Back at It

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
ON THE MORROW: In the image below, an Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket is seen on launch Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. The photo was taken on Monday, Jan. 6. The rocket's set to launch tomorrow morning, at 10:32 a.m. Seattle time.

It was supposed to launch today (the 7th), but the frigid weather resulted in it being put off until tomorrow.

 

The Antares will launch a Cygnus spacecraft on a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. The Orbital-1 mission is Orbital Sciences' first contracted cargo delivery flight to the space station for NASA. Among the cargo aboard Cygnus set to launch to the space station are science experiments, crew provisions, spare parts and other hardware.

Today we watched a fair amount of NASA TV, including coverage of Cygnus rolling out to the launch pad.

BOW WOW: The kids spent some time with "Time for Kids" this afternoon, reading a couple of short issues, each a 2013-in review theme. One was about the year's 'coolest inventions.' I asked the kids which one interested them most, and they both pointed to a product that lets people chat with their pets from remote locations. It's funny, because our family has talked about that before - how it would be nice to be able to phone home and yell at the dogs to stop barking or remind them not to pee on the floor. Of course, the maker of iCPOOCH ("interactive care for dogs") has a friendlier chat in mind, with owners calling because they miss their dogs so much, and the bonus of being able to 'give' them a biscuit. We found an informational video about it on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/skD7zSAnGBQ

It's a neat idea, but I have to admit, I picture dogs pawing at the device featuring their owner's face and voice, and quickly breaking their human's expensive electronics. ... I was curious how much an iCPOOCH retails for, but in poking around their Web site, it looks like the units aren't on the market yet. It looks like they plan on having a Kickstarter campaign. Heck, maybe the teen inventor will show up on "Shark Tank" soon. :)

POLITICALLY-MINDED:  I wanted to make spaghetti for dinner tonight, but Christian avoids gluten, so that's a no go, unless we could find some gluten free pasta for him at the local grocer. I spied a box of Barilla gluten free spaghetti and grabbed it, but CJ basically shamed me into putting it back, loudly reminding me (and everyone else in the aisle) that the chairman of Barilla is "not LGBT friendly," as evidenced by his widely reported remarks last September.   Fortunately, there was also a box of Ronzoni gluten-free spaghetti on the shelf. It came home with us (and tasted pretty good, might I add).

In other political news, CJ spent about 90 minutes today watching one BrainPOP video after another, all of them having something to do with politics. Of course, that meant I spent 90 plus minutes talking about everything from ancient Rome's governance to the socialist just sworn in on the Seattle City Council. 

FUNNY FACE: Yesterday Annabelle discovered that my phone had both a) a way to take a "selfie" and b) a fun photo editing/graphics software program. This was the result. ...

SEND IN THE CLOWNS: If you read regularly, you have already read plenty about our adventures over at Rick's new house, trying to get it habitable. To that end, yesterday we went to a local salvage store, Second Use, to peruse their appliances. All of their fridges were thrashed, but look at this gem we found hanging from their high ceiling!

A glass, clown-faced, ceiling light cover. How wonderfully awful! It had to be ours. Well, Rick's. ;)  We took it right over to his place and installed it in the dining area, lucky guy! (That's what he gets for giving me his keys.) 

                                   

THOUGHT BUBBLES: If you live in North America, chances are you've been hearing about the cold snap hitting the middle and eastern parts of Canada and the northern U.S. Most of the stories are definitely about the unpleasant aspects of the weather (frigid cold, impossible commutes, loss of utilities and such). However, I read a story today about a mother and her son who decided to go out and play in the cold, with a bottle of bubbles. The photos from their fun are remarkable. Check them out here:
http://distractify.com/culture/arts/frozen-bubbles-in-wintertime/

Busy Weekend

 
CONTEMPLATING RACE: For weeks we have been meaning to get to Pacific Science Center's special exhibit, "Race." But our schedule kept pushing it aside - holidays, projects, and such. However, when CJ noted the exhibit was ending this weekend, we made sure we got there Sunday morning. (I'm not gonna lie - it helped that the Seahawks had a bye.)

SO glad we went. It was through provoking and impactful. For instance, above, CJ contemplates these students at a college who posed wearing t-shirts depicting how they'd be labeled in various years' U.S. censuses.

Many of the stations had videos that took some time to sit down and watch. One was of teens in a lunchroom, discussing race. Bee had a sit at 'their' table and listened in.

