Celebrations

PARTY PEOPLE: It's so nice to be sharing news of get togethers. A year ago, that was pretty much a complete no go 'thanks' to COVID.

Friday evening we ended up having a dinner party on rather short notice. It just happened to work out that various family members were in town at the same time, so we decided to have a get together here. As a bonus, it is just a few days until my dad's 80th birthday, so we decided to celebrate that. The balloons helped make it more festive. 

I thought some flowers were in order, as well, so I wandered out into the yard to see what nature offered up. I wound up with a big, eclectic bouquet. 

For dinner, I made about 10 pounds of potato salad, and we sous vide 14 steaks.

                                               

We didn't have time to bake any thing special, and it was hot out, so I ordered an ice cream cake from Ben & Jerry's. It was a hit!

Of course, we can't forget that the highly contagious Delta strain of COVID-19 is very real, so we were mindful of safety. Everyone in attendance was fully vaccinated, and we spent most of our time outside.

On Saturday, Christian headed down to Central Oregon for the wedding of a family friend. He carried four pizza boxes full of cookies Annabelle and I made for the occasion. 

The bride and groom are both musicians, so many of the cookies represented that fact. 

We even made a couple of cookies with the logos of taverns where they regularly perform.

TRIVIAL: Recently, the Seattle Times asked mayoral candidates some Seattle-centric questions to test how well they know the Emerald City. The Times also shared that test with readers. I scored a 9 out of 10, not bad for a non-native, I think. If you're so inclined, you can take it here: 

 https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/think-you-know-seattle-take-this-quiz-then-watch-the-mayoral-candidates-answer-the-same-questions/

DELAYED: The first headline I read on Friday morning was that the International Space Station was 'out of control.'

Well, that will quickly clear the sleep from one's eyes.

Turns out there was a major snafu with the new Roscosmos' multipurpose laboratory module Nauka  that had recently arrived on site. After it docked with the ISS, space station cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov prepared to open the hatch to the new module. During that process, Nauka's thrusters fired "inavertently and unexpectedly," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during a live broadcast of the docking on NASA TV. This moved the station 45 degrees out of attitude - kind of a big deal.

Fortunately, the ISS was able to get itself back into the proper orientation and orbit. However, the trouble delayed the launch of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to the ISS for a few days, until Tuesday (Aug. 3). The Aug. 3 liftoff is scheduled to take place at 10:20 a.m. Pacific time. You can watch coverage on the NASA app, on NASA TV, or on their website: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

In the meantime, here's a preview of the mission.