Check Up

GROWING WELL: Thought it was about  time to check in with our garlic plant project. You may recall, back on January 15, we planted some sprouting garlic cloves for the fun of it. The 'before' photo is below. 

Fast forward a week and a day, and you can see the garlic seems to be happy so far, especially that one stem of green that's risen well above the planter. I might just have to harvest some for our stir fry tonight! 

ART UPDATE: This afternoon, Annabelle put a new art kit she was gifted for Christmas to work. She was happy to see it had watercolor pencils. I'd not heard of those before. You color with them like 'normal' colored pencils, but then you can blend the colors with water, like watercolor paints, in a way. 

That's what she did on the "You" below. I think it's pretty pretty.

Speaking of art, we continued our "How to Draw" class today via Great Courses. Today's lecture was a little bit about ways of drawing (observation, construction and abstract), and a fair amount about how lines are used together to compose a drawing. We had a couple of really helpful exercises employing phantom drawing, which is a technique where you make strokes above or very lightly on your paper before actually committing to drawing that linear or curved line. Why have I not done this before?! It sure would have saved a lot of erasers over the years. ...

Our professor, David Brody, MFA, of the University of Washington, also talked about how to view others' artwork, and how 'active analysis' where you ask 'how did they do that?" and so on is important. I said to Annabelle, "So, when do you and I often do that?" 

She immediately responded with what I had in mind. "When we're looking at other people's cakes. We talk about how they did it, what we like, what we'd do differently," Annabelle described.

The rest of today's lecture was kind of a syllabus for the course. Yowza, it's super comprehensive. He said the material covered would take about four quarters of a standard college course. So it looks like you'll be hearing about "How to Draw" for months to come. 

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: We've seen headlines the last couple of days about new photos from the far side of the moon, taken by their Chang'e-4 lunar lander.

You can visit the Chinese website with all of the images here: http://moon.bao.ac.cn/pubMsg/detail-CE4EN.jsp#

Just an FYI: The site is *really* slow to load and I was unable to download any of their images, which maybe is a good thing ...

You're probably best off going to Doug Ellison's website, where he has downloaded and processed many of the images, including this one, where you can see the tracks from the rover where it left the lander. (Ellison is the engineering camera team lead for the Curiosity Mars Rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.)

For a fullscreen slideshow of Ellison's work with the images, follow this link:
https://dougellison.smugmug.com/frame/slideshow?key=fPwwkL&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=0&playButton=0&randomize=0&speed=3&transition=fade&transitionSpeed=2&clickable=1

Brick Layers

CAKE DAY:  Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. day, and it has become a day where people are encouraged to make it a day of volunteering, instead of just a day off of work or school.  

We definitely did not take Monday off. Instead, we were busy building a cake for Birthday Dreams, a local non-profit who provides birthday parties to kids in homeless shelters.

The child we were making the cake for had requested a LEGO theme, if possible.

Naturally, our first step was hopping online and Googling "LEGO cake." There are thousands of examples to check out. One idea we liked was adding a LEGO character head as the cake topper. We eventually landed on the first tier featuring a LEGO-like wall on the front, and that the cake would feature candy melt bricks that we would make. 

Below, the first tier (vanilla, per the birthday boy's request) is a blank slate, awaiting some fun while Annabelle designs the birthday boy's name in the LEGO font. We'd later cut that out of sugar sheets. (It's obscured in the photo atop this post, for anonymity reasons). 

We built the head first. The topper is actually an enormous Rice Krispies treat. we used little 6-inch cake pans to make the bulk of the head, and a smaller cylinder to serve as the peg atop his head, and the neck. We made our fondant, colored it bright yellow, rolled it out, and draped the shape. That's always a bit of a dicey process. Fortunately, it was a good batch of fondant, and the draping went pretty darn well.

Next up was putting the face on. Annabelle cut the mouth, eyes and eyebrows out of Sugar Sheets! (a Wilton product), and we affixed them on the fondant with a product called Dab-n-Hold. 

We made dozens of "LEGO" bricks by melting candy melt in the microwave, and carefully pouring it into silicone molds. The bricks formed the bottom border of our first tier, and we put some on top of the cake, as well.  We also had to make flat bricks for the cake front. Those were just colored fondant, cut into different sizes and then affixed to the front.

We'd never made a LEGO-inspired cake before, so it was all new to us. It was a fun process and within our skill set, at this point. We sure hope the birthday boy liked it!

