TESTING 1, 2, 3: How about that, the blog is still here!
I couldn't believe it when I looked and saw the past post was on June 1. I do believe this is the longest spell I have ever gone without posting.
Every morning I've been writing "BLOG" on the to do list, but every night I've been too darn tired to do it, it seems like. That, and we've been busy with a myriad of things, many of them having to do with CJ's finishing up his final quarter at South Seattle College.
Truth be told, I haven't felt well for, oh, a couple months or so now. It has been one thing after another. And it's still persisting. It's kind of to the point where one starts wondering if they'll ever feel good again. But I'm hanging in there, and hoping to turn the corner sooner, rather than later.
And so, the blog has suffered. Bottom line is I'm trying to get better physically, and trying to get back into the swing of things, including the blog. Wish me luck. :)
SEASIDE: Last weekend we went on a little trip. It was our third visit to the beach house down in Gearhart, Oregon, that Christian's grandfather had built back in 1941.
We arrived on a Friday and left on Monday morning. This trip, we had my parents along. It's nice to be around others thanks to being fully vaccinated.
We were blessed with partly sunny weather most of the time.
We took a little beach drive, and visited the wreck of the Peter Iredale again.
We spent some time puzzling, including working this relic from 1965.
I think this was my least favorite puzzle ever! The pieces were poorly cut, and the image was unattractive (to my eye). I was just happy all of the pieces were there.
We had some fine food, and actually dined in a restaurant for the first time in about 15 months.
We also cooked up some tasty stuff at the house.
And we got some take out. All thumbs up for Grizzly Tuna.
And, of course, we relaxed, as that's what one does at the beach, right?
STORIES: One of the things Annabelle worked on this week was a couple of stories on a platform called Vocal.media. We learned about it via a Facebook ad announcing a contest sponsored by Fiskars. People were encouraged to share stories about creating happiness that involve using scissors. You can go to Annabelle's profile and read her entries, "Stitch by Stitch" and "Sweet Dreams." Here's a link.
HIVE MINDING: Our 'new' bees seem to be happy with their digs. Christian recently inspected the hive and found lots of honey and brood.
We have clover all over for them to visit.
And our foxglove is a pretty source of pollen for them.
BY THE YARD: We've been spending lots of time in the great outdoors lately, as things are blooming, the lawn needs mowing, weeds are out of control, and we have dozens of vegetable starts to tend to.
We're happy to report the new colony seems to like its new location. Bees are buzzing about everywhere, and not just our honeybees. I have spied mason bees on our daisies, and bumblebees seem to live the ice succulents (see above). They flowers are so vibrant, they almost seem like they're neon lights. Check out how much pollen the bumblebee has packed on its haunches in the photo up top.
The Jerusalem sage are coming on strong. I just love these multi-tiered wonders.
According to Wikipedia, "Phlomis fruticosa, the Jerusalem sage, is a species of flowering plant in the sage family Lamiaceae, native to Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Turkey, and countries of the former Yugoslavia. It is a small evergreen shrub, up to 1 m tall by 1.5 m wide."
Wonder how these foreign flowers wound up in a Skyway yard. I've not seen them before we moved here nearly four years ago.
I love this California poppy that popped up in a crack in our driveway. Quite the hardly little flower!
FLY BY: This USA TODAY headline caught my eye first thing this morning: "Potentially hazardous? An asteroid the size of the Space Needle will pass near the Earth on Tuesday."
Naturally, in my mind's eye, I saw a Space Needle whizzing by in the sky over our house. That would be something to see!
According to the article, "A massive asteroid is expected to whiz by Earth in a relatively close encounter – 4.5 million miles – on Tuesday, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory." The asteroid's official name is 2021 KT1. It's about 600 feet long, which is about the same height as the Space Needle.
It earned NASA's “potentially hazardous object” classification due to it being larger than 492 feet and passing within 4.6 million miles of Earth. That sounds far off, but apparently it's a bit of a buzz when talking space distances.
MONDAY FUN DAY: We spent a sunny Monday afternoon at a Mariners matinee. It was a MUCH more fun day at the ballpark than the last time we went, when the Mariners were no-hit.
We had $10 seats in the bleachers under the massive scoreboard in centerfield. They are part of a promotion where fully vaccinated people get a cheap seat, a free t-shirt, and 20 percent off at concession stands and the team store.
We made our way into the stadium, entering at the home plate gate.
We walked around the concourse to the right-centerfield spot where we got our special wristbands and those allowed us to head down to the bullpen area of the stadium - without a mask (gasp!). We posted up at a stand up bar along the Mariners bullpen and wound up staying there until the ninth inning. It was a great view, we were in the shade and it was interesting to watch the bullpen goings on for the entire game. We'd never done that before.
