Short Stuff

SCARY HAIRY: I don't post photos of our dogs very often. But Kirby's bad fur day yesterday was epic, and I just have to share. 

CERTIFIED: Yesterday's mail brought a nice surprise for CJ and Annabelle. They each got McDonalds gift cards from the Allied Arts of Renton Creative Kids Contest for their COVID-inspired art.  (The art is on this previous blog post: https://magnoliaprep.blogspot.com/2020/10/signs-of-times.html

BOO! NASA's picture of the day is perfect for this spooky season. Check out The Ghoul of IC 2118 

Here's what NASA has to say about the eerie image: "Inspired by the Halloween season, this telescopic portrait captures a cosmic cloud with a scary visage. The interstellar scene lies within the dusty expanse of reflection nebula IC 2118 in the constellation Orion. IC 2118 is about 800 light-years from your neighborhood, close to bright bluish star Rigel at the foot of Orion. Often identified as the Witch Head nebula for its appearance in a wider field of view it now rises before the witching hour though. With spiky stars for eyes, the ghoulish apparition identified here seems to extend an arm toward Orion's hot supergiant star. The source of illumination for IC 2118, Rigel is just beyond this frame at the upper left."

Weekend Scenes

DROPPED OFF: Today, we voted early, depositing our ballots in one of King County's 70 or so handy drop boxes well ahead of election day on Nov. 3. Since I let CJ help me fill in my ballot, I figured Annabelle should have the deposit duties. 

Last time she dropped a presidential election ballot in the box for me, polls predicted we'd have our first female president. They were wrong.

This time polls predict we'll have our first female vice president. Time will tell if that pans out. Next presidential election, Annabelle will be able to mark her own ballot.

FEEDING TEENS: I was so happy to find out that I didn't have to work on Saturday, because we had Teen Feed that day, and that's a whole lot of work.

Back in the day, our volunteer group would meet at the shelter and prepare the meal together, enjoying each other's company and serving the guests cafeteria style. It was great hearing their feedback and being able to make each meal to order. 

Well, the pandemic crushed all of that. Now, we still have to provide the meals, but they're to go. And that's actually more work than serving them on site, because we need boxes and baggies and ramekins, etc. 

After every service, I write up a recap. I think it's good to help us keep track of what worked and what didn't, and it's a great way to thank the volunteers. I'm pasting the text of that email below changing names to protect the awesome volunteers. :) 

Another Teen Feed in the books, and it was an excellent example of how we're still getting it done in these interesting times. 

Since we can't all cook and serve on site together any more, it's all about rounding up or delivering donations in a way that works for everyone. For instance, last Sunday, Tina and I met in West Seattle so she could give me her goods. Jana and Donna PayPal-ed dollars for their donations, and my family shopped and prepped for them along with our donations. Katie was kind enough to set up a donation station at her place on Queen Anne, where Aida dropped her hot dogs and water, which we picked up along with Katies's chili on the way north to the shelter on Saturday. Meanwhile, Linda's goods went to Anna, whose son Saul came with Nancy Anderson and family to do the dinner service. The Andersons also brought the BIG dog donation from new team Teen Feed member Kasey Louden, and Inga's beautiful shortbread sugar cookies were handed off in the alley from her husband to mine. 

All of this careful choreography resulted in another amazing dinner for our guests!  

During service, a very busy Nancy managed to send a text reporting, "All of the teens are loving the food! Chili dogs are a very nice welcome to the cold weather in their bellies." 

We had a MOUNTAIN of big buns, thanks to Jana, Darci, and Katie. There was an abundance of chili (thanks Katie and Jana) to top the big dogs, as well as ton o' shredded cheddar (thanks, Jana!). Diners could dress up their dogs with Fritos (they loved those, Tina!) and ramekins of onions and jalapenos on the side (CJ and Annabelle filled dozens of them).  Diners also got some big dill pickle spears (kudos to Darci), and sweet desserts (thanks to Annabelle, Jana and Inga). 

Alice, Donna, Linda and Tina put the sparkle in the service with their water donations. 

