The Run Around

ROCK ON: It has been a week. A busy, Busy, BUSY week.

I'm not going to recap it all. None of us have that kind of time. But I will hit some highlights. 

Wednesday, the four of us went to WaMu theater in Seattle's stadium district. The draw was a concert by Third Eye Blind and Jimmy Eat World, a couple of bands who were perennial favorites on the airwaves at the end of the 1990s. 

We'd never been to a concert at WaMu before, and that wasn't an accident. I've read really not-so-great reviews about the place. And now I know why. ;)

It's really just this enormous concrete cavern. They host Home Shows and Boat Shows there - that kind of thing. But they also have concerts. When it's a concert night, they hang big black drapes around the cave, and put up all sorts of cattle fences (for lack of a better term. There's a huge standing-only area in front of a not-so-big-or-high stage. There are also two full service bars within the concert area, where people are fenced off from the rest of the crowd. The floor and the bars were really packed on Wednesday night. 

I'd read repeatedly that the venue has no seating, so we were pleasantly surprised to find some seating. They were clearly portable, "accordion" style seating that rolls into itself (think retractable high school bleachers). But rather than bleachers, they were actual seats, so that was good. What was not so good is that the height differential between each row was only about 3-4 inches, so it was hard to see over people in front of you. 

We chose to sit in the back row of the seats, because that way you can stand or sit as you like, no one's kicking the back of your chair, and you don't have to listen to people behind you blathering during the show.

The concert started at 7, with Ra Ra Riot up first. They were definitely not riotous, and had only a tad bit of ra ra. 

Next up was Jimmy Ear World. They had a number of solid hits back in the day, including  "Sweetness," and "The Middle."

I've seen Jimmy Eat World before (about 17 years ago, to be exact), and I have to say, it was strange to me on Wednesday night. For most songs, they sounded more like Death Cab for Cutie or Loverboy than they did themselves. I don't really know how else to explain it. 

Third Eye Blind was up next. Their self titled albums produced multiple huge hits back at the end of the '90s. We were so looking forward to seeing them live!

I have never checked the time so many times during a concert. I even Googled their setlist from their Portland show the night before to try to figure out how long it would be until it was over. ... :(

 It's hard to put into words what when wrong, but I found a review from their Portland show that summed it up pretty well.  One line from the review notes the band "had little intensity and felt altogether disjointed." Sadly, that was the case for the Seattle show, too. The energy of their music on CD simply did not translate to the stage. 

3EB lead singer  Stephan Jenkin was way too chatty for my tastes. For instance, I really don't need to go to a rock show to have the vocalist start talking woo about the shared experience and ordering audience members to turn to a stranger next to them and share pleasantries. It was awkard.

I also for SURE don't want to go to a show to hear songs I love sung live by the singer who recorded them, only to have said singer NOT sing the songs and, instead, hold the mic out to the audience and exhort them to sing. Um, I can stay at home and listen to people sing along with the song. Don't need to pay big $ to go to a concert for that. 

Given all of the above, people were leaving in droves during the show. So, toward the end, we ventured down to the floor and worked our way pretty close to the stage during their biggest hit, "Semi Charmed Kind of Life." 

It's also worth noting the sound during the concert was very meh. No bass, no treble, all middle. And super quiet. 

All in all, a mega disappointing event. I wish we'd stayed home. 

In keeping with our rock-n-roll lifestyle (ha ha), CJ and Christian are at a concert tonight, too, Uriah Heep and Judas Priest at the Showare Center in Kent, WA.

Early reviews are already in from then and it sounds like it was a great show, so yay for that!

SWEET SEND OFF: Thursday, our day was consumed with finishing some sizable projects for an event that evening, an eight grade "graduation."

For the event, we made and decorated vanilla and vegan chocolate sugar cookies, including some alphabet cookies to spell out the following message. ...  

 We also made about three dozen school logo cookies. 

 Each one was hand-painted. Fortunately, the school has a very simple logo!

And we whipped up two dozen vegan and gluten free chocolate cupcakes, plus three dozen organic strawberry lemonade cupcakes. I forgot to take a photo of the cupcakes, darn it (they replicated the school logo, as well), but I do have a pic of the sign that went with them. 

