Drinking beer, being married, and raising kids.



A Nosuch affiliate.

Web humbaba.clanlord.net

Family Pictures

Active blogs:

Carpe Datum

Cognitive Dissonance

Dubious Quality

Joe Delta

Fishpimp

A Clan Lord Journal

Fun Turns to Tragedy!

A Stitch In Time

Free Market Fairy Tales

Timmerov

LJ & her dog

The Phone Booth

Chuck Pierce

T-Homo

The Brad Hole

Greg Costikyan

Phil Steinmeyer

Ty

Robin

Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools

Mostly inactive blogs:

WOPR

Spring Tide

The Tangential Jeff Schell

Clan Lord blogs:

Fierce and Furry: The Adventures of Hor

Well, they spent all of Tuesday dinking around not responding, and finally today we'd had enough. We'd basically decided it wasn't going to happen so I went to work today, and our realtor finally got an answer out of them at 2pm, they wanted $664k. She said she'd cover that $4k out of her share of our home sale, so we signed it. It's going to be a lot of work over the next five days getting things moved and painted, etc, only to have the stress of having our home on the market. I've never sold a house yet, I still own the two I've bought so far. I'm hoping we get a couple of competeing offers the first week, but I'd be happy with any full-price offer, no need to get greedy.
posted 5:41 PM | link | 5 comments

Okiedoke, here's an update.

The sellers dinked around and dinked around, and finally late Saturday afternoon said they really didn't want to take a contingent offer, but the wife (both are realtors) wanted to come look at our house and see what she thought. They looked at it Sunday at noon, and finally at 4pm on Monday made a counter-offer of $669k to our $650k. We counter-countered by splitting the difference, $659,500. Hopefully we'll hear back from them soon.

In the meantime, we've removed everything from the living room and dining room except the couch, the futon, one chair, and the dining room table set. We've painted the living room a lovely color, Restoration Hardware's "Silver Sage", a bluish greenish color that looks very elegant, makes the house look a lot more period than the oatmeal color the walls were before. I and my brother pressure washed the front of the house, and he professionally washed every window inside and out. (He's a window washer). We cut new stringers for the front steps and attached them, making them very beefy and solid now.

I haven't used my '71 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser in a few years since we mostly use the van, but I start it up and run it every so often. I need to sell it now, put when I put it in drive it wouldn't move. D'oh! Fortunately, adding a quart of tranny fluid fixed that right up, now it runs and purrs like a kitten. Well, a lion kitten, smooth but loud. Drives smooth too. I washed it and took some pictures so it's ready to sell as soon as I update the license tabs.

The devastation in the gulf coast is amazing and sad.
posted 6:19 AM | link | 5 comments

Ha! A pizza guy pulled up in a newish Toyota 4Runner.

Isabel said, "Oh, that's my boyfriend's car. He got a pretty new one. He's a nice guy. We're not supposed to be here now."

Crickey!
posted 7:33 PM | link | 1 comment

Uff. Last night we spent 90 minutes with our realtor filling out an offer on the new house ($650k, contingent on ours selling), and the paperwork to list our house right after labor day. (asking $550k).

Today I went to Restoration Hardware where they didn't have the 4oz sample paint of the color B hates but the realtor recommended (saffron, I like it) so we went to the downtown one and got that and one B liked better, then went to Penneys to pick up the kid photos that B and her sister did last month, and went home. Ate lunch, slapped the paint samples up on the wall, hated the one B liked so we're going with saffron. Went back to RH, bought two gallons, went to the likker store only to find they didn't have any boxes at the moment, went to Shurgard to buy 40 boxes, came home and we've been packing. Oh and I took pictures of a few things we don't want, posted them free on craigslist.
posted 2:35 PM | link | 3 comments

Man, I don't know what Harry's problem is these days. Last night he woke up at 1am, 2am, 3:30am, 4:30am, and 5am. Each time he refused to go back to bed or to sleep, fighting us. The 5am time I stuck him in the hallway in the dark on timeout, but he was perfectly content to sit there in the dark for 45 minutes, not saying anything, not sleeping. Gah! I finally let him lie down on the couch and he was immediately asleep. Will he do that on his bed? Oh no. Heaven forbid. Anything but bed.

Crickey.

Here's a picture of him the other night after he'd fallen asleep in the hall on timeout. We're using the hall because if he yells I don't want him waking up Isabel.



Anyway, he's only adding to my stress levels by ruining what sleep I manage to get. Two days in a row of getting up at 5am with him.

I need a large burlap sack and some bricks.
posted 1:29 PM | link | 3 comments

Last night we took another look at the house. Pretty sweet, the smallest bedroom is over 120 square feet, the master bedroom is near 200. The main floor ceiling heights are 10', the upstairs is 9', the daylight basement is 7.5' ceiling heights.

Today our realtor contacted the seller to see if he'd take an offer contigent on our selling our house. Being a realtor himself, he said he'd need to see our house, so B gave him the tour and he said our house would be an easy solid sale. Apparently he's willing to take $660k. We need to get our formal offer written and accepted.

I used Costco's member service for mortgages, they have a custom page via LendingTree.com. I got pre-approved for $480k (jumbo loan) from 4 different companies, 3 offering 5.75% for 30yr fixed, no points and almost zero fees. All four tried to get me on the phone within half an hour. Pretty amazing. Too bad the standard conforming limit is something like $340k, we'll have to pay a slightly higher rate since we can't afford to put an extra 140k down. Uff. Effectively our entire down payment of $175k will be equity from this house, virtually nothing contributed from paying down our mortgage, and nothing from our savings (or lack thereof).

