Memorable Day

Another Birthday Dreams cake out the door. The birthday boy wanted a shark cake. This one took a bit, as - believe it or not - we'd never carved a shark from Rice Krispies treats before.

After a couple of starts and stops, Sharky finally started to take shape.

To be honest, it still looked nothing like a shark after the Krispies were shaped.

He started looking a little better with the white fondant underside in place.

Naturally, a number of teeth had to be made. We couldn't send out a gummy shark.

Here's an action shot of Annabelle inserting the eyes (big black gumballs) and making 'gills'.

CJ made the cake. It was vanilla covered in an ocean of vanilla buttercream, applied to look wavy. We knew we'd use the little goldfish sprinkles some day, and yesterday was the day. Some white nonpareils were added to evoke bubbles in the water.

Sharky looks a little goofy from the front.

He's much more attractive in profile. :)

The final touch was putting the 7-year-old birthday boy's name on the cake board (that's not shown here for anonymity). 

OH NO-NO:  It was cold, and thundershowers were hanging in the sky in every direction. Seems like a perfect night to go to a baseball game, right? 

Wrong. 

But we went anyway. And we got to see a little history made, unfortunately. The Mariners didn't get a single hit against the guy who was the worst starting pitcher in baseball in 2019. 

We started the game in our usual seats - last row of the stadium, up from the left field foul line.

Things are a little different at the park these days. Bags are banned, there's hand sanitizer everywhere, most are wearing masks, seating is mostly socially distanced (except in vaccinated fans' sections).

They're giving COVID-19 vaccines on site, in multiple places. 

From our seats on high, we could see down into the Edgar's Cantina part of the park, where vaccines were being administered. It didn't go well for one poor guy. He would up surrounded by medics, got an IV and a gurney was brought out. Fortunately he was able to leave on his own two feed after a bit of recovery. 

We brought our COVID-19 immunization cards with us. That earned us nifty wristbands.

Those gained us access to the "T-Mobile" bullpen area of the stadium. We headed down there about midway through the game.

We found a spot to stand near the Mariners' bullpen. I was wishing I could have swiped some of their tools for the dogs to have as toys. ;)

One pitcher hooked up to the fence right by us and started warming up.

The Ms' bullpen pitchers were watching the Detroit pitcher pitch a gem. And probably wondering why the Mariners can't hit the *&^% ball.

Unfortunately, the blue plastic pitching practice batter had about as good of a chance of hitting the ball as a real live Mariners player.

I had actually mentioned the no-hitter-in-progress to the kids way back in the third inning. I had a bad feeling about the game. The Ms 'hitters' looked nowhere near making solid contact, and the last game we went to was similarly abysmal (but I think they managed a hit or two in that one). 

I was going to say, seeing a no-hitter in person is really rare for a baseball fan, but hell, the Mariners have been no-hit TWICE in less than two weeks this season. Ugh.  (Photo is a cool new mural in the bullpen area.)

Until Spencer Turnbull beat the Kansas City Royals in his previous start, he had exactly ONE career win against an American League team in his career. In fact, Turnbull 'lead' the Majors with 17 losses in 2019, and entered the Tuesday night game against the Ms with a 9 win, 25 loss record for his career. 

Below is a view of mine, staring up at the scoreboard, knowing that a no-hitter was basically a given at that point. (Zoom in and look at some of the Ms' batting averages.)

The internet tells me there is a 1 in 806 chance you will see a no-hitter in person when you go to a game. I guess I was coming up due, given I've been going to multiple games per year for  many decades at this point. 

Here's the last out from our vantage point. https://youtu.be/aWMqvysG3E0

Out and About

T-TOWN BOUND: Last Friday, we made a midday trip down to Tacoma for a tour of CJ's future campus. We'd strolled the grounds before, but had never been inside any of the buildings and didn't have a tour guide.

This time we did have an official guide with access to some of the buildings. We met at the Mattress Factory at noon.

It was nice to learn where offices are that CJ will likely have to visit (advising, the registrar, etc.)

We spied numerous spots on campus where students can hang out.

One bulletin board that caught CJ's eye was the study abroad board. He asked lots of questions. Makes sense a history major might want to check out another country or two.

The architecture is interesting on campus. Lots of old buildings repurposed over the years.

The grounds were beautiful, with so many things in bloom.

One of the things we learned on the tour is that Tacoma's W statue is the biggest out of any UW locations, and it's not just about bragging rights. We were told the statue is a safety barrier of sorts, as once upon a time a city bus hit black ice and slid all the way downhill through the middle of campus. The big ol W would stop a repeat of that. 

BACK IN BEES-NESS: Sadly, our bees did not winter over, despite doing all the right things (making sure they had plenty of food, treating them for mites and insulating the hives).

I couldn't imagine a season without bees, so I found a "nuc" (a nucleus colony) on Craigslist. A trip to Federal Way and $200 later, and we're back in business.

While Christian was loading up the nuc, I watched bees land on our sunroof and pluck pollen off of wisteria blossoms.

After a little jaunt up Interstate 5, the bees have a new home.

As you can see, they have plenty of blossoms at the new place.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: We had company over for dinner last night.

That might not sound like such a remarkable thing, but 14 months into a worldwide pandemic, with so much isolation during the lockdowns, it was a huge departure.

I kept the menu simple. Rib eye steaks from Costco, garlic and Parmesan fingerling potatoes cooked in a cast iron pan and prosciutto wrapped organic asparagus.

CJ did a great job helping prepare the beautiful asparagus.

First, the spears were washed and trimmed. Next, prosciutto was laid out on the cutting board, and cut in half lengthwise. Atop that was a sprinkle of Parm, black pepper, and since lemon zest.

The spears were wrapped with the prosciutto and popped under the broiler for about 2.5 minutes per side (5 total).

They were absolutely delicious!!!

Here's a super short video showing the prep process.