Twenty Twenty

NEW NORMAL: How about that! Here I sit trying to play catch up again. Another whirlwind week, and I haven't had much time for logging MPA's goings on. 

One thing that happened this week: We entered a new year. A new decade, in fact.

Somewhat miraculously, all six of us (dogs included) made it past midnight. We tuned in to local TV to watch the Space Needle's fireworks show, but there was none this year due to high winds. So, we settled for the Needle's high tech light show. It was actually quite entertaining. 

In our neighborhood, fireworks were going off all around us. We have a 180-degree view to the south and could see all sorts of pyrotechnics. Fortunately, they died off by about 12:45. Our dogs were not big fans of the big booms.

Like so many others, we have big plans for 2020. CJ will continue his freshman foray into college, and we'll be right along with him. He's taking Japanese, history and good ol' English 101 this coming quarter, which starts on Monday.

This year we resolve to keep going to the gym (such fun, really!), and to use a whole lot less plastic. We want to learn more about our bees, and maybe help in a couple of elections between now and November. 

We're plan to continue our volunteering, and maybe this will be the year we actually start a little business. 

NASA has big plans for 2020. They include launching Americans from U.S. soil once again (finally!), sending a new rover to Mars, and continuing to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars. Here's a little video about that.


EIGHTEEN: At the start of the week, I suggested to the kids that they put in for a cake to donate to Birthday Dreams. We checked out the website and quickly found that there was an 18 year old who wanted a galaxy themed cake. 

CJ whipped up a three-layer chocolate cake, while Annabelle crafted an astronaut from modeling chocolate and fondant. She also made some alien faces, molded a moon, and airbrushed the first tier to a galaxy shimmer. 

As I watched them work, I couldn't help but think about the teen who was going to receive the cake. I just can't imagine turning 18 while living in a local homeless shelter. It breaks my heart. We sure hope the cake was a bright spot on his special day, and are hoping he has a stable, comfortable, permanent place to call home very soon.

Game Time

GAME FACES: On Sunday, we watched the Seahawks' final regular season game of the 2019 season. Fortunately, win or lose, they were going to make the playoffs. Unfortunately, it was lose. That means they're in Philadelphia against the Eagles next Sunday. We'll be watching, of course. 

CJ and Annabelle did their best to support the Hawks this week, donning Marshawn Lynch-related attire. One of Seattle's most beloved sports figures ever, Lynch (also known as Beast Mode) came out of retirement and made a surprising return to the Seahawks just for this playoff run. 

He did manage to score one touchdown with some big style points, but he wasn't a dominating presence, that's for sure. We'll see what next weekend brings.

TREK TIME: We still continue to play tabletop games together regularly, and Santa brought a few new ones into the fold.

We love the Looney Labs' game Chrononauts, and we love Star Trek, so you can imagine how excited we were about playing Star Trek Chrononauts.

I was excited when I drew my identity card for the first game and found I was none other than Captain James T. Kirk.

Unfortunately, I couldn't Kobayashi Maru my way to a win. Annabelle was the victor, completing her timeline and scoring the necessary artifact she needed.  Below are a few of the timeline cards.

After we were done playing, CJ started playing around with the new earbuds Santa brought him. I couldn't help but notice the name on the box, Tranya.

I told the table that that was the name of the drink an alien (Ron Howard's little brother Clint) invited Kirk to drink during the episode "The Corbomite Maneuver." 

I think knowing that gives me some pretty serious Star Trek trivia street cred. ;)

Also, can I point out that the Tranya logo looks an awful lot like Star Wars' Boba Fett's mask? Surely I'm not the only one who sees these things. ... 

PLANE SPOTTING: Speaking of Star Wars, on Saturday morning, I received a Facebook message from a friend who lives in Ohio. He told me Seattle would be getting a special visitor today, in the form of the United Airlines' special Star Wars airplane.

My friend knew about its whereabouts due to an app he uses, FlightAware. In the app, you can enter a plane's unique tail number to keep tabs on it. The Star Wars plane is ID N36272.

Unfortunately, when we were hoping to catch a glimpse, there were low clouds in abundance, and even delays due to fog at Seatac Airport.  Below, CeeJ and Bee stare out the window, hoping to glimpse the jet. (You can see the Seatac control tower in the distance from our living room and bedroom windows.)

There are a couple of other planes I'd like to track. Specifically, Norwegian Airlines' Freddie Mercury plane (EI-FVX), and NASA's "Super Guppy" (N940NS). I'm going to download that app and set up some alerts!

