Christmas in WI

Mike and I spent Christmas in WI this year, missing the winter wonderland that shut down Seattle. We managed to split and combine time with both families. Most photos we took are of our niece Lydia, the center of attention. It was great to see everyone, especially those we haven't seen since we moved to Seattle!


Lydia


Aunt Sarah and Lydia


Christmas Eve


at Swensons' on Christmas day

NKOTB

me & Amanda

Amanda was in town this weekend for the New Kids on the Block concert! It well surpassed all of my expectations. I was not expecting to scream like a 10 year old girl when they came on stage, but we all did! Anyway, they sounded great and looked good dancing. Yes, all retro dance moves were performed.


Joey is still my favorite! Gotta love the blue eyes and Boston accent!


Here are the boys doing Step by Step!

San Juan Islands

We celebrated our third anniversary back in October with a long weekend in the San Juan Islands. Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip. Better late than never, right?


San Juan Vineyards


Mona, the camel that lives across the street from the vineyard


what your pants look like when a camel tries to eat your leg


we stayed at the Friday Harbor House (on the left)


view of Friday Harbor from our room's balcony


we hiked and saw some amazing sights and wildlife: seals, purple sea stars, porpoise, eagles, bull kelp, anemone . . . but no Orcas


that big seal was not a fan of the small seal - a lot of barking was going on


lighthouse at Lime Kiln State Park


Cattle Point Lighthouse


Is it sad that this is the only photo of Mike from the trip? And yes, the mustache came with us.


getting ready to kayak


kayaking in the Haro Strait was by far the best part of the trip

free trees

For some reason I have never seen PhinneyWood before, but am really excited to have found it.

Tomorrow our neighborhood will be planting trees in the planter strips. We got 22 trees free from the city along with 1700 daffodil bulbs to scatter around the planter strips, parks, and roundabouts. Mike and I have 4 trees to plant at our house tomorrow. Anyone want to help? PhinneyWood will be around our streets to take pictures of the event!

election party 2008

Oscar

Oscar was not at the election party and I'm pretty sure he's not old enough to vote, but that picture is too cute not to post!

Mike and I hosted an election party last night. As we all waited to find out the fate of our country for the next 4 years we drank a lot of beer and ate a lot of tacos. It was great to see that our friends got out to vote (some made it to the polls for WA's last year of polls and some filled out their mail in ballots yesterday at Taco Bell). Polls closed at 8:00 PM Pacific here in WA and at that exact time Obama was declared the winner. Hooray for democracy!

SOFT in AZ

I just got back last night from a week long conference in Arizona. It was sunny and 95 degrees all week long. It was a nice break from the rain here in Seattle. The conference was held at the Arizona Grand Resort. Here are a few photos from my trip. I didn't bring a camera - all photos are courtesy of my coworker Brianna (she is a loser and wanted me to make sure I gave her credit). I put where everyone is from in the captions in case you don't know who they are.


the desert we hiked through


a very, very old saguaro cactus

I learned from Amanda, another one of my coworkers, that the saguaro cactus does not grow an arm until it is as least 75 years old. And Amanda is a native of Arizona so she would know.


Ed (WI), Brianna (WA) and me at a vendor happy hour


Asa (WA) presenting his poster on ethanol found in fruit and whether it will effect breath test results


Amanda (WA), Ryan (WI), me, Ed (WI), Brianna (WA), and Bill (WI) at the masquerade ball


without masks


me, Ed (WI), and Amanda (WA) dancing it up

tea for two

I went to tea yesterday at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel downtown with our friend Mandy. It was very classy and ladylike, complete with fancy tea and tiny sandwiches. We mostly discussed planning a Rummikub tournament (with the hopes that Mandy will make Mike cry) and handbags. You know, girl stuff.

Mike and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary with a weekend getaway to the San Juan Islands. Hopefully photos and details to come soon.

Drunk Babies Don't Like Mustaches...

Below is photo documentation of the first time my niece saw my face.


Oh, man I can't believe I drank that whole thing.


I'm soooo wasted.


WHAT THE HELL...


IS THAT?

Nice to finally meet you, Lydia.

Bumbershoot 2008

Mike and I went to Bumbershoot yesterday. We saw half of Neko Case's show. Huge lines to get in and get our evening main stage show tickets didn't let us get there on time. She sounded really good. We like her. After Neko we walked around, ate a lot of expensive fair type food, and listened to some not so interesting bands. Then we went to Band of Horses. They put on an awesome show and sounded great! They're my favorite band so I had a huge smile on my face the whole time. The headliner on the main stage was Beck. I was not as impressed with him, but it could be because I don't know many of his songs. He opened with "Loser", one I actually do know, and we left after about 5 songs.

Steve and Nollie hung out together all day. I think they went hiking. She was pretty tired when we got home.

Seriously?

I'm so ticked at people. A partial copy of "Midnight Sun" has been leaked and she's put the book on hold indefinitely. I don't think I'm going to read it even though she has posted it on her website. Grrrrr.

vampires

I just finished reading "Breaking Dawn", the last book in the Twilight Saga. I'm sad that I don't have anymore stories about my beloved vampires to read, but "Twilight" will be hitting the big screen on November 21! I've also read that Stephenie Meyer is rewriting the first book from Edward's perspective - can't wait! I guess I will just have to keep dreaming about vampires until "Midnight Sun" comes out!

quick trip to Wisconsin

I had to go back to WI to testify in Madison on Thursday for one of my old cases. I changed my return flight home so I could stay for the weekend (at least I got a free trip home out of this whole mess). I got a lot of essential Wisconsin visits in during my short stay:
1. Milio's #6 with avo (liking avocados is a new thing for me since moving to Seattle)
2. sat outside on the Capital steps during my lunch break from court
3. fried cheese curds and beer at the Paradise after testifying (I'm disappointed that the ranch is no longer served in squeeze bottles)
4. met Lydia for the first time!







