Swimming Upstream

LOCKS: This evening after dinner, we headed just a mile or two to our north, to visit the Hiram M. Chittenden (Ballard) Locks. I've been wanting to go there for a week plus, because I follow the Locks on Facebook and I know their fish count has been huge (like 1,000+) sockeye salmon through the fish ladder for the past several days.

We parked in the west lot and as we approached the dam, I suspected the fish were still running strong as we saw some Native American fishermen stringing a net across the Locks. I've noticed a sign on site before explaining that Native Americans have fishing rights there as part of the Stevens Treaty settled by the U.S. Supreme Court years ago, but tonight was the first time I'd actually seen anyone fishing the Locks. 

The interpretive sign explains that members of the Muckleshoot and Suquamish tribes have fishing rights at the Locks, and that Locks officials and representatives from the tribes meet annually, assess the fish count, and decide upon a harvest number. I saw the fishermen tonight harvesting several large, silvery salmon.


We went "down under" to the under water viewing windows and saw more fish than I've ever seen in our many trips there before. 

Their year-to-date total for the sockeye run as of July 15 was 128,896. Wow!

After awhile, we went back up top to watch fish try to make their way upstream by jumping from one level of the ladder to the next. Here's a shot of the ladder right before a sockeye made a leap. 

Since the weather was so nice, the kids took advantage of the inviting, grassy hillside at the Locks and did a little rolling. 

And we even did a little trainspotting while we were there.

GEE-TAR: Since we were in the car for most of Sunday, the kids missed their guitar lesson. Today, Kennedy swung by to give a make up lesson. 

CJ reports that during the lesson he played Beethoven with his eyes closed. Not bad. 

Annabelle reports they worked on finger speed, so that "we can play actual songs at the speed they have, not just like really slow." Makes sense.


Ken reports that CJ broke a high E string in his exuberance. Time to stock up on strings. 

Cake and Rockets

TAKE THE CAKE: There was no Friday post because we were on a mission. A six-plus hour cake run, to be specific. 


We headed to Siletz, Ore., to attend the wedding of Christian's niece at Christian's parents' home. It's always a long drive, but this drive was particularly taxing because I was in charge of making the groom's cake, and to that end, we had a fair amount of fragile and perishable cargo on board and it was hot out and basically the whole way there, I worried that something was going to melt and/or break.

Fortunately, everything made it intact, and within about 15 minutes of arriving, I began making a half sheet cake layer, a couple of batches of Rice Krispie treats (which would become a forested river bank the next morning), and molding some back up bride and groom parts out of gum paste.

Saturday morning, I started making fondant and buttercream frosting around 8 a.m. and got to carving, sculpting, smooshing, smoothing, frosting, covering and decorating the cake for the next 6 hours. I was VERY happy to have super good help from Christian's sister Trina and her son's girlfriend, Leanne. They were great. Annabelle checked on its progress throughout the day, and helped a bit with mixing fondant and such. (It's worth noting that CJ and Annabelle contributed a lot of time to the project - they were with me every step of the way as I contemplated, designed, hunted and gathered supplies and so on.)

Though it looked like hell as a carved up and smooshed together mass in the morning, by the afternoon, the cake came together quite nicely. The weather and the wedding were lovely and a great time was had by all.


At the reception, there were fancy fluted glasses on the table. Annabelle informed CJ that when drinking from such a glass, you need to hold your pinkie out.

Worried about getting it right, CJ held BOTH pinkies out when drinking. :) 

BOUNTY: We haven't harvested hardly anything from our garden yet, but a couple of days ago as I was contemplating our gonzo-growing cauliflower plants, I noticed (gasp!) a couple of them actually had HEADS growing in them. Rather large-ish, appeared overnight type of heads. Sweet! So, tonight, we harvested one and it was part of our salad. Our first home grown cauliflower ever.

MORNING REPORT: At 10 this morning, we tuned into NASA TV for an hour long press conference all about the latest on the Mars Science Laboratory mission. 


I had CJ and Annabelle take notes during the presser, so that they could write a short report about it after ward. Here's how they summed up the event. ... CJ's is first.

In summer, on August fifth, 2012, the Curiosity Rover will get to Mars. According to NASA, it will be very risky to have Curiosity on Mars, due to its atmosphere. NASA also says that there could have been past life on Mars, as there used to be water on Mars, until it heated up. There have been two past rovers on Mars, which are Opportunity and Spirit. Curiosity will have to explore most of Mars' atmosphere to find even the smallest life. On July 16, 2012, an educational broadcast focused on the Curiosity Rover aired on NASA TV. There will be engines on top of the vehicle that the Curiosity Rover will come out of. On day 3 and 4, the Curiosity Rover will start taking photos for NASA members to look at and you might get to see the photos too.

