Who Are You?

I just noticed that the counter shows 1766 views.

Who are you?

Some of you send us email responses, or complain when we haven't posted anything. If you are lurking out there, send an email some time, would 'ya?

On another note, since both of the kids have headed back to "regular school", we aren't sure what to do with the blog, in general. Maybe we'll just keep track of trips (day and longer), or other stuff, but with the demands of school, the kids have no motivation to write on it for now. We'll see how it goes.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

We rounded out our trip back east by spending the final two days in Philadelphia. This is also where we splurged and spent 2 nights in a decent hotel. But, it wasn't that much more expensive, because I got a deal on Hotwire, and we chose to stay near the airport. This saved us money in many ways; free parking, and we turned in our car a day before we left. However, Philadelphia is a difficult city to park in, so having to drive to the city was a liability.

The Aloft hotel was very nice. The atmosphere in the lobby was "upscale youth hostel" with a hip, urban/european feel, pool table and other games, and a nice bar. Friendly staff, and loud techno music rounded out the theme. On TripAdvisor, many reviewers mentioned the music, and I do have to say, it was omnipresent. Even in the bathrooms! It could have been annoying, but I just adjusted my attitude. The hotel was very "Ikeaesque", right down to the luggage carts. The bedding and ammenities were nice though, and they had a nice indoor pool and exercise room. Down comfortors, AND, a 42" plasma TV in the room! We liked it.

When we first drove into Philadelphia from Lancaster, we drove through the big urban park, and past city hall, and ended up on South Street. I looked up to see a huge mosaic building, and we saw an open parking spot, and new we needed to stop. This amazing place was created, starting in the 1960s, by Isaiah Zagar. This particular site was several stories high, including a tiled indoor and outdoor basement, stairways, tunnels arches, and lots of nooks and crannies. Quite amazing, and I included a lot of photos here. The kids were miffed at the great deal of naked forms incorporated in the works, but I attributed that to their pre-teen sensibilities.

This same artist has also tiled many sites throughout the neighborhood, and you just can't miss them as you wander the street. Click here for his website

We also found a Whole Foods in the neighborhood (the world is getting smaller), and got some deli food to take to our room and relax.

The boy had lots of homework left to do, as we avoided it all week.

Sam groused that she was tired of me choosing all of the places to visit, so I assigned the kids to choose the activities for the last day.

They chose to go to the zoo. I insisted we needed to visit Independence Hall, as we were in Philadelphia, after all.

The next morning we woke up to snow, and wind, and cold. Sam insisted we still needed to go to the zoo. Even the boy didn't want to go anymore, but she is strong-willed. So we drove to the zoo, and got out of the car and walked to the gate. By then she realized that it really was cold, so we moved on to "Plan B", the Ben Franklin Science Museum. (We aborted the Independence Hall trip, as we drove by and saw it was mostly outdoors, no parking, and miserably cold-- we'll have to do another trip, and maybe prepare them more for it, so they'll appreciate it more).

We had a great day at the science museum.

Mom learned several things on this trip:
1) The kids are getting to the point where they need to be able to be more independent, and have more of a choice in where we go and what we do. The era of me being the boss of everything is over.
2) The kids need to take more responsibility for planning, and organizing, to go with number 1, above.
3) There is a lot to see and do in the mid-Atlantic states. We need to plan another trip to the area.
4) Traveling with pre-teens (and teens, I imagine) is not really much easier than traveling with toddlers, just more sophisticated. (PS-I'm sorry, mom, for being such a pain in the neck when I was a teenager!)

I think we'll still have fun traveling in the future, I'm just going to need to change my expectations of what these trips will look like! I think the next trip is the one we've been talking about for a while: A San Franciso weekend, where the kids get a budget and get to plan every aspect. I think they are familiar enough with the city, transportation, research, and map-reading to be able to pull it off.

Strasburg, Pennsylvania

Visiting Strasburg, Pennsylvania, in the Lancaster area, was an interesting study in contrasts.

