Thursday Scenes

HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Another low-key day for us as we enjoy some time away from our usual digs.

We did a couple minor repairs on this place. Home improvement is kind of our idea of fun. ;)

I do love the porthole windows on this place. 

At one point today, Annabelle was working on an art project and CJ was sitting in on a Zoom call with Evergreen State about how to apply for scholarships. Streaming if which, he received a letter from Evergreen offering a $1500 scholarship for kids first year thanks to his strog grades to date.

NEIGHBORLY: The place we're staying this week is sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and a sprawling golf course, Gearhart Golf Links, the oldest golf course in Oregon. At the end of the road is a McMenamins' hotel and restaurants establishment. 

Their main dining room is called Sand Trap Pub. 

On its menu is a little history lesson about the golf course. 

"Opened in 2007 on the Gearhart Golf Links, the hotel and Sand Trap pub that McMenamins inherited and expanded upon was a reincarnation of the links’ first clubhouse built in the mid-1920s. The course itself is even older, having been laid out in the 1890s, making it one of the first on the West Coast. As The Oregonian remarked in 1923, 'There is perhaps no course in the United States that is so truly similar to the famous home course of modern golf, that of the Royal and Ancient Golf club, at St. Andrews in Scotland.' That makes sense, since the links’ original surveyors were a group of Scotsman rehomed in Oregon. They included one Robert Livingstone, whose grand residence was in NW Portland, where McMenamins Rams Head Pub is today."

We head home tomorrow. It has been a really nice change of pace, and I hope get get a chance to come visit the place again someday. 

Crazy Day

WRECKS: We woke up today to the big news that Georgia had elected two new senators, bringing the Senate to a 50-50 tie, D vs. R. However, coverage quickly shifted from that big news to what was going on in Congress, with the House and Senate set to certify the election today. Usually (like, always, it's just a formality). But not today, because, well, nothing seems normal any more.

Just a few minutes after Sen. Ted Cruz questioned the authenticity of Arizona's electoral votes (without citing any evidence for doing so), a mob of radicalized, white domestic terrorists invaded Congress, while countless Capitol police and FBI stood by and watched. We couldn't believe what we were seeing.

We watched the 'trainwreck' until a little after noon, and then decided to go see a shipwreck. Specifically, the wreck of the Peter Iredale. We timed our visit for low tide, when we could walk right up and touch what's left of its rusty ruins.

Below, the Iredale is pictured in much better times. The vintage photo was taken in Seattle around 1900, per Wikipedia.

Below, the kids and the dogs from Seattle head toward the Iredale's remains, 120 years later. 

Back in the day, Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel. It ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast, where Warrenton is now. The Iredale was trying to make its way to the Columbia River, but fell four miles short.

The photo below shows the shipwreck shortly after it happened. 

What's left of the wreckage is a popular tourist attraction, as it's so accessible compared to other. shipwrecks in the "Graveyard of the Pacific." You can walk right up to it during low tide.

It was a nice, quiet spot to be on a day where things were more than a little crazy.

Here's hoping our tomorrows, as a nation, are a lot more peaceful than today.

Piece by Piece

PUZZLED: A blustery day at the beach, so what did we do? A whole lot of nothing. (Well, other than chase down a power supply for Annabelle's laptop. Unfortunately, her charger was left in Seattle.)

We sat by the picture windows, watched frothy, foamy whitecaps crash, listened to the roaring winds, and worked a couple of jigsaw puzzles.

The one above is a 500-piece puzzle with an illustration depicting Seaside, Oregon, just a couple of miles down the road from where we are.

Last night, we pieced together this fun one: "Where's Bowie?"

It's very colorful, and there are lots of 'inside' jokes for David Bowie fans like me. It was a Christmas gift from Rick and Rachel. Thanks, guys!

NETWORKING LUNCH: Come noontime, Annabelle took a break from 'arting' and CJ took a break from his school work for a Zoom presentation from The Museum of Flight folks.

Called "Lunch with Staff," it was for Museum "Connections" members (middle and high school students). The email I received a couple of weeks back about it described the session as "staff members ready to share what they do at the Museum and answer YOUR questions. First we'll let each guest tell us about their job, the schooling and skills it took to get there, etc...then we'll open it up for questions from you. This is a great opportunity for students of all ages to learn about new career paths, learn more about a career they may already be considering, and learn how they can combine a passion of flight or space with a career that isn't pilot or astronaut!"

