Working It

CALCULATING: As today's math exercise, I asked the kids to measure the square footage of the walls and ceiling of our new storage space so that we know how much insulation and drywall we need to buy.

I was working at my computer while they were computing. I walked out right when they were talking about figuring out the measurement for the triangle-shaped space on the west wall. It did my heart and head good to hear them talking area = 1/2 x base x height. 

I was less impressed when they were initially talking about dividing square inches by 12 to find out how many square feet were required. Um, no. That would be 144.

Here are their notes. 

Real world math - I love it!

PUZZLED: While so many businesses and industries have suffered during this *%&$^# pandemic, a few have prospered. One thing that's selling better than ever is jigsaw puzzles. People stuck at home looking for a pleasant distraction, and puzzles are filling that bill.

While driving a couple weeks back, the kids and I heard a story on NPR about the popularity of puzzles right now. Ceaco, one of the largest producers of jigsaw puzzles and family games in the U.S., sold more puzzles than in the entire month of December. And NPR reports that sales by gamemaker Ravensburger are up 370% as compared with this time last year.

Everyone in our family likes puzzles, but we don't ever really have one going here, because we're usually on the go so much. Enter a pandemic, and we've got a puzzle on our living room table.

This one is special, as it's a custom puzzle - a photo of our two favorite Dobermen (Dobermans?)

It was actually pretty tricky: Weird puzzle shapes, lots of white, a missing piece (found upon shaking out our leather shag rug beneath the table). But we did get it done!

SOMETHING PHISHY:  One of the kids' homework assignments this afternoon was to spot all of the mistakes in this comically horrible phishing attempt in my email today.

There are so many really sophisticated phishing schemes out there. This was not one of them. PayPal, Paypal, paypal ... for starters. So many typos, such bad grammar, terrible punctuation. It hit all the marks. The kids both burst out laughing while reading it.

THEIR CHARIOT AWAITS: We're definitely counting down the days until May 27, when a SpaceX Dragon capsule is set to take two astronauts from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station. It's kind of a big deal. No human has been launched from American soil for nine long years.  

For years, astronauts were shuttled to the launch pad in an "Astrovan."

Astrovan photo courtesy of NASA

This go 'round, their ride as a far sight cooler. They'll be transported in a Tesla.

Brilliant-but-troubled Elon Musk (who has been having multiple meltdowns recently) is the brains behind both SpaceX and Tesla. 

It's going to be a huge boost for both of Musk's brainchildren. 

If you want to keep up on the latest on the launch, and are a Facebook person, consider joining the #LaunchAmerica NASA Social group.

Joining should give you access to virtual badges and virtual tours, and NASA reps will be on-hand to answer questions and interact with in real time. For more information, check out the event's site: https://www.nasa.gov/social/launchamerica.

One fun fact about the upcoming launch ... astronaut Doug Hurley is one of the crew of two who will be on board the historic SpaceX launch. 

Astronaut Doug Hurley, photo credit: NASA

Hurley, a fighter pilot and test pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps, was in the NASA astronaut class of 2000  and was one of the crew on STS‐135, the final space shuttle mission. So this will be a bookends of sort - the last and the first. Pretty cool.

Short Stuff

SLUGGO: This morning, when I let the dogs out, for some reason Laika bolted for the front yard. (The dogs are supposed to 'go' in the back yard.) I'm guessing Laika was after a bunny. They're super numerous this spring on our hill, to the point the top post on our neighborhood 'Nextdoor' page today was rabbit recipes!

Anyway, I followed the dogs down our outdoor steps, and on the way down, I glanced over at our second generation spaghetti squash plants to see how they were doing. These guys grow so fast, it's like they nearly double every day. But today ... OMG, what happened to them?! They looked all torn up. I bent down for a closer look and spied an extra ugly slug on one of the leaves.

I suppose I should have just re-homed the slug, but ... I picked up a brick that happened to be right there, and used it to scrape the slug off and then it got personal. I feel a little bad, but no one/thing messes with our babies!

After this drama, I continued down to find the dogs. 

