Robots and Science - with Trinity College Dublin

Norah checkin' out the gadgets at Trinity's Science Gallery (Dublin's version of a Science museum). This is their gift shop with LOADS of amazing books, science-toys, chemistry sets, gadgets, etc. etc. etc. I was seriously geekin' out here. I was pleasantly surprised by how nerdy I really am. When I say, "nerd" I always mean it in the most complimentary way.

Tiny battery powered robots.

Bug kits, solar power sets, wind power sets, an Air/Water Power set (essentially creating an airplane/car by using that Mentos-in-a-bottle trick.)

The coolest books for kids and (mostly) adults.

3D Solar System and Space!

"Things that go BOOM, or float, fly & Zoom"
"18 DIY Projects to Make"

Um, yes please.

Also, "Build your own Paper Robots"!

Oh what's that there? A kids' toy set on learning "Solar Mechanics"!

 (1)

 (2) (Jeff Goldbloom-esque here)

(3)

Magnetic Science, Physics Discovery, Chem Lab, Bubble Science, Candy Chemistry!! (Man, I can't wait until Norah is 6 or 7)

So since the Science Gallery is only meant for teenagers and up (which it does NOT say on the website, it said there were activities for little kids as well - hence us taking the train all the way there) Anywho...I'm not bitter. Since the exhibits were about pretty advanced concepts, they said to take her around the corner to the MakeShop where they do drop-in workshops on making robots!! (A store put on by Trinity as well) We've walked past this place for almost two years now but it was only just now that Norah was old enough to give it a try. So, we cut through Trinity's campus (2 blocks) and here we came upon the largest chemistry lab I have ever seen! It was this massive glassed in room with windows the entire length of it. It was like peeking in on some top secret lab where they make serums that manipulate our desires, but no one could see us peeking on it....or cared that I was snapping photos. (vivid imagination) Reality is...this is a lab for university students and probably "Chemistry 101" students but still, the expanse of it was like nothing I've ever seen. This is Norah looking at all the stations and beakers boiling with solutions. She really liked it.

Ok, it doesn't look like anything at all but it really was cool to see. You can see two long counters here but there must have been 12 in total. Alright, this is so uninteresting but I'm serious, it was cool in person!
(for the record, I despised high school Chemistry - probably because I went to Renton High school which may well have been worse than the worst high school in the Bronx, where we had two counters for these "experiments" and the Chemistry teacher doubled as the coach of the Renton Football team Or, I should say, was hired as the football coach, as a previous NFL player himself, and then was asked to teach Chemistry since they were short-staffed. He was hardly the type who incited curiosity about the subject, especially so because the board was always covered in "X's", "lines with arrows" and "O's" for the many football plays he was lecturing on.

The pieces for Norah's Doodle-Bot! This is the set project for 3-4 year olds. For older kids they do projects where you make a speaker/amplifier out of any old thing for an MP3 player (like making a speaker out of a cookie tin, or a shoe box). You can design and build you very own clock! Here is the list of the walk-in workshop options. It's brilliant!  

So the Doodle-bot only consists of 3 main pieces (all hot-glued onto a paper cup).

There is the battery pack with two wires - they started out by telling Norah about batteries and charges, and letting her push the two AA batteries into the holder. Next we glued that pack onto the paper cup. The second piece is that tiny gray motor which we glued inside the black tube of plastic, and glued that to the cup. And lastly, in order to make the doodle-bot spin, (I don't QUITE get this part), you glue this plastic piece, on top of the motor piece which is what the motor vibrates against, causing it to rotate ("walk around and draw"). I suppose, if you didn't have this piece of friction, the motor part would just vibrate and the robot would not actually move. Ok, I think I just walked myself through that.

Once it was all glued on we bent the tiny metal ends of each wire coming off the battery pack. We then hooked each of those bent ends into the bottom of the gray motor piece. He hooked the black wire in to show us and then Norah and I gently hooked the red wire into its metal hole. Well, I jumped about 3 feet and let out a "BUhhhah" when it started to vibrate and scared the crap outta me! The guy goes, "Well usually the kids jump at that point, not the parents.... but that's ok" hahaha! So that's the moment they wait for, hooking in that red wire, and instead of the 3 year old being surprised, her dorky mom jumped. haha! 

 So, away the robot goes! In, not her most creative moment, when the guy asked what she wanted to name her Doodle-bot, Norah replied, "Norah". :) So, this is Norah-bot the doodle-bot doing her first drawing.

