Perfect Pitch

PHOTO: NASA

SPACE SCHOOL: In checking the handy-dandy this-day in history calendar I made at the beginning of the month, I was reminded that today marks the anniversary of the Hubble telescope taking deep space photos that let us know that Uranus has rings. 

So, we decided to learn a bit more about the planet. The first thing I did, of course, was find Hubble photos of Uranus. As you can see above, it’s beautiful!           

From a NASA Web site, we learned that Uranus was the first planet discovered by telescope – how ‘bout that! 

CJ wanted to know how Uranus got its name, so I thought I’d do a search for a video about the pale blue planet.  Lucky us, I found the discovery of the day – “Space School.” It’s a series of videos by the Science Channel (Discovery Channel/Discovery.com. We watched their short video with great interest and learned a lot. You can check out the Uranus video here: http://science.discovery.com/videos/space-school-uranus.html


Uranus is one of the gas giants - its surface isn't solid. However, its core is. In fact, it might be filled with diamonds, say some scientists. 

I asked the kids to each write five facts they learned about Uranus. Here's what they came up with. ... 

CJ: I just recently watched a video about Uranus. Uranus is not actually  blue, its atmosphere caused it to look  blue, because its atmosphere is blue. In 1881, Uranus was discovered by sir William Hershel when he was using his telescope. Uranus was named after the father of the Greek god Saturn. Uranus turns on a different direction because a asteroid hit it, causing it to turn in a different direction.The only thing NASA sent to Uranus was Voyager 2, which took 9 years to reach it. On Uranus, a day lasts 18 hours, and a season lasts 21 years.

Annabelle: Today I watched a video about Uranus. It had a few facts about Uranus and here are some of the facts. Uranus seems green-blue because we are not viewing its surface, but we are viewing it's atmosphere. There has only been one spacecraft to Uranus, and that spacecraft is Voyager 2. Uranus was discovered in 1781 by telescope. Imagine having a telescope that could see that far! Uranus is named after the Greek god, well, Uranus, the father of Saturn and master of disguise. Uranus is in a orbit on its side, we don't know how this happened, but scientists suspect it was a meteor. Days on Uranus last only 18 hours. Better do what you want to do quickly on Uranus!

ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER: This afternoon we read a picture book called "Light Up the Night." I'll admit, the red rocket on the cover was what drew us in initially.

Turns out the book was about a young child who starts out describing his universe as just that - the universe. Then with each subsequent page, his world (or continent or country or city or neighborhood and so on) got smaller, with the larger environments listed and re-listed in front of the smaller ones.

I told the kids that in structure, the story was somewhat like "there was an old lady who swallowed a fly" in reverse. In the old lady/fly story, the objects keep getting bigger.

I then challenged the kids to write their own sequencing-size story.

Here's Annabelle's:

There once was a monster who swallowed a gnat! I don't know why he swallowed the gnat. It'll make him fat!
There once was a monster who swallowed a spider. He swallowed the spider to catch the gnat. I don't know why he swallowed the gnat. It'll make him fat!
There once was a monster who swallowed a swallow. He swallowed the swallow to catch the spider, he swallowed spider to catch the gnat. I don't know why he swallowed the gnat. It'll make him fat!
There once was a monster who swallowed a cat. He swallowed the cat to catch the swallow, he swallowed the swallow to catch the spider, he swallowed the spider to catch the gnat. I don't know why he swallowed the gnat. It'll make him fat!
There once was a monster who swallowed a dog. He swallowed the dog to catch the cat, he swallowed the cat to catch the swallow, he swallowed the swallow to catch the gnat. I don't know why he swallowed the gnat. now he's fat.

