Food and Fun

 

FANCY CAMPING:  Last week Christian and Annabelle headed down to Cottage Grove, Oregon, for a family camp out. (CJ had to work.) Annabelle was only able to stay for two nights due to her work schedule. She flew home from Eugene on Tuesday evening. Christian came home on Friday. It sounds like they had a nice time and that it was lots of fun. It was extra special because there was no annual trip last year due to darn COVID-19.

One night at camp, Christian managed to make 34 steaks for dinner. That's a lot of beef! We got the steaks ready ahead of time, here at home. We seasoned them and then vacuum packed them. He cooked them in a big brewing bucket using our sous vide. It's such an easy way to cook steak to a perfect 132 degrees (medium rare). Then he flash seared them on each side. Yum! He also made a green bean salad for the campers. The kids and I washed and cut the beans and I gave them a quick, short boil. Then they were combined with grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, feta cheese and a Greek dressing. A healthy, summery salad. He reports the dinner was a big hit. Kudos to him for pulling that off! 

How did it get to the be back half of July already? Time is flying by, and for a lot of it, I'm behind the wheel of a car, driving CJ and Annabelle to and from work. I guess I didn't quite realize how time consuming that would be. There have been many days where I've spent more than two hours driving them around. But that's OK. It's great that they are each experiencing their first summer jobs.

Annabelle received her first paycheck recently. That was a memorable moment. 

MEGA MESS: While Christian was camping, I took on the front yard. Well, not the whole yard, but the really big planting bed that stretches from our front door down to the street. In the photo below, only about 1/4 of the garden is showing. 

I was on a mission to pull out hundreds and hundreds of daisies. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a daisy hater, but they had completely taken over the space. I didn't learn until recently that perennial daisies have a fibrous root systems that continue to grow for years, even as newer roots develop.

Given that, I have no doubt that despite my pulling every last daisy out last week, they'll be back next year, at least to some degree. I mean, yes, I did dig and did pull up as much of their roots as I could, but there are still plenty more in the ground, I have no doubt.

In the end, I filled eight 30-gallon yard debris bags. That's a lot of dead daisies. 

PAINTING PROJECT: This last Saturday was our neighborhood block party. We ended up putting in a lot of hours to help make it happen, hauling tables and chairs, cups and condiments, plates and napkins, and providing all of the burgers and hot dogs and dozens of buns. 

Oh, and we made cookies. I decided to go with a Seattle sports team theme. So we made Kraken, Sonics, Seahawks, Storm, Mariners, Sounders, and Huskies cookies. 

It was a ton of work, but very appreciated. 

Below is a work-in-progress shot, including moose who need eyes and detail work, some blank slates, and the Sounders cookies Annabelle painted. 

I really loved the Kraken cookies (the big S and anchor) and the Seahawks' eye that Annabelle painted.

There was one woman at the party who came up to me and said, "I was walking with a friend today and I told her I had to cut it short, because I had a block party to go to and there are these people who bring cookies." 

That made me chuckle. 

Space and Daisies

SUN TIMES: This week shall be declared The War of the Daisies. There are hundreds and hundreds of them lining our driveway and  beyond. When we first moved in - four years ago this week - the daisies popping up here and there in mid summer were a nice surprise.

Now, they basically have overtaken the whole front planting bed, from street to front door, and some of them - in fact, most of them -  simply have to go. The photo above is just a four foot swath of what is about 40 feet of driveway to door daisies, plus the depth of the bed from the driveway to the front yard retaining wall or our front door ranges from three to about 15-feet. 

If you do a little Googling you find out that daisies have a fibrous root system. Basically, they grow like grass. To quote one site, "...  perennials have roots that continue to grow for years, even as newer roots develop."

Super.

For the past three days, I've spent a couple of hours or more a day battling the daisy invaders. 

All the while, I can't help but wonder if all my sweaty efforts will seem for naught next spring, when those fibrous roots start ramping up again. I mean, sure, I'm digging like crazy and working SUPER hard to get as much/many of the roots I can, but the network is ridiculous. I feel like I'm getting *maybe* 50 percent.  Time will tell. 

In happier garden news, we have a 4-plus foot sunflower about to come to fruition. 

                                  

And a wee little sunflower planted from a seed has already blossomed for us.

SO SPACED OUT: We made sure to tune in early Sunday morning for the manned flight of Spaceship Two, with Virgin Galatic's Richard Branson on board. 

