Happy Landings

                          Amazing photo by Ben Cooper @LaunchPhoto

NAILED IT:  This evening, SpaceX made history. 

A little before 5:30 p.m. Pacific time, SpaceX launched a big Falcon 9 rocket. 

On board were 11 satellites to low-Earth orbit for ORBCOMM, a leading global provider of Machine-to-Machine communication and Internet of Things solutions. 

The 11 satellites were successfully deployed about 20 minutes after liftoff, but SpaceX was just getting started. What they did next? Well, they landed the first stage of the rocket back at Cape Canaveral. 

It was kind of a big deal.

If you take a look at Ben Cooper's photo up top, you'll see a double streak. It's made by SpaceX Falcon 9's launch (the left streak) and then return to launch site and touch down (right streak) under its own power. Ben's Photo is a 10-minute exposure.


https://youtu.be/O5bTbVbe4e4

IN OTHER NEWS: We made a whirlwind 30-ish hour trip down to the Portland area Sunday to Monday. It was big fun - and we got to see some snow! We'll fill in some blanks tomorrow.

The Force Awakens

NEWS OF THE DAY:  So, we got up at 3:45 this morning. Or last night, depending on how you roll.

By 4:05 a.m., we were in the car, Seattle Center bound. More specifically, we were going to go take our place in line at Pacific Science Center, which has the biggest, 'bestest' IMAX movie screen this side of some major American river.  (A recent article deemed it one of the seven best places in the U.S. to see the new "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" movie.)

I can't say I've ever taken a photo of the Space Needle at 4 a.m. before. It's pretty as always at that hour.

Even before we'd reached the theater's entrance, the kids were snagged by a reporter from KIRO TV for a LIVE FROM THE STAR WARS LINE!!!! interview. 

Per earlier info gleaned during a reconnaissance mission, we were expecting to have to stand outside for an hour before then moving inside to wait for another hours. Imagine our delight when we got to go right into the building!

That meant the kids were able to change into their Luke and Leia costumes right away. 

That attracted more LIVE FROM THE STAR WARS LINE!!!! camera attention. 

Note the caption on the story above. Fortunately, our crime spree ended after we abandoned our short dalliance with the dark side of the Force. ;)

As super duper good luck would have it, getting up in the middle of the night paid off and we were only about 10 people back in line. When we finally got to enter the theater, we sat in the seats we always love to sit in there- the middle/main ingress row in the theater with lots of leg room, halfway between the front and back rows. SWEET!

I asked the kids to share their impressions of this morning's experience - without writing about the movie, as we are NOT going to be spoilers. 

Here's what CJ had to say ... 

On the day of the premiere, we went to see "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the long-awaited first installment of the sequel trilogy. We left for the movie at 4:00 A.M, and even the experience waiting in line and going to the theater room was interesting. Outside of the Pacific Science Center, where we saw the movie, I met a KIRO 7 newscaster, and he was glad to interview my sister and I. He asked me if I was excited for the new movie, and I told him that I was very excited.

Inside the Pacific Science Center, I met other fans of the Star Wars series, some of whom were camping there since last night. One of the audience members had a two-bladed lightsaber, one blade which was colored green, the other colored blue. When I asked him where he got it, he said it was from a site called "Ultrasabers", a business that sells high-quality lightsaber-inspired light-up swords.*

Lastly, there were some people in Star Wars-themed costumes in line, including a person dressed as an Ewok and another dressed as a Wookie.

*you can see their site at ultrasabers.com

And here is Annabelle's write up ... 

On December 18, I went on opening day to see Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens at Pacific Science Center. I got up at 3:45 in the morning and got dressed in two layers of clothes, because for one, I would be cold outside, and two, the clothes I had under were part of my princess Leia costume. We drove to the center and were interviewed by a reporter for KIRO 7, but we were inside in 15 minutes. I was glad we didn’t have to wait outside, because it was cold and dark and it allowed me to put on my Leia costume ASAP.After that we waited and got broadcasted on the news again. After a while, the people watching the showing before us had left the theater and we were allowed in. We got really good seats because we were near the front of the line. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and I would recommend it to any long-time Star Wars fan.

