Spaced Out

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
SPACE CASES: A number of space-related activities were on our to do list today. First up, we tuned in to NASA TV to see if the asteroid buzzing by Earth today (2005 YU55) was still keeping its distance. Fortunately, it did. :) NASA now has a (first ever!) video of the asteroid. It's highly pixelated and only six looping frames, but it's an interesting look, nonetheless!

While on NASA TV, we also watched (taped) footage of the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity being lifted (safely inside its clamshell) atop an Atlas V rocket. Pretty amazing to think that in just two weeks, I'll be down in Florida to watch the MSL skyrocket toward Mars as part of a NASA Tweetup!

After the launch pad footage, we stayed tuned into NASA TV for a live broadcast from the International Space Station. Mike Fossum, Commander of Expedition 29, was answering questions from Earthling school children. They asked great questions, including about the importance of exercise for ISS inhabitants so that muscles don't atrophy and what types of experiments the astronauts are conducting.

It was fun reminding the kids that just a couple of days ago, the NASA astronaut they were watching on TV this morning took a photo of Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa holding a laptop with a screen displaying the poster bearing the kids' names (as well as a few dozen space-loving friends). How cool is that!? CJ and Annabelle both said, "Thank you, Mr. Mike!" as they listened to him talk today.

Image credit: NASA/Mike Fossum

Just after noon, we started turned our attention to the Internet and live video stream from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. On the launch pad was a Russian Zenit rocket carrying the Phobos-Grunt sample-return spacecraft. The spacecraft was targeted for Mars' smallest moon (Phobos) and we learned today that grunt means "soil" or "land" in Russian, hence the spacecraft's name. The mission was designed to retrieve samples from the far-away moon and return them to Earth. There are high hopes for the mission, as it represents the first Russian interplanetary mission since the failed Mars 96 mission in 1996.

I have to say, there were some crazy sounds before, during and after the launch. There was robotic howling and groaning straight out of a sci-fi thriller, and underneath it all was a repeating pa-pum pa-pum pa-pum that sounded like a heartbeat.

By our clock, the rocket actually lifted off a minute or two early, and the kids and I weren't smack dab in front of my computer screen when it started. However, the second we heard that unmistakable rocket roar, all three of us went RUNNING for the computer desk. It was like a Pavlovian response. ;)

It was a beautiful launch - the rocket cleared the pad quickly and blazed into the night sky. (If you're so inclined, here's a link to launch footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4P0L6NUV98&feature=youtu.be. FYI, the actual rocket fire doesn't happen until about the 4 minute mark, though, so fast forward if you're looking for that.)

Imagine our surprise tonight when my Twitter feed started showing reports of trouble with the mission and news that the spacecraft is stuck in orbit. According to Universe Today, 2.5 hours after launch, the first burn should have put the spacecraft into an higher orbit around Earth, and a second burn should have occurred just over 2 hours later, sending the spacecraft on its way to Mars. Neither of these burns occurred. It isn't yet clear whether the problem is with flight computer or flight hardware. In either case, it's a huge bummer, obviously.

We have read that there is a three day window of opportunity to hopefully get the mission back on track and trigger the burns. We'll be watching and rooting for the Russians.

GIVE ME LIBERTY: Our history lesson today ended up being a couple episodes from a cartoon series called "Liberty's Kids." I'd never heard of it before we found the DVDs at a local library branch a couple weeks ago. According to the show's Web site (http://libertyskids.com/), the animated series aims "to provide 7-12 year olds with a fresh and exciting experience of the extraordinary period of 1773 to 1789 in American history." Stories are presented "through the eyes of two young apprentice reporters," Sarah, a British girl fresh from England, and James, a 15-year-old apprentice, who "sees things from a cocky colonist's perspective."

The first episode we watched today was about the Tea Party. (No, not THAT Tea Party - the original one, involving actual tea leaves and Boston Harbor.) The second episode was all about Ben Franklin and how he helped shape early America.

