Water Bottle Races

Good summer fun for 5-10 year olds (and those who can still channel their inner eight year old)

Supplies: two liter bottles, water, a big sink or tub, 2-4 kids (and “kids”), optional: stopwatches, scissors or box cutter, bottles of different shapes, sizes, opening sizes, etc., a prize for the fastest racer

Procedure: Fill the bottles. On the count of three, empty the bottles. Whoever's bottle completely empties out first wins.

Tips: Run multiple trials, and encourage borrowing and modifying ideas, then have a final race, or elimination tournament with other kids judging. Follow up with an awards ceremony, highlighting different positive behaviors: experimentation, sharing, Expect water to get away: be ready with a mop and bucket. Have extra bottles on hand. One strategy to explore is to cut into the bottles, either punching air holes or widening the opening. Be sure to model proper safety when cutting, particularly during a race when participants might want to manipulate a scissors or knife faster than reasonably safe.

Bonus thought experiment: Take a bottle of water. Freeze it solid. Remove the cap. Will it melt faster facing mouth up or upside down and draining into a sink?

Scattered details from a long weekend in Santa Monica

There's a playground on Venice Beach a little north of where Venice Boulevard hits the ocean. Just a normal playground, with a slide and swings and coated metal platforms. I could see it being a little distracting to parents, who might want to watch the ocean.

A two bedroom house near LACMA with an Emmy on the mantel, an extensive collection of superhero figurines, a screening room in the garage out back, a suburban galley kitchen, a sign on the bedroom door declaring “Butch's Bungalow,” for the boyfriend, and lovely tile in the bathroom was generally estimated to be worth $1.3 million.

As is generally recognized, most people establish a hair style in their 20s or so and stick with it for the rest of their lives. Hair of the 70s hasn't aged too well.

Trees that Santa Monicans tends to plant, eucalyptus, ficus, cedar, smell of endless summer.

When apartments go up for rent in Santa Monica, the majority are left open to potential renters to enter at will to view. This is particularly true in the middle of the price distribution. The lowest end apartments require an appointment, perhaps because they tend to be dated buildings without renovation owned by a live-in landlord. The high end too are more likely to require an appointment to view, more likely as a service and opportunity for a realtor to make a sale and establish a relationship. Sometimes there is a key box with a combination lock with a combo that renters can get from the realtor. Sometimes a neighbor is engaged to let people in. But most are just left open.

Much like Unitarianism, California is something most people come to as an adult, then raise their kids to feel comfortable leaving but secretly hoping they'll stay. For white people, at least.

There are farms in Los Angeles County, but they are about two hours away from Santa Monica. It's a big county.

Ambulances pulling up to St. John's Medical Center on 20^th St are required to turn their sirens off four blocks from the hospital, when they turn off of Wilshire. Just about the only outfit who ignore this rule is LAFD. Usually the neighborhood is pretty quiet, considering there's an Emergency Department in the middle of it.

The June Gloom is a season of daily morning fog and mist rolling off the bay that stretches from sometime in May to sometime in July. At its most intense it turns into a kind of rain that gives all the surfaces a thorough wetting but not soaking in. Usually it just remains fog and burns off by early afternoon. This is balanced in the year's climate by the Santa Ana winds in the fall, dry hot winds from the east bringing LA's smog down to the coast and signaling the most dangerous time of year for forest fires.

The LA Times publishes a list, complete with map, of a selection of upcoming film shoots in and around LA.

While the permanent collection of the Hammer Museum is quite lovely, both the 19^th century paintings and the modern painting and sculpture, the temporary exhibitions of Summer 2010 are entertainingly inaccessible.

Halfway through 2010

Yesterday I packed up my desk, hugged a few people, wiped the passwords off my computer, and left the MIT Museum after five years of work. It was an amicable end, long in coming and understood by all to be a positive step for me and perhaps a chance for them to take Public Programs in a new direction. I carefully attempted to finish up all the documentation and hand-offs and cleaning up and final goodbye lunches by Tuesday so I could take care of any forgotten things on my last day and maybe just sit around and chat with people but instead had a hilariously busy day filled with an unexpectedly complicated event of VIPs, press, talks, tours, food, AV mishaps, last minute changes that took over the entire museum, the entire building, and most of the museum’s staff for the day. Which really is better than a quiet twiddling of thumbs for the last few hours of employment, anyway.

Today I took my daughter to the sing along. Fed her some Cheerios. We played with the cat for a bit. I looked at some real estate listings. I meant to take a nap, but didn’t quite get to it.

Tomorrow, more of the same. And the next day.

Intellectually I know this gigantic shift in my life has just occurred, but for now it just feels like a long weekend.

I’ll keep you posted.