Cramming

ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL: We've had four days (!!!!) of blue skies in a row. That is cause for celebration, to be sure. All this sun puts us on serious daffodil watch. We don't have any blooming yet, but many look oh-so-close.

Meanwhile, out out in the garden, these mystery flowers have been blooming all winter, no kidding. We don't know what they are or where they came from. None of us recall them being here our two winters prior that we've lived at this place. Anyone out there know what they are? 

It occurs to me we had some earth moving done last spring in the area where these showed up, so maybe that unearthed these? 

ABSORBED: Seems I have a dearth of things to post about the past couple of days. I blame Japan.

More specifically, Japanese. More accurately, CJ's Japanese class. He's been studying for a big test, and we've been trying to help. (Believe you me, Annabelle is a *lot* more help than I am. She is learning it right along with him. My help comes in the form of implementing various study strategies.)

One of the things we've done to help us remember the new-to-us words is watch some YouTube videos with 'catchy' songs featuring Japanese vocabulary.

Here are a couple of the little ditties that have been rolling round in our heads the past couple of days.

The first one is a Japanese version of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes."

Much to Annabelle's chagrin, CJ actually sang during most of our walk yesterday.

And this song helps listeners learn how to count people in Japanese.


JOB FRONT: I mentioned a bit ago that CJ and I applied for (different) jobs. Yesterday, we each had some movement on that front. I had an interview at King County Elections as a temporary helper during election periods. 

It was an interesting interview. There was a timed data entry test, and a proofreading test. After that, an agility test. Yes, really. We had to move boxes of varying sizes in varying ways. Lastly, a group interview, seven applicants and two interviewers. 

Have I mentioned I haven't interviewed for a job since, oh, around 2005, I think?  And have I also mentioned I literally wrote the book (well, training manual) that was used statewide (15 years ago) to teach people how to prepare for a job interview? Needless to say, I had to dust off some cobwebs and remember advice I used to provide. It was funny, the three questions they asked were straight from the book - ones you could almost always expect to be asked, and so you should be ready for them. 

Anyway, I guess it went OK, because I got a call offering me a job this morning. It's funny, the training (5 days) lasts as long as the temp job, I think. Oh well. I am definitely looking forward to learning more about the election process, which is the primary reason I applied to begin with.

Also yesterday, CJ received an email that he'd passed the first screen for the library page position he applied for, so his resume and app are being forwarded to the hiring manager, who will decide whom to interview. That made him feel pretty good to learn he survived at least the first cut. It's the first job he's ever applied for.

Projecting

BIG ADVENTURE: Saturday night we went to a movie. Not just any movie. Not even a new movie. It was a screening of "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." I first saw the film in 1985. I was pregnant with Rick. I remember laughing so hard, I was afraid I was going to deliver him in the theater that afternoon.

Fast forward 35 years, and this time I'm sitting in The Moore Theatre with Christian, CJ and Annabelle, watching the movie. Would you believe it was a sold out show? Eighteen hundred Pee-Wee Herman fans packed the place. We were in the very last row of the grand old theater.  

The screen wasn't that huge, and the sound wasn't that great, but the movie was wonderful, as always. Hardcore fans (ourselves included) often quoted along with the show, and we laughed as hard as we'd ever laughed at all of the sight and word gags. 

After the movie, Pee-Wee himself, Paul Reubens, came out onto the stage, sat in a chair and shared stories about the movie with the audience. 

It was fun hearing behind-the-scenes stories, including how a then 27-year-old guy named Tim Burton wound up being the director. 

Lots of the audience dressed up for the show, as various characters from the movie or Pee-Wee's Playhouse, a series on CBS back in the day. While our family didn't dress for the movie, Christian and I did dress up as "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" costumes for Rick's wedding reception. (Christian was the escaped convict from the movie, and I was Pee-Wee dressed as his wife.) 

Funny how that came full circle - me being pregnant with Rick when I first saw the movie, and then wearing a costume inspired by it for his reception. Wow!