And here's CJ's:

I live in the universe,
In the Milky Way galaxy.
I live in the universe, in the Milky Way galaxy, where the solar system is.
In the Milky Way galaxy, there is Earth.
I live in the universe, in the Milky Way galaxy, where the solar system is, in that is Earth.
In Earth, there is the West Coast.
I live in the universe, in the Milky Way galaxy, where the solar system is, where Earth is, where the West Coast is.
In the West Coast, there is America.
I live in the universe, where the Milky Way galaxy is, where the solar system is, where Earth is, where the West Coast is, where America is.
In America, there is North America.
I live in the universe, where the Milky Way galaxy is, where the solar system is, where Earth is, where the West Coast is, where America is, where North America is.
In North America, there is Washington.
I live in the universe, where the Milky Way galaxy is, where the solar system is, where Earth is, where the West Coast is, where America is, where North America is, where Washington is.
In Washington, there is Seattle.
I live in the universe, where the Milky Way galaxy is, where the solar system is, where Earth is, where the West Coast is, where America is, where North America is, where Washington is, where Seattle is.
In Seattle, there is my home.
I live in the universe, where the Milky Way galaxy is, where the solar system is, where earth is, where the west coast is, where America is, where North America is, where Washington is, where Seattle is, where my home is.

MR PERFECT: From our living rooms we watched a broadcast of sports history being made. This afternoon, Felix Hernandez pitched a PERFECT game for the Mariners. Nine complete innings. No walks. No runs. It had only been done 22 before in Major League Baseball history, and today was the first time ever a Mariners pitcher had done it. 

I have never seen a pitcher more on than Felix was today. He was definitely in a zone and it was something to behold.  Here's the last out (after a short commercial, no doubt ...)
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Puzzled

TARDY HARVEST: This afternoon we FINALLY plucked a half dozen cute lil carrots from the Root-Vue growing center. We started them from seeds way back in mid January and they've been living on our kitchen counter ever since then, if you can believe it. I have been dutifully watering them for seven months now! Funny how things become a part of the scenery.

THE WHOLE WORLD IN THEIR HANDS: During a trip to Target today, we scored a $1 Big Blue Marble puzzle from their bargain bins.

This afternoon, I instructed the kids to assemble it. I was surprised at how long it took them. I think part of the problem was that it was a circular puzzle and had a number of kind of unpredictable and odd shaped pieces. The other problem was that they were being lame. ;)

After about a hour, they managed to get our Earth in order.

It only took them two seconds to get the 'bonus' four-piece moon together.

PRETTY LEGOS: Annabelle had a gift card burning a hole in her wallet today, so we spent a little time perusing the toy aisles at Target. We were to about the last aisle when she spied her object of desire: A LEGO "Friends" set. It's a new product line from LEGO, with a tagline of "the beauty of building."

With lots of pink and violet bricks, all female characters (that aren't like the traditional blocky LEGO men) and building kids like a riding camp and a beauty shop, it's clearly targeting little girls.

As soon as he saw it, CJ started railing against it, muttering something about LEGO being sellouts and stereotyping girls and signing a petition against it and on and on.

I suggested he simmer down and told him I thought LEGO should be able to make any color LEGOs they want to, and that if it gets more girls playing with LEGOs, well that's probably not a bad thing.

And so Annabelle bought herself "Emma" in a poolside type scene.

Forgive Emma's listing to her left in the photo. It's just that her ice cream cone is so damn heavy.

Another Brick in the Wall

RITE OF PASSAGE: A piece of the kids' childhood is gone. It has been relocated about 300 feet to the west, to be exact. We passed along an outdoor climbing structure toy to a neighbor across the street.

If I'm not mistaken, we inherited the toy from my cousin John's family and it has served us well. But at least week's neighborhood barbecue, a 3-year old neighbor took up residence in it and her mother said to me, "If you ever want to get rid of that, let me know." 

I told her that mostly it was used for drying laundry at this point and that we'd happily pass it along to her. And so this morning, that's what we did (after I gave it a good cleaning and CeeJ and Bee gave it a goodbye).

CHILLY: This a.m., Christian worked on trying to get our beloved Honda (with its quarter million miles) to be cooler on the hot days. So what did he use in his battle? NASA TECHNOLOGY! Oooh baby!!!

I'm happy to report the CR-V is as cool as Atlantis in orbit. ;)

WATER WORLD: This afternoon we took the time to make a long-overdue connect with CJ's BFF from kindergarten at one of our favorite spots - the International Fountain at Seattle Center.

