Finally Friday

DOLL PARTS:  This creepy scene was just one of the oddities spotted at good ol' Archie McPhee here in Seattle today. 

What a wonderful store. All sorts of weird stuff you didn't know you needed until you see it.

We left with exploding wasabi candy and red and white striped, stick-on mustaches. Enough said.

SELF-CENTERED: Dinovember continues here at MPA. It's fun, every morning the kids get up and immediately start looking for the dinos, wondering what they've been up to overnight.

The egotistical dinos were busy last night. ... 

It took them a few minutes this morning, but the kids finally found the dinos messing around with the scanner, taking a scanner "selfie."

WONDERFUL WATER: We're still contemplating the science and wonder of what we saw while watching "Interstellar" last night. It's different up there!

While Interstellar is just a movie, there's plenty of mind blowing video from NASA of real live wow-factor stuff going on in space right now. For instance, check out this video of astronauts on the International Space Station playing around with microgravity, a water bubble, water surface tension, and a GoPro camera!
http://youtu.be/9ZEdApyi9Vw


PEELING TREES: We returned some stuff to the to the library in Magnolia today, and decided to park a ways away and make a decent walk out of it. 

Along the way, we found this tree, which seems to be molting, in a manner of speaking. So interesting, and pretty!

Return of Dinovember

THEY'RE BAACK!:  October is no more, so that can only mean one thing ... it's DINO-vember!  It's a month full of mischief from the toy dinosaurs that mostly gather dust the other 11 months of the year 'round here. 

Not surprisingly, the dinos' first stop this year was raiding the bowl of Halloween candy, no doubt in search of chocolate. 

Last night, the dinos engaged in some modern warfare, Nerf style.

Looks like it was big dino v. the little guys. 

Who knows what they'll be up to tonight?

SO CLOSE: Ten years ago, the European Space Agency launched their Rosetta mission - a space probe headed for a rendezvous with a comet with a clunky name (67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko). During its 6.4 billion kilometer journey, Rosetta made four planetary flybys (one of Mars in 2007, and three of Earth [2005, 2007, and 2009]), to get some gravity assists needed to help it along the way.
Rosetta has been circling the comet for a few weeks now, honing in on the best place for its little lander to touch down. The ESA just released a great animated short about that landing. If successful, it will be a spaceflight first. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvkPFXdpOQQ&feature=youtu.be



Why bother landing on a comet? Well, as the ESA points out in a FAQ about the Rosetta mission, "Comets are of great interest to scientists because, to our knowledge, they are the oldest, most primitive bodies in the Solar System, preserving the earliest record of material from the nebula out of which our Sun and planets were formed. Planets have gone through chemical transformations, but comets have remained almost unchanged. Furthermore, comets brought ‘volatile’ light elements to the planets and likely played an important role in forming oceans and atmospheres. Comets also carry complex organic molecules that may have been involved in the origin of life on Earth."

Sounds like compelling reasons to visit a comet to us!

Rosetta will deploy Philae on November 11 at 11:35 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Confirmation of the landing is expected to arrive at ground stations around 8:03 PST the following morning.  
Here's a (non cartoon) summary of the mission so far. ...
http://youtu.be/IiEjQSNUiG4


All this comet landing talk had us excited, and we decided to try our own comet landings. The practice was made possible by an online, interactive BBC game. Check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29746430

ORBITAL UPDATE: Last week we watched Orbital Sciences Corporation's rocket explode shortly after lift off in Wallops, Virginia, a spectacularly failed resupply and science mission to the International Space Station.

When it was determined the rocket was heading off course, range safety officers detonated the vehicle.  It wasn't the kind of rocket fire we expected to see that day, that's for sure.

Word about the root of the trouble is starting to trickle out. An Orbital press release yesterday pointed to  "a probable turbopump-related failure in one of the two Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 stage one main engines."  Given that, Orbital expects to discontinue use of these engines for the Antares vehicle. A Reuters article we read yesterday pointed out that mothballing the Soviet-era rocket engines Orbital has been using, leaves them with three options - two U.S. launch providers and one in Europe.
Somehow, I just can't quite picture competitor SpaceX selling Orbital a rocket engine ... 

Despite the trouble, Orbital said in a press release they plan on fulfilling its contract commitments under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program as well as to accelerate an upgrade of the Antares medium-class launcher’s main propulsion system. 