We were lucky enough to get a behind the scenes tour of the Strasburg shops. This is a renoun facility--an active tourist excursion train enterprise, but they also contract with a variety of operations to do restoration work on both cars and locomotives. In their orderly workshops, we got to see several projects in progress.

Across the street is the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum, where we spent about 3 hours perusing the clean and sterile displays of a number of unique pieces of equipment.

I have to say, I enjoy the shops more. The smell of the grease, the noise, it just feels more alive and meaningful.

The kids were bored for most of the day. Sam said she like the smell of "ink and oil- it makes it seem cozy--like the smell of warmness". (I did not prompt her in any way, she apparently came up with that on her own).

Baltimore

The boy inexplicably woke up on Tuesday vomiting, which made our cruddy Red Roof Inn-Baltimore Airport hotel room all that much more appealing. When we went to the B & O Museum, all he wanted to do was sleep, so we let him stay in the car.

Sam was mortified that I was taking so many photos (she's getting to that age where she is clearly embarased by me). We participated in a tour, and took the speed-touring version of the museum.

The best parts were the beautiful roundhouse and turn-table (all interior), and the remains of the Sturbridge Lion, the boiler of the first steam engine imported from England in 1830 (or so), for use by a rail service. Lap seam construction (I know what that means now) and other quirky differences in construction.

They also had several early steam engines showing a vertical boiler configuration. Made it really obvious that all steam engines are just glorified boilers on wheels.

East Broad Top Railroad

Apparently, East Broad Top is analagous to Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, in that it is an operating steam locomotive maintenance shop and roundhouse, over 100 years old, and there just aren't any of these things left anymore. Much like in Jamestown, they have an operating machine shop with central power and a leather belt system.

On the day we visited, it was closed for the season, and there was no one around. I thought this added to its stark appeal, although it would have been nice to see inside.

This railroad is privately owned, and is narrow gauge. Like Railtown, it was a short line. It is in the town of Orbisonia, next to Rock Hill Springs (south of State College, and a very small town).

Sayre Shops

Many family members this weekend shared their steam memories. One of my uncles was generous to make copies of some of the old shop photos he has hanging on the wall in his barbershop. Another uncle shared a memory of seeing a long row of steam engines with "scrap" painted on their sides.

Its sad to see so little remaining of the old facilities, considering that they were responsible for so much of the area's development.

Sayre, Pennsylvania

I was born in Florida (parents in the military) and then lived in Sayre, Pennsylvania (where my father grew up) until I was 7, when my parents divorced and moved with my mother to California (where my mother grew up). We then spent summers in Pennsylvania, and the school year in California for many of my childhood years.

This past year, I got interested in family genealogy and spent some time doing research. It appears that for several generations on my father's side, the family actually lived in Towanda, PA. It wasn't until this trip that I understood why.

Apparently, Sayre didn't exist as a town until the mid 1870s. It appears that my great-grandfather moved from Towanda for a job at the railroad shops. These were some of the largest shop facilities on the east coast, and included 76 acres of facilities, including a large roundhouse, car shops, a blacksmith shop, and more. The town grew around the facilities, and many people moved here from the surrounding areas for jobs, including my great-grandfather. Then, my grandfather and grandfather moved to Sayre to join them.


My great-grandfather lived on S. Lehigh Avenue, directly across the street from the switch yards. My parents bought the house next door, and that is where I lived until I was 7. I remember when friends came over to play, they were always excited when the trains went by, but I was used to it. I also remember playing trains with a long line of cardboard boxes, seems to have been a favorite, but maybe that is with all kids.

Heading East

The kids and Mom (that's me), headed back east to Pennsylvania, for my maternal Grandmother's funeral. Started the trip early last Friday morning, flying out of Modesto on a tiny Brasilia EMB120.

Promises of junk food, cable TV, and a brand-new Gameboy game for each, softened them up for several side trips to Pennsylvania train sites, which mom is interested in, but the kids-- not so much.

