BASEBALL'S BACK: Today is a happy day at MPA, as it marks the return of Major League Baseball.
COVID made for an atypical season last year. It was short, and no fans were in the seats. This year, stadiums* are letting a limited number of fans in, and are taking mega efforts to keep the situation safe (*unless you're the Texas Rangers, who are inexplicably filling every seat).
Tomorrow night we'll be attending a (socially distanced) baseball game in person for the first time in over a year. We're so excited!
This week, my Facebook "Memories" are full of us attending opening day Mariners games. So many fun memories. Sure, the Mariners usually lose, but a bad day at the ballpark is a better day than most others.
GARDEN STARTERS: Recently, we spied a news story about Lowe's offering free garden kits each week during the month of April. We missed the first one (April 1), but there are three more days coming up:
April 8: Garden-to-Go kit sponsored by Miracle-Gro with exclusive recipes from professional cook and food stylist Amanda Frederickson.
April 15: Lowe's Mystery Garden Pinata with mystery seed packets.
April 22: 500,000 tree saplings given out in honor of Earth Day.
April 29: Lowe's Butterfly Quest which helps families create a butterfly garden.
Speaking of gardens, we're caring for our starts daily, but no signs of life just yet.
FUTURE FLIGHT: NASA is inviting the public to sign up to (virtually) attend the SpaceX Crew-2 mission (exact launch date to be determined).
Registrants will receive mission updates, information on the virtual NASA Social interactive opportunities, and a stamp for their NASA virtual passport following launch.
All resources, participation, and registration are free. Here's the website where we signed up: https://go.nasa.gov/2PLguzL
Meanwhile on Mars, Curiosity, no longer the newest rover on the Red Planet, sent back a spectacular selfie last week. Using a robotic arm, it took a photo of itself in front of Mont Mercou, a 20-foot-tall rock formation.
Some 2,600 miles away, the helicopter that caught a ride to Mars on Perseverance set down on Martian soil for the first time.
Ingenuity is stretching its legs, so to speak, and is preparing for its first off-planet, independent flight. Exciting!
COURT TV: For the past few days, we have had Court TV streaming all day, watching the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on George Floyd's neck for over nine minutes, while Floyd became unresponsive and died. And then he kept on kneeling until he was told, by a paramedic, to get off the lifeless man's neck.
The trial is hard to watch, but it's also a 'can't look away' situation. We are mortified by much of the testimony, understandably. However, this trial is, undoubtedly, an educational moment. The kids are, for the first time, seeing the mechanics of how a real trial works - the examination and cross examination, the sidebars, the objections and overrules, et cetera. Let's hope they - and all of us - will see justice is served in the end.
DIRTY WORK: We are a little late to the game this year, I believe, but we finally got seeds into soil today.
Since our tomatoes under-performed last season, we're mixing things up a bit. We'll see what sprouts and flourishes - or doesn't. I'm hoping the tomatillos go gangbusters. If so, I see salsa verde in our future. If the sunflowers flourish, most of them will be headed to Mukilteo, for the park grounds around the lighthouse.
KITCHEN DISASTERS: So, we have half of the pretty new countertops installed, but the balance of the kitchen is pretty much a disaster. We're tearing the floor up, all the way down to the original framing, since the ugly old vinyl was so massively adhered to the particle board subfloor.
Oh, and while we were doing the countertops, we decided we really should remove the upper cabinets on the north wall, so we could insulate behind them. Fortunately, that's done and buttoned back up. Once in awhile I wish we weren't so thorough with things, but in the end, doing the right thing is worth the extra time and effort and money and mess.
Meanwhile, in the midst of all of this, we somehow keep on cooking. In fact, this weekend was Teen Feed, so we were cooking up a storm. The main dish this month was a hearty rice-based entree of the chef's choice.
We were in charge of making 30 main entrees, each consisting of about four cups of rice apiece, plus at least a half pound of protein each, and tons of veggies.
We decided to adapt Nonnie's fantastic tortilla casserole recipe to a rice dish. So we made about a gallon of red chile sauce, used about 14 pounds of boneless chicken, and five pounds of corn, plus a small mountain of olives. That all got mixed in with a ton of rice and it turned out great!
We also decided to make a spin on chicken pot pie, with rice as the starch instead of a pie crust. We mixed cream of chicken soup, sour cream, milk, about 5 pounds of mixed veggies and about 6 pounds of chicken for 8-10 servings. We added thyme, sage, garlic powder, salt, white pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. ] Let me tell you, it was delicious -and a huge hit with the Teen Feed crowd, per the post meal report.
Fresh fruit and homemade cookies were also on the menu. And, as always, we had vegan and no onion options.
But they're was one thing we didn't plan for. "Do you have any non-rice options?" the Teen Feed coordinator asked me, about a half hour before service.
