Hearty

VALENTINE-Y:  February 14th. Also known as Valentine's Day. Here in America, this day often involves the exchange of cards or gifts with classmates, and often tokens of love or appreciation are exchanged among adults. 

Though they don't go to a traditional school, CJ and Annabelle are lucky to be part of a learning community that celebrates special occasions in a big way. The myriad of decorated boxes was amazing, and they got so many super cute valentines. 

CJ and Annabelle spent probably three to four hours building and decorating their valentines receptacles. 

Annabelle went with a unicorn motif. 

 CJ opted for a dragon.

As super poor planning would have it, I don't have any finished photos of the handmade valentines the kids made for their friends. Oops. 

Annabelle designed a graphic for her Valentine's cards. She went with a teacup theme, and cut a slit in each cup top. Through it, she stuck a tea bag's string and tag, and then the teabag was on the backside in a tiny sealed bag.

CJ worked hard folding over 50 'cootie catchers' (also known as fortune tellers) for his Valentine's cards. He folded them from Boise to about Hood River on our trip back from Idaho last Thursday. (And yes, I consider that a parenting win that we were organized enough to have them all printed out and ready to fold on the trip, putting that down time to good use!)

Here's a link to the mini gifts CJ produced: http://brendid.com/valentine-joke-teller/.

Back to Boise

ABOUT BOISE: So, last week we had a bit of an adventure. Specifically, an 1,100-mile round trip over the snow mountains and through an icy gorge to Boise and back in the span of three days.

We headed to Boise Tuesday morning, leaving about 6:30 a.m. and arriving about 12 hours later, give or take. Our slow down that day was a freeway - the freeway - being closed for about 4-5 hours.

We slept well Tuesday night and Wednesday morning having a few hours to kill, I declared I simply *had* to see the "Smurf turf," or the blue football field that Boise State University plays on.

We pointed our car in that direction and soon found ourselves outside of Albertson's Stadium. The kids stopped to say 'hi' to Lyle Smith,  a former American football and basketball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He was Boise State's head football coach from 1947 to 1967.

To get to the playing field, you have to go through BSU's athletic hall of fame.

There were a number of impressive awards on display, and we would have liked to have lingered, but we were illegally parked and had to breeze through.

The blue turf was quite something to see!

It's not the biggest stadium, to be sure, but the venue is in a really pretty setting. 

 And that turf is even more vibrant in person than it is on tv!

 The field had been cleared of snow. I found it amusing that even the pile of 'snow' was blue at BSU!

On the way out, we noticed some semi-trucks heading into the parking lot. They were carrying the gear for twentyone pilots, the band we were going to see Wednesday night at Taco Bell Arena.

CAPITOL IDEA:  When we arrived in Boise Tuesday night, as luck would have it, we found ourselves right outside the state capitol building. We all wanted to tour it if possible on Wednesday, and that we did.

 I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about it. 

Very recently, I wrote a report about the Twenty One Pilots concert in Boise, Idaho. Earlier on February 8, when I saw the concert, my family visited the Idaho State Capitol building, also located in Boise. The Idaho State Capitol is home to the conference rooms of the Idaho State House of Representatives and Senate, as well as Butch Otter (the incumbent Governor of Idaho)'s office.

We were able to take a self-guided tour of 3 of the State Capitol's 4 floors, not going to the bottom floor that appeared to be in use for an event. From the second floor, we were able to see up, and get very good looks at the beautiful architecture. According to Wikipedia, the State Capitol spent 15 years in construction, from 1905 to 1920. The building holds up today, and is probably regularly cleaned.

On the third floor, we were able to actually visit the conference room for both the State House of Representatives and Senate. Noticeably, there was little security for entering both halves of the State Legislature: If men were willing to remove their hats (unless for religious purposes), and you were willing to leave your bags to be searched at the entrance, you were able to spectate in the conference room. In contrast, even Safeco Field, a politically irrelevant building in Seattle, has more security precautions.

