The Rain Came

SOMEONE'S IN THE KITCHEN: All of the fresh produce bursting forth from our garden right now has meant more than the usual amount of time in our kitchen, it seems. 

Today's culinary adventure: Zucchini banana bread. We used a recipe I found on the Taste of Home Web site, and made a couple of minor changes (organic sugar instead of the standard, a bit of coconut flour swapped in for some of the all-purpose, extra cinnamon and zucchini).

CJ did the mashing, while Annabelle did the sifting.

In the end, everyone was happy with how it turned out.

Before we baked the bread, we went out and picked some blackberries this morning.

During the process, our hands all got berry stained, which prompted Annabelle to ponder the origin of the phrase "caught red handed." 

Fortunately, CJ had an explanation: "The idiom "caught red-handed" is often used to indicate that someone is clearly guilty of something, or is caught doing so. The idiom comes from the fact that in ancient times, one common method of figuring out whether someone had committed murder or not was to see their hands. If their hands were red (because of the victim's blood), than they were believed to be guilty."
BIG IDEAS:  Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking's ideas can be difficult to wrap one's minds around. Thankfully, The Guardian’s MadeSimple series has made a 150-second video that makes some of Hawking's most famous theories seem pretty straightforward! Check it out:  https://youtu.be/D6lFGJdwRyo


MEASURING UP: We were back in the kitchen today, intent upon making some zucchini banana bread when Kennedy arrived for a visit. We were measuring something and the conversation turned toward the 'how many pints in a ..." direction. 

Ken said he wished he could recall "Gallon Man" from fifth grade. I told him I had no recollection of Gallon Man, so we did the Google. We found a couple of really horrible (in our humble opinions) songs about it/him, but couldn't make it through any of those videos to the end. 

Ken suggested an image search instead. That resulted in a number of rather horrific illustrations.

We finally found something on Education.com that wasn't entirely awful. Here's a thumbnail. You can find a PDF here: http://www.education.com/files/280101_280200/280111/gallon-man-worksheet.pdf

SHOWERS: What a difference a day makes. Last night, around 10:30, we were all out on the roofdeck, watching the Perseid meteor shower. (We each saw at least one in the 15 or so minutes we were out - yay!)

This morning, the showers (finally!) came in liquid form. It rained in Seattle! Now, most might think that's not big news, but we've been dry as a bone for months, and today, nearly two inches came pouring down in dramatic fashion.

There were lightning strikes all over the city, including on 5th Avenue in the heart of downtown, and at CenturyLink field, where the Seahawks played their home opener tonight.