It was exactly as advertised, and so very interesting! Participating today were Amy Heidrick (collections), Chris Smith (information technology), Dave Longmire (facilities), and Mandy Faber (exhibits). 

The guest speakers were engaging and gave great details about their various jobs at the museum. At the end, there was an opportunity for questions. Annabelle and CJ asked how people can find out about internship opportunities at The Museum of Flight. The moderator of the luncheon gave a shout out to the kids, saying she recognized their names from pilot pilot ground school and other Museum of Flight programs. 

Listening to the museum staff's interests and career pathways was like listening to young CJ and Annabelle. Maybe someday they'll wind up working for a museum. 

The Museum of Flight has a couple more lunch Zoom sessions scheduled. We'll definitely be signing up for them!

Field Trip

OCEANSIDE: MPA is on the road this week. After dropping of our latest cake this morning, we headed south and west, destination Gearhart, Oregon.

Why Gearhart? Well, because there's a house with our name on it there, literally.

The beachfront house was built in , for Christian's grandpa, a dentist in Lake Oswego, Oregon, at the time.

Christian's dad and aunt spent many happy times at the house as kids. A few years ago, the house came up for sale, and Christian's aunt and her husband bought the place, so now it's back in the family.

It's a really solid place, three stories with a 180 degree view of the ocean.  We ventured shoreside right at sunset. We had to wade through lots of grass, avoid elk droppings, and endure some wind and rain, but it was worth it. It has been too long since we've seen an ocean.

Hopefully tomorrow it will be nicer, but even if it's not, it's nice to have a change of venue for a few days.

SPECIAL DELIVERY: Before we left home this morning, we had a cake to drop off at Birthday Dreams. 

The birthday girl in a local homeless shelter wanted a rainbow theme. After doing the Google and getting some ideas, we decided to go with a double barrel (stacked) cake. We needed it to be tall so we could get six good sized stripes on it. We measured it and make marks where the color bands would go.

After we piped the colors on, Annabelle spun the cake board while I used a tool to smoosh the lines flat.

After the first pass, we had to do some touch ups. 

The stuff we scraped off kind of looks like an explosion at a Play-Doh factory.

The cake filling featured rainbow sprinkles, of course. 

Once the stripes were done, it was time to pipe a big 'cloud' on top.

The homemade marshmallow icing we made tasted really good and was plenty puffy!

The glittery star candles in rainbow colors seemed like the perfect touch atop the cake.  We hope she liked it! 

We hope she liked her cake (name on cake board is obscured for anonymity).

So Long, 2020

TASTY: Even though we just finished the December Teen Feed, it's not too early to start thinking about next month's menu.

We discussed a number of options and I think we've decided on asking people to bring their favorite casserole this month. Casseroles are filling, comfort food that should go over well on a cold January night.

I had initially thought we'd make hot dish, and we still might, but for fun, I Googled casserole recipes. I found a couple of articles with dozens of ideas, including All Recipes' "Casseroles for a Crowd" and Delish.com's "45+ Easy Dinner Casserole Recipes." 

Turns out. there are a WHOLE lot of casseroles we've never heard of ... like corn dog casserole. Apparently that's a thing. So, we just had to try it out last night, because it sounded to me like something the Teen Feed diners would love the sound of.  It's not gourmet, but it's pretty darn good, I have to admit. There were no complaints from anyone at MPA last night.

Tonight's experiment is Chicken Bacon Ranch Bubble-Up Bake (photo above). Broccoli, cheese, butter, bacon, chicken and biscuits, what's not to love (well, other than the fact that it's not exactly health food)?

Reviews were great for tonight's concoction. CJ proclaimed, "We should have casserole more often." Like, more often than two nights in a row, apparently. :)

GAMEY: This afternoon, the kids participated in their semi regular online game day. A number of different Internet-based games are played, but it seems like way more than any other, the group plays Among Us. CJ can tell you a bit more about it. 

"In 2018, PNW-based indie game development studio InnerSloth quietly released Among Us, an online party social deduction game. In Among Us, players are sorted into two groups: Crewmates and impostors. Crewmates' goal is to complete tasks in the game area and, when necessary, determine which players are the impostors. Meanwhile, impostors' goal is to kill the crewmates, either by (literally) backstabbing them, or sabotaging essential space travel supplies such as oxygen.

