Neighbor kids

The neighborhood kids around here are very entertaining. You just never know what you're going to get when the doorbell rings. Once, we got a turtle from a couple of little girls carrying it around in a tupperware-type container. 'Our mom said we had to get rid of him,' they said. Unfortunately, Lloyd was home at the time, and so, the turtle was invited to live with us. I reached out to take the container, and the older sister said, 'Our mom wants that container back.' Now I have a turtle AND I know what dinner invitations to decline.

Last night a charming and polite little boy I didn't recognize rang the bell, looking for Miss Julie. I told him where Miss Julie lived, and he went on his way. About ten minutes later, the bell rang again. When I opened the door he said, 'Excuse me for interrupting you again. I don't mean to make fun of you, but is this the house where the washing machine caught on fire?' We assured him that, no, that wasn't our washing machine, but the next door neighbors'. He then shared some personal information about his family and asked all of our names and how old Weston and Shane were: 'And how old is this little guy?' Then he asked if we were SURE that it wasn't our washing machine, because he had heard it was our apartment number. Lloyd helpfully pointed out the correct door and told him to go ask them about it.

Before he left, I asked him if his mom knew where he was, and the truth came out. He said, 'No, she's at the movies, but my dad knows where I am.'

Thirsty kitties

I walked into the kitchen this morning after hearing the 'glug, glug, glug' of the water dispenser. Weston and Shane were crawling around in a big pool of water and licking the floor.

They explained that there were thirsty kitties and had to drink off the floor because that's what kitties do, forcing me to actually utter the words: 'The next time you need to drink off the floor, please put the water in a bowl first.'

I followed that up with another winner: 'Hey! Wanna watch TV?'

I have to teach someone social skills now?

There is no shortage of things I am not good at: sewing, solving a Rubik's cube, trimming my bangs, scrapbooking, and playing poker, to name just a few. But my social skills are really substandard, and always have been. I was a gawky, awkward child; a tentative, self-loathing teenager and now I am an adult who reluctantly muddles through social situations with clenched teeth and crossed fingers. So how the hell am I supposed to help Weston figure out how to solve his social problems?

I obviously can't model successful behavior for him so I am reduced to mouthing platitudes when Hannah doesn't want to play kitties, or when Jack wants to play Star Wars clones and Weston doesn't. I have tried several things, and I was really optimistic when I taught him to ignore someone. We role played and everything. I played Weston first, to show him how to ignore, then I played Jack while Weston practiced ignoring me. It worked great, and he loved the game. Yesterday he had a chance to showcase his new skills.

We were playing at Jack's house and Weston didn't like what he was doing. I have no idea what it was he didn't like and I don't really care. All I wanted was for the squealing to stop, immediately if not sooner, and I reminded Weston of the techniques he has at his disposal when someone's behavior doesn't suit him. He decided to ignore Jack and was super excited about it. So excited that he said, 'Look, Jack! I'm ignoring you!'

Family pictures

These are some pictures taken by my friend Tori last month. Aren't they GORGEOUS? I am really excited about them, and I haven't even seen them all yet. She also did some wonderful nursing pictures for us.

Alas, Tori has moved back to the United States of Target so all us Osanites are out of luck. But if you live in Maryland and want some family photos, she is definitely the girl for you.

If you can send a geologist to the moon....

Why can't you send them all there?

*updated to add: I have no idea what is wrong with the font on this post; I have tried to fix it and failed multiple times. But then, I'm just a stupid geologist.

Nothing like a little geo-humor to liven up the day, right? You might be surprised to know that there are many, many geologist jokes. And by that I mean actual jokes that are funny. To geologists. Not geologists that are jokes. Though of course there are many, many of those, too. But, here's the real surprise: Geologists are actually useful sometimes! Engineers, not so much. Except when they calculate how many beers, to the nearest tenth, you can have per day and stay within your alcohol ration.

Source of Moon's Magnetism Found

SPACE.com Staff

SPACE.com Space.com Staff

space.com 43 mins ago

Moon rocks delivered to Earth by Apollo astronauts held a mystery that has plagued scientists since the 1970s: Why were the lunar rocks magnetic?

Earth's rotating, iron core produces the planet's magnetic field. But the moon does not have such a setup.

Now, scientists at MIT think they have a solution. Some 4.2 billion years ago, the moon had a liquid core with a dynamo (like Earth's core today) that produced a strong magnetic field. The moon's magnetic field would have been about 1-50th as strong as Earth's is today, the researchers say.

The MIT team found evidence for the molten-core theory by analyzing the oldest of all the moon rocks that have not been subjected to major shocks from later impacts — something that tends to erase all evidence of earlier magnetic fields. In fact, it's older than any known rocks from Mars or even from the Earth itself.

The rock was collected during the last lunar landing mission, Apollo 17, by Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, the only geologist ever to walk on the moon.

"Many people think that it's the most interesting lunar rock," said MIT's Ben Weiss, who is senior author of a paper on the new finding being published in the Jan. 16 issue of the journal Science.

Weiss and his colleagues used a commercial rock magnetometer that was specially fitted with an automated robotic system to study the rock's faint magnetic traces. The results helped them to rule out the other possible sources of the magnetic traces, such as magnetic fields briefly generated by huge impacts on the moon. Those magnetic fields are very short lived, ranging from just seconds for small impacts up to one day for the most massive strikes.

Rather, the rock readings showed it must have remained in a magnetic environment for a long period of time — millions of years — and thus the field must have come from a long-lasting magnetic dynamo.

That's not a new idea, but it has been "one of the most controversial issues in lunar science," Weiss said.

Until the Apollo missions, many prominent scientists were convinced that the moon was born cold and stayed cold, never melting enough to form a liquid core. Apollo proved there had been massive flows of lava on the moon's surface, but the idea that it has, or ever had, a molten core remained controversial.

Their findings fit in with the prevailing theory that the moon was born when a Mars-sized body crashed into the Earth and blasted much of its crust into space, where it clumped together to form the moon.

Introducing C Mike Dish

C Mike is my dad, and C Mike Dish is his new blog. You can find it here, or on the sidebar right under the OPN community blog. For your reading pleasure, here is the introductory post:

It was always fun to "go down to Renton" on the weekends and pa was always generous in taking us along when he went. Downtown in those days was really where the action was. Three movie house on 3rd street (Roxy, Rainier and Renton); Hub City Drugs (lots of toy guns and caps); eating out at Longacres Cafe where my mother worked for awhile; just the general break in the rather rural routine at home. Trouble was, to GET to Renton and home again required two passbys of The Boulevard Tavern, aka "Frenchy's". This watering hole, just north of the south entrance to Gene Coulon Park, was a social gathering place for local folks and pa had trouble not stopping there to visit and drink with friends and neighbors. So we kids, either eager to get to the big city or tired and wanting to go home, sometimes both, would have to stay in the car in the parking lot for at least one beer. If his visit lasted awhile pa would come out to the car with treats, usually a nickel cellophane bag of Planters Peanuts. While we were happy to have the peanuts we also knew the "wait" was really on. This routine was actually one of the more harmless associations I have with Frenchy's - quite a few family and friend's tragedies were spawned there - but I hated it nevertheless and vowed I'd never do that to MY kids. And I never did. I just kept on driving.

Two years ago

This is a picture of Weston from early 2007. I found it while looking for some pictures for a double top secret project, soon to be revealed. No luck with what I was working on, but I love this picture. Funny, though, I don't remember it at all. Perhaps because I was enormously pregnant and preparing for an upcoming PCS to Korea while my husband was in the sandbox. Boy, those were some great times.