Fabric of Our Lives

photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER ROCKET: While we were lounging in bed in the wee small hours of the morning, another rocket launch was taking place. Rather than get up at 3-ish to watch it, we settled for neat-o footage after the fact.

Hurled heavenward today was the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP for short), "a critical first step in building the next-generation Earth-observing satellite system that will collect data on both long-term climate change and short-term weather conditions," according to a NASA press release. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will use the data from NPP as part of its weather forecasting. You can watch the launch by following this link: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=117952441


This morning's launch was from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California - that's relatively close to home compared to Florida. I'm thinking we might need to combine a Disneyland trip with a Cali rocket launch in the future.

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: From a Facebook post today, I rediscovered something I'd seen, oh, 40 years ago. It was an appearance by Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." I absolutely remember seeing these clips back in 1972, when they first aired. By following the link here (http://www.alworden.com/mrrogers1.htm) you can see Al and Fred in the Mission Control launch room, see Al model an astrosuit, field questions about the moon mission and talk about what it was like to be stuck on the capsule while his astro pals putted about the lunar surface.

It was neat to be able to show CeeJ and Bee the clips, not just because it was interesting astro info and me sharing part of my past with them, but because they have actually MET Al Worden just a couple of weeks ago. How cool is that?!

IN STITCHES: Most of today was dedicated to getting the kids' Halloween costumes together. I (finally!) finished Nyan Cat (hooray). Bee loves it. Our immediate family and one guy at the fabric store may be the only ones who know what it/she is, but oh well.

CJ's costume is coming together nicely. He's going to be an old school Nintendo controller. I built the frame for it today, sewed the device, and cut out the details for it. Christian is gluing it even as we 'speak.'

QUANTITY, QUALITY: We did some language arts, science today and math today. The math was about capacities. Here, Annabelle is pointing out that there are two cups in a pint and two pints in a quart.

Sunny Day

SLUGGO: CJ took this photo so he could share this rare, exotic creature with you. It's a leopard spotted slug and he's certain that it's worthy of a scientific journal. Or at least the MPA blog. :)

If you look closely, you can even see its slimy, sluggy trail - cool!

TO THE TEST: Thursday typically means two classes in Shoreline for the kids - music and LEGOs. But this morning we had to skip music so that Annabelle could take a Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), the "easyCBM" (Curriculum-Based Measurement), an assessment for math, and
"Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)," an assessment for reading. Why all the testing? Good question. It's to see if she qualifies as Highly Capable under Shoreline Schools guidelines.

For a lot of families, this test would be a Really Huge Deal, as it could change the trajectory of where their child goes to school and the curriculum they'll be studying. For us, well, not so much - at least not at this point. We'd just be business as usual. But first grade is when Shoreline tests students whose families are interested, and I figured there was no harm in having her take the test. There's nothing wrong with keeping our options open for the future.

Annabelle thought the two hour testing was lots of fun. She got to hang out with some kids her age and she said the questions were easy. :)

While Bee did her thing, CeeJ and I hung out and did our thing. We surfed the 'Net on my phone and read some magazines. One of the mags prompted us to discuss whether or not we'd really care to spend "Every Day with Rachael Ray." We both decided that would not be the greatest thing in the world. We went for a long walk around the expansive Shoreline Center campus. We made our way to the football stadium and found a long jump pit at one end. CJ gave it a go. A couple of gos, actually. There was definitely more jump than long.

MR. GOLDEN SUN: When Annabelle finished up at 11 a.m., we headed back to Seattle, did some math, Halloween costume work and then we enjoyed lunch with  Dr. Jonathan Cirtain, a solar scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Lucky for us (and the couple dozen others logged into the NASA Chat Web site), we got to ask questions of one of the world's preeminent solar scientists from the comfort of our own home. What a fantastic educational opportunity!

We watched others' questions and read (and often re-read) Cirtain's answers for about the first 20 minutes. We learned so much about solar flares, sun spots, magnetism, and more. Fascinating stuff- and a lot of it pretty heady for a 7- and 8-year-old, but I think the kids actually understood most of it. They were especially interested in what Cirtain had to say about our sun eventually turning into a brown dwarf (and the inner planets of our solar system being toasted in the process) several billion years from now.