Right after completing our LEGO cake, we learned that LEGO company is set to launch an International Space Station LEGO set in February. That looks like a fun build, too, with a lot less sugar than our LEGO project. ;)
https://www.space.com/lego-international-space-station-set-launches-february-2020.html?utm_source=notification

PERFECT DISASTER:  This weekend, activity at the Space Coast had some of our attention. SpaceX was set to launch an important test flight, a major and nearly final milestone before they can actually start carrying real live astronauts on board their Dragon capsule. The goal of the mission was mission to show the spacecraft’s capability to safely separate from the rocket in the unlikely event of an inflight emergency.

           Image: NASA Television

The launch was supposed to happen Saturday, but weather scuttled that. Sunday morning was a go, however, and as we worked around the house, we listened to the post-launch press conference.

I have to say, it was a bit of a change watching a rocket launch and hoping the thing blows up. But the whole point of the exercise was to see if the Dragon could safely escape such a catastrophe. Happy to say, it did. 

After the successful demonstration, NASA administrator Jim Bridestine said, “This critical flight test puts us on the cusp of returning the capability to launch astronauts in American spacecraft on American rockets from American soil."

SpaceX founder and chief engineer was equally pleased with the test results. “As far as we can tell thus far, it’s a picture perfect mission. It went as well as one can possibly expect,” said Musk. “This is a reflection of the dedication and hard work of the SpaceX and NASA teams to achieve this goal. Obviously, I’m super fired up. This is great.”

What next? Those in the know say a second quarter 2020 flight of Dragon with a pair of astronauts on board is likely. That will be a momentous occasion, to be sure.

You can watch the test events here ...

Play with a Purpose

GYM TIME: We are still trekking to the gym about three times a week, which is good, especially this time of year, when weather puts a damper on many outdoor activities. 

The kids seem to record a new accomplishment every time we go. For instance, Annabelle has now walked the slack line in the foreground several times successfully. As you can see, it has no assisting rope, like the one in the background. 

And a few days back, CJ managed to bounce his way up onto the wall for the first time. Now he can do it routinely.

It's really cool to watch their confidence and abilities expand.

GOOD GAMES: Years ago, in a special science-themed event for students at the University of Washington, CJ and Annabelle played a computer game called Foldit. In it, players are tasked with solving protein-folding puzzles. It was the first game the UW's Center for Game Science produced.

While players enjoy the game-play environment of Foldit, what's happening is they're actually processing smaller bits of a larger data set of proteins that computers otherwise could not process. Fast forward a few years, and Foldit has led to various discoveries around the structures of specific proteins and confirmed by traditional scientific tests. Here's one example from a recent FoldIt news release ...

A protein that has not been solved for 15 years has recently been resolved by Foldit players and confirmed by x-ray crystalography (see http://fold.it/portal/node/989012 ). the paper is currently submitted to science. The group that produced the solution is on the author list. This protein had to wait for 15 years, just for the 2 weeks of focused Foldit play in order to be resolved.

Here's a video update about Foldit's accomplishments. ...


You can play Foldit for free at: http://fold.it/

Another online game from the center, Mozak, also uses gamification and crowdsourcing to advance neuroscience research. And their educational games Refraction and Creature Capture are aimed at boosting K-12 mathematics.

Neat stuff!

Back to the Beginning

           My rather lame attempt to copy pattern found carved into wood dating back to the dawn of man.

DRAWN IN: A couple of days ago, from a post on a home schoolers' group on Facebook, I learned that we can access Great Courses free through Seattle Public Libraries via a platform called Kanopy.com.  (If you're not in Seattle, lots of schools and libraries are Kanopy members, so check the site to see if you can access it, as well. In addition to Great Courses, there are tons of free movies, including a Kanopy Kids section for the littles.)

Once I logged in to Kanopy, I browsed the Great Courses catalog. I was looking for a formal art class for Annabelle, and Found "How to Draw." Annabelle spends hours a day drawing, so I figured it would make sense for her to take the class and learn some new chops, so to speak.

We started watching, and were surprised to learn the instructor is David Brody, a professor at the University of Washington. How about that? He's just right up the road from MPA. Brody has a MFA from Yale, and was both a Fulbright Scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow, which is pretty darn impressive. 

 Here's a trailer for the class.


The first class started off with a brief overview of the history of drawing, and Professor Brody shared his opinion that anyone can learn to draw and/or learn to draw better. He said many art experts note that learning to draw is about learning to see. The first lecture was interspersed with encouraging quotes from famous artists, including, "Don't wait for inspiration, it comes to one while working," attributed to Henri Matisse. Professor Brody contended that art is like any other subject taught on the college campus in that it's hard work and hours of practice that result in a better outcome.