The kids were pretty engaged by the show, and are looking forward to watching more. My favorite part was hearing Walter Cronkite as the voice of Ben Franklin.

CIVIC DUTY: This afternoon, we popped over to Ballard to put a couple of completed ballots in a collection box. I have to say, I almost didn't put them in because when we arrived, a couple of guys driving an Enterprise rental truck had the side of the box open and were messing with it. They didn't look very official like! Despite the misgivings, I had Annabelle put our ballots in and we'll hope for the best. Election results are just starting to trickle in. I certainly won't miss the campaign ads.

DRIP DROP: We tackled our science class homework today. It was fun. The assignment involved dripping a drop of water on several different types of fabric and recording what happened with the water droplet. Did it just sit there, did it quickly get absorbed or was the result somewhere in between?

In case you're wondering, no the kids didn't drop water on the the plates of Honeycombs. That was just part of their breakfast.

LITTLE RED PIZZA: Knowing we were going to make pizza for dinner tonight, when I saw "The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza)" on the shelves at the Ballard library today, I grabbed it straight away.

We read it this afternoon and it was a fun retelling of the familiar story. Afterward, we got down to the business of making our own pizza. First, we read the recipe assembled the ingredients. I got a bit nervous when I found out I was out of the bread flour it called for. The obvious research question for us became "What's the difference between all purpose flour and bread flour?" Thanks to the magical Internets, we learned it's about the amount of protein or gluten in the flour. Bread flour has about 12 to 14 percent protein, which produces a chewier bread. All purpose flour is typically in the 10 to 12 percent range. Cake flour has even less. Articles we read said our pizza dough would be OK with the regular flour. Phew - crisis averted.

I had the kids read the recipe and follow the directions, all the way from feeding the yeast to dumping the whole mess into the Kitchenaid bowl and letting the dough hook do its work. We let the dough rise for a couple of hours, then the kids punched it down (yes, with clean hands).

The kids were both thrilled with the final product.

Football Follies

BOW DOWN: This weekend we took a field trip to Husky Stadium, perhaps the most picturesque field in college football. At least from a distance. ;)

We hopped a chartered boat at the foot of our hill which took us right to the game. It's an excellent way to go - no bothering with traffic or parking and you get to enjoy a scenic cruise to and fro. Unfortunately, the boat ride was the highlight of the evening. ;)

For the eighth time in a row, the Dawgs lost to the Ducks. And in a way, that wasn't the worst part of our night. I've pretty much grown used to that outcome at this point. :/ The worst part was that it was a night game. Unlike the good ol' days, when you'd buy your tickets months in advance and know the day and TIME of the game you'd be attending, now TV drives everything, and the game time isn't set until a couple weeks before the game. We found out not too long ago that our tickets were for a 7:30 start, which is pretty late and cold for a family with a couple of little kids. That, and when the game doesn't start until that late, the game-goers have SEVERAL extra hours to tailgate ahead of time, which means by gametime there are a whole lot more people who are seriously schlitzed. That public drunkeness * 10 results in it being a LOT less family friendly, shall we say. The low point of the evening was a drunk guy older than me who decided he could singlehandedly solve the bottleneck problem as hundreds of us waited to work our way into a tiny entrance gate by starting to shove people. Chaos ensued and he's lucky (and we're all lucky) someone wasn't seriously hurt. Most unfortunately, Annabelle was one of the many people jostled and it scared her badly and set her off on a crying jag. Once things had settled down somewhat, I did make it a point to turn around and 'congratulate' the jerk on being such big bully that he made a 7-year-old girl cry.

Then, we made our way up to our seats. Somehow, Ticketmaster, despite their technological prowess, did not manage to inform me that our seats were two rows from the very top of the stadium (stratosphere) and that the view was somewhat limited by the hanging down press box. Nice.