MASKED:  Our art and language arts enrichment today included reading the November 2014 issue of Scholastic Art. It's a wonderful little magazine, full of gorgeous photos and examples of art from around the world. The November issue is all about masks - from artistic gas masks to carved African masks to cast metal headpieces from India, mosaic Mexican masks and more. There was also a 'Great Art Jobs' profile of John Piper, a production designer who works on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. 

COOKED:  Today, Christian had a chili cook off at work. It became a bit of a family project. The kids helped me shop for ingredients yesterday, we assembled it all last night, and Annabelle even made a cute sign for his entry. 

Tuesday Doings

CHESS CHALLENGE:  For today's math learnin', we took on a fun challenge out of "The Amazing Mathematical Amusement Arcade." 

The task: Place all 16 pawns on a chessboard, without having any row, column or diagonal have more than two pawns. (In other words, no three or more pawns in a row, column or diagonal.)

The kids tried to work on it together for about 4 seconds, but that disintegrated quickly. So, they took turns. 

I broke out a ruler to help them visualize their lines.

They each toiled on it for awhile. Annabelle finally struck upon the idea of symmetry, which was a key to the solution. I won't post the answer here, so as not to be a spoiler.

Of course, with the chessboard out, Annabelle wanted to play, and so we did. 

I can't tell you how much harder chess is when you can't tell or remember which piece is which. 

A DOG'S TALE: Yesterday marked the 57th anniversary of the first Earthling to orbit space. No, it wasn't a human. It was a mongrel named Laika (or 'barker'). She was a stray street animal, picked up from the streets of Moscow and turned into a Cosmodog for the Sputnik 2 mission.

A space-loving Facebook friend of my posted a link to a short animation about Laika. Dubbed a 're-imagining,' about Laika's mission, it's HIGHLY recommended viewing, managing to be both heart warming and heart wrenching at the same time. Have a hanky handy while watching. Poor Annabelle needed a couple of moments to compose herself afterward. She wasn't the only one. 

The award-winning work by Avgousta Zourelidi is ©National Film and Television School 2010. 
LAIKA from Avgousta Zourelidi on Vimeo.
Laika made the ultimate sacrifice, so that humans could take their next step toward spaceflight. 

She was a good dog. 

ANIMAL ART: For some arts and language arts enrichment today, the kids read the September/October issue of Scholastic Art, a great magazine by the Scholastic folks. There were a number of intriguing stories about animals in art (everything from cave paintings to modern, abstract works). One of the creations featured was Damien Hirst's "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living," which involves a real live dead shark in a formaldehyde solution. The article noted it is "one of contemporary art's most celebrated and controversial works." 

That prompted us to discuss whether or not it is art or a "readymade" as some have suggested. I brought up taxidermy, and told the kids that some taxidermists are really gifted at their craft, or artists, while others are just hacks. 

Imagine our surprise tonight when we were at the University of Washington's huge bookstore on their main campus and right there on shelves front and center were these two titles!

While there, we picked up Col. Chris Hadfield's latest book, as well as a ticket guaranteeing we'll get to meet him (again!) on Saturday, when he's in the store for a short talk and book signing event. The kids also found the brand new "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book. "The Long Haul." CJ already finished it! 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9Ltni3aMrjQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

PLAYTIME: This afternoon was a departure from our normal park routine. We met up with some new-to-us people who also engage in alternative educational paths at a local park for a Nerf war!

We only had one problem: Neither CJ nor Annabelle owned a Nerf gun before this afternoon. We remedied that by going to Fred Meyer, where we were quickly overwhelmed by the number of choices and their various features. When did Nerfing become so complicated? 

CJ settled on the Rough Cut 2x4, while Bee went for the Rebelle "Messenger" from the 'Secrets and Spies' series (I told you it was complicated). 

Fortunately, we were smart enough to figure out how to use said guns, and once the other kids showed up, CJ and Annabelle were ready to battle (though Annabelle was regretting her shoe choice. Wearing Twinkle Toes with super bright LEDs which strobe at every step is not conducive to being stealthy). 

A-SORTED:  We're trying to do some fall cleaning around here, focusing on closets and cupboards first. This weekend, we took on pounds and pounds of crayons, sorting them by color.

It was fun looking at all their different names (I've always dreamed of having the job as the person who gets to name the colors). 

Two-Fer

SEATTLE STORY:  Today we hit two museums - for free! - thanks to passes we'd scored a couple weeks back via Seattle Public Library's museum pass program. 