I had to laugh when I saw the 'batter' in the bullpen yesterday. I said to the kids, "No wonder the Mariners can't hit. They don't even remember to bring their bats."
By the way, the Mariners' team batting average is .205 right now. That is absolutely abysmal.
While watching the pitchers work out, I thought someone should go out to the bullpen and take notes/video and post the warm ups/workouts to YouTube. I'll bet a "Major League Work Out" video would get a lot of views.
Standing in the bullpen gave the kids easy access to some concession stands they've been eager to patronize. They had legit looking Lil Woody's burgers for lunch.
And Salt and Straw for dessert. Both were reportedly delicious.
People tend to come and go in the bullpen area during the game. At one point I turned around and there was a large-ish group of tall, thin young men standing behind me. I noticed a couple of them had UW shirts on and a couple of them had 'champion' shirts on. I realized it was the UW men's crew team who just won the national championship a couple of days ago.
The Mariners had a 4-12lead going into the 8th inning, but then they brought in a certain pitcher that seems to blow it every time I watch him pitch. Yesterday was no exception. Sigh. When his 'work' was done, it was a tie game. Ugh. The 'reliever' wasn't helped by the guy who followed him, JT Chargois, who managed to BALK in the tying run. Double ugh.
I've always told the kids, when you go to a game, you never know what you're going to see. Believe you me, none of us have ever seen a run balked in before. (In case you're wondering what a balk is, there's a quick video here: )
Neither team scored in the ninth, so it was on to extra innings.
We decided to go ahead and start walking around the main concourse toward home plate and our exit.
We lingered for a little near the left field foul pole.
We wound up standing, and then sitting, on the main concourse up above third base.
When the Oakland As scored a run in the top of the 10th, truth be told, I thought that was it for the Mariners' chances. However,
As we headed into the bottom of 10th, Annabelle reminded us all to don our 'rally caps' to 'help' the Mariners win. We dutifully did so.
ON THE WEBB: Email from the European Space Agency reminded us that launch day for the International James Webb Space Telescope is growing nearer. Right now, the target launch date (atop an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana) is expected to be on Halloween this fall.
In the meantime, the ESA is encouraging people to partake in creating James Webb inspired creative projects by making a spacecraft or rocket representing the mission using everyday household items. Once that's done, "Share your missions ‘launching’ on your social media accounts using the #WebbAtHome hashtag (Twitter or Instagram) or via private message to ESA’s Facebook account. For the creations that make us smile the most, we’ll send a package of ESA and Webb mission goodies."
REHOMING: Earlier this week, we finally decided it was time to 'rehome' a couple dozen of our extra tomato and tomatillo plants.
We loaded them up into a couple of big aluminum trays and put then down by our communal mailbox with stickers encouraging passersby to take some home with them.
We left the trays out for about 24 hours, and all but a half dozen disappeared in that time.
They look pretty healthy, don't they? And how do you like my eclectic collection of 'pots'? I had to get creative with the containers, we had so many plants.
Today, Christian took the leftovers and left them out for co-workers to take.
PLAY THE GAME: We managed to squeeze in a couple new-to-us games this week. One was Fantasy Fluxx. We own numerous Flux games of various themes (everything from Star Trek to pirates, Christmas to chemistry).
We also played a card game called Dungeon Mayhem. It's a quick-to-learn little game where your character is trying to kill off other players' characters.
CJ enjoyed being a barbarian.
In the end, I outlasted my opponents, so I liked the new game. ;)
QUIET TIME: A dearth of news from MPA this week. Apologies. It's not that we haven't been doing anything, it's just that we've been doing lots of things, including some super Not Fun things for at least one of us - namely me. I had two gnarly dentist appointments this week, plus a couple of other issues, and wasn't exactly at the top of my game. That, and Laika is limping around with an injury. Unfortunately, $500 and no diagnosis, that's still a mystery. Hopefully things will be on the upswing soon. The kids are staying busy with classes. Tonight, Annabelle had her weekly Gage for Teens session, while the rest of us we watched a movie for CJ's World Cinema class. The movie was a Colombian film, "Birds of Passage."
Here's a trailer if you want to check it out.
The movie covers a span of nearly 20 years, showing the genesis of an indigenous Wayuu family becomes involved in the booming Colombian drug trade of the 1970s, and how that affects nearly every aspect of their lives as the entanglement progresses over time.