Here the three are, with CJ and Bee in the foreground. 

After an hour plus at the fountain, we walked over to a quieter spot at the center - a wading pool between Key Arena and the Vera Project.

INSULATED: This not-very-fun weekend Christian and I spent installing insulation in the addition. Totally not fun. Did I mention it was not fun? 

As I was cutting some foam board insulation for part of the wall in Annabelle's new bedroom, it somehow occurred to me that the material would make fun shields for the kids. So, I cut them each a shield.

Annabelle chose to decorate her shield with a double heart with a peace sign around it and four happy faces and four suns. Very non-warlike, if you asked me. :)

CJ chose to put a radioactive icon on his shield. "Anything that touches the front will melt."

That's more like it. 

HISTORICAL: A couple weeks back I took the time to do a 'this day in history calendar.' I have been referencing it, and tonight, after the fountain, as we were sitting at McMenamins for happy hour, it occurred to me that today was Berlin Wall construction day. 

And so we had a makeshift history lesson.

Fortunately, I was seated in West Berlin as I constructed the wall. 

Graduation Day

Today was Annabelle's last day at AstroGals camp at The Museum of Flight. At the conclusion of today's session, everyone met in the theater at the museum and there was a nice presentation about what the various groups covered during the week.

Annabelle also brought home a diary of sorts. 

In it, she logged daily activities. One of the things she noted was that her favorite activity was making and testing their Gemini capsules with parachutes.

And yes, she does know how to spell "my." She just chose to use the Internet slang version above.

The booklet also included several works of art, like this krazy koala.

And info about pioneering female astronauts. 

She also brought home a DVD. We haven't watched it yet, but apparently it's a fake newscast where she is a World War II flying ace/member of the Night Witches (an all female brigade of bombers). So, we're looking forward to screening that. 

All in all, it was a good week and she wishes she could do it again next week. 

Last Hurrah

Lovely start to the day with the Lindbergh Line plane

MUSEUM OF FLIGHT MORNING: This morning we dropped Bee off at AstroGals camp at 9 sharp. However, instead of heading back home, CJ, Rick and I hit a Starbucks and then staked out a spot in The Museum of Flight parking lot.

We were there to see the third and final arrival of NASA's Super Guppy wonder plane, full o' space shuttle trainer parts.

The Guppy is an aeronautics wonder. Everyone who sees it for the first time seems to say the same thing. Rick was no exception. "It looks like a whale!" he marveled as it did a low fly by at 10 a.m.

We saw Bee with her AstroGals classmates come out of the museum to watch the arrival, too.

Though the boys and I left after it taxied to a stop, Annabelle had connections. She got to go to a Q&A session with the pilots. She tells me she was one of the students who got to ask them a question. It was, "How heavy is the Super Guppy?"

The answer "was too big a number to remember," she reports.

In consulting The Google, I learn that Guppy can carry a cargo of 41,000 pounds. It has a wingspan of 156 ft., 3 inches, it's 143 ft., 10 inches long and its height is 46 ft., 5 inches. It also has a face that looks like a dolphin puckering up for a kiss. :) (That last part wasn't on Google.)

There was a relatively small crowd on hand today compared to the first two shuttle trainer deliveries (yes, I saw both of those too), and the Guppy came in from the opposite direction (the south), giving us a different view and a backdrop of Mt. Rainier. Sweet!

NOT AS FUN: This afternoon I worked on the addition while CJ endured watching me bleed and listening to me curse. Ah yes, the joys of home improvement.

Wednesday Briefing

ASTRO GAL: Annabelle completed day three of her five-day camp at the Museum of Flight today. 

There, she designed and constructed a rocket (The Iris, by A+ Industries).

She also came up with this alien. It spits poison out of its rattling part (the purple thing in the abdomen area) and it has spikes on its knees and shins.

