A little holiday cheer!

Here are two videos of oh-so-cute Delaney dancing in her big Christmas recital. She is in the back middle of both videos with the crazy tweakers on the top of her head. Enjoy!

Announcement!

I got myself a career, baby! Well, I actually could never have gotten it for myself. So, my posse of amazing and supportive friends, family, and colleagues got me a career.

I just accepted a job at the HAMMER Training Facility, which is the primary training organization for the workers at Hanford. I have been interning there since February, thanks to the opportunity offered to me by one of my classmates. A major contract change took place during the last few months which caused much of the work that had been contracted out to various training firms to come to the HAMMER organization. (And yes, HAMMER does stand for something, and no, I can't remember what it is at the moment... hazardous, something, something, emergency something.) One of the new groups that was formed is a curriculum design team that falls under the leadership of the happiest, most organized, and most proficient writer that I've ever had the opportunity to work with. I'm not sure of all the behind-the-scenes discussions that took place, but I was asked to apply for the team a few months ago, went through a grueling interview (and took one of my blogs as part of my portfolio!), and have finally signed an acceptance letter for the position of, get ready for it... Curriculum Designer. Pretty catchy title, right?

From what I have gathered, there is going to be a small team of five of us, all with education and writing backgrounds (in my case a bit of a technical background too, thank you lab work) who will be responsible for getting the curriculum for the training courses current and awesome. The courses that are taught span such topics as crane operation (that's the stuff I'm currently working on in my internship), confined space rescues, and even math for radiation technicians. Mostly pretty exciting and interesting stuff. The courses consist, usually, of a power point presentation, a lesson plan, and all sorts of reference materials. In addition to getting all of the current materials up to par, my job will include adding interactive projects and activities to the courses.

I am really excited about this opportunity, but there are some downsides. Long hours being the primary one. I miss the kids already. Long commute also (and with a broken CD player, no less! No books-on-cd for me.) . Busy, busy schedules and many commitments to try to keep up with. I am in the process of finishing my masters and have three more months of classes before student teaching. Lots of homework. Crazy messy house. And just not enough time for my kids. I know that most people feel this way at some point in their life -- that circumstances dictate that we can't spend as much time with our loved ones as we would wish. This is an opportunity that I can't pass up, but I know that Tyce and Laney are going to suffer some for it. Mothers always have guilt. This is my guilt today. Last week it was that I allowed my precious little lady to go too long without antibiotics and she got very sick. But, back to today. I'm worried about the kiddos and I know that this is not an ideal situation for them, but I think that this is the right long-term decision and that things will be better after Christmas when we all have fewer commitments.

Today I am feeling a little more confident that I might be able to juggle this schedule. I talked with my new boss-to-be, who inspires me with her ability to juggle family life and do an amazing job at work, and have already arranged a schedule with earlier hours so I can be home in time to relieve the babysitter for her to go to her night classes. We are all going to be so worn out by the end of the semester! The dog is probably going to go unwalked, the lawn unmowed, but hopefully all the homework (mine, the sitters', and the kids') will get done and all soccer practices will be attended.

I'm going to give this my best shot, but I know that it wouldn't be possible without my support structure around me. My friend Melissa, who has already babysat during emergencies and continues to help out when work and schedules just can't be forced to match, and who has been my greatest sounding board for all things parenting and life-related. Tanager, who arrives at the drop of a hat to help me, even while she is completing a major home purchase and move all on her own. My parents who offer all the love and support that a daughter could ever need or want. My lovely "personal references": Tim, Mari, Jana, and Steph, who somehow managed to avoid mentioning all my awful habits during my background check. That must have been a minefield! My in-laws and my aunts and uncles and my amazing friends who always cheer for me. Brace yourself, folks, you are probably going to get a lot of frazzled calls for help and/or sympathy in the upcoming months! Love you!

Tyce Explains:

"Mom, one time I asked you what the red part of the apple was. You said, 'the skin,' and I thought you meant human skin! That's why I was afraid to eat apples for a while."

