Living Dangerously

OMG!: This was the look on the kids' faces this a.m. when I told them it was Friday the 13th.

It's so funny - they don't know why they are afraid of the day, they just know they should be. ... Yeah, well, I decided we'd turn that all on its head today!

I asked them if they knew why Friday the 13th is supposedly so big and bad. They both shrugged. So I asked them to sit down and use their imaginations and write a story about why Friday the 13th is to be feared. I played theme music from the "Friday the 13th" movie, which I knew they were both familiar with, and Stevie Wonder's "Superstition."

CJ came up with this: "Why Friday the 13th is bad luck: The first reason is that person that's named Jason will try to kill you every once in awhile. And the sun is so bright that you can't see where you are going. Also, you will always get papercuts whenever your useing paper."

Bee's take: "My theroy of Fri. 13th is a bad day first of all ... Jason. The kids no. 1 enemy. He's weak against fire ( just like grass leaf Pokemon, now we're not talking about Pokemon). No. 2, the crasy stuff you don't want to do (like walking under a ladder etc.)."

So there you have it, Friday the 13th as explained by 6 and 8 year olds. As explained by Wikipedia, the dubious date originates in The Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility, and when Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. Supposedly every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with the devil and eleven other witches (a gathering of thirteen) and they plotted the upcoming week's bad deeds.

The other most popular origin bandied about for Friday the 13th dating back to October 13, 1307 when King Philip IV of France carried out a witch hunt of sorts, resulting in mass arrests of several thousand Templars — knights, sergeants, priests, and serving brethren. Hundreds of Templars were tortured and forced to confess (a recurring theme throughout history).

Did you know that in the Gregorian calendar, Friday the 13th occurs at least once, but at most three times a year, and that if the month starts on a Sunday, it will have a Friday the 13th?

All this said, I thought the bottom line I had to explain to the kids was that Friday the 13th is a superstition. And I rattled off all sorts of other superstitions that hold no water - and I told them we'd be flying in the face of them all today, just for fun! They were all over that! And so, we (gasp!) broke a mirror! And we spilled salt!!!
We walked under ladders ...
We even opened an umbrella in the house!
And after dinner, we FINALLY had a black cat cross our path! I can't tell you how much fun the kids had breaking all these rules - but just look at their faces in these photos and you can tell. :)

ADVENTUROUS: This morning was gloriously sunny. We simply HAD to get out in it. Feeling ambitious, we did something I'd never attempted with the kids on bikes and dog alone before: A run down to Terminal 91, Smith Cove Park.

Mercifully, we made it there ... Annabelle found a rock she thought would make a great TV remote for the Flintstones.
In the midst of their rock unit at school, the kids (on their own) took the time to check out the beach's rocks, and collected several (which I had to lug on the jog home).

The cruise ships are back in town. That means it's almost summer, right? Right?!?!?

Our biking/jogging efforts were rewarded by an offshore visit by a sea lion (crappy YouTube video here). It was watching us and we were watching it. Too cool!

Times like this I really appreciate where and how we live. While other kids are sitting in a traditional classroom following a traditional approach, we were out soaking up vitamin D, conducting a science class along the shoreline.

I was really proud of the kids on the way back. CJ rode his bike all the way to the top of a really long, steep hill and Annabelle, all by herself, pushed her bike up that same hill. Bravo!

Blogged Down

ED NOTE: This is being posted late because Blogger crashed in a big, ugly way on Thursday. They were down from hours and hours, and as of this writing, it obliterated my Wednesday post, too. I saw something in their technical update about trying to restore Wednesdays posts, but I will believe it when I see it. Looks like obviously they had to do some system restore that turned the clock back to Tuesday.