In one of the halves of the State Legislature (the House of Representatives if I remember correctly), we were able to see a meeting in session. From what I remember, the House was told that Idaho's school report cards were contrary to those of the federal government's school report card template. From there, the House voted near-unanimously to adopt the federal template. Only one representative did otherwise, choosing to abstain from the vote. Presumably, because the House voted unanimously to adopt the federal template, the change will have a positive effect.

Out in front of the building, we found a big ol' bell. 

 Turns out it is a replica of the Liberty Bell.

The sign on the bell's display told us that it was displayed all over the state before being installed at the capitol building, and that its dimensions and tone are the same as the original Liberty Bell.

 It had a lovely sound when we rapped on it, I must say.

The rotunda of the capitol was gorgeous. 

Although, we all wondered why the box kite seemingly randomly hanging overhead. ... 

We all noticed a spiral staircase on high, as well.

And the capitol had a basement. There was an education event going on down there while we visited.

The place wasn't too terribly busy over all. We walked all over! 

 As CJ noted, we entered the House and Senate (pictured below) chambers.

 Below is the Senate's 'to do' list on the day we visited.

The whole building was a spectacle in and of itself, but there were also art installations to check out, including this George Washington statue carved out of Idaho wood. It dates back to 1869.

In a park across the street from the capitol building, we came across this statue. It's of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. He was the fourth Governor of the State of Idaho, serving from 1897 until 1901.

The plaque on the statue noted Steunenberg restored order to Idaho during a period of lawlessness, and that he was assassinated in 1905.  We later found out that Steunenberg was killed outside his house at 1602 Dearborn Street in Caldwell by a bomb rigged to the side gate. Harry Orchard, a former miner from the Western Federation of Miners was arrested and imprisoned for the murder. During the trial, Orchard testified that he had served as a mercenary for the Western Federation of Miners. 

ART WALK: After the capitol visit, we had the pleasure of connecting with family for lunch nearby. On the way, we checked out "Freak Alley," where a number of buildings are painted in a big, bold way.

Though the travel was trying, all in all, it was a super fun trip and we're so glad we went!

We're Back!

TRIPPIN': So, apologies for the lack of posts this week. We've been a bit busy. Again. Where to start?

How about starting with Tuesday, when we got up at 5 and left at about 6 a.m., heading our car toward Boise, Idaho. That involved crossing what seemed like 14 mountain passes, but I think it was more like one or two.

We, mercifully, blew through Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades. Not so mercifully, once we reached La Grande, Ore., we hit a horrible diner (terrible food and service) and a freeway that was closed for over 100 miles due to an accident. Not to be deterred, we found a work around, and entered the freeway and had it to ourselves, literally for about 30 miles. (I swear, we didn't know it was still closed, as we were able to enter it unfettered. It was a little eerie driving as the ONLY car on the Interstate for about 20 minutes, though.)

The trip home was no easier (every cross-state mountain pass was closed), so we were forced to drive through the icy tunnel that was the Columbia River Gorge. Good times. Gosh, the massive semi-truck carnage  we saw was horrific.

But enough about the bad, for now. Let's let the kids tell you about the happy part of our trip - seeing twentyone pilots in concert!

Annabelle's review is up first. 

We drove 11 hours each way to Boise, Idaho for a concert by Twenty Øne Piløts. The show was in the Taco Bell Arena, which sadly did not contain Taco Bell concessions. The show itself, however, was amazing. The visual in the background were stunning and tied in really well with the concert. at one point, the drummer had a drum battle with a recording of himself, ending with the recorded version being literally mindblown. Twenty Øne Piløts also pulled of some pretty extreme stunts. You’ve seen crowd surfing, but have you ever seen a drummer crowd surfing while playing the drums? That happened.

Also, they even covered Josh (the lead singer) with a sheet on the stage, but it turned out that was a body double as that one disappeared and the real Josh appeared on a tower in the back of the arena! It was super fun to see one of my favorite bands live in concert, and it might have even been worth the 4 hours of sleep nights and icy highways.

