Week End

CLASSY: Friday was part two of a writing and drawing comics class Annabelle is taking at MoPop (the Museum of Pop Culture), at Seattle Center.

One of the topics we touched upon Friday was the importance of lettering in comics. This worksheet was very helpful to that end.

In the afternoon, we made our way to the sci-fi gallery for some inspiration. There are so many super cool artifacts there from sci-fi movies, but for some reason, I found myself spending the most time in front of this display. Maybe it was because of its kind of comic-book like appearance.

 My eyes were drawn to the old Polaroid photos in the display. Turns out they are photos of renowned sci-fi artist Jack Gaughan and his wife, Phoebe. He would take these photos and then use them to help them in his paintings. 

 I'd not heard of Jack Gaughan by name before Friday, but I'm sure I've seen his work.

Of course, I did spend some time checking out sci-fi collectibles like Mork from Ork's gloves. I stood there for awhile and thought about Robin Williams and his manic comic genius. 

Of course, I had to say 'hi' to Gredo of Star Wars fame. Pretty neat to be able to see the actual costume of the character from my favorite childhood movie.

I found the Blade Runner artifacts a little depressing. That movie seemed so futuristic when it came out. And, unfortunately, its prediction for the year 2019 often feels like it's not too far off ("Earth is a polluted, used-up mess"). 

Completely random and non-related shot ... when we came back from a lunch break, there was a couple out in front of MoPop doing a photo shoot (and engagement shoot, I was guessing). It was SO COLD. That woman must have been freezing!

SWEET STUFF: At times, it feels like this has become a baking blog. Maybe that's because we bake A LOT.

A project this week was three kinds of cupcakes for a family member's "Little Pumpkin" themed baby shower. We submitted a list of flavor options, and they chose red wine, pumpkin spice and carrot cake as their flavors.

Friday, after class, we stopped at a couple of stores for supplies for cupcakes and Teen Feed (that's right, Empty Bowls, cupcakes and Teen Feed all in the span of four days - woo hoo!).

We got home about 3:30 and got busy. Fortunately, the kids are really great bakers and we whipped out all three kinds of cupcakes by 4:30, I kid you not. Oh, and cooked 16 pounds of chicken, too (for Teen Feed). 

Saturday morning, I got up early and made three kids of icing (marshmallow fondant, brown sugar butter cream and browned-butter and cream cheese). Once I iced the cupcakes, Annabelle and I decorated them.  

The red wine cupcakes were topped with discs of marshmallow fondant, which Annabelle hand painted to make it look like parchment paper. I tinted the fondant a red wine grape color and made grapes while Annabelle cut out leaves from green fruit leather.

The carrot cake cupcakes got the brown-butter cream cheese icing. Annabelle made a mix of gold, orange and green sprinkles to pretty those up with.

The pumpkin spice cakes got topped with ribbons of brown sugar butter cream. Yum!

Annabelle used her Cricut to make this banner. The flags are burlap. We weren't sure how we'd hang it on site, but we got creative and used paint-safe green masking tape, cut into leaf shapes. It worked out quite well!

SCIENCE SPECIMEN:  We've donated one of our dogs to science.

Kind of.

I recently stumbled across an article about the Dog Aging Project, a longitudinal observational study with ties to the University of Washington and Texas A&M. It's the type of study that follows the same research subjects over time, and measures - but not manipulates - the same variables over time. One of the myriad of things they'll be looking at is factors that will increase our dogs’ quality of life as they age. 

According to their website, the goal of the Dog Aging Project "is to understand how genes, lifestyle, and environment influence aging. We want to use that information to help pets and people increase healthspan, the period of life spent free from disease."

To date, over 65,000 people have nominated their dogs for inclusion in the project. (Enrollment is still open, by the way.) Interestingly, organizers were hoping for 10,000 test subjects initially. 

I'm a fan of 'citizen scientist' opportunities, so I opted our family, and our dog Laika, in.

The Dog Again Project is funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health, and by private donations. If you want to know more about the observational study, check out this link: here.

Study participants should soon receive a link to set up a personal portal account. After that, we'll start sharing info about our dog's health and life experiences.