CONSUMER ADVOCATES: To fellow Americans, as you read this, you will glow inside, knowing that by our efforts alone today, the economy has been stimulated. That said, it would have been MUCH more stimulated if our finds weren't all from Goodwill, but hey, we're on a budget here. :)

One of the day's great finds at the Dearborn Goodwill store were comic books that are history text books in disguise. Score! Mixed in with old Oprah and Country Home magazines, we found five issues from the "The Cartoon History of the Universe" series. The ones we found (volumes 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8) are in pristine and protected condition. They are written and illustrated by mathemetician and professor Larry Gonick. From Wikipedia I learn from 1990 to 1997, Gonick penned a bimonthly "Science Classics" cartoon for Discover magazine. Gonick has published lots of other titles - it looks like we've just scratched the surface with him. What a great find - and only .49 cents apiece!

Annabelle curled up on the couch with "Volume 1, The Evolution of Everything Including Sex!!" (I know, scandalous!) this afternoon. When she opened to the first facing pages that read "BIG BANG!" it reminded me that yesterday, during sceince, while she and her age 5-8 classmates were mixing straw, dirt and clay to make bricks, she asked of her tablemates, "So, have you heard of the Big Bang theory?"

Yes, that's my kindergartener, making small talk. :)

Back in the toy section of the store I spotted what I know to be astronaut orange on a limb of a stuffed animal in a huge pile. Upon pulling it out, sure 'nuff, it was a astronaut teddy bear in a flight suit embroidered with Kennedy Space Center and NASA patches. We saw plenty of these on our trip back to KSC last year, but we're too cheap to pay $20 for one. But $1.99? Yes, please! Annabelle was QUITE happy with her "new" bear.
And as a funny footnote, when we were at Albertsons, getting our cheap on again by stocking up on 10 bags of Goldfish for $1 apiece, hanging right next to the Goldfish for some inexplicable reason, was a little space shuttle. The kids pointed it out, of course, and then Annabelle noticed it wasn't just any shuttle, it was *OUR* shuttle - the Atlantis, the one we watched launch in person. So that went into the cart - $3 I didn't plan on spending, but less than half the price they were at KSC, where we didn't buy one.

HAPPINESE: A few days back, we were the high bid on a lot of video intrigue from Seattle Goodwill's eBay store. The lot was three Super Famicom (Japanese Nindento system) games, and some mystery "Super Adaptor." Frankly, we had little to no interest in the games; We were hope Hope HOPING the adapter would allow CJ to play more Super Famicom games in his Super NES - including the prized/rather pricey Wrecking Crew '98 he bought with an eBay gift card he got for his b-day last month.

This afternoon, we picked up the booty. As soon as we got home, CJ started getting his Super NES lined out, ready to test the "new" games and adapter. First, we tried each game with the old Super Famicom adapter we have. Only one of the three (Chrono Trigger) worked. We were happy at that, though, as there was a chance we'd be 0-for-3 with that adapter. Next, we plugged in the "new" green, made-in-Korea "Super Adaptor" and tried our luck. One by one we plugged in the Japanese games and one by one, they worked. CJ retrieved his Wrecking Crew '98 game from its Spot of Privelge and carefully plugged it into the "Super Adaptor." We held our breath and ... IT WORKED!!! O Happy Day!!!
So CJ spent some time this afternoon getting to know his Wrecking Crew. Sweet! We had the added bonus of checking out the very Japanese games that came with the "Super Adaptor." One was Front Mission, which, according to Wikipedia, is "a tactical role-playing game developed by G-Craft and published by Square Co., Ltd., released in Japan in 1995 for the Super Famicom." The game is the first in what turned into the Front Mission series. It follows various characters and their battles against mecha known as wanzers. Turns out it's a pretty popular series in Japan, but we were happy to learn there is also an English version of its Web site.

Next up was Chrono Trigger. A role playing game, I've actually heard of that one (yes, I'm that nerdy). The Japanese version we now have is the first in a series that is apparently considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Nintendo Power praises Chrono Trigger as revolutionary for its multiple endings, sidequests, unique battle system and detailed graphics.