5. Noodles
6. University Bookstore
7. dinner at El Dorado with Ed, Kate, Jeff, Danna, & Michael
8. dessert and drinks at Sucre and Opus
9. Babcock ice cream at the Union
10. The Great Dane

This trip has also introduced me to my newest obsession: the Twilight Saga. I finished Twilight and New Moon while in WI and started Eclipse on the flight home. Is it weird that I wish that Mike and I were vampires?

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Now that you're retired I hope the boat sees action on more than just your birthday.

Look Steve. I used you're and your correctly this time.

P.S. Nollie says to fart off.

Deer Sarah

What

the

hell?

You just took off for Wisconsin like you don't even kare about me.

How could you leave me alone with Mike. He just worked on his stoopid ramp for like 3 hours last night, and I had to sit outside the whole time. I ran around in circles like mad woman for a while, but he didn't notice. It was cold and raining the whole time, and I got very wet and stinky. Then he drove me to Fred Meyer to buy pizza and beer while I sat in the kar. Whatever. I slept on your pillow and rubbed my stank all over it. I suppose you'll just febreeze your pillow like you febreezed my head after I rolled around in whatever that was a couple years ago. Yeah, I still remember that. If you ever decide to come back and I'm not here, check the animal shelter.

Nolly

P.S. Tell the grammar police to fart off.

Ask and You Shall Receive,

Part II.



Your welcome.

Though your platform has changed I believe you still have support. This e-mail was obtained by the Seattle PI.

Dear son,

I am so proud to hear that you are running for President.
Maybe you can fill me in on your platform and experience.

Sincerely,

Is an ass-clown's Father

Ask and You Shall Receive,

Steve.



P.S. Mom, Steve started it.

Olympics and Knitting

That is what I did all weekend. I started this scarf type thing on Saturday and finished it on Sunday. It has some cashmere in it so it's super soft. And so far the Olympics are not disappointing me at all. Did you all see the men's 4X100 free relay last night? Crazy!

Stitch N' Pitch

Last night was Stitch N' Pitch night at Safeco Field. All the knitters and crocheters of Seattle were out for the big event. We hit up Pyramid before the game to have dinner and a few beers. Then we went across the street to Safeco (early enough to get the night's promotional Stitch N' Pitch t-shirt). We all wore our own matching shirts, which were a huge hit. At least 20 people asked us where we got them and a few people took our pictures. Every yarn store in the greater Seattle area had a booth set up where you could buy yarn. Ladies (including us) were going nuts! The Mariners won the game 2-1 with a walk-off home run by Raul Ibanez. It was a pretty good game - even I was cheering for the Mariners. The highlight of the night was us on the jumbotron! Lisa and I missed it, but Brianne and Jen saw it. Apparently we were on it during the 9th inning when we were all dancing. Not much stitching or hooking happened last night (what with all the beer and chatting and dancing) but it was a blast! We can't wait for next year!

Suck It, Ed.

A friendly graphical smackdown from work.

futbol

Tonight I had a soccer game. I'm a sub on my friend Claire's team. We won 4-1. This was the third game I played with them and I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. Notice I'm still rockin' my boots from senior year of high school. Though I have splurged and purchased some new shin guards. Just imagine the stank that came off of 10 year old shin guards. Not pleasant.

project mini ramp

all 4 sections framed and ready for surfacing


it pretty much takes up the whole garage


Steve came over tonight to check it out

construction has begun

Mini ramp construction began yesterday with the first of 4 sections. If only I could get as motivated on Project Kitchen 2008 as Mike is on Project Mini Ramp. The only thing I have done so far for the kitchen (besides ripping down the wainscoting) was buy paint.


This shot is the reason why I wanted a fish eye. How cute is that?
Note the dead grass. That is just proof that it doesn't rain in Seattle during the summer. Besides, it's not very ecological to water your lawn.

Washboarding

Last Sunday Sarah, Matt, Claire, and myself went out on the boat formerly known as Red Reign. The boat formerly known as Red Reign is about the same color as one '84 Impala in its latter years but lacks a 5L V8 and a squirrel in the back window. So plans to buy materials for the mini-ramp were put on hold, and we skipped the Joy Wants Eternity show (my favorite band but they're playing again Friday) to go wakeboarding for the first time in Washington and the first time in about 5 years.

We launched at the Sunnyside Avenue N Boat Ramp east of Gas Works Park in Wallingford on Lake Union (holy hyperlinks). Then we motored our way out to Lake Washington at 7 knots (because that's the speed limit) through the cut. Then we went all the way up to Kenmore in search of good water, but it was hot and busy and a choppy mess most of the afternoon.


Opting not to waste perfect drinking weather, Sarah forgoes wakeboarding for Jolly Roger.


Here's a shot of the skipper of the mighty formerly known as Red Reign. If this isn't embarrassing, I don't know what is. Sorry, Claire.


Washington state law requires you to have an orange flag raised above your boat whenever anyone from your vessel is in the water. While Claire did not go wakeboarding I think her arms were probably more tired than mine. Which also explains why there are no pictures of any actual "wakeboarding" in this post.

Wakeboarding on Lake Washington is a little different than what I'm used to. There are numerous distractions including...


Float planes...


Hawks and bald eagles...


And Mt. Rainier. It was pretty sweet to cut in towards the wake, see this view, and then tweak a boned out back-side shifty indy grab (no picture but seriously I did it).


The mighty formerly known as Red Reign and her stout crew just before sunset.