How do you launch a space shuttle into space?

Oh, so that's how you do it.

Teddy Bears and Gummy Worms...

The holidays were rough... I'm just going to say it. I don't talk about my personal life that much on this blog for the simple reason that I'm usually up to my eyeballs at work. But it was time that work took a backseat for awhile.

While balancing the workload, the commute, the 2 1/2 year old and all other things... I was also trying to care for my mother who had ALS. 18 months ago, she was diagnosed after her foot was still giving her problems after her back surgery. Like a tube of toothpaste being pushed from the bottom, she slowly lost control of her feet, legs, arms, and eventually her breathing. She was doing fairly well, but about 3 weeks ago, things went downhill quickly. She eventually was dehydrated, and when gunk filled up in her lungs, she didn't have the strength to cough it out.

We had a great Christmas together, but the day after Christmas she went to the hospital, home again, and then back to the hospital after being unresponsive. She was ready to go. I contacted my brothers and we gave her the best passing we could. She didn't want to go on New Year's because she didn't want to have that stuck in our minds each holiday. On January 2nd, after having a few days of looking at photos, laughing and sharing, we took her air off and she passed quickly by 11am. She was so graceful about it all, and had such a sense of humor. She left without fear, which was inspiring and makes me so proud of her.

We are creating a Celebration of Life ceremony down the line. She didn't want us to rush, and she didn't want it to be sad and depressing. She wanted it to be a true celebration of her life.

The photo is of her in 20s, and she's just so darn pretty. So why title it Teddy Bears and Gummy Worms? My mom loved teddy bears, and held on to one when she passed. I'm eating gummy worms to cope.

Yep, we got a lot of snow....

.... it was a lot worse than this photo of Pennsylvania Avenue in 1918, but back then they didn't have 4 wheel drive.

Washington, DC only gets a white Christmas about 13% of the time, so when it snows, all the photographers scramble to the National Mall to get their winter wonderland photos that you see on posters and postcards. In reality, it doesn't snow much here. But here's a photo of the National Museum of the American Indian post-snowfall. Around my neighborhood in the Baltimore area, we ended up with about 20 inches.

My hometown of Cleveland...

... has a wonderfully wicked sense of humor. The C.L.E. Clothing Company comes up with the best t-shirts, and even loves to pick on the suburbs every now and then. But right now, this one is my favorite.

The Burning River Surf Club

Awesome.

I'm hiring...

... an Elf for our shelf. I know the recession has hit everyone hard and elves are probably the first to get laid off. Santa is being ruthless this year. There are rumors that Rudolph might be let go, which is bad because then he won't have insurance to get that glowing tumor removed from his nose. Mrs. Claus is only giving sugar cookie bonuses this year, which is making everyone cranky.

But really, I do need to hire an Elf for the simple reason that the one at Nana and Poppy's house has been really useful in keeping Sadie in line. He keeps an eye on her, and she knows that the Elf will report back to Santa if she's naughty. It's a win-win situation. So, I'm taking resumes and there will likely be a lengthy interview process to make sure we get the right kind of Elf. Not like Buddy. Our house can't handle that kind of chaos.



Right now, I don't think I can even handle Sadie throwing the Baby Jesus across the room like last year.

This is laughable....

This is an ad from the 1940's from an exhibit at the National Postal Museum called Victory Mail. Let's count all the things that are innaccurate (at least by today's standards) with this image. But while we have a laugh, remember those who are in the military both here and abroad, and are protecting our country at a great personal sacrifice.


The laughable parts of this ad are:

1. The baby is sleeping.
2. Heels! At Home. Really?
3. She's skinny. Like, right after having that baby. Makes me think she must adopted, or kidnapped the kid.
4. She's actually cooking. I don't have time to cook.
5. Her make-up looks good. If it's hot enough to have a fan, her make-up should be sliding off her face.
6. Nothing I own would fit in cupboards that size. Except maybe the pen she is writing with.
7. Nobody cooks in a cute dress like that. You'll get stuff on it. The apron just delays the inevitable.
8. Does anyone's hair shimmer in the light like that? If it does, please tell me what hair product you are using.
9. Things are running smoothly? You are so lying. Or sleeping with his best friend. This goes with the fact she's wearing a dress and heels. Who is she dressed to impress? Hmmmm.....after clicking on the image, you can read that the soldier's kid brother comes over and "helps her with the garden." No wonder the soldier's son (aka. NEPHEW) looks more like him every day.
10. She really wishes she had a air conditioner. But she won't write that in the letter.

Did I miss anything?

You want me to blog... like, for work?

I work in a weird place. Yesterday, I was actually at the Museum Support Center which is mentioned in Dan Brown's book The Lost Symbol. I had the opportunity to hang out in the wet pod, and I know what a thawing, frozen octopus smells like. It isn't pleasant.

But now you can follow some of my writing on the Smithsonian Journeys blog, every Tuesday and Thursday. This week, I wrote about Antarctica and about the people who actually LIVE there. But the video is way cool, so head over there and watch the whole thing. (And leave a comment about how much you love the blog post. I do have a boss to impress.)

And yes, Buzz Aldrin really will be on that tour to answer all of your questions. How awesome is that?

A Haunting Photo of the Day....