We also produced a couple of movies for the ceremony. One was a three-minute video about the eighth graders' trip to camp, the other was a super sentimental photo album set to music about each of the 15 graduates. Annabelle spent hours and hours and hours on those presentations, and they turned out beautifully, to the point that tears were shed by multiple people in the room. 

Friday was no less busy - we were up early hitting stores and then driving to Seattle to take 7 gallons of ice cream for root beer floats to be served at field day for the school.  And then I came home and made three batches of potato salad ('regular,' vegan, and onion-free), as well as vegan, gluten free and 'regular' shortcake for strawberry shortcake we're serving at Teen Feed tomorrow night. It was nice having Kennedy here, he was a big help in the kitchen!

I bet we all sleep well tonight. 

Half Baked

CAUGHT STEALING: This day has been circled on our calendar for awhile now. Ever since the Golden Warriors beat the Toronto Raptors in Canada during the NBA finals. That put the wheels for a Taco Bell promotion "Steal a game, steal a taco" into motion.

Every man, woman and child in the U.S. had a chance to have a free Taco Bell taco today between 2 and 6 p.m.

As you might have expected, we were at our nearest Taco Bell shortly after 2 p.m., and scored three free tacos for nada.

As you might also expect, we were at another nearby Taco Bell at about 3:30 p.m. There, we also got three free tacos. This time, I actually let the kids buy a drink, though, but only because it was 'happy hour' and the drinks were only $1 apiece.

So for $2, it was six tacos and two drinks for us today. Not bad on the budget.

BAKE AT 350:  I think I turned the oven on at 8:30 this morning. It's now 9 p.m., and the last batch of baked goods is finishing up.

Today we made vanilla sugar cookies in custom shapes, vegan chocolate sugar cookies, also custom cut, two batches of vegan cocoa cupcakes, and two batches of organic strawberry cupcakes. 

That's a lot of baking!

We're doing all this for a Thursday night eighth-grade 'graduation' event. There are probably going to be about 70 or so people there. There should be enough treats for everyone based on what we churned out today!

Tomorrow will be a lot of decorating - that's the fun part. :)

And because we didn't spend enough time in the kitchen today, we also decided to whip up a yummy Indian-inspired dinner of vindaloo chicken with bread and some lovely, spicy sauce over rice. Mmmm!

While they each helped in the kitchen some today, CJ and Annabelle each had their own projects.

CJ, for the first time, tried his hand at a Perler bead project. Annabelle and I spotted a cute Boston Terrier kit when we stopped in Jo-Ann for cupcake liners this afternoon. He liked it even more than we thought he would and got right down to business when we got home.

Annabelle has been working on a rather involved PowerPoint project, making montages of all the graduates and setting them to music. It's been a good exercise for her. She has learned a *lot* more about PowerPoint. 

TUNE IN, MOON IN: We learned in an email today that on June 18, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing and President Kennedy’s vision that launched the effort, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum will host a day-long symposium highlighting the history that led to the first Moon landing, current scientific and technological space initiatives, and the future of space exploration. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy will be on hand for the special event.

The museum will be livestreaming the event all day, starting at 6 a.m. West Coast USA time. There is a full day of panels, and each sounds super interesting. Featured speakers include Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, Apollo 11 Pilot Michael Collins, a host of scientists, and former leaders from NASA will all discuss how President Kennedy’s vision to send a man to the Moon still inspires our role in the universe today. 

You can follow this link to the broadcast schedule and live streams: 

https://www.jfklibrary.org/watch-the-jfk-space-summit

A Stitch in Time

DREAMERS: This weekend we checked on our bees, celebrated Father's Day, and did a few other things on the 'to do' list, but one of the biggest tasks was working on a donation cake for Birthday Dreams, a non-profit that provides birthday parties (decorations, gifts, cake, treats and all) for homeless youth.

The birthday person, an older teenager, we signed up for had a very specific request - they wanted a Lilo & Stitch-themed cake. 