By halftime, the kids were cold and hungry and so I took them and we wandered around checking out the sights and sounds of the stadium and its views before we headed back to our boat. Upon arrival, the captain herself said she couldn't let us on because the whole boat was an open bar until the fourth quarter. Oh. Really? At that, I wondered aloud how it could be that no one told us in advance that the boat my kids rode over and had a ticket back for was off limits to them but open to other non ticket holding comers during the game. How could that be right? In fact, it couldn't be, because that would be very WRONG to deny my tired, ticket holding children boat boarding. Miraculously, the rules changed and we were allowed to get on.

Eventually, the whole gang (two grandparents, the two biggest brothers, their friend and Christian) all made it back to the boat and we had a lovely ride home.

IMHO, the remodel of Husky Stadium can't come soon enough. Our experience there Saturday was, by far, the worst time I've ever had. From seats to egress/exits and concessions, the stadium's beat. It's a top flight location but the facility is the absolute dregs. Time for onward and upward!

I WANT MY JETPACK: Didn't someone in the not too distant past predict we've have flying cars and jetpacks by now? What's the friggin' hold up? This morning's email from NASA served up a look at NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless jetpacking his way in orbit 25-plus years ago (on Feb. 12, 1984). MCandless ventured further (320 feet) away from the confines of his ship than any previous astronaut ever. A nitrogen jet propelled backpack (previously known at NASA as the Manned Maneuvering Unit) made it possible.

IMAGE: NASA
Have I mentioned I want my jetpack?

RETRO 'ROID: We've been watching news of the approach of Asteroid 2005 YU55 (catchy name, 'eh?). Tomorrow it will do a (relatively) close flyby of earth - just 860,000 miles away, which is closer to us than our own moon. NASA made available the latest tracking photo it has of the asteroid. I have to admit, it looks very 8-bit to me.

IMAGE: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When I saw it, I couldn't help but wonder if Space Invaders are far behind.

METAL METTLE: Regular readers know, thanks to Minecraft, the kids have been asking lots of questions lately about elements found in the Earth. Today, CJ asked me what the hardest metal is. I didn't just answer with a blank stare. I also gave him an, "Uh ..." And then we promptly hit up the Google. ;)

Simply by typing in "what is hardest metal" we got some great hits, one of which told us that the hardest known metal is steel alloy. That led to a discussion about what an alloy is and if you're mixing something, is it really The Hardest Metal? (BTW, steel alloy is made by adding carbon).

We also learned that carbon steel is surpassed in hardness only by very hard nonmetals, such diamonds. This info fed right into what the kids have learned in Minecraft, where diamond weapons are the most coveted.

By reading further, we learned about the Mohs scale. I am ashamed to admit, I'd never heard of it before today. :( But I'll never forget it now! The Mohs scale of hardness ranks elements on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the strongest. Elements are rated according to their ability to resist abrasion or scratching. The scale is named after this dude (below) Friedrich Mohs in 1812. Mohs was a mineralogist from Germany who wanted a simple way of testing minerals' toughness. What the mineral could scratch, or what could scratch the mineral determines its position on the Mohs scale.

Since he worked in the field, Mohs wanted a simple way to rate things, and used his fingernail, a penny, glass and a knife to scratch and rate elements.

Interestingly, back to that hardcore high-carbon steel we started with - well, it only rates an 8 on the Mohs scale, while a diamond ranks a 10 (and a ruby rates a 9, in case you were wondering).

WISE WORDS: Both of the kids are under the weather, with stuffy sinuses and scratchy throats. This morning, when they were curled up on the couch and I handed them each one of G'ma's chocolate chip cookies, Annabelle observed, "Everything's better with a cookie."

Truer words were never spoken.

Sweet & Sour

CANDY CHEMISTRY: Thanks to post to a Seattle Homeschool Group email list, I learned about a Web site called Candy Experiments (http://www.candyexperiments.com/, as you might have guessed). There, I found examples of some fun experiments to do with some of the over abundance of Halloween candy we have.

The first experiment we took on was one to determine if hard candy dissolves more quickly in hot or cold water. We decided to use a couple of root beer Dum Dums, which my kids would never eat. Before we got started, I asked each of them them to make a prediction about the pops dissolving. They both predicted the one in hot water would go faster/first.