Our first stop was the Museum of History and Industry, or MOHAI, on the south shore of Lake Union. It's always a wonderfully educational and enjoyable destination.

If you're in the South Lake Union neighborhood, you need to play the 'count the cranes' game. Construction is going gangbusters in the area. Today, we spotted NINE cranes working away in the area. 

Once inside, the kids made a beeline for the interactive exhibit of iconic symbols of brands famous in our region. 

By spinning dials, you can light the Rainier R, make an Alaska Airlines plane fly, pedal the unicycle of the Ivar's clam and more. 

As we toured around today, I was impressed by the numerous exhibits prompting visitors to think about where and how they live, and the focus on innovations and sharing ideas.

At the "Idea Lab" on the main floor, people are encouraged to ponder what future air travel will look like. 

Annabelle noodled the topic, made a sketch, and posted it with dozens of others' contributions. 

In another spot nearby, there were response cards featuring one of four questions.   

It was interesting reading others' opinions. There seemed to be a consensus, BTW, that transportation is a problem that needs solving now. 

On the second floor, we always stop by a little theater where a wonderfully entertaining musical movie about the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. 

We found yet another opportunity for input on the second floor.  The kids had a chance to share what their 'next cool idea' is.

In a quiet corner of the second floor, we found a small room that was fashioned to look like a chamber where hearings were held during an awful chapter of our state (and nation's) history: the red scare. 

Annabelle was the prosecutor, and CJ was the suspect. Annabelle asked him a series of scripted questions about his reading habits, groups he affiliated with, social causes he was interested in and more.

The fact that he'd read "The Lorax" and was interested in environmental causes made a bit of trouble for CJ. He was informed his library card activity would be monitored, and that people would be told to avoid associating with him. 

MOHAI has a small section dedicated to music and sports in Seattle. We got to gander at the National Basketball Association championship trophy the Super Sonics won in 1979. 

And in an exhibit about the Jewish community in Seattle, we saw an amazing necklace that Alvin Goldfarb Jewelers made for Ken Griffey Jr. He's wearing it on the cover of the Sports Illustrated pictured below.

On the top floor of MOHAI, we enjoyed the view of Lake Union, all the way across to Gas Works Park. 

WE ARE 12:  After MOHAI, we made our way to Seattle Center, destination Experience Music Project (EMP). We were there just a couple of weeks ago, but we were happy to be back, as an exhibit had been added since our visit. Namely, "We Are 12," which is all about the Seahawks' Super Bowl season last year. 

Front and center in the exhibit is the lovely Lombardi trophy!

We also got to see a super blingy Super Bowl championship ring. 

One wall of the exhibit had a Seahawks by the Numbers graphic. We learned lots from it. For starters, CJ's foot is nowhere near as big as Russell Okung's.

And Annabelle's hand is a whole lot smaller than Russell Wilson's.

We learned that the Seahawks were the youngest team to ever win the Super Bowl.

And we were reminded that it only took the Seahawks 12 seconds to score in the Super Bowl (a record).

 And we were also reminded why winning the Lombardi trophy was so darn sweet ,.. Seattle had waited so long. 

We got to touch some of the turf from CenturyLink stadium. It doesn't feel or smell like real grass, in case you were wondering. 

We checked out a few items from the Pete Carroll collection. Apparently the coach has a penchant for old school Bubble Yum gum. The whistle is from practice last year, as are the gloves - he likes to toss and catch the ball with the team.

There were a couple of graphics delineating Carroll's philosophy. 

I'm guessing Percy Harvin's gone because he didn't quite fit the list below. ... 

It was fun seeing Pete's notes for a speech, scrawled on a file folder, to the team before last year's National Football Conference Championship game.

After seeing all the items on display, we went and sat in a theater adjacent to the exhibit. There, they were screening an NFL films program about the Seahawks' championship season. I think I have every play of the game memorized at this point, but I'm nowhere near tired of seeing replays! :)

While at EMP, we had to check out some of our favorite exhibits, including popping in on dear Jimi.

And we took another tour through the great Fantasy exhibit at EMP at the present. We practically had the place to ourselves, so the kids got to experiment with some of the interactives we didn't get a crack at last time we visited. They had fun creating 'cards' of themselves as fantasy characters.

This is Halloween

TREAT OR TREAT:  We spent a couple of hours today working on Halloween costumes, because there's nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?!?!

