Green Day

HOT STUFF:  Our big project for the day was something we've been looking forward to for months - making salsa verde from the tomatillos in our garden! 

The recipe I had called for (found on a blog called The Yummy Life) called for 25 tomatillos. We had enough, fortunately. We roasted them along with some garlic, Anaheim peppers, onions, habaneros from our garden, and a couple of jalapenos. 

Post-roasting, the kids carefully picked up the veggies and transferred them into the food processor.

You can tell by the look on CJ's face, this was Very Serious Business.

We added spices, some lime juice and vinegar, and cilantro, and then into the saucepan it all went.

After that, it was into jars and a water bath.  

Now, the 25 tomatillos are sitting in five tiny jars, this sized ...

It was fun listing to the 'ping!' as the jars were sealing.  We have to wait a month, until the vinegar mellows, to try it. Can't wait! 

COWABUNGA!: Today wasn't all toiling in the garden and kitchen.  This morning, the kids headed out with their oldest brother Rick to see the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.  I'm not sure who was more excited, the kids or Rick. When he was a kid, Ninja Turtles ruled our roost for what seemed like years.  That was fine by me, I rather liked the cartoon. :) 

We played around with their Web site a little this evening. They had a 'TMNT Yourself' option. 
Frankly, we weren't too impressed with it ...

Annabelle did enjoy the skateboard design game. 

I'd read rather horrible things about this reboot of the series, but the trio who reported directly to me post-movie all said they enjoyed it. I took a pass on the theater trip, choosing to install some shelving in Rick's laundry room instead. I'll have to catch it on DVD. 

ON TAP: Busy weekend ahead. Tomorrow, we're looking forward to attending the first ever .

And Saturday evening, "Sweet" Lou Pinella will be inducted into the Mariners Hall of Fame.

And Sunday evening, don't miss the biggest "Super Moon" of the year. Per a NASA Solar System Exploration Facebook post,  "This Sunday night the moon will be as much as 14 percent closer and 30 percent brighter than other full moons of the year. Plus, the Perseids are peaking."

More about the "super moon" here: http://1.usa.gov/1lSHr9j

BE ON THE LOOKOUT:  We're lucky to be in the midst of a flurry of ISS flyovers right now. We've had two nice, long ones in the last few days.  It's always great to see the International Space Station streak over our house, but right now, there's an added bonus: We have a chance to see an European spacecraft trying to catch up with it!

The European Space Agency's fifth automated transfer vehicle (ATV-5, an unmanned cargo ship) was launched on July 29, and it's scheduled to arrive at the orbiting lab on Aug. 12. In the meantime, we might just be able to spot it trailing the ISS. Here's an article all about ATV-5:  http://news.yahoo.com/see-europes-last-space-station-cargo-ship-night-163530071.html

To check out when the ISS will be flying over your place, go to NASA's Spot the Station site: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

Summer Fun

MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME:  Today, we had what felt like the first normal day around here in the longest time. I swear, with three weeks of CJ sick, I feel like we've been cheated out of a big chunk of summer. :(  We can't get it back, but we can try to make the most out of what is left. 

To that end, today we visited two parks. This morning it was just our neighborhood park, Bayview, where the kids romped for about 45 minutes while I walked the dog in circles. 

This afternoon, we headed over to Ballard Commons to let the kids splash around in the little water feature for awhile. 

There was an addition to the park since the last time we'd visited. 

A piano - brilliant!

It's part of Seattle's "Pianos in the Parks" program this summer. At 20 parks throughout Seattle and King County, pianos with personality have been placed for a week weeks. They were donated by Classic Pianos and each was decorated by an artist from the Gage Academy of Art.  The Ballard piano has a viking theme, fitting, since the neighborhood was historically full of Nordic residents. 

 Annabelle sat right down and started tickling the ivories, playing some song from "My Little Pony."

SINGING STORYTELLER: At 4 p.m., we headed to the Magnolia library for a special summer program performance by singer-songwriter and illustrator Morgan Taylor of New York.

Taylor staged a wonderful, multimedia performance about a character he's created, Gustafer Yellowgold, a native of the sun.

