May the 4th

STAR WARS DAY:  We always look forward to May the 4th, as it has become a Star Wars fans' holiday of sorts over the years.  May the Force be with you is a popular tagline from the Star Wars franchise, and "May the 4th" sounds enough like "May the Force" to the point where the day has been co-opted. 

A family of Star Wars fans, of course, it meant we had to have Annabelle's hair in Princess Leia buns first thing today.  However, she quickly figured out that being a princess can be a bit of a pain. For instance, the hair do isn't very conducive to wearing her headphones. 

One way we observed Star Wars day was by listening to the Cantina song from the original Star Wars movie. However, this very special version is 9 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. 

We probably won't listen to the Cantina song again for a long, long time.


Astronauts are (no suprise) Star Wars fans, too, as evidenced by this photo of current and soon-to-be International Space Station residents.

Oh, and what did the current ISS residents do to celebrate May the 4th day? They watched Star Wars. In space. 

CHANGES: A few days back, we declared May to be a month to try some new things. One of our goals was to try new-to-us produce every day for a month. 

Saturday was kumquat day. 

They're pretty little things. We read up on how to eat them. One way is washing them, rubbing them quickly between your palms for 15 minutes, and eating them whole, skin and all.

This is Annabelle's kumquat face. :)

Tart little citrus fruit, are kumquats. We tried Plan B, which was peeling the little bugger. It didn't make it any sweeter. (Per the Kumquat Growers Web page, in fact, the peel is the sweetest part of the kumquat.)

Sunday was red d' Anjou pear day. 

 Though CJ looks pensive here, that was a bigger hit. It was delicious, actually. 

Traditionally, I like the flavor of pears, but not eating them, due to my disdain for some pears' gritty texture. The red d'Anjou was almost grit free, eating more like an apple. A good discovery.

Today, it was cactus time!

I told him I'd watched a very informative YouTube video about how to prepare it, and felt confident we'd be OK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Ufyv7pliY


We carefully removed all the prickly parts, and trimmed the edges off.

Per directions, we sliced them into green bean sized pieces.

Then, they got boiled with some salt and vinegar, and then sauteed with some onion and garlic.

Report: They were tasty. The kids ate all theirs, so I consider it a win.

FREMONT FIELD TRIP:  It was another lovely day weather-wise in Seattle, and this afternoon we got out in it for awhile. 

First, we headed to the Fremont neighborhood, and walked along the north side of the canal for a few blocks.

I'd heard tell of some topiary dinosaurs somewhere in the vicinity.  Fortunately, we found them!

We were happy they had a sign on site telling us a bit about the dinos, which have been in Fremont for 15 years now. 

Turns out they used to 'live' at Pacific Science Center. When I read that, I recalled having seen them there many years ago.

Of course, being in the neighborhood, we had to stop and visit the rocket.

And we popped into the Theo Chocolate retail store for some samples.  So. Many. Samples.

Of course, we didn't come home empty handed, either. 

Theo even has a chocolate version of the topiary dinos.

While exiting Theo, CJ notices a poster regarding a contest to name the dinosaurs.

He is keenly interested in winning this, and has zeroed in on the names Bub Rub and Lil' Sis, a pair made famous by a viral video that's more than a decade old. 

As we were walking away from Theo Chocolate, along the north exterior of the building, we all stopped dead in our tracks at how wonderful the smell was emanating from the chocolate manufacturing portion of their facility. I can't imagine that Willy Wonka's chocolate factory ever smelled any better.

Shortly after, we happily discovered a cool mosaic on the exterior of the Saturn building. 

Called "Invasion of the FoundFacians" (by Jo Braun and Kate Jessup), it has a sci-fi theme. In the upper left, a UFO flies over an alien landscape, and little probes descend from it, toward a landscape that reminded us of photos we've seen of Mars.

After Fremont, we headed west to Ballard, all the way out to the shoreline of Puget Sound and Golden Gardens park. 

It was lovely out there.