How we spent Christmas Eve 2012

A taste of things to come: how we spent Christmas Eve 2012.













Merry Christmas, everyone!

(And Happy Birthday, Neighbor Geek!)

My Plant Project

At school we are learning about plants. We had a choice of whether or not to do an optional project to make a model of a flowering plant. I decided to do it.

I cut petals out of blue felt. Our neighbors let us borrow their glue gun to put the flower together. We used straws to straighten the petals. Here's a picture of the side with the straws:

This is a picture of the other side:

After glueing the petals together I added the sepals. The sepals are the leaves that protect the flower before it blooms. Here is a picture of it on the side with the straws:

And the other side:

Earlier I had made a stem out of a boba straw and stuck two intertwined pipe cleaners into it to color it green. Then I poked a  hole in a box and stuck it in. After that I taped on some yarn for roots. Here is a picture of all of that:

I had also made the pistil (the "female" part that has what will become seeds) and the four stamens (the "male" part with the pollen) earlier. I attached them together with the hot glue gun. Here is a picture of them:

Then came putting it together. We attached a bent paper clip to the stem and poked a hole in the petals and sepals. Then we used the hot glue gun to attach the paper  clip to the pistil. After that I  glued on the leaves. That left one last step. I had to label the parts. I had a numbered list with the functions of the parts, so I only needed to use numbers. Here are the parts: 

• Ovules- the "eggs" that will become seeds
• Ovary- holds the ovules
• Style- brings pollen to the ovules
• Stigma- catches pollen
• Pistil- the "female" part of the plant. The ovary, style, and stigma are part of it.
• Anther- makes and stores pollen
• Filament- holds up the anther
• Stamen- the "male" part of the plant. The anther and the filament are part of it.
• Petals- attract insects to pollinate
• Sepals- the leaves that protect the flower before it blooms
• Stem- transports nutrients throughout the plant
• Leaves- absorb energy from the sun
• Roots- absorb water and nutrients from the soil and keeps the plant grounded

Here's a picture of the finished plant:

Note: Daddy helped with the glue gun.

Old Rag

On Friday 11/23/12 Daddy and I hiked up Old Rag. This is us at the bottom at about 10:45:

The trail was rocky and it zig-zagged back and forth a lot. I got tired soon after we started, so Daddy gave me almonds and chocolate-covered blueberries.

After a lot of normal steep trail, we came to "the rock garden", a part of the trail with a lot of rock scrambling. There was a rock that hung at an angle over another rock. I had to get on my side and squirm under it. A little after that there is a "staircase" of rock. Here I am in front of it:

Here is Daddy in front of it:

At one point we found a rock balancing on another rock. Here I am "holding it up":

After more scrambling and hiking we finally reached the summit. We reached the summit around 1:45. Here we are standing in front of the sign saying that we reached the summit:

Here we are on the tippy top of the summit:

Here we are where we ate lunch (in front of that rock):

Here is the view:

After all that we had to hike down again. We left the top around 2:45. The sign (see above) told us that we had 5.2 miles left. There are 9 miles in the trail. It took until around 5:00 to finish.

The hike was pretty fun, but it was tiring.

Announcing a new author!

Mama Geek and I are happy to announce that Geek Girl is now a full author on our blog, rather than a guest poster. Be on the lookout for some new perspectives from our third author, who is even now writing her first official post... Clearly, we have too many Apple devices in the house.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wieder Auf der Straße

Guten Morgen!

I'm on the road again, this time in Germany for the upcoming week. I'm meeting with colleagues for the kickoff of an international collaboration for data exchange.

I'm excited to be in Europe but I know I'll miss Mama Geek and Geek Girl. To help with that, GG gave me my traveling companion for this trip: TJ the Tiger.

I give you TJ catching up on the news:





And TJ having breakfast in the Lufthansa lounge while we await our connecting flight.




I'm also a happy aviation Geek - I've seen two A380s so far on this trip.

More to come this week.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

California explores LAX

My traveling companion on this trip got bored waiting for our delayed flight home. Have you ever tried to control a cat in an airport?

At first, she played solitaire...



She is well-read...



But then boredom sets in...




Cali is displeased...comfortable but displeased.



Yep, still delayed.




Yes, Cali, you are a cool cat. Now let me have my sunglasses back, please.



Yes, we are really in LA.




Hey, what's up? Oh, just stuck in LAX. Meow.



