Travelogue

Mercury, seen in silhouette, makes its way across the face of the Sun, with the Washington Monument in the foreground. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

SUN SHOTS: There are plenty of post-transit photos of Mercury making its way across the face of the sun from yesterday's solar event.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory was one of those watching. (The Solar Dynamics Observatory views the sun in a variety of wavelengths of light in the extreme ultraviolet.) It's some pretty cool footage. 


Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Genna Duberstein

FASCINATING WINDOW: Today we 'had' to watch an hour-long video about a pair of brothers who traveled to Indonesia and the Spice Islands in the 1970s, videography equipment in tow. It was a course requirement for CJ's World History class.

To be honest, if you'd asked me before today what or where the Spice Islands were, you'd have gotten a blank stare as a response. Now, thanks to the British brothers Blair (Lawrence and Lorne), I know a fair amount about the Indonesian archipelago.  

The Blairs traveled in and around Indonesia for 10 years, documenting their adventures along the way. The recordings turned into "The Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey." In the episode we watched today, the brothers lived with members of the Bugis tribe for months. The Blairs' goal was to follow in the footsteps of the 19th century naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace. 

The Blairs' initial excursion would up turning into a two-decade endeavor of documenting the relationships of Spice Island ecology and telling the stories of their peoples. Some of their work would up as an Emmy-nominated BBC/PBS television series, "Ring of Fire."

Shot with 16mm film in high heat and humidity back in the early 1970s, the photo quality of what we watched today is pretty poor by current standards. However, I found myself quickly 'forgiving' that, in exchange for having a vantage point to places and people most of us will never get to see in person.

We found it interesting when reading the credits that financing for the brothers' efforts was provided, in part, by Ringo Starr.

Apparently a digitally remastered DVD was released in 2003. I'd be curious to see what its video quality is like.

Poking around YouTube, I found a one-hour documentary, "Beyond the Ring of Fire." I listened to and sometimes watched about half of it while posting this blog. It's super interesting.


SPACE SNOOPY: I couldn't help but notice, but in the last couple of years, Snoopy (of Peanuts fame) has had a higher profile. He's popping up everywhere, and often these 'wheres' are off planet, like the moon or Mars.

As it turns out, Peanuts and the space program have a long relationship. Back in 1969, the lunar module and command module  for Apollo 10 were named after Snoopy and Charlie Brown. Also in '69, NASA started an annual Silver Snoopy Award given out to employees for "outstanding achievements related to human flight safety or mission success."

There's a new graphic novel about to come out, "Snoopy: A Beagle of Mars." I checked out some of its pages online today. It looks like lots of fun. It comes out Dec. 18. Hopefully we can check out a copy from a local library.

Meanwhile, a brand new series, "Snoopy in Space," is launching on the new Apple TV+. I don't think we'll have Apple TV+ any time soon, so who knows if we'll ever get to see any of it beyond YouTube trailers.

Eyes on the Skies

WATCH OUT: I had the stage set. There were two pairs of binoculars, some solar safety glasses, a couple of cameras ... we were hoping to see the transit of Mercury first thing this morning. 

However, the clouds had a different idea.

The event started about 4:35 a.m. Seattle time, but sun didn't rise here until after 7 a.m. today. So, Right after, I scanned the skies for any sign of an orange orb. For about two minutes I could make the disc out, but it was behind a *bunch* of tree branches from my vantage point. I used all of the tools at my disposal, but there was just no way I was able to see that speck in front of the sun given the clouds, the blowing branches and my under-powered binoculars. Bummer. 

Naturally, the sun came out about 15 minutes after the event was over. That's that Annabelle's checking out in the photo above. 

Missing out was kind of a big deal because this is the last time Mercury transits the sun until 2032, and during that occurrence, people in the U.S. won't be able to view it. Americans have to wait until 2049 for the next opportunity. Sigh.

Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Christian was also looking skyward. He's in Florida for a work conference which starts this afternoon, leaving his morning open. It just so happened there was a SpaceX launch this morning, so he hopped a shuttle from Orlando to Cocoa Beach. Below is a photo of his viewing spot. The tiny white block on the lefthand side of the photo is actually NASA's enormous Vehicle Assembly Building. The white speck in the middle of the frame, between the palm trees and a pole,is the launch site.

