Sticking the Landing

There has been a lot of press the last week or so about the impending landing of the latest Mars rover, Curiosity. On Sunday, it will enter Mars's atmosphere at a speed of about 13,200 mph, and in the space of about 7 minutes will have to slow to a full stop. NASA engineers have developed a series of ingenious systems involving rockets and parachutes and ultimately a "sky crane" that will hover above the surface to lower Curiosity gently down. All of it has been tested, but none of it together, and so some NASA officials have dubbed the upcoming event Seven Minutes of Terror.

On another note, despite my objections, we watched the full prime time coverage of the Olympics last night. What can I say? Not only does she like dancing, Heidi is a fan of gymnastics, too. I can say this-- NASA should consider using a few of the fab five on their own team. Talk about practical experience with hurtling full speed through the air only to come to a complete stop-- those golden girls know how to nail it.

I Can See Clearly Now

Especially since I took down all the curtains, washed them, and washed the windows, too. Several years ago, when we hired our weekly housekeeper, we told ourselves that having someone do the basics would free us up for more frequent deep cleaning.

Why then did the dog watch me with such concern as I worked? Could it be that at the age of nine, she's never seen me do any housecleaning? Maybe she just doesn't remember. Isn't that Estella's job? she seemed to ask as she tiptoed around.

The cat was upset as well. I thought we agreed that we wouldn't change the smells around here! she might have sniffed if she could.

But it really felt good to get a few things done, and who knows what might get cleaned or fixed around here tomorrow?

Final Destination

"The guy at the garage said fill it up, set the odometer to zero, drive 40 miles, and come back. It will pass with no problem."

That's what Heidi told me when she picked up the Jeep last week after it failed its emissions test for the second time. It sounded like hocus pocus to me, but you don't really have a lot of options when you have no idea about the thing you need fixed. As a couple of women, we do our best in this area, enlisting men when we can, and trying to find establishments we trust.

In what can not be characterized as anything other than avoidance, we got home, parked the Jeep, and let it sit there. Unfortunately, its registration expires tomorrow, so yesterday we hopped in and headed out. My first idea was to drive straight down the interstate for 20 miles and then turn around. It might have worked, but for the sign we saw just a few miles down the road, Exit 160 12 miles 37 minutes.

"Oh no," I said, "Get off at the Beltway."

From there it was like a puzzle-- what would be a 40 mile loop from our house? I was all over it. With an eye on the mileage, we passed Route 50, Route 7, and I-66. "Let's take the GW Parkway," I said. We were only at 29 miles when we came to I-395, so we kept going through Old Towne and back up King Street to home.

Mileage? 40.1

Epilogue: It passed! 

No Harm Done

We were in the theater parking lot this morning when a friend rolled up behind us. "Hey! Are you going to see Batman?" she asked eagerly.

I stepped up to her window wide-eyed and clutched the door to her Jeep. "No!" I said. "We're going to see Step Up Revolution." And then I raised my eyebrows and jerked my head at Heidi and our neighbor Susan.

Our friend laughed and then pulled away to park. We ran into her again at the ticket counter, and she hooted when we boarded the escalator for the little theaters on the upper level. "You can't embarrass me," I called as we were whisked up and away to the top of the building.

And I realized that I meant it. Heidi loves those dancing shows, and she wanted to see this movie. Plus, to be honest, it was actually pretty entertaining.

It was a lot like fast food-- slick and artificial, but tasty and satisfying in the moment. 

Necessity's Child

Roasted tomato, onion, and squash blossom tarts
Peach and arugula salad with hazelnuts and chili-lime vinaigrette
Corn on the cob

Who needs to go to the store?

It's All about the Traction, Baby

We spent about three hours at the pool today, all of it in the water. Oh sure, we had a good reason, but we also had some severe monkey fingers when we got out.

When we were kids, that's what we used to call that wet finger pruny-ness. Until today, I never even wondered why that happens, but I guess seeing a 3 month old baby's feet wrinkle all.the.way.up made me consider that particular human reaction.

Fortunately for me, I did not have to go far for a theory. The New York Times did a little research on their own about the phenomena. The article is worth a read, but the high points for me were 1) It's a nervous reaction-- sever a few finger nerves and it will not occur. 2) It's only humans and macaques that are so wired. (Think about that, George Allen.) 3) Refer to the title.

Time Warp

It's just a jump to the left

One of the folks I follow on Twitter recently posted some excellent advice about limiting screen time. The gist of it is to 1) set a limit, and 2) follow it.

And then a step to the right

One of my birthday gifts was a DNA test and access to an ancestry web site. The whole family tree thing is addictive. Everyone has a story, but it is obscured by time... multiply that by four families and several generations, and that's a lot of clues to sleuth out. No worries, though, I'm just the (obsessive) detective for the job.

With your hands on your hips

Listen to this! One of your relatives was the elephant keeper at the Buffalo Zoo!

You bring your knees in tight

There goes another day with hardly a bathroom break.

Let's do the Time Warp again!

Note to self: use timer tomorrow.