Kirby was nowhere to be seen in this sea of green. Our clover lawn is about a foot high, which makes it a jungle to a dog the size of Kirby. 

Eventually, she emerged from the flora.

SPEAK UP: Here's some homework CJ had to submit for his Japanese III class recently. Christian filmed it for him. In the video, CJ is answering questions his professor asks. I wonder what the heck they're talking about. ;)

In any event, I would suggest that next time, CJ either make his bed or have his dad shoot it from the opposite side. ;)

Sunny Weekend

OLD STOMPING GROUNDS: Friday afternoon, we had to return to our former neighborhood to deliver a birthday cake. It was a hot, sunny day, public parks are back open in Seattle, and so we decided to hit a couple of our favorite parks in the old 'hood.

First, we went to "Secret Beach." I don't think the park is even named. It's just a spot at the end of a dead end road that gives one access to a rocky beach with fantastic views. Airplane traffic is way down, but there were plenty of ships on the Sound. 

 We saw numerous stand up paddleboarders.

 The Olympic Mountains are still snow-capped.

I told the kids they *had* to throw at least a few rocks into the Sound, like they used to do when they were kids. ;)

From the beach, the Space Needle peeks out from behind treetops.

After the kids got their feet wet, we got in the car and headed toward "The Bluff." It's on the southern border of Magnolia, a cliffside rising from Puget Sound. 

I leaned out over a fence to capture this shot of Rainier.

 There's also a great view of the city skyline.

The kids and I talked about how long it has been since we've been up on the Space Needle, and wondered when we might get another chance. 

Google photos decided I needed a movie of the shots from Friday, so here's that. 

It sure is a pretty neighborhood. I miss the scenery, for sure, but not a lot of the other stuff (traffic and property crime, to name two).

DOUGHY CANVAS: Weeks ago, we stumbled across an artist who used bread as her canvas. Using all sorts of savory edibles, she creates lovely designs atop homemade focaccia bread.  

We've been wanting to try our hands at it for awhile now. We decided Saturday, when it was 85 degrees out, was the perfect time to fire up the oven to 450 F.

CJ had a hand in making the dough. The recipe was super simple, fortunately. 

Peppers, tomatoes, capers, two kinds of olives, cilantro, asparagus, dill, cherry tomatoes, and peppercorns are all in the mix.

Below, Bee builds her bread.

Here are pictures of our focaccia right before they went into the oven. Mine is first, followed by Annabelle's.

 Here are the afters.

I like Annabelle's ladybug. 

We'll definitely give this recipe a go in the future, as there are a couple of things I'd like to do differently. For starters, I'd want to have radish slices and red onion in the mix. Also, we needed much smaller baby peppers. That would have helped our scale and have helped our objects look more like real flowers. 

SQUASHED: Finally, one of our summer squash seeds (sown straight into the ground) has emerged. We're hoping the bunnies (which are so abundant this year) don't eat them down to nothing. 

BONUS SHOT: Here's Little Laika enjoying some fresh air. Some of the many irises planted on this plot are in the background. We have dark purple, yellow, light purple and pink irises.

This is her after a haircut, if you can believe that. 

Super Moon

RARE SIGHT: Last night, just before midnight, as I was going to bed, I looked out the living room window and saw a shadowy figure. ...

No, not a prowler (thankfully). Rather, it was Mount Rainier! I was so surprised. I've never seen the mountain at night before while we've lived here (just short of three years). 

Of course, I called the kids out to see it, and even woke Christian up so he could take a gander.

I think we could see it because it was so bright thanks to the last "Super Moon" of 2020, and the skies are so clear thanks to people staying home due to the pandemic.

INSIDE THE HIVE: This week Christian has checked on our two our new-to-use bee colonies, both of which he captured as swarms in the neighborhood. 

The first colony he captured is doing great. They are building out comb, the queen is laying eggs, all the stuff that should be happening. Speaking of the queen, Christian even managed to spot her in the hive, and he marked her with a pen made specifically for that, if you can believe such a thing exists.