SHOW OFF: My inbox is overflowing and Facebook and Twitter are exploding with images being returned from Mars by the Curiosity rover. Color images? You bet! 3D? Yup, got that too. And even an on board video of its heat shield being jettisoned? Uh huh! There's all that and more!

Case in point, here's a cool self portrait of the rover shortly after its "head" was deployed for the first time. 

Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech  

You can see its shadow of the 3.6 foot (1.1 meter) tall camera mast on the Martian surface. It's the first image from Curiosity's navigation camera. You can see the upright mast in the center and the arm's shadow at the left, while the arm itself is in the foreground. 

In this composite self portrait, the rover looks down at its deck from the mast cam. 

                                                                           Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech  
Also just released: The first (composite) 360-degree view of Curiosity's new digs in Gale Crater. 

Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

In the photo, Mt. Sharp is to the right, and the north rim of Gale Crater can be seen at the center. MSL's body is in the foreground, and a shadow of its mast/head pokes up to the right. These photos were taken on the night of Aug. 7.

While the news avenues and multiple NASA Web sites and posts will show you images from Curiosity, to get the latest ones, before many news outlets even pick them up, go to the RAW images section of Curisity's Web site: There, they're listed by day on the planet. Today's images are at listed at the Sol2 page. Yesterday's are Sol1, and touchdown day's are Sol 0. 

DOGGIE SPA: CJ helped out around the house today, cleaning up the yard and the post block party aftermath. He also was a big help in giving Kirby a makeover. She had about half her hair/fur chopped off. She was a patient 'customer,' sitting mostly still while we hacked away. 

Party Time

PARTY ON: This evening marked the national Night Out, an evening to heighten crime prevention awareness, increase neighborhood support in anti-crime efforts, and unite communities. 

Naturally, this meant I spent all day in the kitchen, as everyone knows the sure way to a crime free neighborhood is me making two kinds of deviled eggs (wasabi and bleu cheese & bacon), shrimp ceviche, hot wings and dozens of Star Wars cookies.

PICKING OUT THE PIECES: Amazement in the aftermath of Mars Science Laboratory's landing continues. Late Monday night, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a phenomenal photo. It shows components of the MSL landing strewn across the Martian landscape in Gale Crater. 

In the left center of the photo is the Curiosity rover. (Photo courtesy of NASA, obviously)

If you look closely at the photo, you can see the white spot that is the sonic parachute that slowed Curiosity during descent. They're about 2020 feet away from the rover. The back shell that protected the rover is nearby the parachute. The epic sky crane that so carefully and precisely lowered MSL to the Martian surface was found not too far away, and in the opposite direction, the heat shield which protected it from 3,800-degree F temps during descent was located. 

Happily, this mission has garnered the attention of millions of people around the world. And while people watched MSL land (including a huge audience watching it play out live on the large screens in Times Square), stars were born. Including "Mohawk Guy," a Mohawk-sporting Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer named Bobak Ferdowski. 

Image: AP/NASA

"Mohawk guy" did such a wonderful job of smashing the visual stereotype of mission controllers from the Apollo days (the last time, really, that people paid attention to mission control). 

In the "fun facts" file, turns out Bobek has a very local tie for us. He's a Husky! Ferdowski graduated with a bachelor's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Washington in 2001 before going on to MIT. 

HAPPY CAMPER: Today was Day 2 of Annabelle's week long "AstroGals" camp at The Museum of Flight. I was much happier with her report today than I was yesterday. Yesterday it sounded like all day was daycare-ish games. She's there to learn, gol darn it, not have fun! ;) Just kidding. Kind of. But seriously, I had high hopes and expectations that this camp would live up to its billing - or at least its name.

I was happy when she came home today with a Gemini model (complete with parachute) and tales of  Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, the first female astronaut. That's more like it. 

ON THE DOTTED LINE: Today, as soon as registration opened, I signed the kids up to continue classes in the Family Learning Program at the Southwest Community Center in West Seattle. 

That means Annabelle will be back to her Bollywood dancing (such fun!), CJ will continue his programming class (very cool!) and they will be taking a theater class together, which will be great (let's hope!).