CJ's costume was a breeze - we scored it at "Binwill" a couple of years ago. "Binwill" is the outlet Goodwill store in the Sodo district where clothing is so cheap, it's sold by the pound). CJ's Gumby probably cost us 50 cents. :)  I was cleaning out a storage area a couple weeks ago, found it, and CJ was all over being Gumby, The only thing we had to do to it was build a little box to ride atop CJ's head. Without it, Gumby's head didn't have the right angles at all. Gumby's head should NOT be droopy! 

Annabelle wanted to be an "OC" or original character - a My Little Pony with its own name and story. So she's Midnight Magic, a witch pony (and a unicorn, BTW). We had the great purple cape (I bought it years ago at a going-out-of-show business sale by a theater company), she had the skirt and shirt, we bought the hat for $4.99 and made ears and a horn (her OC is a unicorn). She's wielding a great grandma's broom, and was good to go! This was, by FAR, our easiest Halloween EVER.

Yesterday, I had CJ and Annabelle watch some Gumby cartoons on YouTube so they had a better appreciation for the green guy. Created by Art Clokey, turns out Gumby was featured in a 233-episode series on American television, in a feature-length film, as well as other media. We didn't have time to watch ALL of that, but they got a good idea of Gumby's essence, so to speak. So that CJ was well rounded, we even had him watch a bit of Eddie Murphy's version of Gumby (so funny!)

I can't even begin to tell you how much pleasure he brought to people today. Seriously - dozens upon dozens of adults gleefully exclaimed GUMBY!!! when they saw him. It was so fun. CJ wasn't expecting that universal, oh-so-warm welcome everywhere we went in the Village (like every 10 feet!). 

Kids, for the most part, just stared. One mom enthused "GUMBY!!!" and CJ heard her son ask, "Who';s Gumby?" and the woman responded, "He's from Mommy's time." 

One grown man wanted to quiz CJ to make sure he was worthy of wearing a Gumby costume. Fortunately, CJ was able to answer all his on-the-spot Gumby trivia questions!

In the end, the kids got way too much candy as usual. 

SOMETHING WICKED: We took time today to read a book we found at Goodwill (the 'expensive' one, not 'Binwill, LOL') months ago. It's a fabulous pop up book based on the musical "Wicked,"  which is an off-shoot of "The Wizard of Oz."

Interestingly enough, our book is autographed by two people. I'm guessing it's people on the touring show who came through Seattle. Even without the signatures, our $2 investment for the book seems to have been a good one. The book looks to go for $50 and WELL upward, unsigned, on the Internet market places. Happy Halloween to us. :)

OH SO HARD: Rough, rough week for spaceflight. Today, my Twitter and Facebook feed started filling up in a not good way. Posts from my spaceflight fan friends pointed to something very wrong. The latest awful news ... Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo catastrophically crashed during a test flight over the Mojave Desert today. One pilot was killed, the other is hospitalized with serous injuries.

Here's the statement from Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic's partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo earlier today. During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle. The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft landed safely.
The Virgin Galactic team is cooperating with our partners at Scaled Composites and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as well as local authorities. We understand that the NTSB is scheduled to arrive in Mojave tomorrow morning (Saturday Nov. 1) to commence their investigation, which is expected to last several days.
Local authorities have confirmed that one of the two Scaled Composites pilots died during the accident. The other pilot parachuted to the ground and is being treated at a local hospital. All of us at Virgin Galactic are deeply saddened by today’s events. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all those affected by this accident.

George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic, provided the following statement:
“Our primary thoughts at this moment are with the crew and family, and we’re doing everything we can for them now. I’d like to recognize the work of the first responders who we work with in the Antelope Valley for their efforts on behalf of the team. We’re also thinking of the team members that we have at the companies that have been working on this program.
Space is hard and today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today. We’re going to get through it. The future rests in many ways on hard days like this, but we believe we owe it to the team, that has been working so hard on this endeavour, to understand this and to move forward. And that is what we’ll do.” 

Sir Richard Branson is on his way to Mojave and is expected to arrive by early Saturday morning.

We understand your interest in additional information. It is our understanding that there will be another press conference over the weekend at the Mojave Air & Space Port. We will post any logistical details as they become available, and we will provide another update from Virgin Galactic at that time in conjunction with the press briefing.
http://www.virgingalactic.com/

This week's hardships bring to mind John F. Kennedy's masterful speech at Rice University regarding the Apollo missions. ... 

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.