Notes from the Ocean

Photo JPL: This panorama, taken on Feb. 20, 2021, by the Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, was stitched together from six individual images after they were sent back to Earth.

MARS MARVELS: NASA continues to release still images, video, and even audio from the Perseverance rover landing last week.

There are three or so minutes of video that is absolutely stunning of the rover descending toward the Red Planet. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg

Below is the embed code for the video Once upon a time, this used to work on blogger. I'm hoping some day they fix that feature. 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4czjS9h4Fpg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

While watching the video, I couldn't help but wonder about the pattern on the parachute. I figured it had to mean something and it wasn't just random. Turns out there is a code stitched into that fabric. 

JPL explains, "Using binary code, two messages have been encoded in the neutral white and international-orange parachute gores (the sections that make up the canopy's hemispherical shape). The inner portion spells out "DARE MIGHTY THINGS," with each word located on its own ring of gores. The outer band of the canopy provides GPS coordinates for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the rover was built and the project is managed."

                        PHOTO: JPL

Humanity now has the first ever audio recording beamed back from Mars. If you go to this page on NASA's site, https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-mars-perseverance-rover-provides-front-row-seat-to-landing-first-audio , you can listen to the audio both with the rover's noise and with the rover's sounds filtered out. Turn up your speakers, because Mars is pretty darn quiet at least at Jerero Crater. 

ELKS CLUB: The last couple of days our neighbors have included a sizeble herd of elk. They have been just across the street from us to the east, out on the beach in front of us, to the west, and they were even roaming the golf course when we stopped at McMenamins (outside, of course) for some happy hour Cajun tots.

Here they are on the side of our road. This shot was taken with my cell phone, no zoom used.

The elk were enjoying leisurely grazing on the greens at the golf course. There's a group in the middle, but look at all the dots on the hillside above them. Those are all elk.

Eventually the golf course greenskeepers tried to (gently) coax the elk to go elsewhere.

PUZZLED: For the past couple of days, this Springbok 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle has commanded some of our attention.

Per the box, every piece is a different shape. It was easy goings for the first 50 percent, but the last half was a real slog.

PORTHOLE: I really love the view out of this little porthole window in a bathroom upstairs.

Beachy Keen

SEASIDE: MPA has a change of venue for a few days. On Sunday, we drove down to Gearhart, which is just north of Seaside, Oregon. We're staying in what used to be Christian's paternal grandpa's house again. Built in 1941, it's right on the beach front. I was saying to the kids last night that it's very odd looking out the window and not seeing a single man-made structure between us and the horizon. 

When we arrived, the local herd of elk was hunkered down on a hillside right across from our driveway.

How many can you spot? There are at least 20 in this frame.

We spent Sunday getting settled in. The dogs seem right at home here. 

We're doing our usual things - homework and work work - but just in a different place. CJ has lots of writing and reading to do for school, but he's also taking time out for a little craft project, finally piecing together a Perler bead kit he got for Christmas.

Below are Annabelle and Christian at their temporary work stations. 

The weather on Sunday and Monday was crazy miserable. Sheets of rain coming down sideways. We spent some time mopping up leaks around the windows and hoping for a break in the weather. Finally, last night at sunset the clouds started to break up.

Tuesday morning has brought blue skies and whitecaps on the Pacific. Once the kids get up and about, we'll definitely get out and enjoy it while we can!

STORYTELLERS: A couple of days back, an email from Seattle Parks & Rec popped up. One of the items included was news of a free class for teens coming up, "SoundBites: Exploring storytelling and radio journalism."

The description read, "Join KUOW’s RadioActive Youth Media for a deep-dive into audio storytelling. Each session will focus on a different topic, including narrative storytelling, interviewing like a broadcast journalist, and hosting a podcast. These sessions are geared toward youth who are interested in writing, storytelling, journalism, podcasting, and amplifying youth voice. You can attend each session, or choose just the sessions you’re most interested in." It runs for five weeks, mid March through April. 

I hopped online and signed the kids up. I've long suggested to CJ that he might want to start a history-related podcast some day, and Annabelle might be interested in a D&D-themed show in the future. KUOW is Seattle's NPR station, so this class seems like a great place to learn about broadcasting today.

REWIND: A couple of scenes from last week. First up is a classic Parker Brothers' game, Waterworks. My sister and I spent hours and hours playing this in the 1970s. It's still plenty fun, even though I never seem to win.

The sketch below is from Annabelle's Friday night Gage art (virtual) get together. 

I thought she did a great job.

Friday

SOL 1: So many cool shots already coming from the Perseverance mission! For instance, the one above from is part of a video taken by several cameras as NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. (I can't wait to see the whole video). This pic of the rover being lowered was taken by a camera aboard the descent stage. 

And in the photo below, taken by Mars Reconaissance Orbiter, the rover's capsule is under parachute is a tiny speck mid frame. However, you can see it more clearly in the blown up square. 

             Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The photo above is even more amazing when you ponder the fact that MRO was traveling over 1,000 miles per hour and was over 400 miles away when it captured the image of the rover closing in on Jezero Crater.

If you haven't had enough of the Perseverance landing coverage yet, check out this one minute recap: https://youtu.be/L6dx0pO5MSw

DOUGH GO: Today, we made bagels for the first time.

But ... is it really a bagel if you bake it instead of boil it? I think a purist would say 'no.' So maybe we made some bagel-shaped rolls. 

Anyway, these silicone molds and our Danish dough hook came in very handy.

We made two batches. The first was just flour, baking powder, salt, sour cream, some milk, an egg, and some spices. 

They turned out pretty well! They certainly look like bagels.

The second batch had flour, milk, egg, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, yogurt, a little sugar and some raisins.

Not bad for a first foray. Not sure we'll ever make them again (we don't really eat bagels very often), but it was fun to try something new.

Perseverance

HAPPY LANDING: We had NASA TV on all morning, but at noon we got serious about our viewing, as within the hour, the newest Mars rover Perseverance would land - or not- on the Red Planet.

Things started happening pretty fast starting at about 12:20. The capsule holding the rover was closing in fast. About 12:40 or so, the first chute deployed, slowing things down considerably. 

Not too long after, the sky crane kicked in. Jets helped slow the descent, and the rover was hanging from the crane, a tricky maneuver to be sure. 

We held our breath as frequent updates were announced and milestones along the way were reached. Then, finally, at 12:55 our time, Perseverance touched down in what sounded like a perfect landing. Hooray!

Just a moment or two later, there were images from the Martian surface, taken by Perseverance! I loved seeing its shadow on our neighboring planet.

                     PHOTO: NASA/Bill Ingalls

In a post-landing press release, NASA informed, "About the size of a car, the 2,263-pound (1,026-kilogram) robotic geologist and astrobiologist will undergo several weeks of testing before it begins its two-year science investigation of Mars’ Jezero Crater. While the rover will investigate the rock and sediment of Jezero’s ancient lakebed and river delta to characterize the region’s geology and past climate, a fundamental part of its mission is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. To that end, the Mars Sample Return campaign, being planned by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), will allow scientists on Earth to study samples collected by Perseverance to search for definitive signs of past life using instruments too large and complex to send to the Red Planet."

We used NASA's Mars Photo Booth to put CJ and Annabelle on the Red Planet

One of the next Really Big Deals involving this mission will be testing the helicopter. That's right, there was a flying machine along for the ride with Perseverance. Called Ingenuity, the copter is a first for NASA - or any space agency. If it succeeds, it will mark the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Here's a short animation from Jet Propulsion Laboratory showing what that might look like.

Prior to today's the main event, we braved the tail end of a.m. rush hour traffic to make our way to Krispy Kreme in Seattle's Sodo area. We wanted to get there early, as the special doughnuts were one day only, limited supply, first come, first served.

We masked up and walked into the surprisingly empty store. We were the only customers. I thought out chances were great that we'd get our Mars doughnuts, but when we rounded the corner to the display case, the two trays labeled Mars 2020 were empty! Our doughnut hopes and dreams were dashed.

However, we asked the friendly Krispy Kreme worker if there would be any more Mars doughnuts available today, and she said they had 'a few' in back. Hooray! We were in luck. We excitedly handed over our boarding passes and waited for the highly anticipated, limited edition treat.  

Imagine our surprise when we saw the doughnuts. I couldn't help but wonder if they were in the back because they were such a train wreck, visually.

For, you see, the doughnuts on social media were these beautiful orbs with swirled shades of red, and a dusting of "Martian" soil. 

The constrast between what we were expecting and what we were given was so sharp, I thought I'd do a little Photoshop side-by-side.

Meanwhile, up north Kennedy trekked out for his Mars doughnut. 

Clearly the North Aurora doughnut artist was having a better day than the Sodo one. 

Kennedy's doughnut was a work of art, relatively speaking.

So Close

Conceptual art: NASA

MARS TOMORROW!: You know what we'll be doing midday tomorrow ... watching NASA land their Perseverance rover on Mars!

You can tune in for live coverage and landing commentary from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) beginning at 11:15 a.m. West Coast time on the NASA TV Public Channel and the agency’s website, as well as the NASA App, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion, and THETA.TV. Touchdown is scheduled for approximately 12:55 p.m. 

Months - or was it years? - ago, we filled out an online form to get on board this mission. Our names are being carried to Mars on Perseverance, and we even got official boarding passes. 

Turns out these passes are going to pay off. Tomorrow we can get a FREE Mars treat at Krispy Kreme if we show them our passes. You know we'll be all over that!

                                        Photo: Krispy Kreme

BLOODY ORANGES: So, we like trying new produce from time to time. "A raspberry orange? Well those look like fun," I thought.

Until I cut into it and it looks like organ meat <shudder>.