The third game we picked up not so on purposely was a bit harder to decode. There's absolutely no English on the label or any of the game play screens. We finally gleaned Yu Yu Hakisho from one of the intro screens and found out that it's one in a series based on a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. Mystery solved.

PIZZARIA: The kids got to have do-it-yourself dinners tonight. They really like making their meals. It reminds me, I need to get them more involved in the daily grind cooking instead of just the 'stunt' cooking (crazy cookies, cupcakes and such) we do from time to time.
STARRY, STARRY NIGHT: Christian wasn't home for 15 minutes tonight when he tore back out the door. When CJ asked him where he was going, Christian explained he was going to a lecture, which is a bit like a class, and sometimes people go to class just for FUN.

Tonight's fun is a lecture by rock star astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on the University of Washington campus.

Thick as a Brick

SANDCASTLES: Today at science class the kids got to pick up the objects they molded last week. Annabelle had formed a pair of people (?) lunching at a picnic table out of sand and a cornstarch-and-stuff binder. There's a short fence in front of them. Can you see the scene?
CJ's sandy sculpture was shaped like a fat pancake and he did an impression of his fist in it. Out of clay (light gray above), Annabelle made a strawberry (or so she says). CJ made a happy face.
Today, the kids got to make their very own bricks. They used soil, water, straw and some sort of powdered clay. It was a messy proposition, to be sure.

For the second week in a row, Mr. Tactile Sensitive did not take to the project like a fish to water, but he soldiered through. After they'd mixed the muck, they pressed it into little aluminum foil pans. Hopefully a couple of weeks from now they will have solidified into bona fide bricks.

The science teacher told the class that she grew up in the Midwest and how sticky the clay in the soil is in the region and how it sets up so strongly, it was used underneath the space shuttles' launch pad a Cape Canaveral.

She also told a story about learning to Jet ski on the Mississippi River and how she learned the hard way about its muddy bottom.
FLOODWATCH: First thing this a.m. we turned on the TV, which is not our norm. However, we wanted to check out how the folks in the region of the Mississippi River were doing. I started with CNN, but they were discussing Bristol Palin's "TMJ" surgery.

Funny, I know people who have had TMJ surgery and none of them ever look like a different person post-op. Maybe Bristol's TMJ stands for "Totally Michael Jackson." ... I know, I know, catty of me, but you can't expect to have half your face drastically rearranged and not have people go, um, WTF? And if she thinks people are going to buy the "TMJ" line, I have a bridge to nowhere in Alaska I'd like to sell her. But I digress. ... We were talking about the Mississippi, right?

We tried finding coverage on other news channels with no luck. Apparently the region's largest flood since 1937 just isn't that big a deal to them. We wound up on the Weather Channel. Not surprisingly, they were covering the event in detail. Once story showed airboats shuttling people to and from casinos, and talked about how much the area's economy is going to be hurt by so many casinos having to shut their doors for awhile.

QUIET TIME: After school, the kids retired to their room. I assumed they were in there computing and went to check on them after a few minutes. What did I find? ...
NICE!

ROCKET MAN: First thing this a.m. the kids and I marveled over footage of Yves "Jetman" Rossy of Switzerland zooming over the Grand Canyon wearing his jet pack. Amazing!

PLAY TIME: This evening the kids knocked the dust off a game they haven't played in months - Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii. CJ was operating the main character, Luigi, and doing most of the heavy lifting. Annabelle was player 2, who is limited to being a Luma, or a floating 'helper' star that really can't do much other than collect random star bits here and there.

Most of the time their play was cooperative and complimentary (things like Annabelle saying, 'Nice jump!" and CJ saying, "Why thank you, Annabelle." But one exchange was a little bit frosty, and cracked me up.

At one point Annabelle counseled, "There's no need to go on that platform."

CJ quickly fired back, "Why do you judge me like that?"