And here's Annabelle's account ...

Curiosity is a rover that is going to Mars. Curiosity will be landing on August 5th, 2012, at 10:31 pacific time. Curiosity will be landing in Gale Crater, by Mount Sharp. By Mount Sharp there are minerals, but we are not exactly sure what they are. Curiosity is going to mine the minerals in the Martian soil, and study them under a laser! The laser is going to drill through excess rock to get just the pure mineral, and then it gets analyzed. Once the mineral is analyzed curiosity will store it and drill for more mineral. Curiosity will not only be drilling, it will be searching for microscopic life. it may find life, and it may not. But we at least hope it finds out what the minerals are by Mount Sharp. Curiosity will stay up there like its cousins that are also on Mars, Spirit and Opportunity. Curiosity, Spirit & Opportunity all have one thing in common, their mission. They are all exploring Mars just so we can see what it is like so we can go there, and maybe even live there. 

One of the questions from the media during today's press conference was about NASA's "batting average" when it comes to Mars missions. NASA Mars program director Doug McCuiston said he wasn't certain, but thought it was about 40 percent. "Mars usually wins," he admitted, matter of factly. We're sure hoping that NASA wins this go-round!

The photo below, courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU, is of Gale Crater. If you look closely, you can seen an oval outline. That's where Curiosity is expected to land. 

The areas in red above indicate a surface material that is more tightly cemented together than rocks around it and likely has a high concentration of minerals. That's one reason this oval is an attractive target for MSL. It's thought that this texture could be the result of water that could have been present there some time in the past. 


In other NASA-related news, today marks the 42 anniversary of Apollo 11 blasting off, carrying astronauts who would be the first to set foot on the moon. 


To learn more about the mission, we visited the Web site We Chose the Moon. It's hosted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.


On the site, we listened to mission control chatter from T-minus 5 minutes through lift off. We watched an animation of the launch, as well as archival footage. Exciting stuff, even 42 years later. Annabelle was absolutely jumping up and down when the Saturn V cleared the tower.

Photo: NASA

Play Time

TUNE UP: CJ and Annabelle have finally started guitar lessons in earnest. They've got the same beginner's books Rick and Kennedy used, and CJ is even using Rick's old starter guitar. Let the good times rock-n-roll!


Today, we worked on tuning them, as well as pick practice (how to hold and use a pick), and then they plucked out "Ode to Joy." 

IN STITCHES: I've been meaning to share this photo for a few days now. We're definitely Mars-minded, what with Curiosity speeding ever-closer to the Red Planet. Here's what awaits MSL ...

The photo above is a composite of 817 component images taken between Dec. 21, 2011, and May 8, 2012 and then stitched together. In the composite photo, you can see fresh rover tracks from the photographer, rover Opportunity, as well as an impact crater blasted billions of years ago.  The photo was composed by taking images from the panoramic camera (Pancam) mounted on Opportunity, while the rover was  stationed on an outcrop informally named "Greeley Haven," which is on a segment of the rim of ancient Endeavour Crater. 


Earlier this month (on July 2), Opportunity completed its 3,000th Martian day on July 2. Also this month (on July 4, in fact), NASA marked 15 years of continuous robotic presence on Mars. (Mars Pathfinder landed July 4, 1997.)

To see the really big version of the photo, go to: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15689 . 

RESOURCE-O-RAMA: This morning we sat in on a NASA Educators Online Network (NEON) Webinar called "Missions to Planet Earth: Remote Sensing:  Using Satellites to Observe Changes Over Time"

Rick Varner of Goddard Spaceflight Center was the host. He reviewed how to use NASA and USGS Web sites for historic and current satellite imagery of  Earth. 

Garner shared some remarkable images with us (many from the Landsat Program - 

http://www.nasa.gov/landsat  and http://landsat.usgs.gov/), and told us where to go to find a whole lot more material to work with. For instance, he introduced us to Earth Observatory (earthobservatory.nasa.gov ). What a wonderful web site. I can't believe I haven't seen it before! 

The front page of the site is a great jumping off point. From there you can find:

World of Change: Satellite images showing how our world— forests, oceans, cities, even the Sun— has changed in recent decades.
Blue Marble: Features composite satellite images of the entire Earth.  
Experiments: Hands-on educational activities.
NASA Earth Observations: You can view, download, and analyze imagery of Earth science data.
Visible Earth: A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet. 

NASA Global Climate Change: Vital signs of the planet.

And the very cool Earth Sciences Picture of the Day - http://epod.usra.edu/ (You can join them on Facebook so you don't miss a thing.)

