NEW KIDS ON THE (BIRD) BLOCK: First thing this morning, the kids and I headed outside. They were going to get their first lesson operating a chop saw. The goal was to make some bird blocks for the storage area-in-progress. Their first question was, "What's a bird block?" I showed them that the siding comes up to the top plate, and the rafters set atop the top plate, but there's a gap between the top plate and the top of (in our case) the 2x6 rafter, which has plywood atop it to hold the roof sheathing. The blocks provide ventilation, while the screen installed behind the holes keeps the critters out.
We gathered our necessary tools for the project (a hammer, a measuring tape, and a pencil), plus a big ol' ladder and our trusty chop saw. We followed the measure twice, cut once principle.
Fortunately, the cutting went well. Nothing other than wood was chopped.
Below, the blocks are just temp-ed into place. They still need to have holes drilled in them, and some screen stapled on.
SPROUTS!: It never gets old. I'm always amazed after we sow seeds, that they actually sprout. Today was that day, when our first little leaves of green showed their stuff.
Our cherry tomatoes are the only ones to show signs of life so far, but I'll bet the other starts aren't far behind. I couldn't help but smile when I saw the Burien library's post today. It's a video of a story time with their children's librarian reading the book "If You Plant a Seed."
The Burien library is where CJ applied and interviewed for a library page position before this whole pandemic *&^%storm hit. He still gets weekly emails from King County Library System letting him know he's still a candidate. That's great, but I also have to think that after this virus is eventually kicked (many, many months from now), budgets are going to be so slim that no new hiring is going to go on. Not the best time to be seeking employment, for sure. Unless you want to be a low-level Amazon employee or grocery delivery driver. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with either of those jobs. In fact, right now they're essential employment! It's just that there are going to be tens of thousands competing for those jobs right about now, too.
SCENIC: It was a beautiful day, weather wise, and so we spent a good part of the day out of doors again. The photo above was taken from our mid-yard, where we were picking up branches and sod that were generated from our storage shed and pavers projects. Meanwhile, out in the back yard, the tulips were wide open in today's sunshine.
It's hard to believe those things fold all the way back up into their cup shape in the late afternoon. STORE SCORE: I needed to go to the store today. I was trying to hold out for another few days, but when you live with CJ and you run out of ketchup, well, that's nearly an emergency. I thought I'd hit it early in hopes of light crowds and fresh air in the stores. It was a good strategy. I was to WinCo by 7:30, and it was just me and a couple dozen other people in the cavernous store. I was happy to see most shoppers were wearing masks and gloves. (I was surprised to see that the cashiers and store workers were not wearing masks. They should be.) I did pretty well at WinCo, but they didn't have any yeast. It's almost as hard to come by as toilet paper (which WinCo had, BTW). It was still super early when I got out of WinCo, so I decided to stop by Smart FoodService (formerly Cash & Carry) to see if they had any. I went to their baking aisle and it was wiped out. I basically went down the aisle looking at labels under blank spaces. Sure enough, the yeast section was a barren wasteland. However, I know that the store often has additional stock way up high on shelves, so I peered up and, sure enough, there was a box that said Red Star on it. Score! I strained to reach it, and was surprised by how heavy it was. Fortunately, I didn't get a concussion. I did get three POUNDS of yeast, however. (And no, I'm not hording, I swear. One is for me, one's for my mom, and one's for my daughter-in-law.)
Speaking of concussions, later in the day, we were working out in the shed, and I couldn't help but think this looked like an accident waiting to happen.
See that claw of a hammer peeking out, ready to jump onto someone's unsuspecting head? SOCIAL DISTANCING TO THE EXTREME: What's the best way to social distance during a global pandemic? How about blasting off to the International Space Station!?
Above, a Soyuz MS-16 lifts off from Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today, carrying two cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut. The trio made a quick, six-hour trip to the ISS. (photo credits: NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin)
The ISS's newest residents are Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos (top), Chris Cassidy of NASA, center, and Anatoly Ivanishin . (photo credit: NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin) Bet they're all hoping COVID-19 is a bad memory by the time they're home in six months. (Unfortunately, it's not at all likely that will be the case.)
The virus affected situations leading up to today's launch. According to a story in Discover Magazine, both NASA and the Russian space agency took their traditional pre-flight quarantines even more seriously than usual. Instead of the standard two-week isolation, this go-round it was four weeks. Also, while astronauts and cosmonauts traditionally break quarantine to place flowers at the grave of Yuri Gagarin, that tradition- as well as all other off-site visits - were eliminated.