We learned that there are lakes on the sun, and Gustafer used to enjoy swimming in Butter
Pond Lake ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEoICmfV6h8

Eventually, Gustafer came to Earth, where he lives in a bright yellow house in the Minnesota woods, where he has all sorts of adventures and he loves eating pinecones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwFd89Wjy_w

Gustafer has a pet eel named Slim.  Slim likes wearing socks, and is especially partial to athletic socks. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WVm720UaQo

Gustafer is fond of cheese, even as apparel. Taylor sang a fun song about a "Wisconson Poncho." 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSu8AO8r_BY


It was a rollicking 50 minutes. Taylor finished up the set with a tune called "Cakenstein." Super clever and cute. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWGgyFntWPo


It was a wonderful performance.  A New York Times review called Taylor's Gustafer Yellowgold "a cross between 'Yellow Submarine' and Dr. Seuss," which about sums it up perfectly.  (Frankly, some of it reminded me of Robyn Hitchcock, but that's probably just me.) 

If you ever have a chance to see Taylor perform it live, do so!

As a side note, I witnessed more than a little bad parenting during today's show, but I'll limit myself to sharing just one example.  Question:  If your kid is crying and miserable and not watching the show, how about taking them out of the room instead of having them make everyone else miserable? Is that asking too much?  Seriously. Did the mother of the squalling/screaming three year old think there was some medal she'd get for keeping her kid there the whole time? The kid wasn't even remotely interested in what was going on, so why subject everyone to that? I just don't understand why some people are so selfish and/or clueless. 

As a bonus, while at the library, the kids officially signed up for their summer reading program. By doing so, they each got a free book! When they fill out their forms of 10 books they read and/or ten things they learned this summer, they'll earn free family passes to the Burke Museum, on the University of Washington campus.

Hello, World!

TEN YEAR TRIP:  Amazing news from the European Space Agency today. Their probe Rosetta, launched in March of 2004, has reached its target: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. You can see an animation, comprised of 101 images acquired by the Navigation Camera on board, as it approached comet 67P/C-G in August 2014here: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/08/06/arriving-at-last/

Here's a look back at the 10 years leading up to Rosetta's comet rendevous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEQuE5N3rwQ&feature=youtu.be


"Oh my god, all the math," CJ marveled as we watched the video.

"Those people should be awfully proud of themselves," Annabelle chimed in.

We watched with interest as Rosetta was awakened earlier this year after 957 days in hibernation. During the journey, Rosetta used gravity slingshots from Earth and Mars to reach its final destination.   Now at her destination, Rosetta is already beaming lots o' photos back to Earth, including this amazing close up detail of a smooth region on the base of the ‘body’ section of comet 67P/C-G. 

According to an ESA press release, the image, taken from a distance of 130 km and the image resolution is 2.4 metres per pixel, was taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera earlier today. It shows boulders, craters and steep cliffs.

Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

A multinational effort, NASA and U.S. scientists are involved in seven of the mission's 21 instrument collaborations. Composed of an orbiter and lander, Rosetta's objectives upon arrival at comet 67P/C-G are to study the celestial object in unprecedented detail, prepare for landing a probe on the comet's nucleus in November, and track its changes as it sweeps past the sun.

It's so amazing to lasso a comet, so to speak.  As NASA pointed out in a press release today, "Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. Rosetta's lander will obtain the first images taken from a comet's surface and will provide the first analysis of a comet's composition by drilling into the surface. Rosetta also will be the first spacecraft to witness at close proximity how a comet changes as it is subjected to the increasing intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations will help scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets may have played in seeding Earth with water, and perhaps even life."  Woohoo! (That last word is my quote, not NASA's.)

CLASSY: The kids and I started a -week Coursera class today, "The Camera Never Lies." Offered by the University of London, the course is about "film, images & historical interpretation in the 20th century for those who have a general interest in history that draws on photojournalism as primary evidence, and films based on historical events," per its class description on Coursera. 

Our instructor is Dr Emmett Sullivan, Senior Tutor in the History Department, Royal Holloway, University of London. 

We powered through the first week's videos today, and we learned so much. Having used Photoshop extensively, we're well aware of the power and frequency of manipulation of images in today's world but OMG - the media has been manipulating images since the 1800s - and likely long before! No doubt the hieroglyphs are suspect. ... 

