Right on Time

HOLIDAY WONDERMENT: We've been marveling over how beautiful our 'Christmas' cactus has become this week. We thought it an early bloomer, but we thought wrong.

Christian Googled the plant a couple of days ago, and imagine our surprise when we learned it's not a Christmas cactus after all! It's a Thanksgiving cactus, which means it's right on time!

An article on the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach webpage explains it all. ...

"The difference between the three cacti is found in the shape of the leaves. The Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumgera truncata) has very pointed and claw shaped projections on the edges of the leaf. The Christmas cactus (Schlumgera bridgesti) has leaf projections which are more scalloped or tear drop shaped. The Easter cactus (Rhipsalidopsis gaertnerrii) has very rounded edges which are centralized on the leaf."

Illustration from Iowa State University Reiman Garden Pamphlet RG 308Thanksgiving

COOKING UP A STORM: Thanksgiving is just a day away, and we've been busy readying for that holiday.

We're heeding experts' opinions regarding this pandemic era holiday, not mixing households and keeping it home alone, so to speak. What we are doing, however is a cooperative Thanksgiving. Three of us (Kennedy, my parents and our household) will each be making our own turkey, but we divvied up the side dishes. I am making cranberries, Chex mix and wild rice, sausage and shitaike mushroom stuffing. Ken has the potatoes and green beans covered. Judy is making rolls and pies. We're going to swap side dishes outside, masks on, with social distancing. Though unorthodox, it will be a nice way to enjoy dinner with one another without sitting down at a communal table and sharing air. 

NOT THROWING AWAY OUR SHOT: I listed 'exercise' on our list of things to do. "Just Dance" via the Nintendo Switch is an easy go to, but honestly, I don't love most of the very poppy music they use, and the choreography seems pretty random at times.

So, I decided to turn to YouTube for some inpsiration. I had been singing a song from "Hamilton" just moments prior, so I thought, "Well there *has* to be a 'Hamilton' workout."

I'm right. There is. In fact, there are many. We chose the top viewed one, and fired it up without warning for the kids. They were super happy about it. It was well done - great music and good exercise. We'll be back for more!

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Takes the Cake

BAKERS AND MAKERS: Another birthday in our household this past week (Christian), so we baked a cake - and donated it to one of our favorite non-profits,

Birthday Dreams

.

The cake request said the recipient loved STEM-y stuff (science, tech, math), and the colors blue and green. So out of that info came the cake pictured above.

As usual, we started with a conceptual drawing of the cake that might be. Some things made the cut, others didn't.

CJ did the baking. The three-layered first tier of the cake is very vanilla, with vanilla buttercream icing and filling. There are some white chocolate pieces in the filling for a little crunch.

The top tier of the cake isn't cake at all, it's a big Rice Krispies treat. We draped that in a batch of homemade marshmallow fondant. It think it's our best drape to date! (We used to be so nervous about this step. Now it's old hat!)

The first tier was crumb coated and then covered in buttercream. Annabelle air brushed that lightly with green and blue, the birthday boys' favorite colors. 

The cake is surrounded by blue and green gumballs. I like the way they look - very festive.

Annabelle transformed the plain white tier into a lab coat. I love the little buttons on it. The photo below is before we added the pocket 'embroidered' with the birthday boy's name. 

A big part of any one of the kids' cakes is the little details. Like melting Jolly Ranchers so that you can shape them into little orbs that will look like bubble so you can put them into the lab flask 

Annabelle cut atoms and equations from sugar sheets.

CJ made the Jell-o to fill the cake topper, an Erlenmeyer flask. When we saw that there are little cups you can buy that look like the flask, we just had to get some for the kid's birthday party. We also bought club soda and some little drink flavoring liquids they could mix and match.

Can you guess how old the birthday boy is turning? The clue is on the front of the cake, the first tier.

By the way, I've completely altered the name on the cake to preserve the anonymity of the recipient.

We hope he liked his cake. :)

Sugar Rush

EXPERIMENTAL:  We've got another Birthday Dreams cake coming up. It's one we just *had* to sign up for - a science (!) themed cake for a 12-year-old.

We have come up with our conceptual drawing. It includes a beaker partially filled with gelatinous Jell-o atop the cake, with candy bubbles rising from it. Sounds simple enough ... but we thought we better do a trial run of sorts today. 

First, we used some "Unicorn Slime" Jell-o Play we had in the pantry. It was super simple to make - literally just add water. 

And then it was time for some stirring. 

It was thick, chalky and pretty darn hard to mix up. 