We love making cakes for teens, and we love making specific/obscure cakes, so this was a good project to put the MPA cake squad to the test. 

We found a really great video online that featured a woman making a sculpted Stitch cake. While that's not the route we went, it helped Annabelle get some ideas for how to sculpt her Stitch out of homemade modeling chocolate. Annabelle watched it a couple of times and took notes.

Then, she was off to the races. She made the entire cake topper herself, fearlessly. I'm so impressed by her skill and confidence. 

Making blue modeling chocolate is a bit of a mess. At one point she said, "I look like I murdered a Smurf!"

Couldn't argue with her on that.

CJ was super helpful making the fondant and the pineapple filling for the top tier. 

The top tier is a coconut cake covered in coconut buttercream, with pineapple filling and chopped macadamia nuts for some crunch. It was our first go 'round for this particular recipe and I have to say, it tasted amazing. :) The "bamboo" around the top tier are hazelnut and vanilla Pirouette cookies. The sand on top of the cake is light brown sugar. The surfboard is modeling chocolate with sugar sheet and a little marshmallow fondant. (The recipient's name is on the surfboard, but I blurred it out, for the sake of confidentiality.)

The bottom tier is chocolate mocha cake with vanilla buttercream icing covered in red marshmallow fondant. Its filling is vanilla creme with mini chocolate chips.

Below is an early assembly photo. the column in the middle is to help hold the tall tier atop it.

Speaking of Birthday Dreams, despite the fact we've been donating cakes to them for a year now, this weekend we finally attended a (long overdue) volunteer orientation. 

It gave us a chance to learn more about how Birthday Dreams does what they do, and we were able to ask a few questions we've been wondering about for awhile now. 

After the orientation, we stopped by a nearby Jo-Ann store. As luck would have it, they were hosting a mini decorate-a-cookie or brownie table. The kids were all over that. CJ was still sporting his Birthday Dreams apron. 

Casting About

PHOTO CREDIT: Flash Forward podcast - https://www.flashforwardpod.com/ 

POD PEOPLE: On Wednesday, I realized we were going to be in the car for at least three hours running errands, and I wanted to try to utilize that time in an educational way.

I asked the kids to find a fun, science-y podcast of some sort that we could listen to while whiling away in traffic.

Annabelle did a quick web search and reported that something called "Flash Forward" received good reviews.  I'll have her tell you a bit more about it. ... 

Flash Forward is a sci-fi/educational podcast run by Rose Eveleth that explores hypothetical futures, as a sort of "what-if?" scenario. The episode my family listened to recently was "Ghostbot", part of the newest miniseason about bodies. "Ghostbot" proposes a future where when you die, your personality and knowledge can be condensed onto a robotic avatar of yourself, which can continue to comfort and interact with the living. 

The episode goes on to interview James Vlahos and Muhammad Aurangzab Ahmad, who have both programmed their very own "Dadbots" for this express purpose. The episode, while it has rather poor sound quality at times, is overall very well produced. If you don't mind the rather long and somewhat confusing skit at the beginning, it even dives deep into the ethical and legal aspects of these "Ghostbots". 

The podcast can be found at https://www.flashforwardpod.com, where all of the main episodes are hosted for free. However, Flash Forward also has a Patreon page that gives supporters access to bonus content and perks at https://www.patreon.com/flashforwardpod for a monetary fee. If you're interested in well-researched science fiction scenarios, or you just want something to listen to on your commute, Flash Forward is both entertaining and educational.

And here's CJ's take on what we listened to. ... 

On Wednesday, while travelling up to Mukilteo to visit my grandparents, we listened to a podcast titled Flash Forward. According to Flash Foward's website, "Flash Forward is a podcast about the future. Each episode we take on a possible (or not so possible) future scenario — everything from the existence of artificial wombs, to what would happen if space pirates dragged a second moon to Earth." For the episode we listened to, the scenario in question was the possibility of creating "bots" (in the form of an elaborate program that interacts with users via text) representing people who are deceased (usually loved ones such as parents).

