Friday, June 12 was a general strike and silent march in support of black lives organized by Black Lives Matter Seattle King County. The whole staff of TayStone Media participated in the strike and made a donation to an organization working for racial equity. We also joined a show of support organized by the Gatewood Elementary School PTA. Family and friends (in masks) surrounded the school along a busy road waving signs. Our beloved local news source, the West Seattle Blog, covered it and lo and behold, the Editor in Chief was front and center in the photo!

Here is what she had to say, "It felt amazing to be a part of the protests because I really want to support Black people right now. Before we had been honking [in solidarity] at people who were holding up signs in support but now we were the ones being honked at and it felt really, really good."

Breaking news! Gwendolyn, our Editor In Chief, woke up at 5: 00 am and waited until 8: 00 am to get up on her birthday. She was VERY excited when she woke up. When she got up to go to the bathroom, she saw a unicorn pet balloon outside her door! Later, when she opened her presents, she saw a SHY GUY STUFFIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( I was really excited about the Shy Guy stuffie because Shy Guy is my FAVORITE Mario character.) After that, they made profiteroles that were filled with mint chocolate chip ice cream, and after dinner their grandparents came over for dessert!

Gwendolyn, our Editor in Chief, knew that the animals in Animal Crossing New Horizons were going to throw her a birthday party on her special day. And did they ever! When Gwendolyn logged in, Pashmina was standing outside her house door and said "Gweny, you have to come with me!" They went to Pashmina's house and when Gwendolyn entered, Pashmina, Axel and Lucy shouted Happy Birthday.

Then there was a cake and Pashmina told Gwendolyn to blow out the candles, which she did by pressing A. Then everyone got out party poppers and there was dancing. There was also a pinata. "I whammed the pinata with a stick. I whammed it and whammed it by pressing A. Then it broke, finally and out showered birthday cupcakes!"

Next she went to the town square (aka the plaza) and there was KK Slider. "I talked to KK and he asked me if I wanted a song and I said yes. I thought it was just going to be a normal concert with me requesting a song but it wasn't! He played a song called KK Birthday and while he was playing, instead of leaves and snowflake and shooting stars on the screen it was confetti and instead of the credits rolling, it was notes from the other animals and Daddy and Sister all saying kind things and birthday wishes. It made me feel really good".

Finally, the Head Reporter gave Gwendolyn EIGHT presents to unwrap, one for each year.

Gwendolyn highly recommends celebrating a birthday in Animal Crossing New Horizons!

What it is about: Hasty Baker is a card game that is like Go Fish but you don't make collections, you make recipes. You get a point every time you make a recipe, but there are cards that can help boost your score. For instance, the double batch card gives your recipe 2 points instead of one, but there's a downside. You have to gather 2 of each ingredient, so the better one to choose is the blue ribbon, which gives you an extra point without needing to have more ingredients. The first person to get 5 points wins.

What I like about it: I like Go Fish, but I feel Hasty Baker is nicer because you can't _really _steal ingredients without the steal ingredient card. And I like that you are making DELICOUS desserts.

Mint Chocolate Profiteroles #

For the Editor in Chief's birthday last week, we here at the Daily Excitement wanted to make an impressive birthday dessert. So, what did we make? Well, if you never look at the title of these articles, and thus don't know, we made mint chocolate profiteroles. The ice cream was easy enough to make, and it tasted great. The cream puffs were a different story. The choux pastry started well, but when you put it in a mixer and add the eggs, we added too many. Luckily, we fixed it, but the cream puffs were still a bit flat. However, they looked very impressive when filled with ice cream. The profiteroles tasted amazing, and altogether, the editor in chief agreed that it was a wonderful birthday dessert.

--The head reporter

Extra Egg Whites? No Problem! #

The Editor in Chief and Head Reporter used 2 egg yolks in the mint chocolate chip ice cream for the profiteroles. That left us with two egg whites. What to do?

Well, there is nothing those two like to do more than use a piping bag so we made David Lebovitz's Chocolate Macarons. Gwendolyn says, "Piping isn't actually as easy as it looks, and it doesn't even look that easy sometimes. But it is really well worth it because the macarons tasted delicious! Really, really good. Especially the cookie. We added 1/4 tsp of mint extract to the ganache filling and it made it really minty and delicious but not like toothpaste minty. Piping is really, really fun because just being able to squeeze a bag and see something come out of it nice. What's hard it that sometimes the filling in the bag is a little bit tough or sticky and it's hard to get out of the bag. Or sometimes the filling is so gloopy it pours out of the bag without you even squeezing it. It's also hard to get every macaron looking like the last one. We have had some really odd-shaped macarons but they still taste good. We really proud of this batch because they all had feet, that little ruffle they get when they rise."

An Ad from Our Sponsors #

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"Thanks to Hisstrik™, my cats are safe!"--Hadley

More June Birthdays #

It's not just Gwendolyn who celebrates her birthday this month!

from our co-reporters #

The Wolf, A Fractured Fairytale by Hadley #

You might have heard of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. But that's a whole different story, and I'm a whole different wolf. But Red Riding hood is still in this story. She's my friend. Well the story begins in my den. It's a cozy den. It has one rug and two beds – one for guests and one for me. It has a bathroom. And next to my den is a stream that I use to get clean. I was in my den and I got hungry. So, I took a loaf of bread out of the cupboard that I'd made a few weeks ago. The second loaf had already been eaten, but the third loaf I was saving.

