Life

DRAWING DATE: Saturday afternoon, we headed to Ballard for a life drawing session. I loved the topic - drawing action heroes that don't all look like Wonder Woman. :)

Annabelle and a friend sat in for the session. 

I was really impressed with Annabelle's work. It was a nice departure from her 'normal' drawing style.  

I thought she did a great job of capturing the poses. 

 I love her little 'notes to self,' too!

Here's what Annabelle had to say about the experience. ...

At Populuxe Brewing in Greenwood, there was an artist’s event with the Seattle Public Library focused on body-positive life drawing. The event was rather busy, featuring two live plus-size models who took their time to pose for a crowd of artists. The event space was extremely small and not made for this kind of event, causing many peoples to have terrible views of the models they were trying to draw. While this was bad, I was able to do quite a bit of work from what I could see. The models did 1 minute, 5 minute, and 10 minute poses – 2 of each. This allowed some artists to stick around for just a few minutes if they had to be somewhere or do something else. While it felt a bit lackluster at times (not being clear on the location, no lessons or prompts) I had a good time while talking with friends at the event. The library’s Booktoberfest series of events is still going, which you can find at their website. 

BIRTHDAY GIRL: October is chock full o' birthdays in our family. Monday, it was my turn. We headed to downtown Seattle in the early afternoon to hit happy hour at a favorite restaurant, YardHouse. (Their poke nachos are to die for! I want to try to make them at home.)

Before the restaurant, we swung through Westlake Park. Imagine our surprise and delight to find an artist painting a space theme on a public piano!

 So cool!!!!

We stopped at an over-sized chess board so CJ and Annabelle could get a game in. It wound up taking about 40 minutes!

While they played, a number of people stopped to watch part of the game. One homeless gentleman, smallish white guy with a big grin and kind of a leprechaun look about him, was a big fan. He watched most of the game and grimaced and cheered appropriately and shared a couple of chess stories. :) 

A couple of tall, African American men came and stood next to me for awhile and watched. They are park regulars, and the younger of the two shared with me that he never learned how to play chess. He said no one ever taught him how. I told him it sure wasn't too late to learn and encouraged him to try it - and told him he'd probably really enjoy it. The men were both really polite and friendly, and made it a point to wish us well before they took off. 

There was a young Asian gentleman watching most of the match. He did a good job of keeping a poker face, but you could tell he was wishing he could help CJ finish Annabelle off (CJ was chasing her around the board, instead).

All in all, fun couple of hours in the city.

OUT OF DOORS: It has been SO SO SO nice weather-wise here for a week or so. Today, we struck out for a new-to-us park in our neighborhood.

We were a little frustrated during the excursion. Google Maps took us to a residential neighborhood with ZERO park access. Not sure what the software was thinking. Eventually, we wound our way to its formal entrance, on Rainier Avenue.

Not gonna lie, the park was a bit of a disappointment. We couldn't help but notice that the play equipment was decades old. Specifically, it was the stuff that had been rejected and replaced in our former (more 'upscale') neighborhood. But I guess it's good enough for the South city folks. ... :/

The basketball court was cracked and covered in moss, and a concrete expanse that looks like it might have been a tennis court once upon a time was just a big ugly slab.

We played catch with a Frisbee on a softball infield. There was some lovely fall foliage nearby.

And Lake Washington was across the street. Too bad the park doesn't actually have an lake access, though. 

CURRICULUM: We continue to use BrainPOP for fun with science and grammar. Today, for grammar 'class,' we watched a video about etymology.

During it, we learned that "dollar" is from the German “thaler,” which referred to a silver coin.  We also learned that ketchup, a beloved condiment in this house, is from the Malay “kecap,” or “fish sauce.” BrainPOP told us that British sailors brought it back from Malaysia in the early 18th century, and that it wasn’t until the 20th century that it referred to a sauce made with tomatoes. We also learned that "muscle" (as in your bicep) is Latin's “little mouse.” Turns out ancient Romans thought flexing one's arm muscles made it look like a little mouse was scurrying around under your skin. These are important things to know.

For science, we watched a video about Dolly, the cloned sheep. Afterward, we took the graded test, and checked out BrainPOP's additional resources on the topic. Via the additional doc, we learned about a sheep/goat hybrid in Botswana (interestingly sheep have 54 chromosomes and goats have 60; their hybrid had 57, a course outer coat, goat like legs and a sheep like body). We also learned about "Shrek the Sheep." The animal was shearing averse, and hid out for SIX YEARS. When they finally caught up to Shrek, it had a crazy 
25 kilograms of wool on it. Reportedly that was enough to make 20 full-sized men’s suits. 
You owe it to yourself to see photos of Shrek here: 

https://www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/985/Meet-Shrek-The-Renegade-Sheep-That-Avoided-Shearing-For-Six-Years-By-Hiding-In-A-Cave

MEATY SUBJECT: As an intellectual endeavor and a desire to get CJ to do a little writing, I asked him to choose any article from a recent "Science News" magazine, and to find at least two other sources and do a short write up about it.

Here's what he has to say. ... 

Recently, I read an article in the 29 September 2018 issue of Science News (SN) Magazine. The article was titled Dreaming Up Tomorrow's Burger, and detailed two separate "directions" for a theoretical development of meat (in this instance, beef) that does not require the slaughter of cattle. One "direction" seeks to re-create beef from cell samples harvested from living cattle (thus creating "clean" or "cultured" beef,) and the other seeking to re-create the taste, texture, smell, and other sensations associated with beef using natural plants.

Forbes details the clean meart startup Meatable on an article on their website, published 14 October 2018. According to the article, Meatable is based in the Netherlands, and "extracts stem cells from the umbilical cords of baby cows and uses a proprietary technology that helps these cells turn into the same meat you’d get from a cow (or any other animal or fish for that matter)." In addition, the article contained an infographic detailing the contrasts between traditional meat production and distribution, and Meatable's concept for production and distribution.

Richard Williams, writing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, argued that "clean meat" will likely take several years to get the public accustomed to, and will spark arguments over whether or not it is actually "meat."