Oh, So Busy

LONG LIVE THE KING: It's been a week. So much stuff. Some of the best stuff was last Thursday night. Memories that will last a lifetime. ...We simply *had* to go to the Mariners' game, as it was the last start ever for "The King," pitching ace Felix Hernandez.

"King Felix" has been pitching for the Mariners since he was a chubby cheeked 19-year-old, back in 2005. That means he has been a Mariners' pitcher as long as CJ and Annabelle can remember. Heck, as long as I can remember, too. ;)

A rare talent, Felix's prowess prompted a "King's Court" to be created at Safeco (T-Mobile) Field for every start. For his last start, it was the biggest King's Court ever.

He's kind of a big deal. 

Even before Felix took the field, the crowd was in a frenzy.

The best was making his final start. I can't believe I'll never hear, "#34, Felix Hernandez" announced as our starting pitcher ever again. 

For one last time Felix made his way to the dugout pre-game.

It was an emotionally charged moment as he took the mound for the last time in Seattle.

When he reached the mound, Felix took a bow.

Everything about the night was a first and/or a last.

His last bullpen session. His last walk from the bullpen to the dugout. His last pre-game descent into the dugout.

His last walk to the mound in the first inning.

His last first pitch.

And eventually, his last meeting at the mound.

 And with that, he was bid adieu. 
 As the saying goes, "There's no crying in baseball." 

 Thursday night was one of those exceptions to the rule. 

It was an emotional night. 

A lot of people left when Felix was pulled, but I thought we should stick around. I suspected he'd be back out at the end of the game. During the 9th inning, I saw security heading toward the field right in our section and I thought, "Oh boy, we gotta get down to the field!" 

So, I whisper yelled at the kids and Christian to go go go!  and we 'upgraded' our seats by about 20 rows, to down just about 3 rows from the field. Sure enough, when the game was over, we saw him approaching. Here he comes!

Things happened really fast and I was in the crush of the crowd. People were jostling and posters were hoisted. First, I got just Felix's left arm.

Then, a shot of his right arm.

 Finally, I got a photo of both arms. ;)

But eventually, I got lucky and got the "money" shots. Felix's face, full of emotion.

  I could see the tears in his eyes. 

It was a night to remember, and I'm so glad we were there. 

FOOD FOLLIES: A good part of Friday and Saturday were devoted toward feeding others.

Friday morning, we made an enormous batch of soup base for what we'd be serving Saturday night at Teen Feed.

The food service was going to feature a half dozen different kinds of soup. We chose to bring a hearty tomato soup. We kinda followed the recipe (link preceding), but left out the beans, doubled the carrots, added celery, and fancied it up with toppings of a generous amount of bacon, a handful of homegrown tomatoes from our garden, and some grilled cheese croutons (an entire grilled cheese sandwich cut into cubes, served on the side for them to add into the soup, dip, or just pop into their mouths).

To say the soup was a hit would be an understatement. We made about four gallons of it, including vegan and onion-free versions, and it was all consumed during our one hour dinner service. 

Saturday, cheesecake creation was also on the menu, for a special birthday the following day.

Annabelle made the whole thing herself, mostly following good ol' Instant Pot New York Cheesecake #17 by Amy + Jacky. She pre-baked the crust (a pretzel crust, as opposed to the graham cracker traditional one) and then cooked the whole works in a pressure cooker, if you can believe that. Sunday morning, we topped it, using raspberry jam in a piping bag, and added raspberries we'd dipped in dark chocolate.

It did not disappoint.

BEELINE: Sunday was another busy day. Activities included a field trip ... to our house!

We had visitors over to check out our bee hives. They run a non-profit  that works toward eliminating the use of plastic, and to that end, they encourage people to use beeswax-coated cloth as a sub for Saran Wrap.

They definitely got a close-up look at some beeswax during their visit!

CRASH COURSES: The dearth of posts last week is due to "our" first week of full time college. 

CJ is taking three classes, two of which are online. While I thought the online classes would be easier (no commute, no set time), they are actually kind of a lot more work, because there are so many parts to them. It's like "watch this video here, check out this PowerPoint here, post to this forum here, respond to a post there, check out the online 'watercooler,' make sure you follow this discussion thread ..."

And none of that is the actual reading or assignments or quizzes for the class. It's a lot to keep track of, and it would be easy to miss something.

Add to that the fact that the first writing assignments were due this week and CJ had to re-acquaint himself with the proper way to cite articles, websites, textbooks, videos, and more. That, alone, was an hours-long process.

While he was strongly advised (by me) to take notes while reading his history textbook chapters, CJ chose not to do so. That choice was reflected in the score of his first history quiz. (He didn't fail, but he was far from acing it.) Lesson learned, hopefully. Also, it won't just be strong advice from me this week, it will be a requirement that he jot down at least some notes. 

Regarding his writing assignments, I came up with a flow chart of sorts to help remind him the steps in the process.

To CJ's credit, I should point out that he got 100 percent on his first Japanese quiz, a class for which he has been taking copious, careful notes. ;)