There's a little bit of video of the morning here. You may or may not see someone you know ... http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/movie-theaters-ban-masks-lightsabers-star-wars-pre/npmtL/

So, yeah, our family became the face of the stereotypical Star Wars geeks on the Seattle morning news. Oh well. At least we didn't go on a three-county crime spree. ...

ABOUT LAST NIGHT:  I didn't blog last night because we were too tired after a long day of running, running, running and then running a little craft carnival at a winter solstice party. 

We set up seven stations. First up was a pin-the nose on Olaf. 

The prize for sticking his schnoz on was real live carrot. The kids loved it.

We also had a "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" station, with pretzels and marshmallows as the raw materials.

It was fun seeing how kids customized the snowmen.

We also had a rainbow reindeer station. 

And an opportunity to make paper snowflakes. We made step by step instructions for each station, hoping to make them more self-directed. It worked!

At the Awkward Artist booth, people had to draw a winter scene without looking. It was good for some laughs.

And we had a Penguin TV station - featuring adorable Pingu, a favorite of CeeJ and Bee when they were much younger. We scored Pingu legions of new fans last night, for sure!

All in all, it was big fun and lots of super cute crafts were made. Mission accomplished!

HELLO, HOME:  NASA has released a new "Earthrise" photo. It's stunning.

         Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

The photo (a composite), was taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). 

The image shows the center of the Earth just off the coast of Liberia (at 4.04 degrees North, 12.44 degrees West). The large tan area in the upper right of our globe is the Sahara Desert, and just beyond is Saudi Arabia. 

The portion of the moon showing is the crater Compton, which is located just beyond the eastern limb of the moon, on the lunar farside.

LRO was launched on June 18, 2009. The composite is from images captured on Oct. 12.

Getting our Art On

FUN AND GAMES:  Part of today was spent coming up with some easy/mostly self-directed crafts and activities for kids to do tomorrow at a winter solstice party.

One we decided on is what we're calling "Awkward artist." You have to put a blank paper plate on your head and draw a scene unseen - that is, without looking.

Here were the instructions I gave the kids:

1) Draw a line across the plate from side to side
2) Draw an evergreen tree  growing from the ground
3) Draw a bunny playing under the tree
4) Draw a full moon in the sky
5) Now take a look at your masterpiece!

They each got a kick out of it. Success!

We've also decided to have a "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" station (insert song from Disney's "Frozen" here).

I wanted to keep it super simple, so here are the instructions

• Insert a full pretzel stick through a regular-sized marshmallow
• Stick half pretzel sticks into the marshmallow's sides, for your snowman's arms
• Stick a BIG marshmallow on the bottom
• Stick a regular marshmallow on top for its head
• Paint on a face (with food coloring)
• Admire how adorable it is!!!   

We're also working on stations where kids can build rainbow reindeer, cut out apper snowflakes, watch "Penguin TV" and pin the (carrot) nose on Olaf. You'll probably be treated to photos of those tomorrow. We're sure you can't wait! :)

SNOWY SOUTH: We spent a couple hours this morning (did I mention it was a busy day?) in Kent, with a classroom full of excited third graders. Our mission: Make melting snowman cookies.

These are some I made a few years back. Today, each of the student's in Rick's class got a go at it. Ahead of time, here at home we made the bases (a sugar cookie), the round heads (a Rice Krispies cereal treat), and lots and lots of fondant (white, red, green, and brown). Oh, and we made 40 gum paste noses. We also loaded up a bazillion things the kids could use to accessorize (chocolate chips, round candies in every color you can imagine, Fruit Rollups and more).

