Santa needs some serious helpers!!!

Dear Friends and Family,
Today I had the opportunity to provide science training to teachers at the Lummi Tribal School. At lunch the discussion led to Santa letters. It seems that many of the children's letters asked Santa for gloves, hats, color crayons (they could call their own) and coloring books. Over hearing this discussion I couldn't help but feel the pain these teachers have on a daily bases as they watch these little kiddos go without so much.

So how about we help them out!!!

The Fred Meyer in town is selling gloves for $1.20. The local Dollar Stores have gloves as well. I would love to get a box of gloves in the mail by Thursday so that the teachers can wrap and distribute the gifts from Santa's helpers, Us.

Here are the needs:

(figure about half boys/ half girls for all grade levels)

Kindergarten- 40 kids, 1st grade 30 kids, 2nd grade 20 kids,- 3rd grade 30 kids,

4th grade 30 kids, 5th grade 25 kids, 6th grade 30 kids

K-3rd grade --children's sizes 4-6th grade-- adult sizes.

• You can get your items to me and I'll mail them


• You can mail them to the school yourself


• Or if you want to make a donation, I'll go shopping and take care of all the details

Think how much joy your small gift will mean to a child of 6 who is only asking Santa for gloves!!!

Mail items to:

Dawn Walker (Santa's Helper)

Lummi Nation School

2334 Lummi View Dr.

Bellingham, WA 98226

What do you say we help these kids out and provide a small bit of cheer.

If you feel you would like to do more think about adopting a full grade level and sending a package of coloring books, markers, crayons, pens, or pencils. Remember if you do this we need to make sure every child in that grade level receives something.

Thank you everyone in advance for your generosity. No money can go directly to the school, only items.

1/2 Marathon Walk

Name: FRAN HARTMAN

Overall Place: 563

Divison Place: 54/108
Age: 55
Chip Time: 3:44:37
Official Time: 3:45:13
Split 1: 1:38:54
Split 2: 2:06:20

What was I thinking???

~Start A Tradition~

Here’s a magical Christmas star
With a tradition old and true,
May it bring you warmth and love
From our boat to you.

Now everyday till Christmas
Find someone in your home
And secretly do a deed of love
So your identity won’t be known.

And when the secret act is done,
Place the star upon their bed,
They in turn do a secret deed
For another it is said.

And like the star so long ago
Lit the sky for all to see,
May this star bring light and joy
To your sweet family.

Sailors Make the News.... as Zombies!

Margie Stolsig from S/V Hoptoad

Fran Hartman from S/V Cape St. James

http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?nvid=296765

Thrill The World 2008 explodes worldwide!
26th Oct, 2008 at 11:00 AM

With a staggering 93 officially registered events worldwide (and an unknown number of unofficial events), Thrill The World 2008 has exploded around the world for what has been it’s biggest event ever!

With events throughout the world, everywhere from Austin to Hong Kong, from Brisbane to Dublin we’ve stomped all previous events to the ground! As of 6:14pm EST on October 25th we had 3,738 dancers worldwide! That’s double the record from last year!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyS93a1EZqc

View the full dance

Pumpkin Science

Scientific Discovery and Investigation with Pumpkins


Sink or Float:
Divide students into small groups. Provide a water-filled container large enough to hold pumpkins, a pumpkin or the students’ individual pumpkins, paper towels, crayons or markers, and pencils. Ask students to turn to a blank page in their pumpkin journals and answer the following questions: Do you think a pumpkin will sink or float in water? Why? Next have them rest their pumpkins on top of the water while holding onto the stems. On the count of 3, have them release their pumpkins. Discuss the results of the experiment as a class. Then ask each student to remove his/her pumpkin from the water and dry it off. Then have each child summarize and illustrate the activity in the remaining space on his/her journal page.