Between lectures, I talked to the kids about how back in the day, in my 20 years of journalism, I'd go to an archive and pull an original negative or microfiche, or even archived paper document as my way of tracing history. What will reporters do even 5 years from now? Yeah, sure you can find a copy of a copy of a copy of a digital image online, but where are today's 'negatives' in a digital world? 

That said, how interesting that people have been faking since forever. 

 One example Dr. Sullivan pointed to was a Library his print (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division) which appears to be of General Ulysses S. Grant in front of his troops at City Point, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Some detective work by researchers at the Library of Congress revealed that this print is a composite of three separate prints: (1) the head in this photo is taken from a portrait of Grant; (2) the horse and body are those of Major General Alexander M. McCook; and (3) the background is of Confederate prisoners captured at the battle of Fisher’s Hill, Virginia. 

My compliments to the chef, er, I mean fraud! Well done, especially in the pre-Photoshop world!

There are so many other examples.  Dr. Sullivan kept referencing something called Four and Six. We learned it's a Web site that tracks photographic authenticity. I can't encourage you enough to check them out; 

Christian figured out tonight that their name is a play on forensics. 

Party Central

PREPPERS: We spent about 10 hours in the kitchen today, making all sorts of stuff for the annual neighborhood barbecue. 

We always make some kind of summery cookie and this year Annabelle and I cranked out a couple dozen Hawaiian shirts. 

I made pounds and pounds of mac and cheese from scratch, using four different cheeses, including a couple of tasty Beecher's varieties. 

We also made about three dozen delicious strawberry lemonade cupcakes (strawberry cupcakes with lemonade flavored buttercream). We made the tops look like lemonade yellow flowers, with different-colored little textured fondant balls for the flowers' centers.

I think they were the best batch ever. Using cake flour really does make a difference, IMHO.

We made three kids of deviled eggs: Bacon and blue cheese; salmon, smoked paprika and baby dill; and sriracha topped with pickled red onion.  We hard boiled 30 eggs, which made 60 deviled eggs. I thought that might be too much, and was kind of looking forward to leftovers, truth be told, but they were gobbled right up, darn it!

The easiest thing we made was watermelon on a stick. That's it - slice watermelon into pie-shaped wedges, cut a little slit in the rind, insert a wide craft stick and then freeze it. 

I thought it would be fun to make an adult version, so we sliced some up and drizzled vodka on them before freezing them. We wrote 80 PROOF on those sticks, and put cute stickers on the handles of the kids'/no-alcohol version. They were a big hit - and the adult ones disappeared first. 

We're in the middle of the block and the only ones with a flat front yard, so action usually centers in front of our place, and this year was no exception. There were so many new faces this year. I think there were more people I didn't recognize than people I did recognize. LOTS of little kids in the 'hood all the sudden. For years there, we were the only ones with young 'uns. 

Lots of people quizzed us about the rocks in the front yard, so we had to show them the growing quarry on our slope. I think we're officially the Crazy Neighbors now. ;)  We probably already were anyway. 

IN OTHER NEWS: Health-wise, CJ has had a good 36 hours. We are VERY happy about that. 

Exhausting

CLOSE QUARTERS:  We're starting to get a little bit buggy here at MPA. Tomorrow will mark week 3 of when CJ became afflicted with his mystery illness.  One that keeps you close to home and a dishwasher, clothes washer and lots of bleach, when you're not at urgent care or the doctor's office.

The good news is, there's lots of interesting stuff to look at 'round here right now. Tonight, the kids picked tomatoes from our garden for the first time this season.  It's a jungle in there!

Lots of our little tomatoes are coming to red. 

And we picked a couple of habeneros (our first attempt at growing them). Aren't they lovely?!

And some of our sunflowers are going gangbusters!

One is flowering big time ...

and another is ready to unfurl.

Christian and I moved tons o' boulders this weekend. Just the two of us. And some ropes. And pulleys.

It's exhausting and rewarding.  We have a relatively wee little pile of rocks left to move.

Tonight we dared venture to Maggie Bluffs, a restaurant very close to home, well before the dinner hour hit. The spot affords a lovely view of Elliott Bay. It's adjacent to a spendy marina, and we marveled at an enormous cargo ship going by, the Anna Maersk.

Tonight, we checked out the Maersk Web site. It's really cool!

The kids each found a tree to climb on and around post happy hour.