The National Library of Ireland (Mimi, you've been here. This is where you go to do all the FREE genealogy research for any Irish roots. Sarah, this is where you and Mimi will spend a great deal of time when you come to visit. It's a gorgeous building with beautiful stained-glass windows, the most intricate tile mosaic flooring you've ever seen, and a grand reading room upstairs (a la Hogwart's in Harry Potter, or - closer to home - The Reading Room at Suzzallo Library at UW - my alma mater) :)

To see that Suzzallo Room, click here. They actually describe it as similar to Hogwart's.

Here's the reading room in the National Library of Ireland:

(credit)

The National Library of Ireland's Café Joly. It doesn't look like much here but this is, quite possibly, my favorite café in Dublin. All museums/art galleries are free in Dublin and each one has a café in the building. Almost all of them are phenomenal. They have decadent baked goods, all made onsite, gluten free options, YUMMMY meals and great coffee. Well, this is our favorite one so we popped in for tea, and a piece of carrot cake. :) Making robots is hard work.

Sick Days, Halloween and Pie

Two weeks ago, Norah was home from school for a couple days and, as you may have seen, things can get weird pretty fast in our house. We joke, "Hey, let's make a robot-head out of this box!" so off I go to get scissors and here we are. Then I chased her around with the cardboard from the wrapping paper roll and we laughed hysterically.

Here in Dublin, they have a week off of school in October (huh?). So, the week before Halloween, on their last day, they had their costume party. Norah stole the show and all the kids (and parents) couldn't believe her costume. (Now this is just one of those things that come in the plastic pack but it came with a yarn-wig so it became awesome.)

 This was over the East Pier right near our house, the day before the Dublin Marathon.
If you haven't seen THIS video of a guy freaking out over a Double Rainbow, well, you're just missin' out. This is how we all felt.

Ahhhh this. This is one of the most positive developments in my life in a very, very long time! My two sisters and I decided to start a book club, on Skype!! (they're in Seattle for anyone who didn't know that part, and I'm...here in Dublin) So... we decided to read Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and we have now 'met' two weeks in a row. Seriously heavy book but he is one of humanity's all time greatest minds - a mythologist, an historian, an anthropologist, and a writer/lecturer.

And to give you an idea of the scale of this one book: "George Lucas was the first Hollywood filmmaker to credit Campbell's influence. Lucas stated following the release of the first Star Wars film in 1977 that its story was shaped, in part, by ideas described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces and other works of Campbell's. In addition, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution sponsored an exhibit during the late 1990s called Star Wars: The Magic of Myth, which discussed the ways in which Campbell's work shaped the Star Wars films." [...] "Christopher Vogler, a Hollywood screenwriter, was also highly influenced by Campbell. He created a 7-page company memo based on Campbell's work, A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces, which led to the development of Disney's 1994 film The Lion King." (Others are The Matrix, Indiana Jones, and Batman) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell#Popular_literature)

In short, he is a very big deal, and what he writes about, well....it's everything. It is everything we know and once you read his work, you will see these themes in every story and everyone, you come across. I'm not being dramatic here, I mean, these themes and myths cross every world religion, culture, time period and every human crisis that we endure. Every television program, book we read, movie we watch follows the trajectory of these monomyths. I'm just saying....its a big deal.

 We chat on Sunday evenings (for me) which is their Sunday, mid-morning. It is so amazing and I'm just assshamed we haven't done this yet (I've been here two years now). It is so fun. We spend not-all-that-much time discussing the actual text but we've also only made it through the 40 page introduction, during our first two meetings. The rest of the time is spent visiting, updating on Marko, Simon and Norah and Norah doing a full show-and-tell-inventory of everything we own.

Also, this first meeting was on our mother's birthday - what would have been her 65th birthday. I'm sure she could have asked for nothing better than to see her three girls chatting, laughing and being "together" (from across the continents and the Atlantic)

And, the 2013 Dublin City Marathon - October 28th, 2013

It is a very, very, very long and boring and sad story about my getting injured and not being able to run this with my group. I will not torture you with it. It was brutal, it was long and I finally accepted I couldn't do it. End of story. BUT, my dear friends Clare & Lindsey asked if I could meet them at mile 19 and run the last bit with them (to mile 26) and so I did. I had my number anyway so I just wrote on there: "Support Vehicle for Clare and Lindsey" and carried water and moral support for them. Turns out, Lindsey and Clare split up at about mile 18 (as Lindsey had some leg pain) but I ran in with Clare for the last 7  miles (she had a big smile on her face the entire marathon and finished 13 minutes faster than her anticipated time). A HUGE deal. She just turned 49 last month and this was her first marathon. Lindsey, as well, despite her calf giving her grief, finished in well under 4:30, ALSO with a huge smile on her face for the entire 26.2 mile-route. These two ladies just killed it! (The other 8 runners from our group allll had amazing performances and either reached, or beat, their intended times)  

Heart-melter. We stood at mile 19 and I hope some runners who saw this, got a little boost from seeing a toddler carrying this message for them. (You can tell in my choice of words here, that I'm reading Joseph Campbell) :)

At the pub afterward with all the finishers from our group, and their families.

