Beauty Abounds

  An illustration of Jupiter's Clouds.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin Gill

GLORIOUS JUPITER: Earlier this week, I have marveled at Jupiter, shining so big and brightly in the early morning sky. 

Today, we marveled at the latest photos NASA's Juno space probe has returned from our gigantic neighbor. Flying at around 130,000 miles per hour, the orbiter snapped these photos of Jupiter's clouds on February 7. The raw data images were received back on Earth on Valentine's Day. Interestingly, the photos we see online "rarely come from NASA, though: The data gets posted to a special website where a community of science and art enthusiasts can take the black-and-white files and tweak them into stunning color pictures, which they upload back to the site," reports International Space Academy.

The photo below is another one of the latest images. Is it wrong that when I saw it, my first thought was, "I'd love to do that in buttercream. ..."

SPARKLE PLENTY: We continue to spend some time volunteering at a transitional home for women. Though it's home to about 35 women, its looks more like an institution than a home. So, we're doing little things here and there to try to change that. 

They have to use payphones to call friends and family and potential employers. They are scattered throughout the facility and are super dated.

So, we decided to have a little fun with them by adding a designer vinyl wrap to their outsides.

We use contrasting washi tape as trim, and added pencil cups and little cork boards for notes, complete with custom made button-topped thumb tacks.

A friend donated a nice little desk or book case lamp to the cause. It had good bones, but Annabelle and I decided to give it some bling.  

We added about 50 cents' worth of ribbon, and used our Cricut machine to make some lettering. The lamp literally sparkles now. :)

MORNING STROLL: We started the day tuned in to NASA TV to see some of today's spacewalk.

NASA Photo: NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei's “space-selfie” during U.S. EVA-47, the first spacewalk of 2018.

This morning's six-hour space walk was the second one in 2018. Vande Hei and Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai completed work upgrading the robotic Canadarm2. They also shuffled the locations of the two old latching end effectors (LEEs) that were replaced on earlier spacewalks.

Treasured

GOLDMINE:  We ran many an errand today. We dropped off a sizable donation of fabric for the Refugee Women's Sewing Program at Hillside Church in Kent (https://worldreliefseattle.org/sewing), and dropped off a couple of dozen brand new Mariners lunch boxes for students in need at Kent Elementary. Afterward, we hit up the "BinWill" (a Goodwill where things are sold by the pound), in hopes of finding some vinyl albums for CJ, a new and avid collector. 

We dove into the bins, hopes high. CJ didn't find anything he was initially interested in, but I found things he should be interested in. We came home with a half dozen 'new' albums, most notably I, Robot from Alan Parsons Project.

CJ played it when we got home, and instantly fell in love. Here's his review. ... 

Way back in 1950, famed science fiction author Isaac Asimov's novel, I, Robot, was published, and soon after became a renowned classic. The novel takes the form of an extended interview with robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin concerning robots with intelligence.

27 years later, British progressive rock (prog-rock) band The Alan Parsons Project released their album I Robot, named after Asimov's novel. I Robot, a concept album, revolves around many of the same themes featured in its namesake novel.
I Robot opens with a track of the same name, a six-minute long electronic instrumental. After the instrumental ends, the song I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You (probably the most well known song from the album) begins playing, featuring iconic British pop singer Lenny Zakatek as a guest vocalist.

As a whole, I Robot, as is to be expected with most any prog-rock album post-1973, has heavy Floydian influence. I Robot came out in the same year as Pink Floyd's iconic album Animals, also a concept album.

In the end, I Robot makes for a very interesting listening experience.

What CJ didn't know at the time of listening to it - Pink Floyd didn't influence Alan Parsons. Rather, it was the other way around. One Mr. Alan Parsons was the producer of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." 

I, Robot is a PHENOMENAL album. A treasure acquired for a dollar today. 

FINALLY, IT ADDS UP: We spent our morning doing Algebra, and were thrilled we actually finally maybe totally get the latest concept Khan Academy is trying to teach us. We failed hard and often the first go-round, but by talking it through and working things as a group, we nailed dimensional analysis this go round. Yay for us!

DUNKIRK: We've seen the 'blockbuster' movie, and we visited the site itself in France back in September. During World War II it was a war torn spot, but what a beautiful spot it was when we visited.

Thanks to a friend's social media post today, I learned there's a new PBS documentary about Dunkirk. 

We will definitely check it out!

