Angel Waiting

BLUE WATCH:  We finished chores early today in order to head up to the roofdeck and watch for the the Blue Angels, the United States Navy's premier flying team to scream into the skies over Seattle. They come nearly every year about this time, to help the city celebrate Seafair.

A little after 1:30, they appeared in the skies to the east, beyond Queen Anne Hill, pictured below.

 Though we didn't exactly have front row 'seats,' we still enjoyed the show.

 It's not every day you see planes shooting straight up in the air ... and then plummeting seemingly straight downward.

 We especially enjoyed their patterns producing contrails we could follow.

 A couple of times they flew close enough for us to see the planes' distinctive blue and yellow paint job. 

 This formation where they fanned out as they shot down from the sky was super cool!

SPECIAL GUEST: A couple of days this week, we had a four legged visitor on campus. 

The sweet young guy is about 10 weeks old, a Doberman puppy.

He has enjoyed playing 'pecking order' with our two dogs. For the first could of days, Kirby was definitely ruling the roost, while poor little Laika's lot in life is the bottom dweller. Today, the young Dobie seemed to realize he'd already grown a couple of inches since the first time he met them and he took full advantage. Pretzel is now vying for the Top Dog spot. 

Little do Kirby and Laika realize, this 'little' guy is going to be about eight times bigger than them!

Party Time

BLOCK HEADS: Last night was the annual "Night Out" event in the city of Seattle. Neighborhoods are encouraged to register their event and get a permit to close their street and have a good ol' fashioned block party.

Because we have a flat front yard in the middle of the block, our place has been Ground Zero for our neighborhood party for many years running now. That being the case, there's a fair amount of ground work to lay in preparation. (Think tables and chairs and coolers and cutlery and a fire pit and a ping pong table and ... you name it to haul to the top of our lot.)

We also make some food to share, of course. Last night, we made an enormous crockpot full of Sloppy Joe filling. I don't think I'd had a Sloppy Joe since the Lake Shore Elementary School cafeteria in the 1970s. We saw a recipe featured on "Dine Ins, Drive-Ins and Dives" recently, and gave it a go. I must say, it was tasty, and well-received by the crowd.

We also made a few dozen bite-sized spanakopita. Mmm, always so good.

Watermelon is always in order for a summer party. We turned to Pinterest for inspiration. That's where we found the watermelon shark idea, pictured above. But, when you picture it, will you please also picture the gummy fish I forgot to add to the water and the shark's mouth before taking the photo?!

We followed instructions from a website called Sun Scholars. It was a quick and easy project. The blue Jell-O Jigglers around the bottom were lots of fun. I was surprised how many people at the party had never seen Jigglers before. 

We also made a watermelon 'keg.' 

We hollowed out a watermelon, took the innards and juiced them in a food processor, strained that and then added it to pink lemonade. We put a sun tea container's spigot in the watermelon and poured the punch in and I'll be darned if it didn't work! So cute!

Of course, we also had to make some cookies. 

I was trying to think of a theme that was current and one we hadn't done before. The viral game Pokemon GO seemed the obvious choice.

 Let me tell you, it was not the *easy* choice, that's for sure!

Don't think I'll be making any of those again any time soon!

Happy Trails

PRESS SPACEBAR TO CONTINUE:  It was a busy weekend 'round MPA. Lots of campus beautification (a/k/a yard work), we watched multiple ISS flyovers, worked on modding an old NES console to turn it into a high definition output device (until we found out the kit we ordered was missing parts, sigh), and our family put out what was almost certainly an arson fire on Capitol Hill on Sunday afternoon. No biggie ... 

We also managed to fit in some time to play a brand new old game - "The Oregon Trail." You almost certainly have to have heard of the computer game of the same name. A computer game originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger It's been around since 1971. The game was designed to teach students about the harsh realities of pioneer life back in the early 19th century. I'm here to tell you, those lessons live on.

Yesterday morning I read that Target was exclusively offering a board game version of the classic and I immediately hopped on Target.com to try to hunt down a copy. 

We had to drive all the way down to Renton to get our copy, but at least we were able to get some good Pokemon GO play in along the way.

Sunday afternoon, we cracked the box open and took on The Oregon Trail.

It started out so well. ... We were excited to strike out from Independence, Mo., for the fertile Willamette Valley We did well for a few hundred miles, then things started to go sideways. 

Broken axles, broken arms, measles, oxen dropping like flies. I was the first to go. 

Dysentery, of course. It got CJ ("Ezekial Zanderfruit"), too, and poor Bee ("Dolly") died of a snake bite somewhere east of the Cascades. Christian ("Clem") was the last pioneer in our party standing until he succumbed to cholera and typhoid. 

The brand new card game is every bit as brutal as the old computer game. And every bit as fun. 

We gave the game another go today. I think we all perished even more quickly than yesterday, despite it being our second time on the Trail. 

CJ ("Rufus") was out first. He failed to ford a river. 

I was second to exit. Snakebit. At least the end came quickly.

Annabelle ("Dorothy" or "Dot") was a victim of that darn dysentery.

Once again, Christian ("Festus")was the sole survivor, and once again, he was overwhelmed by going it alone.  Typhoid got him quicker than it did yesterday.

Bummer, Festus.

But once again, dying has never been more fun. 

We were playing the game out in public and people flock to its sight like moths to a light. So many have such fond Oregon Trail memories, it seems. It's definitely our new favorite old game. :)