Just for fun, here's a great old photo of President Richard Nixon visiting the Apollo 11 astronauts in quarantine (in an Airstream trailer) after their historic flight to the moon in 1969. (Credit: NASA)
A FIRST: So, on pandemic stay-at-home day ??? it's come to this: An artichoke was today's entertainment.
Truth be told, it was one of those not-so-proud of dinner nights: Tater tots and mini corn dogs. In an attempt to offset that somewhat, I finally got around to touching the artichokes Christian impulse bought last time we were at WinCo (a couple of weeks ago).The artichokes have been taunting me from the produce pile ever since.
Honestly, they would have been a lot better when they were fresher, but I think we got to them just in time.
I turned to Google to find a recipe to prep them in our pressure cooker. But before that, we had to get the artichokes ready. Fortunately, we found a super short (just over one minute) tutorial called "How to Cook and Eat an Artichoke" on YouTube.
The kids followed all the steps and in just a couple of minutes, our artichokes were in the pot.
So what was the verdict? Meh.
Sure, most anything dipped into melted butter and/or mayo is delicious. But the kids both tapped out after about a dozen leaves. They were afraid they'd be 'too full' to eat the corn dogs and tater tots, ha ha.
GREEN THUMB: This morning, we helped Kennedy get his little container garden off the ground. He came down here and picked up a three-tiered planter we inherited when we bought this house. I tried to utilize it a couple of summers ago, but it was in a spot in our yard that was inconvenient to water and access, so all my plants died and it was a hard fail.
Kennedy likes to cook, and his newish apartment has a balcony with good sun, so I figured the planter should have a home there. A couple of days ago, I offered it to him, and he took us up on it.
Keeping his distance from us while we worked in the yard, Kennedy dumped the old dirt in the boxes and filled the containers with some raised bed soil we happened to have. He packed it all in his car and stopped at Lowe's on his way home. There, he scored a half dozen herb starts.
So now he has two kinds of basil, two kinds of oregano, plus rosemary and cilantro. Nice!
AND THEN THERE WERE TWO: Perhaps you heard the news - Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination today.
CJ was pretty bummed at the news. Bernie was 'his' candidate.
I asked CJ to write up a little something about what he thinks November's election is going to look like now that it's apparently down to Biden v. Trump. Here's CJ's forecast.
"By my prediction, while he may lose the popular vote, incumbent Donald Trump will be re-elected as President in November of 2020. Much like moderate Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over three million votes in 2016, but failed to get the necessary Electoral College votes to beat Trump, I expect the same to occur to Joe Biden in this year's presidential election."
CJ's prediction makes me have Many Thoughts, but I'll just keep them to myself. For now.
HANDIWORK: With too much at-home time on our hands, we finally got around to refinishing the hand chair we found at a thrift shop awhile back. It had two layers of paint (brown and then green) over its original plastic.
We sanded it down to its original tomato soup red. That took awhile.
After that, the hand got a couple of coats of a shimmery silver primer-and-paint.
The end result (up top) is a big improvement.
IN OTHER NEWS: Today meant more construction work on the pantry (we've actually started putting the sheathing up over the studs), and another batch of sauerkraut. The jar on the left is about a week into the process. The one on the right is front today, with a nice, really green head of cabbage.
Below is what Japanese class looked like today. CJ will be back at it for real (as in college) next week. Japanese III - that ought to be quite a challenge!
WORK IT OUT: Another weekend at home. What to do? What to do?
Many people might be pondering that question from the "I'm bored" point of view. For us, well, our "to do" list is so long, it really takes some contemplating. On Saturday, while Christian was working on framing our new storage shed in the upper lot, the kids and I got busy working on a paver pathway through our little bee-friendly field of clover.
It would have been easier to just plop the pavers down atop the existing lawn, but then they would have been wonky and wobbly, so we dug into the dirt and made a flat, rectangular plot for each one of them.
In the photo above, the poor clover is pretty downtrodden, and the pavers aren't swept off, but you get a sense for how it will look. Below is a photo of the finished path, connecting stairs to the top of our lot to stairs that rise up from our driveway, down below.
I also pulled mountains of weeds, and appreciated the thousands of succulents growing all over our little plot of land.
On Sunday, the tulips were getting ready to burst.
By Monday afternoon, they were showing their colors.
Meanwhile, the new storage space continues to take shape.
Kirby and Laika took a moment out of their busy schedule to check on the construction.
Mt. Rainier even showed up for the occasion.
PICK OF THE LITTER: With no sports and nowhere to go, we're finally watching a movie or two.