We'll be using Earth Observatory lots, I have no doubt.

Varner also told us about Earth as Art - a collection of stunning images suitable for framing.  They're definitely worth checking out.

And Varner pointed us in the direction of classroom activities that would go along with Landsat images:  (http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/education/activity_matrix.html).


WATER TIME: While running errands in Ballard this afternoon, we took the time to get wet (well, at least 2/3 of us got wet). CJ and Annabelle (and dozens of other kids) enjoyed splashing around in the small fountains at the park by the Ballard Library. 

Seven Eleven

SLURP: Before 7 .a.m I let CJ know that today was a Special Day. It was July 11, or 7/11, and to celebrate, the store 7/11 would be giving away free Slurpees. That made CJ quite happy. Around noon we headed over to Ballard and, along with a whole lot of other people, took advantage of the opportunity. 


CJ was thrilled that he got to have a blue Mountain Dew Slurpee. Annabelle chose some cherry flavor. If I'm not mistaken, it's the first Slurpee either one of them ever had.


As we were heading home in the car, the always inquisitive CJ asked, "Why is 7/11 called 7/11?" I told him I think I knew once upon a time, but couldn't recall the answer. When we got home, I reminded him to look it up. He turned to WIkipedia, where we learned that the store was originally called "Tote'm," as customers "toted" away their purchases. Some stores even had made-in-Alaska totem poles in front of them. It was 1946,m when Tote'm morphed into 7-Eleven. The name change was to let people know the store had extended hours - 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and that it was open 7 days a week. So there you have it. 


THIS AND THAT: We did some math today. Some reading. Some cake crafting and some roofing. Busy day. Tomorrow will probably be a repeat. 

LATEST FROM CURIOSITY: Have I mentioned the Mars Science Laboratory will be landing on the night of Aug. 5? Probably. And I'll probably mention it again many times between now and then.

Artist's conception of Curiosity on Mars - image credit: NASA

An email from NASA today let us know that on Monday, July 16, there will be a news conference at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT)  to discuss the upcoming August landing of the most advanced robot ever sent to another world. 


At the news conference, "a new public-engagement collaboration based on the mission also will be debuted," per the press release. The presser will be held at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. and can be watched live on NASA Television and/or streamed via NASA's Web site. 


Jet Propulsion Laboratory will also live stream the even with a moderated chat: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl.


Press conference participants will be: 
-- Doug McCuistion, director, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters
-- Michael Meyer, lead scientist, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters
-- John Grotzinger, MSL project scientist, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
-- Pete Theisinger, MSL project manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena
-- Jeff Norris, manager, planning and execution systems, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Going Deep

SLUGFEST: Monday evening, as the Major League Baseball all stars were taking the field for the annual celebration of the best of the best (supposedly), we trotted up to the local park to hold our own home run derby. There was extra spring in the kids' steps, as they knew they'd be competing for cash and prizes.


Earlier in the day, the kids and I had drawn up the rules for the competition. Each batter would get two warm up tosses, and then they'd get 10 pitches to hit. They'd be trying to hit as many home runs as possible and, of course, the farthest home run. Knowing they'd be competing against Rick and Kennedy, CJ and Annabelle were worried about their chances. I quelled those fears by telling them there would also be prizes for good sportsmanship, hustle and other things not necessarily tied to brute strength. :)


Rick when first and he hit 7 home runs. Kennedy went second and I think he hit 5, but he definitely got the tape measure home run award. Christian went next and he put on a respectable hitting display. Then it was CJ's turn. He hit more than he missed. 

Annabelle hit 4 or 5, almost all of them off her knuckles, and a few foul balls.

Then it was time for the league commissioner (that's me) to award the prizes. Christian was immediately ruled ineligible since he's married to the commissioner. He announced that he was going to sulk for the rest of the evening, LOL. Rick got to pick from the prize bag first since he had the most home runs. Ken was next, for his tape measure shot. Then CJ got the hustle award, for rounding up the most foul balls, and Annabelle got the fortitude award, for taking so many shots off her fingers. 


WEBINAR TIMES TWO: Monday we took part in two live seminars with NASA. The first one started at 8 a.m. and was all about life aboard the ISS. Steve Culivan from the Stennis Space Center hosted. The kids were fascinated to learn that astronauts on the ISS go to the bathroom while sitting on a vacuum. :0 They were also interested to hear the first food ever eaten in space was applesauce out of a toothpaste-like tube.

The second one started at 2 p.m. our time and was about air and spacecraft design. It was hosted by Alexis Harry from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.