 At another station, Annabelle tried to match people's nationalities based on their appearance. It wasn't as easy as stereotypes might lead you to believe.

Near the end, there was a large map on the floor. 

CJ took the opportunity to hold court and explain how humankind spread across the globe from our African ancestors.

The exhibit showcased how people can overcome stereotypes. 

But we also learned about the toll racism takes on human beings, from healthcare to housing and more. 

I'm glad so glad we made it to the exhibit.

It was a gloriously beautiful Sunday in Seattle, and the grounds of Seattle Center never fail to impress.

 Pacific Science Center's arches looked whiter than ever against a brilliant blue sky.

And we had to have the gratuitous Space Needle pose, of course.

The International Fountain was putting on a heckuva show while we were there!

 

 It shot to great heights and came crashing down!

We even spied a rainbow - how 'bout that?!

The kids were wishing it was swimsuit weather, so they could go frolic in it, but that's a loooooooong ways away!

Every time we go to Seattle Center, I notice something new (to us). This visit, it was a sundial at Pacific Science Center. Its time-telling-ability was spot-on.

PLAYFUL: Saturday night, we continued what has become a holiday season tradition for us, attending the Fremont Players' British Panto at Hale's Palladium. Panto is short for pantomime, and it's a form of musical theatre that's traditionally performed in the Christmas holiday season in Great Britain. The stories are typically riffs on familiar fairy tales, interjected with contemporary references, with audience participation encouraged. This year's production was "Dick Whittington (and his Cat)."  Based on a true story,

Following is a collection of seriously craptacular photos taken via my struggling cell phone camera with cast members after the show. The place was dark and my camera phone was crappy, but I feel compelled to post them, because if I don't it didn't happen, LOL (damn you, social media!!!).

Here are the kids with "Sarah" ...

 and the fabulous fairy Bubbly Bowbells!

 During the show, the character of Alderman Fitzwarren was entirely greedy ...

but afterwards he/she gave the kids some fabulous baubles! They were thrilled!

 The villain, Rat King, was wonderfully despicable!!!!

Here are the kids' reviews of the event ... CJ's first.

"The story of Dick Whittington is a fairy tale that was recently performing by the Fremont Players at the British Panto. Dick Whittington is a fictionalization of the real-life Richard Whittington, who was (and still is, especially in the United Kingdom) most famous for rounding the charity of Sir Richard Whittington, which still operates 600 years later. Dick Whittington and his cat is the story of how a man named Dick Whittington seeks to defeat King Rat. If you are new to the story, then I will not spoil the story. One especially fun part was the pop-culture references, which would be shown every once in awhile (HEY! TEACHER! LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE, for example.)

Over all, I would give Dick Whittington and his Cat a 10/10.

And Annabelle's take ...

"Dick Whittington was a British Pantomime (a type of play) performed by the Fremont Players at Hale's Palladium. It was a very fun experience, and there were some funny jokes, too. (Another fact about 'panto' is that it adds extra jokes!) Overall, it was great, and I give it a 9/10!

The story goes somewhat like this: A fairy named Fairy Bowbells says there is a rat infestation and they need a hero to stop the rats and save London, and lo and behold; Dick Whittington appears! I'm not going to spoil anymore, so you can go see it!

MEANWHILE, IN FLORIDA: Though we were on the road this afternoon, we made a pitstop around 2 p.m. to make sure we could watch the launch a SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. It was carrying a Thai communications satellite to orbit. It went off like clockwork, a picture perfect launch.
                          
Photo credit: SPACEX

Keep on Rovin'

                             
A DECADE: Tonight, a bit after dinner, we paused to ponder the fact that the United States has now had a continuous presence on Mars for a decade now, thanks to a robust rover program.

When Spirit landed on Mars back in , it had an original mission length of about 92 Earth days. However, the durable rover kept on rolling for 2695 days, before getting stuck in sandy soil in the spring of 2009. 

Even when it was unable to rove anymore, Spirit worked on, analyzing geological samples at its location for months. In March of 2010, the final communication came from Spirit, marking the end of the mission. In all, it traveled 4.8 miles - 12 times its original projected distance.

A twin workhorse, Opportunity was launched three weeks after Spirit - and it's still going!

