Unmasked

 

ARTFUL: Thursday afternoon, we took a field trip to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) with Annabelle's art class.

While the museum is full of lovely art to look at, for this visit we were focused on the African art galleries, as the class is reading a book called "The African Mask."

SAM has a sizable collection of African masks. The students studied them, did some sketches and presented information about the artifacts.

 Annabelle gave a quick talk about this Nigerian mask. Here's what she had to say. ...

"This is a mask depicting Iyoba Idia. "Iyoba" means "Mother of the Oba"- the Oba being the king at the time. This mask was commissioned along with 3 others just like it by Idia's son, Oba Esigie. Esigie led the kingdom during the 16th century, and it was considered to be a very prosperous time for the kingdom. The masks were used in an annual ceremony to the Oba's mother, and they were passed down from generation to generation. Sadly, this practice ended in 1897 when the British military invaded and stole all 4 masks from the Oba's bedroom."

The masks we saw were all so different. I kind of fancied this one, thinking it looked a bit steampunk. To me, the middle part of it looks kind of like gears.

In a chamber off the African masks exhibit was a special "Lessons from the Institute of Empathy" installation. I loved this colorful mask, found there.

Another thing that caught our eye while at the museum were large posters with a Native American take on a Star Wars Stormtrooper. Very cool!

We couldn't stop at SAM without visiting Elvis. I've always loved this Warhol work.

Why the blank canvas next to the Elvii? This sign explains.

40-plus years on, and I'm still feeling the "absence and loss" of Elvis.

Obligatory photo of Hammering Man outside of SAM.

He wasn't the only one hammering. A big new building is going in across the street, just to SAM's south.

 We noticed some welders way up high, and stopped to watch their sparks fly.

Speaking of watching, below is a bonus shot from the baseball game last Sunday. I was trying to view the crowd through the lens of the glasses of a gentleman in front of me. Kind of an interesting perspective.

GRACE-full

LEFTY LAUNCH:  Tuesday schooling meant some rise/run and other slope stuff via Khan Academy's algebra tutelage, but we took a break at noontime to tune into NASA coverage of the GRACE-FO launch.

Following, CJ will tell you a bit more about it. ... Frankly, his summary is lacking. We will be talking about that tomorrow. Anyway. ... 

At 12:47 P.M. on May 22nd, I watched the launch of a Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) rocket. The rocket carried seven satellites, two Earth-observing, and five commercial communications. The rocket in question was a Falcon 9, designed and manufactured by SpaceX. 

NASA broadcast the launch on its website, as done with several other launches. Views from the outside and inside of the rocket could be seem from the points of view of multiple different cameras.

While CJ's synopsis was lacking, my social media friend Bill Ingalls of NASA's was not.

Here's the perspective one of his cameras caught of the launch.

 And here's the camera afterwards. :0

A little bit toasty!

Onboard the rocket were twin satellites that will monitor Earth's water cycle. The two satellites comprise the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On mission (GRACE-FO). Also on board the rocket were five Iridium NEXT communications satellites. So you could say the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was multi-tasking.

GRACE-FO is a collaborative mission of NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Per NASA, GRACE-FO continues the work of the original GRACE mission in observing the movement of water and other mass around our planet by tracking the changing pull of gravity very precisely.

Carol Rasmussen of NASA's Earth Science News Team wrote the following factoids about the mission: 

1 Percent (or Less)GRACE-FO tracks liquid and frozen water by measuring month-to-month changes in Earth's gravitational pull very precisely. More than 99 percent of our planet's gravitational pull doesn't change from one month to the next, because it represents the mass of the solid Earth itself. But a tiny fraction of Earth’s mass is constantly on the move, and it is mostly water: Rain is falling, dew is evaporating, ocean currents are flowing, ice is melting and so on. GRACE-FO's maps of regional variations in gravity will show us where that small fraction of overall planetary mass is moving every month.
2 Satellites, One Instrument
Unlike other Earth-observing satellites, which carry instruments that observe some part of the electromagnetic spectrum, the two GRACE-FO satellites themselves are the instrument. The prime instrument measures the tiny changes in the distance between the pair, which arise from the slightly varying gravitational forces of the changing mass below. Researchers produce monthly maps of water and mass change by combining this information with GPS measurements of exactly where the satellites are and accelerometer measurements of other forces acting upon the spacecraft, such as atmospheric drag.
3 Gravity Missions, Including One on the Moon
The same measurement concept used on GRACE and GRACE-FO was also used to map the Moon’s gravity field. NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) twins orbited the moon for about a year, allowing insights into science questions such as what Earth's gravitational pull contributed to the Moon's lopsided shape. The intentionally short-lived GRAIL satellites were launched in September 2011 and decommissioned in December 2012.
4 Thousand-Plus Customers Served
GRACE observations have been used in more than 4,300 research papers to date -- a very high number for a single Earth science mission. Most papers have multiple coauthors, meaning the real number of scientist-customers could be higher, but we chose a conservative estimate. As GRACE-FO extends the record of water in motion, there are sure to be more exciting scientific discoveries to come.
5 Things We Didn't Know Before GRACE

