Cake and Congress

CATTY: Another week, another cake for us. We typically only make one Birthday Dreams cake per month, but when we saw an ask for a caticorn cake, we had to take that on. :)

"What is a caticorn?" you ask? It's a unicorn-cat hybrid. Basically a cat with a horn and a flouncy tail. 

We've seen others do cute unicorn cakes before where a chubby unicorn is eating part of the cake, so we decided to go that design route with the caticorn.

First we baked up a big chocolate cake for the first tier. It was filled and then iced a really pretty purple - the birthday girl's favorite color.

Next, we cooked up a confetti cake, by putting pink and purple sprinkles into vanilla cake batter. 

Annabelle sculpted the caticorn using modeling chocolate covered in marshmallow fondant.

The caticorn takes shape, with a tail and body.

The horn was spray painted (edible) gold. We had to stick it in an orange while it dried.

Though it's not shown in the cake photo above for privacy purposes, the birthday girl's name was on the bottom tier of the cake, in white fondant letters. 

I just loved the assortment of sprinkles covering the top tier of the cake. So pretty! They came from 5-6 different containers.

Caticorn, complete with a heart-shaped nose, and painted on eyes.

We hope the 7-year-old liked her cake!

LOBBYING: About three weeks ago, it was announced all over television, the Internet and in newspapers that "all" veterans were now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Naturally, Christian, a veteran, called the local VA hospital right away to schedule a vaccination - only to be told he wasn't eligible to be vaccinated because he makes too much money. 

Say what?

That news set me off to the point I, for the first time, contacted my two senators and my U.S. congressman. 

Here's the gist of what I sent to each of them on March 4...

Hello ...,

Maybe you've seen the headlines. The news is all over. In fact, as I write this, the breaking news on the front page of the Seattle Times website reads: NEWS ALERT Veterans of all ages now qualify for COVID-19 vaccine in Washington state.

Unfortunately, news about all veterans being eligible for vaccines is not true.

My husband, an Army veteran, has contacted our local VA on more than one occasion over the past couple of weeks, trying to schedule a shot, but he is repeatedly turned away. He is told that even though he's a veteran, he makes too much money, and therefore, he's not eligible to receive a vaccination.

This makes zero sense. As you know, COVID vaccines are not for sale, and access to them should not have anything to do with a person's income, or lack thereof. It's about public health.

My husband is nearly 60, a veteran, and he's an essential worker for the city of Seattle. Ironically, if he were retired instead of out there working, making sure people have clean, running water and working sewers, he would be eligible for the vaccine through the VA. 

Is there anything you or someone can do to rectify this exclusion regarding access to COVID vaccines for ALL veterans, regardless of income?

We heard nothing from Senator Maria Cantwell's office. We received what read line an auto generated email from Senator Patty Murray's office, saying she'd like to help, and asking us to fill out a PDF form, which we did. I also wrote to Congressman Adam Smith's office. 

For two weeks it's was crickets - nothing from anyone. But a couple of days ago, my phone rang. It was an unfamiliar, local number. I usually let unknown numbers go to voicemail, but I picked this call up. It was the deputy director for Adam Smith, calling to let me know that the U.S. House of Representatives had just passed a bill , the VA Vaccine Act, that would open COVID vaccines to ALL veterans. Would you believe it even passed unanimously? Shocking! It seems like those people can never agree on anything any more.

On March 17, the Senate (also unanimously!) approved their version of the bill. It calls on the VA to vaccinate all veterans, their spouses, recipients of the VA’s CHAMPVA program, and veterans living overseas.  Now it goes back to the House. 

This verbiage now appears on the VA site: "Legislation is currently going through Congress that if passed, would allow us to offer vaccines to all Veterans, and possibly their caregivers and spouses. Until this legislation passes and becomes public law, we won't know who will be eligible. We also won't know how quickly we can get enough vaccines to offer one to Veterans and family members who aren't receiving care at VA."

And so, we wait.  

FIRED UP: Thursday, NASA conducted a test of the engines that will (hopefully) boost a rocket to the moon in the not too distant future. 

You can see a replay here: https://youtu.be/XGRE_7yz_kM  (the real action starts around the 50 minute mark)

And let's see if I can finally get an embed code to work ...