And then when I started squeezing it for the juice I needed for a recipe ... double shudder. It looked like the prom scene from "Carrie" on my kitchen counter.

No thanks.

With my eyes closed, I used the grated peel and juice in a recipe for our Cubanos sandwiches tonight but ewww. 

WEIGHING IN: Last week, the kids were asked by a former teacher of theirs to submit a video explaining their preferred learning style and how they like being able to choose their own topics of study when that's an option. The teacher friend is working with a Seattle high school who has a number of kids struggling with the online learning model and who have lost interest in education. She is encouraging teachers to perhaps mix it up a bit with how .

I forwarded the request to the kids and told them they were on their own to make the videos, as I was busy that day trying to get COVID doses in my parents' arms. Happily, they did make the videos. Yesterday our teacher friend emailed thanking them for their input and it reminded me that I hadn't even viewed the videos yet!  

If anyone wants to take a peek, they were here ...

CJ: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13RODafmFgJ5r2pHD-NtV0n59nhQIbg8d/view?usp=sharing

Annabelle: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19q-Lu2taKU3XsWlmI14WkmFaa5EBmgf-/view?usp=sharing

Cake and Campuses

 

CAMPUS VISITS: This morning, we worked hard to put the finishing touches on donation cake for Birthday Dreams. Once we got that done, we dropped it off at their office and headed south, Tacoma bound. We wanted to visit a couple of potential colleges for CJ, University of Washington Tacoma and Evergreen State College Tacoma.  

We've driven past the UW campus in Tacoma many a time. It's in a very urban setting, and just a bit south of the Tacoma Dome, in the city's arts/museum district. 

Parking was easy as the campus is deserted in these darn pandemic times. We walked the length of the campus east to west and back. There was lots of interesting architecture to admire. I think the building below, from the 1890s, is the oldest on campus.

Mid campus, there's a set of stairs leading up to a big W. I

In the middle of campus there are abandoned railroad tracks. Most of the campus' buildings flank the tracks.

We were so fortunate to have some blue skies during our visit!

There's an interesting art installation on site (see the blue squiggles below). It's a map of waterways, from local to Africa.

The photo below was the headwaters of the installation.

Random spotting: We found a solitary snail on a campus bench.

The UW campus is across the street from the Washington State History Museum, seen below. Pretty nice proximity for a history major who's interested in museum studies.

While in Tacoma, we also swung by the Evergreen State College campus. From a facilities standpoint,  it's significantly less grand than UW Tacoma. It's just one building and block was encircled by one of the biggest city camper encampments I've ever seen (and that's something coming from a person from Seattle). It has been so cold out, and we couldn't help but think of the human suffering going on in that block. 

We did a lot of talking after visiting both campuses today. CJ is more interested in the curriculum than the campuses, which I appreciate. I found a link to the list of history classes spring and winter quarter at UW Tacoma. It's super enticing to CJ. He was like a kid in a candy store reading it.

All things considered, he has as couple of questions an admissions counselor should be able to answer, but CJ is definitely seeing purple and gold. He's probably just a day or two from signing on the dotted line.

SWEET STUFF: We try to make sure to do at least one cake a month for Birthday Dreams. February is marching right along, so a couple of days ago, we checked out the Birthday Dreams wish list for a cake we could take on. We settled on a 15-year-old who didn't pick a theme for their cake but it was noted she loved teal and white. Honestly, it was harder to do one without a clear cut theme. We wanted to make something she'd love, but didn't know, exactly, what that would be.

We decided to do an over-sized cupcake cake. We'd done one a couple of times before, but it had been years. We used a Big Top Cupcake silicone mold we have. I remember using it about 4-5 years ago and not being thrilled with how the batter baked in the mold. I didn't remember what a kind of disaster it is. It's waaay too deep, so the sides and bottom and top brown and the middle is raw. No bueno. Ugh.

 

We were so unhappy with the way the top 'baked' that we pretty much threw it out. (We did salvage one slice from it to use in the bottom mold.)

We wound up salvaging it by making some small layers in the bottom part of the mold. We opted to make the top of the cake a Rice Krispies treat instead and iced that. You can't tell by looking at it that it's not cake, and really, most people love Rice Krispies treats, so I think it's OK.

One thing that did go really well was using teal candy melts to make a candy 'wrapper' to hold the base cake. It was really pretty and darn near perfect. And we worked *really* hard to make the icing for the 'normal' sized cupcakes match the candy melt teal color. I think we did a pretty good job of that!

One thing you can't really see in this photo is that the cake board is covered in marshmallow fondant that is embossed with words (like "fun" and "happy birthday" and graphics like cupcakes and party hats). Just another fun, custom touch we hope the birthday girl likes.

The roller is pictured on the left in the photo below.

And below is a shot of the early stages of building the candy melt cupcake 'wrapper' up.

If we do something similar in the future, I would just bake the cake in some of our 6-inch cake pans and then cut them down to fit in the bottom bold. The Rice Krispies atop worked great.