Turns out they were both right.

And the reason it goes down like that, according to the Web site, is because molecules move faster when it’s hot, therefore the candy in hot water dissolves much faster. FYI, the one on room temperature water did dissolve, as well, it just took about 2 hours longer.

We also conducted an experiment measuring the acidity of various hard candies. I prefaced it with a discussion about what makes candy sweet (sugar, honey, etc.) and what makes it sour (acid). For our experiment, we used chewy Lemonheads, Pixie Stix, some Wonka Gobstoppers and some tablet-like Super Mario shaped candies. We put one teaspoon of each candy in a bowl. That was easy for the Pixie Stix, it was just a matter of pouring the powder into the bowl. The other candies we had to smash up. That was NOT easy, especially with the damn Mario candies. They dented my friggin' rolling pin! Guess I won't be rolling any more fondant out with that thing.

We dissolved the candy in 1/3 cup of warm water and then added a teaspoon full of baking soda into water. Right away, bubbles started forming in each bowl. Per Candy Experiments, the reaction between the acidic candy and baking soda produces carbon dioxide gas, which makes the bubbles.

Apparently the rock hard Mario candies were most acidic, as it bubbled most actively. The Gobstoppers were interesting - that bowl bubbled until the colored candy coating was eaten off the orbs. Then it stopped. The Pixie Stix and Lemonheads bubbled, too, but not as much as those Mario tarts.

Here's the Pixie Stix up close.

PROSPECTING: Via yet another email list I'm on (Diane Flynn Keith of Clickschooling.com), I recently learned about a chance to do some virtual silver mining. Since the kids have been asking so many questions about mining and precious metals lately, I figured we had to check it out. I'm glad we did.

The activity was called "The Cobalt Adventure," and it's part of the awesome Virtual Museum of Canada's Web site. Cobalt, Ontario, was the scene of a decades-long silver rush, beginning in 1903, when the precious metal was discovered whil the railroad was being built through northern Ontario. The rush lasted until the advent of the First World War, by which time the mines had been stripped of their treasure.

The game we played was a bit "Oregon Trail"-esque, in that we had to choose a character and then make decisions regarding potential courses of action. We chose to be a retired prospector who gets back in the game. I am happy to report that we made a series of FABULOUS decisions along the way, and we wound up filthy stinking rich (one of 28 possible endings for the game). The game is both fun and educational. After you play, there are "Actual Factuals" that you can read about, each containing background info, historic photos, and facts and figures.

FINALLY: Today, one of our favorite Seattle businesses - Full Tilt Ice Cream- opened a location just five minutes from our home. Hooray! Before, their closest location was a 30+ minute drive for us.

This evening we went and checked the place out. They don't have all their pinball machines and arcade games in yet, but they've got a good start. And they do have their excellent homemade ice cream in awesome waffle cones, which our kids love, and a nice selection of microbrews (which we parents love).

Mewow

SIGHT FOR SORE EYES: See the squiggle in the bottom right hand corner of this terribly amateurish photo I took? It's the International Space Station (ISS) - w00t! Thanks to a Tweet from @twisst on Twitter, I knew that we'd have a chance to see the ISS fly over at 7:09 tonight and sure 'nuff, at the appointed time Christian picked it up on the western horizon, headed our way. Tonight's trajectory was more NW to SE, compared to Halloween which was more WNW to ESE.

