Treasures

GOODWILL HUNTING: We had a little time to kill between stops yesterday, so we visited what I think is the biggest and best Goodwill Industries store in Seattle, on Dearborn.

We headed to the far back first, where the books and records were. CJ came away with a couple new LPs. He didn't come home with this one I used to have back in the day. 

If it was a bargain for $4.47 in 1972 dollars, it's a real steal for $ .99 now. :)

We also hit up the electronics aisle, as always. There, I spied a NEW IN BOX Realistic CB. I just *had* to (carefully) take it out of box and get my hands on it. What a gem. I wanted to buy it so much. But, it was $59, and didn't have an antenna, so I super reluctantly passed.

I'm still dreaming about it, though, literally. Last night I had cool sci fi dreams about plugging it in and firing it up and voices from the mid 1970s coming through it. I'm tempted to write a book about it.

As we entered the figurine aisle, I quipped to the kids, "This is where the real gold is." Yesterday was no exception.

Naturally, there were horrifying clowns.

 

And this "I'm sorry" statuette is soooooooo Seventies.

We were nearly to the end of the aisle when I spied something wrinkly. Wait ... what's this?

A Shar-pei?!?! Be still CJ's heart!

Not only was it a Shar-pei statue, upon closer examination it appeared to have an electronic feature. It was batteries-not-included, though, so we had to wait until we got home to find out the Shar-pei is a motion detector that barks. The Hive Mind is Watching!

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE: Via Space.com, we learned about all sorts of fun names being given to geological features on Charon, a moon of Pluto. 

There are Star Wars references, like Skywalker Crater, (Leia) Organa Crater, and the fun-to-say Vader Crater.

And there are Star Trek references, like the Uhura Crater, Kirk Crater, Sulu Crater and Spock Crater in Vulcan Planum. 

There's also Kubrick Mons (a hat tip to 2001: A Space Odyssey, among other works). 

These monikers have not yet been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), but who would object?!

Image showing the provisional names being used by the New Horizons team for features on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon.  Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

MUSICAL HISTORY: Our history lesson today was a musical stroll down memory lane of one Sir Paul McCartney. McCartney's spin on James Corden's Carpool Karaoke is spectacular.

Not gonna lie, I teared up at least three times in the twenty minutes. Such a bright spot when such dark news is dominating the headlines right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjvzCTqkBDQ

Of Weeds and Wizarding

SPELLBINDING: Wednesday afternoon, we headed down south the main library in Kent for a special Wizarding Wands Workshop. Part of King County Library System's Summer Reading Program, it was a drop in DIY session, led by library staff. The promo for it on the library website read, "Make it Magical. Make your own Wizarding World Wand. Design it yourself from our select magical materials, or get enchanting advice from senior wizards. Participants may bring their own patronus or messenger bird."

The kids used chopsticks as the base for their wands, and then used decorative tapes, gems, and other embellishments.

We hope to plug into many summer reading program workshops and events over the next couple of months!

JUST DANDY: Last weekend, we took on an enormous task: Digging out probably around 500 dandelions from our front yard.

The space was basically just a dandelion forest rather than grass lawn at this point. 

As we dug up the dandelions, we talked about a different world, where dandelions weren't viewed as the enemy. 

                              Elizabeth Blackwell, - A Curious Herbal, 1736, public domain

CJ did a little research. ...

Dandelions are plants characterized by their unique blossoms (the two most common forms being yellow florets, and the other form being a head of seeds). According to NatureNorth, the word "dandelion" is derived from "dent de lion," a phrase used in the French language used to refer to the plants. Whiledandelions are native to three different continents (Asia, Europe, and North America), two of the most common species worldwide, the "common dandelion" and the "red-seeded dandelion," are of European origin.

For most of their history, dandelions were not regarded as weeds, and were often used in medicine, according to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. In fact, grass was pulled in many a yard to make way for dandelions. However, at a certain point in the 20th century, public opinion of dandelions turned towards the negative. By the end of the century, pulling dandelions had become standard yard-keeping practice.

                                       Dandelion leaf photo by Greg Hume, via Wikimedia

A LITTLE HISTORY: Recently, we also took a couple minutes to watch an episode of "Nick on the Rocks," a video series hosted by Central Washington University professor Nick

The episode we watched was about ancient volcanoes in the Cascades.
In it, told us about geologists who have found places in the Cascades where Mount Rainier-like volcanoes once stood. Though the ancient volcanoes have disappeared, there are still many clues today about the long gone 'ghost volcanoes.'

