Friday Fun

TREES, PLEASE: This morning, while CJ was in a Zoom meeting with his Japanese III instructor and classmates, Annabelle was in another Art to Go class compliments of Gage Academy of Art, a school here in Seattle.

Within an hour, under teacher Willow Heath's tutelage, she had produced a pretty springtime tree ...

as well as a pair of palms at sunset.

These classes have been so fantastic. Annabelle went from next-to-no watercolor experience to looking like she's been using watercolors forever in seemingly no time. 

LIVING ROOM CONCERTS: If you have an hour, like space and "live" music check out The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) Pops celebrating NASA with a virtual #NASAatHome concert.

The show features highlights from past concert collaborations at the The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, honoring our 60th anniversary in 2018 and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 2019. Featured are NSO conductor Emil de Cou, will.i.am, Natasha Bedingfield, astronaut Michael Collins, Grace Potter, and Coheed and Cambria, plus works by award-winning composer Michael Giacchino. 

In other music news, this afternoon, CJ and I thoroughly enjoyed a live broadcast from artist Post Malone's home. He's a *mega* Nirvana fan, and he and a couple of friends (including Blink 182's phenomenal drummer Travis Barker).

This music isn't everyone's cup of tea, but CeeJ and I enjoyed the heck out of it. Plus, it was a fundraiser for the World Health Organization. And despite what a certain president might say, I think the WHO does good, important work. We donated a whopping $5, but that will turn into $15, thanks to Google matching every dollar donated 2:1.

THINK RINK: The kids and I actually logged a number of miles today running essential errands (getting mask making supplies and delivering groceries). During our travels, I urge the kids to put down their devices and look out the windows, at the (pandemic) world.

At one point we passed an old building along old Highway 99. It was a kinda run-down looking restaurant at the present, but I said to the kids, "I'll bet that used to be a roller rink."

Why would I say that? Well, because, roller and ice staking rinks of a certain vintage really did have mostly round roofs. "Why was that?" I wondered aloud (for the first time) today.

Well, it's about engineering, as it turns out. I found a neat-o website today called Dead Rinks that's all about vintage skating facilities and such. There, under a section about 20th century rink architecture, lies an explanation. "(Rink owners) found that architecturally to eliminate the beams and support the roof in better fashion, rinks were designed at the time to have arched roof,  They would have roofs arched to better support the roof trusses better so that they would not have any posts in the way of the rinks."  Of course!

MORE TO MAKE: Corporations keep sharing their 'secret' recipes during this pandemic. Disney came out with their Mickey Mouse beignet 'how to' today, so we're adding that to our list. 

Tonight, we finally tested the Disney "Churro Bites" recipe. I was a little wary, because I don't deep fry anything, ever. Well, except tonight.

The recipe couldn't have been any simpler. Boil 1 cup of water, 8 tablespoons (1 cube) of butter and 1/4 t. of cinnamon. Reduce the heat to low, and stir in 1.25 cups of flour. Let that mixture cool for 6 minutes, and then add three eggs, one at a time. Stir it to mix it all well.

Put the dough ball into a pastry bag with a big star tip. Heat 1.5 cups of canola or vegetable oil in a 1-quart saucepan to 350 degrees.

Annabelle and I took turns squeezing and snipping (with kitchen shears).

 They took just seconds to fry to a golden brown. Then it was onto the drain stage.

After that, the little dough tots were rolled in cinnamon and sugar and promptly inhaled. I had one, for the record.

Annabelle and I have already discussed that if we had a food truck we would sell these all day, every day. They are so easy and delicious and inexpensive to make. We've also already discussed ways to elevate the recipe, by adding fruit flavors to the dough, and maybe a little brown sugar to the cinnamon and white sugar dusting powder.

CJ and Christian were in CJ's room working on a Japanese video the whole time we were making the churros. When they came out, they were agog at what we'd made so quickly, and how delicious they were. 

Another Day in April

BARK AND THE MOON:  Annabelle has another Gage Art Academy "Art to Go" watercolor class under her belt. Yesterday's exercise was painting a trio of birch trees against a night sky.