Branson has been trying to get to space for what feels like decades. With the successful flight of SpaceShip Two, Virgin Galactic has finally made a giant leap toward commercial suborbital spaceflight. 

This flight was nearly two-decades in the making. It was 2004 when Richard Branson first announced Virgin Galactic.

Branson was joined by three crewmates and two pilots for the historic flight, dubbed Unity 22, which started when SpaceShip Two was carried by Virgin Galactic's enormous plane VMS Eve. This mission was the 22nd flight of Unity, but only the craft's fourth launch to the edge of space. 

The take off and landing were at the company's homeport of Spaceport America near Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The craft flew to an altitude above 50 miles (80 km), which NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. military officially classify as space. Given that, each person on board earned "astronaut wings." 

You can watch a reply of CNBC's coverage of the event here:

Virgin Galactic already has a roster of future customers, many of whom have already reserved trips to space at $250,000 a seat. Paid passenger flights are expected to commence in 2022, after a few more test flights.

If you want to hop on board but dropping a quarter million dollars isn't in the cards for you, consider entering a contest to win a seat on an upcoming mission (deadline to enter is August 31, 2021). Link here: https://www.omaze.com/products/virgin-galactic-2021

Meanwhile, Boeing's Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is taking off soon. Scheduled to lift off on  Friday, July 30 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 11:53 a.m. West Coast (US) time, Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 is the CST-100 Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test. If all goes as planned, it will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. 

The uncrewed mission will test the capabilities of Starliner and \ United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket from launch to docking to a return of the capsule to Earth in the desert of the western U.S.  While there won't be any humans on board, Rosie the Rocketeer, Boeing’s anthropometric test device, will be in the commander’s seat inside the Starliner for its second uncrewed Orbital Flight Test.

You can register online to follow along with the mission here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nasas-boeing-oft-2-launch-registration-159640257307?aff=invite

Home and Garden

HOW GROWS IT?: It's been awhile since we've posted any campus garden photos. 

We have dozens of tiny green tomatoes on the vine and plenty of blossoms, as well. It will be interesting to see what they eventually produce. We kind of (well, entirely, actually) lost track of what's planted where, so it will all be a surprise in the end.

Yesterday Annabelle and I transplanted the pepper plants, which seem to be doing pretty darn well. Peppers don't usually really thrive in Seattle gardens, so we'll see what happens with these. 

We have one lone dahlia bush along the driveway. The early June heat was hard on it, but it has managed three OKish blossoms.

These popped up along the driveway, as well. I don't recall them from years past. Google Lens tells us it's Mirabilis jalapa, also known as "the marvel of Peru" or "four o'clock flower." The latter name is apt as its flowers usually open from late afternoon or at dusk (between 4 and 8 p.m.).

Wikipedia reports it's "the most commonly grown ornamental species of Mirabilis plant, and is available in a range of colours. Mirabilis in Latin means wonderful and Jalapa (or Xalapa) is the state capital of Veracruz in México."  

The plant arrived in Europe in the early 1500s. I have no idea how or when it wound up along our driveway.

And then out of nowhere this four- to five-foot tall giant goldenrod offered itself up this season. 

According to the website illinoiswildflowers.info, "This perennial wildflower is 3-7' tall and largely unbranched, except at the apex, where the flowering stalks occur."

According to the Heart of Uwchlan (a township in Pennsylvania) website, "Goldenrods are an important fall nectar source for many pollinators including the Monarch butterfly, so it is unfortunate that these fall blooming natives are mistakenly blamed for hay fever. The pollen of Goldenrods is transported by insects. The pollen is not airborne does not cause pollen related allergies. Goldenrods are a critical habitat species in the fall landscape. Include them in the garden and landscape for their important ecosystem services as well as their glowing beauty!"

So, I guess we'll let the volunteer goldenrod stay.

We brought some of the outdoors indoors in the form of daises, of which we have hundreds.

They seem just perfect for my VW convertible planter.

ON THE MOVE: Yesterday when I was out watering, I noticed a *lot* of activity around one of our hives. Eventually, the bees started flying in a familiar tornado like cloud, and I knew they were swarming. Our westernmost hive is overpopulated, so the queen and hundreds of her minions took off, looking for more space.

Fortunately, they didn't go far. They would up clumping in one of our umbrella trees. 

Christian rigged up a way to try to get them into a box. The trick is you have to get the queen, so that the rest of the swarm follows. He tried yesterday afternoon, but apparently didn't get the queen, because the bees in the box returned to the tree. He tried again this morning, and the bees seem to be streaming into the box, so it seems like he captured the queen this time. Now, we need to get them into a new hive.