Though he was a bit of a ways away, he was a lot closer than us. ;) And he got to see the lift off! So happy for him - what a bonus to his business trip!

Here's the entire SpaceX broadcast of the launch. Lift off happens just after the 19-minute mark.

On board the launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, were 60 Starlink satellites.

Christian's view of the launch wasn't quite as close as the official SpaceX broadcast.

The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket nailed its landing on a barge named Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. You can see that about the 27 minute mark of the video. It's the *fourth* time this piece of equipment has been launched and landed. What an accomplishment for SpaceX.

PLAY THE GAME: We continue to play board games for fun and to boost our logic and strategy 'muscles.'

Chess continues to be a favorite. I call this victory "March of the Black Queen." I checkmated CJ upon turning a lowly pawn into a powerful queen.

We were playing this game during Sunday Night Football. While playing, the announcer talked about how the Minnesota Vikings' Amari Cooper plays chess in the locker room all of the time. Interesting!

A new-to-us game is "How to Rob a Bank." Three players are the robbers, working together, against the fourth player, the bank security guards. 

It's a fun concept and quite different than most games. We'll be playing this regularly, I predict.

Midweek

ART PROJECTS: We owe some people some thank yous, so resident artist Annabelle came up with a couple of cards yesterday. This one is headed to a family member who gifted a ton of fabric and other crafty supplies to us recently. I love Annabelle's details on this one.

Speaking of crafting, today we needed our glue gun and it was absolutely buried in the craft closet. That led to a few bad words before I realized it was actually an 'opportunity' to declutter and reorganize. I hadn't planned on that today, so we didn't have time to finish the whole thing, but three of the six shelves are ever-so-much better, so yay for that.

One of the reasons we were needing craft supplies is we were trying to make a Souper Man. 

"What's that?" you ask? Well, it's just a little table top attention-getter for an event we're helping host in a couple of weeks. We need folks to bring soup to share to the gathering. I'm of the opinion that putting an 8.5x11 flyer on a wall at a school where nearly every wall is covered in some sort of display is kind of a lost cause. So, I'm always trying to think of ways to literally  stand out - something 3D to hopefully catch attention. Enter Souper Man. ;)

I think he's pretty cute. Now, I just hope that some random 5-year-old that also thinks he's cute doesn't rip an arm off him or something. ...

Decidedly less artsy but oh-so-satisfying, I did manage to finish painting the hallway ceiling downstairs today, while the kids were studying Japanese. (Sadly, at this point, I'm of little use to them when it comes to that.)

Out with the old nicotine 'colored' ceiling and in with Casper, a crisp white from Miller Paint.

IN TRANSIT: Mark your calendars next Monday (Nov. 11) for a rare chance to see a solar system spectacle. Mercury will be transiting our sun that day. This won't happen again for 13 years, so it's kind of a big deal.

According to timeanddate.com, weather permitting, the transit will be visible for 2 hours and 56 minutes, from 7:08 to 10:04 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Time to dust off the solar eclipse glasses, cross our fingers, and try to check it out then.

Sites to See

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD: Annabelle got to spend a few days in Las Vegas last week. She had a great time, of course. On her last day there, she went to the Shark Reef Aquarium.

As you might have guessed, she saw some sharks there. 

She also saw some not sharks.

Annabelle and her two oldest brothers also hit the Pinball Hall of Fame, a really neat-o arcade that includes a bunch of vintage machines we've never seen before. One example is this Star Trek Voyager game.

There was also a vintage "Toy Factory" machine. This thing took 4 bucks and a half minute to spit out "your own Walt Disney" characters. 

According to a Volo Auto Museum website video I found, the machine was invented for the 1964 World's Fair.

Sound like it's super rare. I hope to get to see it on my next visit to Vegas.

Here are a couple of short videos of Annabelle getting her game on.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: Saturday morning, CJ shared with me that he received an email from his college with some startling news. It read ...

‌Dear  Christian (CJ) ,
We want you to get the classes you need at the times you want next quarter and noticed that there is a block on your student record that prevents you from registering for classes. 
To resolve the issue as quickly as possible, please call, email, or make an appointment with the Registration Office at your campus.

Registration starts next week, so don't wait!
Sincerely,Your Student Success team‌ 

What's this? A block on his record? He can't register for winter classes (registration started today/Monday, Nov. 4)?! And they email this alarming notice on a Saturday morning, when we can't call, email or make an appointment per their advice? The subject line of the email literally read:  "Oh no! You may not be able to register for classes ..."

