Very Merry

SCENES OF THE SEASON: Thought I'd start by parking a trio of very merry photos here. The first and the second ones were were taken at the winter carnival at the kids' once-a-week Shoreline school. 

The third one was also taken on Monday, when Mr. and Mrs. Claus visited Chuck's on 85th, one of our favorite hang outs.  Nothing like a classy holiday photo in front of the beer cooler, right?!

MOLECULES IN MOTION: Today in science class, the kids had fun doing a few experiments with water. One was as simple as racing water drops down wax paper on a slope. 

The other demonstrated how water molecules expand and contract, depending on how warm or cold they are.

Yesterday, we spent a little time in the kitchen whipping up some presents for the kids two Shoreline teachers. ...

They liked them, which pleased us greatly. :)

PHONE HOME: NASA's number one network is turning 50 this month, and what a half century run it has had.

Beam Wave Guide antennas at Goldstone, known as the "Beam Waveguide Cluster." Each antenna is 111.5-feet (34-m) in diameter. They're located in an area at Goldstone called "Apollo Valley." This photograph was taken on Jan. 11, 2012. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

Deep Space Network (DSN)  is NASA's worldwide radio telescope array. It has been communicating with spacecraft throughout our solar system for decades now. DSN is made up of three facilities: The one in Goldstone, CA (pictured above), one near Madrid, Spain, and the third in Canberra, Australia. Together, they offer 24/7 coverage of the solar system, communicating with 33 spacecraft currently. 

NASA has a Web site all about DSN's anniversary, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn50/, and part if it lists some of the network's claims to fame. For instance, DSN showed us the first moonwalk, and the first-ever image of Mars, the first imagesd of Mercury's surface (1974). DSN relayed "The Pale Blue Dot" shot from Voyager 1, and transmitted data letting us know the craft had made its way into interstellar space.

INTERNATIONAL: This evening, we headed to the International District for some holiday shopping. Our destination was Uwajimaya.  On our way in, we had to stop and admire the Christmas-y colored lights atop the Seahawks' stadium.

Inside, it was wonderfully colorful, with thousands upon thousands of new-to-us things to check out.

The kids loved the big dragon hovering over the aisles.

We lingered at the live seafood counter, where CJ and Annabelle saw their first geoducks, I do believe.

We found the items we were after, so it was a great trip.

Wet Pennies

DRIP DROP: How many drops of water do you think will fit on the head of a penny? How about the flipside? Do you think you could get more or less if you add soap to the water? How about oil on the penny? Or powdered sugar? These are some of the questions we pondered and experiments we conducted on the kitchen counter this morning. 

FLYING COLORS: Today marked the anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered flight. We observed the occasion by watching a Reading Rainbow episode with an aviation theme. The featured book was "Nothing to Do!," a story about bored brothers who decide to build and fly an airplane.

The episode also featured a catch tune about aviation pioneers, and host LeVar Burton visits an airport, where he goes through a pre-flight check, and then pilots a small plane for the first time. It was fun to watch. He sure was excited! 

We also watched a short video from Biography.com

Speaking of flying, the folks at NASA have a nifty flying machine called Morpheus. Check out this bad boy!

Morpheus, a prototype lander, recently underwent a free flight test at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. The flight lasted 81 seconds, and started with Morpheus launching from the ground over a flame trench! It climbed to a height of 164 feet, paused for a moment at 82 feet and then flew forward just over 150 feet. It descended and landed on a pad, within 3.5 inches of its target. Neat-o!

Morepheus' engine runs on liquid oxygen and methane, and is part of NASA's effort to use 'green' propellants.

CHANGE OF PLANS: A couple days back I mentioned NASA has an ammonia leak on the ISS due to a bad valve. They have not been able to come up with a workaround, so they are going to have to have a series of spacewalks to replace a refrigerator-size ammonia pump module. 

NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins will be the space walkers. They're expected to perform the repairs on Dec. 21, 23 and Christmas day.

Because of the emergency repairs, NASA managers are postponing the upcoming Orbital Sciences commercial cargo resupply mission, which was to launch this Thursday. 