NICE BUNS: Yesterday we had company over for dinner on short notice, so we went with a super easy menu, burgers and brats. 

They were kind enough to bring the meat, so we made a big ol' batch of potato salad and Annabelle made some homemade hamburger buns.

She found a recipe online that promised it was simple and would take only 40 minutes.

We topped some of the dough balls with black sesame seed furikake, and others with Maldon salt.

They looked terrific fresh out of the oven. I didn't eat any, but others report they were great.

I found this video from the Guenther Bakery in Belgium about how they make 1.5 million (!) buns a day.

 

Working It

ON THE JOB: This past week brought a few firsts around MPA, as CJ and Annabelle each started their very first summer jobs.

They each have impressive resumes with a long, strong history of volunteer work, but now they are both eager to earn some money. They each applied to a few different opportunities, and they each wound up finding what appears to be a good fit.

Annabelle is now employed by King County Parks and Recreation. She is working as an aide for their Sack Lunch Program. Part of her duties involve helping make sure kids get healthy, nutritious lunches even though school is out. The program also has an arts and crafts component, so she helps assembly take home art kits. 

Annabelle's workplace is Steve Cox Memorial Park in White Center, which is just south of West Seattle. As part of her work she'll also be making tutorials for craft projects. At some point, those will wind up on a YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, CJ was offered a guest services position with the Seattle Mariners. That means when the Ms are in town, he's at the stadium, helping in a variety of customer service roles. 

Before he could even start the job, we had to go buy black pants, a black belt, and all black work shoes. I pointed out to CJ that meant before he earned a dime, there was an outlay of about $100. I pointed out to him that for some people, that is a real barrier to employment. How do you get the job if you can't look the part? 

Back when I used to work for WorkFirst, we would help job seekers get clothing vouchers. And while that was helpful, it could be a days-long process. That's not something that is going to work for some job opportunities where they'll hire you if you can start right away. Anyway, I realize I digress, but I just wanted to point out the realities for some people who are less fortunate.

CJ already has some entertaining stories from his first couple of days on the job. Guess that's bound to happen when your work involves interfacing with thousands of people each shift.

RED, WHITE AND BLUE: Speaking of the ballpark, we went to a Mariners game last Friday night. It was a notable occasion because it was the first time the stadium has been open (no COVID restrictions on seating) since the 2019 season. 

To celebrate, they had hundreds of tickets on the main level for $17.76, which is less than half their usual cost. So we snagged some of those and enjoyed the scene.

The weather was perfect, and our seats were great. We don't sit on the first base side of the ballpark hardly ever, but I remembered that at some point, the setting sun would shine through an ingress tunnel 

At one point, when he was on a break, CJ stopped by for a couple of minutes.

Christian also spotted him 'in the wild' at the top of the home plate seats.

It was a looooooong darn game, "thanks," in part, to a number of errors by Mariners' players. But they fought their way through, the game went into extra innings, and they won in the bottom of the 10th - four hours and nineteen minutes after the first pitch.

So, it was nearly 11:30 when the game ended, and then it was time for the big fireworks show!

During the ninth inning, we'd headed out to some outfield seats so that we could see the show better (where we were before, our seats were under an overhang that would have impeded our view).

It was fun sitting out there, as well. It almost felt like we were standing in the outfield!

I have to think Annabelle and Kennedy's rally caps helped the Mariners in the 10th.

Eventually the pyrotechnics got started. They did not disappoint.

 

Feeding Teens

HELL'S KITCHEN: Last Saturday night's Teen Feed was one to remember. 

It was 101 F when Christian and I each parked next to the Teen Feed kitchen in the U-District. "Why two cars?" you wonder. Because we needed all that space to transport all of the food and water needed for that night's service. 

Usually several people bring their donations to the kitchen and drop them off. But this month the vast majority of people on our team were out of town, so we ended up bring most everyone's food for them. 

In addition to the volume of food we had to haul, we had SIX coolers full of sparkling water on ice. A couple of days before Teen Feed, one of the volunteers called me and suggested that we double up on the water this weekend because of the temperatures. What a wonderful thought she had, so we bought LOTS (about 3x the usual amount), and thanks to another bonus donation, we bought plenty of ice to make it super chilly for the teens. (In fact, we bought the last 8 bags of ice to be had at any store in our neighborhood.) 