Hipster cat finds an acceptable bed.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Los Angeles, CA

Civil War Day

(Guest Post by Geek Girl who wants to know when she gets her own account.)

Today was Civil War Day! There were several activities. One was making quilt squares. I made two with patterns. I made up the designs on the others. This is my quilt:   

The symbols mean: sail across the Great Lakes, follow the North Star, river, follow river, bear den, berries and honey, gather for long journey, follow river and don't eat the berries, and stop at the log cabin by big pine. The message says: Sail across the Great Lakes, then follow the North Star until you reach the river. Follow the river until you reach the bear den, where you'll find berries and honey. Gather as many as you can, because a long journey is ahead. Follow the river and don't eat the berries you find. Stop at the log cabin by the big pine tree.

Another activity was making butter. They filled little containers with whipping cream. Then you could shake for two minutes. After shaking it, you would have butter and buttermilk.  You could put the butter on a cracker and eat it.

Another thing was making cartridges. You could wrap paper around sticks, and then flatten the tops. They would fill it with coffee beans as a substitute for gunpowder after you took the stick out.

Got Eggs

Geek Girl and I were busy this afternoon:




Now all we need to do is stuff them with confetti (well, maybe not all of them), order some new grates for the grill, pick a date for a party, and smash 'em!

Queen for a Day

Another year, another birthday. Spring Break is over and we have survived. It started off with a hike at Great Falls and an Odyssey of the Mind competition that involved two trips to the only Krispy Kreme in Northern Virginia (Geek Girl liked the donut machine). Daddy Geek had conferences in town and out of town, so Geek Girl and I stayed close to home. One day she read for over 5.5 hours! We also had a couple of playdates with friends, went to Oxon Hill Farm and National Harbor, and Potomac Overlook Park. There was an aborted trip to the zoo (didn't feel like dealing with the parking) and a quick visit to the Natural History Museum.

Daddy Geek returned from the West Coast this morning and we had the water boiled for his morning coffee. After freshening up we headed to the local library to stock up on more books because, horror of horrors, Geek Girl had run out of books to read. Then the local Easter egg hunt chaos. Now that Geek Girl is 9, it's a little easier for her to get eggs, but her first year in the 7-11 age group she didn't get any...

Here's Geek Girl waiting for the egg hunt to start:


And her unique way of transporting her Easter basket:


Afterwards we went to Liberty Tavern for the brunch buffet. Geek Girl liked the French toast, sausage, and brownies baked as mini muffins. After we waddled out of there we headed to the Tidal Basin to enjoy the spring weather. Lots of tourists and kites around. Stopped by the Floral Library again.

Armed with her sketch pad, Geek Girl recorded some tulips in crayon:


And took close-ups of others after we told her she had to stop drawing:


After our walk we went to The Sweet Lobby to pick up some birthday macarons:


There was a line out the door. Now that I've checked their Facebook page, it turns out they had a write-up in the Washington Post today so that may or may not have not contributed to the popularity. We got spicy curry mango, orange-ginger, cappuccino, chocolate, passion fruit milk chocolate, green tea, red velvet, milk chocolate, and red hot chili chocolate. It's a good thing we don't live too close!

The Wax Museum

This is a guest post from GG, with minimal edits from Daddy Geek.

My class had our Wax Museum on Wednesday! The Wax Museum is when we write a report about a famous American and dress up as that person. It's harder than it sounds. First, you get a research book from the library. Next, you take notes on note cards. Then you write your rough draft. After that you revise it. Finally, you either neatly hand write or type your final draft. I was Amelia Earhart (AE). These are some pictures of my AE costume:


That was my frozen position.



This is me giving my speech. By the way, the hat is a dog's, the scarf is a dog's, and the goggles are doggles. My class also made posters. You can see mine in the first picture. Two 2nd grade classes and part of one 4th grade class came to the Wax Museum. Our parents also came, along with some teachers. I was nervous, and I got even more nervous when the principal came to my desk. I asked Mommy to bring me water, and she did. I got thirsty a lot. My water bottle fell and leaked, so I limited myself to one drink every five people. A lot of people were pulled away in the middle of my speech, but I did finish sometimes. After our wax museum, my class went to the classroom next door to see their wax museum. I spent most of the time looking for another AE. I had enough time to listen to Nellie Bly and get in line for Milton Hershey. (The only reason I did that was a, the guy had Hershey chocolate bars, and b, no other place was open. More likely a.) Then we had to go back to our classroom. That was the Wax Museum.