17 things that made me happy this week:

1. Eating the first full-sized grown-from-seed heirloom tomato from my garden. Still warm from the sunshine.

2. Being unable to put down my book club's latest selection. I was a skeptic, but Shanghai Girls is totally delivering.

3. A walk at dusk with the dog and no reason to hurry home.

4. Adding spinach into my fruit smoothie and not noticing any ill-effects in the flavor.

5. Adding Nutella to my fruit smoothie and noticing a significant improvement in flavor. (It's been a smoothie kinda summer around here.)

6. Lunch, swimming (lounging), and a long, minimally-interrupted conversation with an amazing friend.

7. Positive feedback at work.

8. A daughter who loves me "to Jupiter, to the cabin, around her sandwich, and back again."

9. Entourage, Season 5.

10. A son who introduces me to the people in front of us at the grocery store check-out as, "This is my mom. Her name is Aerie and she is 32 years old." All the vital information in a 5 year-old's mind.

11. A veggie omelet for dinner.

12. Hearing this really good advice from a smart friend, concerning decision making: "If it feels like the harder thing to do, that is probably the right decision."

13. Daydreaming about maid service.

14. A sister who understands and motivates me, and is happy.

15. Being 32 and still sending my resume' to my mom for editing. And taking every single bit of advice she offers. She's that good.

16. Booking a flight for a long-overdue visit with a most faithful friend. Then, finding out that the weekend that I am visiting is the weekend of the annual Scottish festival and hairy legs in kilts will abound!

17. The fact that this list started out as a hopeful "10" and grew to "17"!

A Brief Introduction to Nuclear Fission!

Earlier this week I had the amazing opportunity to visit what has become an important historical site in the state of Washington: Hanford Site's B Reactor. When I began my work at Hanford I had no idea the amazing and devastating role that this site had in the Cold War and shaping international policy ever since. I was remind that just because a part of our history isn't glamorous or victorious doesn't mean that there aren't valuable lessons to be learned from it. The purpose of designating the B Reactor as a National Historic Landmark (the highest distinction for historical property in the US, on par with the White House and the Alamo) is to pay tribute to the feat that was performed in getting the facility built and operational and to learn from the consequences of its success. Of course, being unprepared for the significance of what I was going to see, I had only my cell phone camera to document the experience. I'll do the best that I can to give you a brief recounting of what I learned and saw.

Upon the receipt of an ominous letter from Albert Einstein, warning of the potential for the development of nuclear weapons by Russia, President Roosevelt ordered the construction of the Hanford Site. Its sole purpose was to produce enough plutonium to build a nuclear bomb. The B Reactor was built in complete secrecy and was operational in just 11 months. Engineers worked around the clock using the drafting table and tools that you see below to design the facility and the reactor that would convert naturally occurring uranium into plutonium.
This is the heart of the project, the actual B reactor. We were assured that the levels of radioactivity we encountered during the tour were minimal to zero, but I swear I felt a little buzz in my bones. The reactor is about two stories tall and filled with long rods placed horizontally. They went in the front side as uranium, were reacted, and came out the backside as plutonium plus a bunch of other stuff. This thing is an engineering marvel that I can't even begin to explain properly. These are the water pipes that brought water from the Columbia River to cool the reactor and the finished plutonium. The water was piped right back to the river after being used in the facility. Yikes! The lids are off these pipes because once each year, as part of our nuclear disarmament treaty, a team of scientists from Russia visits and inspects the facility to ensure that no new nuclear materials are being produced. A team of US scientists visits Russian facilities each year in return. The Russians are kindly invited during our 100-degree summer weather and the US scientists are cordially received during the crisp Russian winter months. Hmmm... a little passive-aggressive, perhaps?
Here is a picture especially for my Uncle Benton. It is a very old Tektronix oscilloscope. While I can't relate any riveting details about this thingy-bobber, we were assured that it was very cool and special. So, here it is:
Ah, one of my favorites! Our earnest docent, Richard, attempts to explain basic nuclear physics to a group of mostly college-age interns (yours truly, once again, being the aged, annoyingly talky one of the bunch). See, it's so simple, anyone could make a big ol' batch of plutonium!
Critical warning: be sure to bypass the critical radiation alarm. What the? That cannot be good. But aren't the flashy old signs cute?
There are the splines! These are rows and rows of sensors that measure the pressure inside each reactor tube. High pressure=bad things. Still not sure what "pulling splines" might mean. Imagine, they had to monitor ever single one of these things with their own eyeballs. And it worked.
And here we have control central were an operator monitored and controlled the reactor. Really, really important job.
And, in scary black and white, this is a mask designed to protect a worker from airborne radiation. Most of the process was designed to be automated or remote so in actuality workers were minimally handling radioactive material.
As, I mentioned earlier, this project was nearly perfectly executed and within a year the US had a supply of plutonium that was shortly used to build the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. As many of the historians in the videos that we were shown noted, this changed international politics forever. The devastation of that first (and hopefully last) use of a nuclear bomb has taught us that all-out world war is no longer a feasible problem-solving option, it would be suicide. Maybe we adults we begin using some of those conflict-resolution strategies that we try so hard to instill in our children.