The episode followed two men — Mohamed and James, both of whom are working on elaborate programs that talk to users using pre-generated text patterns, thus simulating conversations with the deceased person. Much of the bots' speech patterns were taken from conversations with the humans that they simulate, so that the bots' speech is similar to the actual persons' speech.

An issue that came up in the episode was the trouble (and potential consequences) of having the bots not just talk, but listen, and for their speech to change (for better or for worse) accordingly. A notorious example of a bot's speech being altered by those interacting with it was Microsoft's short-lived Tay Twitter bot, that quickly began to spout neo-Nazi propaganda after being manipulated by trolls. Another issue raised was the possibility of companies in the future offering "subscription services" of "ghostbots" to the public, making people pay on a regular basis to see simulations of deceased loved ones.

It was an interesting listen. I'm glad we checked it out, and predict there are many podcasts in our future! 

WORK IN PROGRESS: A newly-installed clean room webcam at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, everyone with Internet access a great view as technicians and engineers assemble NASA's Mars 2020 rover. The pioneering mission includes a robotic explorer that will be accompanied by a helicopter equipped with a high-resolution camera. (A helicopter on Mars will be a first for humanity!). 

The webcam stream is live 24 hours a day (with the exception of maintenance periods or technical difficulties). The Internet address for the webcam is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNiYPglK58

JPL will have live, moderated chats on their YouTube channel Monday through Thursday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT.

The Mars 2020 mission reached a milestone recently, with the rover's mast being raised on June 5, 2019. While Mars 2020 travels to Mars, the 7-plus foot mast will be in stowed flat on the rover's deck. Soon after touchdown, the mast will be raised. Once in place, it will provide a perch for the the rover's SuperCam, Mastcam-Z and Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer instruments, as well as for four Navcam engineering cameras.

Recently, a few JPL workers posed for a selfie with the Mars 2020 mast after it was attached.

Mars 2020 is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in July of next year. It will land at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.

For more about the mission, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020

Way Behind

GONE MISSING:  There's been a dearth of posts this week. Apologies. I was in the hospital.

No, no - not an admitted patient myself, but was hanging out and helping out as I could while someone else underwent a procedure.

The hospital was Providence, in north Everett. Big place, well appointed. 

Each and every nurse we encountered was terrific. Seriously. They were all so different, age, gender and other- but they had two qualities in common: They were good at their jobs technically, and they had great bedside manners.

What wasn't so good is we arrived at the hospital at 7:20, got the patient admitted by 7:40 a.m. .... and then the procedure, scheduled for 10 a.m. didn't happen until 7:30 p.m.!!! And let me tell you, it felt like even longer than 12 hours. My god. We got our hopes up around 12:30 when the surgeon stopped by and said there had been some emergencies, but he was ready now and he'd see the patient in a few minutes. "Fast" forward SEVEN more hours (and a few more emergencies later), and it finally went down.

After another couple of hours of waiting room "action," we were told it was over and it went well. And the surgeon said he still had two more procedures to do that day. That's downright ridiculous, if you asked me.

I get that emergencies happen, but I don't know why you schedule a surgeon for a full day of surgeries, but you also have that same person be the on call guy for everything coming into the ER. It just makes no sense to me. We finally got home about 11, and I went to bed at 1, only to wake up at 4. Instead of fighting it, I just finally got up at 5 and Day 2 began. We were back to the hospital by 7:20.

Naturally, the second day was more of the same - waiting on the doctor for discharge.

The patient was more than ready to go home in the early a.m., but the surgeon never did show up. At least he had a physician's assistant making his rounds. She showed up about 1, and we finally left the hospital at 2. 

While it was , of course it was worth the wait. The patient is recovering nicely, and we're all glad to have that in the rearview mirror. 

I had to laugh, when Christian sent me a nice photo of Mt. Rainier taken from our place. The accompanying words were "My view right now." 

In return, I sent him this photo, with the same phrase.

Good times. ;)

FULL HOUSE: This weekend was busy, as we had a house full of company again. Christian's dad, stepmother and younger brother stayed with us Saturday evening. Saturday afternoon we all went to Queen Anne to watch Christian's brother's lacrosse game. That was really entertaining, as always.

Afterward, it was back to our place for 9 pounds of corned beef and some Reuben sandwiches. (No, we didn't eat all of that, it's just how much I pressure cooked, using two pots. So good!

We went for a little stroll after dinner, to a park on the south end of Lake Washington.

As you can see, it was a lovely sunset on Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon, we went to another park. This time it was in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle. The occasion was an afternoon of music, food and fun at Detective Cookie's Chess Park.

Annabelle was a guest of honor, as she designed the logo for the park's official t-shirts.

A couple of people even asked her for her autograph. :)

Here's a photo of Annabelle and the park's namesake, Detective Cookie. She has been encouraging Seattle area kids to play chess for years and years.

And here's the detective in action, playing chess with a youngster.

Below, Annabelle stands as she's recognized for her artistic efforts. You can see CJ was applauding. :)

 Speaking of CJ, this is what he looks like when he's killing you in a chess match.

Did I mention there was free pizza?

All in all, a fun hour in the park. 

Reflections

DYNAMIC DUO: Here's a shot we staged last night at the request of Birthday Dreams, one of our favorite non-profits. They want to do a bio bit on CJ and Annabelle's volunteer efforts for their organization. I thought it only fitting that the Kitchen Aid make it into the photo. It sure gets a work out every time we take on a Birthday Dreams project. I used a Google Photos app to turn the stationary shots of CeeJ and Bee into an animated GIF file. 

75: Today, the Internet has been full of stories about remembering D-Day's 75th anniversary.

I thought it would be a good day for the kids and I to look back at photos from our visit to Normandy Beach a couple years back. 

It was breath-taking then and now. I feel so fortunate to have been able to stroll those grounds and reflect on the significance of what happened then. Our trip to Europe a couple of Septembers ago was one for the ages. 

Below, looking down at Omaha Beach on the so-serene day we were there, it was hard to imagine the carnage and chaos that happened there on June 6 of 1944. Definitely a turning point in the history of humanity.

https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/europe/normandy-american-cemetery

GENTLE REMINDER: If you haven't already done so, remember to get your name on board NASA's Mars 2020 mission. It takes just seconds. Simply go to this link, and sign up! https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020/

Close to Home

STROLLERS: Monday morning we went for a little stroll first thing. We headed down to the lowlands near the Tukwila Community Center. We parked in their lot and walked north for a bit, along the Duwamish River. 

In short order we saw some Canada Geese families. One of the groups had thirteen babies!

We walked across a kinda scary bridge over the water (pictured at the top of this post), and strolled through a quiet neighborhood on the other side. There, we saw some ENORMOUS leaves of a plant none of us had ever seen before. Later in the day, we did a little research and we think that they are Japanese butterbur (Petasites japonica).

Per a city of Portland's Environmental Services webpage, it's an invasive species. "Japanese butterbur’s kidney-shaped leaves can be up to four feet wide and are fuzzy on the underside. It emerges in late winter or early spring, sometimes with clumps of white or pale yellow flowers appearing before the leaves, and can grow up to six feet tall," says the site.  

Later in our walk, we spied a station of sort surrounded by screened chain link fence. I immediately thought it the air quality station that's part of the state network. 

During the last miserable air quality summer, I repeatedly checked the official site for local air quality readings, and I do believe this just has to be the site listed for Tukwila. This photo makes it look like it's out in the wide open, but I shot it between slats. It's completely fenced in.

ONE LAST TIME: As documented here, we've been doing birthday bulletien boards for the kids' former school for months and months now. 

The last one of the year is always the hardest, as you have to incorporate June, July, and  August birthdays.

We decided to do a fishy theme, and incorporate info about local libraries' summer reading programs. 

We really enjoy this project, but we think it's time to pass the torch to others. There are so many gifted artists at the school ... it's time to see some of their work, we do believe.

PARTY PARTING:  Monday afternoon, we headed down to South Lake Union for a final gathering for the Ultimate Frisbee team that Annabelle has played for for the past two years. 

The spot had free games like pool, darts, and a couple of arcade games. The kids had fun and it was a nice way to wrap up a good season for the team.