As we're scrolling through options on Hulu, Netflix, Kanopy, Amazon Prime, Sling, and more, you'd think we'd come up with a list of dozens of movies we wanted to see.
That didn't happen.
I guess we're just not 'movie people,' whatever that means. Interestingly enough, the titles we four were all interested in all seemed to be documentaries. Go figure. We decided to watch a movie about pups trained to become aids to blind humans.
Last night, my family decided to pass the time during quarantine by watching a documentary. We watched "Pick of the Litter," a documentary from 2018 that chronicles the training process for five puppies from one litter, all aiming to serve as guide dogs for disabled people. The Golden Retriever dogs are named Potomac, Phil, Patriot, Poppet, and Primrose, and they are absolutely adorable.
All of the dogs have to go through training exercises if they seek to become guide dogs. Those who are unsuccessful are "career changed" - meaning that they wind up in the dog version of civilian life. These exercises involve paying attention, remaining calm, and staying with their humans at all times. Without spoiling the outcome of the exercises, I can say that something as seemingly mundane as which dogs do or don't get selected for service as guide dogs become nail-biters.
And here's what Annabelle has to say about it. ...
“Pick of the Litter” is a documentary movie about the process that prospective guide dogs go through while training, from birth to being assigned a human. It’s a difficult and long process for both the dogs and the humans involved in training. The dogs are carefully selected from their litters, and most never even make it past the first stage of training. Without providing any spoilers for the documentary itself, it’s quite heartbreaking to see how some of these dogs and trainers work incredibly hard to fulfill the needs of the program, yet come up short in multiple areas. Dogs that are too energetic or impulsive are quick to be cut – sometimes they’re moved from one home to another in attempts to see if a more experienced handler will be able to curb their behavior and make sure that the dog can do its job. The dogs that do make it through have to show tenacity and dedication to following orders and making sure their human companions are safe, even learning when to disobey commands like “go forward” when a dangerous object such as a car is in the way. The documentary is a great look inside the guide dog industry for those who want to get a closer feeling of what guide dogs for the blind really do, and exactly how much they can help their humans.
Here's the trailer for the film if you'd like a little preview.
ACTION!: Today's drawing lesson, delivered via author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka on his YouTube channel, was about how to use motion lines effectively in illustrations.
I am really impressed with how CJ is embracing these lessons, and his attitude and work are paying off. Here are some of his drawings from today.
They definitely evoke movement, and his humanoid figures are really improving!
Annabelle, who draws for hours each day, was up to the task.
JJK had a guest illustrator on the program today, Mike Curato. His debut title was "Little Elliot Big City." Elliott is an elephant, so viewers were encouraged to try their hand at drawing a pair of elephants.
Cute stuff.
Speaking of art-ing, we signed Annabelle up for a whole bunch of online art classes thanks to a local school, Gage Academy of Art, graciously offering up free lessons. They're calling the series #ArtToGo. The classes will be conducted via Zoom, and here's how they describe the program: "Art to Go is a free community art series presented by Gage 360! As a public service to the community, we have developed twice-weekly classes that are FREE to anyone interested in learning about art! This new program will provide free art tutorials, demos and lectures from our most esteemed Gage artist instructors." MUSICAL INTERLUDE: One of the things we're trying to do is get back to making music on a daily basis. And by 'we' I mean CJ and Annabelle, playing guitar. Today, they worked on an over-wrought song, "Bring Me to Life." We found a decent YouTube tutorial (video below) and some guitar tabs on Songsterr https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/evanescence-bring-me-to-life-tab-s6728t1
Maybe if they practice it for a week of so, we can actually make a video and post it. Stay tuned. I'LL JUST LEAVE THIS HERE: While I was hanging out in the basement for a couple of weeks, I kept seeing an ad on TV featuring me.
Yes, really. It was an ad for an NBC News podcast with host Trymaine Lee. The ad had a voiceover of a woman talking about voting in November. The image on the screen is a blue ballot bag. When I first saw it, I thought, "Hey, that looks just like the one we used at King County Elections!"
About the third time I saw the ad, I thought, "Gee, those pictures on the wall in the background look just the the ones where I worked." By the fourth time, I spotted myself (in olive green in the background), assisting a woman in a printed skirt. It was surreal, sitting in the basement seeing that over and over while sewing masks to help combat a virus I almost certainly caught while performing the work in the photo. Here's a link to the podcast the ad
DESTRUCTO MODE: With seemingly every building project, at least a little destruction is a part of it. Today, the kids and I gave some shrubs a bad haircut. The tops of them had to go to make way for the new storage area's floor. Yesterday afternoon, Christian hung the ledger board up against the existing exterior west wall of the house. Today, we muscled the the joists and sub- sub-floor into place. (The joists extend beyond the sub- subfloor because there will be a little walkway around the shed to allow a meter reader access to our meter.
