Working It

CALCULATING: As today's math exercise, I asked the kids to measure the square footage of the walls and ceiling of our new storage space so that we know how much insulation and drywall we need to buy.

I was working at my computer while they were computing. I walked out right when they were talking about figuring out the measurement for the triangle-shaped space on the west wall. It did my heart and head good to hear them talking area = 1/2 x base x height. 

I was less impressed when they were initially talking about dividing square inches by 12 to find out how many square feet were required. Um, no. That would be 144.

Here are their notes. 

Real world math - I love it!

PUZZLED: While so many businesses and industries have suffered during this *%&$^# pandemic, a few have prospered. One thing that's selling better than ever is jigsaw puzzles. People stuck at home looking for a pleasant distraction, and puzzles are filling that bill.

While driving a couple weeks back, the kids and I heard a story on NPR about the popularity of puzzles right now. Ceaco, one of the largest producers of jigsaw puzzles and family games in the U.S., sold more puzzles than in the entire month of December. And NPR reports that sales by gamemaker Ravensburger are up 370% as compared with this time last year.

Everyone in our family likes puzzles, but we don't ever really have one going here, because we're usually on the go so much. Enter a pandemic, and we've got a puzzle on our living room table.

This one is special, as it's a custom puzzle - a photo of our two favorite Dobermen (Dobermans?)

It was actually pretty tricky: Weird puzzle shapes, lots of white, a missing piece (found upon shaking out our leather shag rug beneath the table). But we did get it done!

SOMETHING PHISHY:  One of the kids' homework assignments this afternoon was to spot all of the mistakes in this comically horrible phishing attempt in my email today.

There are so many really sophisticated phishing schemes out there. This was not one of them. PayPal, Paypal, paypal ... for starters. So many typos, such bad grammar, terrible punctuation. It hit all the marks. The kids both burst out laughing while reading it.

THEIR CHARIOT AWAITS: We're definitely counting down the days until May 27, when a SpaceX Dragon capsule is set to take two astronauts from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station. It's kind of a big deal. No human has been launched from American soil for nine long years.  

For years, astronauts were shuttled to the launch pad in an "Astrovan."

Astrovan photo courtesy of NASA

This go 'round, their ride as a far sight cooler. They'll be transported in a Tesla.

Brilliant-but-troubled Elon Musk (who has been having multiple meltdowns recently) is the brains behind both SpaceX and Tesla. 

It's going to be a huge boost for both of Musk's brainchildren. 

If you want to keep up on the latest on the launch, and are a Facebook person, consider joining the #LaunchAmerica NASA Social group.

Joining should give you access to virtual badges and virtual tours, and NASA reps will be on-hand to answer questions and interact with in real time. For more information, check out the event's site: https://www.nasa.gov/social/launchamerica.

One fun fact about the upcoming launch ... astronaut Doug Hurley is one of the crew of two who will be on board the historic SpaceX launch. 

Astronaut Doug Hurley, photo credit: NASA

Hurley, a fighter pilot and test pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps, was in the NASA astronaut class of 2000  and was one of the crew on STS‐135, the final space shuttle mission. So this will be a bookends of sort - the last and the first. Pretty cool.