The second hive is a bit of a mess. The bees out front of it seem agitated. In fact, CJ and Annabelle each got stung once recently. Christian opened the hive up yesterday and he discovered that it is queenless. (He could tell because there are no brood or eggs, and they've been in our hive for a week now.) Who knows if the queen died in our hive, or we somehow didn't capture it in the swarming ball of bees that we brought here. To try to remedy this situation, Christian borrowed a couple of racks from the other hive that have some eggs. Hopefully Hive #2 will raise a new queen from one of those eggs. Time will tell. 

Meanwhile, I took this photo of (presumably) one of 'our' bees yesterday.

Our honeybees love these shrubs, as do bumblebees. If you stand next to the greenery and its tiny blossoms when the sun is out, you hear it abuzz with pollinators.

I posted the photo to Facebook and a friend reported that Google told her the shrub is a Hessei Cotoneaster. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, the deciduous shrub is in the rosaceae family. It has reddish pink blooms in May, is low maintenance, and it attracts birds. They should add bees to that list.

HARVEST TIME: Our rhubarb is going NuTsO. It's enormous. This is our *** spring in this location, and it has not been quite this big before. 

We were wondering when is the right time to harvest some stalks. I did some Googling and the consensus is when they're over 12 inches tall and bigger around than your thumb. 

The question is, what do do with said rhubarb? Muffins and cakes come to mind, but I really don't want to make a bunch of sugary stuff. I'll have to spend some more time researching rhubarb recipes. 

CAKE TIME: Yesterday, Annabelle and I put the finishing touches on a cake for a friend. The theme is Duolingo Spanish (it's an online language learning program). 

An owl named Duo is its main mascot, but there are other characters populating the Duolingo world. There are also graphics marking streaks (consecutive days of study and such).

Since the birthday girl is turning 15, we did the math for how many days that 'streak' is. (Annabelle was smart enough to remind me that we needed to take leap years into account.)

TO DO LIST: There are so many organizations offering free programming online during the pandemic, it's hard to keep track of them all. I keep getting emails from Pacific Science Center about cool stuff they're doing. For instance, next week they're offering an "Animals Week at Curiosity at Home" on May 11-15. They have the week planned out as following:

Monday: Ecosystem Exploration
Tuesday: Animal Movement
Wednesday: Feeding and Eating
Thursday: Adaptations
Special Livestream Events
Daily: Facebook livestreams at 11 a.m.
Wednesday, May 13: Virtual Planetarium Show at 1 p.m.
Thursday, May 14: Virtual Meet a Scientist at 1 p.m.

Hopefully we'll be able to fit some of these things into our schedule!

Cake and Punk

CAKING IT: Between classes and a couple of errands, we managed to bake a cake today. Actually, four layers of cake. A Mexican chocolate vegan cake, to be more precise. That, and a small bucket full of crunchy peanut butter filling. 

It was a first time recipe for us. It definitely smelled good. It's for a family friend - a teenager having a pandemic birthday, which is a little bit (or kind of a lot bit) sad, since you can't really go much of anywhere or do much of anything. We though a custom cake might be a bright spot, and offered to make one for the family.

Since it was a first time test-driving this recipe, and it was vegan (no eggs, no butter!), I wasn't sure how it would turn out, height wise. The recipe was for one 9-inch layer, so I doubled the recipe. Twice. Making four layers in all.

After the first double batch, I learned the recipe produced a *beautiful* layer of cake, with a nice rise. It is really moist (sorry - that word!), and just the right amount of density. I ended up only using three of the four layers I baked, so the bonus layer went onto its own plate and I topped it with leftover filling and some chopped up peanuts. Then I sent Kennedy a photo and told him to come and get it. No surprise, he said he'd be happy to do so. (Now I know how to get him to visit, ha ha.)

ROCKUMENTARY: We here at MPA are certainly enjoying CJ's Rock History class. I knew we would. When the kids were much younger, we took a couple of rock history classes on Coursera and learned so much. Interestingly enough, the professor for those courses, John Covach, literally wrote the book that is being used for CJ's current class. The text is "What's That Sound: ."