And then, in Nov. of 2011, Mars Science Laboratory was launched. It landed flawlessly on the Red Planet in August of 2012, and has been making news ever since. 

This morning I received an email from the folks at the Planetary Society letting us know abou ta special "Rover Party" to mark the 10th anniversary on Mars. At planetary.org/roverparty, there are videos, games, trivia, and information about what Spirit did and what Opportunity continues to do on Mars.

CJ and Annabelle checked out the site today.


Also via the portal, people can send a personal message "to the scientists and engineers responsible for these remarkable roving robots," per the Planetary Society. "We'll be collecting messages throughout January, so there's plenty of time to get your friends and family to send messages, too," they say. 

PUZZLED: Every so often, I get an email from Ralph, a gentleman who hosts an Internet based jigsaw puzzle site, letting me know he's used one of my photos for a puzzle.   Today, he sent a 'happy New Year' message along, and a link to a tulip photo of mine that has been puzzle-fied. 

AND ALSO: We spent a few more hours working around Rick's place today. Many, MANY technical difficulties, from drywall finish to wiring up some fixtures and a few other projects. It made me say bad words, and we cut our day short there. ;)

Step Backward

A TURN FOR THE WORSE:  It was one week ago today that CJ's shin took on a boulder and lost. 

Since his accident, we have been watching the injury closely and we have been keeping it clean/sterile and protected, and CJ has been really pretty good about taking it easy, but by Dec. 30th we thought it looked like it was getting worse, not better, and so Christian took him in to urgent care. 

They instructed Christian to keep an eye on it, and watch for it to get red margins and tough to the touch. Last night when I was redressing the wound, lo and behold, red margins had developed and it was hard. MAJOR BUMMER. So  today, it was my turn to take him to Group Health where the Dr. confirmed our suspicion that it's now infected. Unfortunately the urgent care visit today turned into a FIVE HOUR odyssey, but I will spare you the details. We now have antibiotics, and hopefully CJ's healing will get a boost in the right direction from here forward, fingers crossed!

To rewind a bit, after getting Rick and Annabelle started on their work for the day in West Seattle, CJ and I headed to Capitol Hill. We'd never approached Group Health from that direction, so at least we had a scenic drive. There was one portion that was stunning, as we were heading into the city over a high green bridge, with a view to the west of the stadiums, and in front of us, skyscrapers, including pointy Smith Tower, that was Seattle's tallest building a long, long time ago. 

Doing a little research tonight, we learned it was the Dr. Jose Rizal Bridge (12th Avenue South) we crossed for the first time.

Gorgeous, isn't it? (Two following photos from Seattle Department of Transportation)

Just over 100 years old, the 420-foot span is one of Seattle's original steel bridges. It's on the National Register of Historic Places and is the state's oldest steel arch bridge. It crosses over Dearborn.  

The view was a little different back in 1912, in this great photo from the Seattle Municipal Archives

I'd love to walk across this bridge some day and take some photos. Check out this lovely graphic of it on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48054713@N08/5574176135/

Of course, we also had to read up on the bridge's namesake. From Wikipedia we learned "José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, was a Filipino nationalist, novelist, poet, ophthalmologist, journalist, and revolutionary. He is widely considered the greatest national hero of the Philippines."
                                                       
An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal was also a writer and poet. He died a martyr, executed by a firing squad on Dec. 30, 1896, by a squad of Filipino soldiers of the Spanish Army. Wikimedia Commons had a photo engraving of the event.

There are memorials to Rizal all over the world, and there is a self-sustaining, non-profit, and non-partisan, Website containing comprehensive materials on and by Rizal in both the English and Filipino languages: http://www.joserizal.ph/in01.html

2014

Photo: http://www.hdwallpapersinn.com/hd-happy-new-year-wallpapers.html
FIZZLE: We did manage to stay up until midnight last night. About 11:45, we headed up the hill a few blocks to get a 'floor to ceiling' view of the Space Needle. It wasn't easy. The fog was so thick, there was no way we were seeing the base of the Needle, and we had a hard time picking out its well-lit saucer.

It was a *little* easier to spot by 12:01, but the fireworks were less than spectacular due to the low flying clouds. By 12:04, we decided to rip home to watch the rest on TV.  It was funny, even on TV with the close up cameras, the fireworks were considerably muted. Oh well, there's always next year. And at least the kids got to stay up until midnight, which is what they were most concerned about.