Here's a list-within-a-list of five findings from those 4,300-plus papers. Watch the GRACE-FO website to learn what the new mission is adding to this list.
•  Melting ice sheets and dwindling aquifers are contributing to Earth's rotational wobbles.
•  A few years of heavy precipitation can cause so much water to be stored on land that global sea level rise slows or even stops briefly.
•  A third of the world's underground aquifers are being drained faster than they can be replenished.
•  In the Amazon, small fires below the tree canopy may destroy more of the forest than deforestation does -- implying that climatic conditions such as drought may be a greater threat to the rainforest than deforestation is.
•  Australia seesaws up and down by two or three millimeters each year because of changes to Earth’s center of mass that are caused by the movement of water.

More on the mission can be found here: https://gracefo.jpl.nasa.gov and here: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/grace-fo

Home Field Advantage

THE OLD BALL GAME: We were lucky enough to get to see a couple of gems at Safeco Field this weekend. 

Friday night, we arrived early, scored some blanket hoodies, and a batting practice ball in short order! (The ball came from a Guillermo Heredia home run during batting practice hit to centerfield, out by the Safeco Field garden. We were standing on Griffey's Landing, adjacent to it, and the field worker tossed Annabelle the ball [she got an assist from brother Kennedy]).

The game was a squeaker.  "King" Felix Hernandez started. He had a horrible first inning, but recovered nicely. The Ms were down for most of the game, but that changed with a five-run explosion in the seventh inning, and the Mariners managed a 5-4 win in the end.

Sunday's game was against the Detroit Tigers again. I thought it interesting that before the first pitch was even thrown, the umpire messed up the lines around the batters' boxes. So much for rules!

 Below, Dee Gordon (now on the DL with a broken toe :( ) watches one go by.

 He worked the walk, though!

Below shows an appearance by (na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na) Bat Boy!

And here, the field crew freshens things up.

See this guy (Francisco Liriano, below)? Yeah, well he had a NO HITTER going into the seventh inning against the Ms. No bueno!

Anyone who follows baseball knows that you're not supposed to talk about a no hitter, or that jinxes it. Of course, knowing that, I decided to talk about the no hitter on social media, posting: "I would love to see a MLB no hitter some day, but I did not want Sunday to be that day."

Fortunately, shortly thereafter, Mitch Haniger got a hit in the bottom of 7, and it was the beginning of the Ms turning things around. In the end, it took 11 innings, but they eked out the win! Go Mariners! Oh, and I'm pretty sure my posting about the no hitter is what changed things. Go Me. :)

Girls (and Guys) on the Run

ON THE RUN: See anybody you know above? Mid right frame, it's Annabelle and Kennedy getting their run on as part of the 5K Girls on the Run event held on Sunday (5/21) around the Renton Airport. 

Last year when Annabelle ran the event, we had to drive from our place in Magnolia to the event. This year, we just ambled down the hill, about 5 minutes away from home.

The tails of airplanes being worked on made for a cool backdrop for the runners.

We didn't go into the stadium to watch the runners. Rather, this time, knowing the route, we went to a parking lot a little bit away from the turn around point.  We told Kennedy and Annabelle where to look for us, and they spotted us before we spotted them.

 Can you spot our two in the rainbow tutus?

 Fortunately, their run was before the Jet Engine Testing time frame! 

 Here's what Annabelle has to say about the experience. ... 

The Girls on the Run 5K Is a yearly event. It’s hosted at the Renton Memorial Stadium, just blocks from our house in Skyway. This year, 4000 women and girls attended the 5K, creating a crowd of people much more dense than last year’s. My group, Cascade Parent Partnership, was in the last “wave” meaning we started after everyone else. The route went out from the stadium and towards the Renton Airfield, allowing us to see a few of the planes parked up close.