Pumpkin questions to Investigate

1. Predict how much your pumpkin weighs. Then weigh it on a bathroom scales.
2. Name the properties of the pumpkin.
3. How does the pumpkin feel?
4. How does the pumpkin smell?
5. How does the pumpkin taste?
6. What does the pumpkin look like on the inside?
7. Does the pumpkin have seeds?
8. To get inside the pumpkin, cut off the top.
9. Does a pumpkin grow underground--or on top?
10. Does a pumpkin grow on a vine, a bush, or where?
11. Are all seeds inside a pumpkin the same size?
12. Will a small pumpkin have small seeds in it as compared to a large pumpkin?
13. What could you do with the insides of a pumpkin?
14. What could you do with the seeds?
15. Predict how many seeds are in your pumpkin. Count your seeds. How close did you come?
16. Now cook your seeds. Be sure to taste the seeds before you cook them, then taste them after you cook them. Is there any difference in taste? [Cook the seeds in a popcorn popper with butter or oil.]
17. Plant your seeds. Plant some of the cooked seeds to see what will happen. Are the seeds scattered randomly within a pumpkin or arranged in some sort of pattern?
18. Do big pumpkins have larger seeds than small pumpkins?
19. Is there anything in a pumpkin which lines up with the creases on the outside?
20. What does a pumpkin seed weigh?
21. How many seeds does a pumpkin contain?
22. Do all pumpkins have the same number of seeds?
23. Can you tell which side of a pumpkin was against the ground? How? Does the stem help you figure it out?
24. Will pumpkins float in water? If they do, do they float stem up, stem down, or stem sideways?
25. Can pumpkin seeds be sorted into groups?
26. How thick is the skin of a pumpkin? How far in is the meat?
27. Place an empty wastebasket in a dishpan. Fill the wastebasket to the rim with water. Place a pumpkin into the water. Measure the volume of water displaced. This will be the volume of the pumpkin. Find the volume of several pumpkins. What relationship is there between weight and volume?
28. Do birds eat pumpkin seeds?
29. Make a list of the properties of a pumpkin and give it to someone. Can they guess what the object is?
30. Will pumpkin seeds grow if planted right away?
31. What folklore can you find about pumpkins?
32. Where did pumpkins come from originally?
33. What other plants do we eat which are related to pumpkins?
34. What is a pepo?
35. If every seed in a pumpkin grew into a plant which produced one pumpkin and each of the seeds produced a plant which did the same, how many seeds would be produced?
36. What other pumpkin investigations can you think up?

Physical science: Investigation and experimentation: sink/float, color, shapes, sizes, textures, # seeds, line up with ribs? and much more.

President!!!

There's an effort to elect an unknown random person as President... and it's someone we know!


Watch this online video about the surprising new nominee:
http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=52383&altf=Gsbo&altl=Ibsunbo

How to Download from YouTube & Google Video

This tutorial will help you download YouTube and Google Video and put them on a thumb drive or CD.

Most of the on-line video sites want you to view the videos from their websites (hence viewing their advertising on the page) and do not show you the actual URL of the video you are viewing. There are now websites that will reveal the actual URL of the video file and assist you in downloading it to your hard drive.

First, locate the video you want to download. Copy the URL.
Opent he video you want to download in your browser, select the URL in the addressbar,
right click and choose copyf rom the popup menu. Now you’ll need to browse to a website that will reveal the actual URL of the video and allow you to download it to your hard drive. Click the following URL to get started: http://www.videodl.org/
A page will open up that looks similar to the following:
Follow these steps to download your video:
Paste the URL you copied above into this line (use CTRL-V to paste, or right click in the box and paste. )
Click the Get It! Button. This will find the actual URL of your video.
Click “download link” to start the download to your hard drive.
A dialog box will open. Click the Save button to continue.
When prompted, select the location you want to save the file.
In looking at the file you’ve just downloaded, you’ll notice that it ends with .flv, which is a Flash Video File. You won’t be able to play it until you download and install a Flash Video player. VLC Media Player seems to work well. Using the URL on the right, download and install this player on the computer on which you’ll show the video to your class. Once you’ve installed the VLC Player, you can just double click on the video to open it and show it.
http://www.videolan.org/


Or try this site.
http://keepvid.com/