Tremendous Tuesday

GOOD MORNING, GOVERNOR:  We had a remarkable Tuesday morning, as it included spending an hour with former Washington State governor John Spellman. I'll cut right to the chase and let CJ tell you more about it. 

On May 12th, 2015, John Dennis Spellman, former Governor of Washington, visited our Social Studies classroom in the Cascade Parent Partnership building in Queen Anne. Governor Spellman was in office from 1981 to 1985, and during his time in office, he had to fight many different issues. These included having to deal with a recession that was going on in Washington, which gave Washington billions of dollars in deficit, which Governor Spellman fought by increasing taxes (ironically, when running for governor, he advertised lower taxes). Also, while Governor Spellman was in office, there were plans for an oil pipeline called the Northern Tier Pipeline to be built. This pipeline would, according to an archived New York Times article about its cancellation, would have run 1,500 miles from Port Angeles, Washington, to Clearbrook, Minnesota. The Northern Tier Pipeline would also have gone below Puget Sound and above the Cascades, which was the part that caused Governor Spellman to object to the building of the Northern Tier Pipeline.

Governor Spellman also had to deal with a ferry strike, which was caused by ferry workers feeling that they were underpaid. Prior to becoming a governor, Mr. Spellman was the First King County Executive from 1969 to 1981, and during the time that he was a King County Executive, he helped build the King Dome.

My classmates and I asked Governor Spellman certain questions, including his position on recreational marijuana usage and gay marriage, which he responded to by saying that nobody proposed legalizing recreational marijuana usage while he was in office, and that gay marriage "seems to be working". I asked Governor Spellman if he thought there was more bipartisan cooperation in Washington during his term or in the present day. Governor Spellman responded by saying that there wasn't very much bipartisan cooperation today or during his term, and he seemed especially disgusted with that fact.

The day before Spellman's visit, we made some cookies in the shape of Washington, the Space Needle, a cookie saying "THANK YOU / GOVERNOR / SPELLMAN" (the slashes indicate different lines), and a cookie with the Cascade Parent Partnership's logo on it.

My impressions after listening to Gov. Spellman were that he was extremely intelligent, kind hearted and logic-driven. He didn't follow party lines at all, which likely led to him being a one term governor. Kudos to him for not being a conniving political animal. Being a decent human being trumps that any day.

Regarding the cookies, at about 7:30 last night, CJ let me know that he needed to make the former governor a thank you card or something. Nothing like waiting until the last minute ... yikes. I suggested maybe some cookies as an alternative, knowing we has a Washington state cookie cutter, a Space Needle (Spellman is from Seattle), and an apple cookie cutter (Washington is the #1 apple growing state).  

So, CJ got busy. 

He gathered all the ingredients, and the cookie cutters, rolled out the dough and made sure the doughy Space Needles were straight before going into the oven.

He sifted the powdered sugar for the fondant, and melted the marshmallows and then mixed it up. I helped with dyeing it. He cut out the fondant and together, we applied it to the cookies.

CJ was quite pleased when he gave them to Governor Spellman, who immediately disclosed he has a sweet tooth. :)

CJ carried the box out to the car for the governor. Imagine our surprise when we saw the car had a bumper sticker that exactly matched one of the cookies CJ made - a green state with a white heart. How 'bout that?!

FRUITY:  We continue to experiment with new-to-us produce daily this month. This weekend, the kids tried some seaweed (not their new favorite), and some lovely-to-look-at dragon fruit (something we're all happy to try again).

Tonight, I incorporated some daikon (大根, literally "big root"), a mild-flavored winter radish (Raphanus sativus) originally native to Southeast or continental East Asia, and parsnip into a stir fry curried pork dish I made. Everyone managed to choke it down. :)

FINITO:  Yesterday, we finished our C# programming class, each taking and passing the final, and submitting our final peer reviews of other students. It's a good feeling to be done with that class, it was a WHOLE lot more than any of us bargained for, based on the course description on Coursera, through whom we took the University of Colorado class. 

ROUND UP: This afternoon, we took a field trip to a sports card shop, in the name of charity. 

We're working on making a Seahawks' themed chess table to be auctioned off with proceeds benefiting Kent Elementary.  Awhile back, I got the table (for free!) from a "Buy Nothing ..." Facebook group I belong to.  We went to Home Depot and got the appropriate NFL-branded Glidden paint colors for the Seahawks. A few weeks back we (miraculously) found this make-your-own chess set at Goodwill, which have little stands that have holders for slipping in photos or trading cards.

This weekend, we sanded the table, and got the basecoat of SEA-gray on. Yesterday, Christian oh-so-carefully gridded out the tabletop and started painting the squares.

This afternoon, the kids and I managed to get trading cards of 16 different and current Seahawks, as well as 15 Green Bay Packers (so we're just one Packer short).

We should have the table's paint finished in the next day or two, and then I'll put a clear acrylic on top, for protection. We're looking forward to seeing the finished project.