[A note from Daddy Geek: the Doggles, scarf, and hat were originally the costume for my friend Steve's dog; Steve kindly loaned the costume pieces for the cause. GG was dismayed at first to discover they fit pretty well -- "My head is the same size as a dog's?!" -- until I pointed out it is a pretty big dog. Thanks for the loan, Steve!]

March Mayhem 2012

March Mayhem was Friday! Mommy drove ahead and Daddy and I walked. Daddy painted my face and I painted his.

After we painted each other's faces, we started walking. We stopped at Flippin' Pizza for dinner on the way. We got to the middle school soon afterwards.

When we got there I got pompoms. Then we found Mommy and went to look at the gift baskets for the raffle. I ran into two of my friends. When I was looking for Mommy I ran into my teacher.

We got into line with our neighbors. When we got into the gym, we tried two different seat arrangements before we sat down. Then there was a flag ceremony and The Star Spangled Banner. I found out that I know more of the national anthem than I thought.

Soon afterwards the teams came out. My school came first and the middle school (MS) came out afterwards. They played knockout to decide who got the ball first. Then the game started. My school scored first, but MS tied quickly. A pattern started of one team scoring and the other team bringing it back to a tie.

In the break between 1st and 2nd period, they had a basket shooting contest. Ms. R. was the first player from my school. I don't remember who the first MS player was. In the 2nd period my school won the first half. At halftime my friend E and I went on the floor. A bunch of students from my school were cheering and jumping by one of the hoops. I started cheering too and lost an earplug.

Then I hurried back to my seat for the 2nd half. In between the 3rd and 4th periods the mascots tried to shoot but none of them did. The 2nd half was tied. A player from my school dunked the ball but he was a second too late! As he slammed the ball down the whistle screeched. But March Mayhem was still fun. My school didn't lose and we have been losing for ever!

After the game Daddy and I walked to the ice cream shop where Mommy met us. The ice cream felt good after the screaming.

[Daddy Geek helped edit a bit - mostly to clean up names.]

Avian Fluid Dynamics

This morning, I found the following in my Twitter feeds:

I had to follow the link on that one, which took me to a PDF copy of an article from the journal Polar Biology, entitled "Pressures produced when penguins pooh - calculations on avian defaecation", by Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow and Jozsef Gal of the International University in Bremen, Germany.

This is apparently the single most frequently downloaded paper in that journal, and contains the following as Figure 1:

"Fig. 1 Position of model penguin during defaecation and physical parameters used to calculate rectal pressure necessary to expel faecal material over a distance of 40 cm" (Meyer-Rochow and Gal, 2003)

This paper is actually a pretty interesting read for those who've studied fluid dynamics - and really, who isn't interested in the fluid dynamics of poop?

Mama Geek, a biologist and former chemical engineer, was especially predisposed to it. She was excited when she saw that the paper notes that penguin poop is still in the laminar flow regime ("What's the Reynolds number?!") and does not, as the abstract so delicately puts it, "lead to an energetically wasteful turbulent flow."

I have two thoughts on this one. First, remind me not to stand downwind of any chinstrap or Adélie penguins. Two: "Science. It works..." (xkcd to the rescue again).

Spring Portrait

You'll notice that the last post did not include any photos of Girl Geek--or is it Geek Girl? All I know is that I better not refer to her as Little Geek Girl. She took most of the pictures during our walk.

However, we did stop to photograph her:


This is the face she makes when Daddy Geek says "Whatever you do, don't laugh."

By the way, the last time we measured, she was only 6 3/4 inches shorter than me.

Ack!

Around the Tidal Basin

This is a guest post by Geek Girl with minimal help from Daddy Geek.

Today we walked around the Tidal Basin. These are some things we saw.





This is part of the Tidal Basin with the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. The dots in front are geese. And speaking of geese, we saw a lot.




We also saw ducks. Lots of ducks. Ducks in water and ducks on land. Mommy and I also saw ducks in grass on the way.




Well, the reason we went was to see the cherry blossoms. Here are some pictures of them:










After a little while, we went to the tulip library. Here are some pictures of the tulips:



















There are a lot more flowers than the ones I just showed you, but I took too many pictures to show.



As we left, I got a final picture of the Tidal Basin.

That was our visit to the Tidal Basin.