HARD LABOR: I spent the day slinging mud. No, not saying nasty things about people. Rather, I was spackling, filling, smoothing and fixin' the walls at Rick's 'new' house. We're getting there. One of the reasons it's taking so long is it's not nice, big wide open wall spaces. What I'm working on is making a new transition between his living room and kitchen. It involves 11 corners, which sounds ridiculous, but it's true. That's why it's so labor intensive.

Anyway, in a perfect world, we'll go back tomorrow and it will have dried up nicely. We'll sand and paint. In a real world, there will be some places that shrank too much, didn't dry thoroughly, or some other mudding heartbreak, and there will be more mudding to do. Time will tell. Bottom line is, this post is short today, because it's hard to do anything very compelling when you're covered in plaster.

INTERPRETATIONS: Every once in awhile, I will Google my name and find out where photos I park on Morguefile wind up. A recent hunt turned up some interesting drawings of Annabelle, based on this photo of her. ...
                            
The drawings were posted to a web site for artists of varying levels, called "I Draw and Paint." Drawing challenges are posted (in this case, Annabelle's photo, along with some others), and people who frequent the site submit their artwork based on the photo of their choice. There were some interesting interpretations of Annabelle, some better than others, IMHO.

Here's one:
 http://api.ning.com/files/4z2bpK7Bb4UmzWs*2GMqyITe2P2YyNupruqHbJd43QxZneCG9Jo*5SHtUw8u3DMOGPEal9T0RiIZ3VI2xSzmAz1JmKfWNqqO/DSC02087.jpg

and another: http://api.ning.com/files/MD*QRO8USlAZsAoxfAzhXaIpqVcpSngouAg-wADzmKpL4B1yjE3TsfiXj3Iqk6FTy6qMr7HGzNibYw6pyv-7pOQ2h088yUi0/ballerina.jpg

another: http://api.ning.com/files/Lg8i9AAw*3T*krnZ8Sh9FVfcxVhni5b*JDT-EyIWIgb-Sr2ZBafMh6GjEclAcAhNf-Pyxv27ec5Ox28bQF70pii2feY3hg5X/File1618.jpg

here's one with a little color:  http://api.ning.com/files/aJCkZUSzogUIqg*2qzQSUasSwju1GobZWuDFc0kJDYTdK8l1no6vNBFm-atCMWrZsC4a1UhHBvsJKtQpOYdnHtAdClYdR3f8/DSC04873.jpg

another one with a bit of color: http://api.ning.com/files/Ym*1iBEpXoZHBhyxQsPUjYXM0PRVarjzNNswzB2ajIfIjOVCoAdbZv0Uui0ok94*JybMZElVfK2b1hb1lOgTuqYj6cVrCWK*/IMG_0088.jpg

this one is my absolute favorite!
http://api.ning.com/files/sDsZvODZEOJgnnA35kt9UEE1MUj8Y*qZWsluPwHSQkbxd*wX4bHtofD*JdIGhK1upmNROdRk9giQ5e5xGq-XNxbgwp-GQnoQ/YoungBallerina.jpg

and here's another one I liked
http://api.ning.com/files/t*xpVL9ufGLagG-G5On5xGk5ryDoweTR4xz0nKmBr0AHIy3Uu2V5vDmXlJTEvQkCtcdeD3dza92kN3xk*XJpvspJWe1gwGKX/PerfectPupil.JPG

2013 Finale

MY NAME IS MUD: This is going to be a short post. Two of the fingers on my left hand suffered puncture wounds today, so typing is clumsy.

It was Day Two of renovations at Rick's house. The kids mostly entertained themselves on their laptops, playing games and reading wiki articles, while Christian, Rick and I worked on re-framing the area where we tore out a wall yesterday, and there was lots more painting to be done.

The kitchen's electric green accent wall received a second coat, as did the "watersprout" walls in the living room.

We installed multiple drywall patches around the more-than-doubled-in-size opening between the living room and kitchen, and began the mudding and taping. I ran out of mud at about 6:30 and we called it a day, dragging our tired, dirty selves home to Magnolia wondering if could possibly make it until midnight. We'll see.

We did watch the ball drop live in Times Square, and, of course, talked about how we were 'just' there three months ago!