It is definitely not a 'feel good' movie by any means. Rather, it's one of those where you start muttering, "This isn't going to end well," about a third of the way in. The film chronicles the sad descent into violence and a changed way of life for those involved.
APPLYING THEMSELVES: With spring quarter winding down, and fall a few weeks away, there's been talk of the kids trying to find some summer work. So, we've spent a few hours updating their resumes and crafting cover letters. CJ sent out his first application on Thursday, and today he already had an email asking for an interview at a museum next week. Cool!
Annabelle will likely make her first online application tomorrow. She's targeting artsy opportunities to start out.
SUMMER FUN: News about free, fun activities for students to do over the summer thanks to the National Air and Space Museum came via email this week. The museum has opened up all of their "Anytime Expeditions" to everyone effective May 24, 2021. You can find the resources for these activities, which are designed for different grade bands from grades 1-12, at:
To see what's available, you scroll down to the program you are interested in, and press the "+" next to "Related Resources" to access the activities for that program.
SPYING IRISES: Midday Saturday we took a quick field trip to a place just a couple of blocks to our north, Leonine Iris. We'd noticed the place on walks through the neighborhood shortly after moving here almost 4 years ago. We'd admired their smallish front yard, which is packed with Pacific Northwest irises. Little did we know, that's just a small part of their collection, which runs through both side yards and encompasses their entire backyard, as well.
Thanks to a post on Nextdoor, we learned that every Saturday in May, Leonine Iris has open garden tours, so we stopped by for a visit.
A slice of the back yard, looking back toward the house.
According to their website, www.leonineiris.com, their primary focus is on Pacific Coast Iris, "although we grow a significant representation of all other types of iris as well. Our ultimate goal is to create a living archive to preserve as many of the older Pacific Coast Iris hybrids as possible. We currently grow over 350 named PCI hybrids, along with many as yet unregistered seedlings, and are constantly seeking to expand the collection."
There were labels next to each iris. Apologies that I didn't get photos of them. You'll just have to guess what kind each of these are. ;) That, or go to Leonine Iris' website, where they have photos and labels for most all of their irises.
I like the edge of the petals on this one.
Check out these almost black buds!
Such strange flowers!
Annabelle amidst the irises, in one corner of the back yard.
I love how the veins on this iris pop. (I realize they're probably not called veins, but I'll be you know what I mean.)
The one below almost looks like a pair of eyes, a mouth, and a fancy nose.
There were so many bumblebees in the gardens! Bumblebees must really love irises.
The next two have colors of a sunrise or sunset.
Pretty spectacular.
Lots of pinks and purples in the gardens.
I thought it funny that the iris below is called "Oregon Watercolor" when it's Washington Husky colors.
Some of my favorite flowers in the garden weren't even irises. Check out these cute little blossoms on the Kalmia shrub. They kind of look like candy to me.
I figured I *had* to include a photo of one of the irises growing in our yard. Another interesting blend of purple and yellow/gold on one flower. I have to wonder if whoever planted it was a Husky fan.
FAMILIAR FACE: On Thursday morning, we watched par of a hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee. The Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States, led by Chair Teresa Leger Fernández, was hosting a legislative hearing on the RESPECT Act and STOP Act. The two bills require the federal government to engage in meaningful consultation with federally recognized tribes to prohibit the export of sacred Native items and increase the penalties for illegal trafficking. The hearing was of interest for more than one reason. FIrst, preserving Native artifacts is an important topic, second because CJ is studying Native Americans in his current Pacific Northwest History class, and third, my cousin Lauren van Schilfgaarde, an attorney and who is a member of the Cochiti Pueblo tribe, was testifying. It was interesting to hear about the bills and the work being done on this matter. You can see the hearing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP8lSl7n1is
FEEDING TEENS: This Saturday was the fourth of the month, so for us, that meant prepping a whole lot of food for Teen Feed.
The menu was inspired by a summer picnic: Fried chicken, potato salad, macaroni salad, baby carrots with ranch dip, and a choice of strawberry shortcake or Oreo chocolate mousse. (I suspect some guests had both kinds of dessert.)
CJ and Annabelle helped, of course. CJ cut 15 cups of strawberries.
Annabelle helped fill over 90 little ramekins with ranch, for dipping carrots in.
We fired up the Flair and baked up about 80 shortcakes, including gluten free and vegan options.
We picked up 196(!) pieces of chicken from a store in White Center. You can imagine how my car smelled after driving around for about 45 minutes with that much fried chicken on board.
The dinner went well, and before long we'll be thinking about a menu to serve for next month.
PARTING SHOT: Kirby, living her best life. And this is *after* the haircut, I kid you not.