I thought this was a cool one and worth sharing for the Holiday Season. Okay, it's not THE Holiday Season, but Halloween is pretty up there in my family. This is from Smithsonian Magazine's Photo Contest and this is the Photo of the Day for October 21st. It's called Some Kind of Alice by Stefan Andronache and was photographed in Romania.

Benjamin Bratt = Yumminess!

One of the perks of working at a notable place is that you occassionally have moments where you meet really famous people. Today wasn't my day, but my friends Anya and Charlie met Benjamin Bratt at the National Museum of the American Indian. Benjamin is part Quechua and he and his mother were also active in the protests at the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz with the American Indian Movement. As part of NMAI's mission to bring Native film to the forefront, they are showing La Mission at the museum as well as a discussion with Peter Bratt (Director) and Benjamin.

Now that all of the technical stuff is out of the way. Let's just focus on Benjamin Bratt's general yumminess. (My friend Charlie is on the far right with some of the other employees at NMAI. But really, we are all looking at Ben.)

How Matt did it....

Remember Where the Hell is Matt?

I sent it to my Dad, who loved it and he said, "HOW did he do that?" Here's how...

When I have down days, I watch his video of him dancing around the world and it always makes me feel better.



Here is the end result (and as of today there have been over 24 million views):

Anthropology at it's best!

When I was a college student studying anthropology in the mid-1990's, there was a new view of Anthropology. Basically, it was to listen to the cultures and learn from them, rather than telling them whether or not they are civilized. Since the announcement of the 2016 Olympics will be in Rio de Janeiro, there have been a lot of people concerned about what will happen to the Indigenous communities in Brazil. This issues there are heated, and many tribes are facing extinction.

But let's, for a moment, consider how anthropology is approached today. Embedding yourself into the culture you are studying is still believed to be much better than "armchair anthropology"- where college professors don't go anywhere, but ponitificate about the civilized and uncivilized peoples of planet Earth. Here, National Geographic created a show to be broadcasted in the U.K. based on Cultural Anthropology with people from the South Pacific ~ with a twist. Now... this is my kind of reality show.

I haven't posted lately about Harry Potter...

... but this is cool. This was the concept art for the death of Dumbledore by Adam Brockbank, but it never made it into the film. I always wondered how the film would visualize such a scene.

But... they never did. This is one beautiful image though...


You can see more images created by Adam here.

That's one big tree. Is it a truffala tree?

Nope... not a truffala tree. It's a Redwood.

According to National Geographic, this is the Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo ever.

I gotta say, it's pretty tall. At over 1,500 years old this Redwood has grown to over 300 feet. Somehow it survived weather, loggers, and a mulitude of other variables to survive this long. Clearly they had to piece several photos together just to get the full magnitude of this giant.

It involved three cameras, a team of scientists, a robotic dolly, a gyroscope, an 83-photo composite and a whole lotta of patience. Here's the video of how they did it:

In case you love The Lorax...

... and love the Earth, check out the Smithsonian's Online Conference on Climate Change starting today! (You can access it later if you can't experience it LIVE.) If you are on Facebook, you can also become a fan of the Smithsonian. But the interesting part is that people are STILL debating Climate Change. There were "believers" and "non-believers" battling it out on Facebook. But I think everyone agreed that we should all turn off Fox News. Ponder that.

The Hope Diamond is NAKED!

Lately, there's been a lot of hoo-ha at work mostly because we've really entered the realm of pop culture. First it was Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Then it was Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol.

Now... (we are a bit dramatic with these things)... I give you....


Wait for it. (Building drama.....)







The Hope Diamond. (Naked.)


Yep... we took it out of it's setting, studied it, and will put it in a new setting for a few months. Then return it to it's old setting (so don't freak out. We'll still return to Hope Diamond Classic.) You can read the story here. And if you love hearing little fun facts about the diamond, check out this blog post from Around the Mall. If you like it, put a ring on it.

This is Jeff Post, our curator (on the left) and Cristian Samper, who is the Director at the National Museum of Natural History. Just another day at a very unusual office.

I am so glad Facebook didn't exist when I was in college.

This video is from the Onion, which will freak you out if you are under the age of 25. But you can equally be amused by Oh Crap. My Parents Joined Facebook if your parents are over the age of 45.

Since I'm in my 30s, I'm amused by both.


Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

All the cool stuff is in San Francisco....

Like this Vintage Fashion Expo that is this weekend. Okay, I know the undergarments weren't all that comfortable back in the day, but you can't deny they had style. The event features 85 dealers of vintage clothing, accessories and textiles with time periods ranging from 1850 to 1980. I would just gobble up all of the 1920's to 1940's stuff.

The event is perfect for costume designers, fashion hounds, and people like me... history nerds who just like to look at the clothes people wore on a regular basis back in the day.

Alas, I'm here on the East Coast.

*Sniff*

Hey, Dan Brown Fans!!!

I know where that is. Heh. heh. heh....

Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is coming out tomorrow...

Here's a little somethin' somethin' for the Dan Brown fans:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

*Sigh*

Story of my life.

I'm bored.

There's nobody here. It's the Friday before a holiday. And I'm certain no one is going to let us out early. So....(click your mouse and move the little ball.)