On our way home from West Seattle, the Great Wheel was putting on quite a light show. The lead photo and the following were the best I could do with my point and shoot camera, riding in a car going 50 MPH on the viaduct.

Break it Down

HOME WRECKERS:  We spent the better part of our day at Rick's 'new' house in West Seattle. First order of business - tearing out a wall, of course!

There was a 3-foot section of wall serving no purpose between the living room and kitchen. Before he puts new flooring it, it simply had to go. Everyone got in on the act, wielding the sledge hammer.

Annabelle was even game to rip at it with her hands (in super oversized gloves).

A couple hours later, the opening was wide open - well, except for a couple studs holding it up until we get the beam in tomorrow. This shot is from the living room toward the kitchen (don't mind the random clothes washer in there).

We also got started on some painting. There was a fun SEA Green (part of Glidden's NFL Team Colors line). It's the electric green from the Seahawks' uniforms, and now on an accent wall in Rick's kitchen.

Rick also got a good start on painting his living room a nice celery color. Tomorrow, we'll be back for more.

CHRISTMAS MIRACLE: The A1 item atop CJ's Christmas list was a bag of chips. Sounds easy, right? Well, sure, as long as they're not Pepsi flavored chips from Japan.

Frito Lay makes the intriguing product, but not for the American masses, unfortunately. Ever since CJ read an article about them months ago, he's been wanting some badly.

I ordered some in early December from a Japanese retailer via Amazon. They should have been here in plenty of time for Christmas, but they didn't arrive and the seller didn't provide tracking information as they'd promised. Not good.

Finally, after a couple of sharp emails from me, the seller kinda sorta admitted they'd just taken my money and not sent the item. That's what we call stealing 'round here. They issued me a refund, but what I really wanted was the chips.

I managed to find some on eBay, and won the auction the late Sunday night before Christmas. Right away I messaged the seller and asked if there was any way he could overnight them (I'd pay, of course!) so that they'd be here for Christmas.

This seriously good human in California did just that. He mailed them out midday Monday, and by noon on Tuesday, a mailman was knocking at the front door, delivering them. AMAZING!!!

CJ was very surprised and happy.

We all tasted them, and I have to day, they *did* taste a bit like Pepsi. They even had a little fizz. But mostly they tasted like plain Cheetos with a bit of lemon flavor. Interesting.

AWARDED: This weekend's mail brought some certificates and stickers the kids have been anxiously awaiting since completing the Big History Project modules

They had fun doing it and it was very educational. Check out the web site: www.bighistoryproject.com

BEST OF: This time of year, Web sites and newspapers are full of "best of" 2013 lists. You had to know I'd provide you with a link to NASA's Best of 2013.

First, there's an interactive Web site  where you can read up on this year's developments about everything from commercial space programs to Voyager 1, asteroid mining, this year's astronaut class, the ISS (which celebrated its 15th anniversary), Curiosity and MAVEN on Mars, Landsat, Kepler, and much more. Check out the page here: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/YIR13/index.html

NASA has also compiled a 3-ish minute, super cool video of 2013 in review: http://youtu.be/lRGSG6qaLqk

"Selfies" were big in 2013, thanks to social media. However, despite the millions of pics snapped, I can't think there's a better self portrait in 2013 than this one ... 

taken by NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, Expedition 38 Flight Engineer, whole on the second of two late December spacewalks. You can see Hopkins' fellow spacewalker, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio,  in Hopkins' visor.

BIG OWIE: If you can't stomach icky nasty injuries, this is the time to sign off. But I feel compelled to document CJ's worst injury to date - a big ol' gash on his right shin.

He got it the night after Christmas, when he learned that running in the pitch black is a Bad Idea. He tripped over a bounder and landed on it. Needless to say, the rock won, puncturing his leg but good. 

The only good news was that he happened to have his accident in close proximity to a retired surgeon, who was able to clean the wound, pull the puncture perimeters back together, tape it up tightly and save us a trip to the ER. (Thanks, Bops!)

It happened Dec. 26, and he's been pretty hobbled ever since, though he did make the mistake a couple of days ago of playing hide and seek with Annabelle, where the competitive spirit made him forget his injury and so he ran around and jumped more than he should have, busting it back open a bit. :/  That earned him a trip to Group Health, where they cleaned it again and dressed it and just said to be more careful and keep a close eye on it, which is what we're doing.

He's going to have an awesome scar, in the shape of a 7.