Number 9

BEE'S B-DAY: Annabelle is 8 no longer. The nice round number is gone, and now she's 9. Just one year away from double digits. Time flies.

We spent all morning and afternoon playing with our food. More specifically, Annabelle's birthday treats.

Annabelle designed her own cake this year. We busted out the Big Top Cupcake mold for the first time. I don't remember when or why be bought it, but I know it's been gathering dust in the basement for a couple of years. We dusted it off before putting it into service.

We baked our go-to chocolate cake recipe in the top and bottom. 

We frosted the bottom in lavender buttercream, to look like a cupcake wrapper.

The middle was 'stuffed' with a marshmallow creme we whipped up. 

For the top, I thought it needed something with a tremendous amount of volume. Standard buttercream would not do. My mind drifted back to something called 'boiled frosting.' I wasn't even sure what it was, to tell you the truth. I just remember my grandma making it when I was a kid.

Thanks to the Internet, I was able to find tons o' recipes for it. However, the first handful I read all called for whipping raw egg whites into stiff peaks. My food safety meter went off, and so I looked for an alternative. I knew I had meringue powder, so I found a recipe using that instead of egg whites on the Wilton Web site.  

I was worried that it might not be fluffy enough.  It was a needless worry.

We iced the top half of the cupcake on steroids and Annabelle applied sprinkles liberally. 

Then we lifted the top onto the base and Annabelle planted Pinkie Pie on top. Done!

Overall, the thing was about a foot tall and bigger than that around. It looked like a cupcake that had eaten too many cupcakes. ;)

We had some cake batter left over, and a super cute owl "cupcake" pan in the cupboard, so on to project number two. ...

Of course, that meant I had to make some fondant. About eight different colors of fondant, to be specific.

We pressed the fondant into the tin to make a full body cover for the mini cakes.

And then we had fun personalizing each owl.

CJ made a brown owl. With eye brows. And when he says eyebrows, he means eye brows. As in brows on the eyes. :)  He eventually got brows above the eyes, as well. 

Annabelle made a total of three owls, each very different.

I liked their unique personalities. 

I made a pair of owls, including a grumpy old one.

I think we're done making cakes for awhile!

Back in Action

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/G. Ugarkovic
BLOWING UP: Magically, this morning my volume of email seemed to quadruple. Why? Because NASA is back in business. Hooray!! The shutdown's over ... for now.

One of the messages I received today included this amazing portrait looking down on Saturn and its rings. It was created from images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Oct. 10, 2013. Incredibly, the composite isn't a NASA product, it was made by amateur image processor and Cassini fan Gordan Ugarkovic. The mosaic was created using 12 image footprints with red, blue and green filters from Cassini's imaging science subsystem. Incredible!

The Cassini orbiter and its two cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.  More info about Cassini-Huygens can be found here: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

And I was so hap Hap HAPPY to see Curiosity back to posting on Facebook all the way from Mars. Its first post today was, "Allow me to reintroduce myself. I'm back on Facebook and even closer to Mars' Mount Sharp. Check out more recent photos from my journey here: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s"

One of the post's commenters said they figured Curiosity was doing this during the government http://media.giphy.com/media/10aZY3TPgp9Dws/giphy.gif

DRIVEN: We spent a couple hours today driving around looking at houses in West Seattle, potentially for the kids' big brother, Rick. Why can't house hunting be as simple as those cable shows, where it only takes a half hour, you look at three nice places, and then buy one?

THE AUTUMN LEAVES: After 'school' today, we met CJ's BFF from kindergarten at a nearby park. The kids played on the playground a bit, but in and with the leaves a lot more. Some of the leave came home with us, in Annabelle's hair.

Afterward, we headed to the local frozen yogurt shop for a treat. Imagine the kids' delight when we ran into a real live oversized-cone.

GO HAWKS!: The kids and I were all sporting Seahawks jerseys when we went grocery shopping this afternoon. The cashier, a young woman, gave me a funny look, and said, " I don't know football, but I do know it's not Sunday." I laughed and told her that oddly enough, the Seahawks game was tonight. It's like Sunday came early.

