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 ...

The Longest Year

It has been over a week since I've posted. I don't know that I've ever gone that long with nothing to report.

Check that. It's not that we're not doing things. We are. Lots of things. It's just that the things we're doing are plugging along kind of stuff, not out and about kind of stuff. Our worlds have shrunk so dramatically this past year, under the specter of the pandemic

That said, we soldier on. 

CJ is plugging away in college, and very successfully so. Tonight he filed his last English 102 research paper, about positive psychology (a useful topic in this day and time.)

He is done with his film studies class, and now that that's history, I'll have him soon list a recap of the movies he analyzed this quarter. 

CJ's two quizzes away from being done with his latest math class, which has been comically awful. ZERO lectures or teaching, totally going it alone. It will be glad to have that in the rearview.

Annabelle audits all of CJ's classes. It's so nice that they have each other as classmates. It would be so much harder and lonelier if they didn't have each other.

We're also still volunteering where and when we can. Case in point: Last week we delivered a cake to a Birthday Dreams. The cake was for twins - a couple of 6 year olds who wanted  mermaid cake. 

We made a small but tall cake, iced in ocean colors. It was ringed in seashell candies we made.

As an added touch we surrounded it with brown sugar 'sand,' which Annabelle carved the twins' names into.

On Sunday, we celebrated Pi Day on March 14 in a very low key way. We downloaded the 7-11 app and used it to buy large pizzas (5!) for $3.14. We cooked one and the extras went in our freezer. A little sad that this was a 'big deal' event for us this year, but that's pandemic life.

Our daffodils have finally opened up. This one is my favorite. 

Three-plus years ago, I dug them up from our last place and brought them to our 'new' place. We had so many beautiful plants in our last yard that we left behind without a thought, but these were sentimental favorites. I remember the kids getting the bulbs for free at Sky Nursery in Shoreline on September 10, 2014. They planted them, they flourished, and I just couldn't leave them at the last place.  

I'm so glad they're still going strong. 

In other news, we're inching ever closer to our new retro countertop. And this week I started a new gig/job this is a lot, for lack of a better way to describe it. 

We've been enjoying listening to Mariners' spring training games on the radio and dreaming of making it out to the old ball game for real this season.

One bright point today: I received a call from the deputy director for our congressman Adam Smith. I can't recall if I mentioned it here, but a couple of weeks ago, the news all over said all veterans were eligible to receive COVID vaccines. Christian, an Army veteran, inquired and tried to get one, but he was told he couldn't have one/enroll in the VA because he makes too much money (working as an essential worker during a pandemic, might I add). Anyway, I wrote our two senators and our congressman and lo and behold, something happened!

"The House unanimously approved legislation Tuesday night that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer coronavirus vaccines to all veterans, regardless of whether they’re enrolled in VA health care," according to a report on the American Legion website. The bill is on the Senate's calendar. The gentleman I spoke with hopes they will vote on it as soon as next week. Time will tell.