Cake and Congress

CATTY: Another week, another cake for us. We typically only make one Birthday Dreams cake per month, but when we saw an ask for a caticorn cake, we had to take that on. :)

"What is a caticorn?" you ask? It's a unicorn-cat hybrid. Basically a cat with a horn and a flouncy tail. 

We've seen others do cute unicorn cakes before where a chubby unicorn is eating part of the cake, so we decided to go that design route with the caticorn.

First we baked up a big chocolate cake for the first tier. It was filled and then iced a really pretty purple - the birthday girl's favorite color.

Next, we cooked up a confetti cake, by putting pink and purple sprinkles into vanilla cake batter. 

Annabelle sculpted the caticorn using modeling chocolate covered in marshmallow fondant.

The caticorn takes shape, with a tail and body.

The horn was spray painted (edible) gold. We had to stick it in an orange while it dried.

Though it's not shown in the cake photo above for privacy purposes, the birthday girl's name was on the bottom tier of the cake, in white fondant letters. 

I just loved the assortment of sprinkles covering the top tier of the cake. So pretty! They came from 5-6 different containers.

Caticorn, complete with a heart-shaped nose, and painted on eyes.

We hope the 7-year-old liked her cake!

LOBBYING: About three weeks ago, it was announced all over television, the Internet and in newspapers that "all" veterans were now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Naturally, Christian, a veteran, called the local VA hospital right away to schedule a vaccination - only to be told he wasn't eligible to be vaccinated because he makes too much money. 

Say what?

That news set me off to the point I, for the first time, contacted my two senators and my U.S. congressman. 

Here's the gist of what I sent to each of them on March 4...

Hello ...,

Maybe you've seen the headlines. The news is all over. In fact, as I write this, the breaking news on the front page of the Seattle Times website reads: NEWS ALERT Veterans of all ages now qualify for COVID-19 vaccine in Washington state.

Unfortunately, news about all veterans being eligible for vaccines is not true.

My husband, an Army veteran, has contacted our local VA on more than one occasion over the past couple of weeks, trying to schedule a shot, but he is repeatedly turned away. He is told that even though he's a veteran, he makes too much money, and therefore, he's not eligible to receive a vaccination.

This makes zero sense. As you know, COVID vaccines are not for sale, and access to them should not have anything to do with a person's income, or lack thereof. It's about public health.

My husband is nearly 60, a veteran, and he's an essential worker for the city of Seattle. Ironically, if he were retired instead of out there working, making sure people have clean, running water and working sewers, he would be eligible for the vaccine through the VA. 

Is there anything you or someone can do to rectify this exclusion regarding access to COVID vaccines for ALL veterans, regardless of income?

We heard nothing from Senator Maria Cantwell's office. We received what read line an auto generated email from Senator Patty Murray's office, saying she'd like to help, and asking us to fill out a PDF form, which we did. I also wrote to Congressman Adam Smith's office. 

For two weeks it's was crickets - nothing from anyone. But a couple of days ago, my phone rang. It was an unfamiliar, local number. I usually let unknown numbers go to voicemail, but I picked this call up. It was the deputy director for Adam Smith, calling to let me know that the U.S. House of Representatives had just passed a bill , the VA Vaccine Act, that would open COVID vaccines to ALL veterans. Would you believe it even passed unanimously? Shocking! It seems like those people can never agree on anything any more.

On March 17, the Senate (also unanimously!) approved their version of the bill. It calls on the VA to vaccinate all veterans, their spouses, recipients of the VA’s CHAMPVA program, and veterans living overseas.  Now it goes back to the House. 

This verbiage now appears on the VA site: "Legislation is currently going through Congress that if passed, would allow us to offer vaccines to all Veterans, and possibly their caregivers and spouses. Until this legislation passes and becomes public law, we won't know who will be eligible. We also won't know how quickly we can get enough vaccines to offer one to Veterans and family members who aren't receiving care at VA."

And so, we wait.  

FIRED UP: Thursday, NASA conducted a test of the engines that will (hopefully) boost a rocket to the moon in the not too distant future. 

You can see a replay here: https://youtu.be/XGRE_7yz_kM  (the real action starts around the 50 minute mark)

And let's see if I can finally get an embed code to work ...

The Longest Year

It has been over a week since I've posted. I don't know that I've ever gone that long with nothing to report.