And here's what CJ has to share ... 

On 2/7, my family skipped work and school that day to go on a road trip to Boise, Idaho. We went to see a concert in the Taco Bell Arena (sans Taco Bell), a basketball stadium on the campus of Boise State University. More specifically, we went to see a concert by Twenty One Pilots, a popular band from Columbus, Ohio.
At Taco Bell Arena, we spent at least one hour without any music whatsoever. Sitting in a very high seat, we were able to see some of the preparation for the show going on backstage. Eventually, the first warm-up act, Judah and the Lion, began playing.
Judah and the Lion is an obscure (to my knowledge) rock band, which played a few original songs at Taco Bell Arena. While their performance was mostly forgettable, at the end of their gig, they told us how "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers was their favorite song in 4th grade. After that, we were treated to an off-key version of the aforementioned song.
Shortly after Judah and the Lion, a different warmup act, Jon Bellion, began performing. Jon Bellion was composed of two men rapping on-stage, and they were much more memorable (and probably more entertaining) than Judah and the Lion.
Later in the evening, Twenty One Pilots themselves began, opening with "heavydirtysoul", a song of theirs which I did not recognize. Throughout the entire show, TOP made very good use of the screen behind them, and several stunts that are probably despised by their insurance company (such as letting the crowd carry the drumkit, with the drummer playing, and standing on top of a tall pole at the opposite end of the stadium from the stage.
Most of the hit songs by TOP were played near the beginning and end of the concert, such as "Heathens" near the beginning, and "Stressed Out" and "Tear in my Heart" near the end. In the second half of the concert, Juno and the Lion and Jon Bellion were both called up on stage for a bizarre... "skit", for lack of a better word. During the skit, there was a man in a Santa Claus costume, as well as a person in a lobster costume. The only song I recognized from the skit was Tubthumping by Chumbawumba, a band that has absolutely nothing to do with TOP (last time I checked, Twenty One Pilots weren't a group of British anarcho-punks).
We left Taco Bell Arena very late in the evening, and very satisfied with the show.

I have more photos, of course, but this will have to do for tonight, as I'm still recovering from the last three days' antics. 

Super Saturday

ASTRO AFTERNOON: Saturday, we made our way to one of our favorite places, The Museum of Flight. The main attraction: Astronaut Dr. Michael Barratt. We'd never met him before, and were excited to learn more about him. Every single astronaut we've had the pleasure of being around has been so interesting. Dr. Barratt was no exception. 

I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about Dr. Barratt. His account starts immediately below ... 

Over the years, I have been to several presentations and events featuring astronauts, primarily at places like the Museum of Flight in south Seattle. Today, I went to the Museum of Flight to see a presentation by Dr. Michael R. Barratt, a Washington native and astronaut, aboard the Soyuz TMA-14 in 2009, as well as the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2011. According to the Museum of Flight's website, Dr. Barratt now serves in NASA’s International Space Station Operations and Integration branches to handle medical issues and on orbit support.

Dr. Barratt was born in Vancouver, Washington, and spent most of his childhood on a farm on the outskirts of Camas, located in southern Washington. 

While most Americans assume that most people will spend about 4 years in college, from ages 18 to 22, Dr. Barratt actually spent 14 years in college, longer than my lifetime so far. According to his official biography from the NASA website, he graduated from:

• University of Washington, 1977-1981
• Northwestern University, 1981-1985, 1988
• Veterans Administration Lakeside Hospital, 1989
• Wright State University, 1991

Apparently, his extended (not in a bad way at all) education got to a point where Donna Baratt (Dr. Barratt's mother) was worried if her son would ever get a job. According to NASA's website, Dr. Barratt's first experience with NASA was coming to NASA JSC in May 1991, employed as a project physician with KRUG Life Sciences, while working on medical systems for Space Station Freedom. In 2000, Dr. Barratt was selected to be an astronaut, though he would not go on his first mission for nearly a decade later, in 2009. According to him, it normally would've been six years, but the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster delayed further flights for three years.