Peas in a Pod

WARM FUZZY: I almost deleted this photo, as I was disappointed with how out of focus and fuzzy it is. Then I stopped to think, "Well 'fuzzy' is really what it's all about."

I took it at about 8 this a.m. while countless families with similarly aged children were, no doubt, running around like crazy, trying to find shoes, backpacks, homework, lunches and such.

There is none of that chaos here on the vast majority of mornings. Rather, our mornings are mostly quiet, peaceful, cozy times. And for that, I am most grateful.

BELLY UP TO THE BAR: The kids worked on some Musikgarten homework early, including transcribing some measures and practicing playing a song.Kennedy was here at the time, and so it was fun to have him chime in (sometimes literally) when they were struggling with a song on their glockenspiels.

4/1 FLASHBACK: I logged into Morguefile, a stock photo sharing site, to visit my photographic progeny and low and behold, MPA's April Fool's project was on their front page today. "Hey! Those are our cupcakes!" Annabelle proclaimed with a measure of pride.

FLOOR SHOW: This afternoon CJ and Annabelle were playing Hot Wheels on the living room floor. There was plenty of dialogue between the characters they were playing and at one point I heard CJ said, "And the adults are talking about somethings the kids don't care about, 'Blah, blah, blah.' "

LOL! It reminded me of all of the teacher's voices on Peanuts cartoons.

I love their floor time - the conversations and contraptions they come up with. Annabelle's on a big kick using her ZhuZhu Pets to pull things around.

POPPED OUT: CJ walked out of the bathroom today, telling me his tooth was loose after brushing. I'll say - it popped right out when I touched it!
I sure hope Mr. Tooth Fairy has some cash in his wallet. I know for a fact all Mrs. Tooth Fairy has is plastic in her purse. ...

COUPON QUEEN: Annabelle found a Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores mailer on our counter today and took it upon herself to cut out some 50 and 60 percent off coupons. She presented them to me and then a few minutes later was back with an even BETTER coupon!

Maybe she's been watching "Extreme Couponing?"

Big Muddy

PEDAL PUSHERS: I had to go to the dentist this afternoon. The office is near Green Lake, so while I was indisposed, Christian and the kids played at the Green Lake Park playground. They had a grand old time for about an hour and then when I was able to join them, we rented a pedal boat and hit the water.

It was a gray day and for most of our 45 minutes on the pond, we had the lake entirely to ourselves - if you don't count the ducks following us around, hoping for a hand out. One of them seemed to be smiling. As always, lots of joggers and walkers circled the lake. We also saw several fishermen, though no one appeared to be catching anything.
Eventually, we were joined on the water by a few rowing club crews.
On our way out of the park, we discovered an old training station. Bee hung from the rings for awhile.
CJ tried out some stretches.
RIVER WATCH: Due to widespread flooding, the Mississippi River was all over the news today. As we watched a bit of video on CNN about the trouble, I realized the kids probably had never even heard of the mighty Mississippi before today. Fortunately, just last week I'd pick up "Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi" from the library. Written and illustrated by Cheryl Harness, it's a visually captivating book. It managed to share important facts about the river (its size, source, surrounding geography, and such), as well as the history of steamboats on the river and biographical information about the life of Samuel Clemens.

As Mark Twain wrote in "Life on the Mississippi," "The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary it is always remarkable." I would say Harness' book proved Clemens' claim.

After reading the book, I found an eight-paragraph long article about the Mississippi River on EdHelper.com. The kids read it and answered eight comprehension questions that followed, and then a couple of micro essay questions, the first of which was, "At some time in the river's history, you could have been an explorer, steamboat captain or a pirate. If you had to be one of them, which would you chose? Why?"

Annabelle chose a pirate because "I would have pockets full of gold."

CJ responded, "I would be a pirate if I had to be one of them because I would be rich with my mates and I could use my money later on ."

Another question asked, "Do you think you would enjoy the slow travel of a paddle wheeler?"