It was incredibly interesting to see how diverse the crowd of runners was, with some having full sets of high-quality sports gear and others not even wearing running shoes. The race took a little over 45 minutes for us not including sign-in and lines, but while the wait was long before and after, the volunteers worked hard filling water cups and distributing medals. Although I ended up exhausted, sweaty, and ready for a nap, It was a great way to get some exercise and have fun!

 

While we watched and waited for Annbelle and Kennedy, we also tracked goings on at the Renton Airport. We noticed on plane taking off with a trailing 'tail.'

Christian immediately surmised it was going to be flying a banner behind it. He also said that the banner would create too much drag upon take off, and predicted that the plane would go pick up a banner elsewhere.

He was right! Turns out the plan was the GEICO banner ad plane we see all the time! Fun to see the process in action.

During our adventure, we also got a chance, for the first time, to check out this sculpture on grounds southwest of the airfield.

Imagine our horror when we spotted a carved-in-granite mistake.

 It's a horror!

Weekend Rewind

FUN DAYS: This weekend was full of family and fun. Saturday, Nonnie and Bops came up from Bend for Mother's Day weekend.

Saturday afternoon the gang went to Kubota Garden, just a few minutes to MPA's north. 

CJ can tell you more about that. ...

Kubota Garden is a 20-acre public park located in south Seattle. According to Seattle.gov, Kubota Garden fuses Japanese gardening styles with plants native to the Pacific Northwest. Kubota Garden was established in 1927 by Fujitaro Kubota (a Japanese immigrant), and has since become a popular park in the south Seattle region.

Last weekend, I visited Kubota Garden with my grandparents. It was a sunny day, so I brought sunglasses and a sun hat. Throughout the park, several of the plants had their vibrant and diverse colors on display. There appeared to be some photoshoot for a promenade going on, judging by the outfits and surroundings (expensive cameras, for example) of multiple attendees in one place. In addition, several parkgoers had brought their dogs (we didn't bring ours because our dogs would bark at anybody around them).

Towards the end of our visit, my grandmother and I went up a long trail to the peak of the park, at which there was a bench. After reaching the bench, my grandmother and I waited for my other family members to arrive to the bench, and then descend.

Sunday was a fun day, for sure. I stayed behind with Kennedy to help get dinner ready, but the rest of the gang headed to the Museum of Flight. It sounded like there were some great docents on site that day, with compelling stories to tell.

Sunday evening, we had a dinner party for 13. We made gallons of jambalaya, plus  plenty of corn muffins and carrot cake from scratch, and had a nice salad brought by some of our guests. After dinner, we had a jam session on the deck, with Rick, Kennedy, CJ and Annabelle providing musical entertainment. It was so much fun!

HOME-Y: One of our busy Mother's Day activities was picking up a wooden table I found on Facebook Marketplace for free! For months now, I've been watching for the perfect table - I wanted a solid wood pedestal table to bring some warmth to the lobby of the facility where we volunteer. And I wanted it for free, which was the real kicker. ;)

Previously, the space had an ugly, state-issue black laminate topped table and cheap, molded black plastic chairs. 

Lo and behold, the table popped up in my feed and I pursued it kind of relentlessly, with the arranged pick up time changing 4-5 times over two days. The doggedness paid off finally, on Sunday and today, we delivered the table. 

Upon arrival, we were so happy to see the ugly plastic chairs were gone, replaced by a cute pair of recently-donated chairs.  

The entire lobby has such a different feeling now - it's downright welcoming, and one of the workers there reported that the women residents are actually hanging out in the lobby now, for the first time. 

Korea to Cuba

PICTURE PERFECT: We headed downtown this morning for a special event at Benaroya Hall. Following, CJ tells you a bit about the one-hour presentation.

On the morning of May 15 at Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle, there was a National Geographic Live event titled "A Rare Look: North Korea to Cuba." The event was about the photography work of David Guttenfelder, a photographer for National Geographic Magazine.

Guttenfelder stated that he was born in 1969 in rural Iowa. For most of his twenties, he worked as a photographer across the continent of Africa. During his time in the continent, he witnessed several different conflicts, such as civil wars. From 2001 to 2013, Guttenfelder extensively covered the War on Terror in Afghanistan.

According to the event page on Seattle Symphony's website (linked above), in 2011, Guttenfelder helped the Associated Press open a bureau in the totalitarian state of North Korea. During his presentation, Guttenfelder showed us several pictures he has taken inside of North Korea. Apparently, he is one of the only Americans allowed regular access to the country, often referred to as the "Hermit Kingdom" in a derogatory fashion.