After the end of Dr. Barratt's presentation, he began to take questions from the audience. 

Though I sat in the near-back of the audience, I was able to ask Dr. Barratt a question. I asked him if, given the opportunity, he would go to Mars. He said he would go to Mars, but only if it was a two-way trip, and he got the permission of his wife (Dr. Michelle Barratt) and five children. In a later question, he said that, if he could, he would go back into space tomorrow.

Sources:

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/michael-reed-barratt/biography

http://www.museumofflight.org/Plan-Your-Visit/Calendar-of-Events/3280/astronaut-dr-michael-r-barratt-featured-speaker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Barratt_(astronaut)

And following is Annabelle's account of the presentation. ... 

Dr. Micheal Barratt is a NASA astronaut who grew up on a farm outside of Camas, WA. Ever since he was a kid, he was interested in the stars and astronomy. He was first inspired to become a doctor from watching Star Trek, seeing how cool and important “Bones” McCoy was on the ship.

This presentation was part of the Micheal P. Anderson program, allowing kids in middle school to get a running start on a career in aviation. What surprised me is that he actually went to the University of Washington with Anderson without realizing it! He was determined to become a “space doctor” and was in school until he was 32! But all the work paid off, and he become the NASA flight surgeon. After a little pressure from friends to apply, he (semi-reluctantly) became an astronaut!

He flew on STS-133 and was on the ISS for 6 months. However, before he flew, he went through 9 years of astronaut training (it would have been 6, but the Columbia disaster happened previous to STS-133 and they needed extra safety precautions). He said that even if he was happy being a flight surgeon, he loves is job now and he said he’d only retire when NASA told him he had to. He’s a very interesting man and I learned a lot from his presentation. (End of Annabelle's report.)

One of the things Dr. Barratt stressed is that astronauts spend a lot of time talking about mistakes they've made. And it's not to belabor the fact or berate people over it, it's because mistakes are opportunities to learn. I thought that was an important point, and it reminded me of what Stanford Professor Jo Boaler says frequently regarding learning math.

In other news, when we pulled into The Museum of Flight lot we noticed parking spaces were hard to come by. And then we quickly saw why: An enormous Navy plane was taking up most of the space!

      Photo: The Museum of Flight's Facebook page 

Turns out it was a new Navy P-8 Poseidon, made by Boeing. This particular plane is based in Jacksonville, Florida. This  anti-submarine, anti-surface warfare vehicle is replacing the P-3.

Photo: The Museum of Flight's Facebook page 

The P-8 Poseidon carries torpedoes, depth charges, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and other weapons. It is also able to drop and monitor sonobuoys. Per Wikipedia, the plane had a $256.5 million price procurement cost in fiscal year 2015. Yowza. 

SWEET START: Our Saturday started off sweetly, at another favorite spot, Full Tilt in Ballard. It was, apparently, "National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day." Not sure about the origin or veracity of that claim, but it sounded fun and delicious, so we were in!

People were encouraged to wear their pajamas. The kids were happy to oblige. 

They each enjoyed a Belgian waffle topped with two big scoops of ice cream.

There are worse ways to start a Saturday!

Geeks and Games

COMPUTING: Thursday night we headed to one of our very favorite spots in Seattle - and, in fact, the world - Living Computers: Museum + Labs.

It's first Thursday, which means it was free to all, We're members, so that wasn't the draw for us. We go first Thursdays because it's when the museum offers a cool movie. But more on that later. 

We got to LCM a bit before 5 and headed straight to the virtual reality corner, as that usually involves a wait.

Annabelle got right in and enjoyed experimenting with the program "Tilt Brush." Art in 3D! What's not to love?

 Meanwhile, the rest of us worked ourselves around the rest of the awesome main floor, which includes a 'deep visualization' station where you can hold up items and a learning computer tries to ID it.

