Party People

GO HAWKS: O what fun we had this weekend. Saturday brought a couple dozen friends, a ton o' food and good times for the Seahawks' playoff game.

For a 'warm up' we had Kennedy's jambalaya, and at half time it was pastrami from Katz's Delicatessen in NYC. We had it over-nighted and it was like a Big Meat Miracle when the amazing meat we so enjoyed on our trip to the Big Apple arrived here in Washington, the apple capital of the U.S.

Per instructions, we boiled the hunk whole for about three hours. Here's the 'before' shot ...

I swear to you, it was shivering (in an-tic-i-PA-tion) when we took it out of the boiling water. Or maybe that was ME shivering. In either case, we were all excited. :)

And this is why ...
            
The guests absolutely destroyed that pastrami. All that was left was little black crumbs, which was exactly how it should be. (They also destroyed the jambalaya and the pork taco bar, FYI.)

Oh, and the Seahawks won, which is really, REALLY good (from our perspective). That means another party. Woo hoo!! More meat and sugar photos to come!

GREEN GENES: Our first homework problem set for our "Introduction to Genetics and Evolution" class via Coursera was due in today. I was happy that we powered through the videos (despite starting the class a week plus late), and got the homework in on time.

We actually had great fun filling out Punnett squares for several of the problems. For instance, this one:

Imagine two genes have genotypes that affect the likelihood of developing brain cancer. These genes are inherited on different chromosomes. Both genes have recessive disease alleles:

Gene 1: genotypes BB, Bb are typically healthy but bb gets brain cancer
Gene 2: genotypes CC, Cc are typically healthy but cc gets brain cancer
Imagine further an interaction between these genes, such that, in addition to individuals having "bb" at gene 1 or "cc" at gene 2, people who are heterozygous at both genes also get brain cancer (ie, Bb Cc individuals also get brain cancer).
You are counseling a couple that is considering having children. You know the prospective mother has genotype BB Cc, and the prospective father has genotype Bb CC. What is the chance of their first child getting brain cancer? 

Figuring out that and other such problems is our idea of a fun Sunday night!

However, there was one BIG stupid BONER on my part. Last night, before the deadline, I was filing 'my' answers on 'my' problem set and then this a.m when I logged in to Coursera, I noticed that it said Welcome CJ! or some such thing. IMMEDIATELY I knew I had screwed up royally. Last week, CJ was updating his portfolio and realized he was missing a certificate of completion from Coursera for the last class we completed. He tried to print one out from his laptop, but it wouldn't work, so I told him to use my computer to log in and print one out. That worked swell, but little did I realize, that left the Coursera on my computer logged in as him. So when I submitted the problem set this week, I was actually submitting it under CJ's name. He submitted one too, as did Annabelle. They each got 100 percent, and I got a Big Fat Zero, because I didn't realize until after the test deadline I was under the wrong profile. LAME SAUCE and not a mistake I'll make again.

Naturally, this snafu made me review the grading policies. Good news is, the low problem set score for this class is thrown out. (That would be my Big Fat ZERO!) But we also learned today the midterm and final are each 40 percent of the course. Yowza. That's totally college course like. Hope we're up to snuff! But even if we miss the mark, this class is a wonderful learning opportunity. Here's a suggested viewing link shared in its resources list for this week ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwibgNGe4aY


CONNECTED: Over the weekend, the Cygnus capsule, by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., made its way to the International Space Station. On board were a bunch of important science experiments and cargo to resupply the ISS. Also, long delayed Christmas/holiday presents were part of the cargo.

Image credit: NASA

 The capsule was set to launch earlier, but it got pushed back repeatedly, first due to the ammonia leak on station, then due to the frigid cold back south, and then due to solar flares. So, though the Christmas presents to the ISS were delayed, once the coast was clear, Cygnus did a great job of getting them there. Better than some postal carriers around the holidays here on Earth, one might say. (Renee in BC, Canada, reports to us today three parcels we mailed her way two weeks before Xmas just arrived there this week. Ridiculous! I could have walked them there in that time!)

'GLOBE' TROTTERS:  We like to take 'field trips' on Mondays, and while time and budget don't allow us to go too far afield to often, today we did whip out our passports. More, specifically, our McMenamins passports!

McMenamins is a regional chain of brewpubs in the Pac NW. Christian and I had our first date at one, and we love their beer and the cool aesthetic of each location. The McMenamins passports have prizes for completing mini circuits of locations and we completed the easy (for us) one today. Queen Anne is our closest locale, which is where we bought our passports. Today, we drove up to Mill Creek (about 20 minutes north on I5) to get that stamp.
              
We were there maybe 5 minutes when Christian tipped his beer over and it all wound up on poor Annabelle. :/  We had planned to go get our flu shots after that stop, but thought better of walking in to a medical facility with our kids reeking of beer (CPS anyone?!). So, we skipped the flu shots for today and just went straight to our final destination, McMenamins Six Arms, on Capitol Hill. (Because smelling like beer in a microbrewery is welcomed instead of frowned upon!)

There, we could collect our prize for finishing the Seattle circuit - a burger of our choice. We let the kids order whatever they wanted from the Big People's burger menu. They each (astutely) selected the "Wild Wil’s: Jumbo Deluxe Tillamook® cheddar, bacon & a fried egg."  I had the happy hour hummus plate. :)

Oh, yeah!

We were done with our dinner, and ready to leave when I somehow tipped my empty glass over and it shattered into a million pieces like a smash-and-grab Honda Civic window. Yowza. Hopefully McMenamins doesn't blacklist us before we finish all our passport stamps. :0