Sam is very excited about the prospect of meeting new relatives. The boy is just zoned out on his game.

Back to School

Wow, its been over a month since last post. Dad got a job, he starts tomorrow.

The Boy started back at "regular school" on Monday. Here's what he said about it: "I got there, there was no sign of Dylan anywhere, this year so far, the people I have hung out with are Cameron, Peter, Donovan, Jack and Ronnie, and his friend, who I have not really met before, and I do not know his name".

"New classrooms, new books, new teacher, new desks, new building. (But its the same school, they just rebuilt). I sit right next to my friend Cyrus, and right in front of him is my friend CJ. I think I did really well at social studies, because me and Dad had already done a lot of Middle East studies, and our discussion in Social Studies was about the ancient Israelites."

The Girl bought a "American Girl Julie" game for her nintendo DS. Right now her Dad is doing an algebra problem to help her complete an assignment in the game. Hmmm.

The kids and I head to Pennsylvania at the end of the week for a family funeral. Its been a while since we've visited that side of the family, so we are looking forward to it. We plan to post about it.

Mccain Blog II

This is the second part of the John Mccain blog entry.

He is the U.S. senator from Arizona, from1987 to the present. He was a U.S. representative from Arizona, from 1983 to 1987; He was the Senate Navy liaison, from 1977 to 1981. He was a U.S. Navy pilot and captain, from 1958 to 1981.

His seven children are named Doug, Andy, Sydney, Meghan, Jack, Jimmy,and Bridget. He is an Episcopalian. He was born on Aug. 29, 1936.

He supported and served on at least five legislations acts and committees that I know of, there could have been many more. The first one that I know of is that he was on a committee with John Kerry that was going to find out if there were still any POWs left in Vietnam, he worked with senator Feingold on the McCain Feingold act, he supported the cap and trade legislation for emissions control but it didn’t pass, he supported immigration reform and was on the senate Indian affairs committee.

Density of Various Materials

We completed an investigation of mass, volume, and mass density. Dad directed the experiment and explained the concepts, and C did the measurements and calculations. In addition to introducing the physical concepts, we also discussed ratios, error, and accuracy.

We measured the mass and volume of small samples of granite gravel, glass marbles, aluminum, steel, alkaline batteries, and a candle. We measured masses using a triple beam balance. We measured volume with a graduated cylinder filled with water by putting each sample in the water and measuring how high the water rose. We found the density of the materials by dividing the mass by the volume.



We don't know why blogger puts this big space here. Go figure.

Sample	mass(g)	volume(ml)	mass density(g/cc)
rock 1	13.2	5	2.64
rock 2	10.1	4	2.53
rock 3	10.0	4	2.5
marble 1	19.0	8	2.4
marble 2	5.4	2	2.7
X-acto handle 1	13.4	5	2.68
X-acto handle 2	23.7	9	2.63
socket adapter	70.6	9	7.84
bolt	38.4	5	7.68
c battery	69.5	22	3.16
aa battery	24.3	8	3.04
candle	8.5	10	.85

When making our measurements we had to use a small wad of poster goo to keep the marbles from rolling off the balance. The mass of the goo was too small to measure. We used a skewer to knock air bubbles off of the X-acto handles and shook the bolt in the graduated cylinder. We pushed the candle down into the water with the skewer because it floated.

We looked up standard values for the materials on the web. For granite and steel we found average values because those materials are mixtures. Our measured values agreed with the average values. For aluminum (the X-acto knife handles) the standard is 2.7 g/cc. For paraffin wax the density is 0.93 g/cc.

We wanted to compare our measurements with the standards for paraffin and aluminum, so we calculated the percentage of error:

% error = ((measured value - standard value)/standard value) x 100

For aluminum our percentage of error was 0.7% for the first sample and 3% for the second sample. The measurements for aluminum seemed pretty accurate. For paraffin our percentage of error was 9%. A possible source of this error might be our use of the skewer to push the candle into the water. Another possible problem might be that the candle wasn't pure paraffin.