I asked the kids if they had any questions they'd like to ask the solar scientist. They came up with, "What gives the sun its color?" Happily, our question made the cut. You can read Dr. C's answer below.

I was happy they thought of the question. I'd never even stopped to wonder why our sun is yellow before. :/

In case you're wondering, here's a bit more about Dr. Cirtain from the NASA Web site: "Dr. Cirtain is an expert in Heliophysics and is the Hinode project scientist as well as the co-investigator on Hinode's onboard X-Ray Telescope. He also has served on the science team for the Atmospheric Imaging Array, an instrument on the recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite. Additionally, Cirtain serves as the principle investigator for two sounding rocket experiments: the High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) and the Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Instrument, or SUMI. Hi-C will be launched from White Sands Missile Range on June 19, 2012 and SUMI will complete its second launch on June 12, 2012, also from White Sands." 

An impressive lunch date, wouldn't you say? How cool is it that we could be sitting here at our home in Seattle tapping into a resource like him in real time?

The entire transcript of questions and answers will be available on the chat page soon.

NORTHBOUND: After the NASA chat, we ripped back up north for their LEGO class. We took Kirby with us this time, much to the dog's delight. While Annabelle worked on a boat of some sort, and CJ finished up a battle ship and then worked on a "free build" (making whatever you want), Kirby and I walked the perimeter of the campus for 45 minutes.



Number 9

STITCH IN TIME: This afternoon, the kids' Science Explorers class continued to explore textiles. The 'lab' portion involved a whole bunch of 5-8 year olds hand stitching a pillow. I know, I know, sounds simple enough. It's 'just' a straight running stitch, after all. But have you tried keeping a dozen plus primary schoolers in needle and thread? There are these things called knots that make it hard. That, and the fact that instead of just stitching up and down/through the fabric, they have this habit of wanting to go out and around the edge of the fabric, which means their thread has to be cut and you pretty much have to start over.

There were a number of frustrated souls in that class today, including CeeJ and Bee. But those two had to wait, because I knew that I could help them at home. Instead, I helped their classmates. Sorry, (my) kids.

TODDLERS & TIARAS: This afternoon, Annabelle spied some eyeshadow laying around the house. It was a leftover of a Halloween party I was getting ready for last Saturday.

Anyway, she found the makeup and said to me this afternoon, "I know how to use this. Can I put some on?" My first thought was, "She's watched YouTube more than me. She probably knows how to do the perfect Kardashian smoky eye." And so I shrugged, and said OK.

I (quietly) laughed when Bee emerged with her smoky eyes. (and eyebrow). I have to admit, I've never been a fan of blue eye shadow on brown eyed people myself. Or course I didn't tell her that. I told her she looked beautiful. :)

BARF O RAMA: On our way home from celebrating our 9th anniversary dinner tonight at McMenamins Queen Anne, we came up behind this car (happy anniversary to us!). Normally, I'd NEVER put a car with its license on my blog but clearly this one WANTS to be here.

Go ahead, Google or Yahoo! to your heart's content. Why anyone would plan ahead for barfing is beyond me.

Darn Yarn

OVER UNDER: We started our morning off with doing some homework related to the textiles unit for the kids' science class. Above are weavings they did in class last week. Our homework was doing a similar weave, but in-the-round. If they did it right, they'd each have a little woven basket when they were done. Turns out that was a big IF.

Actually, CJ did a fantastic job on the over-under-around process. Annabelle, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster, repeatedly forgetting to turn the weaving board over and do the other side. Instead, she'd double back. That, and sometimes instead of alternating the over/under pattern, she'd duplicate it. I'd say the expression on her face here about sums it up her experience.

I spent much of the day working on Annabelle's Nyan Cat costume.  So far, so good - but it's taking longer than I'd like, of course.

