Weekend wrap-up: Mad science, animated robots, and cheap Muppets

[yendi]

Yeah, that was a damned good weekend.

Friday night, shadesong's parents came into town, which meant dinner at Maggiano's. Yum. Had the salmon oreganata. mmm. Damned tasty.

We then got home and met up with static_eddie, who applied his incredible mad artistic skills to the plain white cake we'd bought from Publix, and turned it into a picture of what Elayna would look like if she were a cast member of Dexter's Laboratory. The man is an amazingly talented artist, even when working in a medium (cake) that's new to him. And yes, we'll have pictures up soon.

Saturday was Elayna's mad science birthday party. After breakfast at Crescent Moon, we did the mad rush for stuff we needed (balloons, party food), got the house set up, etc.

Right before the insanity hit, I looked outside and saw a package -- our Westfield order arrived, complete with our copies of Shooting Star Anthology #6, featuring a Shayara story by shadesong and xanadumalion! Hooray!

The kids showed up, wolfed down the fruit and veggie plates instead of the chips (leaving the adults confused and forcing us to eat handful after handful of chips and salsa), and the Mad Scientist (a nice woman named SuperNova) showed up.

The science show wasn't just good. It was incredible. Twelve ten-year-old girls (plus two younger boys) were exposed to talk about polymers, electricity, magnetism, light waves, and all sorts of other stuff. Elayna got to hold a tesla coil. Yes, my daughter played with 10,000 volts of electricity, and set things on fire with it. She loved it. After 45 minutes of experiments (which ended with them making slime, always a worthwhile activity), they went outside for the rocket launch. Which I can't even begin to describe, but it was "holy shit" cool.

Elayna's friends clearly know her tastes. She got a smattering of "typical" presents (a Barbie, etc), but most of them got either science-oriented gift or art and writing supplies. She got no fewer than three blank books, tons of pencil kits (including some high-quality drafting pencils), pastels, etc. She was happy.

Saturday evening was a trip to Chris's Pizza House, where shadesong discovered that she likes moussaka.

Sunday, we went to breakfast at Bagel Palace, followed by a trip to Toys "Backwards R" Us, where Elayna got to pick her presents from cousins who'd sent money (a pair of PS2 games), and from her grandparents (a new bike!). This was followed by a trip to Border's for a new dictionary for her. While she was looking at books, I went to use the bathroom, and spotted the Muppets Chess Set on sale for 75% off! So for $10, we now can have Piggy attack Gonzo. Or Rizzo kill Piggy. And every house needs that.

We then went to see Robots, which was stunningly average, with a few jokes that did crack me up, and at least one extended fart-joke scene that killed the pacing of the movie completely. Still, the animation was beautiful, if not enough to overcome the "plot." And there's a Scrat short-short at the beginning, which is nice. Nothing after or during the credits, though.

Last night was dinner from Mamafu's, followed by saying goodbye to the in-laws. We then had a surprise, as it turned out that docorion got to town early, so I finally got to meet him in person (which means that I've now met, as far as I can remember, 4/5 of the medical doctors on my FL).

And that finishes the weekend. Long, but productive. And, like so many busy weekends, it went by hella quickly.

Comments

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

where Elayna got to pick her presents from cousins who'd sent money

Not cousins - my sister, and one of my mom's co-workers.

I shall persist in saying "Moussaka!" like the hyenas say "Mufasa!"

Like, forever.

[dustyskinandall.livejournal.com]

I want to see cake pics!
I saw s.c.'s sketch of the MadScience Elayna... very cool.

:)

[pharminatrix.livejournal.com]

Me too!

I also want to see the sketch.

[corwinok.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a kickass birthday party! You guys free to come to Oklahoma in August and plan one for my soon-to-be six-year-old? :P

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

There's probably a branch or two of Mad Science in your area - I found out there was a few near me when I looked into the company... my mom is likely to be working for them up in Boston in the near future.

[yendi]

She will? That rocks!

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought they looked like a pretty good outfit, and I was waiting to see how Elanya's party went off. Glad it was as impressive as it seemed!

We may consider having one for our kids, if not as a birthday, just as part of home schooling.

[corwinok.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look into that for future birthdays.... hell, I would have loved a party like that for me :)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I had a somewhat privileged upbring as far as weird and mad science goes... my dad's a research engineer at MIT, so for a couple of years, I would take a bunch of kids in on tours. Did that one year as a school field trip, and brought my science class in and was treated to a live demo of the bullet-through-the-card by Doc Edgerton (http://web.mit.edu/edgerton/main.html). In return, I coined the word "edgertonian" in his honor, to describe a moment where time seems to stand still.

Went to school with one of this guys (http://main.edc.org/Staff/bzubrowski.asp) kids, and had a ton of after-school and other activities based on his work.

Of course, my problem now is trying to do that sort of thing myself, as I'm not sure I'm providing my kids with the same level of inspiration that I had received.

[corwinok.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. My own father knows a lot about a lot of different things and managed to inspire in me a love of learning for its own sake. The trouble is finding the right way to pass that on.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to bet that you don't start seeing the actual results and whether or not you succeeded until your kids are in their 30's and they say something similar.

[corwinok.livejournal.com]

Heh, I'm coming to that conclusion myself on a great many thing I do for her :)

[yendi]

Following up on what ellyssian said, it looks like there's a Tulsa branch, but no mention of an Oklahoma City one (although the one branch may have employees who can make Oklahoma City).

[corwinok.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thanks!

Now to get the girl heavy into SCIENCE! Probably time for her to see the Karloff Frankenstein to start her off.

[yendi]

*nod* As good an entry point as any!

[corwinok.livejournal.com]

I've explained the concept of radioactive embiggenment as it relates to kaiju already :) I need to put a marshmallow in the microwave to show her the effect first-hand.