Professor Brody also shared a quote from writer and watercolor artist John Ruskin: "I have never ... yet ... met a person who could not learn to draw ... there is a satisfactory and available power in every one to learn drawing ... just as all persons have the power of learning French, Latin or arithmetic."

Ruskin, a self portrait, 1875

This afternoon, Annabelle and I watched the second lecture, which was all about drawing materials. I found it absolutely fascinating. I had never been instructed on how to properly sharpen a pencil you're going to 'art' with. We learned about the grades of graphite pencils (did you know how much clay the graphite is mixed with dictates their hardness), and about charcoal and ink. We also learned that the metal cylinder that holds the bristles of a paintbrush is called the ferrule.(I am going to try to use that word as often as possible, going forward, ha ha.) We were also instructed about how to set up a work area. They were such simple, useful tips, all of which can help people produce better art. 

DOG IN ORBIT: Recently, Boeing released footage filmed inside their Starliner space capsule during its recent test flight. As is common in space travel, a stuffed animal was used to help capture the moment when the ship slipped into low gravity. Boeing chose an Astronaut Snoopy for their flight. 
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-011520a-snoopy-boeing-starliner-video.html

Hopefully before too long, the stuffed animals will have real live animals (humans) along side them. Unfortunately, the test flight Snoopy was on didn't go perfectly. the craft misfired and wound up in the wrong orbit, and unable to dock with the International Space Station. That, naturally, means delays for a human test flight.

Snowing and Growing

WHITE STUFF: We've had a bit of snow around these parts. Not feet, or even inches, plural, to report, but even the inch we have has made it a bit tricky to get around. 

Yesterday afternoon, Annabelle noticed some tracks in the snow. They led from our back stoop to under our barbecue. At first she thought it was bird tracks (we have a bird feeder out back, and a bunch of birds as a result), but then she realized the tracks were in sets of four (with a little belly indent in between!). 

We have lots of little brown bunnies around the yard, and are certain these track below were from one of those. We also found tracks in our side yard and across our driveway, down to the blackberry bushes across the street, where they like to congregate.

Our driveway also had 'penguin' tracks.  

That's actually (obviously) human footprints, but you can see how close together the steps are. That's because you want to kind of waddle like a penguin in the snow and ice, as the graphic below shows.

INDOOR GARDENING: We have used our snow days to get caught up on a couple of indoor gardening projects. 

Yesterday, we took some of our succulents that were looking scraggly, cleaned them up, and then repotted them into a new terrarium.

What an improvement, going from the ugly plastic pots above to the glass container below! Much better!

Today, we dealt with a head of garlic that got away from us in our produce basket on the counter. Rather than tossing it, Annabelle looked up how to grow garlic. 

A number of articles suggested splitting the head, planting cloves, and then using the greens from them that grow like you might use chives. So, that's what we did.

We even ventured out into the ice to find some gravel to put at the bottom of the containers. The 'best' part was when I was bent over, whacking at the frozen ground, trying to unearth some gravel and my glasses fell off my face and slid all the way down our driveway, only stopping once they came to rest against a car tire at the base of our driveway. Annabelle was kind/brave enough to fetch them for me.

Once safely back inside, we put some gravel in the bottom of our containers, and then some soil. Next, the sprouted cloves were planted, one by one.

We'll see what becomes of them. We have two planters like the one below.

Cookies and Stories

       Photo From astronaut Christina Koch via Twitter

COOKIES IN SPACE:  Apparently we here at MPA aren't the only ones making cookies lately. Would you believe they've been baking on the International Space Station, as well. 

Last week, when a SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific, on board was a batch of space-baked cookies!

They were baked, one at a time, in a Zero G oven, which was engineered to work in the microgravity environment aboard the ISS. NASA astronaut Christina Koch was the head baker, and used cookie dough provided by the DoubleTree hotel chain.

DoubleTree, which actually has a Cookies In Space website, promises more photos and video soon. In the meantime, you can watch their promo here. 

You can even order your own Cookies In Space, if you're so inclined: https://www.doubletreecookies.com/shop.html

STORYTELLING: This week in his English 101 class, CJ is learning about the art of storytelling. What makes a 'good' story? What are the elements and building blocks.

One of his pieces of homework was to listen to Ira Glass, an American Public Radio personality, talk about the art of storytelling.