Like the Seahawks' season, the computer was close, but not quite good enough.

We also made our way to the Digital Studio - a favorite spot. There are many amazing interactions to be had there, including a station where you use a touch screen to create a circle circus. 

 We eventually made our way upstairs to the 'old' museum. There we found lovely old computer friends, including this one that could beat me at chess 40 years ago and today. ;)

 I loved this poster promo featuring none other than Captain James T. Kirk.

 And speaking of Star Trek, when I saw this game on the Commodore 64, I thought, "Geez, that game looks archaic." 

I then noticed it came out in 1983. The year I graduated from high school. That means I am completely archaic. ... 

After playing our way through the museum, we settled into seats in the theater area to enjoy a documentary, Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time. I'll let the kids tell you more about it. Annabelle is up first. ... 

The Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time is a movie about the rise and fall of arcades. In the early 80’s arcades were growing huge, and almost every day any kids who had free time would borrow some money and run to the arcade. There were many favorites like Pac-man (which you could almost never get to because there was a huge line), Centipede (which was apparently a favorite among girls), and others like Asteroids and Donkey Kong. What’s sad is that after the initial craze, arcades were being outdone by home consoles that had all the same games. They were kicked out of mall because of the noise and lights, and the kids who were crazed about them had grown up and had less spare time. Fortunately, there are many people who have taken to collecting old arcade machines and restoring them. Some even reproduce and sell replacement parts or run arcades!

The only worry is that they won’t be able to pass the nostalgia to the next generation. But everyone has their own story as to why they collect arcade games. I thought it was great at explaining the rise and fall of the arcade.

And here is CJ's take. ...

For the gazillionth time, my family visited the Living Computers Museum + Labs, this time to see a documentary. The film screened was "The Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time", a documentary about people who collect classic arcade games, and, by extension, the games themselves.

In the early 1980s (and to a lesser extent, the early 1970s), video arcades were all over the place in America. By 1982, there were 13,000 dedicated arcade locations across North America, frequented by players with fistfuls of quarters. In the years since, while classic video game arcades have largely disappeared from malls and city streets, there are still several collectors, dedicated to preserving several of the games that were originally at the arcades, such as classics like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Dragon's Lair, and, of course, Space Invaders itself.

The majority of classic arcade game enthusiasts and collectors (unlike me, who was born well after the heyday of arcades) are people who grew up with arcades in their heyday, usually born in the mid-to-late 1960s and early 1970s. While they were not the only demographic at arcades in the 1980s, they are the generation that would be nostalgic for them now. According to The Space Invaders, a museum or collection is largely the transferral of time into space. This is reflected in several arcade collections, where the time (the early 1980s) is transferred into space (as in physical space, usually in the owner's basement or private collection). Some of the collectors interviewed in The Space Invaders described that the collection process works along the lines of this:

You buy your first arcade game for a couple hundred dollars, usually a must-have like Pac-Man or Donkey Kong. You enjoy your new game. You decide that you want to add a new game to your collection every month. You get addicted to collecting. You buy more and more, until you no longer have enough space to store your machines.

As I saw in the film, every collector has a story, as does every machine in their collections. As a Q&A from the film's official website puts it, "These games have brought a couple together, helped someone cope with the untimely passing of a close friend, allowed others to fulfill a childhood dream of running their own arcade, and even more collectors to form a special bond with their children and their extended families."

Vessels and Vehicles

ODE TO JOY: When coming home from an errand this afternoon it took us for-ev-er to get back across the Ballard Bridge. I figured there must have been a l-o-o-o-ng bridge lift, and I was right. Turns out the historic USS Turner Joy had passed under the bridge!

Named for Admiral Charles Turner Joy USN, the 

USS Turner Joy was commissioned in 1959. One of 18 Forrest Sherman-class destroyers of the United States Navy, the ship spent her entire active service career in the Pacific, and participated extensively in the Vietnam War. Turner Joy was one of the principal ships involved in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964.