One great thing about our group: Not only do people provide what they sign up for, they often throw in a little extra. When a number add a bit more, it becomes a significant increase. So not only did we meet our 80 meal goal, we crushed it. "One hundred and twenty five meals! Five vegan," Nancy summed up. "We got a thumbs up from the teens as we walked out!" she reports. 

Pics of our stellar service crew, some yummy meals ready to go, a BUNCH of buns, and some steaming vegan chili

We try to cater to all of our diners' palates, and that includes a few vegans. I have to say, the pot of vegan chili I made was pretty darn good. :)               

Below is a before-dog box and chili shot. The toasted bun has chopped onions, jalapenos, mustard, ketchup and Fritos on the side. 

CJ helped get the chili going. Chili for 80 chili dogs is a LOT of chili let me tell you.

We had a mountain of oversized buns before service.

And below is a cart loaded with many to go meals. 

 

Growing

 

DONE DEAL: Tonight, we finally got around to voting our ballots. Working for King County Elections, I know that it's really helpful if people turn in their ballots sooner rather than later. Ours will go into a drop box tomorrow. 

The good news is, a whole lot of people are into the early vote action this year. The graphic below was posted by Washington state Governor Jay Inslee yesterday. ...

Speaking of King County Elections, if you want to be in the room where it happens (to borrow a "Hamilton" quote), check out this site:

There, you can watch ballots being opened, registrations being taken, and more. Check it out! https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/elections/about-us/security-and-accountability/watch-us-in-action.aspx

THERE IS ANOTHER: If you're a regular reader, perhaps you remember our not-too-long ago RIP pumpkin post. Our one and only separated from the vine when it was smaller than a walnut.

Yesterday evening, Christian was taking the dogs out and checked our pumpkin vine and lo and behold, there is a new squash growing!

It's already the size of a golf ball (so huge! haha). We're very excited. This could be the Great Pumpkin. :)

Touchdown!

KINGDOM COME: It's still very much the pandemic, so we can't go to games, but we can still play them. One we've played a couple of times recently is Carcassonne. It's about building highways and cities and an monastery every once in awhile.

It's fairly fast, and pretty fun, if you win, like I did tonight, hahaha. Actually, I didn't just win, I pretty much crushed the competition. That doesn't happen very often at all, so I feel pretty OK about reveling in it. :)

CRUNCH TIME: Busy busy busy times here. CJ's keeping busy with college and Annabelle is right by his side each and every day. They do their math and biology lessons side by side, and it's good for both of them.

Meanwhile, I am registering voters ... So Many Voters ... each and every day. Public service announcement/plea here: If you're ever filling out an important form, like, say a voter registration record, please, OH PLEASE, take your time to fill it out in a way some who isn't you can actually read it.

I beg of you. I spent a half hour today on one reg form, trying to figure out the name entering every which way it might have been. In the end it was all for naught, and that's so sad. I WANT to register voters!

Also, it's good if you spell your own name right (yes, that's a thing). Oh, and you were not born in 2020 (yes, that's another thing). Sigh. It's also really helpful if you know your address. Just sayin'.

NAILED IT: Big news from NASA this week. They managed to send a spacecraft to an asteroid, do a quick descent, and pluck a sample. Pretty amazing!

According to NASA, the probe touched asteroid Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, hitting its mark within 3 feet of the targeted location. Not bad at all!

In the video below, you'll see the SamCam imager’s field of view as the spacecraft approached and touched down on Bennu’s surface.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LJBv4reH9IU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I've tried over and over, but not sure the embed is working. Here's a link to the video: https://youtu.be/LJBv4reH9IU

One fun thing: We here MPA peeps had our name on the probe that touched down on the asteroid. So, we've been to an asteroid. We'll have to add that to our resumes. :)

Weekend Scenes

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW: A couple of weeks ago, Annabelle said, "It may be the pandemic talking, but I think I want to cut my hair."

I told her it's her hair and she can do whatever she wants with it. 

She said she'd like to donate her hair to a nonprofit organization. A quick Google led us to Wigs for Kids,  a nonprofit organization that has been serving children suffering from hair loss since 1981.

They had instructions on their website, including the requirement that donors send hair that's at least 12 inches long.

We measured her hair carefully and I sectioned it off. 