Ho Ho Ho

PARTY ON: Today was all about fun. We headed north to the kids' Shoreline school about 1:30 for the holiday carnival there. But I lead with the photo of Annabelle drinking a Coke while sucking a candy cane. Talk about excess.

The kids played all 5 (or 6) games available at the carnival up north. Below, CJ takes on a catapult game ...

They also played a 'Plinko' type game, and a spin the wheel game. 

The other half of the festivities involved crafts. Oddly, these photos mostly disappeared off my camera. But here are the kids making a tree art project. 

They also made reindeer ornaments out of candy canes, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes.

They also made paper, by mixing TP, glitter, yarn, water and then putting it in a press.

The afternoon also provided a formal photo opp. I love how they're oblivious to the  horrifying the wig on a dummy watching over them while they post for a cheezy photo. 

Not Crying on Thursday

Greetings, MPA fans. Today's posting duty has fallen to me, your guest blogger Christian, because your normal correspondent is knee-deep in another endeavor involving lots of sugar, flour and icing. Apparently, sticky fingers aren't conducive to effective keyboard and mouse action. While I can't hope to match the lyrical prose of our founder, I'll try not to muck up the place too much.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, we went to the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis show at Key Arena last night. Macklemore is the stage name of Ben Haggerty, a smart and talented rapper native to Seattle, who has gone on to world-wide fame and fortune. The show was the finale in a whirlwind tour of basically the entire US, where they performed 33 shows in 29 cities in 52 days.

The concert was opened by rappers Talib Kweli and Big K.R.I.T., who musically influenced Macklemore when he was a young man. We weren't really big fans of the warm up acts, so while they got the crowd going, we hung out on the concourse and did some people watching.

We have been listening to Macklemore's multi-platinum album, "The Heist" for many months now, and the kids know most of the lyrics by heart. They danced and rapped/sang along enthusiastically with the rest of the crowd (and so did I) when our favorite songs were up to bat.

There were pyrotechnics, plenty of confetti, and a metric ton of energy in the air.

Today, CJ and Annabelle wrote reviews of the show. First up, Miss B:

Macklemore at Key Arena
On December 12, 2013, we saw Macklemore and Ryan Lewis at Key arena, Seattle. The first word that comes to mind when thinking about that concert is "awesome"! What made this concert especially special is that it was the last night of his tour. During the concert he played many of his most famous songs, such as Thrift Shop, Ceiling Can't Hold Us, and White Walls. There were also effects like lights, confetti and even fire "fountains". Overall it was AMAZING, and I give it a 10/10!

And Mr. Ceej:

The Macklemore Concert

Yesterday, we went to see Macklemore, a rapper from Seattle, Washington. Macklemore's album he was doing a tour for was The Heist, which was released on October 9th, MMXII. The Heist was Macklemore's first album in 3 years, the last one being "The Unplanned Mixtape", which was released on September 7th, MMIX. (No pun intended.)

On topic of the concert, other rappers (really crappy ones) performed before Macklemore on the last night of The Heist tour. The only special thing they did (in my opinion) is perform a remix of Eleanor Rigby, a song by The Beatles featured in Revolver. During the actual Macklemore concert, the first time you could see him is when he jumped on to the main platform from the stage, with fireworks exploding.

I think the concert was a very great Disk-to-Stage adaption of The Heist. There were very great videos playing on some of the screens behind Macklemore. One of the songs focused on Ireland (Haggerty is an irish name, and at first, I thought the flag they were flying was an italian flag.)

All in all, I think that the concert was *AMAZING!*

We all highly enjoyed the show, got home way too late, and I had to drag myself out of bed at five this morning to go to work, but it was worth it. What fun.

Exploring the Great Wall

ASIATIC: In our running around today we made a fun stop a The Great Wall Mall in Kent, in search of some special gift items at the mall's anchor tenant, 99 Ranch Market, , the largest Asian grocer in the United States.

As soon as we walked in we were greeted with the tempting scent of something cooking nearby. The mall has multiple restaurants and a bakery, so it was hard to tell where it was coming from.

One sign that caught our attention right away was this ...