All About Empathy

GOING TO CHURCH: Last night, we found our sweaty selves in church pews waiting for a professional football player. 

What? Why?

Former Seahawks' player Michael Bennett is on a book tour. Its title, "Things That Make White People Uncomfortable."

Bennett has a Super Bowl ring, is a three-time Pro Bowl defensive end, and is an in your face kind of activist. He is a tireless philanthropist, including donating all of his endorsement money and the proceeds from his jersey sales to fund health and education projects for poor and underserved youth and minority communities, and recently expanded his reach globally to support STEM programming in Africa.

Weir Harmon, executive director of Town Hall Seattle, handled the introductions for the evening, as well as reading audience questions later in the program.

The evening's interviewer was Jesse Hagopian, educator and author. Hagopian teaches Ethnic Studies and is the co-adviser to the Black Student Union at Garfield High School, and co-editor for the forthcoming book, Teaching for Black Lives, and is the editor of the book, More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing.

Bennett had some friends in the house, including former teammate Bobby Wagner.

Here's what Annabelle has to say about the event. ... 

Michael Bennett’s book, “Things That Make White People Uncomfortable,” is focused on talking about racial issues that most tend to gloss over or glorify. The most recent Seattle Town Hall “Inside Out” event was about this book and allowed Michael Bennett to expand on some of the chapters and reasoning behind them. He described how the “N word” affected his childhood - he thought it was just a pronoun until someone in his class said it with hate, obviously directed towards him. He did some research and realized that this was a hate term, and he believes that by using it we are disrespecting the slaves and colored people that were beaten and referred to as that for their entire lives.

Michael also talked about how he believes that women and children may have even more struggles, and he is a feminist because women should have the same opportunities as men and shouldn’t feel even more oppressed. He mentioned that while he was writing his book, he took a lot of advice from his wife and they largely worked together on it.

The event is archived on YouTube, and it’s definitely worth a watch. It’s a very powerful message and teaches quite a bit about the history of stereotypes. The book can also be purchased on Amazon and through other book retailers.

And here's CJ's take on the evening. ...

Last night, in the sweltering summer sun, my family walked from our car to a the Seattle First Baptist Church in Central District. We had come for a presentation given by former Seahawk and Super Bowl champion Michael Bennett, accompanied by Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher at Garfield High School, also in the Central District. Bennett's presentation was to promote his book "Things That Make White People Uncomfortable" (TTMWPU). This is a bit of a misleading title, for reasons explained later.

Prior to the actual presentation, the audience was told that we could write questions down on slips of paper and hand them to volunteers coming through the pews, and (hopefully) have Bennett answer them. I asked the question "If there is one thing you want the audience to take away from this, what is it?" Bennett was not asked my question by the volunteer who read the questions aloud to him.

Throughout the talk between Bennett and Hagopian, a common theme was "empathy." At one point, Bennett said that he will sometimes hear about injustices committed against native Americans, against women, or against transgender people, and, while he is none of those three things, he can feel empathy for people other than him who have been wronged. In addition, Hagopian brought up a chapter of Bennett's book in which he names every unarmed American killed by police officers over the year prior to the book's publication. Bennett acknowledged that while many of the people named are black or brown, a portion of those named were Asian or white. Bennett said that all of their deaths meant tragedy for friends and family members.

Personally, I believe the name of the book (as well as the presentation) is misleading. During the 45-or-so minutes of the talk, Bennett did not say anything that made me uncomfortable. I cannot picture a reasonable human being uncomfortable at the thought of having empathy for people who are different than you.

However, I was uncomfortable at the event. Not because of anything Bennett said though. ... 

but because of the face-melting heat in the old church with no AC. 

And now, a couple of words about the venue. The event was held at Seattle First Baptist Church, 111 Harvard Ave.

According to the church's website, the church has three building, including its historic Sanctuary, for which the cornerstone was placed in 1910, and the first service took place in 1912.  It has been renovated several times over the years, with the addition of a chapel, stained-glass windows

The church actually pre-dates its building, however. Per their website, Seattle First Baptist Church was founded in December, 1869, by 11 members who first met in the home of Abigail Hanford.  New members were baptized in Elliott Bay. Brr!

