Memorable Day

Another Birthday Dreams cake out the door. The birthday boy wanted a shark cake. This one took a bit, as - believe it or not - we'd never carved a shark from Rice Krispies treats before.

After a couple of starts and stops, Sharky finally started to take shape.

To be honest, it still looked nothing like a shark after the Krispies were shaped.

He started looking a little better with the white fondant underside in place.

Naturally, a number of teeth had to be made. We couldn't send out a gummy shark.

Here's an action shot of Annabelle inserting the eyes (big black gumballs) and making 'gills'.

CJ made the cake. It was vanilla covered in an ocean of vanilla buttercream, applied to look wavy. We knew we'd use the little goldfish sprinkles some day, and yesterday was the day. Some white nonpareils were added to evoke bubbles in the water.

Sharky looks a little goofy from the front.

He's much more attractive in profile. :)

The final touch was putting the 7-year-old birthday boy's name on the cake board (that's not shown here for anonymity). 

OH NO-NO:  It was cold, and thundershowers were hanging in the sky in every direction. Seems like a perfect night to go to a baseball game, right? 

Wrong. 

But we went anyway. And we got to see a little history made, unfortunately. The Mariners didn't get a single hit against the guy who was the worst starting pitcher in baseball in 2019. 

We started the game in our usual seats - last row of the stadium, up from the left field foul line.

Things are a little different at the park these days. Bags are banned, there's hand sanitizer everywhere, most are wearing masks, seating is mostly socially distanced (except in vaccinated fans' sections).

They're giving COVID-19 vaccines on site, in multiple places. 

From our seats on high, we could see down into the Edgar's Cantina part of the park, where vaccines were being administered. It didn't go well for one poor guy. He would up surrounded by medics, got an IV and a gurney was brought out. Fortunately he was able to leave on his own two feed after a bit of recovery. 

We brought our COVID-19 immunization cards with us. That earned us nifty wristbands.

Those gained us access to the "T-Mobile" bullpen area of the stadium. We headed down there about midway through the game.

We found a spot to stand near the Mariners' bullpen. I was wishing I could have swiped some of their tools for the dogs to have as toys. ;)

One pitcher hooked up to the fence right by us and started warming up.

The Ms' bullpen pitchers were watching the Detroit pitcher pitch a gem. And probably wondering why the Mariners can't hit the *&^% ball.

Unfortunately, the blue plastic pitching practice batter had about as good of a chance of hitting the ball as a real live Mariners player.

I had actually mentioned the no-hitter-in-progress to the kids way back in the third inning. I had a bad feeling about the game. The Ms 'hitters' looked nowhere near making solid contact, and the last game we went to was similarly abysmal (but I think they managed a hit or two in that one). 

I was going to say, seeing a no-hitter in person is really rare for a baseball fan, but hell, the Mariners have been no-hit TWICE in less than two weeks this season. Ugh.  (Photo is a cool new mural in the bullpen area.)

Until Spencer Turnbull beat the Kansas City Royals in his previous start, he had exactly ONE career win against an American League team in his career. In fact, Turnbull 'lead' the Majors with 17 losses in 2019, and entered the Tuesday night game against the Ms with a 9 win, 25 loss record for his career. 

Below is a view of mine, staring up at the scoreboard, knowing that a no-hitter was basically a given at that point. (Zoom in and look at some of the Ms' batting averages.)

The internet tells me there is a 1 in 806 chance you will see a no-hitter in person when you go to a game. I guess I was coming up due, given I've been going to multiple games per year for  many decades at this point. 

Here's the last out from our vantage point. https://youtu.be/aWMqvysG3E0

Out and About

T-TOWN BOUND: Last Friday, we made a midday trip down to Tacoma for a tour of CJ's future campus. We'd strolled the grounds before, but had never been inside any of the buildings and didn't have a tour guide.

This time we did have an official guide with access to some of the buildings. We met at the Mattress Factory at noon.

It was nice to learn where offices are that CJ will likely have to visit (advising, the registrar, etc.)

We spied numerous spots on campus where students can hang out.

One bulletin board that caught CJ's eye was the study abroad board. He asked lots of questions. Makes sense a history major might want to check out another country or two.

The architecture is interesting on campus. Lots of old buildings repurposed over the years.

The grounds were beautiful, with so many things in bloom.

One of the things we learned on the tour is that Tacoma's W statue is the biggest out of any UW locations, and it's not just about bragging rights. We were told the statue is a safety barrier of sorts, as once upon a time a city bus hit black ice and slid all the way downhill through the middle of campus. The big ol W would stop a repeat of that. 

BACK IN BEES-NESS: Sadly, our bees did not winter over, despite doing all the right things (making sure they had plenty of food, treating them for mites and insulating the hives).

I couldn't imagine a season without bees, so I found a "nuc" (a nucleus colony) on Craigslist. A trip to Federal Way and $200 later, and we're back in business.

While Christian was loading up the nuc, I watched bees land on our sunroof and pluck pollen off of wisteria blossoms.

After a little jaunt up Interstate 5, the bees have a new home.