Tonight there were more clouds, but not many to the northwest where it showed up, and we were happy to see it as well as we could. As it happened, a woman was walking her dog as our family was standing on a random street corner, gazing skyward and taking photos. Christian told her why we were there and she stopped to watch, too. She was surprised by how well she could see it and how fast it was moving. As she walked away she remarked, "That's really cool." I bet she keeps an eye out for it as she is walking her dog in future evenings. :)

OUT OF NOWHERE: I've got a few (600 or so) images of mine parked on Morguefile, for others to do with what they will. As a result, CeeJ and Bee have been featured in newspapers and magazines around the world and they pop up in all sorts of incarnations online, including this one, where a ballerina Bee is the center of a flower. Sweet. :)

TESTING: We finally got around to having the kids catch up on Accelerated Reader tests for books they have read recently. CJ finished the Great Illustrated Classics version of "Peter Pan." Annabelle had a Geronimo Stilton book under her belt, they both read "There was a Cold Woman who Swallowed some Snow" (take a pass on it) and a book about summer island life in the Florida Keys by Jack Prelutsky (interesting, but long, as CJ pointed out). They also both read a couple of Magic School Bus titles. Their comprehension test scores ranged from one barely OK to mostly 100 percents.

GOOD DOG: Fifty-five years ago today Sputnik 2 launched. On board was Laika, a three year old stray turned dog-o-naut. She was the first animal to orbit Earth and served on a one-way mission. RIP, pup.

MOVIE MATINEE: Since Thursday is when we have the HUGE gap between a.m. music and p.m. LEGOs, I figured we'd fill it today by checking something off the 'to do' list. Thanks to the nonstop ads during programs they watch, the kids have been wanting to go see the new "Puss in Boots" movie. Knowing it was a spin off from a character featured in the Shrek films, I honestly wasn't looking forward to it at all, because spin offs are so often abysmal.

We hit the Thornton Place theater, because it was the closest to the kids' school.

Well hap-hap-happy me, the movie was actually really entertaining! Well written dialog, a beefy story line, compelling characters, fantastic animation, a good soundtrack and really great art direction. The kids absolutely LOVED it, and so did I. Six thumbs up here.

MAKING MUSIC: For the first time, I sat in on, and all the way through the kids' music class this morning. I'm glad I did. The teacher does a fantastic job of keeping things moving along at an always engaging pace. They sang, they danced, they played instruments and often all three at the same time. What a great way to start the day.

MOVING CLOSER TO MARS: Today, the Mars Science Laboratory came one giant step closer to Mars. Early this morning MSL was moved from NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) to Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Then, MSL on top of the Atlas V rocket.This is what that looks like.

It's just waiting there for me now. In fact, 20 days from now I'll be in Florida for the NASA Tweetup! Not that it's any big deal at all. ;)

11022011

We started the sunny Tuesday off by completing some science homework. The kids were to read "A New Coat for Anna" by Harriet Ziefert. Based on a true story, it takes place during wartime and tells of a poor girl and her mother who have to trade treasured item after treasured item (something to the farmer, the spinner, the weaver, and the tailor) in order to get Anna a new coat. The kids' assignment was to illustrate their favorite part of the story. Annabelle wrote, "When Anna got her new coat" and drew a picture of a girl twirling in front of a mirror. She was careful to try to draw an accurate reflection in the mirror, which I thought was pretty cool.

CJ drew a picture of a farmer shearing a sheep with a little girl watching and asking, "Does it hurt?"

ENGAGE SHIELDS: Today in her art class, Annabelle got to play around with some terracotta clay. She tells me one of the items she made was a sumo wrestler. I'm looking forward to seeing that. At the end of class the kids were allowed to scrounge through the leftovers bin and make anything they wanted. Using some stiff cardboard and what looked to be an empty tennis ball canister, Annabelle fashioned a shield. This afternoon she and CJ played knight v. knight.

BACKWARD: How shall I put this? Hmm ... let's just say science class was pretty much an unmitigated disaster for CJ. I'm not sure why. He's been doing so well in there with his attention/focus, following directions and classroom manners. Today? Well, not so much. I'll spare you the details. And so, he is enjoying (well, not really) a quiet, unplugged evening of reflection. Tomorrow will be a better day.

That unpleasantness aside, the kids did a neat experiment testing the absorbency of various fabrics. Some (like terry cloth and silk) were very absorbent, while others (nylon, for one) were not.