The fun neon made me want to get some bubble tea even though I'm not really a fan. ;)

We walked around for a bit, checking the storefronts. There were also tables in the middle of the mall, as well as a number of coin operated video games and rides.

Annabelle took a shine to thins pink carousel unicorn.

Eventually, we made our way to 99 Ranch Market. We walked every aisle, marveling at all of the foreign-to us foods. While the vast majority of the packaged goods were in a language other than English, nearly everything had an English label and price tag along the shelf, so we were able to mostly figure out what was what.

The kids' favorite part of the store was the live seafood market. Dozen upon dozen crabs were stacked in tanks, and a crowd of live tilapia stared out at us, probably not hoping to be our dinner. The seafood counter was doing a brisk business.

As we were driving away from the store with five bags full of exotic-to-us goodies, I asked the kids, "Did you notice we were the only white family in that whole mall?"

"No," they immediately replied.

That made me happy.  

ON THE MOVE: See this here capsule? It's Orion, NASA's next manned spaceflight 'ride.' IMHO, it can't come too soon (especially in light of the 'trouble on the ISS news yesterday).

Image Credit: NASA/David C. Bowman
This test version of Orion is about to take a long road trip, from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., to the Naval Base San Diego in California. There, it will be used in a test to simulate the recovery of Orion during its first mission, Exploration Flight Test – 1 (EFT-1), which is scheduled for September 2014.

SCHOOLY STUFF: The kids' school-ish activities today included some science and math homework, and they read an issue of Time for Kids mostly about Abraham Lincoln (from mid-November), marking the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg address. They also answered some comprehension-question type worksheets, and we went on the Time for Kids Web site and watched a video about the speech, where the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln celebrates the 150th birthday of the ship's namesake by reciting the address.

Hard to believe there were just 271 words in that speech for the ages. 

I recalled seeing a photo of Lincoln delivering the speech on the Library of Congress' web site, so I hunted it down. 

Can you spot Honest Abe?  What a treasure it is to have a photo of that seminal moment in time. The print was made from a glass negative.

Fun fact: Lincoln gave copies of the Gettysburg Address to each of his secretaries,John Nicolay and John Hay.

They also practiced some guitar today ...

RAPPER'S DELIGHT: We're off to a show tonight - the last night on a long tour by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. 

Ben Haggarty (aka Maclemore) is one of Seattle's favorite sons. This is the last of three sold out shows at Key Arena, and his final night on The Heist tour. Should be rockin' and sound a little something like this ...

Seasons Greetings

DECKED OUT: It's official - we FINALLY have all of our Christmas decorations up. It seemed to take longer than ever this year, not sure why. You'd think we'd be getting quicker, having done it a few times before. And yes, we busted out the 50+ year old aluminum Christmas tree again this year.

While we have a variety of ornaments, three clear themes do emerge. One is (big surprise!) space.

We have a bunch of Star Wars and Star Trek ships and scenes, of course.

Love this "City on the Edge of Forever"-inspired one. One of my favorite episodes, for sure.

But let's not forget science fact-inspired ornaments, as well - like this lunar rover!

 And then there are sports ornaments. Many, many sports ornaments.

 Sadly, none of my photos of Ducks or Beavers ornaments turned out. Hmm. ... Maybe next year. :P

And we have a forest of Elvii. Here is a trio.

And there's the army of nutcrackers.

JUST FOR FUN: Some fun holiday cheer to share.  First, this fun Web site where you type in your address and up pops a photo of your home in the snow. Based on the photo they used for our place, and knowing Google Earth like I do, I'm thinking that's where they got their photos.
http://pusher.com.au/clients/pusher-christmas-2012/

If you'd like to hear some more military band takes on songs of the season, check out the playlist on NORAD's Santa Tracker: http://www.noradsanta.org/?village=music

And speaking of military bands, check out this wonderful flash mob by the United States Air Force band at the National Air and Space Museum ( http://youtu.be/gIoSga7tZPg). Don't blame me if it brings a tear to your eye.


HE'S BACK:  Good news, wonderful Professor Lou Bloomfield of the fantastic "How Things Work" physics class we took on Coursera is offering that class again, starting January 13, 2014.