Check that. It's not that we're not doing things. We are. Lots of things. It's just that the things we're doing are plugging along kind of stuff, not out and about kind of stuff. Our worlds have shrunk so dramatically this past year, under the specter of the pandemic

That said, we soldier on. 

CJ is plugging away in college, and very successfully so. Tonight he filed his last English 102 research paper, about positive psychology (a useful topic in this day and time.)

He is done with his film studies class, and now that that's history, I'll have him soon list a recap of the movies he analyzed this quarter. 

CJ's two quizzes away from being done with his latest math class, which has been comically awful. ZERO lectures or teaching, totally going it alone. It will be glad to have that in the rearview.

Annabelle audits all of CJ's classes. It's so nice that they have each other as classmates. It would be so much harder and lonelier if they didn't have each other.

We're also still volunteering where and when we can. Case in point: Last week we delivered a cake to a Birthday Dreams. The cake was for twins - a couple of 6 year olds who wanted  mermaid cake. 

We made a small but tall cake, iced in ocean colors. It was ringed in seashell candies we made.

As an added touch we surrounded it with brown sugar 'sand,' which Annabelle carved the twins' names into.

On Sunday, we celebrated Pi Day on March 14 in a very low key way. We downloaded the 7-11 app and used it to buy large pizzas (5!) for $3.14. We cooked one and the extras went in our freezer. A little sad that this was a 'big deal' event for us this year, but that's pandemic life.

Our daffodils have finally opened up. This one is my favorite. 

Three-plus years ago, I dug them up from our last place and brought them to our 'new' place. We had so many beautiful plants in our last yard that we left behind without a thought, but these were sentimental favorites. I remember the kids getting the bulbs for free at Sky Nursery in Shoreline on September 10, 2014. They planted them, they flourished, and I just couldn't leave them at the last place.  

I'm so glad they're still going strong. 

In other news, we're inching ever closer to our new retro countertop. And this week I started a new gig/job this is a lot, for lack of a better way to describe it. 

We've been enjoying listening to Mariners' spring training games on the radio and dreaming of making it out to the old ball game for real this season.

One bright point today: I received a call from the deputy director for our congressman Adam Smith. I can't recall if I mentioned it here, but a couple of weeks ago, the news all over said all veterans were eligible to receive COVID vaccines. Christian, an Army veteran, inquired and tried to get one, but he was told he couldn't have one/enroll in the VA because he makes too much money (working as an essential worker during a pandemic, might I add). Anyway, I wrote our two senators and our congressman and lo and behold, something happened!

"The House unanimously approved legislation Tuesday night that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer coronavirus vaccines to all veterans, regardless of whether they’re enrolled in VA health care," according to a report on the American Legion website. The bill is on the Senate's calendar. The gentleman I spoke with hopes they will vote on it as soon as next week. Time will tell.

Week in Review

RUFFING IT: You don't see many dog photos on this blog. I figured this snap was worthy of parking here. It's Kirby, who was living her best life on Friday morning, lounging in bed. 

And yes, she *does* need a date with the clippers, but she absolutely turns into Sharknado when approached with grooming shears and such, so her spa days are few and far between.

ON A ROLL: Big news from Mars - NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover has taken its first drive. 

The mobility test, taken a few days ago, is a big milestone, of course. 

I love being able to see tread tracks on the Martian soil! 

The mobility test was important to get out of the way, in order for the rolling lab's science operations to get underway.

UNLADYLIKE: March is women's history month. Recently a friend shared a Public Broadcasting System webpage with me that has a bunch of short profiles of notable women from the suffrage moment. 

"These digital resources present the rich history of 26 little-known Progressive Era women, diverse in profession, race, ethnicity, geographical and class backgrounds, sexual orientation and gender expression, who broke barriers in then-male-dominated fields such as science, business, journalism, exploration, and the arts," PBS explains. You can find them here: https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/unladylike2020/?fbclid=IwAR2M7k7KG3r0FBMx_ys_2eQp9GkI9E_ytFjPnsAdDU_LWMGPRfJRkLj0yiA

BORING: For a few years now, as part of his work, Christian has been involved in the Ship Canal Water Quality Project (SCWQP), Seattle Public Utilities' largest project to date. It boring a 2.7-mile long, 18-ft 10-in diameter tunnel under the ship canal in Ballard, using a 22-foot diameter Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). 