FUN WITH FABRIC:  At Christmastime, during a get together with one branch of the family tree, one of the members was wearing a standard button down shirt with a very-not-standard pocket on it. The pocket was a print of cute puppies. The wearer told us that he got it at a fair in Austin, Texas. There was a booth where people would sew a pocket on your boring ol' shirt and make it something special. 

That immediately went on our 'to do' list, and a couple weeks back Annabelle and I spied these fun fat quarters at Wal-Mart. We thought they'd make perfect pockets, and so we bought them. We then set about finding shirts that would work at thrift stores. 

Once we finally found a couple, it was pocket-making time. We watched a couple of videos, and then got busy. 

In no time at all, we had a couple of custom dress shirts. 

What an inexpensive, easy way to upscale a thrift store shirt!

RE-TREAT: On Sunday, midday, there was a knock at our door. My mind immediately went to, "Oh, no, door-to-door evangelicals!" 

Fortunately, it was not that. Instead, it was our across-the-street neighbor, bringing us a big plate of rice and chicken smothered in homemade mole sauce. A Hispanic family, they were having a big party on Sunday, and their get togethers always include a vat of that amazing sauce. They know we love it, and they were so kind to share some.

We four devoured it in no time. Christian had their plate in hand and was heading for the door, ready to return it. I stopped him and said, "We can't send back an empty plate!"

So, while CJ studied Japanese, Annabelle and I set about making cookies. 

Recently a recipe for THE BEST SNICKERDOODLES EVER wound up in my inbox some how, and I wanted to give it a go. I haven't made snickerdoodles since the '70s, I'm pretty sure.

During the process, Annabelle wondered aloud where snickerdoodles got their name. Naturally, that turned into a research assignment for her. Here's what she learned. ...

Snickerdoodle cookies have many different theories and stories surrounding their peculiar name. Some believe they are German in origin, with “snickerdoodle” seeming to be a corruption of the German word Schneckennudeln, meaning “snail dumpling.” However, it is also quite possible that the word is a nonsense name with no specific meaning that stems from a tradition of giving cookies whimsical names to match their sweet nature. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word’s origin as “uncertain,” so we may never really know where the name snickerdoodle came from.

I don't know that they're THE BEST EVER, but our 'snail dumplings' turned out just fine. And it was much nicer to return the plate full. 

Applying Ourselves

FEB. 14: Today's Valentine's Day. I always look forward to seeing NASA's spin on the topic. 

This website lets you electronically send a space-y Valentine greeting to someone you admire: https://mars.nasa.gov/free-holiday-ecard/love-valentine/

I've included a few of my favorites below ...

HELP WANTED: A few days back, we were driving past a McDonald's close to our house and CJ wondered aloud, "Do you think they're hiring?"

"Yes. Always," I responded. That was quickly followed up by asking, "Are you thinking about getting a job?"

CJ answered in the affirmative. At that, I told him most any job is a good job, and that McDonald's can be a good first job ... but I also suggested he consider other options, and opportunities that he might be more enthused about, like working at a pet store, for instance. (A quick Google search for PetCo and employment shows they're hiring now, with immediate start dates.)

Shortly after CJ mentioned getting a job, I noticed a post on the Facebook page of the Burien location of King County Library System. The job is for a part-time, entry-level library page position. I showed the notice to CJ and encouraged him to apply. And so he did.

Naturally, it was no easy task. The application process involved updating his resume, writing a cover letter, answering supplementary questions, taking a typing test, filling out pages and pages of online forms with work history, references, certifications and more. Several hours later, he was finally able to hit "submit." 

I was able to help him through the process. Once upon a time I was, after all, a professional employment specialist who helped people write resumes and cover letters and fill out applications all the live long day.

Now that he has his resume up-to-date and a cover letter template he can use, CJ could apply for any number of jobs. But I think he's going to wait until he's done with spring quarter. The reason he applied for the library page job is because it's a plum position and rare opportunity to get in on the ground floor regarding working in a library.

He asked me if he'd hear if he's not selected. I told him not hearing anything is usually how one finds that out. ;) He also asked a few questions about job interviews. So, those skills are something we'll be practicing in the car as we drive to and fro in the coming weeks.

