Rock Tumbling...The Last Stage...

After nine days of tumbling during the 'polishing' stage, it was time to open the tumbler...

Lukie couldn't wait...here it is, ready to open...

Once it was opened, it looked like sludge...the rocks were in there somewhere...

Getting rid of the water leaves you the rocks covered in sludge...

He had to clean the rocks off...

And was happy when he did...

These were his favorites (he didn't like the granites much for some reason)...

But Hoth survived...he was really worried about that...

He's already asked when we can get new rocks to start the tumbler again...

Snow Day...

After very little snow in December and January, during February...it just won't stop snowing...

Before today, we were 3.9 inches away from becoming the 'Snowiest February' ever for Minneapolis (February is typically our least snowy winter month)...the National Weather Service in Chanhassen tweeted out:

Then it started snowing early this morning...by 9:00 am, KARE 11 tweeted out this picture...

Is that good!?!

Delano Public Schools have had 4 school cancellations (3 for cold temperatures and today for snow), 1 school cancellation because the HS boilers went out during the night when outside temps went to -18 (staff had to report that day), one early release and 2-3 2-hour late starts.  Delano makes up all their missing days --- we had school on President's Day as a make up, we have to make up 3 more now...

Central Public Schools have had 7 school cancellations (3 for cold temperatures and 4 for snow) we think...there's been so many, we're losing track...they've also had several 2-hour late starts as well.  Talk is that Central will be making up many of these at the end of the school year, we'll see...

Well, with all the snow today, it was another snow day...me not a fan...

Lukie and Lex (and their friends Olivia and Joe, who are in the picture because they're in the tunnel they made) love it...

Here's to the school year extending until July 4th!

Science Museum...

We went to the science museum a couple of days ago to catch a new exhibit and see one of the Omnifest films (they have five films for two months that you can see)...

The new exhibit is called 'Game Changers' and it looks at the evolution of video games over the last 40 years.  It also allows people to play many, many games...

There some systems from the '90s that you could play...

They both that the graphics were terrible...

All sorts of games...

Then there were the old arcade style games --- things like Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, etc...it was fun...

Lex loved Asteroids...I loved asteroids...

After the exhibit, we went out into the museum...

Both, Lex and Lukie love the sand table that shows elevation as you change it...plus, you can 'make it rain' by doing what they're doing in the picture below...

The reds show higher elevation and the blue shows lower elevation...

We had lunch overlooking the lobby...I asked Lukie 'when did they put up those blue triangle things?' He read the sign behind me and said "1999."  Apparently, I don't look up much in the lobby...

They tried out some wacky medical devices from the past...

Lex had to race TC Bear (he's the easiest to beat) and Lukie had to race Lex...

We checked out the dinosaurs...

And it was Women in Engineering day at the museum and kids could do 4-5 different hands-on activities, like making slime...

Making Bath Fizzies...

Create circuits to turn on a fan, buzzer or other things...

Make a catapult...

And use play dough to create another circuit that would turn on a light...

And of course, Lukie and I got the picture we've been taking for years with the T-Rex...

Another good day....

Rock Tumbling...again...

So it's been two weeks since Lukie put his rocks in the tumbler for the second stage of tumbling...he's asked almost daily when he can check on the progress...well, today was the day...

Here's Lukie anxiously awaiting what is inside...

Of course he finds pure sludge...his rocks are somewhere in there...

See...they're there...

He's been especially concerned about this one.  He calls it "Hoth" because it looks like to power generator on the planet Hoth from Star Wars.  It's survived...

The ones close to him are his favorites...there are some nice pieces of granite that are looking cool, they aren't the ones closest to him...

After washing, the rocks go back into the tub...

The final stage is polishing...so the polishing grit goes on top of the rocks...

And it's back to tumbling for another week...

Two years difference...

This is Minnesota and things can change...

This was two years ago, today...playing catch, outside, with very little snow...

This is today, after the third 3+ inch snowstorm in a week (two more coming in the next 4 days)...

Some things change...and some things come back to normal...

Rock Tumbling...

After 54 hours of tumbling, it was time for Lukie to look at the results of Stage 1...it was supposed to last anywhere from 2-4 days, the longer the better.  We were looking for a 'sludgy,' gray water...what we found matched that look and Lukie said he was ready to move to Stage 2...

Here are the rocks and minerals after Stage 1...they 'look' more rounded, Lukie definitely things some of them are, the colors were popping out (of course they were wet too)...

But he was happy after just a few days...

So setting the process up again goes like this:  add the rocks/minerals to the tumbler...

Add the medium grit material on top of the rocks/minerals...

Add enough water to cover the rocks and minerals...

Seal it up so it's ready to tumble...

And then it tumbles...Stage 2 lasts between 12-14 days...

You'll probably hear back in a couple of weeks...

Pretty Busy Saturday...

The plan was simple yesterday "actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot.  Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time..."

Maybe it was exactly that, but it was a pretty nice little Saturday...it started as most Saturdays do from December - March, with basketball...

Lukie had two games at Central...

The first game was pretty close, they lost by less than five...

 The second game was not as close...not sure how many they lost by...

After the games and lunch, Lukie set up his new rock tumbler...it came with rocks and minerals ready to be tumbled (we had planned on going to my room at school and finding some for him to tumble)...

Here they are ready for part of the tumbling process...

You add coarse grit and some water, they they need to be tumbled for 2-4 days before inspection...

This little wheel has been turning for 24 hours now...we'll check it Monday to see if part one is done...part two of the process requires 10-14 days and part three takes at least 7 days...yeah, it's going to be tumbling for a while (it's not that quiet either)...

In the evening, we were off to Delano for a hockey game, the last game before sections start this week...what do you need inside an ice arena in-between periods?  Slushies apparently...

It was a good game, they were facing the #3 ranked team Class A team in the state and for the second time this year, the game finished in a tie with them, 1-1...

It was late by the time we got back, around 10:30, but the air temperature was 36 degrees and the 'feel-like' temperature was 30 degrees.  So in 3 days, the 'feels-like' temperature went from -55 to 30, an 85 degree difference...yeah, that's Minnesota...

A pretty nice little Saturday...