I apologize, my photo of her finished work (above) doesn't do it justice. The color is off, and the paper was warped. (We need to look into the best way to flatten a dry watercolor painting.)

Once again, she took the class online, and it was just an hour from blank paper to finished painting. Pretty cool!

ATTA BOY: Yesterday CJ received an email from South Seattle College with some kudos.

Way to go, Mr. CJ! Keep up the good work!

LOCAL HISTORY: A photo popped out at me this morning from the Seattle Vintage Facebook Group. 

It was a picture of boats circling 'round the grounds of what we now know as Memorial Stadium, a multi-use sports field, at Seattle Center.

The boats, complete with waterskiers, were part of the festivities for the 1962 World's Fair.

I showed the kids the photo, covering up where it was taken. CJ correctly guessed the location, no doubt with help from a familiar-looking Key Arena roof in the background.

Someone replied to the photo post with a link to a YouTube video of the boats and waterskiing show. We watched it, mouths agape. Man, those waterskiiers could have been seriously injured whipping around that 'track,' so close to concrete walls. Yikes.


WALK SPOTTING: We took the poopies (our dogs) for a loop this afternoon. It had been a couple of days since our last loop, so it was nice to see what was blooming this go 'round.

The irises at the end of our driveway are about to pop.

We checked out a neighbor's back yard from a distance. I spotted a hive when we drove by a few days back. It turns out there are two of them. We couldn't see any bees, but the hives were about 50 feet away, and it was cloudy and not warm. Would it be creepy to take binoculars and scope out the hives?

Probably. So, we'll wait for a sunny day and see if we can spot any bee activity.

In one neighbor's yard, Annabelle saw a butterfly flitting about. She soon realized it was a bit of yard art than an actual insect.

If you listen closely, you can hear Annabelle say, "Kirby, no," during the video.

The dog probably thinks KirbyNo is her name. ...

Earth Day at 50

EARTH DAY: For the past 50 years, April 22 has been celebrated as Earth Day.

We took the occasion to spend a little extra time with our seed starts.

Overall, they're super disappointing this year. Yes, we'll have cherry tomatoes for days, apparently, but not a single Roma tomato seed has shown itself above the soil line.

I am happy to report a whopping four of our dozen-plus eggplant seeds have finally sprouted. One lil' one is below.

We spent some time today checking out NASA's Earth Day offerings. 

The U.S. space agency has launched a cool video to commemorate 50 years of Earth Day. As they explain, "It’s been five decades since Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders photographed Earth peaking over the Moon’s horizon. The iconic image, dubbed Earthrise, inspired a new appreciation of the fragility of our place in the universe. Two years later, Earth Day was born to honor our home planet. As the world prepares to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, NASA reflects on how the continued growth of its fleet of Earth-observing satellites has sharpened our view of the planet’s climate, atmosphere, land, polar regions and oceans."

Astronaut Jessica Meir, who recently returned to Earth from a stay on the International Space Station, discusses the rare and spectacular views of our planet she had while on orbit.

This morning, facebook reminded me that the first ever Seattle Science March three years ago was held on Earth Day. That day seems like forever ago.

Maybe it seems like an eternity since we're currently gripped n a global pandemic, and after a few weeks of being 'forced' to social distance and stay away from large group or close quarters gathering, anti-science monsters are beginning to rear their ugly heads. Case in point: This 'lady' in Tennessee (below), who apparently thinks having the Cracker Barrel open is more important than elderly people or fellow humans with auto immune disorders.

Or how about these unmasked numskulls storming the Ohio state capital, definitely not practicing social distancing. Hope they aren't caught up in a COVID outbreak a couple of weeks from now.

Heavy sigh. 

LIFT OFF: At lunchtime today, we watched a SpaceX mission lift off from the Space Coast. It was their seventh Starlink mission. The rocket booster used was on its third launch, and it may see a fourth launch, as it nailed the landing on the ocean-anchored barge after successfully boosting the satellites into orbit. 

You can watch a replay of the launch below.


SPRINT TO THE FINISH: Annabelle recently finished a series of four writing classes compliments of Clarion West, a non-profit that hosts workshops for aspiring writers of all ages.

I'll have her tell you a bit more about the experience. ...

