instance, we've already been haunting our favorite remodelers' resale store, Second Use, in hopes of scoring some needed items for this home's update. I was tickled pink to find a pitch black toilet for the bathroom off our work-in-progress new game room downstairs. I'm definitely a fan of toilets that dare to be anything but white, so this black one looked like a beauty to me. 

Isn't it lovely?! :)  (Rest assured, I will try to keep my posts about toilets to a minimum going forward.)

We also scored some new seating ... Safeco Field seating!!! Imagine how happy we were when we saw these surplus seats from our beloved ballpark on sale at Second Use!

Amidst all the moving activity, CJ has been attending a Monday-Friday computer programming class at The Academy of Interactive Entertainment from 11 to 4 at Seattle Center. He's learning Java Script, among other things.

I found a photo on my phone of the "class." It looks suspiciously like the food court at the Center. Hmm, I'll have to ask him about that. ...

MEANWHILE, NEAR JUPITER: We haven't been as plugged in to NASA or any news the last few days due to our transition, but I have seen spectacular shots of Jupiter popping up
in my social media feeds here and there.

Spacecraft Juno has been returning stunning images of our solar system's largest planet. Specifically, on July 10, Juno passed right over the giant's Great Red Spot.

Per a NASA press release, "Images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot reveal a tangle of dark, veinous clouds weaving their way through a massive crimson oval."

Below, the enhanced-color image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was created by citizen scientist Jason Major using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
And this enhanced-color image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was created by citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt.

As of April 3, 2017, Jupiter's Great Red Spot measured 10,159 miles (16,350 kilometers) in width, making it 1.3 times as wide as Earth. 

The spot is actually a storm, and it has been monitored since 1830. It is believed to have existed for more than 350 years. Presently, scientists say the Great Red Spot has appeared to be shrinking. 

Fascinating!