C enjoyed this experiment, but now is very excited to run out of the room and go play with friends.

the source of light

Light comes from charged particles moving all over the place.
Charged particles move in the sun creating light that is beamed to earth.
In fire, light comes from a chemical reaction when electrons from the fuel and oxygen bounce all over the place.

Connections by C II, by Dad

I have always been amazed by my son's ability to make connections across his diverse fields of study, and that's why I'm excited to find the Connections program on YouTube. Perhaps C will be the James Burke of his generation. As an example, he came to me recently to point out the deep relationship between the blade of his peanut knife and the bill of Opus the penguin.

Dagwood Sandwich for C

I have been enjoying Dagwood sandwiches lately. Yesterday's had ham, salami, mayonnaise, lettuce, cheese, pickles, red onions, and tomato. My sister had a quesadilla.

Connections by c

Today we watched a few YouTube videos. Some were Monty Python, another was Carl Sagan, and the last was James Burke. His point was to show us how much we rely on technology. He showed this by telling us about the great power outage of 1965 when all power in the northeast United States was shut down when a single relay went. He also discussed early civilizations and inventions.

my week by c

On Fridays I'll be posting a summary of my home school week.

This week I played baseball twice. The second time, our friends c2 and o came, so we had four players instead of two and we were able to actually run the bases. Also for home school I started a blog about John McCain (see below), dad and I started reading a book called Understanding the Holy Land, and for math and grammar I did Dailygrams and Math with Pizzazz.

my second political article by c

In my last article I focused on Barack Obama but this time I will do one about John McCain.
He was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936. He has had two wives one was named Cindy McCain the other was named Carol McCain.

During his military service in the Vietnam war he was taken prisoner in Hanoi. He had been shot down by a missile that was probably fired by the Hanoi home guard. When he parachuted into the water at Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi, his shoulder was crushed by a rifle butt and he was bayoneted in the butt and feet. When he was a POW for five and a half years he was tortured. The torture ended when he was released in the year 1973.

To be continued

My first Political Article by C

This is my first article in a series of articles to inform everyone about our current political situation. This is my very first blog entry that I have ever done in the series in my whole life.

This is the story of Barack Obama. Barack Obama was born in Honolulu Hawaii in 1961 from a white American mother and a black Kenyan father he now has a wife and 2 daughters. He has had three jobs that I know about, they were the Illinois senate, US senate and a community organizer. His wife Michelle is vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago hospitals. His net worth is 1.3 million, his annual salary is $158,000, his primary residence is Kenwood, Chicago, Illinois.

Before he was even a senator he said this about the Iraq war:

"I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne."

"He's a bad guy," Obama said, referring to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him. But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history."

"I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U. S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences," Obama continued. "I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda."

First Day of School - Compare and Contrast

The Boy- (starting 6th grade, homeschool)- Made his "to do" list (lesson plan) the night before. (this is new this year). Slept in until 9am. Had breakfast, then crawled into bed with Dad to be read to from The Return of the King (Lord of the Rings). This year the boy will start doing the blogging for his projects, starting Friday (that's the plan, anyway).


The Girl- (starting 5th grade)- Planned and organized all evening. Got up at 6 am, made her lunch, and annoyed mom to get going. Rode bikes to school. Arrived 45 minutes before school started, and worried that she was too late to meet up with her friends.

After Photos of the Trailer Project

Reservations now being accepted through 2008.

What We Did on our Summer Vacation- Part 2

Girlmar blonderoni went to camp, again. So Boymar and mom hiked around Pinecrest Lake, then went for a swim. In an amazing story (which many of you have already heard), Boymar lost his (expensive) glasses at the bottom of the swimming area, on Monday. Dad took him to order new glasses on Tuesday. On Thursday, when they went to pick up the girl, the boy when swimming, and viola! Found his glasses! Now he finally has a spare pair.

What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

We didn't do any camping this year (well, one night at BB)! Or any travelling, either. Just job transitioning for mom, some work around the house for Dad. But we did some other fun stuff, like disassembling mechanical and electronic objects (that's a typewriter, and 8 track deck above). Boymar blonderoni has developed a huge enthusiasm for broken things. "Oh cool, can I take it apart?"

Last Days of Summer Vacation

Isn't it amazing how soon school starts these days? Today was the first day of school for both of our kids. This is what we did on Monday to celebrate the last few days of the summer vacation.



This is part of Stanislaus National Forest. We turned right on the Forest Service road at mile marker 44.5 on Hwy 108 (about an hour from Sonora, CA) then went 6 miles to Eagle Creek trailhead. We just went for a day trip and played in the water, but it looks worthy of a future camping trip. We were there on Monday, and there wasn't a soul around. Camping is free in the semi-primitive campground. (No drinking water, but decent pit toilets and fire rings). Its right on the edge of Emigrant Wilderness, and the road to this area closes with the first snow, but we might try to go back and camp later this season. Looks like it would be amazing in the "Spring". (High Sierra Spring is in July).

The Latest Enterprise

Like we didn't have enough to do. . . new project; 1978 Komfort Travel Trailer. And, yeah, its about as nice as you'd expect for a 30 year old travel trailer. . .

More Mousie

Ok, so the boy and I set the trap again around 9pm. When I got home at midnight, guess what? Mousie! But, was it the same one? Hmmm. Looks a lot the same, but maybe thinner? Can't really tell.

So, I get the brilliant idea to mark the mousie, so if it comes back again, I can tell if its the same one. (See, all of that college education paid off.) I dump the mousie into a paper bag this time (easier to carry when I walk down the street), and I put on some gloves, prepare my sharpie, and attempt to catch it. I figure I'll mark the ears. They are big, and mostly hairless.

The mousie can jump really high. It jumped straight out of the paper bag, and ran under the hot water heater. Sigh. So much for that brilliant idea.

So, I set the trap again.

I've got to get some snap traps.

Here Mousie, Mousie

At the Basin abode, I (mom) have been having a nightly stand-off with the mousie. The turd in my oatmeal was the last straw. Didn't have any snap traps, so I set the 'Tin Cat' and within a few hours, the mousie was entrapped.

But ooooooh, so cute! Those beady little eyes, and such huge ears! I couldn't bring myself to be its executioner. Besides, this is a park, for pete's sake, and its a native mouse. And, we've bonded.

So, I stuffed some carrot bits into the trap and went to bed. First thing this morning, I released it to the trash can, took some photos, and marched down the road in my bunny slippers and PJ's to let it go. I was afraid to be caught wandering in my outfit, lugging the trash can, so I didn't go too far. Perhaps s/he'll come back?

No Learning Mom! Its Summer Vacation!

Thats what Boyus blonderoni keeps telling me.

We're having a mostly TV-free summer (although they were introduced to the Munsters last night). They are both practicing touch-typing, music, and doing a lot of reading. But mostly, its just unstructured playing.

Highlights so far have been airplane making, cleaning rooms, and a messy outdoor game we like to call "mud pit".

Kitten is Growing!

By request, more kitten photos:

Elbow Luxation, or Dog vs. Deer

We created a monster 5 years ago, and now we are paying the price. When we first brought Lulu home, we thought it was cute to say "git the deer", and she would bark at them. We didn't have a fence in the garden then, and awwww, wasn't it cute? Quickly, we saw how stupid it was, but it was too late, she had already become obsessed.

She's had a couple of close run-ins with the deer in the past. Usually she charges them, they charge her back, and she runs back towards us, and all is well. However, yesterday, things were different.

Lulu charged a doe, the doe charged her back, and kept coming. Apparently, not willing to settle for that sort of treatment, Lulu took another run. She was pummeled by the doe, who used all fours to stomp the rolling, roiling ball of dog mass. The doe finally took off when the squealing and shrieking emanating from the dog was unbearable, I guess. The squealing from the girl wasn't much better. The boy was at a friend's house, and missed the action.

