Friday, October 15, 2010

Science Friday


A while back I read this cool post on how to attach a $5 microscope to my phone and use the phone's camera to view and photograph stuff. I've been wanting a computer-attached microscope for Audrey and Charlotte for a long time - this fit the bill just fine.

I finally ordered the microscope last week and it came today. It took me about 3 minutes to get it set up and then the girls enthusiastically viewed everything we could think of. The photo gallery shows the best photographs they took.

At some point in the future I'll get them a real light microscope, but for now this works great.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

The Rockery


Regular readers may remember that over Labor Day weekend we visited the Ipswich River Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary, which includes The Rockery - a small mountain of boulders with paths and caves built by the former estate owner. The girls have been asking to go back ever since. Yesterday we returned.

We had no schedule so the girls were able to play at the Rockery as long as they wanted. They really enjoy climbing around on the paths and through the grotto. Audrey likes to go off-trail and climb the steepest way, of course. She is her father's daughter.

The weather was gorgeous - mid-60s and sunny. The trees are just starting to turn and the forest and ponds look magical. I was very content.

This visit we wandered around on some of the other trails in the sanctuary. We found the old stone bridge under which is lots of pond scum. Audrey and Charlotte discovered that if you throw a stone into it, you make a hole in the algae but that it quickly closes up again. They proved that to themselves via repeated experimentation.

The Rockery is going to be a family favorite to which we will return many times while we live here.

Topsfield Fair


The biggest fair near Boston is the Topsfield Fair held every October. This fair has been running since 1818. Topsfield is about 20 minutes from our house.

The fair is very popular and friends had told us the best strategy was to go before it opened. We did, and we were able to drive right in and park with no traffic. We even got in before the fair officially opened and got to wander around with no crowds at all.

There was a petting zoo where the girls could pet goats and sheep. They also had elephant rides. Audrey had one but Charlotte was not interested.

When it came time for "lunch" we had to indulge in fair foods. First course was a cinnamon bun. Then some fried dough, of course, and later on some maple cotton candy (delicious!).

When we weren't stuffing our faces we saw sheep, cows and rabbits. And in the vegetable barn we saw one of the main draws of the fair: the 1600 lb. winning pumpkin.

I also took Audrey on the big slide. As is her pattern, she was a little trepidatious but ended up absolutely loving it.

By 1:00 or so it was getting really crowded. Carol had the brilliant idea to quit before everyone got tired and cranky so we did. After we left the parking lot we passed the three-mile long line of cars waiting to get *to* the fair. Yup, we did it right!

Maker Faire New York


I've subscribed to Make: magazine since the first issue several years ago. I wish I had the time and money to make just about every project they publish. Once in a while I get to make a project with the girls. It's part of my secret plan to make geeks of both of them.

A few years ago they started holding Maker Faires in the Bay Area and I've been waiting for the opportunity to attend. Earlier this year they announced there would be a Maker Faire in New York City in September. Sign me up!

The original plan was for the whole family to go for the weekend. But the girls have ballet on Saturday morning and Audrey has soccer. For some reason ballet feels "serious" and we don't want the girls to miss it if we can help it. So the plan changed to driving to New York on Saturday and coming back Sunday. Carol wasn't interested in that plan, and we figured Audrey would enjoy the fair a lot more than Charlotte, so it became an "Audrey and Dad" trip.

We got out of Boston about noon. I had decided to stop in Hartford, Ct to visit the brand new Connecticut Science Center. Hartford is exactly halfway to New York so it would be a nice break. We spent three hours at the science center and Audrey had a lot of fun playing with water, robots, electricity and music.

Sunday morning we got up early so we could be at the fair before it opened. It was held at the Hall of Science (New York's science museum), which was the site of the 1964 World's Fair.

Well, the fair was fantastic. We started at a booth where Audrey built a marshmallow gun out of PVC plumbing parts. Later she built a sailboat and learned how to crochet (the same publishers produce Craft: magazine). I think the highlight for Audrey was learning to solder. We assembled little badges with blinking lights. Audrey did a great job and was careful with the hot soldering iron.

We also watched a game of Life Size Mousetrap, watched the "Jet Ponies" and rode some unusual bikes.

Another highlight for Audrey was walking in a big tub of oobleck (non-Newtonian fluid). The girls have played with this at preschool and home, but it was cool to get to walk through a huge batch of it.

Finally, we had access to the Hall of Science itself which has a large Science Playground. Audrey loved the big rope web she could climb in.

The Maker Faire met all of my expectations and I'm very glad we made the trip. Hopefully it'll be an annual New York event.

September Fun


We've been having great luck with the weather for several months now. Seemingly all of our rain has come during the week and the weekends have been very pleasant. So we've been having a lot of fun outdoors.

The third weekend in September was Carol's birthday. On Saturday I took the girls to the Middlesex Fells near home for a few hours to leave Carol alone. We revisited one geocache that we had found previously and also found a new one. If you're not familiar with geocaching, people create "caches" containing a log book and some trinkets, then hide it and publish the coordinates and a description on a geocaching web site. Using a GPS device, one can go looking for them. When you find one, you leave a trinket that you've brought and perhaps take one that you like from the cache and sign the log. It's a great thing to do with kids.

On Sunday, Carol's actual birthday, we served her the traditional breakfast in bed. The girls set the menu: green eggs and ham. I couldn't figure out how to make green ham on the spur of the moment, but the eggs came out great.

At midday we went geocaching again, this time in Breakheart Reservation. We had a very pleasant walk in the forest and found two caches. There was a third that has apparently been "muggled" - taken by the uninitiated.

Sunday afternoon we had a bunch of the neighbors over for Carol's birthday party potluck. Carol had slaved for hours to make her favorite chocolate cake. We had a lot of fun.

For her birthday I got Carol one of her favorite things: a Lego house kit. She spent the next week putting it together with the girls after school. We now have a whole Lego village in our living room. Except Charlotte says we still need a grocery store.

We are more than a month into school now. Audrey is making great progress on reading and math in first grade. And Charlotte greets Carol every afternoon with "I love school!"

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Breaking Glass


I've been trying to dispose of the debris from the kitchen remodel with as little material as possible going to the landfill (or wherever garbage goes here - I really have no idea). I've been able to give away most of the stuff (old cabinets, the pallet on which the the new cabinets were delivered, etc.) on craigslist and freecycle.

The old double door that I removed was rotten and no one wanted it. I figured I'd remove the dual-pane glass cartridges from the doors and someone might want them to build into new doors. But when I was trying to remove one of them I broke one of the dual panes. It was pretty cool, because I stressed it and cracked it. The fracture spread very slowly. I was able to go in the house and get the girls so they could watch and listen to the pane slowly fracture all the way and then, with a tap, collapse into a pile of "diamonds".

But that left me with a cartridge with one intact pane and a bunch of rough broken glass around the frame. Nobody wants to handle that. In order to dispose of what was left I needed to break the second pane. That sounded like a great thing to let Audrey do. I set her up with safety glasses and a hammer and told her to start swinging!

She didn't like the loud noise of the hammer blows, and she thought the glass would be even louder when it broke. So I added ear protection. Two blows later and the job was done. Both Audrey and Charlotte thought it was pretty cool.