I was glad I was wearing a mask, so the guy couldn't see my jaw hit the floor.
"We have one guest who is frustrated when it's a rice dinner," he explained.
So, my friend and I scrambled to come up with a non rice alternative. And we worked it out but, what a heart stopper.
What's ironic is that apparently Mr. Frustrated Rice Dinner Diner got over his frustration when he saw our protein-laden options. Everyone who donated main dishes did a great job of making them super hearty and heavy on the non-rice elements. I can totally understand someone getting frustrated by nothing but mostly rice for sustenance. That would get old real quick.
A couple of photos of our cookies and the tortilla rice dish.
RALLY TIME: Sunday morning, we piloted our Mariners blue Honda toward the Mariners' stadium for a drive through rally.
We didn't really know what to expect, and didn't really care. The stadium is close to home and we were happy to get out of the house.
There was a wheel of fortune station. Imagine our thrill when we won four Kyle Seager bobbleheads.
Not too long ago we got rid of four more Kyle Seager bobbleheads. Oh well, I rehomed them on our Buy Nothing group today.
We also 'won' four Mariners backpacks. Midday today, we took those to a low income elementary school near our house and donated them to their closet for kids who need clothing and school supplies.
Perhaps our favorite stop on the tour was local burger joint Dick's serving up free burgers.
Yes, please!
MORNING REPORT: While the kids aren't in a formal Japanese class at the moment, they continue to learn more about the language and culture. They sat in on a class this morning. CJ can tell you more about it.
This morning, I watched an online event hosted by the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington (JASSW). The event, titled Virtual JIS Workshop: Tōkaidō, was centered around the former location of the same name in Japan.
Tōkaidō was a road connecting the cities known in the modern day as Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan's eighth-largest and first-largest city respectively. Tōkaidō is sometimes considered a figurative "road from ancient to modern Japan," as it connected Kyoto, Japan's historical capital, with Tokyo, Japan's current capital.
Perhaps Tōkaidō's most significant quality as opposed to other roads between Kyoto and Tokyo is that it went through rivers in Japan. Travellers who seeked to avoid getting their feet wet could even hire an on-foot taxi, carried by a quartet comprising the human taxi's "wheels."
CATTY: Another week, another cake for us. We typically only make one Birthday Dreams cake per month, but when we saw an ask for a caticorn cake, we had to take that on. :)
"What is a caticorn?" you ask? It's a unicorn-cat hybrid. Basically a cat with a horn and a flouncy tail.
We've seen others do cute unicorn cakes before where a chubby unicorn is eating part of the cake, so we decided to go that design route with the caticorn.
First we baked up a big chocolate cake for the first tier. It was filled and then iced a really pretty purple - the birthday girl's favorite color.
Next, we cooked up a confetti cake, by putting pink and purple sprinkles into vanilla cake batter.
Annabelle sculpted the caticorn using modeling chocolate covered in marshmallow fondant.
The caticorn takes shape, with a tail and body.
The horn was spray painted (edible) gold. We had to stick it in an orange while it dried.
Though it's not shown in the cake photo above for privacy purposes, the birthday girl's name was on the bottom tier of the cake, in white fondant letters.
I just loved the assortment of sprinkles covering the top tier of the cake. So pretty! They came from 5-6 different containers.
Caticorn, complete with a heart-shaped nose, and painted on eyes.
We hope the 7-year-old liked her cake!
LOBBYING: About three weeks ago, it was announced all over television, the Internet and in newspapers that "all" veterans were now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Naturally, Christian, a veteran, called the local VA hospital right away to schedule a vaccination - only to be told he wasn't eligible to be vaccinated because he makes too much money.
Say what?
That news set me off to the point I, for the first time, contacted my two senators and my U.S. congressman.
Here's the gist of what I sent to each of them on March 4...
Hello ...,
Maybe you've seen the headlines. The news is all over. In fact, as I write this, the breaking news on the front page of the Seattle Times website reads: NEWS ALERT Veterans of all ages now qualify for COVID-19 vaccine in Washington state.
Unfortunately, news about all veterans being eligible for vaccines is not true.
My husband, an Army veteran, has contacted our local VA on more than one occasion over the past couple of weeks, trying to schedule a shot, but he is repeatedly turned away. He is told that even though he's a veteran, he makes too much money, and therefore, he's not eligible to receive a vaccination.
This makes zero sense. As you know, COVID vaccines are not for sale, and access to them should not have anything to do with a person's income, or lack thereof. It's about public health.
My husband is nearly 60, a veteran, and he's an essential worker for the city of Seattle. Ironically, if he were retired instead of out there working, making sure people have clean, running water and working sewers, he would be eligible for the vaccine through the VA.
