Track and Field

MORNING OUTING: It was a lovely, sunny morning, so we decided to take the dogs for a little stroll on a nearby school's field. 

We were greeted with this sign as we approached the fence. 

I always find it extra cringe-worthy when a sign at a school has a grammatical error or errors. Heavy sigh.

The kids tossed a Frisbee around for a bit while the dogs and I did a couple of laps. While walking, I noticed there was a long jump pit. I called the kids over and suggested they give it a go.

Let's just say, I don't expect them to be setting any world records in the long jump any time soon.

That said, it was their first ever attempt, and it's definitely something that takes some practice! We'll be back to perfect their form. ;)

BERRY GOOD: For whatever reason this morning, at about 8:40, I decided I *needed* to make fresh strawberry shortcake for the kids for breakfast.

I still had the recipe memorized from this weekend (when I made dozens of shortcakes for Teen Feed), and so I whipped them up in no time. Two cups of flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 3/4 teaspoons of salt, sift those, then cut in about 1/3 c. of cold butter. Add a up of milk and drop the batter into 9 dollops on a cookie sheet. Bake until they're done. 

Needless to say, the kids were pretty pleased with the surprise.

YOU GOT ANOTHER THING COMING: If you follow the goings on of we here at MPA, you know go to a fair number of concerts. This week was extra special, though, because we had two events in three days. We're getting a little old for the rock-n-roll lifestyle, I gotta say. ;)

CJ can tell you about last Friday night's antics. ... 

After the release of last year's Firepower LP, the band Judas Priest begun a tour to support the album. On June 21 of this year, Judas Priest made a tour stop at ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington. My father and I went to the concert, in what was our first-ever visit to ShoWare.

The opener for the concert was famed British prog rock band Uriah Heep, nearing the fiftieth anniversary of their debut album Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble. Heep was surprisingly energetic, considering the age of most of the members (though only one original member, guitarist Mick Box, was still in the band.) After Heep finished their hour-long set, the crowd waited before Judas Priest took the stage. While gazing around the crowd, it appeared as though every aging classic rock fan in Seattle was there.

Judas Priest, as was the case with Uriah Heep, seemed to have quite a bit of energy considering their ages (this was a noticeable contrast to the rather dull Ra Ra Riot-Jimmy Eat World-Third Eye Blind concert that we had seen two days prior.) The setlist spanned nearly the band's entire discography, with cuts ranging from the band's sophomore release Sad Wings of Destiny up to their newest full-length Firepower. Some of the songs have been staples since early in the band's career (such as the song Victim of Changes), yet others are making their live debut on this tour (the most obvious examples being the songs from Firepower.) Perhaps needless to say, Priest concluded the set with some of their most famous songs, such as Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight.

Kinda Busy

SPREADING THE NEWS: This morning, CJ and Annabelle took a couple of hours to take part in a services fair at their former school. At it, participants could set up displays on tables in the cafeteria and share information about a non-profit for whom they volunteer.

Regular MPA readers know that the kids regularly bake, decorate and donate cakes to Birthday Dreams.

When we learned about the service fair, we thought it made sense to take a cake to it. I mean, what better way to get people's attention? ;) So, we went online and found a cake that was needed right after the service fair. The teenager requested and 'emoji' cake, so that's what the kids did.

Annabelle had fun sculpting all sorts of faces. 

The kids' booth did, indeed, get a good amount of attention. I'm actually quite hopeful that something will come of it - that some of the people we talked to today will become Birthday Dreams volunteers at some point in the future. 

ART PROJECTS: Last Friday and today (Tuesday), Annabelle took part in a mural project outside a Seattle Public Schools building in Seattle

Each of this year's eighth graders got to participate in making the mural, as well as sign a section of the wall for autographs.

Meanwhile, CJ has all but finished his Perler bead project, a colorful Boston terrier. Stay tuned for a snap of the finished project!

GASSY: So, Saturday night we headed up to the University District to stage our monthly volunteer Teen Feed dinner. We're dialed in, everything ready to go. ... We arrived at about 5:20, loaded everything in, started prepping and then about 5:45 and Kennedy and I are standing at a counter near the windows on the alley side of the kitchen and he starts coughing really hard and I say, "Did you drop a pepper bomb or something?" I'm guessing part of me realized there was an aggressive peppery smell. Within a second or two, I started coughing uncontrollably. And then a second or two later, another volunteer a few feet away starts coughing ... I immediately realized it wasn't just some kitchen thing and that we'd been gassed.  

Super fortunately, I happened to spy a folding chair right next to me (no idea why it was there, I've never seen it in the kitchen before), and I grabbed it and Ken and I set about quickly shutting all of the windows. Meanwhile, I yelled at everyone to get out of the kitchen. I was especially so worried for the little kids in our group! We cleared out of the kitchen, coughed it off and watched the clock tick away. We were losing all of our dinner prep time. 

After a few minutes and checking the air in the alley outside, Ken, I and a couple of others went back into the kitchen, opened the windows, set up fans, and got on with the food prep. We actually had to  throw away any/all food that wasn't covered when the gas came in. I wasn't about to serve people food that had been potentially contaminated with who knows wat.

The incident really set us back time wise for meal prep. The Teen Feed people asked if we wanted/needed to delay dinner service, but we managed to rally and said we we're ready, and bring it on. 

Just another boring Saturday night!

THINGS BREWING: We have been wanting to get back to brewing home made kombucha for months/years now. Sunday afternoon, I suggested Christian post to our local "Buy Nothing" Facebook group asking for a SCOBY so we could get started. Within just minutes, we had an offer to pick one up. We scored it and within two hours were back in business, brewing up a double batch!

It's really so easy to make and it's so tasty and good for you. We're so glad to be back to brewing it!