We were introduced to the ship on a trip through Bremerton a couple of years ago (see photo above). Decommissioned in 1982, the ship is a floating museum there now, and is in Seattle for a couple months of repairs and maintenance in a Lake Union dock. (I told the kids we need to go rent some kayaks and paddle the lake looking for it!)

Local station KOMO had live coverage of the ship making its way through the Ballard Locks. You can see video here (if you have a Facebook account): https://www.facebook.com/KOMONews/videos/1323004264434569/

We also found this promo video for the floating museum on YouTube
https://youtu.be/RsnHDOtwMMI

THEY WALK THE LINE: The kids keep picking away on their guitars. This week they've been working on a Johnny Cash classic, "I Walk the Line." We listened to it before they practiced today. When we saw the clip the first thing I wondered was, "Why does Johnny Cash have a piece of paper hanging off the neck of his guitar?" I honestly thought it might be the set list or some lyrics. 

You'll have to watch the video to unravel the mystery. ;)
https://youtu.be/k7K4jH7NqUw

VINTAGE RIDES: A couple of nights ago we happened across a program on PBS that served as the day's history lesson. It was a documentary called "Building Pharaoh's Chariot."

The program started by showing 3,600-year-old reliefs in Egyptian tombs and temples that depict pharaohs and warriors riding horse-drawn chariots. 

The chariots were a game-changer, according to some historians, who assert that the chariot launched a technological and strategic revolution, and they served as a vehicle (literally!) for Egypt's greatest era of conquest. 

"Building Pharaoh's Chariot" features a team of archaeologists, engineers, woodworkers, and horse trainers who work together to build and test two highly accurate replicas of the ancient Egyptian royal chariots. Believe it or not, the chariots included everything from spoked wheels to springs, shock absorbers to anti-roll bars. And some even had rear view mirrors! 

A YouTube channel called ScienceTube has the whole show if you are interested in checking it out.
https://youtu.be/4-kKQe7YKjk

Past and Present

    Photo: NASA
REMEMBRANCE: As always, this time of year is somber when remembering spaceflight. 

A few day time period between late January and Feb. 1 has been cruel to space flight.

NASA holds an annual Day of Remembrance to reflect on those losses. Here is a video from this year's memorial.

Photo credit: NASA

#SHINEALIGHT: For a moment this evening, we went up to the roofdeck and shined a light. Our city's mayor had called on residents across Seattle to do so, as a symbolic gesture in support of those affected by the recent, sweeping Executive Order barring many immigrants from entering the United States. The mayor and city council have declared Seattle a sanctuary city, and the state of Washington is first to sue the new administration over the Executive Order.

We're pretty sure standing on a porch or roofdeck with a flashlight won't make a difference when it comes to this issue, but it didn't hurt anything, either. Plus, we got to see the moon, Mars and Venus in a cool line in the southwest sky. 

UNICORNY: Monday night, Annabelle and I whipped out a couple dozen unicorn cookies for her art classmates. They are ending a medieval unit in their class, and had a small party to celebrate. The unicorns were a hit! 

Here's a video a friend took of Annabelle presenting her artwork. It's a page representing the month of February.

FIRST: As part of a cooperative social studies club they belong to, the kids are working on reports about mistreatment of indigenous people. The last couple of weeks they explored the issue as it pertains to Native Americans. Today, they were each researching indigenous people elsewhere who have been mistreated.

While researching, we found a helpful web site: GlobalIssues.org. It had a helpful page all about the rights of indigenous people.

The page points out that there are approximately 370 million indigenous people spanning 70 countries, worldwide. All too often, indigenous people have been dispossessed of their lands, and stripped of their resources.In fact, indigenous people are often among the most disadvantaged people in the world.

Annabelle chose to learn more about Australia's Aborigines, while CJ researched how the rights of New Zealand's Maori have been trampled over time.