When it came time to stuff the tail, I realized I hadn't bought any fiberfill, nor did I have any in stock. Being the cheap/lazy/resourceful person I am, I started looking around the house for things I could cut up and gut. (Many a stuffed animal was shivering in its tracks, let me tell you!)  Fortunately for the stuffies, I found a small travel pillow that was expendable. We used its innards to fill out the kitty's tail. 

HAPPY BOY: This may look like an ordinary Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) cartridge, believe you me, it is not. It is (drum roll/choir of angels singing here) EARTH BOUND ZERO (named "Mother" in Japan), a game that was never released in the United States.  

Frankly, I'm not certain how CJ ever found out about it, but for months (and I mean like six months), he has been obsessed (and I mean like OBSESSED) with getting a copy. Problem is, they go for well over $100 on eBay and they're all from Japan. More than we were willing to spend/risk.

Resourceful CJ managed to find a stateside supplier who, um, supplies the game by somehow taking a different old/other game cartridge and converting it into Earthbound. I have no idea how he does it and I'd be willing to bet that it's not entirely (or at all) legal. But the price ($30) was right. And so, in August, we ordered a game. And we waited. And waited, and waited. No game. About 3 weeks ago I wrote the guy asking what gives. He apologized and said it would go out that week. It didn't. And so last Thursday I sent a less polite inquiry, reminding the man that taking someone's money and not giving them the product you promised them in return is, in fact, stealing. Remarkably, that same afternoon, it was mailed.

CJ played it for the first time last night. It's an RPG (role playing game), and honestly, after watching a few minutes of it, I don't quite understand why it was a MUST HAVE. But what do I know?

TANKED: While I was sewing this afternoon, CJ came running upstairs to show me a candy corn he was about to eat. Due to some manufacturing flaw, it was all orange, missing its white tip and yellow base. "It looks like an external tank!" he excitedly told me. (That's the big orange fuel tank the space shuttles used.)

photo credit: NASA, of course. It's STS-116, in case you were wondering.

I'd show you a photo of it, but it was devoured immediately after his declaration.

ACTING UP: CJ had acting class today. While he did his thespian thing for 1.5 hours, Bee and I hung out in the hallways and stairways of University . It's a cool old building. I love the look, smell and sounds of it. It reminds me of my grandparents' former home on Queen Anne hill.

Our waiting/down time gave me a chance to get to know my new phone better. Today I messed with some of the camera settings on it.

Miles and Miles

The old homestead

HAPPY TRAVELERS: We spent a fair amount of the last three days driving. On Saturday, we drove down to Vancouver, visited G&G for about an hour and then drove to Portland. There, the kids got to hang out with their cousins Maggie and Ben and their parents, while we old folks went to a murder mystery dinner at a friend's house. The dinner was lots of fun, and neither Christian or I was the killer, in case you were wondering. But Christian did guess who the killer was, so we won the Best Star Trek Pumpkin ever, which my friend Holly hand painted.

After the party, we picked the kids up and headed back to The 'Couve for the night. They had fun with their cousins, playing games and watching Toy Story.

Sunday morning, after a lovely breakfast, we went to the kids' old stomping grounds and our former backyard, Felida Park. Here's a view from the roof of our old house. The shrubs we planted about 5 years ago are quadruple their size now - they look great!

The place was slamming busy due to a couple of soccer games. We got the last spot in the parking lot. Our first stop at the park was the spot that has the engraved bricks. After a couple of minutes of searching, we found the kids' bricks. Annabelle's was in need of some TLC, so Christian spent a couple of minutes rooting the moss out of her letters with the tip of his Leatherman's knife.

The kids played on the playground for a few minutes and then we walked around the paved path and nearby our old place, checking out what has changed and what hasn't. Then it was into the car for the 3-hour ride home.

VIADOOM: Upon our arrival back in Seattle, we did not take the Viaduct home, per usual. We couldn't because they're tearing it down. Its closure/demolition will mean about 90,000 cars will have to find alternative routes on already awful-and-clogged Seattle streets. Good times.

