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It is a random Tuesday. So you get random Tidbits. Here.

Tidbit #1. So, today I totally got scolded indirectly by the Colonel. It was pretty hilarious, really, in an embarrassing sort of way. But I learned my lesson... maybe. For a WHILE anyway.

Tidbit #2. This is totally just for CC. Okay, everyone can look, but I only expect her to either laugh her head off or throw something sharp at me for it. THAT'S A RISK I'M WILLING TO TAKE.

Tidbit #3. Sometimes I feel my job is just a very drawn out scavenger hunt. It's like Find a reliable online source for all of the following for under a buck each
1. Tadpoles
2. Caterpillars
3. Papyrus sheets (which, incidentally, is how I stumbled across Tidbit #2)

"DJ takes up Prostitution...

a Very Special Full House... I mean Friday Fave Fives!

e-Missions: Moon, Mars, and Beyond, (the WannaBe Space Camp) Highlights!

1. Best Resource: STELLARIUM. Available for FREE at http://www.stellarium.org/ for download it is really fun and the kids love making the ground disappear, zooming in on planets, and making the PICTURES of the constellations appear over the constellations themselves. You can do a TON with it if you are willing to explore the hot keys.

I HIGHLY recommend it.



2. Best Book: Next Stop Neptune: Experiencing the Solar System by Alvin and Steve Jenkins. Well, my favorite illustrations anyway. I liked the collage-style, especially the cloudy stuff. Awesome.



3. Best way to teach graphing: Draw a Shuttle.


4. Best hands on way to understand the size of the Solar System:
Marking receipt paper with scaled distance. One half did Astronomical Unit equaling one centimeter. But another we did AU equaling a METER... and look how far it stretched!

5. BUT THE VERY BEST PART OF THE DAY CAMP:

It is over and it is the LAST day camp of the summer!!!!!!!!

However, some other, ummm, honorable mentions and basically random stuff from camp.

* glue sticks, scissors, and a lot of patience... build a shuttle that FLIES! (It's a pdf)

* a cool NON-flying paper model shuttle (the other models are awesome too, if you like those things!)

* A TON of logic puzzles like this:

Outer Space Circus Sideshows
by Randall L. Whipkey

Last Tuesday when the Outer Space Circus came to town for a performance, Bobby and Teddy thrilled at the Midway with its panorama of exotic sideshows featuring beings from across the Milky Way. The boys paid to see five sideshow performers, including the Head, a being with no body. Can you find the order during the day in which Bobby and Teddy saw the five outlandish acts: the name (one is No Wa Ben) and home world (one is from PsiReef) of each geek and what makes each Outer Space Circus sideshow material?

1. Bobby and Teddy saw Ji-Dome earlier in the day than the being from the planet New Oz; they saw the New Oz alien earlier than they enjoyed the perplexed look on the Teleprobe's face as he read their minds.
2. Immediately after visiting the tent where they were in awe of the Transparent Man, a creature whose internal body parts are visible through a totally clear skin, the boys took in the native of Ilegate.
3. Bobby and Teddy were wowed by the Walking Stick, a 13-foot alien also billed as the Tallest Being in the Galaxy, right before they saw the Incredible Kreskeno's act.
4. The boys saw TuPaK immediately after paying to see the native of the planet Andromeda-77 but earlier in the day than they saw the Sheebang Charmer, who works with the Milky Way's deadliest serpents.
5. The being whose sideshow they saw 2nd isn't Azaliana.
6. The tents of Kreskeno and the sideshow geek from New Oz were next to each other on the Midway.
7. Ji-Dome, who isn't the Sheebang Charmer, and the native of Andromeda-77 require special breathing chambers to live on Earth.
8. TuPaK was Bobby's favorite sideshow entertainer; the being from planet Qrptn was Teddy's.

(Answer)

* a little rocket Tangram. (another pdf, just fyi)

* hot dog shuttle. Eww. Hot Dogs. But cute?