What was left was a horribly disformed front leg. I tried to manipulate it and it wasn't a compound fracture, so we figured it must be dislocated. Which, it turns out it is. This is what it says, somewhere on the internet (so, it must be true!)

Elbow luxation is usually associated with trauma causing the lower portion of the joint, the radius and ulna, to move laterally (away from the body) relative to the upper bone of the joint, the humerus. This condition is also known as a dislocated elbow.

A history of trauma, fighting with another animal, or falling from a height can be associated with elbow luxation. There is no specific age, sex or breed predeliction. Younger animals tend to fracture at the growth plates of their bones rather than developing a luxation.

Affected animals are unable to bear weight on the leg. If untreated your pet would lose useful function of the front leg.

Being Sunday, all of the local vets were closed, so we had to drive to the valley to the emergency vet. The leg was X-rayed, set, and splinted. The dog is now sedated, a blob. We are still trying to figure out how to get her to go to the bathroom. She has to stay on bed rest for up to 2 weeks (ligaments heal slowly) if we are to have any chance of avoiding additional surgery. The bill is already $600 and growing.

Can't really blame the dog. We were the stupid ones (probably me, really), who started the whole "git the deer" game in the beginning.

Wonder if she'll learn? Probably not.

Cali became Chessie

Cali's name has been changed to "Chessie" after Chessie the kitten from the old train ads. (See example below).

They Hatched!

Only 3 hatched.
We found this one dead under the bush, the other one is AWOL. We had a funeral for this one.

Kitten Report

I have wanted a kitten since Christmas last year. I hope I get one this year for my birthday. They are cute, lovable, and funny. But there are many responsibilities. You have to feed them, love them and play with them but I think I can do that. I want with characteristics like this: comes to me when I come home, young enough to train, tabby or calico, friends with Toeser and Lulu, not too feisy, full of fun and cute. I would spend so much time with it, here is my daily routine: Wake up, feed it, eat my cereal, go to school, come home, cuddle, feed again, homework, train, eat my dinner, chores, play, snuggle, sleep. Thats a long day but it ought to be fun. These are my weekly chores: empty the litter box, brush, play, train, love play and pay attention. By Sam Sam got her wish, and here she is with a little 5 week-old bottle-fed kitten. She will be very friendly because she will depend upon Sam for a lot the next few weeks, like teaching her how to use the kitty litter box, and cleaning up her poop (especially on her fluffy hair- yuk).
Sam had to give her a bath to clean up the poop off of her tail and butt. Fun! Look, how much skinnier without the fluff!
Oh, but isn't she cute! Awwwww. She is very slightly calico (see the orange blurs?) so she was named "Calli".

Scratch

We've been working with a kids visual programming language called Scratch created by the Life Long Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. You can check it out and download the program at http://scratch.mit.edu/. Our first Scratch explorations were just checking out the sample projects included with the download. Scratch is based on manipulation of graphical characters called sprites using scripts constructed from modular program elements. Here's the interface showing some built-in characters that Sam was playing with.


C's first project involved taking photos of him with his bayonet and sword so he could set up an animation. It was more an exercise in Photoshop, but he had a good time learning how to select himself and export the pictures to Scratch. The background is from a Harry Potter printer projects CD.

There are four separate pictures (called costumes in Scratch) of him brandishing his weapon that make up his animation. We expect to use this project as the basis of a more complicated project later.


The script is simple--it just loops through the costumes with a delay to make it visible.

The kids will sit for hours just playing with the program. We've had neighbor kids over and gotten the same reaction. I burned them a CD with the program. This is a long way from the tty terminal we had in high school for our Basic programs. We would type them in and wait for our turn on the timeshare system. There's a pretty elaborate website set up at MIT that has projects submitted by kids of all ages from all over (parts of) the world. I uploaded one project I was playing with just to try it out. You can view it at http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/oldfogey/158563