I lopped off each of the pony tails and then cleaned up the cut.

We're still going to make her an appointment somewhere to get a pro cut and color, but this step was a good start. 

Her hair is ready to go to its new 'home,' the head of a child in need.

BIRTHDAY GIRL: Sunday, Annabelle turned Sweet 16. It was a pandemic birthday, so that meant the celebration was a bit different than it might have been.  We headed to West Seattle where we ordered brunch from the Easy Street cafe. (Easy Street is an iconic record store that happens to have a quirky little cafe on site.) 

Because of COVID, we ate in the car instead of in the cafe. 

Afterward, we headed  to a new game store in West Seattle, The Missing Piece, where I'd reserved a table. We'd never been there before, so that was fun. It was a nice place, spaced out, people were wearing masks and it felt safe. 

We spent an hour there, played a game (Taco vs. Burrito), she picked out a new game (Betrayal at House on the Hill), then we went to Super Deli and played her new game (outside, on a table under cover), and Sunday evening she played D&D with her regular group online.

All in all, a pretty nice birthday, despite the pandemic.

Birthdays Cake

CAKING IT: October is a busy month 'round these parts, at least in the birthday sense. It's Rick's birthday, my birthday and Annabelle's birthday.

We really aren't too into making cakes for ourselves, so we like to take our birthdays as an opportunity to make a cake for someone else. 

This week, we made a cake for a teen living in a homeless shelter. Like Annabelle, the girl loves to dabble in the arts. So Annabelle, our resident artist, helped make an art cake for her fellow Libra.

We often look online for ideas, but Annabelle didn't like what she saw. All of the art-themed cakes she was coming across skewed too young for a teen, she figured.

So, we came up with our own plan. We like to start with a conceptual drawing.

 

The birthday girl wanted a chocolate cake, so CJ baked a three-layer one. I made chocolate filling and added some mini chocolate chips for a little bonus surprise. 

Meanwhile, Annabelle made modeling chocolate that would be shaped into brushes, tubes of paint and more. 

Those shapes were then covered with fondant we made. 

We always have some trouble. This time it came in the shape of edible paint brushes. One broke in multiple ways while being attached to the cake. Sigh. We solved that by making it shorter and stronger. In the end, we were the only ones who would ever know that it wasn't the original piece. (Well, if you're reading this, I guess you know, too.)

FYI, on the photo at the top of the post, I Photoshopped the birthday girl's name, for anonymity. 

 

Sporty

GET KRAKEN: This week has been a little bit sports-focused. Which is normal in non-pandemic times, but it's an anomaly now.

Monday night, after two years of being on a waiting list, we had the opportunity to get in on season tickets for the new National Hockey League franchise in Seattle, the Kraken.

We had a Zoom meeting Monday night with a Kraken sales rep and chose our seats. It's super exciting. We were lucky to get in on the deal. We were number 3,200-something out of 15,000 or so who were in the 'first' tier of people wanting season tickets, and there are another 50,000 or so on the second tier waiting list.

We had to do our homework and crunch numbers ahead of time, finding the seats that worked for us and our budget.

We settled for the Red Line plan, and some aisle seats we hope are great. It's kind of weird buying seats like that for a venue you've never set foot in, but #thanksCOVID, it was what it was.

BASEBALL BRUSH: Saturday, we went to the Mariners' stadium. Unfortunately, not for a ballgame, but to pick up a couple of Seat Fleet cut outs. 

The 'Seat Fleet' was a way to represent your fandom in the park when we couldn't actually be in the park.

For around $30, you could have a photo cutout placed in a seat at the field, silently rooting for the home team.

Fortunately, there was free and easy parking just south of the stadium when we went to pick up the first pair.

Signs showed us the way to our familiar faces.

Fortunately, the pick up was well organized and we didn't have to wait too long.

We picked up Rick and Ken, also known as Jay Buhner and Norm Charlton circa 1995, in short order. These were their Halloween costumes that year. The height of Mariners fever, they scored lots of candy that year.

Today, Christian picked up the rest of the kids.

I envy these cut outs and their ballpark time this year. The Ms didn't win enough, as usual, but there are some exciting up and comers on the team. I hope we get to see them in person next year.