Happy Holidays

RELISHING CHRISTMAS: We're finally getting back into the swing of things at MPA, after having been on the road most all of last week.

While the ground wasn't blanketed in white, we did get a few flakes of snow on Christmas in Bend, Oregon. We were super fortunate the pass over the mountains was clear both ways during our holiday journeys. Lucky us (and all the other holiday travelers)!

While in Bend, truth be told, we mostly were lazy and enjoyed the culinary efforts of the great chefs there. When not lounging around, we did manage to make some deviled eggs from some pretty pickled eggs our lovely hosts had on hand. The beet coloring made them so festive! 

We also made the relish tray up tops. I had planned on having Annabelle take the lead on that, but she and CJ were really enjoying the movie "Enchanted," a favorite from their childhood (it's all relative) while I threw it together. I was really missing our star- and heart- shaped cutters, but I faked it. 

After 7+ hours of driving, we arrived home Thursday night and did our own little MPA Christmas. 

For ambiance, we streamed the original "Star Wars" soundtrack, and had good ol Darth Vader as our Yule log. It was a fun and relaxing way to wind down.

HOLIDAY DINNER: Friday morning we were up and at 'em, as Saturday was a Teen Feed service for us and we had a lot of prepping to do.

We had an "Aloha 2019" themed menu. 

We helped organize the service, and part of that meant procuring and prepping 15 pounds of teriyaki chicken. We also made copious amounts of three kinds of macaroni salad (gluten free, onion free, and 'regular').  And we prepped 50 or so servings of coleslaw. Oh, and rice. We made tons o' rice (11 cups dry). 

Other volunteers also made rice and mac salad. Other volunteers provided some beautiful aloha-inspired desserts. 

We always have main entree, side dish, and dessert options for gluten free, pork free, and vegan guests.

All in all, we had over 50 people for dinner. And most all of them get at least seconds, and many get thirds and more. That's a LOT of food to prep and serve in an hour from a bunch of kind-hearted home cooks. We have a really great crew and I appreciate how kindly and quickly they serve our dinner guests.

To help give you an idea of what's involved, for this meal 38 pounds of pork and 25 pounds of teriyaki chicken were prepared. No, those numbers are not typos. While the pork reduces about 40 percent during cooking, that's still nearly a combined 50 pounds of prepared meat our team brought this month. We did have a little of each left over, but not a bunch. The people coming in for dinner are *so* hungry and are especially craving protein. It's a challenge to keep up with their needs, but we manage to make it work every month.

UP AND AWAY: Before the Christmas break hit, we received notice that "Connections" members (that's CJ and Annabelle in our house) at The Museum of Flight could come see the movie "The Aeronauts" on Friday, Dec. 20. I always jump on those types of emails as soon as I see them, because I know they fill up quickly.  

We were lucky to get in, and so the kids got tickets, plus one chaperone. Christian went with, because he misses out on a lot of the fun stuff while he's at work. Honestly, when dropping them off, I was worried the movie was going to be a bust, as we'd just seen the newest Star Wars movie the night before. Imagine my surprise when I picked them up and all three were absolutely raving about how riveting the movie was!

Annabelle can tell you a bit more about it. ...

"The Aeronauts" is an Amazon original movie inspired by the story of meteorologist James Glaisher and his record-breaking hot air balloon flight in 1862, where it is estimated that the balloon reached altitudes of 9,500-10,900 meters above sea level. The movie does not completely historically accurately portray the flight, including the character of Amelia Wren, who is a composite character of other female balloonists from the time. It flips perspectives back and forth between the two Astronauts on their balloon and the events leading up to the flight, including charts of how high the balloon is at the point in time. It’s quite tense and almost a bit scary at some points in time, especially if one has a fear of heights, but it also does a good job of balancing out those moments with calm and quiet – even including some completely silent scenes to mirror what it would actually sound like at that elevation.

While the movie is a quite fictionalized account of the flight, it’s not at all meant to be an educational film. Some may be upset at how much has been changed from the true historical flight, but as a standalone piece of entertainment it’s very well done and makes good sense from a narrative standpoint. I quite enjoyed the movie, even knowing that many of the things shown did not really happen.

Not only did the three get to see the movie for free, there was lots of free swag, including t-shirts and posters and pins for all of them. Nice!

If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch "The Aeronauts" for free! Christian came out saying it was a sit on the edge of your seat thriller, and the trailer seems to back that up!