On Instagram (a popular social network website), Guttenfelder's account has over one million followers. In addition, Guttenfelder acts as the curator of Everyday DPRK, an account featuring several pictures submitted by photojournalists from inside North Korea (legally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, abbreviated DPRK).
Guttenfelder's photography portrays a variety of different settings, situations, people, and places across the world.

During his presentation, Guttenfelder showcased a diverse array of his pictures taken over the years, from his 1980s ventures across the continent of Africa to much more recent pictures taken of Cubans using cell-phones, in Cuba's first park with Wi-Fi. In Cuba, most citizens don't even have internet connections in their homes.

Guttenfelder has also ventured to Cuba for photography. Notably, he was present in Cuba shortly after former dictator Fidel Castro died in 2016.

It was a compelling presentation. As we walked back to our car afterward, I said to the kids, "I think (Guttenfelder) has the most awesome job in the world." 

The photographer is an eight-time World Press Photo Award winner and a seven-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally, in 2016, a photograph of his made in North Korea was named among TIME Magazine's "100 Most Influential Photographs Ever Taken."  (You can see them all here: http://100photos.time.com/. A direct link to Guttenfelder's photo is here: http://100photos.time.com/photos/david-guttenfelder-north-korea#photograph

ULTIMATELY: Saturday morning, Annabelle had an Ultimate Frisbee game out at Magnuson Park. It was against a team they beat 11-10 in a nail biter a couple of weeks ago.

This time it wasn't at close. The Cascading Saucers (the team Annabelle's on) won handily, 11-4. Here are the teams in a post-game 'spirit circle,' where they share compliments and comments. (I am pretty sure Annabelle is hidden in this photo.)

There's just one more game to go in the season, which means it's nearly time for the end of season party, which means it's time for some coaches' gifts. I had the idea of turning a Frisbee into a clock for their coaches, to thank them for all the time they devoted to the team this year.

We started with these blank discs.

We ordered a clock movement kit from Amazon, choosing the white hands, as we thought they'd "pop" in front of the green. Christian drilled a hole through the disc's center and installed the movements.

Then, Annabelle used her Cricut machine to make the numbers. We chose a font that matched the words on the disc, and a blue foil material that matched the disc perfectly!

 We were super happy with the finished product!

We had a number of other fun goings-on this past weekend, but will save those for tomorrow's post. 

Still Standing

CHECKING IN: So, MPA has had a 'little' interruption this week. Rest assured, that has not meant we are doing nothing. Quite the contrary, for sure.

This week happens to be Teacher Appreciation Week, and because we appreciate teachers in a huge way, we've been really very busy. It's been five days of special events to celebrate people who work so hard to help kids.

One of the things keeping us busy have included helping host a luncheon for around 30 people on Wednesday. 

We opted for an "all star" theme, mostly because we love baseball and had a plethora of decorations to get the job done! 

The luncheon featured ballpark favorites (big hot dogs on artisan buns with an array of toppings, garlic fries, Cracker Jack and other popcorn treats, peanuts, licorice, Big League Chew and more.

For the occasion we made baseball inspired mason jar centerpieces. So quick and easy (tempera paint swished around in a jar, stitching painted on the outside). We brought some rhododendron blossoms from home to stick in them.

I had a baseball-related playlist of songs ready to go, and we had tubs full of root beer and ginger beer (best we could do on school grounds, where no real beer is allowed, of course). Such a small/easy thing to do, but the guests were so tickled by the glass 'beer' bottles.

I feel like I must give the Instant Pot pressure cooker mad props for deliciously delivering 5 dozen juicy hot dogs in about 15 minutes. They tasted MUCH better than boiled hot dogs, for sure.

All in all, the baseball party was a big hit!

The kids made the cookies for the event. 

 The baseball cookies were a slam dunk, to mix metaphors/sports.

Fast forward to today, and our project was making over the very sterile staff bathroom. The spartan space looked absolutely institutional in the 'before' photo. (Sadly, I didn't think to take a 'before' shot.)

We hung some world map canvases and a quote above them. ... And by 'we,' I mean Annabelle.

We also added a petite mirror above the sink, where there wasn't one before. And by 'we,' I mean CJ and I. ;)

We also added a lovely little cabinet chock full o' donated toiletries and bathroom supplies. 

A busy but worthwhile week!