One of CJ's assignments this week was to watch and review a documentary about a rock band. He had a list to choose from, but immediately honed in on "A Band Called Death." This proto-punk trio from Detroit was composed of a trio of African American brothers. Making music in the early '70s,  the band never caught on back in the day, due to a number of reasons. For starters, the band's polarizing name didn't help, and their unexpected sound raised eyebrows, and not in a good way. As was told in the movie, people expected young black men in Detroit to be playing rhythm and blues or Motown music, not hardcore, in-your-face rock. 

Here's a trailer for the movie ...


The three brothers' bond knows no bounds. Their music is entirely original, if not downright visionary. Their story is remarkable. As CJ told his classmates, "I would strongly recommend A Band Called Death to classmates. The documentary provides fascinating insight into the best 70s punk band you’ve never heard of." Honestly, even if their type of music is totally not your cup of tea, the trials and travails of the brothers is enough to draw most any viewer in. 

You can watch the movie for free on Amazon Prime Video, on tubi (which was free via our Roku stick plugged into the back of the TV), and Vudu. it's like $3 on iTunes and Google Play. 

Here's one of their tunes if you care to take a listen.


BE STILL:  Annabelle had an Art to Go session midday, thanks to Gage . Today's lesson was still life. 

CASE CLOSED: Have you ever wondered what your "reward" is for finding a beetle in a bag of Frito Lay peanuts is?

Below, you have your answer. 

Answer: You get three coupons for free Frito Lay products (hopefully beetle free this go round).  

Tuesday Doings

DRAMATIC: This evening, our view of Mt. Rainier was replaced by a wide, dramatic rainbow (with a faint secondary rainbow to its right). I could hear neighbors all around us outside on their decks, oohing and aahing over the sight. This cell phone photo doesn't do it justice. 

Shortly thereafter, the sky turned all sorts of scary shades of blue gray, and thunder and lightning ensue.

VIRUS HUNTERS: Our 'to do' list was long today, involving the usual Japanese, art, world history, writing, and rock history. We also had a special event this afternoon - an hour with a virus hunter.

While most people right about now are trying to avoid viruses, Dr. Ken Stedman is a full time virus seeker. 

Presented by King County Library System, the session was called "Dream Careers-Study Extreme Viruses."

Stedman studies viruses found in extreme environments, for instance volcanic acid hot springs. 

In addition to being a professor at Portland State University, Stedman also works in laboratories, and in the field, in places like Yellowstone National Park. Some of his work is funded by NASA. No surprise the space agency is interested in learning more about what kinds of life might be encountered in the extreme environments in space.

It was an interesting hour, and while we listened, we even got quite a bit of work done on a jigsaw puzzle.

DOODLING: This morning, I directed the kids to Google's Doodle for the day as a tangential activity for Cinco de Mayo. 

The doodle featured the traditional Mexican bingo card game Lotería. The game uses cards, each featuring colorful pictures of various things you’d find in Mexico, like palm trees, corn and musical instruments. The pictures are labeled with the Spanish word for the object, so you can learn a little while you play. 

The game is like a combo of a memory game and bingo. A grid of 16 cards is laid out, and when the game starts, you're told what it takes to win (like four cards across in a row, or all four corners).

Cards are flipped from a deck, and if it's a match to one in your grid, you put a bean atop it. The cards are revealed pretty quickly, so it's a fast-paced game.

The kids were quickly hooked. And neither one would quit until they won a round. You can find the game here: 
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk00kCh6aBjMZHQRMiyTGf58Zx9A-bg%3A1588712969779&ei=CdaxXsaOL6qw0PEPmP-XwAY&q=today%27s+google+doodle&oq=today%27s+google+doodle&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIECCMQJzIECAAQQzIFCAAQgwEyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAOgQIABBHOgUIABCRAjoHCAAQFBCHAlDtngFYw7ABYM6xAWgAcAR4AIABV4gBzAmSAQIyMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXo&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwiGt9qB0Z3pAhUqGDQIHZj_BWgQ4dUDCAw&uact=5

It's a Small World

HOME SHOW: Hope you're not getting tired of photos of our doings 'round the campus, because that's about all we got (to use bad grammar) right now.

Our seeds-to-sprouts continue to grow. I find it kind of ironic that the ones going gangbusters are the cherry tomato plants (above). While the bigger tomatoes were so late to show and are slow to grow. 

I had about given up on all of our Romas when they finally started to show signs of life. Now, they're getting to a point where we have to separate them soon. (We always hedge our bets and plant more than one seed per little pot.)

We mowed the lawn today. I stopped a couple of times to snap a photo of little spots of interest in the yard. I kind of love these succulents in a random wire basket affixed to a lichen covered, broken-down old fence. 

 And what have we here? Future figs!

Meanwhile, in the bay window by the kitchen sink, our Christmas cactus is putting on a show in May!

 And irises continue to bloom. This one is a sunny, showy flower.

KUDOS: CJ received a grade back today from one of his first submissions in his History of Rock class. He'd written about a song from the barely-pre-rock era, " "by Goree . The professor heaped praise upon CJ for his song choice and the thoroughness of his discussion about it. And, he asked if CJ if he could use his write-up as an example for his future students regarding how to craft a post. Nice!

This week, CJ was supposed to spotlight an early rock song for his classmates. Here's what he chose. 

Song title: Rip It UpArtist name: Little Richard (né Richard Wayne Penniman, he later legally changed his name to his stage name)Year produced: 1956Artist Information: What are three things that you find the most interesting about this artist? Little Richard is often credited with starting the "wild man" persona that was pursued and imitated by hundreds of rock musicians after him. Taxi Blues, Little Richard's 1951 debut single, is one of the first commercial rock and roll recordings. Though Little Richard eventually ceased to record secular music and became a gospel singer, his early (1951-1957) output influenced rockers for years to come. This fact is evident in artists ranging from Mick Jagger to Jim Morrison to Iggy Pop to Prince, all of whom owe at least part of their “bad boy” image to Little Richard’s persona.Song analysis:Narrative: Who is the songwriter? Where does this song fall within the early years of rock and roll? Rip It Up was written by Robert Blackwell and John Marascalco. (When researching them, this song seems to be their biggest claim to rock and roll fame). Rip It Up is an example of a R&B-derived early rock and roll song.What is the form of this song? Rip It Up is in contrasting verse-chorus form.Is this song a cover song? Or, was this song covered by another artist in the early years of rock? Though he did not write the song, Little Richard was the first to record Rip It Up. Interestingly, the song was covered the very same year Little Richard’s version was released, by Bill Haley and his Comets, who were better known at that point, with the hit Rock Around the Clock to their credit. Bill Haley’s version of Rip It Up is somewhat similar to Little Richard’s version, though the recording quality isn’t as good, and it has a more country/western flavor.Why did you choose this song? What specifically drew you to it? I chose this song because I think it does an excellent job of embodying the "wild man" character of Little Richard's famous work. The persona Little Richard adopted stood in stark contrast to the “squeaky clean” image of white pop stars like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, or even earlier rock and roll artists like Fats Domino. Even without visual accompaniment that could be seen on TV or in concert, teenage listeners could tell that Tutti Fruitti and Rip It Up were not their father’s pop music. The chaotic energy of the latter and sexual suggestiveness of the former were absolutely nothing like Moonlight Serenade or White Christmas.It’s likely that there was a racial component to the label “wild man” associated with Little Richard. According to the textbook What’s That Sound? by John Covach and Andrew Flory, “While this [persona] made [Little Richard] attractive to white teens, it also made it more difficult for him to advance his career in the mainstream pop market.”

Yesterday, CJ told us he could get extra credit this week for watching a biography about Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. The video quality of this YouTube post isn't the best, but the subject matter was super interesting. We watched both parts 1 and 2, and learned a *lot* about not just Phillips, but the emergence of rock and roll in America. If you have some time on your hands and nowhere to go (hahahaha), we encourage you to check it out.



LET THERE BE LIGHT: We're still working on our new storage space. This weekend we cut a hole in the brand-new roof! In the photo below, you can see sawdust starting to rain down.

 And just like that, a little window to some blue sky.

We had to build a "curb" for the skylight to sit on. Look at this handy tool that Christian fished out of the garage. It holds boards nicely perpendicular when you're trying to fasten them.