DOCKED: Maybe the best news I got all day was that the Russian capsule with three tons of supplies successfully docked with the ISS this morning. We have to hope the Russian supply missions are a success because we aren't going to be supplying the ISS or flying any manned missions anytime soon. :/

Interestingly, the supply ship happened to arrive on the 11th anniversary of the arrival of the ISS's very first residents. Which means that for every second of the past 11 years, mankind has had representatives floating up there in orbit. Remarkable.

HALLOWEEN REWIND: I forgot to include these reviews in yesterday's blog post:

Halloween 2011 by CJ Kisky - Yesterday it was Halloween. My costume was a NES controler (sic). We went to businesses on round 1. We went to only 12 houses on round 2. We had lots of fun and candy. But anyway THE END.

My 7th Halloween by Annabelle Kisky - On October 31, 2011 was Halloween. I was Nyan Cat. I also saw a Spider-Man, Bat-Girl and a Hersheys Kiss costumes. That Halloween we got tons of candy and a lot of fun. The End.

WALK THIS WAY: Today we got a largish parcel via Amazon, which meant we had a largish cardboard box to dispose of which meant that Annabelle had to fashion something out of it. Since it also came with a long, wrinkly piece of kraft paper, she transformed the thing into a baby elephant. She and CJ provided the horse, er, elephant power. It was rather hilarious listening to them trying to navigate around the house. While they ran into stuff, I played Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" for them. Great tune, and I loved it when I was a kid, but something tells me it wouldn't be a Top 40 hit today.

MINE, ALL MINE: Lately, CJ has been asking lots of questions about diamonds - things like where they come from, how they're mined, what they're worth. I have no doubt this sudden interest is due to a game called Minecraft, where one of the activities is diamond mining.

One excellent resource regarding diamonds is the American Museum of Natural History. On their Web site we learned that "a diamond is carbon in its most concentrated form. Except for trace impurities like boron and nitrogen, diamond is composed solely of carbon, the chemical element that is fundamental to all life."

While diamonds have lots in common with graphite and lonsdaleite - both also composed of carbon - a diamond is unique because of its crystal structure, or the arrangement of the carbon atoms. The diamond's unique structure is what makes it hard and clear, as opposed to graphite, which is soft and opaque. According to the AMNH site, diamonds were formed when once-living carbon from Earth's surface worked its way deep into the mantle.

Today, we also learned about the existence of one of the nation's most unique state parks - the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. First, we watched a short, informative news video about the park on YouTube.

Then, from the park's great Web site, we learned more about diamonds and exactly what goes on there at the park. First off, CJ wanted to know exactly what a carat is. According to current measurements, it's 200 milligrams. What was interesting to learn from the CoDSP site is the word may have derived from the carob tree, which has uniformly sized seeds. For years, gemstones were weighed against the carob seeds. Fascinating!
The park's Web site has a page where the latest diamond discoveries of note are listed. Darn near every day someone's plucking a decent sized diamond out of there!

At the state park, visitors typically employ one of three methods to search for diamonds. Some surface search, which means simply walking the grounds and looking for diamonds lying atop the dirt. Most visitors dig down 6 to 12 inches and screen for diamonds. The most hardcore searchers dig deep holes, remove the soil, separate it and search for diamonds.

Three colors (white, brown, and yellow) are found at this park, and finders keepers! Digging at the Crater of Diamonds is definitely on the kids' 'to do' list now!

SHHHH!: Why does anyone let their toddler(or in this case twin toddlerS) roam a library at large, letting them scream and carry on and on and on (we're talking 45 minutes here) like they're in their own living room? It's just so, so rude. People are trying to study. And write. And think. Even very little kids can and should be taught what a "library voice" is. It's not the kids' fault, of course. It's their inconsiderate parent's shortcoming. And this is priceless ... when I did a walk by to gawk and maybe give the mother pause to think about why someone would be gawking, I found the woman was wearing HEADPHONES listening to her iPod while working on a craft project on the floor while her kids are loudly spazzing here there and everywhere. Incredible.

