42 Posts and My Continued Obsession With Space

This is the 42nd blog post I've published this year. The Douglas Adams significance of that number aside, this is a milestone for me because I only published 41 posts last year. I didn't set out to write more posts this year, I've just been feeling good and have been really excited about blogging. My returned drive is now showing in the numbers and I'm very happy about that!

Also, as with yesterday's post, I am still very obsessed with space. Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield returned to Earth last night and I spent the entire day talking, thinking, and tweeting about it. I watched webcasts via NASAtv and the CSA, I obsessively checked Twitter feeds (mainly CSA, NASA, and Chris and Evan Hadfield's), and I spent much of the day reading and learning about how we return people to Earth from the International Space Station. It was a very exciting day!

Periodically John would try to talk to me about other things and even though I thought I was answering appropriately, my response was always something like: "So basically they have to go 12km from the Space Station before they can start the deorbit burn." I was very focused!

And I'm still talking about it today. Still marveling at the wonder of going in and out of space. Forever in awe of those who dedicate their lives to exploring what is out there. And very happy that we can get astronauts safely back to the planet.

If you missed it and are interested, this CSA video sums up how the crew returned to Earth.

Commander Hadfield's Space Oddity is Awesome

Like many amazed fans on Earth, I am pretty obsessed with Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield. He has spent the past five months on the International Space Station, tweeting us photos of our hometowns, answering our questions about space and how things work up there, and being an all around nice, interesting, funny, insightful, inspiring, and amazing dude. There probably hasn't been a day in the last few months where I haven't talked about him to someone, or retweeted one of his tweets, or learned something new about space from a video he's posted. If we ever need an ambassador for all of Earth, we would be smart to select Commander Hadfield for the task. He is already the coolest guy in space!

For Commander Hadfield's last full day on the ISS he covered David Bowie's Space Oddity...in space! I can't think of a cooler way to say goodbye to the International Space Station and to all of his fans here on Earth. I have already watched it at least ten times, and will probably have it on repeat for the next few days. IT IS A MUSIC VIDEO THAT WAS FILMED IN SPACE! The lyrics have space references! It is beyond cool!

Commander Hadfield is coming home tonight and they are broadcasting it live on NASAtv starting at 3:30pm. I will be watching. Get home safely Commander Hadfield!!

This video is awesome! Enjoy!!

Everybody Wants Some

To be fair, my Mom's caramel corn is pretty amazing.  Even Gary is getting in on the good stuff:

Games People Play

I'm a silly human, so sometimes I like to force new things onto the cat, with the hopes that she will actually take joy from the new thing and add it to her daily routine.  I'm silly, because clearly the cat only wants to play with what the cat wants to play with, when the cat wants to play with it!  Pesky human meddling in her life! Geez!

Gary: Seriously, you want me to do what?

I was at Dollarama yesterday and I saw this activity toy for cats.  Treats get locked into a ball that has treat sized holes, and the cat is supposed to play with the ball until the treats fall out.  They generally fall out one at a time for extended play.  Sounds simple right?

Treats that have fallen out of the ball.

I encouraged Gary to play with the ball.  I pushed it in front of her.  Nothing.  I shook it to indicate it contained treats.  No dice.  As she got more and more annoyed, she glared at me like I was a stupid human jerk.

Gary: I don't care about this.

Gary: Seriously!! Just give me the treats already.

I was not giving up!  I was going to force the cat to have fun, whether she liked it or not!  For the most part I just pushed around the ball until the treats came out.  Gary ate the treats and caught on to the idea that the treats and the ball were somehow related.  She had no desire to push the ball, though; that was something a silly human would want her to do.  Periodically she would sniff at the ball, but it only made her angrier.  I continued to push the ball around and more treats would fall out.  Gary would eat the treats and then resume her frustration.  Finally she put two and two together.

Gary: Okay ball, I don't like you and you don't like me...

Giving it a push.

Gary: Something better frickin' happen!

And then.... success:

A little later Gary decided that there was a much better way to get at the treats.  Leave the ball and the human out of it altogether!

Direct access = Smart Cat

The Birds!

Hundreds of blackbirds were flying around in the backyard this morning.  Kinda made me think of that Alfred Hitchcock movie...