Is there anything you or someone can do to rectify this exclusion regarding access to COVID vaccines for ALL veterans, regardless of income?
We heard nothing from Senator Maria Cantwell's office. We received what read line an auto generated email from Senator Patty Murray's office, saying she'd like to help, and asking us to fill out a PDF form, which we did. I also wrote to Congressman Adam Smith's office.
For two weeks it's was crickets - nothing from anyone. But a couple of days ago, my phone rang. It was an unfamiliar, local number. I usually let unknown numbers go to voicemail, but I picked this call up. It was the deputy director for Adam Smith, calling to let me know that the U.S. House of Representatives had just passed a bill , the VA Vaccine Act, that would open COVID vaccines to ALL veterans. Would you believe it even passed unanimously? Shocking! It seems like those people can never agree on anything any more.
On March 17, the Senate (also unanimously!) approved their version of the bill. It calls on the VA to vaccinate all veterans, their spouses, recipients of the VA’s CHAMPVA program, and veterans living overseas. Now it goes back to the House.
This verbiage now appears on the VA site: "Legislation is currently going through Congress that if passed, would allow us to offer vaccines to all Veterans, and possibly their caregivers and spouses. Until this legislation passes and becomes public law, we won't know who will be eligible. We also won't know how quickly we can get enough vaccines to offer one to Veterans and family members who aren't receiving care at VA."
And so, we wait.
FIRED UP: Thursday, NASA conducted a test of the engines that will (hopefully) boost a rocket to the moon in the not too distant future.
It has been over a week since I've posted. I don't know that I've ever gone that long with nothing to report.
Check that. It's not that we're not doing things. We are. Lots of things. It's just that the things we're doing are plugging along kind of stuff, not out and about kind of stuff. Our worlds have shrunk so dramatically this past year, under the specter of the pandemic
That said, we soldier on.
CJ is plugging away in college, and very successfully so. Tonight he filed his last English 102 research paper, about positive psychology (a useful topic in this day and time.)
He is done with his film studies class, and now that that's history, I'll have him soon list a recap of the movies he analyzed this quarter.
CJ's two quizzes away from being done with his latest math class, which has been comically awful. ZERO lectures or teaching, totally going it alone. It will be glad to have that in the rearview.
Annabelle audits all of CJ's classes. It's so nice that they have each other as classmates. It would be so much harder and lonelier if they didn't have each other.
We're also still volunteering where and when we can. Case in point: Last week we delivered a cake to a Birthday Dreams. The cake was for twins - a couple of 6 year olds who wanted mermaid cake.
We made a small but tall cake, iced in ocean colors. It was ringed in seashell candies we made.
As an added touch we surrounded it with brown sugar 'sand,' which Annabelle carved the twins' names into.
On Sunday, we celebrated Pi Day on March 14 in a very low key way. We downloaded the 7-11 app and used it to buy large pizzas (5!) for $3.14. We cooked one and the extras went in our freezer. A little sad that this was a 'big deal' event for us this year, but that's pandemic life.
Our daffodils have finally opened up. This one is my favorite.
Three-plus years ago, I dug them up from our last place and brought them to our 'new' place. We had so many beautiful plants in our last yard that we left behind without a thought, but these were sentimental favorites. I remember the kids getting the bulbs for free at Sky Nursery in Shoreline on September 10, 2014. They planted them, they flourished, and I just couldn't leave them at the last place.
I'm so glad they're still going strong.
In other news, we're inching ever closer to our new retro countertop. And this week I started a new gig/job this is a lot, for lack of a better way to describe it.
We've been enjoying listening to Mariners' spring training games on the radio and dreaming of making it out to the old ball game for real this season.
One bright point today: I received a call from the deputy director for our congressman Adam Smith. I can't recall if I mentioned it here, but a couple of weeks ago, the news all over said all veterans were eligible to receive COVID vaccines. Christian, an Army veteran, inquired and tried to get one, but he was told he couldn't have one/enroll in the VA because he makes too much money (working as an essential worker during a pandemic, might I add). Anyway, I wrote our two senators and our congressman and lo and behold, something happened!
"The House unanimously approved legislation Tuesday night that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer coronavirus vaccines to all veterans, regardless of whether they’re enrolled in VA health care," according to a report on the American Legion website. The bill is on the Senate's calendar. The gentleman I spoke with hopes they will vote on it as soon as next week. Time will tell.
RUFFING IT: You don't see many dog photos on this blog. I figured this snap was worthy of parking here. It's Kirby, who was living her best life on Friday morning, lounging in bed.
And yes, she *does* need a date with the clippers, but she absolutely turns into Sharknado when approached with grooming shears and such, so her spa days are few and far between.
ON A ROLL: Big news from Mars - NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover has taken its first drive.