Before I could eat the loaf, there was a knock at the door. It was the mail. There was a letter. It was a red envelope with a heart sticker to tape it shut. I opened up the letter. It was from Little Red. It said that she was sick. Also, it said that she wanted me to come over and visit her. She must have been lonely sitting in bed. I decided that I would take her the last loaf of bread. …. It was brown French bread and it wasn't stale like the other ones I'd made. I got a basket, and butter, and I put in the loaf of bread.

I started walking to her house, carrying the basket of bread and butter by the handle. I saw an old woman. She looked familiar. “Are you red's grandmother?” I asked. I think I saw you in a picture at reds house. She said “How do you know red? Are you going to eat her?”

“No” I said, “but I'm going to her house.”

And she yelled, “You are going to eat my granddaughter!”

“I'm not going to eat her.” I reassured her.
She said “I am not fooled! You are going to eat her.”
I knew I couldn't convince her that easily, but then I remembered the way to Red Riding Hood's house. So I started running there. But she knew where I was going.

“Come back here!” she exclaimed.

That old lady was so fast. She started darting up to me. I tried to climb up a tree but I don't have those kind of squirrel hands. So I started running again. But then I couldn't run any more. I was panting.

I decided to try and get past her another way.

I said “I give up!”

“OK I believe you.” She told me.

I waited until she was gone, and I started walking toward her house. But that sneaky little devil was hiding behind a bush seeing if I was telling the truth.

“Come back here!” She shouted.

“Ug” I groaned, and I started trudging back home.

I got my bear suit out of the closet. I had bought it for a Halloween party. The bear suit is not one of those old coats. It looks very realistic, especially on a wolf. I put on the suit and disguised as a bear, Red's favorite animal. I got to where I had met Grandma before, and there she was again. She was turning the other way, but then she turned to me. “I'm not fooled,” she said. “I see the zipper.”

I trudged back home, my arms sloping down. I took off my bear suit. It usually feels nice and cool, but this time it felt hot and sweaty. So I made another plan. I was going to try to set up a diversion. I took my enormous wheelbarrow and shoved 4 big plastic pine trees onto it. I wheeled them to the place where I met Granny. It was right next to Little Red's house. I huffed and I puffed. It was a lot of work. But I set up the plastic trees, and I knocked them over. But she ignored them. She saw where I was going. “You do not fool me.” She said.

I crossed my arms and slumped back home. I had tried all the good ideas I could think of. I felt really miserable. Red was waiting for me, and I wasn't there for her.

I slumped down in my chair and looked over at my closet hangers, and my rope. And I thought to myself, hmm… those have been unused. An idea shot to my head as fast as a lightning bolt. They have never been used, so they won't be all rusty and broken. I took the rope and the hangers to the tree next to red's house where Granny was sitting. She was looking away from me.

Then, I made a zip line tying a rope from a tree to Little Red Riding Hood's window. The window was open, so I zip lined right in, the basket with bread and butter clutched in my hand.

“Hi Red, sorry I'm late” I called to her.

Red was speechless.

Granny tried to run after me, but she was not fast enough.

“Whoa” Red exclaimed when I zoomed into her room. “That was cool!”

“I think I heard my grandma shouting come back here a bunch. What was that about?” Red asked.

But before I could say anything, Granny stormed into the house furiously. Her cheeks were red as roses. It almost looked as if they were blistering.

We both froze.

“Don't eat… wait, were you two having fun?” Granny asked.

“Yeah” said little Riding Hood. “The wolf is my friend.”

“Oh” she said, looking puzzled. “I thought you were going to eat her.”

“I tried to explain,” I said “Anyway, I'm a vegetarian, I forgot to tell you.”

She said sorry. And I forgave her.

So we shook hands and became friends. Soon, Red Riding hood became better, and Granny had a party.

And you know what, she invited me. There were lots of sweets. It smelled like flowers and cake. We watched a parade and ate lots of cake. We ate the extra loaf of bread with butter that I made. It was a blast!

Jokes to laugh by! #

What do you call a dinosaur that is sleeping?
A dino-snore!

What is fast, loud and crunchy?
A rocket chip!

Why did the teddy bear say no to dessert?
Because she was stuffed.

What has ears but cannot hear?
A cornfield.

What did the left eye say to the right eye?
Between us, something smells!

--from Grandpa Fred and Grandma Geri

The Daily Birder aka The Daily Ex-Sight-Ment #

No new species this week, but the bushtit flock has doubled to 10 to 14 birds. I suspect two families are foraging together. Fun to watch them swarm the suet.

What about crows? #

Crows are everywhere in our neighborhoods. They stand like sentinels on telephone poles, rooftops and the taller trees and they know what's going on. Crows are smart. They recognize individuals as friends or enemies and share that information with other crows. People who feed crows sometimes get gifts in return-- little trinkets the crows have found. Enemies, either human or animal, bring crows together to mob the dangerous intruder and send it away. If you hear a group of crows making a fuss, it's always worth a look. It could be an owl, an eagle, a cat or a raccoon. In the fall, crows gather in gigantic flocks to roost together at night. There is a huge gathering at the UW in Bothell, and another near IKEA in Renton. As the sun sets, lines of crows can be seen flying to their roosts, an aerial rush hour commute. There is lots more fascinating information about crows and their ability to learn, solve problems, use tools and communicate. At the UW, John Marzluff studies crows and has written several good books about them. Lawrence Pringle's book Crows: Strange and Wonderful is for children. If you watch crows, you will soon have crow stories of your own to tell about these very smart birds.

Summer Schedule Changes #

During the summer, The Daily Excitement Worldwide will be moving to an every-other-week schedule to allow our Editor-in-Chief, Head Reporter and co-contributors plenty of time for rest, relaxation, and the chance to gather up experiences and ideas to write about. Look for your next issue on July 1, 2020!