When it's complete, the drainage system will keep an estimated 75 million gallons of sewage and polluted stormwater from entering local waters each year. Project managers are looking for a name for their big boring machine. This video shows a few Seattle-inspired suggestions: https://youtu.be/jTIWPP7roPM

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jTIWPP7roPM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> 

However, they are also asking e still need your help! Tweet your name suggestion to #NameThatTBM or use our online form.  Ask your friends and family for suggestions! Group/organization submissions welcome! Contest rules are below. 

Ideas can be submitted on Twitter with #NameThatTBM hashtag,​ or at https://survey.participate.online/s3/SPU-Ship-Canal-name-that-tbm through March 14.

You can learn more about the Ship Canal Water Quality Project on the project website.

A TASTE OF JAPAN: This afternoon we 'attended' the 2021 Japanese Language Festival, entirely online, of course. The event, hosted by the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington, was nearly two hours long and featured a number of different segments.

We learned about the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Program Report and we saw winners from sketch and speech contests for students. (Too bad we didn't know about that before, CJ and Annabelle could have entered!)

There was a fun trivia contest (all in Japanese!) The kids did pretty well.

There was a break out room session, where small groups could ask their room's host about the JET program or all things Japanese. The program ended with a comedic sketch about how to eat ramen by master Rakugo performer Yanagiya Tozaburo. (Per Wikipedia, rakugo is "a form of Japanese verbal entertainment of yose" where a lone storyteller uses only a paper fan and a small cloth as props to tell a story, never leaving a seated position on a raised platform. 

For fun, after the festival we masked up and went to a local Japanese-inspired take out place we've been meaning to try for years, Katsu burger.

The kids each got a teriyaki chicken katsu 'burger' with a side of fries (Annabelle had nori fries, CJ had 12-spice). There were rave reviews regarding the food. They're looking forward to trying other menu items in the future.

Contemplating College

DOTTED LINE: Saturday morning CJ made it official. He accepted his offer for admission to the University of Washington! He'll be attending classes on the Tacoma campus (if the pandemic allows), majoring in history with a museum studies minor.

It's exciting to have that decision made, and now he can start planning for fall and beyond. It was great he had more than one good choice for college, and it's really great the was accepted by the school/program he was most interested in attending.

In the meantime, he still has to finish strong at South Seattle, and will be signing up for his final quarter there in the next couple of days. 

Saturday morning Annabelle sat in on an online Running Start presentation by Bellevue College, where she'll be starting this fall. 

TEEN FEED TIME: February 27 was the fourth Saturday of the month, which means Teen Feed time for our family. On the menu this month was a fried chicken dinner, with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and some pie for dessert.

Looks pretty tasty, doesn't it? The dinner on the left was our vegan option, while the right is the standard fare. 

We made 15 pounds of mashed potatoes for the meal. CJ and Annabelle each did a fair amount of peeling for that. 

We also made 20 pounds of green beans with bacon and butter. Lots of butter. :)

Dinner service is at 6:30. It's still a to go service because of COVID, so everything goes into a to go container. In total, thanks to everyone's donations, we had enough food for 90 meals, and some happy diners were able to have seconds.

ARTS AND CRAFTS: Sunday afternoon the kids participated in a draw along hosted by The Museum of Flight via Microsoft Teams online. 

An artist gave tips as they sketched a Mars rover from a still photo. Annabelle's work-in-progress is below.

And here is CJ's rover.

Funland

VENTURING OUT: I'm still playing catch up on our little last-minute trip last week to the Oregon Coast. While there, we mostly worked at the place we were staying, but we did venture out a time or two, including (gasp) going to a public place for fun. That is such a sad rarity during the pandemic.

We decided to check out Funland, a longtime arcade in Seaside, to see if it looked safe enough to visit. Fortunately, on a Wednesday afternoon during a stormy February, the place was a ghost town - less crowded than the average early morning grocery runs we make these days. So the kids each got a $20 game card and had some fun.

It was great to be doing something recreational for a change. 

CJ took a few goes at Mario Kart. Do you recognize the eyes behind the funny nose and moustache?

He managed to battle his way into first place!

On our second-to-last day, we finally got some blue skies instead of sideways sheets of rain. Here's a shot of the backside of the house. You can see CJ in silhouette in the window third from the left on the middle floor.

A shot through the porthole window on our last night there. You can see an American flag waving in the distance. 

It was nice to get away, but now it's back home to all our projects here. 

Notes from the Ocean

Photo JPL: This panorama, taken on Feb. 20, 2021, by the Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, was stitched together from six individual images after they were sent back to Earth.