Amazing Adventures

 SPACE RACE: Today was our weekly trip to Shoreline for a couple hours of math and science classes. As a fun bonus activity, the school is holding a math-focused "Space Quest" activity. Each week the kids will answer math questions and make progress on an intergalactic journey.

They were pretty thrilled to get their very own "Captain's Logs!"

BROWSER: We had a few minutes to spare between math and science classes today, so I basically ordered the kids to go find a book in the library to check out. Annabelle fetched a collection of Jack Pruetlesy poems. The title is "My Dog May Be a Genius," and she said, "Clearly this isn't about our dogs." Have to agree with her on that.

Of all the books in the library, CJ honed in on this gem.

Different strokes. :)

ACCIDENTAL TOURISTS: I continue my spasmodic travelogue of our September trip to NYC and the UK by recounting our visit to the Salisbury Cathedral on the morning of Sept. 16.

The Salisbury Cathedral wasn't on our official list of things 'to do,' but as we drove around near our inn between Stonehenge and Old Sarum, we kept seeing this really tall, pointy church spire in the distance and we were intrigued.

On our last (and only) morning in Salisbury, Christian pretty much insisted we stop by. I was a bit reluctant, since we had a ferry to catch to the Isle of Wight. However, we pointed our (now slightly banged up) rental car in the pointy spire's direction.  Getting there was a bit tricky - narrow, one way roads, and lots of auto and foot traffic darting about. And when we grew close, we couldn't find an entrance or parking. I was ready to call it quits, but Christian pulled into a spot and we basically sprinted out of the car toward the cathedral, about four blocks away.

I'm glad we stopped. Turns out the place is a Pretty Big Deal - in addition to being just plain big!

Can you spot the kids? They're tiny specks in the photo above, on the cathedral's west front.

So, you know that pointy structure I mentioned we'd been spying for a couple days? Turns out it's Britain's tallest spire. You can see it behind the cathedral entrance above. And to the right in the photo below.

Per the cathedral's Web site, "Salisbury is unique amongst medieval English cathedrals having been built in just 38 years (1220 - 1258) in a single architectural style, early English Gothic. The tower and spire (Britain's tallest) were added about 50 years later."

It's awfully darn gob-smacking as you enter, that's for sure! Even before entering, I was awfully glad we stopped.

Once inside, OMG! (seems appropriate, given it's a cathedral, right?). AmAzInG. Stunning. Breath taking. We could have spent a day or days there. I was instantly kicking myself for not knowing about the place beforehand and only having like 45 minutes to see it 'all.' We told the kids to open their eyes wide and see as much as they could during our whirlwind tour.

This row of statues was one of the first jaw-droppers we encountered. I love this photo of CJ contemplating them.

And early in our tour our eyes landed on the world's oldest working clock, from 1386 AD. 

Can you believe it?! We accidentally saw the world's oldest working clock! Like other clocks of its era, it had no face. Rather, it rang out the hours on a bell. This clock was originally in a bell tower that's long gone (1792). It was moved to the Cathedral Tower, where it rang out the hours until 1884. Then it was stuck in storage and long forgotten, until 1929. It was restored and placed back in to service in 1956.

One of the cathedral's newest features (2008) is a lovely water feature, The Font.

I wish we could have lingered there longer.

There are a whole bunch of people buried in the cathedral, many of the former bishops of the cathedral. However, many others are buried there as well, and the markers and monuments range from stones in the walkways to lifelike statues.

Below is the crypt of William Geoffrey, canon and Chancellor of the cathedral between 1554-8.

Thomas Wyndham merited a larger than most memorial. He was named Chief Justice of Court of Common Pleas in Ireland by King George I and later the Office of the High Chancellor of Ireland. Wyndham, who died in 1745, was Speaker of the House for the Irish Parliament. 