I showed the kids a Powerpoint of some of my projects over the years (from my first gingerbread people to my cookies being eaten on the flight deck of two different space shuttles!)

And then, they dived in for some fun. 

This photo is from rather early in the process. 

This class was big on piling (sugar) on. I think their cookies weighed about four pounds apiece by the time they were done!

BOOKING:  The kids are winding down a four-month focus on hunger near and far in their social issues class. As her parting piece, Annabelle wrote a book for young children, letting them know a little bit about the issue, and how they can help combat it. 

Here's the book's cover. When things are less hectic (hey, we can dream), hopefully we can share it in its entirety.

Sugar Rush

KEEPING IT BRIEF:  This is going to be another short one. Busy busy busy all day, pre-dawn to waaaay past dusk.

First up this morning was loading and loading and loading the car with stuff for the little craft bazaar the kids were participating in today.  Into the car went snowman soup and snowman poop (remind me to post a photo of that later); a passel of pet rocks, and gingerbread cookies - both Star Wars and Harry Potter themed.

But even before the bazaar, we took a trip to a not-so-ancient Egyptian tomb (formerly a janitor's storage closet). 

Thanks to life-sized paintings, the little room was transformed into a colorful wonder. I don't like to post other people's stuff without permission, so you'll have to settle for Annabelle's portrait, complete with cute cat. :)

As soon as we finished with classes and the bazaar, it was time to rip home and go into frantic prep for our gig tomorrow - helping a class of third graders in Kent make "melting" snowman cookies. 

That meant making a couple dozen cookies, a couple dozen Rice Krispies treats, about 5 pounds of white fondant, and three pounds a piece of green and red fondant. Plus, there are a number of other supplies we had to round up (so! many! sprinkles!). 

Oh, and for good measure, we baked a cheesecake for Christian's work party tomorrow.

MEANWHILE, IN LOW EARTH ORBIT:  The Internationals Space Station has three new residents tonight.

Early today, a Soyuz blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

    Image: NASA
On board were  NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Tim Peake, of England.

Peake's trip marks the very first time Great Britain has had an astronaut on board the ISS, so it's a pretty darn big deal for Peake and his country.

The BBC posted a super cute video of Peake's young sons watching the rocket carrying him lift off this morning. You can see it here: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35102256

Nose to the Grindstone

CHURNING IT OUT: Busy day in Santa's Little Sweatshop (also known as our living room/kitchen/dining room). 

For the past couple of days now, our days and nights have been filled with pet rocks, gingerbread men (both Star Wars and Harry Potter), and a few other crafty things.

The big impetus behind the activity has been a fund-raising bake sale Annabelle is staging. 

Cookie photos are going to have to wait until tomorrow, because I'm too tired to stage, take, and process those now. In the meantime, enjoy some rocks, the creation of Annabelle, with photos by CJ.

Loose Ends

Two turtledoves spotted at the Dollar Store today. One, looked a little worse for the wear. We could relate. ...

THE MORNING AFTER:  None of us were exactly springing out of bed this morning. We were all pretty tired from yesterday's events.

Once we got our acts together, we headed over to do a little post-event follow up and clean up.  First we had to find some items we left behind in yesterday's hubbub. Fortunately, that didn't take long.

Then, we set about stuffing handmade cards into care packages of toiletries which will be distributed to neighbors in need.

Next up, it was time for the kids' math lesson for the day - computing how many pounds of food had been collected in a school food drive.

We sorted through the boxes, noting the ounces listed on packaging and keeping a tally as we went. CJ used a calculator, Annabelle used crayon on paper. Fortunately, their numbers matched in the end. 

With 79 pounds of food in tow, we set out to find the Queen Anne Food Bank. The magic of Google let us know it was housed at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. We knew that was immediately west of Seattle Center, and just south of Key Arena. We've been by the church there lots of times, but none of us recalled ever seeing a food bank there before. Today, we actually went into the parking lot between church buildings and the kids spied the food bank sign straight off.

