Gelatinous

GO GO GODZILLA: Regular readers know that we closed out last week's blog by talking about making balloons out of gelatin. 

Guess what? We're still at it. 

What we were ultimately trying to accomplish, here, was making a clear globular helmet for an astronaut Godzilla. Our first batch was an abysmal failure - the orbs were too cloudy. So we made a second batch ... which we also weren't thrilled with. They were still too cloudy in our opinions.

So, it was on to version 3.0. We bloomed more platinum gelatin sheets ...

 We squeezed out the excess water and then slowly liquefied them over low heat. 

We carefully dipped balloons - just two coats this time, hoping thinner would be clearer. We also were super stingy with the oil applied to the balloon, wondering if perhaps that was part of the clouding issue. 

After the dipping and dripping, the wait was on again. ... 

Once they dried, we popped the balloons. They were definitely clearer than versions 1 and 2, but they were not crystal clear. 

There was one that was mostly OK, and we were going to go with that if need be, but I couldn't help but think about other ways to dome Godzilla's head.

I was returning some cake making supplies to a storage room when I spied an over-sized clear ornament that Annabelle received a present in this past Christmas. We'd saved it thinking it might be handy in a future craft project. I held it and thought, "Wow, if this were smaller, it would have made a perfect helmet!"

And then, I remembered that, in another storage closet, we had a container of smaller, clear plastic ornaments. Ding! Ding! Ding! 

Annabelle cut the stem and part of the top off with an Exacto knife. The hole was still too small, so Christian took it down to the garage and used his welding torch to warm up a knife, which he then used to shave the opening into a larger hole. 

Annabelle and I talked about which helmet to use. We decided that if it were for a cake competition, where everything had to be edible, our best clear gelatin one would have sufficed. However, this cake is about pleasing the birthday girl, and we thought she'd definitely be most pleased by being able to see Godzilla's head clearly. So plastic it is. 

Does it feel like we wasted a bunch of time and effort making gelatin balloons? Not really. They keep well (or so they say online), so we can store them for potential future use. Also, one of the things we like about these projects is that we learn new things every single time. And that's worthwhile!

A few more random Godzilla-in-the-making action shots.

BLISSFUL: Friday night, the kids attended opening night of the musical "Bliss" at The 5th Avenue Theatre. It was part of the Fridays at the 5th series for teens, which CJ and Annabelle both enjoy immensely. 

I'll have Annabelle tell you a bit about the show. ...

"Bliss" is a new musical production at the 5th Avenue Theatre in downtown Seattle. It’s a high-fantasy fairy tale styled musical that features 4 princesses, each with a different set of interests (astronomy, the outdoors, singing, and dragon slaying). They have been locked in a tower ever since their mom died years ago, and desperately want to escape so they can follow their dreams. The main themes in the play center around individuality and being yourself, and how sometimes perfect fairy tale princesses aren’t the ideal.

Without spoiling the plot, I’d say that while the show could use a bit of streamlining, it was easy for me to understand, and I found most of it quite entertaining and funny. The jokes in the show are well-timed and there aren’t so many that it over saturates the serious moments.

The show is running until February 23rd, so space is limited if you want to go and see it before time is up. If you are a fan of musicals, fantasy, and plenty of humorous inclusions, it might be worth going to see. However, it is still in development, and this shows at some times; certain scenes last just a bit too long or jokes fall flat. If you don’t mind a performance that’s still being worked on, I’d recommend it!

Interestingly, the kids weren't supposed to be at opening night, The play was supposed to premiere days before, however technical difficulties kept pushing the opening night back. 

Here's a video from The 5th about the show.


PUN FUN: We hit a couple of thrift stores on Saturday. While thrifting, we're always looking for new-to-us games. One of the ones we picked up this weekend was "Punderdome."

It's apparently based on a game a father and daughter used to host in a bar. For the home version, you draw two cards, and try to come up with a sentence or phrased based on the two that includes a pun. You have 90 seconds to do so. 

So, for instance, in one round the two cards read "Being a Hero" and "Celebrities." For that, I came up with "Bieber was Justin time to save the drowning Kardashian." (I thought it funny that CJ and I both used Kardashian in our answer.) 

I think I enjoyed the game more than the other three I played with. For me, it felt like I either came up with something immediately or not at all. I think we'll probably play this game again a time or two and then regift it.

FOOD JUSTICE FOR ALL: I recently saw a Seattle Parks & Recreation post on social media about a class for teens called "Ready Set Cook." It's a cooking class, but it's also about food justice (issues like access to affordable, nutritious food, for example).

I thought it would be cool for CJ and Annabelle to be involved, so I signed them up. They'll be attending on four Saturday nights in March. Today, I spied an article in The Seattle Times about the class. Check out this link if you'd like to learn more about it. ...
https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/seattle-teenagers-get-a-crash-course-in-new-chopping-skills-food-justice-issues-at-community-cooking-classes/