As you can see, they have plenty of blossoms at the new place.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: We had company over for dinner last night.

That might not sound like such a remarkable thing, but 14 months into a worldwide pandemic, with so much isolation during the lockdowns, it was a huge departure.

I kept the menu simple. Rib eye steaks from Costco, garlic and Parmesan fingerling potatoes cooked in a cast iron pan and prosciutto wrapped organic asparagus.

CJ did a great job helping prepare the beautiful asparagus.

First, the spears were washed and trimmed. Next, prosciutto was laid out on the cutting board, and cut in half lengthwise. Atop that was a sprinkle of Parm, black pepper, and since lemon zest.

The spears were wrapped with the prosciutto and popped under the broiler for about 2.5 minutes per side (5 total).

They were absolutely delicious!!!

Here's a super short video showing the prep process.

Good Stuff

FRONDLY: Sunday was Mother's Day, and I was gifted a palm tree by Christian. It's only about four feet tall now, but some day, it could grow to 30 feet or so. It's still in its pot, which made it just tall enough for me to sit under for a few moments on sunny Monday. I pretended I was in the tropics for a bit. Christian joined me for a few. 

But to be honest, it wasn't too relaxing. There was a pair of little birdies who really didn't want us relaxing right there. They were keeping their beady eyes on us and got closer and closer. We figured they had a nest nearby. 

They were persistent so we got out of their hair - or feathers.

In other yard action, we are relocating the bee hive to our west yard that's full of clover. We discovered a couple of months ago that our bees didn't winter over, unfortunately. We're not sure what happened. The hive was well insulated and we had treated for mites.

What was really surprising was when Christian was taking it apart to move it, he didn't find a bunch of bee corpses in it. Somehow, they're all gone. We have to think something got into the hive and was a grave robber, because bee bodies wouldn't just disappear on their own. 

While cleaning the hive, Christian found a couple of huge honeycombs our dearly departed honeybees had built. Pretty impressive.

The weird ol' irises continue to pop up around the yard. They'll be gone as quickly as they came. Many of them are looking past-their-prime already.

In other random news, I have to park this link here: https://www.cameo.com/v/6087866ee9c065001d586bb7?utm_campaign=video_share_to_copy

It leads to my Mother's Day present from Rick and Ken, a personal video from Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-Wee Herman. 

I've been a fan of his since the early 1980s, when he used to appear on the David Letterman Show regularly. When I was very pregnant with Rick (in 1985), I went to see "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" in the theater and I laughed so hard, I thought I might go into labor. 

When Rick had a Halloween costume wedding, Christian and I dressed up as characters from that movie. I played Pee-Wee, who happened to be dressed as a woman in one scene, when he and Mickey, a convict, we trying to elude the police. (It strikes me I still have that turquoise sweater somewhere ...)

About the last public thing Christian, Annabelle, CJ, Kennedy and I did before the lockdown was go see Paul Reuben's one man show at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. He was charming, and it was downright poignant in parts. 

Anyway, what a funny, thoughtful gift, Rick and Ken gave me. 

SIGNED UP: Today was the first day new students could sign up for classes at Bellevue College for Fall 2021. That's when Annabelle is eligible to start Running Start (college as a high school-aged student), and so we were ready to pounce on that opportunity.

In doing some research, we learned the site would go live at 6 a.m., so by 5:59 this morning we were at her computer, ready to strike.

The early bird got the worm. Annabelle got the Japanese II class she was after (it's a tough seat to get, we were told). She also signed up for an intro to psychology class (potentially her major some day), and an English class.

I have to say, the website she was on to sign up looked like it was from the 1980s. Right after she registered, it crashed, hard. Fortunately, I think she's OK, as I do have an emailed receipt for paying her fees for the quarter. 

Now, the big question is will classes be in person or not? Time will tell. ...

Annabelle went back to bed after registering. I was way too awake, so I got a couple hours of work done while being flanked by a pair of snoring Havanese. 

FALLOUT: CJ is working hard in his World Cinema class. There's a lot to read, watch, and write. In hopes of getting a solid A, he's also doing extra credit. Recently he prepared this infographic talking about the impact of COVID on the film industry.

I hope you're able to read it. I tried to make it as big as I could. It might help to click on the individual images. 

Spaced Out

EYE SPY:  Irises are blooming all over our 'campus' at the moment. 

I have never understood irises. (Not that any flower really needs to be 'understood.') It's just that they are so bizarre, with their big, curling petals* and they occupy such a short window in the 'look at me' regard.  

Today we learned that there are some 300 or so species of irises, and that they take their name from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow (Iris.)

*We also learned that the iris' petals aren't all petals. Rather, the flower has six colorful lobes. The three inner lobes are, indeed, petals, while the three outer lobes are sepals. The petals stand upright and are sometimes called 'standards.'

NAILED IT: Yesterday afternoon, the kids and I spent some time watching history being made in two very different ways. On one channel we were monitoring the Mariners' horrible game where no one on their team managed to get even a single hit. That meant a no hitter for Baltimore Orioles' pitcher Means. 