We parked and approached the entrance. It sported a big CLOSED sign, and another sign said they weren't open on Fridays, specifically. Bummer. We were about to head away in (temporary) defeat, when a woman came up the walkway carrying a box of food. She showed us a bell (in the center of the door on its lower half), and she twisted it. Almost instantaneously, a gentleman popped out of the building and greeted her by name. Lucky for us, we were able to slide on in with our 79 pounds of stuff right behind her. Mission accomplished! And it was only 10:30 a.m.!

Here are a couple of 'leftover' photos from yesterday. 

Look at Annabelle multi-task! Grabbing a snack while cleaning up post-luncheon. (We covered the tables in brown/kraft paper, and used different sized paper bags to hold items (cutlery, bread, art materials and more). It was inexpensive and worked well.  

Here's a purposely blurry shot of a very crowded room, with people enjoying nearly 20 different kinds of amazing soups, stews, and chilis while students took turn on the stage sharing what they'd learned about homeless and hungry over the past several weeks. 

At the moment, Annabelle was sharing information about the book her art class is reading, "A Single Shard," about an orphan in 12-century Korea facing homelessness and hunger.

CJ shared information about a display he'd made about the documentary, "Dive!" It follows filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and his friends as they Dumpster dive in at Los Angeles’ supermarkets. (If you want to view it, check with your local library. For instance, the Seattle Public Library has multiple copies of the DVD, and it can be watched online for free at https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/show/2725965030_dive (all you need is a library card). “Dive!” can be purchased on Amazon Instant video, iTunes, and the film’s Web site for $7.99 (divethefilm.com).

Everything is Awesome

BOWLED OVER: So today was the event we've been working on for days/weeks now. Billed as "Empty Bowls," it was a luncheon to educate about hunger and homelessness, celebrate students' efforts to learn about and help combat those problems, and donate to help the causes.

Where to start? It's a 'first annual' event, which means it's inherently fraught with a fair amount of worry and question marks. 

But I have to say, wow, did the community at the kids' learning center turn out in a BIG way. There were multiple people (kids and parents and grandparents) there early to help set up, and they worked nonstop for hours, finishing one task and then asking what else they could take on. Awesome!

We asked people to bring in pots of soup for the event. Oh my gosh, the pots just kept coming and coming and coming. It was amazing. Overwhelming - in the good way! There were at least 20 different, huge pots of home-cooked soups on hand. We had more than twice the number we were expecting. Awesome!

From Thai coconut to savory goat meat to loaded baked potato soup, for one glorious hour, I can say without a doubt we had the best smelling school cafeteria in America. It was an international smorgasbord. Awesome!

While people were enjoying the smorgasbord, CJ and Annabelle and many other kids took turns at the microphone sharing thing they've learned about homelessness and the hunger in America and around the globe. 

There were over 100 hungry guests, but we had leftovers nonetheless. Dedicated to a no-waste event, the generous and talented people bringing soup donated their leftovers to those in need. They were carefully bagged up into Ziplocs and the kids and I had the privilege of delivering them to "Tent City 5," at the foot of the hill where we live. 

We swung by the encampment on our way home and found the site manager. We told him about our event today, and let him know that we had some homemade soup we’d love to share. I was honestly just expecting our stop to be an exploratory mission - testing the waters to see if they'd accept homemade soup and if we needed to deliver it hot, cold or ??? However, the manager was absolutely THRILLED at the prospect and wanted it all right then and there. 

In all, the community's talented and generous chefs donated about 12 gallons of soup and a big box full of rolls and loaves of bread.  When we left him, Tent City’s manager was beaming, a toothless grin, holding a heavy box full of amazing soups and saying, “It smells so good!”

Awesome!

I have a couple of photos on my camera, but its battery is dead, and so is mine, so until tomorrow, I leave you with this song - one of the tunes we played today at the event.

https://youtu.be/jQY_QL_wvQU