The Steampunk Lamp

Blaze has given me another challenge. He enjoyed his airship pirate costume so much for Halloween, that he has now asked for an airship pirate themed birthday.

I decided that for his big gift, I would make him a footboard for his bed ( he currently has neither a footboard nor headboard) and I would make it look like the control panel of a generic steampunk-type vehicle. Blaze has a very small bedroom, so a bed that includes activities is a good way to fit playthings into the space. I want the control panel to be a non-specific vehicle, because that frees up Blaze's imagination to make it whatever he wants ( airship, submarine, rocket ship, boat, something I've never heard of before...).

So far, I have finished only one small part of the footboard, the lamp/vehicle power source.

We started with a fun trip to SkyCraft in Orlando. SkyCraft does have an on-line store at http://skycraftsurplus.com/, but it's not as fun as wandering through the store, finding things you had never thought of, or spending an hour going through boxes of hundreds of gauges.

Here's what we came away with:


The other parts I used for the lamp were a plasma light that was on sale for 25% off at Spencers:


and a kitchen timer that was purchased at Pier One and then repainted. The time will be used to put limits on Blaze's video game playing.


I then built a box:


The wood stain is Minwax Red Mahogany 225, which I really like because of its rich color, especially when matched with the shiny brass and gold.


The colored glass cover over the light bulb was part of a candle holder:


The brass trim, that covers the seams between boards is brass tape found in the scrapbook section of the craft store:

Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day

I just found this and thought it sounded like so much fun, I wanted to pass it on:

" Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day!

Dec. 8th, 2009,



You must spend the entire day in costume and character. The only rule is that you cannot actually tell anyone that you are a time traveler. Other than that, anything's game.

There are three possible options:

1) Utopian/cliché Future - "If the Future did a documentary of the last fifty years, this is how badly the reenactors would dress." Think Star Trek: TNG or the Time Travelers from Hob. Ever see how the society in Futurama sees the 20th century? Run with it. Your job is to dress with moderately anachronistic clothing and speak in slang from varying decades. Here are some good starters:

- Greet people by referring to things that don't yet exist or haven't existed for a long time. Example: "Have you penetrated the atmosphere lately?" "What spectrum will today's broadcast be in?" and "Your king must be a kindly soul!"

- Show extreme ignorance in operating regular technology. Pay phones should be a complete mystery (try placing the receiver in odd places). Chuckle knowingly at cell phones.

2) Dystopian Future - This one offers a little more flexibility. It can be any kind of future from Terminator to Freejack. The important thing to remember is dress like a crazy person with armor. Black spray painted football pads, high tech visors, torn up trenchcoats and maybe even some dirt here or there. Remember, dystopian future travelers are very startled that they've gone back in time. Some starters:

- If you go the "prisoner who's escaped the future" try shaving your head and putting a barcode on the back of your neck. Then stagger around and stare at the sky, as if you've never seen it before.

- Walk up to random people and say "WHAT YEAR IS THIS?" and when they tell you, get quiet and then say "Then there's still time!" and run off.

- Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell "NOOOOOOOOO"

- Stare at newspaper headlines and look astonished.

- Take some trinket with you (it can be anything really), hand it to some stranger, along with a phone number and say "In thirty years dial this number. You'll know what to do after that." Then slip away.

3) The Past - This one is more for beginners. Basically dress in period clothing (preferably Victorian era) and stagger around amazed at everything. Since the culture's set in place already, you have more of a template to work off of. Some pointers:

- Airplanes are terrifying. Also, carry on conversations with televisions for a while.

- Discover and become obsessed with one trivial aspect of technology, like automatic grocery doors. Stay there for hours playing with it.

- Be generally terrified of people who are dressed immodestly compared to your era. Tattoos and shorts on women are especially scary.



And that's it. Remember, the only real rule is staying in character and try to fit in. Never directly admit you're a time traveler, and make really, really bad attempts at keeping a low profile. Naturally, the dystopian future has a little more leeway. And for the record, I've already tried out all of these in real life, in costume. It is so much fun you want to pee yourself.



Pencil it into your calendars and pass it on! "

Simple Machines: Pulleys

Thanksgiving caused this to be a short school week, but we did continue our simple machines science unit for the three days that we had school. We read the following two books:





We also watched this cartoon:




Blaze put together and colored a 4 page picture dictionary of simple machines from the book More Read and Understand Stories (Grade 1) from Evan Moor Publishing. He also did two of the accompanying worksheets.







Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving

Today, I am thinking about our abundance of food, because the two batches of dough I made last night, have both risen out of the confines of their bowls in the refrigerator, crept across the refrigerator racks, and dripped down to other levels.

What are you thankful for?

Corner View: Menu al Dia

We did not actually eat out in any restaurants this past week, but we did order take-out. This was our first time ordering food from the Merlion Restaurant and we were very impressed. The food all arrived hot and delicious. Even Blaze, who is a very picky eater, enjoyed his meal.




Their dinner menu can be found here

Dinner Menu PDF

We have decided that it would be a good place to take my oldest daughter when she is home just after Christmas.