One of the interesting factoids we learned by listening to Alexis  Harry was that the the Blackbird SR-71 stretch four feet wider/laterally when it's flying through the sky. It's so fast that it can make it from LA to NY in 30 minutes and if it shot a bullet forward, it would run fly right into it (faster than a speeding bullet - like Superman!) 


Alexis also covered the forces involved in airflight -(lift, gravity, thrust, and drag), as well as pitch and yaw. We learned about which 


Harry recommended NASA's "Courage to Soar" educator's guide. 

During the webinar, we constructed three airplanes. The ring wing glider (the circular one in the photo below) was quick to make and a lot of fun to fly. It really does glide! We also made a swept wing glider (that looks very much like a "standard" paper airplane). The most complicated craft by far was a straw plane. It had ailerons, elevators, a rudder, all of which could be adjusted to make the plane fly in different directions. Cool!  

Both webinar hosts are part of NASA's NASA aerospace education services project. 

And speaking of NASA, on Monday we watched NASA TV's special programming to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Telstar, which was the birth the age of satellite communication. 

Image: NASA

Telstar was the world's first commercial satellite. Two weeks after it launched (July 23, 1962),. Telstar relayed the first ever public, live trans-Atlantic TV signal, linking North America and Europe.

Until Tomorrow

BEAT: I have all sorts of things I'd love to tell you about our day, but they're going to have to wait.

It's 11 p.m., and I just came down off the roof 20 minutes ago to put the kids to bed. And Christian's still up there. Ah, the joys of remodeling. :/

Hopefully tomorrow morning, after (if I'm lucky) a whopping 5 hours of sleep, I'll be energized enough to post a tardy recap of today. Until then ...

Wings, The King, and Other Things

FLUTTERBY: We spent most of the weekend outside. Christian and I put in a pair of 11 hour days working on the addition, putting the plywood decking down over the ceiling joists, to serve as a substrate for our roofing system which we hope to have in place before the rains return.


I don't know if the first weekend of July is peak butterfly season, but man oh man did we see lots of them this weekend. I think I saw more butterflies over the past two days than I have the two previous years. 


FIT FOR A KING: Starting about last Friday, CJ remembered that we have a copy of "Are You Hungry Tonight: Elvis' Favorite Recipes," and he became semi-re-obsessed with it. In particular, he was fixating on the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. 


We rounded up the ingredients (easy - just banana, peanut butter, bread and butter) and made it on Sunday morning. CJ mashed the banana while I lightly toasted the bread.

Then he spread the banana on one slice, peanut butter on the other, and we grilled it in a pan with melted butter.

 We cut it diagonally and put fancy toothpicks in it, just like in the book.

CJ thought it was delicious. I'll have to take his word for it, because he wasn't sharing!


DAWN: We actually did some school-ish work today. I pulled out some of the sheets a friend had picked up for me on your tour of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They were both about NASA's Dawn mission.


CJ did the crossword puzzle, while Bee completed the color-by-number.

Then, they both hopped to the Web site all about NASA's Dawn mission. Launched back on Sept. 27, 2007, Dawn's mission is to characterize the conditions and processes of two of the largest protoplanets remaining intact since their formation - Ceres and Vesta in the asteroid belt.


Here (from of Gregory J. Whiffen of JPL) is a simulated view of Earth from Dawn. It gives you an idea of just how far from "home" Dawn is. 

Right now, after having spent nearly five months surveying the giant asteroid Vesta, Dawn spacecraft has begun its  final major science data-gathering phase, orbiting Vesta at an average altitude of 420 miles (680 kilometers) above the surface. Around August 26, Dawn is expected to break away from Vesta's gravitational hold and depart for the dwarf planet Ceres. That journey is expected to take 2.5 years. 


The kids spent some time poking around the Dawn Web site especially for kids. There, they each read a story (Professor Starr's Dream Trip), and played an online game, "Charge Simulator." 


Annabelle also discovered a board game on their Web site (Race to the Asteroid Belt - PDF here), so we printed it out and the kids played it. I was up on the roof working while they were playing, but based on the noises I heard coming from the house (squeals of delight and disappointment), I think they enjoyed it. 

RAINMAKER: We've had four days in a row of mostly sunny weather, which means we've had to actually (gasp!) water our vegetable garden. The corn, carrot and pumpkin plants seem to love this warmer weather.

THEIR LITTLE PONIES: The kids had some fun messing around with the fun My Little Pony creator by artist/coder General Zoi this evening.


Here's Bee's creation. She named it Sapphire Star.

And here is CJ's version of the pony "Cupcakes" (a fan fiction pony created sometime in late 2010 or early 2011, he tells me).