Tomorrow, it's posts in concrete time. Then Saturday or Sunday we'll set the beam.
OUT OF THIS WORLD: You may or may not recall back in January or so, our blog mentioning the first cookies baked in space. They were baked aboard the International Space Station in a special convection oven. The goal of the experiment was to study cooking options for long-haul trips. Sadly, the ISS inhabitants didn't even get to taste those cookies since they were a test. Instead, the cookies were sealed in individual baggies and sent back down to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on January. (As a consolation, astronauts aboard the ISS were able to enjoy special pre-baked DoubleTree chocolate-chip cookies that were sent up to the ISS on Nov. 2, 2019.)
Astronaut Christina Koch checks out the first cookie (or any food item) to be baked in space (Image credit: NASA) I can't help but wonder what it smelled like when the cookies were baking up there. According to a Space.com article, "In space, even without gravity, smells travel via individual aroma molecules. In the microgravity environment aboard the space station, these molecules travel in whatever direction they are moved. (On Earth, the aroma molecules move in all directions due to random collisions with air molecules.)"
A closeup of one of the first space cookies - Image credit: NASA
Anyway, when we learned we could order some of the space cookies, we sent a couple of tins to some Earthbound folks. Granted, these were not the actual cookies baked in space. Rather, they were the same recipe that was used up there - dough from the DoubleTree Hotel chain. One of the recipients of the cookies (hi Nonnie!) said they were so good, she looked on the Internet for the recipe and when she baked them, they were the best chocolate chip cookies she'd ever made. Ever since then, we've been meaning to make some. What better time than when you're stuck home thanks to a worldwide pandemic!
Last night, CJ, Annabelle and I mixed up the dough at about 9 p.m. The recipe calls for refrigerating the dough for at least four hours or overnight, so that's what we did ... except for two little balls, which we baked in the toaster oven for the kids' dessert. On Earth, the recipe calls for 13-16 minutes in a standard oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The astronauts baked the first four cookies at 300 F and the fifth cookie at 325 F (165 C). The first cookie they baked was underdone at 25 minutes. They cooked the second one three times longer, and it was at the 75 minute mark that they could start to smell the cookie baking.
The fourth and fifth cookies baked for 120 and 130 minutes, respectively, and they were then left to cool outside the oven for 25 and 10 minutes, respectively. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait nearly that long. This was our test cookie, which baked about 14 minutes. Doesn't it look divine?
The kids report they are, indeed, delicious. This morning we baked the rest of the batch. The recipe is definitely a keeper. I'm looking forward to making these for an upcoming Teen Feed, that's for sure. If you're interested, here's a link to a short video about the project: https://www.space.com/first-space-cookies-final-baking-results-aroma.html?jwsource=cl
I should point out that baking these cookies was a legit educational endeavor, as the kids read up about the experiment on the ISS. In addition, we checked out the curriculum DoubleTree by Hiltonand Scholastic partnered to develop related to a "hospitality in space" program, "Opening Doors in Space." It includes a lesson and activity sheet, focuses on better understanding the challenges of living and working in space, and encourages students to think creatively about what innovations need to occur to ensure long-duration space travel is comfortable and hospitable. I had the kids each fill out a worksheet from the lesson plan. They had to pitch an idea they thought would help make space tourists more comfortable at on off-planet hotel.
Annabelle proposed an easy-access system.
Meanwhile, CJ had food on his mind, and figured visitors would want a way to cook up a snack.
SPEAKING OF SPACE: One of our favorite astronauts has some advice about how to spend our time sheltering in place and trying to ride out the big first wave of COVID-19 infections. Here's one of his suggestions from his interview with Euronews: "Build your own little spaceship in your house, your own little crew of people, and treat them as members of your crew. All of them are trying to get through this thing together. And that's what we do on board."
Seems like sound advice. I also appreciate what Col. Hadfield has to say about trying to deal with the threat posed by the virus:
"Dig into the actual risk of it. Become expert on what it is about COVID that you need to know. What causes it, how might you catch it, how might you minimize your own chances, what are the symptoms, if you start to get the symptoms what should you do? So that you actually have a way to react — you're not just crossing your fingers and hoping. That's not how astronauts fly spaceships."
