EYE SPY: Irises are blooming all over our 'campus' at the moment.
I have never understood irises. (Not that any flower really needs to be 'understood.') It's just that they are so bizarre, with their big, curling petals* and they occupy such a short window in the 'look at me' regard.
Today we learned that there are some 300 or so species of irises, and that they take their name from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow (Iris.)
*We also learned that the iris' petals aren't all petals. Rather, the flower has six colorful lobes. The three inner lobes are, indeed, petals, while the three outer lobes are sepals. The petals stand upright and are sometimes called 'standards.'
NAILED IT: Yesterday afternoon, the kids and I spent some time watching history being made in two very different ways. On one channel we were monitoring the Mariners' horrible game where no one on their team managed to get even a single hit. That meant a no hitter for Baltimore Orioles' pitcher Means.
In another tab, we were closely monitoring the launch of SpaceX's SN15. (SN stands for serial number, in case you were wondering.) We'd watched many an SN launch before, with the enormous silver rocket lifting off, doing a belly flop of sorts, and then attempting a landing. Previous attempts have resulted in pretty spectacular explosions following failed landings.
However, yesterday was the day - the rocket stuck the landing!
Right afterward, a fire broke out on the landing pad at SpaceX's Starbase site in south Texas, and we worried the whole ship was going to go up in flames. Fortunately, the fire was controlled, and the landing was considered a success. Congrats, SpaceX!
SN is the rocket that's supposed to take astronauts to the moon someday. Coincidentally, Wednesday's uncrewed test occurred on the 60th anniversary of the United States' first-ever crewed spaceflight, the suborbital mission of NASA astronaut Alan Shepard.
BYE BYE, BENNU: On Monday, May 10, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will fire its thrusters and start a two-year trek back to planet Earth, which it left on September 8, 2016. On board OSIRIS-REx is precious cargo in the form of a sample of the asteroid it has called home since December 3, 2018. (Our names are also on board the craft!)
You can watch live coverage of the spacecraft’s departure from asteroid Bennu on NASA Television, the NASA App, and the agency’s website on Monday, May 10 at 1 p.m. Pacific time.
The video below, from NASA Goddard and the University of Arizona, shows the OSIRIS-REx mission’s Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event. The sampling event brought the spacecraft all the way down to sample site Nightingale, and the team on Earth received confirmation of successful touchdown at 6:08 pm EDT on October 20, 2020.
Preliminary data show the sampling head touched Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, after which the spacecraft performed a back-away burn.
MONDAY NIGHT BASEBALL: The 2021 Major League Baseball season continues, and fans are still being allowed in the stands as of now, so we thought we were due to make another trip to T-Mobile Park for some Mariners baseball.
The first 3,000 in attendance were given free Kingdome caps. (The Kingdome is where the Mariners started when they were a brand new club back in 1977). We were there in time, and came home with four Kingdome caps.
It was raining out, so the retractable roof over the stadium was closed.
We made our way to our nosebleed seats. We like those because there's no one sitting behind us talking about everything but baseball.
The kids forayed out for food once in awhile. Annabelle went all the way down to the main level to get pork wontons from Din Tai Fung. CJ went with the much easier to source garlic fries and chicken 'tenders.'
It was a fun night at the park, but not the Mariners' best effort, that's for sure.
During the ninth inning, we made our way down to the main concourse to watch the rest of the game from a lot closer vantage point.
The Mariners are likely going to be about a .500 club again this year, but after not getting to go to a single game last year, we'll take what we can get.
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: Last night, Annabelle had an opportunity to attend an online
session that I happened to see thanks to a homeschool group email. She can tell you more about it.
“How to Succeed at DMing Without Really Trying” was a panel hosted by the King County Library Systems on May 4th, featuring multiple longtime DMs (Dungeons & Dragons dungeon masters) and employees of Wizards of the Coast, the parent company that owns and writes Dungeons and Dragons material. Panelists included Makenzie De Armas (@MakenzieLaneDA on Twitter), Sydney Adams (@Raini_Fro), James Haeck (@jamesjhaeck), and R. Boccamazzo, PsyD (@TheeDoctorB, @TakeThisOrg).