Speaking of applications, I actually filed one for my own self. I recently saw a post about King County Elections needing (very) temporary help with the upcoming election. Given the fact that I would like to learn more about how that process works and that King County Election headquarters is at the foot of our hill, I went ahead and applied. If hired, it could be as little as a day's worth of work, believe it or not.

I can't help but think, "What a lot of work for the county go to through for such temporary help. I wonder how much that costs taxpayers. ... " Of course the flipside of that is that elections are extremely important and need to be handled and funded properly.

Loose Ends

FINISHED: The birthday girl loves space. And Godzilla. If that doesn't scream, "Bake me a cake!" what does? :)

An astronaut Godzilla cake was Annabelle and CJ's latest Birthday Dreams donation. The work-in-progress lived on our dining room table for about five days.

Annabelle made modeling chocolate, sculpted a Godzilla skeleton, and covered that in a homemade marshmallow fondant spacesuit. We also made dozens of gelatin bubbles for potential helmets, but weren't 100 percent thrilled with any of them, so in the end opted for a plastic orb. Other than that, Godzilla's all edible, as is the UFO he's hitching a ride on.

What's under all the fun? CJ whipped up the four-layer chocolate brownie cake with mini chocolate chip filling. Annabelle airbrushed vanilla buttercream over it all to give it a galactic look, and arranged stars in a "12," the birthday girl's age (her name was on the gumpaste sign, in a Godzilla font).

This was a fun one, and we learned a lot. We hope the birthday girl liked it!

FRAMED: Right after dropping off the cake at Birthday Dreams headquarters yesterday, Annabelle and I stopped at a Dollar Tree store nearby. We were looking for some camouflage or other Army-like costume or material that CJ needs for his upcoming Museum of Flight display.

We perused the oddly hybrid craft/toy aisle, and at one point my eyes landed on this. ...

I was gobsmacked. "That's a photo of you!" I said to Annabelle, pointing at the frame. Oddly enough, the picture is more than 10 years old. CJ is missing a front tooth, and Annabelle still has all of her baby teeth. I remember taking the photo. I shot it through a sliding glass patio door during an anniversary party for my aunt Sally and uncle Mickey in Vancouver, WA. I was surprised the photo turned out at all, given the kids were standing in a light rain and it was shot through the double glass.

Seeing that photo there and then was kind of a surreal experience. So unexpected. Never in a million years did I expect to walk into a dollar store and find a photo of my kids hanging on the rack. I suspect the photo is from Morguefile, a site where I used to park photos for people to use (with conditions). I haven't contributed there in years, and I'm guessing they changed their user policies. 

I told the kids that they can add "stock photo picture frame person" to their resume. 

QUARTERED: Monday night, after we dropped CJ off at his Japanese class, I happened to glance up at the school's reader board as we left the parking lot. "REGISTER NOW FOR SPRING QUARTER" it read.

"What?!" I likely screeched.

I had no idea that registration was underway.

I do recall CJ calling down the hallway to me about a week ago about a Running Start (high school for college credit) pizza party. CJ's been in Running Start since fall and went to a pizza party months ago. During that, he received registration information, but I guess what stuck with him was the pizza was less than stellar, so he didn't want to go to this round's pizza party. What didn't stick with him was that it was also about registration. 

Keep in mind, since he's a college student, all of the communication from the college goes straight and only to him, so we're out of the loop.

Anyway, once we found out it was registration time, I wrote to our local school district, whom we have to have sign for his tuition $$ to be released to the college. Mercifully, I was able to get an appointment the next morning to get that paperwork, then we were off to South Seattle for CJ to sign up for spring quarter classes. We met with a counselor, filled our forms out, and got them approved and headed down to the registrar and cashier.

In the end, we went from not knowing he was supposed to register to getting him registered in about 18 hours. Not bad - but also not a situation I expect to happen again, as I told CJ.

Gelatinous

GO GO GODZILLA: Regular readers know that we closed out last week's blog by talking about making balloons out of gelatin. 

Guess what? We're still at it. 

What we were ultimately trying to accomplish, here, was making a clear globular helmet for an astronaut Godzilla. Our first batch was an abysmal failure - the orbs were too cloudy. So we made a second batch ... which we also weren't thrilled with. They were still too cloudy in our opinions.

