Friday Report

       
BLOCKHEAD: Been meaning to post this for awhile now. Above is one of Annabelle's cardboard creations. She makes a cute blockhead, don't you think?

We spent hours and hours and hours today talking about and working on a books idea we have. I'm not going to post specifics here yet, other than it's a children's book, and it has a space theme.

We started some character design today, and Annabelle and I were having ALL sorts of trouble with Photoshop, and then Illustrator on my computer.

While I was swearing at the computer, Annabelle was expressing her frustration on paper.

Methinks a fair amount of our trouble had its genesis in the fact that the Photoshop and Illustrator versions I have are about 12 years old. We loaded Adobe Illustrator CS2 on Annabelle's laptop and found that wasn't quite as frustrating, so we're going to try to work with that.

FREELOADERS: A couple of days ago  I noticed a banner for a new-ish establishment just south of Safeco Field called Henry's Tavern - American Bar & Grill.  Curious, I checked out their reviews on Yelp on Wednesday evening and noticed that they were giving away free bacon cheeseburgers between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. through Saturday. Did they say free? Count us in!

Christian went and checked out the place during his lunch on Thursday and reported that it was free, and it was good, so the family went there today for lunch.

The first thing I thought when they brought the plate was, "I'm gonna need a bigger mouth." Yikes. All five of us (Rick was with us) got these big honking bacon cheeseburgers for nothing but the cost of our drinks.

The place was packed, not surprisingly, and I was impressed with how quickly they were getting the orders out. The staff was friendly and professional, and the restaurant itself was a cool space. As often as we're in that part of town for games, we'll definitely be back, even if they're not giving away food! :)

LOOKING UP: On our way home this afternoon, I heard a plane overhead as I always do, because you just never know what you're going to see in this town.

This particular bird (pictured below) happened to be something spectacular - the B-17 named "Nine-O-Nine."

                          source: USGOV-MILITARY-AIR FORCE.via Wikipedia
Immediately, I knew the "Flying Fortress" was winging into town as part of the Collings Foundation's Wings of Freedom Tour, which is at Boeing Field and The Museum of Flight this weekend.

We found a neat interactive about the Boeing B-17G ('Nine-O-Nine') we saw flying online here: http://i-ota.net/B-17Nine-O-Nine/  Reportedly it flew 140 combat missions during WWII, without ever losing a crew member.

OFF TO EQUESTRIA: Tomorrow we're taking a field trip to Wenatchee, Washington, about 180 miles east of here. It's the apple capital of the state, and we'll probably pick up some produce while we're there, but our primary reason for heading over the mountains has nothing to do with produce. Rather, it has to do with ponies. Specifically My Little Ponies, and their new money grab, er, I mean, movie, "Equestria Girls."

Since CJ and Annabelle are two of the Biggest Pony Fans Ever, we feel compelled to go to said movie. The incredibly unfortunate part is that it's only showing at two theaters in the state, neither of which is anywhere near Seattle. Our choices are Wenatchee or Vancouver, and since the Vancouver theater showing it doesn't pre-sell tickets, we weren't willing to risk driving that far to get skunked. Instead, we bought our tickets online ahead of time for the Wenatchee show. Good thing we did. When I was double checking the theater's Web site Web site last night, every single showing of "Equestria Girls" was sold out. Crazy Pony fans.

On the surface, it would appear to be a vehicle for launching a new line of toys and videos, perhaps. Maybe I'll feel differently after I see it (sure, it could happen).

DESTINATION STATION DOCUMENTED: A week ago Monday, we were at Pacific Science Center, visiting with an astronaut and getting a sneak peek at the new exhibit about the International Space Station. While we were there, there was a Seattle P.I. reporter asking lots of questions, taking lots of notes and photos. I looked for the story online for a couple of days after the event but never found it. Last night, I thought to look again, and finally did track it down. There are multiple lots of photos of CJ & Annabelle and they're in the story, as well. Here's a link:
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/boeing/article/Learn-what-it-s-like-to-live-in-space-and-what-4591305.php#photo-4765168