We've driven by this church so many times, and admired its sky-high spire.

As we were exiting last night, we noticed Bennett, Wagner and Hagopain were out on the balcony.

We waved at them and they waved back (see Bennett's blurred hand below). ;)

https://youtu.be/_6461SRmEqA



We happened to experience this event on Juneteenth. Here's a video explaining a little more about that. 

Stop and Listen

CAN WE TALK?: Tonight, we were fortunate to be able to attend a presentation by former Seahawks' player Michael Bennett.

Eloquent, thoughtful, and provocative, Bennett is on tour promoting his book "Things that Make White People Uncomfortable."

I have more photos, and we all have many thoughts about the evening. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?  Today, a Facebook friend posted a photo of a dude supposedly performing surgery on himself.

Rather than just 'liking' it, I suspected it might be fake, and I decided to Google it. Turns out the story was about Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov, and it was legit.

After seeing the photo (above), I Googled "man who performed surgery on himself in the Arctic" and found this headline: The man who cut out his own appendix
by Sara Lentati of BBC World Service. 

So, sure enough, during an expedition to the Antarctic, Rogozov became seriously ill and diagnosed himself in need of an appendectomy.  Rogozov was part of the sixth Soviet Antarctic expedition, a team of 12, far, far from civilization. 

One thing I learned today is that appendectomies are now compulsory for Antarctic explorers from some countries, and some medical professionals have suggested any future astronauts leaving the Earth to form a colony on Mars or the Moon have an appendectomy before exiting Earth.

Fortunately, Rogozov's story had a happy ending. He recovered completely from his surgery, and lived for decades afterward!

Almost Summer

ALMOST SUMMER: Ever since we've lived in Seattle, a 'summer's coming' activity has always been heading to the International Fountain at Seattle Center to cool off on the year's first 'super' hot day. 

It was about 85 F today, and so we thought it time to hit the water.

The photo above doesn't show it, but the place was super crowded! There were multiple graduations going on at adjacent Key Arena, so hundreds of graduates and their families were standing by the fountain and the Space Needle back drop for photo opportunities. I told the kids to photobomb as many of them as possible. ;)

AMELIA'S CLUB: Friday night, Annabelle slept over at The Museum of Flight. Lucky girl! I'd love to do that!

Following, she'll tell you a bit about that. 

At the Amelia’s Aero Club sleepover this year, there was a variety of cool things to see. As soon as we arrived (and after a brief “name game”) we went to the Challenger learning center, which had been turned into a mock-up of a Mars Transport Vehicle, or “MTV.” The group split into two, one for the MTV and the other at Mission Control on Deimos. Each person got their own role/station such as medical, navigation, or remote operated vehicles (ROV). For our first mission, I was the weather specialist on the MTV. My primary mission was to locate a dead satellite that had been orbiting the planet and radio the location to mission control. However, on my way to doing that, I found an asteroid in the sky grid! The asteroid was headed straight from our landing site, which gave us only a few minutes to land, refuel, and leave immediately.

This caused a problem for our next mission, where a team of geologists had been separated from the mars base by the crater and the nearby greenhouse was damaged, risking years of research if not saved. This time I was in mission control, and by communicating with the weather personnel on the MTV, we were able to track a nearby dust storm and determine it was not a problem for the geologists or the rover that was planned for launch. The geologist team went to the greenhouse and saved the plants, all returning to the mars base safely (except one member who had heat stroke but made a full recovery later). The rover launched on time and went into the crevices of Mars to look for signs of life and/or water.

After that, everyone regrouped and began making rockets from 2-liter soda bottles. These rockets were launched the next day with nothing but seltzer water and a bike pump. We all took turns either making rockets with our partners or going to check out the crew cabin of the space shuttle trainer. The cabin is very small, being only two rooms: one mostly empty save for a 1-foot “kitchen” (hot water/microwave) and Velcro on the walls to hold sleeping bags. The second room is predictably the control room, with a pilot and co-pilot seat surrounded by more than 7,000 buttons and switches. This part is usually closed to the public, so it was a treat to be able to enter it without needing a special reservation!