So, it was on to version 3.0. We bloomed more platinum gelatin sheets ...

 We squeezed out the excess water and then slowly liquefied them over low heat. 

We carefully dipped balloons - just two coats this time, hoping thinner would be clearer. We also were super stingy with the oil applied to the balloon, wondering if perhaps that was part of the clouding issue. 

After the dipping and dripping, the wait was on again. ... 

Once they dried, we popped the balloons. They were definitely clearer than versions 1 and 2, but they were not crystal clear. 

There was one that was mostly OK, and we were going to go with that if need be, but I couldn't help but think about other ways to dome Godzilla's head.

I was returning some cake making supplies to a storage room when I spied an over-sized clear ornament that Annabelle received a present in this past Christmas. We'd saved it thinking it might be handy in a future craft project. I held it and thought, "Wow, if this were smaller, it would have made a perfect helmet!"

And then, I remembered that, in another storage closet, we had a container of smaller, clear plastic ornaments. Ding! Ding! Ding! 

Annabelle cut the stem and part of the top off with an Exacto knife. The hole was still too small, so Christian took it down to the garage and used his welding torch to warm up a knife, which he then used to shave the opening into a larger hole. 

Annabelle and I talked about which helmet to use. We decided that if it were for a cake competition, where everything had to be edible, our best clear gelatin one would have sufficed. However, this cake is about pleasing the birthday girl, and we thought she'd definitely be most pleased by being able to see Godzilla's head clearly. So plastic it is. 

Does it feel like we wasted a bunch of time and effort making gelatin balloons? Not really. They keep well (or so they say online), so we can store them for potential future use. Also, one of the things we like about these projects is that we learn new things every single time. And that's worthwhile!

A few more random Godzilla-in-the-making action shots.

BLISSFUL: Friday night, the kids attended opening night of the musical "Bliss" at The 5th Avenue Theatre. It was part of the Fridays at the 5th series for teens, which CJ and Annabelle both enjoy immensely. 

I'll have Annabelle tell you a bit about the show. ...

"Bliss" is a new musical production at the 5th Avenue Theatre in downtown Seattle. It’s a high-fantasy fairy tale styled musical that features 4 princesses, each with a different set of interests (astronomy, the outdoors, singing, and dragon slaying). They have been locked in a tower ever since their mom died years ago, and desperately want to escape so they can follow their dreams. The main themes in the play center around individuality and being yourself, and how sometimes perfect fairy tale princesses aren’t the ideal.

Without spoiling the plot, I’d say that while the show could use a bit of streamlining, it was easy for me to understand, and I found most of it quite entertaining and funny. The jokes in the show are well-timed and there aren’t so many that it over saturates the serious moments.

The show is running until February 23rd, so space is limited if you want to go and see it before time is up. If you are a fan of musicals, fantasy, and plenty of humorous inclusions, it might be worth going to see. However, it is still in development, and this shows at some times; certain scenes last just a bit too long or jokes fall flat. If you don’t mind a performance that’s still being worked on, I’d recommend it!

Interestingly, the kids weren't supposed to be at opening night, The play was supposed to premiere days before, however technical difficulties kept pushing the opening night back. 

Here's a video from The 5th about the show.


PUN FUN: We hit a couple of thrift stores on Saturday. While thrifting, we're always looking for new-to-us games. One of the ones we picked up this weekend was "Punderdome."

It's apparently based on a game a father and daughter used to host in a bar. For the home version, you draw two cards, and try to come up with a sentence or phrased based on the two that includes a pun. You have 90 seconds to do so. 

So, for instance, in one round the two cards read "Being a Hero" and "Celebrities." For that, I came up with "Bieber was Justin time to save the drowning Kardashian." (I thought it funny that CJ and I both used Kardashian in our answer.) 

I think I enjoyed the game more than the other three I played with. For me, it felt like I either came up with something immediately or not at all. I think we'll probably play this game again a time or two and then regift it.

FOOD JUSTICE FOR ALL: I recently saw a Seattle Parks & Recreation post on social media about a class for teens called "Ready Set Cook." It's a cooking class, but it's also about food justice (issues like access to affordable, nutritious food, for example).

