Upcoming Show: Hot Air Balloons

Next week we have next show.  The topic is hot air balloons.  I’m not the main host on this show but I will be launching a hot air balloon with students (inside the Udvar-Hazy center), hosting a game show, and talking with a guy who is bringing in a gas balloon with a drone attached to it.  He will actually be flying the balloon and we will be using the cameras on the drone to show the museum.  The drone normally detaches from the balloon - kind of like an aircraft carrier - but we can’t detach in the museum.  

For all my teacher peeps, I have a favor to ask.  If this fits your curriculum (buoyancy, lighter than air travel, history of hot air balloons, you know the host, etc.) and you are planning on watching the show (10 and noon Central Time) can you let me know?  We are sending out a survey after the show to get some feedback before we start planning shows for next season.  If you are a teacher and don’t watch with a class but see the show, we would still like your feedback.  

Also, I don’t know if you will see them or not but Sarah, Bryce and Sadie will be in town and watching the filming.  Can’t wait for them to get here.  Three more days until they arrive!  Woo Hoo!

Show Link: http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/stem-in-30/

Yeah, I actually made this . . . and it flies!

Skiing

Yup, they have taken to skiing on the National Mall. That's the Air and Space building behind him.

Update: Later in the day I also saw a dude jogging with no shirt on.  

Random Boredom Post

Today was a snow day and I'm off tomorrow so I'm looking at a super long weekend stuck inside. I'm pretty sure tomorrow I'm strapping on the snow shoes and doing something. In the meantime here are a few random pictures. 

View out my door today. 

Reptile day at school this week. 

Yes, I was wearing two headsets. 

Talking with the kids. 

NACA Conference

The last two days I have been running tech support for the NACA conference.  My jobs have included switching a couple of the panels that went out to NASA TV and moderating the Q&A at the end of the session.  Today on one of the Q&A panels the guy was asking a very detailed question that he was really into.  As he used his hands to talk one of the guys said in my ear (I was wearing a headset) “It’s Thriller.”  That was when I just about lost it.  This is a screenshot, but if you go to the video you can actually see my jaw shaking as I try to keep from laughing.  

At the 2:09 mark I ask the online question, then at 2:12, Thriller starts.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/59513079

Normal Day Part 2

The longer I work at this job, the more I’m realizing there may be no such thing as a normal day.  Here are a few of the things I’ve done so far this week.  

Wrote script for a show about WWI and worked on getting airplane models that are currently on display on the staff floor to use in the show.

Came in to work two hours late on Monday because of a late start due to the freezing rain we had on Sunday.  By the time I went in there were still a few slick spots but for the most part it was all melted.  

Found a great clip of video taken from an airship flying over battlefields from WWI.  Then began researching French copyright laws.

Helped moderate questions for the NACA (precursor to NASA) conference.  Got a couple cameos on NASA TV.  Also switched for part of one of the sessions that was on NASA TV.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden speaking at the conference.

Spent a half hour talking to an astronaut about the picture of him doing a spacewalk on display above the gallery.  He looked at the model of the EVA spacesuit we have in the museum and pointed out all of the things that weren't right.  For the most part the suit is a really good model.

Lunch at the Department of Education.  Their cafeteria is called “Ed-ibles.”  I thought it would be fitting if they had cafeteria tables and forced everyone eating there to finish up in 15 minutes.  

Was told by a curator that she had watched the space junk show and really enjoyed it.  

Seriously kicked around the idea of going to the Paris Air Show next year.

Had to give the wrap up symbol to a moderator of a panel discussion, which he ignored, twice, so one of our guys literally started dimming the lights.  

Worked on dates and back up dates for our hot air balloon shoot.  Next week we are filming a segment for the upcoming show in a hot air balloon.  I don’t think I’m flying.  Since I’m the only one in the crew who has already flown in a hot air balloon I’m staying on the ground filming.

Prepared for a meeting on Thursday with a senior curator.

Tried to figure out how to write into the script for the WWI show a segment that Sarah and the kids can be in since they will be into town in 11 days (not that I’m counting. . . okay, yes I am counting, and I can’t wait.)

Dad's Eagle

Dad's Eagle

When Dad passed away, the South Valley Middle School staff adopted an eagle at the National Zoo in his name.  Dad loved bald eagles.  Him and mom used to drive up to Smithville Lake to look at the eagles.  Bryce even got a stuffed eagle that he loves.  Today was cold, but I went out to the zoo to see Dad’s eagle.  I can’t begin to tell you how special that eagle is.

Things That Make Me Smile

This is mainly a photo blog.  If you are reading this through Facebook, be sure to click on the link to see the pictures.

Here are a few random things that make me smile.

Batman Artwork on the escalator from the Metro.