Upon Among Us' initial 2018 release, it didn't get very much attention. However, in 2020, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has forced millions of people to limit the amount of time they spend with other people, Among Us experienced a surge in popularity due to providing players with social interaction over long distances. Among Us' popularity can also be attributed to being accessible to those unfamiliar or inexperienced with video games, yet still offering a level of technicality and strategizing to more seasoned gamers. For example, crewmates serve themselves well by learning to identify common impostor tactics (such as crawling through vents or pretending to do tasks), while impostors serve themselves well by learning how to deceive and fool crewmates (for example, by memorizing common task locations, or sometimes even throwing another impostor under the bus to gain the crewmates' trust)."

Here's a link to a YouTube short pormo about the game: https://youtu.be/NSJ4cESNQfE, and below I'll try to embed the video, though that feature doesn't seem to work on Blogger any more.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NSJ4cESNQfE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

TESTY: We're still plugging away at figuring out college for the kids next year. To be in Running Start, Annabelle will have to pass a placement test. To that end, today she took a practice test for the math portion. Bellevue College uses the ALEKS test for math placement, so we used their website for an assessment. It gave us quite a list of things to review over the next couple of months, so that was helpful. Bellevue College also suggests taking final tests from some of their previous math classes as a tune up. So we'll be working on those, for sure. 

RECYCLED:  Boy, have we gotten good mileage out of the DIY advent calendar I purchased back in October. First, we used it for a countdown to the November election. In December, it was used as a traditional countdown to Christmas calendar, and today, I repurposed it for a countdown to the inauguration. 

Helping Homeless for the Holidays

PRETTY IN PINK: A busy Christmas weekend included a cake donation to Birthday Dreams.

We were told the 14 year-old spending her Christmas and birthday in a homeless shelter likes art and pink. So those two elements were combined to produce the cake above.

We always start off with a conceptual drawing. Often, the cake doesn't look like the drawing when we're done, but it's a starting point.

CJ baked three layers of vanilla cake on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Annabelle got busy with design elements. A palette, paint brush, paint tube and easel needed to be constructed out of homemade modeling chocolate. 

I filled and iced this cake, and then Annabelle air brushed it with a vibrant pink.

CJ installed a tidy row of 'pearls' around its base. 

We were really happy with how it all came together. It wasn't the biggest or most complicated cake we've ever done, but it was really pretty, at least to our eyes. (FYI, the birthday girl's name has been obscured or altered in all of our photos to preserve her anonymity.) 

I loved the way Annabelle's cupcake on 'canvas' turned out. And the palette was super cute, too.

BUENO BURRITOS:  The Christmas holiday definitely didn't spill over into Saturday, the day after Christmas, for us. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was a super busy day, readying a huge amount of food for our monthly Teen Feed service.

This month there was a bit of a monkey wrench. I was informed on the night of Christmas Eve eve that Teen Feed's location had been moved. And so, then I had just two days (Christmas Eve and Christmas day) to try to contact a dozen-plus volunteers and let them know about the change. That was fun ... not.

Most every morning I write a 'to do' list on a white board in our kitchen. Here was Saturday's.

On the list was making at least 20 enormous (like three pound) burritos. I had cooked the chicken, beans, and rice on Christmas day, so on the 26th, it was all about assembly. The kids and I got a production line going. First, CJ would toast a tortilla on a griddle. I'd pick that up and put about 3/4 cups of refried beans on. Annabelle would add a cup of Mexican rice, I'd drizzle on some enchilada sauce, and then I'd add two huge handfuls of seasoned, shredded chicken. CJ would sprinkle two handfuls of cheese on top, and the the hard part was rolling all of that into a nice, tight burrito. 

We got better at it as we went along. CJ also tore foil sheets that the burritos were then wrapped in.

Fortunately, I was able to chase down every volunteer and all of the food made it to the new Teen Feed location. We had asked for 80 burritos, and probably wound up with more than a hundred! (At home, the kids and I made 30 instead of 20, because we had the filling to do so. Others clearly did the same - made burritos until they couldn't make any more.)

In the to go bags there was also some fresh fruit, a box of nacho chips with salsa, sour cream, cheese dip, and jalapenos. 

For dessert, volunteers home baked cookies. One friend made vegan Mexican mocha snickerdoodles, which sounded delicious to me. She even wrote "Adios 2020" (the theme for our dinner) on each cookie envelope. 

All in all, a super busy weekend, but a great chance to help some young neighbors in need.