I thought it would be cool for CJ and Annabelle to be involved, so I signed them up. They'll be attending on four Saturday nights in March. Today, I spied an article in The Seattle Times about the class. Check out this link if you'd like to learn more about it. ...
https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/seattle-teenagers-get-a-crash-course-in-new-chopping-skills-food-justice-issues-at-community-cooking-classes/

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

GOOD NEWS: We received a letter from South Seattle College in the mail yesterday. It was addressed to Christian, but since CJ attends the school, I figured it was actually for him. 

I handed it to him and he oh-so-carefully opened it. (Seriously, it took like five minutes.) I was thinking it was probably a bill of some sort. 

Fortunately, I was wrong. Instead, it was his first-ever, "You've made the dean's list" letter.

Good going, CJ!

BAD NEWS: The first news story I read this morning was terribly disappointing.  The headline on the CNN Business article read, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, built to carry astronauts, faces new safety concerns."

Ruh-roh.

Sure, we knew about the 'anomaly' on the demonstration flight of the Boeing Starliner in December, when misfired due to the capsule's internal clock being 11 hours off, causing its thrusters to misfire and send it off course. (I'm still scratching my head at that one, to be honest.)

NASA has just announced they're launching a full-scale safety review on Starliner, due to "numerous instances where the Boeing software quality processes either should have or could have uncovered the defects."

Space News reported that a separate software problem was disclosed at a public meeting on Thursday. This deficiency could have caused a "catastrophic failure," they reported. While Boeing  identified and corrected the error before it impacted Starliner's behavior, it's still super concerning that it happened int he first place. 

There's was supposed to be a joint Boeing/NASA press conference today. We'll see what that news brings. We tried to tune in at 12:30 our time to listen, but it wasn't on any of NASA's channels. Not sure what's up with that. ...

At this point, it's looking almost certain that SpaceX is beating Boeing in the quest to return manned spaceflight to America's space program.

WORK IN PROGRESS: We've got another Birthday Dreams cake project in the works here. The recipient is a 12 year old girl who wants a galaxy cake ... and she loves Godzilla. "We have to do that," Annabelle declared upon reading the 'help wanted' post.

So we're in the midst of building an astronaut Godzilla. Yesterday, Annabelle made modeling chocolate and started sculpting his skeleton (which will be covered in fondant).

Another one of the elements we're going to need is a space suit helmet. 

We have a little experience with gelatin balloons from a previous Birthday Dreams project. This time, though, we need the balloons to be clear, and that's a little trickier. We did a fair amount of research and found that our best bet is likely using "platinum" gelatin sheets, to produce the most clear globe possible. 

A post on the gelatin-producer's website takes people through the process step-by-step.

One of the things we learned on their site is that transparent sheet gelatin is graded from lowest to highest gelling power and purity: titanium, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. "The gelling power is also known as the gelatin’s 'bloom strength,' named after Oscar Bloom, who patented the first test for measuring the thickening properties of gelatin. The higher the bloom strength, the greater the gelling capacity of a given amount of gelatin in the same amount of liquid," the Kitchen Alchemy site interestingly informs. 

We went for platinum-grade sheets because it has the highest bloom strength and greatest gelling power. 

Another interesting gelatin factoid: The gelatin has to be hydrated in cold water before being dissolved in hot liquid. "This process of hydration is referred to as “blooming” the gelatin. However, blooming has no relation to Oscar Bloom or bloom strength. Yes, we agree, it’s a little confusing," notes Kitchen Alchemy. "But now you know."

They also have a video about topping cupcakes with gelatin snowglobes. If you're so inclined, you can watch it below.


So, having now actually followed the website's written and video instructions, all I can said is, "Are you kidding me?" It didn't work at all. It was a frickin' hot mess - literally. 

To our eyes, it looked like the sugar never really dissolved all of the way in the gelatin. It was a cloudy mess (and got worse when we poked at it, not better). Thank god I said to Annabelle we were only going to make half a batch (because I wanted back up supplies in case it didn't work). 

