Sunday, June 14, 2009

Mobile blogging, or iPhone Haiku

I am sitting in my clean bedroom.

Jim and Charlie are doing that rolling around on the bed thing,
casually play fighting.

My dad wouldve loved Charlie. He really loves to play by being chased
and then chewing on my hand that I've been attacking him with.

He also loves to lay beside me and nap, which dogs loved to do with Dad.

My kids are hungry.

These may be short!

Sent from my iPhone

Tumbleweeds Graduation 2009



Here is the long awaited video of Maggie's graduation...

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Test of email to blogger

Woof

Sent from my iPhone

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Henry's Report on VENUS

Venus










by
Henry K.
June 11, 2009




Venus


My report is on Venus, the second planet from the Sun. Venus is named after the Goddess of Love and Beauty. Venus does not have any moons in its orbit, and has the same acid that's in car batteries in it's atmosphere (which is sulfuric acid).

The swirling clouds of Venus are so thick sunlight cannot go directly through them to reach the surface.
The surface of Venus is rocky. The lava flow from erupting volcanoes make low plains.

Speaking of volcanoes and lava, the temperatures on Venus are hot enough to melt lead! A scorching 900 degrees Fahrenheit! That's hot! The atmosphere is so thick and dense that the 'greenhouse' effect makes it impossible for heat to escape. It can get in though!

Venus shines brightly in the East before sunrise, and in the West after sunset.
We can see Venus easily because it is the closest planet to Earth (23.7 million miles). Also, the thick clouds I mentioned earlier reflect the sunlight, making it bright from Earth. By the way, Venus is pretty close to the Sun too (67.2 million miles) and in space distance, that's pretty close!

Venus is roughly the same size as Earth, and astronomers think it could have been born at the same time.

Venus' day is longer than it's year. One full rotation of the Earth takes 24 hours, or 1 day. It takes Venus 243 Earth days to rotate once. If 1 Earth day is equal to 24 hours, 1 Venus day is equal to 5,832 Earth hours!




One orbit around the Sun on Earth takes 365 Earth days, but one orbit around the Sun for Venus takes just 225 Earth days. Venus orbits around the Sun in the opposite direction of the other planets in the Solar System.

Venus cannot support any life. I think that it might've been able to have water, but then it all boiled away from the intense temperatures.

Space probes only last a couple of hours on Venus before melting away. If you were to land a manned mission on Venus and you walked out of the spacecraft, you would literally turn as flat as a pancake and look like a pancake in a pool of blood! No kidding!

The former Soviet union launched several spacecraft to either fly by or land on Venus in the 60's, 70's and 80's. That's around hippie time!
There have been many probes sent to Venus and NASA's Magellan spacecraft has been orbiting Venus since 1990. Japan is preparing a Climate Orbiter that will be launched in 2010. Japan's "Climate-C" orbiter will carry five cameras and it's mission should last at least 2 years!

And that ends my report.



SOURCES




"Guide to Space" by Peter Bond.
DK PUBLISHING


"The Martian Chronicals", blog by Ryan Anderson
http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/agu-day-2-venus/


"Mercury and Venus" by World Book's Solar System & Space Exploration Library.
WORLD BOOK, INC.


hk/slk

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Milford Library

I am sitting in the 'Quiet Study Area" at the Milford Library. Brought Henry here because he has a lot of homework due tomorrow, and figured this might be a good way to help him focus. Except for the rotating stand of science fiction and fantasy novels he keeps gazing at (who could resist a book called 'Robot City'?!), things are going well!

I figured I could talk to you, blog, while he does his business. When what is due tomorrow is finished, we'll work together on his book report for Venus. We'll publish it here, and it's due on Thursday, so check back later this week!

(that was last night. now it's tonight. I'll post it right now.)

Thursday, June 04, 2009

blog!

I miss you!

I will now take a few moments to bang out some recent life experiences: 7 things.

1. Henry is a trooper. If you haven't heard by now, he fractured his left arm, the bone above the elbow. he has to have a full arm cast, for the next six weeks. What a trooper. No complaining. I fear cast stink.

2. Maggie graduated preschool! I really need to buckle down and do some personal computing. There are a series of videos I got with our Flip and I just need to download something and restart and etc. and I keep putting it off. But they are adorable. You must see them.

3. Dave Matthews Band was completely awesome. We had sort of semi cruddy seats, the classic Fenway Pole, I'm told. But setting that aside, what a show. What a bunch of playing! Cassidy found this video of their cover of 'Dirty Water', which is another Fenway classic (I'm told).



4. Henry broke his arm the night of DMB. Thank goodness for text messaging. And thank goodness for Christine. All those Hauptmans are quality people.


5. Jeff and Lanie and Cassidy had a great time in Washington, D.C. Cassidy leaves in late August for Egypt, I can hardly believe it.

6. Work is crazy. Very busy.

7. I wish I wrote more. Will try harder.