The Writing Sprint series of classes I took with instructor Tempest Bradford have been a really good way to expand my horizons in terms of writing with prompts and keeping motivation to write under a short time period. There were two ‘sprints’ per each 1 hour session, with each sprint being an assignment to write a scene or short story (around 300 words) based on one of the images provided to the class. I found these exercises very engaging and motivating, because the combination of a mental image and a short time constraint (between 10 and 15 minutes) really kicked my brain into gear when it came to putting words on the page so I had something to share once the timer was up. I usually have trouble deciding on a place to start and visualizing the scene in my head, so I found image prompts to be a really good way to generate fresh ideas. The second ‘sprint’ in each class always had some sort of gimmick to it, though the specific challenge varied based on the session. My personal favorite was the challenge to only use two senses when describing the scene around your character – I thought it was fun to portray just the senses of hearing and touch to describe a rainy city scene as a symphony of sorts. In conclusion, I find that the classes really helped me find out what kinds of stimuli get me in a good writing mood and how prompts or personal challenges can turn a blank page into a fully-fledged scene in just 15 minutes!

Knock, Knock

Photo: SpaceX & NASA

SAVE THE DATE: If you haven't already, you should circle May 27 on your calendar. 

It's the (tentative) day the United States gets back in the manned spaceflight business. And that's kind of a big deal. It has been nine loooong years since we've launched astronauts from American soil.

If all goes as planned, NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. They're set to lift off in a Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 1:32 p.m. Pacific time from Launch Complex 39A in Florida.

I can't help but wonder what this event will look like in a pandemic world. Normally, a launch of this import would draw hundreds of thousands of people to Cape Canaveral to watch it live. I know Florida has been (scarily) permissive about crowds in these COVID-clouded days, but I shudder to think they'd let that many people descend on a relatively small area. Time will tell. 

HIVE MINDED: This weekend, while running an essential errand, I glanced out the car window and, for the first time, spotted a beehive in a neighbor's yard, just 5 houses away. I'd never noticed it there before, so now I'm wondering if it's new, or it just didn't jump out at me before, since it's a ways back from the road. 

Anyway, I started to wonder about of their bees and ours visit the same blossoms, and that got me to thinking about a shrubby-growth in our yard that's covered in yellow blossoms. 

Christian told me this weekend that it was Scotch Broom, and I honestly didn't believe him, because I thought that was a smaller plant, not something shrub or tree like, as is the one on our yard. 

King County's website will tell you that the plant (also knows as Scot's Broom), is "a non-regulated Class B noxious weed." After its yellow petals disappear (around June), black, hard seedpods will emerge. You have to be impressed by the fact that the plant reproduces "via seeds that can persist in soil up to 60 years." Wowza!

Coincidentally, this afternoon a friend of mine posted a video featuring bees on Scotch Broom. 

If you want to relax and be mildly entertained for seven minutes, give it a watch.

My friend also posted a video about some bees coming to the 'rescue' of a fellow bee, whose wings were covered in honey to the point it was immobilized. Words overlaid on the video suggested the bees sucking the honey off the bee was a noble effort with the health and safety of the honey-covered bee in mind. 

The video was interesting to watch, but I didn't agree with the gist of the message attached to it. The video suggested that bees consciously came to the rescue of a struggling fellow bee. I just couldn't agree with that assessment and commented, " Not to "bee" a buzz kill (sorry, couldn't pass that pun up), but as I beekeeper, I would guess the bees' honey-gathering activity isn't about 'saving a fellow bee's life' or 'helping,' I think it's because they want the honey off its body, dead or alive. The beekeeper who thought to take the honey-sodden bee and put it at the entrance to the hive (knowing the other bees would go for the honey) is the one who consciously 'saved' it."

PEACE SIGN: This afternoon, we had a couple of things to drop off to family in Mukilteo. In addition to general store merchandise, we had a special family memento on board - a vintage door knocker that's been around about as long as I can remember.

When my parents moved to an apartment in Mukilteo, they gave it to us, to put on our house in Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood. It hung there for several years, but when we moved to our current neighborhood a couple of years ago, the door knocker didn't work on our new place - the front is covered in irregular stones, and it just wasn't a good fit.