CJ answered, "I would not like it because it would take a few hours to get home."

Annabelle wrote, "I think I'd like it. I've been on a fairy before!" LOL.

While they worked, I had "The Mississippi River of Song" playing in the background for them to listen to. It's a PBS documentary about music of the region. The part we watched and listened to featured a group called The Bottle Rockets. Good stuff!

We also enjoyed a wonderful old (1936) version of "Old Man River" sung by Paul Robeson, as well as Andy Williams crooning "Moon River."

Until today I'd never known that Moon River was about the Mississippi. Now the lyrics "my Huckleberry friend" make more sense to me. :)

ON THE INSIDE: For the past couple of days, CJ has been asking questions about floppy disks. No doubt he's heard tell of them in a book or video about old video games.

CJ asked Christian if we have any floppies. Though we couldn't scare up an old 5.25 inch one, Christian did find a stash of 3.5 inch ones. CJ wanted to see the inside of it, so Christian helped him crack the case. Once he got to the innards, he had fun flapping the floppy. :)

Friday, Friday

TIPTOE THROUGH THE TULIPS: While Annabelle was at ballet this afternoon, CJ and I took a stroll through the drizzle.

In the park next to the community center, we admired some lovely tulips. I like the multi-colored ones best.

First stop, the Magnolia post office (my favorite place - not!) to drop off the replacement replacement phone from *&%^$# Virgin Mobile. I am now awaiting a replacement for my replacement's replacement. And I'll stop there, because I can't talk about it any more without swearing profusely and my blood pressure spiking.

From there, it was on to Bartell Drugs. As we approached the store, I told CJ that just a couple of days ago, a woman drove her car through the storefront. CJ took a few seconds to mull that over and then he asked me, "Did she do it on purpose?"

I kind of chuckled and said, "I really doubt it. I think it was an accident. She just put her car in drive instead of reverse and stepped on the gas."

CJ replied, "Well if she did it on purpose, she could have been a terrorist."

"Um, well, yes, I suppose that's true," I responded.

Then CJ, apparently a conspiracy theorist, said, "Maybe before Osama bin Laden died, he told her that if he was killed, she should do that."

"I suppose that is possible," I said, "but it's really just not very likely. All signs point to it being an accident."

By that time we were in the store and the first Bartell employee he sees is a 60-plus woman stocking cosmetics. He starts grilling her about the incident - how exactly it happened, was anyone hurt, was any merchandise destroyed, and so on. I could tell he was still somewhat harboring his terrorist attack theory. :/ Just another example of life in the post 9/11 world.

FLYING MACHINES: Also on our walk, we heard engines roaring overhead. There was heavy cloud cover, so the plane was flying lower than usual. It was easy to read its tailfin, which was labeled with a 747-8! "Cool!" I told CJ, reminding him Seattle is "Jet City," and we get to see lots of jets before the rest of the world. In fact, no 747-8s have been delivered yet, they're just being test flown, and just today stories were all over the media that production of them has been temporarily halted while Boeing plays catch up.

According to its maker, "The Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental and 747-8 Freighter are the new, high-capacity 747s that offer airlines the lowest operating costs and best economics of any large passenger or freighter airplane-while providing enhanced environmental performance."
Sorry this picture is so crappy. I was too slow wrestling my camera out of its bag. Below is a MUCH better pic, culled from the Internet. ... :)TEXAS SIZED: After working on a couple pages in their correct-the-writing-mistakes workbooks, I was a little depressed at the kids' lack of remembering their capitalization rules. (Oh how I wish there was a snappy Schoolhouse Rock ditty about them.)

I turned to YouTube looking for some backup and we did find an "Electric Company" song
about capitalization, or making letters "Texas sized." Interesting spin on it, and, unfortunately, it's not a song I think will burn the rules into their brains.