I would really like to try their afternoon tea menu.



To take a peak at menus all over the world visit Spain Daily and all the other Corner View participants found on the side bar there.

The Annual Hand Turkey

It is that time again. The time of year when I get to slather Blaze's left hand with fabric paint and add a new hand-turkey to our Thanksgiving table cloth.




Here is this year's turkey:



This is our 7th year for this tradition, so we have a nice little parade of hand-turkeys running along the edge of the table cloth, each turkey just a little bigger than the one before it.



It's always fun to look at how much Blaze has grown:



When we started the tablecloth, in 2003, I also made a Thanksgiving T-shirt for myself with DH and I adding our handprints to Blaze's.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday, we did a little Thanksgiving preparation. I baked pumpkin cookies, using the wonderful recipe at Mountain Pulse.



The only thing I did differently with the cookies, was to substitute dried cranberries for the raisins.

We also decorated a little for Thanksgiving:




I'm not doing as much cooking for Thanksgiving as I have in past years, because we have been invited to the home of some friends, and all I need to make is dinner rolls. This is the recipe I will be using for those:


Refrigerator Roll Dough

1 package ( 1 Tablespoon ) active dry yeast
1 1/2 Cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 Cup unseasoned lukewarm mashed potatoes
2/3 Cup vegetable oil
1/3 Cup honey
1 1/2 salt
5 to 6 cups unbleached white flour

This is a good recipe to make on a night when you are making mashed potatoes for dinner. Before seasoning the potatoes, reserve 1 1/2 cups of the potato water and 1 cup of the plain mashed potatoes.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast and water. Then add everything else, first mix with a spoon and then kneed by hand. Add flour as necessary, until it becomes a good pliable dough. Form the dough into a large ball and oil the outside of the ball, so it won't dry out while rising. Cover and place in the refrigerator over night. The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The dough does not have to be baked all at once. You can bake just what you need for each meal. Punch down dough before using. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

I use this dough for everything. It makes great cinnamon rolls. If a little nutmeg is added, it is perfect for hot cross buns. Fillings can be added to turn it into sweet rolls and it can be rolled around hot dogs or sausages to make "pigs in a blanket".


Here is a link to some of the recipes I used last year:

Favorite Thanksgiving Food

Playing in the Dirt

After months of feeling trapped by temporary fencing and having to listen to heavy construction equipment all day every day, the workmen have finally moved their center of operation to another part of the apartment complex. They have left behind a lot of dirt with nothing left growing on it, but the boys think that's fine. They are outside digging for treasure. So far, they have found a piece of clay pipe, which they tell me is ancient pottery, and many rocks, which they tell me is gold. The youngest boy also dug up a stick and declared that it was a fossil.





I find it amusing how hard children will work when they are playing.

Inclined Planes

Before I show you what Blaze has been doing for science this week, I want to show you Blaze's new hair cut. He had physical therapy in the pool this afternoon, and his hair had become so long and bushy that he couldn't keep it out of his face when it got wet, so before he went swimming, DH took him to get a hair cut. Gone are all the curls, for now, but it won't take them long to grow back.






This week, Blaze has been learning about inclined planes by listening to the following books:








And watching the following videos:







Today, we took a walk around our apartment complex to see what inclined planes we could find.

Ramps and stairs are inclined planes:





The pavement, hidden under all these leaves, is slanted, so that the rain water will run into the storm-drain. That makes this an inclined plane.



Slanted roofs are inclined planes (Blaze has been pointing them out all over town).



Slides and ladders are both inclined planes.







Science is so much fun!

Orlando Science Center

Blaze and I spent Monday afternoon at the Orlando Science Center. It was the first time we had ever been there, but Blaze is already saying he wants to go there again. It is full of great hands-on activities for elementary school children.



This went along perfectly with our current science unit about simple machines:



There were several activities about sound, which Blaze had fun with, because he loves to make noise.



This is a laser harp. It reminds me of everything they play on that late night music program on NPR, "Music from the Hearts of Space"




Blaze spent quite a bit of time pretending to fix my car in an area called "Kids Town"





and building a water maze for toy boats to travel through.





There were a few live animals there to watch and we went to see a movie about sharks.






We played with this model of the brain for awhile. I was fascinated, because it reminded me of Blaze's MRI, but it was in color, while the MRI is black and white. Blaze wanted to fix the person by re-stacking all the pieces.





There was a room full of dinosaurs, but Blaze wasn't that interested in them this time



his biggest interest was in the things about electricity, and the driving and flight simulators.

There were quite a few interactive displays about the work of Tesla and how electric current is generated.











One of the most exciting things we saw, though, was the space shuttle launch. The museum opened up their 4th floor terrace to people wishing to view the launch. The Kennedy Space Center is about a 45 minute drive from Orlando, so it's not super close, but I was excited, because I had never seen a Space Shuttle launch except on television.

Here is my poor attempt at taking a movie of it:



Entering the building again after the launch, this was one of the first things we saw:



We've come a long way!