That said, it was kinda cool seeing the heavy equipment eating through the concrete and rebar. The section where this piece of heavy equipment was in the photo yesterday is GONZO today. Here's another photo I took yesterday ...

And now check this demo video out!

CAR WORK: Monday was out of the ordinary not in the cool, "extraordinary!" way, but in the way that we had to buy, pick up and install a new washer and dryer and of course the whole process was tortuously slow and mostly infuriating. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that my Severe Unhappiness at the Complete Incompetence of the 'customer service' folks at the Bellevue, WA, Lowe's store resulted in us getting four-year service contracts for free on our new high efficiency washer and dryer - from the Renton, WA, store. That, and we got $160 off the washer and $250 or so off the dryer price, so in the end, I will swap happiness for cash, yes I will.

While killing time at Lowe's, we got to check out their super extensive display of Christmas decorations. Have I mentioned it's not even Halloween yet?

What with all of our running around, the kids did math and language arts in the back of a Toyota extend  cab today.

Which is better than not doing math or reading at all.



Annabelle, building a carbon dioxide molecule at the Pacific Science Center

COME ON DOWN!: This afternoon we had to make a trip to the Pacific Science Center to return one of Annabelle's birthday gifts - a flying, remote controlled clown fish (everyone needs one of those, don't they)? Problem with ours was it was defective. Christian took it to the store to get $4 worth of helium put in it and the thing immediately started leaking. Not cool - and super disappointing for the birthday girl.

So today we set out to right a wrong. The people working the PSC store were very nice about the return, which I appreciate.

Of course, since we were at the Science Center, we had to do more than just browse the gift shop. We ended up spending two full hours there checking out exhibits. There were some new attractions since our last time through, less than a month ago, and the kids love revisiting old favorites.

We also were on site for the 3 p.m. live science show, which is always wildly entertaining. Today's theme was bipedalism (a game show favorite, no doubt). The "lecture" was presented like a game show that was a hybrid of "Wheel of Fortune," "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", "Deal or No Deal." and even some "Survivor" built in.

The game show host-slash-scientist split the crowd in half, a red team and a yellow team. Bee and I were Team Yellow, CJ was Red. For each of the first two rounds, the host gave a short, fact-filled talk about bipedalism and Lucy. He then chose one person from each side of the room to represent the team, and asked them questions. The audience could help their representative by shouting out the answer.

Annabelle was selected as our representative for Round 2 and she did us proud. She answered each of her questions correctly, including smartly ignoring most of the Yellow team's audience screaming at her that Lucy was found in Kenya. She knew it was Ethiopia. :) After Annabelle's turn we had come from behind and were leading the contest.

Then it was time for the Sudden Death round. A curly haired boy was now representing our team and we got to go first since we were in the lead. The host asked, "What's does Lucy's name mean in the language of the Dikika (the area where Lucy was found)?"

From our side of the room- CRICKETS. I had forgotten and no one else had anything to contribute, either - until Annabelle piped up with "You are wonderful."

I thought it ironic when a woman behind me leaned forward and asked Annabelle, "Are you SURE?" I mean, like ANYONE else had any friggin CLUE what the right answer was. Undaunted, Annabelle answered, "Yes. I'm sure. 'You are wonderful.' " And so curly headed boy submitted 'our' answer and Team Yellow rode Annabelle's back (well, brain) to a sweet, sweet victory.

After the game show, the kids were nowhere near ready to leave the science center. CJ, especially, wanted to hang around. So, at his urging, we went and checked out the bug exhibit and the butterfly sanctuary.

We also spent some time at the salt water tidepool, where CJ asked the attendant why the hermit crabs were kept in their own fenced in area instead of out and about with all the other creatures. The man told CJ it was because the urchins liked the taste of crab meat. :)

This morning, while the kids struggled on a long, hard, comprehensive math review assignment (5 pages covering everything from fractions to measurements to multiplication, money and division), I painted cookies. I had more fun than them.