Fantastic. Sigh. 

We went on his college site and poked around, trying to find anything out outstanding fees or tuition or any other red flag, but we couldn't find anything amiss.

So, we got in our car this morning and were on campus when the registration office opened. Within two minutes we learned that the message was sent because he's a Running Start (early enrolled) student and needs to register in person. Which we already knew. Why in the WORLD didn't that email just say that?! SO lame. 

Anyway, we're glad that it was OK, and CJ is now signed up for winter quarter. He'll be taking World Civilizations II (a continuation of a class he's in now), Japanese II (likewise, a continuation), and English 101, which had to happen sooner or later, and we figured sooner would be better. 

Halloween-y

    Photo: NASA

BOO-TIFUL: Tis the season for pumpkin carving. Nice that NASA has us covered in that department. I mean, who wouldn't want to carve their very own James Webb Space Telescope-themed pumpkin? 

There are three different patterns you can choose from, with varying degrees of difficulty. Created by Leah Hustak, you can find them here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13416

Annabelle's participation in InkTober is coming to a close. Here are a couple of her most recent drawings. This one had a prompt of "ride." 

And this one was "bait."

CHECK YOURSELF: As part of CJ's psychology class this week, we learned about Project Implicit,  "a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition - thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control," per their website description. "The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a 'virtual laboratory' for collecting data on the Internet," they explain. 

The site has a number of different assessments you can take to help identify your hidden biases. They include everything from religion to skin tone to weight to gender and more.  After taking the assessment, you receive a result, along with info about what that result means. 

I took a test on religion. It involved pressing one of two computer keys when words or symbols appeared on the screen. I was somewhat surprised at the results, and would really like to read more about their methodology and assessment models they before I became a believer in their validity. It is an interesting concept, and definitely worthwhile if there's scientific merit to it.

Airplanes and Airlocks

WINGING IT: Yesterday was a pretty big day, as Annabelle made her first solo flight as a passenger. Her destination: Las Vegas.

Her flight was set to leave about 3:30, so we went to the airport about 1:30. Before dropping her off, however, we oh-so-carefully packed, and went over basically every detail of what to expect at the airports and on the plane.

While I alternately circled the airport or waited in the cell phone waiting lot, Christian walked Annabelle to the TSA line, and watched as she made her way past the gate-keeping agent and through the baggage and person search portion. Then, Annabelle was off on her own to find her gate and get on the plane. 

We kept in contact via text while she hung out in the airport. I told her that, honestly, an airport is about the safest place to be in the Seattle area. There is an abundance of security, including tons of armed guards, people past the TSA check have been screened for weapons and such, and there are no deranged people living in the terminal, like there are all over the streets of Seattle. 

Her plane took off pretty much on time. We had fun tracking the flight thanks to the site FlightAware.

Right on time, I had a text from her when they were wheels down. She made her way through McCarran Airport in no time, and was safely with her biggest brother and his wife in short order.

Now, she's enjoying some sunshine, palm trees, and pair of adorable Doberman dogs for a few days.

MUSEUM OF FRIGHT:  One of the things that kept us busy this weekend was an event at The Museum of Flight. On Sunday, the attraction was also a "Museum of Fright," with Halloween-themed activities and exhibits. As part of his Museum Apprenticeship Program duties, CJ was in charge of the music and sound effects in the haunted house. The theme for the attraction was an abandoned moon base. 

It was super dark, but here are a couple of photos Christian captured.

Christian said there were a couple of good "jump scares" (creatures popping out at you) in the space. 

And here's a super short video. I believe it's entering the 'airlock.'

CJ chose to use Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" as the soundtrack for the attraction. Electronic and dissonant, it seemed like a good fit for a haunted, deserted moon base. He added some screams and other sounds over Reed's instrumentation. It was a good call, and now he can add "Haunted House DJ" to his resume. ;)

So Much Stuff

FRIDAY NIGHT FUN: Apologies for the dearth of posts last week. It was, shall we say, a week. More like two weeks, fit into one, actually. CJ recently asked me "when's the next day we have that we won't be busy?" And by busy, he meant crazy busy, I'm sure. 