MARS MARVELS: NASA continues to release still images, video, and even audio from the Perseverance rover landing last week.

There are three or so minutes of video that is absolutely stunning of the rover descending toward the Red Planet. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg

Below is the embed code for the video Once upon a time, this used to work on blogger. I'm hoping some day they fix that feature. 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4czjS9h4Fpg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

While watching the video, I couldn't help but wonder about the pattern on the parachute. I figured it had to mean something and it wasn't just random. Turns out there is a code stitched into that fabric. 

JPL explains, "Using binary code, two messages have been encoded in the neutral white and international-orange parachute gores (the sections that make up the canopy's hemispherical shape). The inner portion spells out "DARE MIGHTY THINGS," with each word located on its own ring of gores. The outer band of the canopy provides GPS coordinates for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the rover was built and the project is managed."

                        PHOTO: JPL

Humanity now has the first ever audio recording beamed back from Mars. If you go to this page on NASA's site, https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-mars-perseverance-rover-provides-front-row-seat-to-landing-first-audio , you can listen to the audio both with the rover's noise and with the rover's sounds filtered out. Turn up your speakers, because Mars is pretty darn quiet at least at Jerero Crater. 

ELKS CLUB: The last couple of days our neighbors have included a sizeble herd of elk. They have been just across the street from us to the east, out on the beach in front of us, to the west, and they were even roaming the golf course when we stopped at McMenamins (outside, of course) for some happy hour Cajun tots.

Here they are on the side of our road. This shot was taken with my cell phone, no zoom used.

The elk were enjoying leisurely grazing on the greens at the golf course. There's a group in the middle, but look at all the dots on the hillside above them. Those are all elk.

Eventually the golf course greenskeepers tried to (gently) coax the elk to go elsewhere.

PUZZLED: For the past couple of days, this Springbok 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle has commanded some of our attention.

Per the box, every piece is a different shape. It was easy goings for the first 50 percent, but the last half was a real slog.

PORTHOLE: I really love the view out of this little porthole window in a bathroom upstairs.

Beachy Keen

SEASIDE: MPA has a change of venue for a few days. On Sunday, we drove down to Gearhart, which is just north of Seaside, Oregon. We're staying in what used to be Christian's paternal grandpa's house again. Built in 1941, it's right on the beach front. I was saying to the kids last night that it's very odd looking out the window and not seeing a single man-made structure between us and the horizon. 

When we arrived, the local herd of elk was hunkered down on a hillside right across from our driveway.

How many can you spot? There are at least 20 in this frame.

We spent Sunday getting settled in. The dogs seem right at home here. 

We're doing our usual things - homework and work work - but just in a different place. CJ has lots of writing and reading to do for school, but he's also taking time out for a little craft project, finally piecing together a Perler bead kit he got for Christmas.

Below are Annabelle and Christian at their temporary work stations. 

The weather on Sunday and Monday was crazy miserable. Sheets of rain coming down sideways. We spent some time mopping up leaks around the windows and hoping for a break in the weather. Finally, last night at sunset the clouds started to break up.

Tuesday morning has brought blue skies and whitecaps on the Pacific. Once the kids get up and about, we'll definitely get out and enjoy it while we can!

STORYTELLERS: A couple of days back, an email from Seattle Parks & Rec popped up. One of the items included was news of a free class for teens coming up, "SoundBites: Exploring storytelling and radio journalism."

The description read, "Join KUOW’s RadioActive Youth Media for a deep-dive into audio storytelling. Each session will focus on a different topic, including narrative storytelling, interviewing like a broadcast journalist, and hosting a podcast. These sessions are geared toward youth who are interested in writing, storytelling, journalism, podcasting, and amplifying youth voice. You can attend each session, or choose just the sessions you’re most interested in." It runs for five weeks, mid March through April. 

I hopped online and signed the kids up. I've long suggested to CJ that he might want to start a history-related podcast some day, and Annabelle might be interested in a D&D-themed show in the future. KUOW is Seattle's NPR station, so this class seems like a great place to learn about broadcasting today.

REWIND: A couple of scenes from last week. First up is a classic Parker Brothers' game, Waterworks. My sister and I spent hours and hours playing this in the 1970s. It's still plenty fun, even though I never seem to win.

The sketch below is from Annabelle's Friday night Gage art (virtual) get together. 

I thought she did a great job.