The final resting place of  John Wordsworth was my personal favorite. Nephew of poet William Wordsworth, he became bishop of Salisbury at age 42, in 1845. The bishop has one heck of an eternal view.

Not all of the people who are buried there are from ages ago. In fact, one of the most famous people buried there is Sir Edward Heath (1916–2005), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and parliamentary member from 1950 to 2001. He lived in the Cathedral Close for the last twenty years of his life.

In addition to the tallest spire, the Salisbury cathedral also has the largest cloister (a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries) in Britain (pictured below, via Wikipedia). Yup, we accidentally saw that too. ;)As we made the rounds, at one point one of us spied a sign that said something about Magna Carta. Huh what?!?!?! "THE Magna Carta?" we asked one of the docents on site, believing the answer would surely be 'no.' 

Imagine our surprise when the answer was "Yes!"  

We made our way to the octagonal shaped Chapter House, where it was kept. The building has a slender central pillar and decorative medieval frieze.  The Magna Carta is kept in the back of the building, under the watchful eye of a full time "guard" (a super friendly 75-ish year old woman on the morning we visited).

Photos were not permitted, so this one is gleaned from the Internet. ...

The 1215 proclamation (the "great charter") is considered the founding constitutional document of the English-speaking world. Its 63 clauses are written in Latin on an 800-year old parchment and let me tell you, the penmanship is ridiculously amazing! 

("Social studies" aside - only three of the original clauses in Magna Carta are still law today. One defends the freedom and rights of the English Church, another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns, and the third is the most famous. The docent made sure to point it out to us:

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled. Nor will we proceed with force against him except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

The cathedral's Web site has an interesting history of how the Magna Carte came to Salisbury. It reads

At Runnymede King John was urged to accept the demands of the barons and agree Magna Carta by his half-brother, William Longspeé, whose Effigy is in Salisbury Cathedral. Also present at Runnymede was Elias of Dereham, who at the time was steward to one of the key players in the crisis, the Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton. Elias himself was a skilled negotiator and was at the very centre of the discussions between the King and the barons. Once Magna Carta was agreed and sealed he was entrusted with delivering ten of the thirteen copies made, one of which was given to the original cathedral at Old Sarum. Elias later became a Canon of Old Sarum before masterminding the building of the present Salisbury Cathedral.

So the historical document was at Old Sarum before it came to the cathedral, just like us. ;) Fortunately, it wasn't damaged by a motorhome at Old Sarum. :)  How thrilling to be able to see it!

Thanks to the magic of the Intertubes, you can take a 360-degree virtual tour of the cathedral online. It's gorgeous, and I'd really encourage you to do so. Here's the link:  https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=51.064905,-1.79758&spn=0.001372,0.00294&sll=51.064933,-1.797677&layer=c&cid=14380366614161135822&panoid=-fwJtqdUYsw8WS4DDn0AZw&cbp=13,91.15,,0,0&gl=US&t=m&z=19&cbll=51.064905,-1.79758
When you do it, make sure you look UP! The ceilings are NOT to be missed! This area of the cathedral is called the Nave. This picture doesn't do it justice.

I kept reminding myself and exhorting the kids to "Look up! Look up!"

All in all, it was a pretty decent one-hour stop on our whirlwind visit to the UK. :)

Lazy Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME: It happens once a year, just like clockwork. A birthday. Today was mine.

The kids made me cards. CJ's was sweet and entirely text based. Annabelle added a couple of self portraits. Loved its geeky sentiment :) "Nominal" is one of our favorite words, because that means everything's going right during a rocket launch!

I slept in a bit (until 8:30, the glory!) and we went for an hour-long walk in the fog. It was so thick, we couldn't even see Queen Anne from Magnolia - a rarity.

We wound our way around our neighborhood, and wound up at Ella Bailey Park (a/k/a "Hilltop play park" in our household).

While there, we noticed many a mushroom growing. In size and shape, these looked like little crab shells, just a couple inches or less across. I've never seen mushrooms like these before in all my many years in the Pac NW.