Seeing the flag each morning framed by the awning over the Metro.

Cousins that teach your kids things.

See the previous caption

Co-Workers who go along with goofy stuff.

This face.

Random space helmet selfies.

This smile and her first two teeth that I got to feel when I was home.

A my screen at work.  Live spacewalk on the right, Snoopy cartoon on the left, and I wasn't even goofing around.  This was WORK!

My son playing with rockets.

Then putting the bucket on his head as his "astronaut helmet."

Space Junk

The Space Junk show I hosted last week has been archived.  You can watch the show at the link below.  This show has two curators, one a geographer, the other in charge of international space programs and space suits.  It also has an interview with a space junk expert, and the lesson I taught with astronaut, Don Thomas.  

STEM in 30 - Space Junk: http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/stem-in-30/archive/?id=15290

Making "Tater-Nauts" with Astronaut Don Thomas

16 Years

1999 Hall of Fame Induction

The day George Brett retired from baseball my dad said, “when he gets inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame we should go.”  My brother and I waited five years and the day he was elected to the Hall of Fame, we reminded him of this.  He kept his word and we drove to Cooperstown for the 1999 Hall of Fame induction.  It was an amazing weekend.  We couldn't get a hotel in Cooperstown so we stayed over an hour away.  We got up each morning and drove into town.  My parents paid for a parking spot near Doubleday Field and that became our base camp for the weekend.  My brother and I roamed the town and museum and were amazed when someone told us we should go put our lawn chairs out for the induction.  We drove out to the field and staked our claim.  We stood in awe as the Hall of Famers were announced, the names we had read about growing up, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, and Yogi Berra to name a few.  We stood and cheered when George Brett gave his speech.  It was the trip of a lifetime.  

A couple of months after returning home, we got a Hall of Fame magazine in the mail.  In it was an add for the Hall of Fame photo department and it had a picture of all the Hall of Famers that were back that day.  I ordered an 11X14 inch print and in November of that year Bob Feller and Warren Spahn were signing autographs in Kansas City.  I got both of them to sign that picture and started a quest to get all of the Hall of Famers to sign it.  Sixteen years later I was down to needing only one autograph to complete the picture, Nolan Ryan.  It was announced that he was signing autographs in Houston in February.  I ordered my tickets and booked my flight.  Then two weeks before the signing, my Dad lost his long battle with alzheimer’s disease.  He was there at the induction, and for several of the autograph signings, but wouldn't be able to see the completed picture.  

Nolan Ryan

Thinking of him, I got in line to get the picture signed.  Everyone in line loved the picture and was asking me about the different autographs.  Nolan was quiet but nice when I told him that he was the last autograph I needed.  As I walked away a very nice couple in line in front of me wanted to look at it and I told them that dad had passed away the week before.  She gave me a big hug and I shed a tear and thought about all the memories I had getting that picture signed.  I thought of my dad and the trip to Cooperstown, I wiped my tear away and I smiled.

Completed Picture (31 signatures)

Coolest Lesson Ever!

It has been a while since I've posted.  A lot has been going on.  As many of you know, my Dad passed away last week.  I can’t tell you how amazing all the Facebook messages, cards, flowers, texts, and phone calls were.  I truly appreciate all of them, they really helped get my family through a difficult time.  

I know my Dad was proud of me.  He hadn't talked too much for the last several months.  The day I told him I was taking a job at the Smithsonian, he got a huge grin on his face and said, “congratulation.”  There have been so many times, just in the last week that I wish I could call my Dad and tell him about something I've done, or something the kids have done (Like Bryce dancing through Wal-Mart with a stuffed animal fox singing “What Does the Fox Say.”)

Today is one of those days that I wish I could call and tell my Dad about.  I went to a local middle school today to teach a lesson on space suits to a class of 6th grade students.  We started the lesson with me going over what we were doing, then the kids built space suits that we were going to test to see how they held up against debris impacts.  As we got ready to test I stopped and told them that I had a special guest with me today (he had been in the back of the room the entire time with a jacket on over his flight suit), Astronaut Dr. Don Thomas a veteran of 4 space shuttle flights.  He came out and told the kids a story about debris cracking the window on not one but two of his shuttle flights.  He then helped test our space suits.  He was amazing with the kids.  He even brought along a space suit that had flown in space. This lesson will be a part of our next show which airs on Wednesday, February 18th.  I've got a lot of lessons that I really enjoy teaching (testing heat shields with flame throwers, heating marshmallows to show conduction, convection and radiation, micro-gravity, and how to go to the bathroom in space to name a few) but today’s lesson might have been the coolest lesson I've ever taught.  

Yup, those are potatoes.

They also posted the link to our last show.  You can watch it by going to: http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/stem-in-30/archive/?id=15044