Procedure

WAITING ROOM: Thursday morning came early, with a 5 a.m. alarm.

That's Christian's normal four days a week, so it wasn't unusual for him. And while I'm usually awake before 5, when the alarm goes off (thanks, insomnia!), I'm not usually up at that time.

Today was different, however, as we had to head to the hospital. Christian had a date with a surgeon to get a pesky, painful bump removed from his right hand.

Valley Medical Center is a pretty facility on a hillside in Renton, WA. I found it ironic that signs tell people to be quiet, but in the lobby there's a BIG water feature that pumps vast quantities of gallons per minute, making it pretty loud. 

Also in the middle of the lobby were a team of construction workers replacing enormous windows, and making hella noise while doing so.

The nursing personnel were friendly and efficient, and the anesthesiologist looked like he was about 20. (Funny how people start looking younger and younger as you get older and older.)

The patient is at home, resting comfortably, and is looking forward to getting that splint off - hopefully on Tuesday.

WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT: This winter, coupled with the end of fall, has been one for the books so far, and I don't mean that in a good way. Most everyone has heard the phrase "Sleepless in Seattle," but our weather for months now has made it "sunless in Seattle."

Now, I know what you're thinking. It rains in Seattle. Duh. And that's true, of course, but the total amount of rainfall isn't the problem at the present. What is a problem is the fact that Seattle hasn't had an official sunny day since November. Really. It's true.

t's sunless in Seattle as city weathers one of the gloomiest stretches in recent history
By Pedram Javaheri, CNN MeteorologistIn fact,

To be a bonafide sunny day, it means the sky has to have one-eighth or less cloud cover. And our weather hasn't managed to muster that in months now.

According to CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, "Just two days in December were even considered partly sunny and those days still managed to have an average of 70% cloud cover in the sky's above."

That has made for waaaaaay too many gloomy days 'round these parts.

January has also been dreary. As I sit typing on the 31st, every single day has been significantly cloudy.

Here's hoping for a brighter February.

Plane Spotting

BIG BIRD: A couple of days ago, there was big aviation news in the skies above Seattle; Boeing's enormous new passenger jet, the 777-9, took its maiden flight.

The big bird took off from Payne Field  at 10:09 a.m. From there, it flew over the Evergreen State for about four hours before landing at Boeing Field.

I wish we'd had our act together, we likely could have seen its approach for landing. Or, we could have gone to Boeing Field to watch it land. Instead, we have to settle for this video, from C-NET.

One notable design feature of the 777-9 is that plane's wing tips fold up so that it can fit at airport gates. Fully extended, they're 235 feet, 5 inches wide. When folded up, they're 212.75 feet. The plan is 251 feet, 9-inches long. 

The mammoth 777-9 has seating for 426 passengers and a range of over 7,285 nautical miles.
In a press release, Boeing says the plane is the world's "largest and most fuel efficient twin-engine commercial jet."  

Annabelle and I were driving south of Seattle on I-5 yesterday, approaching Boeing Field and I told her to be on the lookout for the 777-9, thinking it might still bet there. Sure, enough, before long we spied the big bird, its nose toward the freeway. 

Later that afternoon, we were headed to South Seattle College and I told the kids we were going to take an alternative route, closer to Boeing Field, to try to get a better look.

The plane had actually been moved in that time span, but we did find it, nose toward the west this time. 

Here's a terrible photo Annabelle took of it through the car window. Can you make out the "9" on its tail?

I told the kids they were one of just a tiny percentage of people on Earth who had seen a plane like that to date, and that's one of the cool things about living in "Jet City."

Feeding Teens

SMASHING SATURDAY: Saturday, a fair amount of our activity centered on getting ready for Teen Feed. That's our once-a-month gig in the U District where we, along with several other volunteers, get together and provide a big ol' hot meal to teens and young adults living on the street. 

This month's menu inspiration was the IKEA cafeteria, ha ha. It was actually billed as a Swedish Smörgåsbord. On the menu was meatballs (and non meatballs for our vegetarian/vegan guests), mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed veggies, and then cinnamon rolls and cupcakes for dessert. 

We'd signed up for two dozen cinnamon rolls and mega mashed potatoes, among other things. While baking from scratch would have been nice, I'm not gonna lie - we bought those tubes of dough. The price was right, and I knew we'd be making 18 pounds of mashed potatoes from scratch that day, so we had our hands full. 

The rolls actually smelled great when they were done cooking. Annabelle squeezed the ready-made icing atop them.

With the rolls out of the way, we turned our attention to the potatoes. CJ was busy with school work, and Christian was working on a project, so that left Annabelle and me to peel and slice and cook 18 pounds of potatoes. 

I was actually surprised at how quickly we peeled those taters. And then we filled up a couple of pressure cookers to the brim with them. When the time for cooking was up, I declared we'd release the pressure outside, rather than in our kitchen, because I didn't want our place covered in a mist of mashed potato steam. It was a good decision. 

Annabelle and I added a bunch of sour cream, some butter, some garlic powder, white pepper and salt and then mashed the potatoes by hand. About 4:30, we headed north to prep the service kitchen for dinner.

Eventually, other people arrived, bring their donations. As you can see below, we had no shortage of cinnamon rolls. We also served cupcakes.  I brought along some Swedish fish and lingonberry game to put on the rolls or cupcakes if the diners preferred. 

 We had drinks ready, and gallons of gravy.

And meatballs. So. Many. Meatballs. About 50 pounds in total, I kid you not. (Have I mentioned these kids are HUNGRY and craving protein?)

The Smorgasbord was a hit, no surprise. Now, it's time to start thinking about next month's menu.

BEE-WARE: We've had a day or two here and there recently where it was a little unseasonably warm. On one such occasion, Christian took a peek into our to hives. 

Bees sometimes winter over OK in these parts. Often, they don't. At this point, it looks like one of our hives might be lost. The newer of the two hives still has some bees doing their things inside. 

Meanwhile, we just received our renewal notice to register our apiaries with the state. In the bill, there was an information flyer about the dreaded Asian giant hornet invasion. 

They are big, bad news. I've included photos of the flyer's front and back FYI.

They're about 1.5 inches long, with a yellow head. If you see one of these, you should report it, ASAP. And stay away from the bugger. They pack a powerful sting. 

Here's a National Geographic video about the fearsome insect. Just a little fodder for future nightmares. Sorry.