Gobble Gobble

TURKEY DAY: We had a happy Thanksgiving.  Mostly.

Actually, the day started with a clogged kitchen sink. Thank goodness we weren't hosting Thanksgiving dinner today! But if the sink was the worst of our troubles today, we're lucky, right!?

For Thanksgiving dinner, we headed to Olalla, where an aunt and uncle live (hi Ruthie & Bob!). There was some traffic on our way down there, but thanks to the Waze app, we made our way pretty painlessly. We arrived at 2:30, two 'turkeys' in tow. Actually, we just had the parts on board. We assembled on site. 

One turkey was a cheese, crackers and sausage platter (above). So easy and pretty cute. I'd already cut the cheese with rounded ends, and molded a cheese ball into a turkey-ish shape, added peppercorn eyes, a carrot nose and red pepper waddle. So assembly was just layering the stuff. Ten minutes, tops.   

Our other contribution was a fruity turkey. Grapes on skewers, a few strawberries on the body, a pear for a head, a pineapple body, and some strawberries. Blueberries made the eyes, it had a carved carrot nose, and a red pepper slice was its waddle.

We also brought along a cheesecake. The kids made it on Wednesday, from scratch. It had a gingersnap crust and raspberry topping. I've made it many a time before, but this was their first cheesecake adventure. I didn't have any, but based on the fact that it quickly disappeared after dinner, I'm going to guess it was a winner. :) 

The Thanksgiving table was loooong. I think there were 21 seated guests!

Our travels today weren't so much over the river, and through the woods as they were across the (Puget) Sound and into the woods. :)

All in all, a lovely day. 

Testing 1-2-3

MEASURING UP: We continue to plug along through Khan Academy's algebra I course. This morning, we had a date with an algebra test.

These are the "areas for growth" we were being quizzed in:
Algebraic equations basics
Why we do the same thing to both sides of an equation
One-step addition & subtraction equations
One-step multiplication & division equations
Two-steps equations intro
Two-step equation word problems
Linear equations with variables on both sides
Linear equations with parentheses
Analyzing the number of solutions to linear equations
Linear equations word problems
Linear equations with unknown coefficients
Before we started, it said the exam should take 15-20 minutes. I plugged right along in about that time frame ... until the test got hung on my very last question and I couldn't complete it. Aargh!

Then, I went to check on the kids, who were taking the test on their own computers. 

So the good news is they each got 90 percent plus on the test. The bad news is it took over an hour apiece. 

Yes, getting it right is the most important thing, but we've got to light a fire under it, at least a little bit. Might be time to pull out the flashcards, lol.

CHANGES: Today, thanks to an article in the Seattle PI, we learned about a video NASA just released showing 20 years' worth of seasonal changes. https://youtu.be/wQ3i3grY2Ps
The time shown is two decades, from September 1997 to September 2017, condensed into 2 ½ minutes of viewing.

Notably, the polar ice caps and snow cover ebb and flow with the seasons. The varying ocean shades of blue, green, red and purple depict the abundance, or lack thereof, of undersea life.

Around the House

HOME IMPROVEMENT: In the past couple of days, we've had periods lasting a couple of hours where we've had to go without water. This is because Christian has been working on our upstairs hallway bathroom. Christian has replaced the old shower valve with newer and better ones, which is part of our larger home improvement project.

Christian has also helped with other projects around the house. For example, he improved a device used to turn on a light by our TV, having CJ come and help him (pictured below). 

THANKFUL: For our learning center's Harvest Party, we got six bags of popcorn from our local Les Schwab (yes, a tire store has popcorn). The bags of popcorn were brought for the attendees to eat from, and they were positively delicious. To return the favor to the Les Schwab, we brought tire-themed cookies (pictured below) to their location.

Annabelle even made a cute drawing on an oversized thank you card for Les Schwab:

MANSON MUSIC: Notorious cult leader and conspirator Charles Manson died at the age of 83 last night. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, Manson gained infamy for leading the "Manson Family", a cult that was responsible for the murders of nine people (among them Sharon Tate, wife of film director Roman Polanski, as well as Paul, their unborn son).

Prior to organizing the Manson Family, Charles Manson recorded "Lie: The Love and Terror Cult", an album of his folk rock music. The most well known song from this album was "Look At Your Game, Girl", an unusual acoustic compostion:

In the early morning after Manson's death, CJ recorded a cover version of the song, and uploaded it to SoundCloud: