The Little Prince

SWEET SOMETHING: So, you know how Facebook tracks your every keystroke and puts things in your feed that it knows will appeal to you? Well, a couple of weeks ago, out of 'nowhere,' a notice of something called an Edible Book Festival popped up in my feed.

It was being held by an arts council in the common space outside a huge, awesome bookstore about a half hour north of our place. The call was for entrants to make something edible based on a book. My first thought was, "That's really cool we should do that!" That thought was immediately followed by, "That's stupid, we have enough going on and that would take lots of time." 

I went back and forth on it for a couple of days and then, just minutes before the deadline, hopped onto the event's website and committed the kids to doing something for the event, figuring it would be good language arts and creative arts education, not to mention math (the baking).

And so, then the question was, what to do? Part of the contest was encouraging participants to be 'punny.' 

I Googled 'classic children's books,' and one title jumped off the screen at me immediately. I asked the kids how the felt about doing a cake based on The Little Prince, a classic by French aristocrat, writer, poet, and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Naturally, the obvious pun there was replacing the original book's character with one Prince Rogers Nelson, or just "Prince" to most of the world. He, the diminutive rocker of "Purple Rain" and other fame.

The kids were all over that and so on Wednesday, they began work on their project. One of the first orders of business was building a little Prince. Below, Annabelle plays shoemaker. You can see the shirts and pants are already crafted.

Both of the kids worked on Prince heads. When you're doing something like this, you always want to have multiple body parts. Annabelle made six pairs of shoes, we had three pairs of pants, two shirts, three heads, extra hair parts. ...

It goes without saying, faces are always the hardest part.

 Here are a couple of reject heads!

CJ handled the bulk of the baking. After deciding on a purple velvet cake, the kids looked online for recipes. Because they'r experienced bakers, they have a good sense for what a recipe will taste like by looking at it. They selected a phenomenally-reviewed red velvet cake recipe from the New York Times. 

And as a nod to Prince's song "Raspberry Beret," the kids made a raspberry puree filling. It was SO, SO good! Here's the filling between the asteroid layers.

Getting the lettering right was tricky. The kids tried a few different techniques, including letters out of fondant. But, those looked like crap.

We couldn't help but eye the Cricut machine sitting on our dining room table. We had used sugar sheets before, and wondered if you could stick one of those into the machine for precision cutting, just like we cut designs from cardstock. Annabelle did the research and found out that it maybe might probably work.

And sure enough, it did!

They also used the machine to cut a medallion like the one on the front of "The Little Prince," and to cut some cool Prince symbols (representing that time frame where he used it instead of his name when he was in a battle with his record company).

On the medallion, Annabelle carefully wrote the first line from one of Prince's biggest hits, "Let's Go Crazy."  As people made the rounds at the show, the hardcore Prince fans saw that little detail and were SO happy. One woman even gave the kids high fives after reading it. :)

Below you see Prince parts, ready to make the trip up to Bothell, where the show was held.

Setting the cake up on site took about 45 minutes. The kids had to make repairs to the sheet cake layer, put the asteroid atop that, and then get Prince up on the asteroid.

 At 11 o'clock they were ready for the show!

As you can see in the photo below, their cake attracted a crowd! 

The kids stood next to their cake for two hours, answering dozens and dozens of questions about ingredients and techniques. They explained how they used gumpaste, fondant, buttercream, sugar sheets, and more. It was fun for them to get so much positive feedback following their hours of work. And they made it clear to those asking that they did, indeed, do the work themselves.

The kids' hard work paid off. Not only did they win a judge's award for "most book like," but they won the coveted People's Choice award.

After the awards ceremony, entrants cut up and served up their entries to share with the public. 

The kids' cake was so big, they had plenty to share. CJ was THRILLED that they had enough to bring some home. Below, he's ready to cut into the asteroid.

 Look at that lovely dark purple shade CJ made for the cake!

 The slice was a thing of beauty on the plate!

And I have to attest that the cake was So, SO GOOD! I don't even like cake, really, and this stuff was amazing! Great recipes, properly executed.

I also caught some snaps of a few other entries. I liked this "Eagle Has Landed" entry. It looked tasty!

 This gardening-themed entry was appealing.

The entry below won people's choice for adult entrants. The competitor even rewrote the book (upper left corner).

 This flower-themed entry was really pretty.

 And the cute cake below, "Little Mouse on the Berry," won an award, as well. 

 I loved "The Old Man and the Sea." It was very punny and well executed.

Some entries were super simple, like this one, below. I have to admit, though, I shuddered when people started dishing it up when it had been sitting at room temp for nearly three hours. #foodsafety

I loved the range of ages involved in the competition. This Quidditch ring was totally recognizable. 

 And there were many other clever entries from people of all ages. 

Following is CJ's recap of the endeavor. ... 

For about three days, I worked on, and assisted with, the making of a cake for the Edible Book Festival, hosted at the Third Place Books store in Shoreline. The contest involved making a cake based on a pun with a book's title. For our submission, my sister and I submitted a cake titled The Little Prince.

The Little Prince is an iconic French children's book about a boy who lived on an asteroid. However, our cake was a pun on that, replacing the titular prince with Prince Rogers Nelson (better known as just Prince), a famous musician.
I baked the purple velvet cakes used as the base for the decorations. I followed a New York Times red velvet cake recipe, slightly altered to be a purple velvet cake (as in the Prince album and song Purple Rain). The cake was double-layered (meaning I baked it twice using the same pan), with a raspberry pureé between the layers.

As the cover of The Little Prince features an asteroid, I used the same recipe to make the interior of the asteroid, which would be covered in fondant.

And below are Annabelle's impressions. ... 

Third Place Books, a local bookstore technically located in Third Place Commons, holds an annual event where members of the community bring in “edible books”- puns on book titles, represented by food. There are two categories- adult, and youth. Most submissions are cakes, but there are other fun puns and ideas too. This year’s event was very well organized, with around 3 or 4 dozen entries total. The categories for prizes were “Most Pun-derful”, “Most Book-like”, “Most visually Appealing”, and the “People’s Choice”, with 1 winner each from both the adult and the youth submissions.

The cake we submitted, “The Little Prince” featured an adaption of the original book cover with a spherical asteroid cake on top- however, in our rendition, the titular Prince was replaced with another Prince completely- Prince, the singer famous for songs like “Purple Rain”, “1999”, and “Let’s Go Crazy”. The cake took around 3 days to make, including baking (which CJ did most of) and making things like fondant and buttercream from scratch. The main focal point of the cake is a gum paste figure of Prince that we stood on top of the asteroid. It took a lot of tweaking, bad gum paste, and breaking of pieces, but he ended up making it to the end of the event safe and sound.

Some of my favorite submissions to the event were “Fork Diaries: How to Fork Your Diary” (“Dork Diaries: How to Dork Your Diary”, a DIY entry into the Dork Diaries book series), “Little Mouse on the Berry” (a cute pun of “Little House on the Prairie” with impressive homemade macaroons), and “Red E Layer One” (a riff on “Ready Player One”) in the youth category, and “Goodnight Buffoon” (“Goodnight Moon”, featuring a rewritten version appropriate to the United States’ 45^th president, who was featured scowling on the cake), “Hickory Daiquiri, Doc” (inspired by the classic “Hickory Dickory Dock” poem), and “Old Man and the ‘C’” (A beautifully crafted, obviously very time-intensive version of Ernest Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea”).

Most of the cakes I mentioned did end up winning awards, and ours actually won two (People’s Choice and Most Book-like)! Every winner got a certificate and $10 gift card to Third Place Books! The event is annual, and even a small treat has a great chance of winning if you do it right! Plus, even if you don’t enter, it’s extra fun to just come and look at some of the entries. Cakes aren’t the only accepted entries, either. So if you’ve got a favorite book or great pun in mind, give it a try! There may even be a similar event at a library or bookstore near you!

Space Lift

GOING UP: On Thursday morning, MPA's student body took a field trip to Seattle's #1 landmark, the Space Needle. 

It certainly wasn't their first visit there, but it was a trip like no other, as they got to get an up close look at the Space Needle's extensive, expensive remodel underway. 

Annabelle can tell you a bit more about it. ... 

The Space Needle, as it’s written on the banners that cover scaffolding on the observation deck and on the ground, is getting a “Spacelift”. Around the “Space Base” gift shop is where it’s most apparent, with small hallways made of black fabric stretched between metal piping. 

Our field trip was escorted through those and past lines by an employee, and we walk single-file up the stairs to see the bag check now blocked by two metal detectors. One by one, we slowly make our way through and pack the elevators to the observation deck.

Once we reach the top, it smells like fresh kettle corn- which we soon see popping- and sawdust from the circular saw we can hear from past the plywood. 

The outside has been opened since last time, but you still can’t access half of the needle through the locked, temporary wooden door.

