What-What?! Week of October 26th

Oh my goodness, this next week is Saffron's birthday and Halloween.  I'm still working on costumes, gathering up supplies to make a cake, and all that stuff.  At least I've already got her presents wrapped.

News:  Residents, Politicians Worry About Radiation at Local Park via The Seattle PI

Well, this is exciting.  A large park in Seattle was built on top of an old WWII-era military factory complex, which apparently included a radium room for building glow in the dark instrumentation for aircraft.  If there's anything I know about radiation and history, it's that it probably wasn't cleaned up properly.

What makes this particularly troubling is that, while a park may be somewhere you go often, you're not there all the time... except there are people currently living there.  So that's nice.

After doing some additional reading from the Washington State Department of Health, I'm not sure why this is news now; according to the website, this issue has been known since 2009, and cleanup began in 2013.  Did this just become public knowledge?

If so, then I guess that's nice too. D:

How about something a little cuter?  Saffron has her costume most of the way done:

Excuse the giant mess behind her. :P

What-What?! Week of September 14th

Things are as they were, mostly.  This past week, I set up Skype with my father-in-law, which was really nice.  I miss everyone back home.

I went to an informational meeting for this local homeschooling group, which I'm probably going to join.  They seem like people who could be my kind of people.  They have events mostly in town, too, so it's not like driving to the East Side all the time, which is where the other homeschool meet-ups I've found are.

And now something vaguely depressing...!

Gene-Altered Apple Tested in Washington State via The Seattle P.I.

Last year, an inspection of gene-altered apples found trees that were flowering less than 100 feet from conventional apples, poor record keeping practices, and using no methods of keeping animals away from them.  Basically, doing everything to ensure that these genetically altered apples interbreed with other apples.

The article goes on to describe the kinds of incidents that occur at experimental plots with the potential to spread genetically modified produce to unwanted areas, and the wrist slaps that the overseeing government agency applies when things go wrong.  In the incident above, the agency fined the company $19,250, which is a paltry sum.

I don't necessarily disagree with genetically altered produce.  I understand the science, and that, as yet, we have no evidence that it would be harmful to humans.  However, what I do object to is that it is extremely difficult to keep genetically modified produce from mixing with conventional produce.  I want to have the choice not to get it, and I want to have the assurance that, if for whatever reason we do find out that certain varieties are harmful, we have other options.

The article, clocking in at five pages, is a bit of a long read, but well worth the information.

With that, how about some pictures of my kids?  They are adorable:



The artist at work.

It's unusual to see this one be so still.