I cannot recommend this tour enough if you are at all interested in US history. With the National Historical Landmark designation, the B Reactor tours have become extremely popular, but we were told that the number of tours being offered is on the rise. If you are interested in learning more: www.b-reactor.org

Cheesers!

This is from a photoshoot in the park. Like the post below, I was messing with some photoshop stuff, but it is hard to improve on the cuteness that is Tyce-and-Lane.

Aerie, Aerie, quite contrary...

... how does your garden grow?

In spite of the nearly continuous rain that we have had for the few months, the garden has begun to produce, well, produce. Most of these babies have been carefully nurtured since, gee, Groundhog Day. After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle last year, Dad and I decided to do as many heirloom plants as we could. My Christmas gift from Dad was the most amazing contraption he has come up with to date. A Rubbermaid that had the intended purpose of horizontally storing wrapping paper was instead filled with an assortment of PVC pipes, chain, and grow lights. When fully assembled, it held about 25 large yogurt containers of seedlings, and had a frame that held an adjustable grow-light overhead. Ingenious. The fruits of that contraption and my labor are pictured below.

I am also in the process of demo-ing a photoshop program (PhotoshopC5, or something like that) so these pictures have been "shopped" to the extreme. So, I'll be giving you a guided tour of my plants along with a brief discussion of my new addiction to photoshop.

These are my "cut-and-come-again" greens. I love this seed packet. Purchased from Stargazer Nurseries in Summerville. Delicious lettuces that grow and grow until the heat gets 'em, which it has yet to do this year. Lots of phyto-nutrients too, none of that plain green stuff for me!

This photo has been edited with my new favorite effect "edge burn." Doesn't that make it look fancy and the lettuce look even tastier and more gourmet?

I spend most evenings gazing longingly at my tomato plants. They are blooming! And I had never noticed how beautiful tomato flowers are until these heirloom tomatoes began producing blooms of various sizes and shapes. I believe this is from the Silver Fir Tree Tomato, but since my popsicle-stick labels all got blown away in the wind, it will be a surprise.

Photo was sharped and again with the edge burn.
Look at that beauty! The first tomatoes are beginning to emerge! This is a variety called Amish Salad Tomato that I absolutely cannot wait to try.

This photo effect is called "Old West" and I love it! Doesn't it make the wilty old flower on the tomato look like some kind of vintage lace dress instead? A bit dramatic, yes, but it's a veggie, it needs some drama, right?

My lavender. I tried to get a picture of the bees working, as they have been so busy doing lately, but they were headed home for the evening, I'm afraid.

On this photo, I think I was a bit heavy-handed with the photo shop, but it's really quite hard to make lavender look ugly, so I threw it in anyway.

Clementis after-flowers (I assume this is going to turn in to some kind of seeding device, but I know next to nothing about clementis).

This photoshop effect was called "vintage". Looks a bit artsy, and shows the beauty of the shape of the plant.

Clementis bloom. Macro setting on camera with just a touch of sharpening from photoshop, otherwise untouched.

More clementis after-flowers. Swirly-whirley balls everywhere!

Brightened the photo and burned the edges again. This one makes me happy.

Oh my! A photoshop effect called "Ethereal and Lovely" on a pea plant. Flower in the foreground and a scrumptious pea in the background. Gobbled up shortly after this photo was taken.

More lavender. Totally overdone on photoshop. I can't even remember all the things that I did to it, but I like how it turned out kind of grainy and stark.