The glass panes that have been installed are at least an inch and a half thick, and there are three of them glued on top of each other for each section of window.

The weather outside is cold and misty, not lending much to the view that would normally be there had it not been for clouds. The trip was short, but the Space Needle is making progress.

And CJ had this to say about the experience. ... 

Before seeing the documentary Pandas 3D at the Pacific Science Center, I visited the iconic (and currently in-renovation) Space Needle, located with the Pacific Science Center downtown. I visited on a Cascade Parent Partnership Program field trip, despite the fact that I am no longer enrolled at Cascade.

I was chaperoned by my older brother Ken. Once the elevator finished bringing us to the top of the Needle, most of the top interior was obviously not complete. Many of the walls and some of the floor was visibly wood.

Strangely, a smell of caramel corn permeated the interior. I later learned that this smell came from bags of caramel corn where the concessions stand was during prior visits.

We briefly visited the exterior, where there is normally a great view of much of Seattle (and the surrounding area, including the Bellevue skyline). However, on this visit, the view was covered by thick fog.

Per the Space Needle's webpage about their renovation, the work "will update the structure’s physical systems and elevate the visitor experience by dramatically enhancing the view. Privately funded, the ambition project will heighten the Observation Deck experience with floor-to-ceiling glass on the interior and exterior to further open up the uninhibited 360-degree views of the Puget Sound. The 500′ level will be reimagined with a first-of-its-kind rotating glass floor revealing downward views of the structures never seen before."

Here is some video of the project: https://youtu.be/yjF_Trx8Q4s

After the Space Needle experience, the kids caught the monorail to Westlake Station. Shocking to me, it was Kennedy's first time riding the monorail.

Too bad he didn't have a more picturesque trip. Seattle was absolutely saturated on Thursday.

Here they are on the way into and through MoPop.

And below is a shot in what looks like South Lake Union. 

 Despite the downpour, the three still had a great outing.

Rocked

SMASHING: Our Tuesday evening was a little interesting. We were in a convenience store in West Seattle, and the manager came over to us and asked us if we drove a blue Honda. We said, "Yes," and he said that a couple of guys wanted to talk to us about our car. I thought that was odd, and immediately feared I hadn't set the parking break and that the car had rolled into another car or something.

Turns out the guys in the parking lot wanted to tell us about the man they just saw throw a rock through our driver's side window. Fantastic. Sigh. They said that the guy was out of it, and was actually trying to throw the rock at them, they thought.

I called 9-1-1 to report the incident, and the operator immediately shifted me to the non emergency number. Granted, nothing was on fire and I wasn't being shot at, but it ticked me off that the operator had ZERO interest in what had happened. When the non emergency operator came on, she began telling me how to file an online property damage report. I said, "Really? So that's it, huh? So no one there cares that there's a violent crazy guy running around somewhere nearby here? He was trying to hurt strangers, and my car just happened to get in the way."  At that, I was transferred back to another 9-1-1 operator who asked me if I wanted a cop to come out. I said, "Well, yeah, if you have someone in the area, I think they should at least be on the lookout for the guy."  The operator then asked if I was going to stand by my car and wait for an officer. I said, "Well I can for awhile, but not INDEFINITELY." Again, sigh.

We waited for several minutes, meanwhile cleaning up the mess that was our shattered window. Unfortunately, I didn't have gloves and wound up with several small cuts on my fingertips. Eventually an officer did show up. She was very professional and gave us a case number. And I'm sure that's the last we'll ever hear of it. 

Fast forward to Wednesday, Christian took the day off work and went down to Kent to an auto wrecking yard and got us a 'new' driver's side window and got the car all fixed up already. In the end, the incident cost us about $100 and some time. I suppose it could have been much worse.

PANDA-MONIUM: This afternoon, CJ, Annabelle and Kennedy previewed a new movie, "PANDAS 3D." We had free tickets (hooray!) from Pacific Science Center. 

Per the movie's promo material, it documentary is about "a very curious female cub named Qian Qian on an exciting new adventure in the mountains of Sichuan as she takes her first steps outside her protected habitat, discovering her true animal nature, and even facing challenges of the unknown."

Here's a trailer for the movie: https://youtu.be/cAamrkLjIuM

Per the trailer's description on YouTube, "At Chengdu Panda Base in China, scientists are dedicated to protecting the species by breeding adult Giant Pandas in order to introduce cubs into the wild. This film follows one such researcher, whose passion leads her to initiate a new technique inspired by a black bear program in rural New Hampshire. What starts as a cross-culture collaboration becomes a life-changing journey for an American biologist who crosses an ocean to join her; a scientist from Inner Mongolia; and a very curious female cub named Qian Qian, born in captivity." The film's directors were David Douglas and Drew Fellman, who also worked on “Born to be Wild” and “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar."