The final thing we did was trek to the World Wars gallery to watch the movie “Arrival”. The movie is about a mysterious yet peaceful race of aliens known as “heptopods” and how they help the protagonist overcome the loss of her daughter. With microwave popcorn in hand, the movie ran until past 1 AM. The World War gallery, while uncomfortable to sleep in, was the best we could do at the time and ended up being mostly okay. There were plans to get up early and explore at night, but we were all so tired that no-one woke up in time. Overall, the sleepover was fun and, even if you can’t attend a future sleepover, I recommend checking out both the Shuttle trainer cabin and the movie “Arrival.”

Saturday morning, I headed to the museum to watch the launch of the rockets the club had created. I got there a little early, so spent a few minutes alone with Michael P. Anderson. 

This lovely statue of the Washington state native is a tribute to a man gone too soon. Anderson was on board shuttle Columbia, which burned up upon re-entry back in 2003. I remember standing in Fred Meyer south of Portland, in their audio/video section, watching the horrific coverage of the event. I was very pregnant with CJ at the time.

I've seen the statue many times, but never really studied it before. It is lovely. The detail is phenomenal. 

 Right down to the mission patch, Anderson's name patch, and the strap on his flight suit.

The base of the statue says "Keep the Dream Alive." That's just what the girls were doing Saturday morning. 

The grass next to the fallen astronaut's statue was where the girls launched their rockets. Below is a photo of the one Annabelle and friends made.

Not bragging, but I have to admit, their rocket flew the highest. Annabelle said that's because each group got 40 pumps on the bicycle pump, and she made sure to use the full length of the pump each time, to get the most power. :). Go Bee!

SWEET SATURDAY: Friday and Saturday next week, we were a little busy, making 5 different kids of cake. It was for a cupcake buffet for a friend's graduation party. 

We made some Elvis cakes - banana cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream topped with a whopper of a chocolate covered peanut butter candy.

 We also made some summery strawberry lemon cupcakes.

 A little something for the adult palate, we made some chocolate cupcakes with a healthy splash of red wine in them. 

 And for our vegan and gluten free friends, there were chocolate coconut cupcakes, with yummy toasted coconut on top.

And we made a cupcake cake. :) Purple velvet with raspberry puree, the cupcake 'wrapper' was actually a solid candy melt shell, and entirely edible!

Not sure why it looks so blue in the photo, it was definitely lavender.

Trekking

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER: Thursday night, we headed to Safeco Field for some baseball ... and Star Trek Night!

I decided to bring along an old lunchbox from the '90s as my purse for the evening. It turned a few heads (ha ha). The security guards who had to search the Klingon head upon our entrance got a huge boot out of it. Bet it's the first time that's happened to them. 

Our seats gained us special Spock shirts (the Mariners' logo and name is on the front).

By the seventh inning stretch, Worf needed to freshen up.

We had a local celebrity sitting in our section, Art Oberto, of Oberto jerky fame. Celebrating his 94th birthday, he threw out the first pitch! During his introduction, we learned he took over the family business at age 16. He was too young to drive, so before he went to school in the morning, he rode his bike to deliver Oberto products around Seattle.

We even got free Oberto jerky on the way out of the game. Thanks, Mr. Oberto.

One more random shot from last night. ... Right next to the Dippin' Dots stand, this colorful catastrophe was on the concrete. It was so pretty, I had to stop for a photo. 

BIRDIE: A few days ago, Annabelle was standing at our front window, and noticed a bird out in the yard. I keep a copy of the book "Birds of Seattle and Puget Sound" by Chris C. Fisher right on the front window sill just for such occasions. 

Christian thought it looked like a woodpecker, based on its bobbing head motions, and so Annabelle looked in that section of the book. In short order, she identified it as a Northern Flicker.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, "Of the 11 species of woodpeckers (including sapsuckers) that live in Washington, the Northern flicker (Colaptes auratus, Fig. 1) is probably the most commonly seen and heard."

On their website, the WDFW goes on to explain, "Flickers can also be identified by their loud call that sounds like wake-up, wake-up, wake-up; also a piercing, sharply descending peeahr (editor's note - that's not a typo). Any annoyance these woodpeckers may cause for homeowners is greatly outweighed by the large number of insect pests they eat, and the number of homes they create for other wildlife."

WDFW notes that the Northern flicker "are often seen hopping on lawns where they catch ants and other insects with their sticky tongues." No doubt that's exactly what the bird Annabelle spied was doing. We've got ants aplenty right now!