* hilarious kids. Because, well, they just ARE.


You'll notice I am only talking about the good stuff. That is on purpose. This was a rather hellish week. And I would rather just FORGET some of it, you know?

Yeah, even though I love the SUBJECT, just bad... timing. Emotionally.

Anyway it was the last day today. And the last day camp of the summer. WOO HOO!

So, between field trips and after school classes, my next big project will be to do for the Children's Garden what I was doing for the Dinosaur Museum. Basically make up field trip curriculum that follow state standards. So that's where my job is headed temporarily (like, till winter. (When I will definitely NOT be moving to California...))Well, that and I may go back to substitute teaching if it doesn't give me enough hours, but I am not that worried about it right now... I am a "part-time" employee who RARELY goes home before 7 at present. So, yeah, I am not worried about hours yet. I *will* be... but right now I NEED less. Because I can't really handle things right now.

Last night I set up my Padre's tank for my little boy Tortuga and he LOVES it! It is only temporary (I am BORROWING it... he gets it back for fish when they move. And so I will keep looking for a big tank) but needed and he looks SO much happier already! He LOVES more room to swim. It makes me happy to see HIM happy. He's a good little turtle.

red headed step children and watermelon bombs

I am so annoyed at the Powers-That-Be at TGP right now. We, the Education Department, are always... ALWAYS... the red-headed stepchild of the organization. And it is getting worse. Hee hee hee... Okay, TANGENT... Sorry, the phrase Red-headed Stepchild kind of cracks me up.

When I was little, I overheard my dad say to a friend about his golf game. "Yeah, he beat me like a red-headed stepchild!"

It totally confused me.

I had to ask why red-headed stepchildren were better golfers... which lead Padre to a very awkward explanation to his 5 year old about what child abuse had to do with the situation. HEE HEE HEE!

Which, actually, has amused me ever since, because the idea that a Red-headed Stepchild was a BAD thing seemed to me INSANE since my HEROES were just that.

I mean, Annie was pretty cool. She had a dog, and I was jealous of her for that. And she was tough.

And then there was the fantastically hilarious PIPPI LONGSTOCKING! I LOVED her! I think Gilmore Girls put it pretty well.

Luke: ...You know, Rory is like Pippi.
Lorelai: Pippi?
Luke: She can have adventures and be free, she's smart. The whole world's waiting for her.
Lorelai: You're comparing Rory to Pippi Longstocking?
Luke: Pippi is strong and independent. She can lift a horse above her head. Uh-huh. And beat up bullies and build a hot-air balloon. She's unique, like Rory. But I guarantee you, if Pippi had met Dean, there would be no horse, no balloons. He'd drag her down to his level, spend all her gold coins, and poof, like that, all her dreams would be gone.

I was Pippi one year for Halloween. And the PET THING? She had a horse AND a monkey and probably could have bought more with her pirate gold if she wanted and was just AWESOME.

But the RHS that has meant the most in my life anyway has been, of course, Anne Shirley. I wanted so badly to BE Anne. I loved the movies. Later, I loved the books. I could imagine BEING her. I imagined we were definitely "Kindred Spirits."

"And people laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?"
~ Anne

Oddly, all of this rambling about how much I secretly wish I was a LITERAL Red-headed Stepchild, is just because I was about to say how annoyed I sometimes I am that we, the education department, are the FIGURATIVE RHS of TGP. SGary has hired his own B***h to do OUR job for HIM. But not the same. She is Cheerleader and there are MAJOR problems at work right now. I am worried things are about to get worse.

On the one hand I have the greatest job on the face of the earth. On the other, we are paid very little and are disrespected by every other department.

We blew up a watermelon like these... yet, sort of less... uhh... regulated so there was a bit more fire. It was AWESOME. But here is a TASTE of our Self-Carving Jack-O-Lantern Melon!




Steve Spangler is my HERO!

Science! I say Science Again!