Here's what CJ had to say about the movie. ...

Today, I saw Pandas, a short documentary, in our local IMAX theater. Pandas primarily details the story of Qian Qian, a panda that is raised at the Chengdu Panda Base in China, with the assistance of various wildlife workers.

Ben Kilham, a naturalist from New Hampshire who has been raising black bears for decades, assisted in raising Qian Qian. In the film, Kilham said that one of the first black bears he raised had a bossy personality. The bear (who I can't remember the name of) in question is now 22 years old, and is the mother of ~20 bears.

Once she turned 2 years old, Qian Qian was released into the Chengdu Panda Base. A GPS leash was put on her neck. Jake Owens, an assistant of the effort to raise Qian Qian, was visiting his home in America when he got an alarming notice: Qian Qian had not moved for 24 hours.

Owens had to return to the Panda Base, and a search party was sent deep into the forest to rescue Qian Qian. After two days, the search party found Qian Qian, injured and up in a tree. One of the search party's members (who was afraid of heights) had to climb the tree, and give Qian Qian water mixed with honey and medicine.

AFRICAN ARTISANS: Yesterday afternoon, Annabelle and I watched a documentary, "African Pottery Forming and Firing" by art historian Christopher Roy.

In a description of the documentary, Roy writes, "This video demonstrates the five major techniques used by potters in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Nigeria. The techniques include concave mold, convex mold, coiling, direct pull, and hammer and anvil. You can see Bwa, Jelly, and Mossi potters in Burkina Faso, the Ashanti potters in Kumasi Ghana, and Igbo and Yoruba potters in Nigeria. In addition there are two detailed videos of pottery firing."

It was a fascinating look at talented artists extracting clay from the landscape, and then turning it into works of art.

You can watch it via YouTube: https://youtu.be/52HKSwkI1hs

Scenes from the Weekend

ARE YOU READY?: Earlier this week, we caught a matinee of a movie we've all been awaiting, Ready Player One. 

Being the video game-loving family we are, it's no surprise we enjoyed the film, based on a best-selling book. I'll have CJ tell you a bit more about it. ... 

Years ago, I read Ernest Cline's 2011 debut novel Ready Player One, a story set in 2045 about a competition to take control of the "OASIS", a virtual-reality universe that has become a central part of world society. In Ready Player One, The way for a player to take control of OASIS was to collect three keys hidden by the OASIS' late creator, James Halliday, around the OASIS universe.

The film version of Ready Player One contained multiple differences from the book version. Here be spoilers!

In both the book and film versions, Wade Watts (the protagonist) uses a quarter near the end to resurrect his character in the OASIS. In the book, this quarter was obtained earlier in the story by Watts completing a perfect game of Pac-Man. In the film version, a tour guide at a museum chronicling James Halliday's memories gives it to Watts.

In the book version, two of the "High Five" (the five main characters) are killed outside of the OASIS by members of IOI (Innovative Online Industries, a central company in the story) in order to prevent either of them from obtaining the "keys to OASIS."

Here's a trailer if you want a sneak preview. I'd say you don't have to know a thing about video games to enjoy this film.


BACK AT THE BALLPARK: We had the great pleasure of attending the Mariners' home opener on Thursday night. Sunday, we were back at the ballpark for an afternoon game. 

It was sooooo c-c-cold! But we were mostly ready, with coats, hats, gloves and such. We stopped by to say 'hi' to Dave for the first time this season.

Once again, we sat in the top row of the stadium. During the national anthem, I noticed a couple of the kids popped out of formation and took a knee on the field. I noticed that the camera man did not show those kids on the big screen. ...

If you're interested in learning more about the incident, there's an interview with the student and her parents on KING5.com.

FURRY FRIENDS: This weekend, we had a regular menagerie at MPA. We have our two dogs, and our two fish, but we also now have a cat taking up residence for awhile, as well as a gecko, and then our Doberman friends came by for a visit. Busy place!

 In fact, the excitement was a bit much for Pretzel, who caught a cat nap on the couch.

ULTIMATELY: Saturday afternoon, we headed out to Magnusson Park in northeast Seattle. There, Annabelle played in her third Ultimate Frisbee game of the season.