He sent as an email announcing it today. In part, in read:

I will be repeating How Things Work 1 this spring on Coursera.com, starting January 13, 2014. If you were not able to finish the course last time, here is a second chance. If you have friends and relatives who might find the course interesting or useful, I hope that you will encourage them to join us by sending them this link:
https://www.coursera.org/course/howthingswork1

A number of families took the course together last time and found the experience valuable and satisfying. One of my missions in life has been to show young people that science can be fun, interesting, and useful, so having families in the course is especially gratifying for me.

The most significant change this session will be the schedule. Rather than release episodes weekly, I will make the entire course available on January 13 and let you proceed at your own pace through the end of April. In this era of online learning, that freedom seems appropriate and I hope it will make the course fit your life better.

Lou Bloomfield
Professor of Physics
University of Virginia

I have to think he was at least in part thinking of MPA when he noted that a number of families took the class together last time, and he mentioned how gratifying it was to have young people learn that "science can be fun, interesting, and useful."

If you've been reading awhile, you might recall that when we completed the class during its first offering, we (each kid and I) sent Professor Lou a letter letting him know how much we enjoyed it and how much we learned. I also enclosed notes that each of the kids had taken. I also enclosed some notes the kids had taken, which were an interesting contrast in styles, CJ with his tryingtowriteverywordverbatim and Annabelle having comical, cartoony doodlings.

ALARMING: This afternoon, the Twittersverse and my Facebook feed asploded with news that there was an ammonia leak on the ISS.  While this captured any space fan's attention, I sat up extra straight, because when we saw Chris Hadfield, one of the audience's questions was (paraphrasing), 'What was your scariest experience as an astronaut?'

Without hesitation, Hadfield said an ammonia leak aboard the ISS when he was commander, and he was set to return home in just a couple of days. He recounted the experience for us and at the time I thought, "Hmm, sounds like a Much Bigger Deal than it was made out to be at the time." Ammonia is circulated outside the ISS to keep internal and external equipment cool.

As time wore on this afternoon, NASA reported it wasn't an ammonia leak after all, it is thought that a valve control in a pump module that is part of one of the station’s two external cooling loops. The flight control teams worked to get the cooling loop back up and running, and they suspect a flow control valve actually inside the pump module itself might not be functioning correctly. Apparently, when it reached its maximum temperature limit today, it automatically closed.

While they work to troubleshoot the situation, some non-critical systems have been powered down, and some systems were moved to the working loop.

Hopefully they find a quick and easy fix.

Nutcracker Sweet

PAINTING PROJECT: Yesterday when I was out making rounds of craft stores, looking for yarn for our never-ending pom pom project, I came across a D-I-Y nutcracker kit for half off - 'just' $10 apiece. I went ahead and made the impulse purchase, since the kids love nutcrackers and we hadn't done a big Christmas craft project yet.

And what a project it was. Before they even opened the boxes I told them it was going to take a long time, so don't even think about being done with it in 10 minutes. Or 15. Or 30. In order to do it right, it was going to take many steps, and we'd have to allow dry time in between. They said they understood, and so off we went.

They carefully considered colors and combinations.

It was slow going, but eventually they could see the big picture.

When they finally added the hair, eyes and embellishments, they were Most Pleased with the final products.

Annabelle's is on the left, CJ's is on the right.

PONY PALOOZA:  Ponies continue to be a part of our lives in these parts. Annabelle is forever doodling My Little Pony creations. She recently came up with this Chris Hadfield one. ...

I love its "cutie mark" - the ISS and a guitar. :)

She made it red and white, with the colors of the Canadian flag in mind. And I think it's her first pony with a mustache. ;)

We have quite a stable of ponies, and their manes and tails have come to look a big bedraggled. The kids and I have tried combing out the plastic hair, but it's all matted and knotted (it's like it spontaneously does that!). Annabelle went online searching for a solution. We found a couple of sites that suggested using warm water and fabric softener to try to detangle them. I figured it couldn't hurt. ...

In the end, the 'hair' wasn't silky smooth and totally tangle free, but they were much improved.

I'd call our spa a marginal success.