The mobility test, taken a few days ago, is a big milestone, of course.
I love being able to see tread tracks on the Martian soil!
The mobility test was important to get out of the way, in order for the rolling lab's science operations to get underway.
UNLADYLIKE: March is women's history month. Recently a friend shared a Public Broadcasting System webpage with me that has a bunch of short profiles of notable women from the suffrage moment.
BORING: For a few years now, as part of his work, Christian has been involved in the Ship Canal Water Quality Project (SCWQP), Seattle Public Utilities' largest project to date. It boring a 2.7-mile long, 18-ft 10-in diameter tunnel under the ship canal in Ballard, using a 22-foot diameter Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM).
When it's complete, the drainage system will keep an estimated 75 million gallons of sewage and polluted stormwater from entering local waters each year. Project managers are looking for a name for their big boring machine. This video shows a few Seattle-inspired suggestions: https://youtu.be/jTIWPP7roPM
However, they are also asking e still need your help! Tweet your name suggestion to #NameThatTBM or use our online form. Ask your friends and family for suggestions! Group/organization submissions welcome! Contest rules are below.
A TASTE OF JAPAN: This afternoon we 'attended' the 2021 Japanese Language Festival, entirely online, of course. The event, hosted by the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington, was nearly two hours long and featured a number of different segments.
We learned about the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Program Report and we saw winners from sketch and speech contests for students. (Too bad we didn't know about that before, CJ and Annabelle could have entered!)
There was a fun trivia contest (all in Japanese!) The kids did pretty well.
There was a break out room session, where small groups could ask their room's host about the JET program or all things Japanese. The program ended with a comedic sketch about how to eat ramen by master Rakugo performer Yanagiya Tozaburo. (Per Wikipedia, rakugo is "a form of Japanese verbal entertainment of yose" where a lone storyteller uses only a paper fan and a small cloth as props to tell a story, never leaving a seated position on a raised platform.
For fun, after the festival we masked up and went to a local Japanese-inspired take out place we've been meaning to try for years, Katsu burger.
The kids each got a teriyaki chicken katsu 'burger' with a side of fries (Annabelle had nori fries, CJ had 12-spice). There were rave reviews regarding the food. They're looking forward to trying other menu items in the future.
DOTTED LINE: Saturday morning CJ made it official. He accepted his offer for admission to the University of Washington! He'll be attending classes on the Tacoma campus (if the pandemic allows), majoring in history with a museum studies minor.
It's exciting to have that decision made, and now he can start planning for fall and beyond. It was great he had more than one good choice for college, and it's really great the was accepted by the school/program he was most interested in attending.
In the meantime, he still has to finish strong at South Seattle, and will be signing up for his final quarter there in the next couple of days.
Saturday morning Annabelle sat in on an online Running Start presentation by Bellevue College, where she'll be starting this fall.
TEEN FEED TIME: February 27 was the fourth Saturday of the month, which means Teen Feed time for our family. On the menu this month was a fried chicken dinner, with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and some pie for dessert.
Looks pretty tasty, doesn't it? The dinner on the left was our vegan option, while the right is the standard fare.
We made 15 pounds of mashed potatoes for the meal. CJ and Annabelle each did a fair amount of peeling for that.
We also made 20 pounds of green beans with bacon and butter. Lots of butter. :)
Dinner service is at 6:30. It's still a to go service because of COVID, so everything goes into a to go container. In total, thanks to everyone's donations, we had enough food for 90 meals, and some happy diners were able to have seconds.
ARTS AND CRAFTS: Sunday afternoon the kids participated in a draw along hosted by The Museum of Flight via Microsoft Teams online.
An artist gave tips as they sketched a Mars rover from a still photo. Annabelle's work-in-progress is below.
VENTURING OUT: I'm still playing catch up on our little last-minute trip last week to the Oregon Coast. While there, we mostly worked at the place we were staying, but we did venture out a time or two, including (gasp) going to a public place for fun. That is such a sad rarity during the pandemic.
We decided to check out Funland, a longtime arcade in Seaside, to see if it looked safe enough to visit. Fortunately, on a Wednesday afternoon during a stormy February, the place was a ghost town - less crowded than the average early morning grocery runs we make these days. So the kids each got a $20 game card and had some fun.
It was great to be doing something recreational for a change.
CJ took a few goes at Mario Kart. Do you recognize the eyes behind the funny nose and moustache?
He managed to battle his way into first place!
On our second-to-last day, we finally got some blue skies instead of sideways sheets of rain. Here's a shot of the backside of the house. You can see CJ in silhouette in the window third from the left on the middle floor.
A shot through the porthole window on our last night there. You can see an American flag waving in the distance.
It was nice to get away, but now it's back home to all our projects here.