I thought I'd put it by our back door instead, but I took it out there and thought, "This looks stupid. No one has a door knocker on their back door, where no one comes." 

And so, it languished on our back stoop for longer than I care to think about. FINALLY, when I was at a store a few days back, I spied some outdoor, heavy duty, Command strips (those sticky tabs that let you hang items without damaging the wall or other surface), and thought they could work to hang the item anywhere without damage. So, when Annabelle and I were up in Mukilteo today, she applied the strips and got the knocker good and stuck. It looks right at home in its new place of honor.

I let my sister know that the knocker was back in business and she wrote back that it's a "Hebrew mezuzah." I had never heard that term before, so I Googled it. According to ReformJudiasm.org, the Hebrew word mezuzah means “doorpost."

I then Googled "Hebrew mezuzah" and the phrase "Peace to all who enter here: and found out that you can buy something that looks remarkably similar today, including a little sign from an outfit called Catholic Company. 

When we were hanging it today, I noticed that it had some raised lettering on the back. 

I could make out 1969 and "Sancta." From this, I was able to use the power of the Internet to learn that it was manufactured by Terra Sancta Guild (Patent No 223993), and that it's solid brass and was manufactured in Israel. The groovy letters are painted in enamel.

By going to Terra Sancta's website, I found you can buy a brand-spanking new one that looks very similar to the original. Cool that they're still being manufactured! (I do like the patina of the antique knocker better, I must admit.)

Tiger King for a Day

SEVENTEEN: "Little" CJ turned 17 today. That's darn near an adult, at least by the 'you're old enough to vote and go to war' standard.

I've been thinking about how to celebrate today for awhile. A worldwide pandemic and a state with stay home orders and most businesses closed down doesn't exactly scream, "Party on!"

I decided last week that Annabelle and I should at least make CJ a fun cake for his birthday. So, for the last few days we've been piecing together a Tiger King-themed cake.(In case you haven't heard about it, it's a wildly popular show on Netflix about a bunch of crazy people in the United States who, for lack of a better description, collect tigers. It's horrific and wildly entertaining.)

As you might expect, we had to make a tiger for the cake. And by 'we,' I mean Annabelle.

I did have a hand in some elements, like mixing sherbet toned fondant for tiger collector Carole Baskin's blouse.

Annabelle sculpted the leader of Big Cat Rescue in Florida. I made her 'crown.'

Speaking of heads, or lack thereof, here's a headless Joe Exotic. He's the star of the show, and former operator of a big ol' tiger zoo in Oklahoma.

Below is Joe's head, bi-colored mullet and all - in a paper boat, awaiting a body.

Eventually the whole cake came together. It was quite a project. 

When we unveiled the cake for CJ he said, "Well, I wasn't expecting that."

Ha ha ha. I thought that was pretty funny.

This morning, we continued a birthday tradition by going to Easy Street Records for breakfast. Of course, because of the pandemic, we couldn't dine in. And CJ couldn't peruse their record collection. Instead, we had to get breakfast to go. We sat in the car next to an also-closed park and hoped for better time soon.

Afterward, there were a few hours of school and house work. Then, this afternoon, CJ opened his presents. He was pleased with each and every one of them. 

For dinner, we drove mostly country roads to Issaquah. Our destination was XXX Root Beer, a nostalgic drive in.

 It was sad to see the place cordoned off and quiet. The joint is usually jumping.

We weren't able to tour the whole restaurant and see all their cool collectibles, but we did appreciate this great Orange Crush dispenser on their front counter

 If you're at a place famous for its own brew of root beer, you simply must order a float. So that's what we did. The masks made them a little hard to drink, however. 

There was a cool, vintage Coca-Cola machine out front. 

I actually rather loved the artificially sweetened dietary carbonated beverage Tab. (It was sugar free!) 

 This old 7Up bottle caught my eye, as well.

We've been to Triple X Root Beer a couple of times before, but had always just bought the kids floats before. Tonight we ordered food.

Oh. My god. 

I told the kids, when I get a box or plate from a restaurant, I don't really want my first thought to be, "Oh no!" But that's what happened at this place. RIDICULOUS portions of food.

Hope CJ has room for cake!