When they finally left (for the preschool next door), I felt like standing up and applauding.

Don't get me wrong, I like kids and absolutely think they SHOULD be in a library. I just can't stand clueless, careless parents. End of rant.

November Cometh

SORTING IT OUT: And just like that, October is over. In what is likely a November 1st tradition in many a U.S. household, today meant taking inventory of last night's sugary Halloween loot.

Turns out CJ and Annabelle got an absolutely ridiculous amount of candy. We're going to be pawning it off on people for weeks to come. But before we do that, we used it to do a little math. We sorted the candy they received by type, but before tallying them up, we all made predictions about which kind they had the most of. I guessed suckers/lollipops; the kids both guessed chocolate. And now for the numbers (drumroll): Lollipops = 58, hard candy (peppermints, Life Savers, that type of thing)= 39, sugary hard stuff (like Lemonheads, Bottlecaps, etc.) = 19, sugar chewy (taffy, Starburst and so on) = 20, Tootsie Roll = 33, snacks (pretzels/chips) = 7, chocolate = 84+, plastic (spider rings and reflectors) = 4, and last and least, rip offs = 1. Here, CJ shows you what they meant by a rip off.

INCOMING!!!!: Did you know that right now there's largish asteroid hurtling toward our planet?! It's TRUE!! Asteroid 205 YU55 (yes, that's its name) is headed our way. On Nov. 8, it's going to be closer to Earth than our very own moon! (At its closest point it will be about 201k miles from our planet.) This asteroid pass by is the closest this space rock has come for at least the last 200 years.

Today, we watched an hour long Q&A all asteroids and 2005 YU55 via USTREAM. It was broadcast from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, from 2:30 to 3:30 PT. To get ready for it, beforehand we checked out some pages on NASA.gov all about asteroids, including a cool video about the asteroid Vesta, and checked out info about the amazing space lab OSIRIS REx which can collect samples from asteroids and send them back to Earth. Super cool.

The two scientists involved in the program, Don Yeomans and Marina Brozovic of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, answered some audience questions, which had been submitted electronically. Over and over and over, people asked about 2005 YU55 hitting the Earth. Or the moon. Or causing earthquakes. Or changes in tides. Over and over the scientists said "no way." But the same types of questions kept coming. Clearly, someone(s) out there have been watching too many "Armageddon" type movies.

Naturally, we didn't just sit and listen to the lecture for an hour. There were parts that were just begging for audience participation. For example, when began talking about how some asteroids are rapid rotators, and those often have a satellite, CJ and Annabelle sprang into action to demonstrate that motion!

During the close flyby, scientists will use the massive 70-meter Deep Space Network antenna to study the asteroid.

KNOW WHEN TO FOLD 'EM: Another math project we tackled today involved making flexagons - that's a fun name for a hexagon that can be manipulated via folding and unfolding into displaying different designs. I found out about it via a Tweet from @OnThisDayinMath. I followed their link to the YouTube video demonstrating it and decided we HAD to try it. (The template to cut out to make your own flexagon can be found here: http://sites.google.com/site/moviecreations/flexagon-template.) It's not easy.

But they did it! Annabelle was especially proud of herself. She kept saying, "I know I draw stuff all the time, but I can't believe I made that!"

BONUS: For just one month, the first 65 years of the most excellent Scientific American magazine are available for free online. No way someone could get through them in a month, but it's worth a try! ;) http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/archive/index_1909.html

IT GOES BOTH WAYS: Last night while we were staring up at the ISS I had the kids wave, telling them that there was a good chance the astronauts on board were looking down at the Earth right now. Here's a great Web site with video of their view from up there: http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/Videos/CrewEarthObservationsVideos/

OVERHEARD: After the asteroid conference, Annabelle asked, "Hey CJ, want to play space? Do you want to be a moon, a planet or an asteroid?"

Without hesitation he countered, "I want to be the sun!" :)

Halloweeny

ABOUT TIME: It's a good thing Halloween was today, because I don't think this moldy ol' jack-o'-lantern of CJ's could take even one more day without entirely caving in on itself.