Another part of his homework was listening to a gentleman share a story on Ira Glass' radio show, "This American Life." If you need a good belly laugh (and who doesn't?) we can't recommend this highly enough. It's just SUCH an entertaining story. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen.

"Squirrel Cop" on This American Life: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/115/first-day/act-two-0

TO THE MOON, MAYBE: There was a nice story in the Seattle Times about a Washington woman among the latest graduating class of NASA astronaut candidates, Kayla Barron. 

NASA astronaut candidate Kayla Barron is helped into a spacesuit before underwater spacewalk training at NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston. (Robert Markowitz / NASA) 

A native of Richland, Barron now lives down near Johnson Space Center, awaiting her first flight assignment. That gig could be a stint on the ISS, or as the first woman on the moon. 

The 2006 Richland High School grad went to the U.S. Naval Academy, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering. She then went on to become a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge in England.

While in the Navy, Barron was one of the first female officers assigned to the USS Maine, a nuclear submarine home-ported in Bangor, Kitsap County. Barron was just one of 12 people selected for NASA training in 2017. There were a record number of 18,300 candidates that year. As part of her astronaut training, Barron has trained everywhere from under water to the scrubby deserts in Arizona.

Season Finale

END ZONE: And just like that, it's over. 

The Seahawks' season, that is.

On Sunday, the hole they had to climb out of after a miserable first half was just too deep. They rallied, but it was too little, too late.

We rallied, too. Even though snow in the forecast kept most would-be co-celebrants away, we still did our part to try to ensure a Seahawks' victory.

On big game days, we always try to be inspired by the cuisine of the competing teams. To that end, on Sunday Kennedy made (delicious, hearty!) Booyah, a tailgating Wisconsin tradition. 

We made hotdish, a Midwest comfort food featuring tater tots, mushroom soup, ground beef and whatever else you want to throw in. (I went for a 'bacon cheeseburger' inspiration, so lots of sharp cheddar and bacon went in to ours, as well as pickles and red onion.)

Annabelle put together a pretty fruit platter featuring "12" - the number representing Seattle fans, the "12th Man" on the team. We stuck Seattle favorite Oberto pepperoni in a jersey for serving.

And we even made macarons for the very first time. Tricky, those little things. 

Annabelle was gifted a starter kit for Christmas. I had heard they were tricky to make, so we went online in search of a tutorial (in addition to the printed one that came with the kit). I thought a video would be helpful. We wound up watching this one ... 

In fact, we watched it about four times, including step-by-step while we were working. We did *everything* exactly as described, including using a thermometer in our oven to make sure it was 300 degrees.

It has over 9.9 million (!) views, and is titled "The Most Fool-Proof Macarons You'll Ever Make."
What could go wrong? ...

Yeah, well, it turns out our feet spread. 

"What?!" you ask. "What does foot trouble have to do with macarons?" 

Well, the perfect macaron is chewy, but not ever gooey. It should never be crunchy or overly dry. There should be a thin "skin" on its cap, and beneath that there must be a definitive "foot" or pied, on the bottom side of the cookie or shell.

On our experiment, instead of raising a quarter inch or so, our 'feet' spread out to the sides of the cookie. Drat!!

Naturally, we went online trying to find out what went wrong. The number one culprit for this kind of fail seems to be a too-hot oven. That is a bit perplexing to us, because we were fastidious about checking that. 

We definitely want to give them another go in the not-too-distant future, this time letting them skin over a little bit longer (we waited about 50 minutes) before baking, and maybe at 280 or so instead of 300? Stay tuned for round two. 

I suppose I should note that maybe the best part of making the macarons was making the homemade marshmallow fluff for the 'stuffing.' We'd never done that before either, and it was perfect! :) (You win some, you lose some.)

But back to football. After the game was over, Marshawn Lynch, who came out of retirement to help the 'Hawks during their playoff run, took a turn at the microphone in the post game press conference. It was a bit of a shock, because he is famous for not talking to the press.

I was really glad he opened up last night. Sure, it was delivered in the quirky way that only Lynch would deliver it, but I thought his message was really important. He told young players to take care of their minds, their bodies, and their chickens (money). I think that's great advice.

A DIFFERENT DRUMMER: Our last post was almost entirely about recently-departed drum virtuoso Neil Peart. 

YouTube, of course, keeps track of what we're watching, and so today, they suggested this video for us. I'm glad they did push it my way. It's great to see that drummers come in all shapes and sizes, ages and genders. I showed the kids, of course. 

Rock on "godmother."