Before long, the mix turned into a gelatinous blob with the strangest viscosity. When you poked it and pulled your finger out, the void would immediately fill like nothing ever happened,

"Newtonian ***!" Annabelle declared. She also declared that it tasted likje 'strawberry pencil erasers." 

We think it will work for the bottom of our beaker. Next up, some candy bubbles. We were batting around ideas a couple of days ago. I suggested the top of a Dum Dum lollipop. (Or is it a sucker - what's the difference? Must research ... ) Anyway, somehow we hit upon the idea of maybe melting a Jolly Rancher and then shaping it into a pretty little ball. 

That involved a heat gun, a stainless steel straw and a steep learning curve. 

Once it was just the right temperature, CJ rolled it into a nice little ball, without burning his hands. 

Annabelle had seen a video or two about trying to blow 'glass' bubbles from semi-melted Jolly Ranchers. You know we had to give that a go.

By getting the candy super hot and by blowing hard, CJ got a big ol' bubble. 

After a few misses, Annabelle managed to blow something semi-spherical.

All in all, it was a good experiment session. We learned some things we'll definitely put to use in the future.

Contact

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins of NASA,peers into the SpaceX 

Crew-1 capsule from the ISS. Photo: Me, via NASA TV

ON STATION: Last night, we watched Crew-1, SpaceX's Dragon capsule, approach and dock with the International Space Station. Once the connection was safely made, there were drawn-out opening the hatches operations. 

Eventually, the four 'newcomers' (NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi) were welcomed on board the ISS by the current crew of three (Rubins, as well as  Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos).

APPLYING OURSELVES: For the past few days, we have spent hours and hours and hours contemplating what's next for CJ. He is on track to finish his associate's degree this June. He had initially thought about taking a 'gap year,' - a year away from college to work and adventure, but, well #pandemic. 

College seems like a good place to park right about now.

So with that in mind, suddenly we find ourselves eyeball deep in college apps, online orientations, transcript requests, the FAFSA app, countless emails, acquiring letters of recommendation .. the list goes on and on. And everything is made a little bit more 'interesting' given his nontraditional educational journey.  He doesn't always fit neatly into boxes and bubbles. 

All that said, we're plugging away and exploring options. Stay tuned for further developments. 

Up and Away

NASA/Joel Kowsky

LIFT OFF: This evening, after watching the Seahawks go down in flames, we watched flames shoot from the rocket boosters as Crew-1 took off from the Florida Space Coast. These four (NASA's Shannon Walker, Mike Hopkins, and Victor Glover, along with Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) were on board.

Photos: NASA and JAXA

The launch appeared to go without a hitch and the four will be on board the International Space Station tomorrow. SpaceX even nailed the landing of the rocket stage on the barge in the Atlantic Ocean, 

NO SHOW:  Friday morning, in anticipation of this weekend's big launch, we tuned into the STEM in 20 Facebook page. We were expecting to watch a program with NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, who  spent 141 days on board the International Space Station back in 2015. However, Lindgren was nowhere to be seen. Turns out he got called into work. And when NASA calls, you probably better answer the phone. So, the hosts filled in as best they could, but it was all just general space stuff the kids and I have heard dozens of times before, so we tuned out. The program is available online in case you want to see a special featuring an astronaut with no astronaut.

UP AND COMING: I recently received an email with a ton of (online, of course) events that I found interesting. I hope we can check some or all of them out. 

For instance, the National Security Agency's National Cryptologic Museum in Annapolis Junction, MD is offering free virtual field trips. They feature a variety of different themes each week. Many of the tours are  related to WWII topics, and they have a number of talks coming up. They even allow people to schedule a private online tour for groups of 6 or more. Eventbrite is an easy way to sign up for the tours.  

There are over 100,000 points of interest in the Historical Marker Database. It is a catalog of outdoor historical markers and commemorative plaques from around North America, complete with photographs and descriptions. Using the search function, you can see if there are any historical markers near your locale.The site also includes a link to an educational component, a  downloadable history project idea geared for 7th and 8th graders (though anyone of any age who enjoys learning could likely get something out of it). 

I mentioned a couple of posts back about virtual escape rooms. Turns out King County LIbrary System has posted an Olympic National Park digital escape room. Per the library's promo, "Someone must maintain Olympic National Park's trails to ensure safety. Are you up to the challenge? Try our virtual escape room Operation National Park. Solve puzzles and answer questions using logic, math, and map skills. This escape room was created for ages seven and older, but everyone is welcome to give it a try. You can work on it individually or as a team. The most important thing is to have fun.” Here's the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfzUssNdq4g-FyIjpM4nKt__JtGAavtHWxM77MWhJ6itlHuIg/viewform.