Heart to Heart

HANDS ON: This afternoon, we four made two dozen hand warmers. Ingredients? Baby socks, rice, rubber bands. Simple! They will go to help people who suffer from sickle cell anemia.

HEARTS APLENTY: There are so, SO many awesome space-related Valentines to share. I super love these Mars- based ones. So many Red Planet hearts!

COLLECTIONS: The whole family pitched in to help Annabelle craft her Valentine's Day 'box.' She used a licorice container, an oatmeal container, a dollar store red bowl, construction paper, gaffer tape and more to craft a piranha plant from the Super Mario game series. 

It was a big hit and she received many a cute, crafty Valentine in return.

ALL-AMERICAN TRAGEDY: Another day, another school shooting.

They're all awful. AWFUL. And this one is especially awful. Because if you live in America, you get to 'rank' school shooting by the body count, and this one was big and bad. 

It's not OK. It's not normal. #ThoughtsandPrayers aren't going to change things.

It's waaaaaaaaay past time for meaningful gun safety legislation. 

Another Adventure

BARN PARK: Sunday, more sunny skies came our way, despite a forecast for rain. Wanting to seize the sunshine, we took another walk along another new-to-us trail.

For a few months now, we've been driving by a small-looking roadside park with a covered area that looks like a barn. Sunday, we finally visited.

I'll let Annabelle tell you a bit more about our Sunday stroll. ...

Codiga Park is a partially restored wetland on the Duwamish River in Tukwila. The park used to be a dairy farm owned by the Codiga family, but has since been returned to its former wetland state. The park is home to many types of birds including Eagles and Great Blue Herons, one of which we saw during our visit. The park has a small mud flat area right next to the river which would be ideal for picnicking or fishing, being directly in the sunlight although a little squishy.

The mudflats Annabelle described are right across from a big BECU office building, just west of Interstate 5. 

After we wound our way through Codiga Park, we continued westward, toward the Tukwila Community Center and another waterside trail. Annabelle continues. ...  

When we took a walk in this area, we came across a U.S. armed forces memorial that was dedicated to both active and retired veterans. The memorial was a small pentagon-shaped pillar with a wrought iron “fence” around one side. There were gorgeous plants along the sides, including what looked to be a short, beautiful, bright yellow-green tree.

All in all, a great little excursion, a nice water front walk, and so close to home!

VALENTINE-Y: I just love these nerdy NASA Valentines from NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Sunny, finally

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT: This weekend brought something unexpected. Sunshine. Both days. Saturday, and Sunday. Not sure where you live, but if you're in Seattle, you know how BIG of a DEAL this was.

We celebrated our star's show by taking long walks on Saturday and Sunday. Following is a recap of Saturday's adventure.

We parked at the southwest corner of the Renton Municipal Airport and walked to the north. We saw many a 737 parked, including this "Lion Group" one. 

We made our way to the north, which led us to the south shore of Lake Washington.

We watched a seaplane land and tie up on the dock.

One thing I was totally not expecting to see/learn was that famous American humorist Will Rogers last left Earth where we were standing. Turns out he and a friend took off on a planned round-the-world flight from Renton. Their flight ended in disaster. 

I'll let CJ tell you a little bit more about our excursion. ... 

Alongside a long stretch of the Seattle suburb of Renton, there is a large airport, the Renton Municipal Airport. At the north end of the airport, there is a monument dedicated to Will Rogers and Wiley Post, both aviators who flew together from that spot in 1935 in what would be their final (and fatal) attempt at flying across the world.

The first of the aviators, William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers, a former actor, author, and political commentator. had traveled to many diverse locations around the world. According to his website, these places included "London, Manchuria, Java, Egypt, South America, Japan, Moscow and destinations all over America". Rogers' commentary on contemporary political and social issues apparently provoked suspicion in the federal government, eventually leading to the creation of an FBI document about him.

The second, Wiley Hardeman Post, was a "famed aviator" who was known for flying the plane Winnie Mae. The Winnie Mae's original owner, F. C. Hall, had named it for his daughter, and had hired Post to fly with the plane. The Winnie Mae is currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

History.com has some archival audio about the ill-fated flight. http://www.history.com/speeches/death-of-will-rogers-and-wiley-post

When you start to research the final flight, it's a bit of a rabbit hole, with this theory and that. One says the pontoons were to blame.

Whatever the cause of his demise, there's no disputing Will Rogers was widely revered.  This post from The Nation in 1935 is just one example: https://www.thenation.com/article/death-will-rogers/