THE DOCTOR IS IN: For her birthday, Annabelle received a doctor's kit (thanks G&G!). CJ was brave enough to let Annabelle give him a brief physical this morning. He passed with flying colors.

MEANWHILE, OVER IN EUROPE: We started our day today by watching a rocket launch. This time it wasn't a NASA or Russian launch, but a European Space Agency event. The launch was historic because it marked the first time a Soyuz rocket has been launched in French Guiana Space Centre. You can watch a replay if you check out this story on BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15372540

photo: German Aerospace Center

It was fun to hear a countdown to liftoff in French for our first time!

Road Warriors

IN THE HOOD: It's definitely getting colder now, and today the kids both had hooded sweatshirts on while they were doing their math and language arts work here at home. What I didn't understand was why they both had their hoods ON while doing their work. Not like it was raining or even frigid in the house.

Maybe the hoods represented their thinking caps. ;)

MOTORING: We spent more time in the car today than I would have liked. Today then have two classes in Shoreline (about a half hour to the north), and rather than stay up there and kill time between them (10:30 to 2 p.m.), we came home.

We did manage to get some books read during the commute, which was good. The kids both read "The Seven Sneezes," a silly story and a classic Golden Book recently reprinted. They also read  "My Mommy Hung the Moon," which CJ felt was a bit over the top. "Does the kid think his mom is a goddess? That's ridiculous!" he declared. The best book of the bunch was, without a doubt, "A Picture Book of Frederick Douglass."

As you might expect, the book is a biography of the man who became an orator, writer, publisher, and leader in the abolitionist movement in the 19th century after escaping the bonds of slavery. We had a read-along CD and the well researched and written book took about 20 minutes to listen to - definitely not your average children's picture book.

I've learned author David A. Adler has written a number of "Picture Book Biographies." I hope we're able to find more of them at the library.  

While at school today, the kids each took Accelerated Reader comprehension tests on the three books they read in the car. They aced them all.

MS. BOSSY COW: In LEGO class today, the kids each busily worked on their kits. When I came into the room at the end of class, CJ had just put finishing touches on a helicopter. I pointed out to him that it was yellow, just like the one he rode on several months ago. 

Annabelle had just finished up a dog and some kind of boxy looking shrub. During the quarter, each student has a photo of each of their finished builds taken. I am mortified to report that while I was standing there, Annabelle belted out (repeatedly), "I need a picture of this! I need a picture of this! I need a picture of this!" Loudly and, frankly, rudely. It was a demand, not a request. And then when the instructor came over with the camera Annabelle said, "Oh wait, I think I already had a picture taken."

Annabelle's bossiness had me steaming and it cost her some computer time this afternoon and evening. Believe you me, we went over classroom etiquette and I reminded them both that teachers do help students, but they're certainly not their servants and they should never be ordered around. Egad, I cringe just thinking about Annabelle's behavior today. 

POWERED UP: We're still studying up on the Mars Curiosity rover. Today, we watched a video that explained how the rover will be powered during its travels around the Red Planet.

Before watching the video, I asked CJ and Annabelle if they though that the rocket was carrying a bunch of gasoline for the rover to use on Mars. They both laughed and said "no." Then I asked them how they thought the rover would get its power. They were both quick to guess solar panels. It was a good guess, as that's how NASA's last two Martian rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, were powered. However, as the video's narrator Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory, explained, solar panels weren't quite up to snuff for Curiosity. The panels used on the last two missions provided just barely enough power for those relatively small rovers. Curiosity is several times larger and significantly heavier, requiring more power. Also, scientists have learned that the solar panels have a tendency to become covered in Martian dust, which decreases their efficiency, and that the Martian winter is long and not sunny enough to provide a good charge. That being the case, Curiosity will be using MMRT - a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric generator.  It's not new technology - MMRT has been used before by NASA for space traveling probes, as well as on the moon during the Apollo missions.

The MMRT contains a specially produced form of plutonium dioxide. The decay of the radio isotope gives off heat which is turned into energy by the generator's thermocouples. If you want to learn more from someone who does a MUCH better job describing it, check this video out: 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1028