Frankly, I'm surprised this pumpkin aged so gracelessly. We went and plucked it right out of the farmer's field, for Pete's sake. Hate to think we would have been better off with a pummy from Albertsons or some such store.

TRUTH BE TOLD: We did almost ZERO honest-to-goodness school work today. Sure, the kids read, and yeah, Christian and I answered the dozens of questions that pop up during the course of a normal day, but most of today was getting ready for Halloween (costume tune ups and quick fixes) and getting ready for an appraiser (for our re-fi). I rather like staging the place. It's nice to see the house looking its best. Three days from now, it will be back to having piles on every counter and a thin layer of dog hair everywhere, I s'pose.

PLANT ONE ON: One of our errands today involved hitting Swanson's, a local nursery/garden center, to get some houseplants for the staging. While there, we got to check out what was left of their Halloween hay maze. I have to admit, I was a bit surprised to see they were dismantling it today - ON Halloween. Could they not wait one more day? Any who, the kids still enjoyed it.

DON WE NOW: About 3:30, the kids worked their way into their costumes so we could go trick or treat the Magnolia business district at 4 p.m. Here they are ready to collect buckets full of candy ...

CJ is a controller for a classic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

Annabelle is, quite obviously, Nyan Cat. While I didn't expect everyone - or even most people - to recognize her, I didn't expect so many people to think she was a mouse with a Pop Tart. ;) The people who did get Nyan Cat thought it was The Best, though, so those few and far between people were gratifying. The upside to this - if you ever want a quick, easy and cheap Halloween costume, everyone recognizes and loves the novelty of a Pop Tart.

FLY BY: All day, my eyes were on the skies, looking at cloud coverage and wondering what the weather would be like right after dinner tonight. Was I worried about wet trick or treaters? Not a bit! What I was fretting over is whether or not we'd be able to see the stars about 6:47 p.m., when the International Space Station (ISS) would be zooming over Seattle skies.

Earlier today via Twitter, I learned about a service (Twisst ISS alerts) where you can register and then it sends you Tweets letting you know when the ISS will be visible in your neck of the woods. I signed up at midday and late afternoon I got a Tweet letting me know the ISS should be visible in the Northwest sky at 6:47 p.m. When the skies started clearing at 5 p.m., we got sure excited. At 6:30 we left home for the top of our hill. We decided that a great place to park would be by the house where a local Realtor turns his whole front yard into a pumpkin patch. Turns out it was a good call.

We parked about 6:44 and started scanning the skies. Despite light pollution, we saw dozens of stars and so I was hopeful that we'd get lucky. The appointed time - 6:47 came and went - and I started to doubt the accuracy of the alert. I thought, "Hmm, maybe that was an East Coast time or something. ..."

Just about then, Christian announced, "There it is!" He was pointing to the WNW and sure enough, it was super easy to spot. Brighter than any of the stars in tonight's sky and moving at a good clip, we watched the ISS make its way from west to east. The kids were seriously jumping up and down excited! :) I suggested they go trick or treating at the pumpkin place right away, and tell the homeowner that this very minute the ISS was flying over his house. The kids excitedly rapped on the man's door and when he opened it, instead of saying "Trick or treat!" they yelled, "Look! The ISS is flying over your house RIGHT NOW!!!!" :)

Fortunately, that got his attention. :) He came out onto his porch spotted the space station and started asking questions. Excellent! He asked if the ISS flies over his house every night (no), how we knew it would be there tonight (the magical Internets), and why it glowed like a star (the sun reflecting off it, yes, even at night). He was completely wowed and so were we. The kids got lots of candy from him. :) The best part was, while we were leaving and he was heading back into his house, we heard him declare, "That was SO COOL!" And then as we got in the car, I saw him pop his head back outside, scan the skies, clearly hoping to catch another glimpse of the ISS. :)

Best Halloween ever. :)