And the mushrooms photoed below had bumpy 'roofs.' I could totally picture gnomes living underneath them!

Anyone out there a mushroom expert? I'd love to know more about these. I just know they're not portobellos. ;)

WORKING IT: Early afternoon we spent some time on homework for our class, "Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Science Matter." Our tasks included figuring out which major macromolecule type is most abundant in each ingredient of the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip recipe. Fascinating stuff, I tell you! We baked chocolate chip cookies tonight with a whole new appreciation of just how bad they are for us. :)

We also received our statement of accomplishments today from our completed Coursera class "From the Big Bang to Dark Energy." Not only did we pass the class that seemed impossible at many points, but we each earned certificates "with distinction" for getting over 90 percent cumulative, based on coursework and the final. Go MPA!

BRAIN GAME: I decided my fancy birthday dinner would be take and bake pizza. The place we were picking it up is located right by one of our favorite spots in Seattle, Chuck's, so of course we stopped in. 

There is a board game library there, and new to the shelf was the Cranium game. 

We gave it a good go for an hour and a half, while watching the Red Sox beat Detroit.  It's a fun hybrid of charades, Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary and more.

The game we were playing called for teams. We took a Boys v. Girls approach.

I was pretty happy when we played to a tie by the time we were ready to leave, however some people are highly competitive and don't take not winning very well, LOL!

Fall Fun

GREAT PUMPKINS: The day dawned foggy, but we didn't let that stop us. I wanted to go on a longish walk, and that we did. First, we had to scale "Mt. Magnolia," straight up Dravus to the hill's peak. From there, it was due north several blocks to a front yard we visit once a year about this time. Its address is 3707 29th Ave. West, but it's commonly referred to a "the pumpkin house."

This year's visit did not disappoint. My oh my, what large pumpkins this gardener has grown!  So many lovely fall scenes in that small front yard.

FRIDAY REWIND:  My apologies for the lack of blog post on Friday. We were on the road all morning, and all afternoon we were engaged in wedding-related activities at McMenamin's Edgefield, in Troudale, Ore.  It was an outdoor ceremony, and thankfully the weather was very agreeable.

The wedding was absolutely lovely. Our best wishes to the newlyweds.

GRAVITY MATTERS: We 'finally' made it to see "Gravity" this afternoon. I say 'finally' because CJ has been pestering and pestering us since before it debuted. This weekend, in fact, he told us he was losing his patience. We, of course, told him he needed to chill out.

This afternoon we headed to one of Pacific Science Center's IMAX 3D theaters and saw it.

I'm not going to ruin it for anyone other than to say it was AmAzInG. On the way out I said, "I can finally breathe." I haven't been in a theater that quiet and rapt since, well, ever. Ninety minutes absolutely flew by.

Tonight, the kids (at my urging) both checked out the spacewalk experience game on http://gravitymovie.warnerbros.com.  I tried it for a couple of seconds and quickly started having flashbacks to the part of the movie where ... wait, no, I'm not going to tell you. Just go see the movie!

NEWSBOY:  While the "Gravity" credits were rolling, CJ asked, "Can we go to McMenamin's?" a favorite haunt near Seattle Center. And so off we went.

Just outside of its entrance is a row of newspaper boxes. I saw one called "China Daily," and decided it would be 25 cents well spent for some social studies learning.

CJ is very interested in the government of North Korea and China, and so I thought this would be right up his alley. He pored over it while inhaling a hamburger for dinner.

RIDDLE ME THIS: One of the benefits of having Rick around more is that the kids get to check out some of the school work he's giving to his classroom full of third graders. Tonight, he was grading papers that included a list of riddles. I challenged the kids to try to solve them. Care to give it a go? If you know the answer, comment!

#1  I come one in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years.
#2  When you put this in a heavy wooden box, the box will become lighter.
#3  A cowboy rides into town on Friday. He stays two days, then leaves on Saturday.  How can this be?