While Annabelle was getting her game on, CJ was thrilled to be able to meet many a dog at Magnusson's popular off-leash area. (Unfortunately, however, no Shar-pei were to be found.)

Season Opener

ANEW: Thursday night, there was nowhere on Earth we'd rather be than sitting in Safeco Field for the Mariners' home opener. 

It has been a long winter, and baseball resoundingly signals the start to a new season.

We arrived at the field a couple hours pre-first pitch. We took that time to soak up the sights and sounds of the stadium.

After checking out the bullpen and walking the main concourse for a bit, eventually, we headed out to the fan zone on the third level, in the stadium's southwest corner.

 There, the kids checked out Nelson Cruz's "boomstick" and had fun with a bucket of Gatorade.

They posed next to a Felix photo. The King was last night's starter - an honor he's had now for 10 years running. That's the longest opening day starting streak in Major League Baseball.

After awhile, we moseyed on up to our seats of choice - the very top row of the stadium, on the Puget Sound side. We LOVE it there. We have a great view of the whole park, the scoreboard, the cityscape and the Sound. What's not to love?

We watched workers ready the field for the inaugural game.

The guy did a nice job on the "8," I thought.

Naturally, Home Plate had to be perfect, too.

They rolled out the red carpet for Opening Night. Below, "King" Felix Hernandez made a long, lonely walk from the dugout to the bullpen in centerfield.

The visitors on opening day were the Cleveland Indians. Their squad was announced first.

And then, it was time for the Mariners! Some of the guys were so excited, they jumped for joy coming out of the gate.

There were fireworks, of course. 

The loudest cheers were reserved for one Mr. Ichiro Suzuki. The future Hall of Famer is a beloved former Mariner, now back with the team.

 Suzuki is still going strong at 44.

 He looked stoked to be on the squad.

Pre-game festivities included a fly-over of a U.S. Air Force C-17 from the 4th Airlift Squadron at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. We turned and looked out the window behind our seats and saw it coming!

 It's a big bird!

 With a big belly!

The Mariners posted this photo of the flyover on their social media today.

Below is the obligatory first pitch photo (taken from the last row of the stadium).

Fans had to wait until the ninth spot in the batting order to see a favorite son return on offense.

All eyes were on him, even in the on deck circle.

 No mistaking his pre-bat stretching routine!

And it doesn't get any more iconic than this pose.

The kids will tell you a little bit more about the evening. CJ is up first. ... 

Yesterday, I went to the opening night of the Seattle Mariners' 2018 season at Safeco Field. The Mariners played against the Cleveland Indians, and won by a score of 2-1. Here is my description my experience at the game:
For much (if not most) of the game, I sat in one of the seats at the top of the seating areas. The Massive MarinersVision screen regularly displayed the portraits of whoever was at the bat, as well as the number of runs each team had. Early in the game, the Mariners scored both of their runs in the same inning, while the Indians' only run came much later in the game.
While walking through the stadium, I smelled several different food stands, staples at Safeco Field. For example, while near Fair Territory, I could smell the stand's fried pastries. At one point in the crowd, there was a short-lived attempt at a "wave," which never reached our area.

Toward the end of the game, my family moved from our high-up seats to an area just behind home plate. This meant that I got to see Edwin Diaz throw the final pitch of the game, immediately followed up by the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Fire (a song played after Mariners home victories).

Annabelle paints this picture of Opening Day. ...

Opening Day at Safeco is surrounded by people, yelling and cheering as they wait for the game. The crowd pushes through the concourse as the food stands begin to open, filling the air with the scent of kettle corn, salty and sweet. On the outer sides of the stadium, the wind blows against layers of hats and coats, protecting us from the trademark Seattle weather. Once the event really starts, the booming of the fireworks and the announcer’s voice fills the air, just as it has on opening day for years. The crowd cheers loudly during the opening ceremony as the players are introduced. The first inning brings down a blanket of silence, where between every pitch, every connection with the bat, the crowd sits completely still. During the second inning, the stadium erupts with cheers as a 2-run homer is hit, diving deep into center field. The following innings are mostly quiet, with the crowd bundled up as the night gets darker. No more home runs- a few disappointing pitches, foul balls, and a walk in the ninth- but the game is largely over. The fans rush through the gates, pushing past a sea of people as they cheer and converse, celebrating the new beginning of another baseball season.

The Mariners shared this short video of Opening Day highlights. 

All in all, it was a joyous occasion. 
Welcome back baseball, welcome back.