The next day, Norah was back to being a sick little bear but she also learned how to complete each of her big puzzles, completely on her own!! The one in the middle is a 54 piece puzzle (which is for age 5+) and she did it all on her own. I was so super-duper proud of this little munchkin.

We were all sick that week, so once Wayne got home, we made a trek to the grocery store and on the way back we saw that Starbucks was nearing it's opening day!! (This is 2 blocks from our apartment building and very exciting for our little town) Now, I'm not going to get into the whole issue of this massive corporation coming into small towns and shutting down the local coffee shops. Yes, I feel strongly about that, but I ALSO felt an unexpected giddiness and excitement about seeing something so familiar (also from my home), two blocks from our Dublin-home.

The next day Norah was worse, with a high fever, so we served her breakfast in bed. Thankfully, she was delirious and doesn't really remember this so she hasn't asked for it again. :) She honestly could not sit up so we propped her up and brought her cereal before I walked her down to the doctor. (This was Halloween morning)

On the walk to the doctor, I had to stop and take a photo of these fall-colors. So gorgeous and in Dublin, (maybe anywhere similar to this climate) you absolutely must remember these beautiful, crisp, sunny fall days, once the darkness sets in. So, I take photos to remind myself that these days come too and that they'll be back. (in like...8 months....)

Me, giddy as can be sitting in the new Starbucks. On the walk back from Norah's doctor, we saw it was OPEN FOR BUSINESS, so I made a prompt turn in with the buggy. It's huge and luxurious and has free wifi!

Starbucks Police!

Starbuck's Ireland Mugs

So, the Dr. told us her fever was viral and that all we could do was give her Calpol/Nurofen (Tylenol/Ibuprofen) every four hours, until the fever subsided. Well, the burning question, then, was....if we give her the medication, can we bundle her up and still go trick-or-treating for a little while??? His response was, "Ah, ya, sure...I think yah shoould" (in his nicest Dublin accent) Very good doctor. So, we took her out for about thirty minutes, which is more than enough for a three year old anyway.

 We met Norah's best friend, Lilia again (this is our 2nd year trick-or-treating together!)

Flashback:

              

Norah, last year as Fiona the ogre-princess, from Shrek.

 

Ok, I scanned my photos from 2012 and this is the only one with the two of them. : ) Ooops. Well that and THIS one:

...of Lilia sneezing?

 Best of little buddies - now three year old girls! Lilia was a pink fairy princess (duh) and Norah was Lalaloopsy (a cartoon character). I still feel like they're so small but when I see the photos from last year I see they're really becoming "little girls" (and not toddlers). Sure, this may be apparent to everyone else but with your first-born, I think you perpetually think they're still a toddler. :)

They are too cute. Whenever someone would answer the door, Lilia would start to do princess spins and hold up her dress to point her toes and show them her shoes. She's got it down, pat.

Back to "The Edge's" house (guitarist from U2).

 The guy from U2 - "The Edge" - well this is his house, and his wife. She gives out the best candy!

Annnd, the same shot from last year. Yes, we are sort of stalking him with toddlers as bait.

(Norah and Lilia, 2012)

This year's loot.

Norah, almost 3 1/2, second Dublin Trick-or-Treating winnings.

Same Picture Last Year (unintentional):

(Norah, almost 2 1/2, 1st Dublin Halloween loot)

The next day, we were still home sick so, yes, I gave her the chocolate covered apple at about 10:30 am. That's after breakfast right? It got her to eat an apple so that's positive...  

Look what I found!!!

I use this to make the dairy-free whipped cream. It's heavenly! I'm not kidding, this isn't some "dairy-free" substitution that is "an alright version of the real thing". This is...genuinely, better than dairy whipped cream. (You get the same result as this, with canned coconut milk. With that though, you must stick it in the fridge overnight, let the cream portion harden and discard the liquid-y bit. Then you whip the thick cream part and finally, add a tiny bit of sugar and vanilla) I digress.

I really included that picture of the coconut milk/cream to show that I made this with the Libby's canned pumpkin, all the regular spices/sugar/eggs and then one can of full-fat coconut milk. It is heaven. Plus, a gluten free crust that I made.  

Out of the oven, one hour later.

And, embarrassingly.... this is 25 minutes afterward. We literally cut hot pieces out, stuck them in the freezer and then ate them while they were still nearly hot. They say to chill it for at least two hours...yeah, not happening.

She enjoys pumpkin pie. (almost as much as her mother) Wayne and I are only standing around watching her because we licked our plates a long time ago.