Midweek

BERRY GOOD: This morning, before breakfast, I sent the kids outside to glean some berries for their oatmeal. (Our 'new' yard is almost completely devoid of food producing plants, but we were gifted some potted strawberry and blueberry plants by a friend who was moving a couple of months ago.) 

This morning's harvest, blueberries and strawberries, wasn't particularly bountiful or beautiful. Undersized and not particularly visually impressive, the fruit really wasn't much to look at. The berries were, however, totally organic, and just minutes-old prior to consumption. I can say without hesitation, the strawberries were the sweetest I've had in my 50-plus years. So yay for that! And there's just something sweet about harvesting and eating your own fruit in a meal. 

LOST OPPORTUNITY: Big news from NASA for the past couple of days involves reports that the space agency has lost contact with beloved, stalwart, intrepid, over-achieving Martian rover Opportunity.

Launched on July 7, 2003, to date Opportunity has already exceeded its operating plan by 14 years and 48 days (in Earth time). Impressive, to be sure!

Source: NASA

However, no one at NASA has heard from Opportunity for days now.

Why has Oppy failed to phone home? An enormous Martian dust storm has blotted out the sun. First detected on May 30, the gargantuan storm now blankets 14-million square miles (35-million square kilometers), or about one-quarter of the Red Planet's surface.

Source: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. "This series of images shows simulated views of a darkening Martian sky blotting out the Sun from NASA's Opportunity rover's point of view, with the right side simulating Opportunity's current view in the global dust storm (June 2018). The left starts with a blindingly bright mid-afternoon sky, with the sun appearing bigger because of brightness. The right shows the Sun so obscured by dust it looks like a pinprick."

Per a NASA press release, "The team is now operating under the assumption that the charge in Opportunity’s batteries has dipped below 24 volts and the rover has entered low power fault mode, a condition where all subsystems, except a mission clock, are turned off. The rover’s mission clock is programmed to wake the computer so it can check power levels. If the rover’s computer determines that its batteries don't have enough charge, it will again put itself back to sleep. Due to an extreme amount of dust over Perseverance Valley, mission engineers believe it is unlikely the rover has enough sunlight to charge back up for at least the next several days."

In a press conference today, Richard Zurek, chief scientist for JPL’s Mars Program Office, said scientists had to go back to 1971 to name a worse storm on the Red Planet.The mammoth dust storm has darkened the skies over Opportunity to nearly pitch-black. 

It's worrisome because Opportunity's twin, Spirit, experienced a similar power drain in 2010, and was never heard from again. However, the 'good' news is the Opportunity team saw  the dust storm was turning into a monster, and so they programmed Opportunity to deal with what was, in effect, an emergency situation, putting the rover into an an extended deep sleep. All of its systems are shut down, except for a master clock timed to interrupt the snooze periodically and check the power levels. Once the Martian skies have lightened enough to keep the batteries charged, the rover will recontact Earth, and, hopefully, get back to work.

And so, we wait and watch and hope Opportunity rides out the storm.

For more information about Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov.

GAME WATCH: Over the past two days, the kids have spent some time watching coverage of E3 Expo. The (Internet) broadcasts have been engaging and interesting (this coming from someone who has never played any of the games that are being demonstrated).

I'll have Annabelle tell you more about it.

June 6^th was part of the week-long annual gaming expo E3, a large event where multiple gaming companies share an exhibition hall and present new and upcoming projects. My family decided to watch coverage of Nintendo’s events that day, which included multiple short game showcases and 2 tournaments. One tournament for “Splatoon 2” in celebration of an expansion releasing the next day, and the other for the upcoming 5^th installment in the Super Smash Bros series “Super Smash Bros Ultimate.”

The “Splatoon 2” tournament used the game’s multiple competitive game modes, where you play on a team of 4 people and try to reach a defined goal. The objectives for each match included things like  securing a section of the stage and holding it until time runs out, riding a vehicle to the opponent’s safe point, and throwing items into a net to score points. The team that eventually won was a team from Japan dubbed the “GG Boyz.”

The Super Smash brothers tournament had no teams, but each player had to choose 3 different fighters and use each of them at least once. The contestants assumed they would be competing at the latest game (Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS) until it was announced that they would be using a brand new demo of the unreleased game! The competitors seemed to grasp the new system very well, and the winner even used one of the new unreleased characters! It was a great way to showcase the new features of the game and give a sneak peek at the new additions to the roster!