Okay, so, you know how sometimes you are ready to write in the MOMENT but later you just don't want to feel like getting into it?

That is the situation with yesterday.

And so forgive me if I move on to today which was more fun anyway (except the movie... Dear Frankie... which was quite good, by the way.)

I admit that most of the day I was within an inch of a melt down (stress and I are not friends) but as it is OVER I can say it WAS a fun day camp. It was "FUNdamentals of Science" for ages 6-8 and it was full... about 30 VERY energetic kiddlets... and funny.

I had them learn mostly about states of matter... with as many (mild) explosions as I was allowed. We learned why Dry Ice was dry. We learned how to make really big bubbles. We made Oobleck.

More specifically, have you ever blown bubbles into a clear container of water and dry ice? The bubbles will bounce on the "smoke."

AND if you have water and dry ice and add dish soap to it, it will blow bubbles itself... that when you pop them are filled with the "smoke." Kids LOVE it. (So do *I*) If you have never done it, TRY IT.

Of course, we also made root beer. We did it wrong. Not their fault. MINE. You should really put only HALF the water in with the root beer extract, sugar, etc. THEN put in the dry ice. THEN the rest of the water. Instead we put in everything put the dry ice at once, and so when the ice went in I got covered in sticky root beer mix.

We also made "CO2 Sandwiches"... vinegar and backing soda exploding plastic baggies, played "Neutron Tag" (basically buddy tag but they are being positrons and electrons), etc.

However, one of my favorite things was still exposing a bunch of little kiddlets to Coke and Mentos! hee hee hee hee hee!



Ours was just, you know, NORMAL, and not so Bellagioesue, but STILL fun. Though we did experiment a few (Diet Coke seemed to go higher than Not Diet. Caffeine Free and Not caffeine free (or as some of the kids called it "Bad Coke and Good Coke" which cracked me up.) seemed to make no difference. However nothing so dramatic (or silly) as this:



But the kids were still pretty dang entertained that I was COVERED in Coke. (yes, what a lovely day to have a social thing after work... I get to go to a party covered in Coke... and root beer... and vinegar and baking soda and Oobleck and sweat and bubbles... and the regular pony hair and goat slobber.

With all the states of matter I thought we ought to have a little fun with non-Newtonian fluids (because, really, how funny is it to make 6 year olds SAY "non-Newtonian fluids") and we made Oobleck. hee hee hee! I *heart* playing with that stuff!
If you were curious...

Oobleck

Materials Needed

• 1 1/2 C. Corn Starch
  
• 1 C. Water
  
• Food Color (optional)

Mix the ingredients and allow children to play with the mixture. When"pushed" together, the mixture will appear dry and solid; as children let go of the mixture, it flows like a smooth liquid.

(However, you usually have to adapt it a bit., or we did anyway... like add more of one or the other... plus, apparently if you have ENOUGH you can do THIS:



Then we made ice cream (shaking it, like we make for the 2nd grade field trip) to put in our root beer and have root beer floats! (Sweeeeeet Science!)

After work I stayed in Lehi for a PARTY!!!! YAY! It was a Baby Shower, but NOT a boring one! In other words we did not have to drop diaper pins into jars or any of those games. It was way cute and planned by the lovely Laurie for Bethany and fam... well, and especially, obviously, the BABY of said family.

It was SUPER cute, good food (I used my child labor connections and brought root beer made by my day camp/sweat shop students for MY potluckery. hee hee!), and fantastic people (many of which are/were Linkster friends of mine. I am sure I am forgetting somebody, but there was GranolaGirl, NerdSpouse, Brentito, CountessKrispy, Travbabe... of course Thai and Scott and Thai's sweet mom... and the STARS Buck and Awesome (and Little Buck and INCREDIBLY ADORABLE mini-mike, Baby David!) and Darci and... others. Yeah. And ponies. It was good times!

And as for the baby, seriously... GORGEOUS BABY, isn't he?

And as for the title... hee hee hee!