Speaking of water, shortly after we pulled up, a huge truck parked behind us and the driver said he had some water for Teen Feed. He was by himself and asked if we could help unload it and another truck that arrived just after. "Of course!" we said. Tonight I actually did the math.  We helped move about TWO THOUSAND POUNDS of water in that heat. (By the way, that water was hot, so it was really great we had the super chilled water for our service.) So, that was the work before the work in the kitchen. (And I don't mean to complain - that unexpected water donation for Teen Feed was kind and significant, it just wasn't on our planned 'to do' list yesterday!)

Back to our business! Saturday night's main entree was Seattle dogs: Huge Costco-food-court sized dogs on over-sized buns slathered in copious amounts of cream cheese, generously topped with caramelized onions.  I am here to tell you - because no less than four Teen Feed folks told me -  that entrée is crowd favorite. CJ spent pretty much the whole shift slathering cream cheese onto the buns. An important job, I think. :)

Beans are the perfect side for Seattle Dogs. Kennedy cooked up a couple of big, bacony batches. I made about 20 cups of mega meaty pork and beans, as well. (By the way, we always have vegan versions available for folks if they request that.) 

We also had dill pickle spears for everyone, and dessert was extra special! Volunteers cooked up beautiful cobblers, which Annabelle cut up and topped with whipped cream. 

The bonus treat was frozen ice cream cups and yogurt bars.  Kennedy was kind enough to hunt down the last frozen delights to be had at a Safeway on his way to Teen Feed. 

We thought turn out might be slow due to the heat, but we were wrong. Between Teen Feed to go and making meals for the overnight Roots shelter, we served up 108 hot dogs Saturday night, plus the great sides and desserts! This comfort and sustenance was made possible by many generous donations and sponsorships. Thank you to all who helped!

This laminated sign gave us a chuckle. There are actually two of them in the kitchen.

I have to add that we had a little 'excitement' when loading the car. It was SO hot out, that I suggested that we employ a bucket brigade method of loading, so that we weren't all running up and down the stairs repeatedly. I was at the top of the stairs, Annabelle was a couple steps down, and CJ was down farther. Everything was going great, until the condiment hand off, when there was a 'little' miscue between CJ and Annabelle.

Have you ever wondered what it sounds like when 80 little plastic ramekins you've filled with jalapeno pepper rings tumbles down a flight of stairs? I don't have to wonder any more, unfortunately.  :/

Fortunately, that was the worst thing that happened related to that meal service.

Sweltering in Place

HOT STUFF: We've been in the throes of a record setting heat wave. We are sooooo pleased that one of our pandemic projects last summer was installing a heat pump here on 'campus.' (And by "we", I mean Christian. He really did it all by himself, and says it was the most challenging home improvement project he's ever undertaken.)

Here's a graphic from the National Weather Service regarding the recent heat.

On Sunday, we checked out a new ice cream place not too far from our house, and then decided to swing by a couple of nearby waterfront parks we'd never visited before.

These ducks were enjoying the cool waters of southwest Lake Washington, at Beer Sheva Park. (Beer Sheva Park was named for Beer Sheva, Israel, one of Seattle's International Sister Cities).

And then just a few block to the north, there were hundreds of people trying to beat the heat at Pritchard Island Beach.

PRESIDENTIAL: The latest Dean's and President's list honorees are out from South Seattle College. CJ is still in the president's column, which represents students who have achieved a 3.8 or higher cumulative GPA and have accumulated 30 or more credits at South Seattle College.

Well done, CJ! He worked very hard to earn that distinction.

Just today I dropped CJ's official high school transcript into the mail to UW Tacoma. Bet it's the only one they get sealed with colorful ice cream bars printed on washi tape, ha ha.

THE OLD BALL GAME: I never did get around to posting any pictures from the fantastic Father's Day game at the ballpark.

T-Mobile park is inching back toward a full open (that happens July 2).  On Father's Day, we sat in a vaccinated fans only section, which meant there wasn't social distancing or seats in 'pods.'

Even given that, we still didn't have anyone RIGHT next to us, which was nice.

The weather was perfect, we had fantastic seats, and the Mariners won in extra innings. You really couldn't have asked for a better day.

Before the game, we did the obligatory mitt photo. Once upon a time, CJ and Annabelle could fit in it at the same time.

Speaking of T-Mobile Stadium, back on June 19, it was lighted up for Juneteenth, as was Lumen Field (formerly CenturyLink). We thought that was pretty cool.