The panelists talked about their experiences as Dungeon Masters, and gave us all sorts of tips on how to make sure our games run smoothly. One of the major points of the Q&A was to not be afraid of improvising, and don’t over-prepare. The nature of tabletop roleplay means that the story can go almost any way you can think of, and even some you can’t imagine until they happen. As a DM, it’s part of your job to make sure that you allow and encourage this sort of creativity instead of locking your players down with the story you had in mind.
While this can be fun for the players, it’s also important to consider whether you’re having fun as the Dungeon Master. Contrary to popular belief, in a way, the DM is a player too. They want to have fun just as much as anyone else at the table, so if you find yourself being sidelined or becoming tired with the way things are going, it’s important to communicate how you feel with your players. You’re allowed to take breaks and make sure that nobody is being left out, including yourself.
A replay of the panel should be posted to the KCLS website with closed captions within a few days. If you’re interested in becoming a DM, already a DM that’s looking for some pointers, or even just a player that wants to support your own DM friend, I’d highly recommend giving it a watch!
YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS: Tuesdays have become something to look forward to during this pandemic, thanks to a sweet treat offered up by the kids' favorite ice cream and pinball place, Full Tilt.
On Tuesdays, a 3-scoop banana split is just $5, a good deal compared to prices there regularly. The running joke is that the place rarely has bananas, in which case the kids just get a sundae. But yesterday was a banner day - they actually had two bananas, so the kids each got one!
The Full Tilt we go to is a bit of a hole in the wall, in an often rough-ish neighborhood called White Center. It's not much to look at, but they make mighty fine ice cream!
CONTEMPLATING POPPIES: We have *so* many poppies on 'campus' this spring, and that's no accident. Last fall, when the kids and I were cleaning up the garden, as we were plucking spent poppy stems, we vigorously shook them to expel poppy seeds all over.
As we've been appreciating the poppies arrival, we've noticed the changes they undergo as they bloom.
They start off with a yellow 'fuzzy' center, as pictured up top.
During the next phase, a green center emerges from the yellow.
That green 'head' turns into what's pictured below - a purple-striped structure.
Eventually, the poppy's petals fall off, and all that's left is this purple head, underneath which is a kind of megaphone-shaped pod which holds all the poppy seeds. We'll be shaking those again this year. The more poppies, the merrier!
GOOD CALL: I was happy to read today that the University of Washington will be requiring all students to be immunized against COVID-19 at all of their campuses come fall. In a post called "Protecting our community’s health by requiring students to be vaccinated (University-wide message)," UW president Ana Mari Cauce announced the decision on May 3. UW joins the growing list of colleges requiring students to be vaccinated for COVID before coming to campus this September.
In other UW news, CJ and I spent an hour or so checking off items on his 'to do' list in order to be able to register for fall. For example, he had to go through a four part lesson on the Federal Student Aid website and pass a test to prove that he knew about student loans. He also had to upload data for his UW student ID, and notify the financial aid office about his scholarships. It's quite a process to navigate before the real learning starts. I sure don't remember it being this complicated with Rick and Ken, not to mention myself way back in the day.
KITCHEN DOINGS: We continue to play with our food for fun and sustenance purposes. This weekend, we cooked up some bagels. I think they're cheater bagels, because aren't real ones made by boiling the batter?
Our version uses silicone doughnut molds with batter piped into them.
Even though they're not authentic, they're 100 percent delicious. The texture is great and the flavor is on point. We even threw in some nutritional yeast this go round to boost the flavor.
Each little element of the 'bento' box had to be made, most of them out of gelatinous type ingredients.
Honestly, it was kind of a complicated process!
By far, the hardest part was getting the little black seeds to stick where they were supposed to on the panda parts.
While they had fun making it, the taste left a lot to be desired. They each had one tiny bit of it and then threw it away, in favor of a scoop of ice cream for dessert.