Watching and Waiting

Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

HISTORY AWAITS: Many eyes are on the Space Coast this week, as four astronauts prepare to become the first to fly to the International Space Station in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

In the photo above, you can see the Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket. It's set to launch at 4:49 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, Nov. 14, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Onboard will be Crew-1 NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi. We here at MPA will *definitely* be watching this historic mission.

                   Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Once they get settled in on the orbiting science laboratory, the astronauts will have a hand in several scientific experiments, including food physiology, neural function in low Earth orbit, tissue chips, and spacesuit technology.

Back in May of this year, NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were aboard a demonstration mission, launching in the first manned SpaceX mission. That was a complete success, laying the groundwork for Saturday's launch to the ISS.  They splashed down in the Dragon Endeavour capsule at 2:48 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 2, off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.

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CLOTHES OUT: In an unexpected twist, some of our clothing will soon be headed to Central America.

A couple of days ago a neighbor (but not someone we know) posted to our local Buy Nothing group asking for clothing donations. She wrote, 'As many of you know Central America has been hit by Hurricane ETA and has left many people homeless and nothing else but their clothes on their back.'

I'm embarrassed to admit we knew nothing of the hurricane. Pretty much it has been nonstop election-related coverage on our TV since November 3.

Anyway, the neighbor was asking for donations of clothing to send to Honduras, where she has family.

According to The Gurardian, "Hurricane Eta making landfall as a category 4 storm to the south of Puerto Cabezas in Nicaragua. The storm weakened as it moved slowly inland towards Honduras through the week. Some areas saw as much as 550mm of rain (22 inches), leading to landslides and flooding. At least 100 people have died as a result."

It just so happened that 'clean closets' was on our to do list the day I saw the neighbor's ask for help, so we were happy to take three large garbage bags worth of men's, women's and children's clothing to them. I was impressed by how much they'd collected already. There were boxes and boxes of goods being loaded into a large shipping container as we arrived. 

Our surplus clothing was likely destined for a nonprofit thrift store before I spied the Buy Nothing post. It's nice to know our our gently-used and happily-donated items will be going right to people in dire need instead.

Weekend Scenes

 

SWEET SKULLS: Saturday afternoon, the kids sat down for a little art session. We had pre-ordered and curbside picked up sugar skull kits from the South Park  branch of King County Library System.

We were impressed with the variety and quantity of the kits' contents! A whole lot of bling and four bottles of paint between the two of them.

The kit also thoughtfully included a black paper plate to place the skull on, and a big ol' doily to fancy things up a bit.

CJ's skull wound up with a butterfly on its chin and what looks like a black leaf for a moustache.

Annabelle's skull is at the top of a the post. 

WINTER IS COMING: We've had a bit of a cold (for us) snap the past couple of days, with temps in the 30s. It almost feels like it could snow. We're trying to balance getting out and getting fresh air with the fact that there's a pandemic in it's third, and likely largest to-date, wave. 

One place we feel safe is an outdoor picnic table with just we four and no one else any closer than about 20 feet. It's on the front sidewalk of a convenience store called Super Deli Mart, in West Seattle. They have lots of soft drinks for the kids, a decent taplist for the adults and lots of snacks and sandwiches if one needs something to nosh on.

When we head there, it's almost like packing for skiing or camping. 

We have masks, hats, gloves, coats, boots, scarves and such.. Here's Annabelle and her freshly-pinked hair braving the elements.

                          

We even have our very own propane heater hidden under the table. That thing is a champ! Really takes the edge off and the propane only costs us about a buck per session (long enough to have a couple of drinks and play a board game or two).

On Sunday we played King of Tokyo. I got to be the Kraken because I had my Seattle Kraken hoody on.

Christian was the King of Tokyo that day, if you're wondering who won.

We have also been playing a lot of High Risk recently. It's a quick, dice-rolling game where you're trying to scale a mountain. 

We've played it a dozen times. I don't think I've won even once. :/ I think I'm too conservative, and not willing to take a high enough risk, as the game's name suggests.

ESCAPISM: An email with a round up of fun things to check out during these pandemic times. One reccomendation was the National Museum of American History's animated series of six computer pioneers, including Kenneth Olson and Grace Hopper. That’s here: https://americanhistory.si.edu/american-enterprise-exhibition/videos/computer-pioneers. 

The email also made mention of a library system that hosts online escape rooms. They have one with a "Stranger Things" theme coming up Fri, Nov 13th, at 1 pm (https://www.esopuslibrary.org/teens). Their page also includes links to Marvel Avengers Escape Room, Wonderland Escape Room, and a Star Wars Escape Room. 

We've done a couple of escape rooms in person and enjoyed them, so we'll have to check this virtual experience out.