LITTLE BIRDY: Today we learned about a live Web cam monitoring the nest of Phoebe, a Channel Island Allen (S.s. sedentarius) hummingbird in Orange County, California. We enjoyed watching the mama bird fly to and fro the nest (in a rose bush) and feed its baby (we thought we just saw a single young'un).

We learned all sorts of interesting things about hummingbirds on the World of Hummingbirds Web site. According to them, hummingbirds can hear better than humans, see farther than humans (and see ultraviolet light!). Supposedly the birds have no sense of smell, however. Interesting.

Hummingbirds don't suck nectar up via their beaks, they lap it up with their tongues. Female hummingbirds reportedly lay two eggs (called a clutch) at a time.

The hummingbird cam Web Master reports Phoebe has laid 4 to 5 clutches each year for several years. He's been broadcasting her nest since 2007.

SPACE FLEET: We had a bag to drop off at Goodwill today, and you know what that means - we have to bring a bag HOME from Goodwill. ;)

Our deal of the day - a bag of NASA vehicles for 99 cents. Score!

Homeward Bound

MERCURY RISING: Fifty years ago today - only 23 days after Yuri Gagarin of the then-Soviet Union became the first person in space - NASA astronaut Alan Shepard launched at 9:34 a.m. EDT aboard his Freedom 7 capsule powered by a Redstone booster to become the first American in space. His historic flight lasted 15 minutes, 28 seconds.

We checked out NASA's awesome Freedom 7 page commemorating the anniversary. The interactive site lets you listen to an audio interview with Shepherd about his flight, get a good view of the Mercury capsule, see the trajectory of the flight, and there's a great video with interviews with Shepherd, his friends and family and fellow astronauts. There's a lot of footage from the historic launch day and we learned a great deal - including the fact that he peed his spacesuit while waiting on the launch pad during a 4-hour delay. :0 (The kids thought that was hysterical, of course.)

WIDE OPEN: Today we didn't have any classes or other obligations on the schedule. That was rare and nice for a change. We did some math and reading, but mostly the kids had time to do what they pleased. I think that's important - not every second of our days has to be scheduled, and when the kids have the freedom, they often end up in protracted, imaginative play sessions, as was the case today.Annabelle spent HOURS crafting things out of cardboard, strings, tape and glue.
Of course, they each also spent some time online and playing games. Annabelle was interested in the Kids CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Web site, mostly playing art-focused games.

Meanwhile, CJ test drove an old Sega Genesis game we found at Goodwill a few days back. Called "Dynamite Headdy," we'd never heard of it before, but at $2, we were willing to risk it. Today through research, we came to learn it's one of the highest rated games made for the Sega Genesis system. For its day and age, the graphics and game action are pretty darn good. It's an odd game - the title character works his way through levels by hitting enemies with his head, which is like a boomerang, shooting out and knocking into bad guys before retracting.

CJ computed that since there are three stages on each of the game's nine levels, he had 27 separate sections of the game to try to clear.

LOST IN TRANSLATION: Curious, we visited the Web site of Treasure, a Japanese video game company (and makers of "Dynamite Headdy). The site is in Japanese, but our Google toolbar offered to translate it for us. How nice of them. But, er, I'm thinking it's not a perfect translation. For instance, a banner of Japanese characters at the top of the page was translated to "People affected by the earthquake was east of this time, I would like respectfully sympathy."

Speaking of Japan, I have been exchanging email with a source in Japan that might be able to hook us up with a Super Famicom system from his side of the Pacific. This development makes CJ VERY happy.

CINCO: We did not have a Cinco de Mayo lesson plan today, but we did make a trip to Fred Meyer to lay in supplies to make a nice dinner with south of the border inspiration. I served up stuffed poblano chilies and pork tacos for dinner. Rick, Ken, Christian and I enjoyed them; CeeJ and Bee had pizza.

After dinner, CJ did a magic trick for Rick and Ken. He was very pleased with himself. :)