Following are a few highlights of what kept us so busy at the end of last week and on the weekend. 

The kids both attended "Fridays at the 5th" for the first time. We dropped them off downtown at 4, and I picked them up a bit after 11, so time wise, it was a pretty big deal. Not only did they get to see the play "Austen's Pride," they had dinner and some workshops, as well. I'll have Annabelle share a bit about the experience. 

Austen's Pride is a musical based on the creation and story of Jane Austen’s famous novel, “Pride and Prejudice.” The musical tells not only the story of the book, but also of Austen’s real life experiences that shaped her views on romance stories and happy endings.

My brother and I were lucky enough to have a workshop at the 5th Avenue Theatre before their show, where we were taught a verse from one of the songs and choreography to go with from the actress that played Jane Bennet, Manna Nichols. She showed us how to partner dance like the actors and actresses on stage would be doing minutes later. 

We also had a small presentation detailing some important things about Pride and Prejudice before the show began. For example, when the book was first published it was so unusual for a woman to be popular in the writing world that Austen’s books were attributed as being written by “a Lady.” Despite writing about love and marriage quite a bit, she never got married herself and lived solely on her own earnings.

The musical did a wonderful job at clearly condensing the story of the novel into the time allotted without losing too many major details or plot points. The actors and actresses were amazing singers and despite being told at the Q&A afterward that there were a few mistakes in blocking, I wasn’t able to notice any of them during the show proper. While the show’s run is now over, it was a wonderful musical and I’d definitely like to attend another workshop at the theater and see these actors again! 

We're hoping we can sign the kids up for future Fridays at the 5th.

SPRINKLE PLENTY: One of the tasks that kept us extra busy last week was finishing a big cake for a big to do. Birthday Dreams, a non profit that provides birthday parties for homeless children, had their biggest fund raiser of the year Saturday night, and they asked Annabelle to bake a cake for the occasion. 

She was asked for something that incorporated their logo, something fun, something elegant, a tiered cake ... We talked about various ways to pull that off and wound up going with a mocktail theme for taste. The first tier was five layers, a lime margarita cake with a salty sweet filling. 

We decided to ice the tier and then encrust the whole thing in blue, green, white and silver sprinkles. We made a mix to fill that bill. 

To figure out how to get all the sprinkles on the cake, we turned to the Internet. Many people pick up the cake and roll it in the sprinkles. We weren't comfortable doing that, though. So we came up with our own way, and got better at it as we went along. 

The top layer is strawberry daiquiri with fresh strawberry filing and rum icing. 
She made the edible balloons out of gelatin. They're so pretty!

TEEN SCENE: Saturday night, Annabelle, Kennedy and I had an obligation in the U District. It's the fourth Saturday, so that means a Teen Feed dinner service for us.

It was the Saturday before Halloween, so we felt compelled to embrace a spooky menu. Here's a small version of the menu poster we had as diners filed in.

As always, they were *so* hungry. It's a daunting task feeding them. We can only physically bring so much food - a finite amount. When a whole bunch of them ask if they have have four or five hot dogs, it puts us in a hard spot. You don't want to say no, but what about the other diners following them during our hour service. Should someone only get one or none because the first 20 people got 5 apiece? ... I've been thinking a lot about how to manage that and need to consult with the Teen Feed powers that be.

Anyway, that issue aside, it was a super fun service. The kids loved having Halloweenies as the entree. 

And they actually ate healthy, because the Clementines and Boo-nanas were so darn cute!!

Annabelle and I even dyed cream cheese yellow and black and some volunteer kids there decorated Ritz Crackers. 

Kennedy showed up in a full on pumpkin suit (blazer and slacks), and brought *the best* maple baked beans.

All in all, a busy and good night.

GLAMOUR SHOTS:  Fall's my favorite season, and these photos below are proof positive.

Here's a view form the (dirty, sorry) window above our stairs on Sunday morning, around 9 a.m. 

And here's a shot from the deck. 

Clouds filled the valley (goodbye Kent, Renton and Tukwila), and it was like there was nothing but us and the mountain. Just gorgeous!

INSIDE THE LINES: Thursday afternoon we made a whirlwind trip up to Mukilteo to celebrate birthdays (mine and Annabelle's) and have a nice lunch G&G R.

Annabelle spied some coloring sheets on the counter and couldn't help herself.