In another tab, we were closely monitoring the launch of SpaceX's SN15. (SN stands for serial number, in case you were wondering.) We'd watched many an SN launch before, with the enormous silver rocket lifting off, doing a belly flop of sorts, and then attempting a landing. Previous attempts have resulted in pretty spectacular explosions following failed landings. 

However, yesterday was the day - the rocket stuck the landing!

Right afterward, a fire broke out on the landing pad at SpaceX's Starbase site in south Texas, and we worried the whole ship was going to go up in flames. Fortunately, the fire was controlled, and the landing was considered a success. Congrats, SpaceX!

SN is the rocket that's supposed to take astronauts to the moon someday. Coincidentally, Wednesday's uncrewed test occurred on the 60th anniversary of the United States' first-ever crewed spaceflight, the suborbital mission of NASA astronaut Alan Shepard.

BYE BYE, BENNU: On Monday, May 10, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will fire its thrusters and start a two-year trek back to planet Earth, which it left on September 8, 2016. On board OSIRIS-REx is precious cargo in the form of a sample of the asteroid it has called home since December 3, 2018. (Our names are also on board the craft!)

You can watch live coverage of the spacecraft’s departure from asteroid Bennu on NASA Television, the NASA App, and the agency’s website on Monday, May 10 at 1 p.m. Pacific time. 

The video below, from NASA Goddard and the University of Arizona, shows the OSIRIS-REx mission’s Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event. The sampling event brought the spacecraft all the way down to sample site Nightingale, and the team on Earth received confirmation of successful touchdown at 6:08 pm EDT on October 20, 2020. 

Preliminary data show the sampling head touched Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, after which the spacecraft performed a back-away burn.

You can learn more about the historic mission on its website: https://www.asteroidmission.org/

Some Fun

 

MONDAY NIGHT BASEBALL: The 2021 Major League Baseball season continues, and fans are still being allowed in the stands as of now, so we thought we were due to make another trip to T-Mobile Park for some Mariners baseball.

The first 3,000 in attendance were given free Kingdome caps. (The Kingdome is where the Mariners started when they were a brand new club back in 1977). We were there in time, and came home with four Kingdome caps.

It was raining out, so the retractable roof over the stadium was closed. 

We made our way to our nosebleed seats. We like those because there's no one sitting behind us talking about everything but baseball.

The kids forayed out for food once in awhile. Annabelle went all the way down to the main level to get pork wontons from Din Tai Fung. CJ went with the much easier to source garlic fries and chicken 'tenders.'

It was a fun night at the park, but not the Mariners' best effort, that's for sure. 

During the ninth inning, we made our way down to the main concourse to watch the rest of the game from a lot closer vantage point.

The Mariners are likely going to be about a .500 club again this year, but after not getting to go to a single game last year, we'll take what we can get. 

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: Last night, Annabelle had an opportunity to attend an online 

session that I happened to see thanks to a homeschool group email. She can tell you more about it. 

“How to Succeed at DMing Without Really Trying” was a panel hosted by the King County Library Systems on May 4^th, featuring multiple longtime DMs (Dungeons & Dragons dungeon masters) and employees of Wizards of the Coast, the parent company that owns and writes Dungeons and Dragons material. Panelists included Makenzie De Armas (@MakenzieLaneDA on Twitter), Sydney Adams (@Raini_Fro), James Haeck (@jamesjhaeck), and R. Boccamazzo, PsyD (@TheeDoctorB, @TakeThisOrg).

The panelists talked about their experiences as Dungeon Masters, and gave us all sorts of tips on how to make sure our games run smoothly. One of the major points of the Q&A was to not be afraid of improvising, and don’t over-prepare. The nature of tabletop roleplay means that the story can go almost any way you can think of, and even some you can’t imagine until they happen. As a DM, it’s part of your job to make sure that you allow and encourage this sort of creativity instead of locking your players down with the story you had in mind.

While this can be fun for the players, it’s also important to consider whether you’re having fun as the Dungeon Master. Contrary to popular belief, in a way, the DM is a player too. They want to have fun just as much as anyone else at the table, so if you find yourself being sidelined or becoming tired with the way things are going, it’s important to communicate how you feel with your players. You’re allowed to take breaks and make sure that nobody is being left out, including yourself.

A replay of the panel should be posted to the KCLS website with closed captions within a few days. If you’re interested in becoming a DM, already a DM that’s looking for some pointers, or even just a player that wants to support your own DM friend, I’d highly recommend giving it a watch!

YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS: Tuesdays have become something to look forward to during this pandemic, thanks to a sweet treat offered up by the kids' favorite ice cream and pinball place, Full Tilt.

On Tuesdays, a 3-scoop banana split is just $5, a good deal compared to prices there regularly. The running joke is that the place rarely has bananas, in which case the kids just get a sundae. But yesterday was a banner day - they actually had two bananas, so the kids each got one! 

The Full Tilt we go to is a bit of a hole in the wall, in an often rough-ish neighborhood called White Center. It's not much to look at, but they make mighty fine ice cream!