After the total fail, we both hopped back online looking for alternative instructions. Fortunately, we found some on another website, Sugar Hero! She used gelatin sheets, but bloomed them for longer, and then put them and a little bit of water right into a saucepan (instead of using a double boiler). This melted nicely was was crystal clear. 

We dipped lightly-greased balloons into the gelatin - three coats for each one. And now, we wait. Sunday morning we'll find out if it worked, or it is a delayed disaster.

Sauerkraut and Stories

FERMENTING: On Tuesday evening, Annabelle and I attended a class about fermenting. I think I found out about it via a Facebook post from the City of Renton. We were actually lucky to get a seat in the class - there was only space for 25, and one of the organizers said the waiting list was another 25 long. I guess people are interested in fermenting.

The class announcement read, "Come learn to preserve food with only a little salt and water! This workshop will provide you with a basic working knowledge of how to brine ferment your own vegetables.

The kefir fermentation of dairy products will also be discussed and demonstrated. All participants will have the opportunity to prepare their own jar of brined veggies to take home and enjoy. Kefir grains will be available for those interested in fermenting their own dairy at home."

The class was held at Renton Technical College, about a 15 minute drive from our house during rush hour, which it was. It was dark, and the campus was pretty big, but we managed to find the building the class was in. Once in the building, though, we weren't sure where to go. Participants had been asked to bring their own knives, so I said to Annabelle, "Look for people with knives, and follow them!" That is not normally advice I'd give her.

All of the necessary ingredients were provided for us, which was nice. What was not quite as wonderful, is that we were all invited to come up to the front of the demonstration kitchen and grab what we wanted. I'm a little bit of a clean freak when it comes to prepping food, and I wasn't wild about everyone and their god-knows-where-those-have-been hands pawing all over everything.

A volunteer from Sustainable Renton led the class. It started off with an explanation of what kefir (pronounced key-fur) is (fermented milk) and samples were offered.

Now, I'm not much of a milk drinker to begin with, but I was willing to give it a go.

Annabelle, however, was not. Not after the look I got on my face after trying it, and what I said to go along with it. "Tastes like someone poured vinegar into milk," I described, grimacing.

So, we're not going to be kefir producers any time soon.

Sample number two was MUCH better. Some fermented green beans. They were snappy, spicy, and super garlic-y. Delicious! 

The host, who is apparently a chemist by trade, told us all sorts of things about fermenting. For instance, he claimed "Fermented food is medicine." He said he's a gleaner, and basically lives off of food other people throw away. 

He's also a bit of a mold advocate. "Mold isn't all bad," he insisted. He said the only kind that will kill you if you eat it is some bright pink strain from South America. I'm not sure I'd take that assertion  to the bank. 

Eventually, we were invited down to the demonstration kitchen to grab things to put into our jars. (All of the food and even the jars were provided, which was nice.)  Annabelle went for mostly cabbage, hoping to make a sauerkraut. In the photo below, she's adding brine to her jar.

I grabbed whatever I could. Each of our jars were topped with a lettuce leaf that acts like a cap, of sorts. Now, we wait for the fermentation process to work its magic.

If it turns out OK, we'll be making lots more fermented veggies! (We owe a big THANK YOU to Aunt Ruthie for giving us a bunch of big jars that will be perfect for it!)

WET WEATHER CONTINUES: Have I mentioned how dreary it has been around Seattle this winter? Yes, I thought so. I've mentioned it multiple times. But it's really just so oppressive. Another week of rain here, complete with flooding and landslides around. On Tuesday, we even had about three hours worth of snowfall. 

The t-rex didn't seem to mind, and it didn't bother Bexley, either (we're cat sitting).

Kirby and Laika weren't big fans, though.

MORE STORIES: Storytelling continues to be a theme in CJ's English class. As part of his homework this week, he was to listen to a short story by cousins James Ransom and Cherie Johnson, who were recalling their fearsome Sunday school teacher, Miss Lizzie Devine. We really enjoyed it.

You can hear it here: https://youtu.be/KQF79ch6mA8

The story is part of StoryCorps, which has been working since 2003 to help preserve the stories of more than half a million people of all backgrounds and beliefs.