Get Back

BASEBALL'S BACK: Today is a happy day at MPA, as it marks the return of Major League Baseball. 

COVID made for an atypical season last year. It was short, and no fans were in the seats. This year, stadiums* are letting a limited number of fans in, and are taking mega efforts to keep the situation safe (*unless you're the Texas Rangers, who are inexplicably filling every seat).

Tomorrow night we'll be attending a (socially distanced) baseball game in person for the first time in over a year. We're so excited! 

This week, my Facebook "Memories" are full of us attending opening day Mariners games. So many fun memories. Sure, the Mariners usually lose, but a bad day at the ballpark is a better day than most others. 

GARDEN STARTERS: Recently, we spied a news story about Lowe's offering free garden kits each week during the month of April. We missed the first one (April 1), but there are three more days coming up:

• April 8: Garden-to-Go kit sponsored by Miracle-Gro with exclusive recipes from professional cook and food stylist Amanda Frederickson.
• April 15: Lowe's Mystery Garden Pinata with mystery seed packets.
• April 22: 500,000 tree saplings given out in honor of Earth Day.
• April 29: Lowe's Butterfly Quest which helps families create a butterfly garden. 

According to the story, these Garden-to-Go project kits can even be picked up curbside/without leaving your car. You can register each Thursday this month to pick up the next week's kit.

Speaking of gardens, we're caring for our starts daily, but no signs of life just yet.

FUTURE FLIGHT: NASA is inviting the public to sign up to (virtually) attend the SpaceX Crew-2 mission (exact launch date to be determined). 

Registrants will receive mission updates, information on the virtual NASA Social interactive opportunities, and a stamp for their NASA virtual passport following launch.

All resources, participation, and registration are free. Here's the website where we signed up: https://go.nasa.gov/2PLguzL

Meanwhile on Mars, Curiosity, no longer the newest rover on the Red Planet, sent back a spectacular selfie last week. Using a robotic arm, it took a photo of itself in front of Mont Mercou, a 20-foot-tall rock formation.

Some 2,600 miles away, the helicopter that caught a ride to Mars on Perseverance set down on Martian soil for the first time. 

Ingenuity is stretching its legs, so to speak, and is preparing for its first off-planet, independent  flight. Exciting!

COURT TV: For the past few days, we have had Court TV streaming all day, watching the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on George Floyd's neck for over nine minutes, while Floyd became unresponsive and died. And then he kept on kneeling until he was told, by a paramedic, to get off the lifeless man's neck.

The trial is hard to watch, but it's also a 'can't look away' situation. We are mortified by much of the testimony, understandably. However, this trial is, undoubtedly, an educational moment. The kids are, for the first time, seeing the mechanics of how a real trial works - the examination and cross examination, the sidebars, the objections and overrules, et cetera. Let's hope they - and all of us - will see justice is served in the end.