Man oh man. Sunday morning I woke up happy and normal, now I've got stress up the ying. Things I need to do:

1) Remove at least half our furniture and possesions.
2) Paint the living room and dining room
3) Put beauty bark all over the yard, mow/edge. Water grass daily so it'll grow back.
4) Install quarter round trim in living room/dining room where carpet was removed.

Uff-da. I've taken next week off work.

If we pull this off it'll be SO freakin' awesome.
posted 5:21 PM | link | 3 comments

Last night while B was out I took the kids to the library. I'd reserved Amy Tan's book, "The Chinese Siamese Cat", for Isabel because she likes watching the PBS show "Sagwa" that is based on this book. Isabel was pretty excited about it.

Afterwards I drove by the house we're looking at. There was plenty of street parking at 7pm, which means there should normally always be plenty, a great sign. The street looked nicer than I'd remembered as well.

When we got home I read the kids library books then started work on cleaning our upstairs. The hallway up there has gotten filled with various crap and needed clearing out.

B and I have cleared the DVR of shows so we're back to watching 3rd season Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. After the episode last night ("Prom") we're down to the 2-part season 3 finale. ("Graduation").

Tonight we've got B's sister Judy coming to babysit, we're going at 6:30 to meet with our realtor to take a much more thourough look at the house, and afterwards she's going to look at our house so she can tell us what it's worth. It'll only work if we're upgrading by less than $150k, since that's what the rent on the MIL apartment would pay for. If everything works as planned, we're be out of pocket the same amount, just in a much larger home.
posted 9:36 AM | link | 0 comments

Ugh, ok.

Harry is mostly better. Mostly. He's still got a large bruise on his leg, and still wakes up crying in the midle of the night, but doesn't have a fever and is his happy self most of the day.

Saturday afternoon we went to Mathew's Beach on Lake Washington where we met up with some of B's mom group friends, the group we have dinner parties with every month or so, and had a picnic dinner there. A creek dumps into the lake there and had created a large sand bar, so the water is only about knee deep for a long ways. The kids had a grand time, the only problem was too many yellowjackets swarming around the food.

On Sunday B we didn't have anything planned, so B thought maybe we should go look at an open house or two. I did a quick web search for houses under $700k that had 5+ bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms, and over 3500 square feet to see if there were any likely large homes. One popped up that seemed awesome. $690k, 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 4500 square feet. Total remodel in 1994, some additional remodeling in 2004.

We went to take a look at it. It's over next to Magnuson Park, and although a block over, I'd guess it's about 400 feet as the crow flies from one of my friends. The daylight basement is a really nice mother-in-law apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a nice kitchen, a fireplace, and a laundry room. The main floor has hardwood floors, a living room, a dining room, a large OK kitchen, a family room, a 3/4 bath, a laundry room, and one bedroom. The upstairs has 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The place also has a 1000sqft high ceiling unfinished attic. The backyard is small, but not really any smaller than our current place.

Anyway, we're thinking about buying it if we can talk them down a little, depending on what our house is worth. Renting out the MIL apartment would just about pay for the difference in price, and it's a MUCH larger house. (Our current house is 2800 square feet 6 bed 3 bath). We'll see. A lot of things have to happen just right for this to work.

B wanted to see March of the Penguins so we took the kids to an afternoon matinee. Both kids are terrified of previews, so Isabel sat in my lap clutching me tightly and Bridget had to take Harry out of the theater until the movie started. He talked a lot during the movie, but B didn't think it was that loud. I was mortified, personally. It was a sunday afternoon matinee of a documentary, and he wasn't screaming, so it's not like he ruined the movie for anyway. Amazing movie, by the way. I bet the filmmakers didn't expect it to have netted $68 million and counting. I wouldn't be surprised it if passes Farenheit 9/11 as the top-grossing documentary ever.

Last night I couldn't get to sleep because I was stressed out thinking about this new house, so I didn't get to sleep until midnight. Then Harry cried at 2am, so I had to go down and comfort/yell at him, and then I couldn't get to sleep again. I was up until about 5:30am, and slept until my alarm woke me at 6:30am. Mmmm, 3 hours of sleep. It's like having a newborn again.
posted 11:16 AM | link | 5 comments

My poor little Harry. The immunologist he saw recommended he get a pneumococcal vaccine to supplement his immune system, so on wednesday afternoon B took him in to get that shot. He had no problems then, but on Thursday his leg where the shot went was red and sore and he was limping on that side. Thursday night (friday morning) at about 2:30am he was crying so I went to check on him and he was just roasting with a 103F fever. We sat up for an hour watching TV with him getting him to take some tylenol and ibuprofen. Isabel woke up as well so she sat with us. Unfortunately she had a hard time going back to sleep, so B was up with her until 5am.

I stayed home from work yesterday, we took Harry in to the doctor where she checked him out and confirmed he was mostly OK. The tylenol keeps his fever under control. He was mostly the same last night, just not nearly as feverous, but if he doesn't get painkiller every so often he just moans and crys. It doesn't help that he tries to refuse the painkiller.
posted 7:46 AM | link | 0 comments

We've been watching TNT's "The Closer" off the DVR. Kyra Sedgwick is awesome on this show, and it's a fun show, but very predictible. I mean, the perp is always the least likely non-cop in any given setup. I've managed to figure out almost every episode early on. It's still funny how Deputy Chief Johnson is always saying "Thank you" with that southern accent. If I was 25, I'd play The Closer Drinking Game: Every time she says "Thank you" take a drink. Every time she says it sarcastically to someone trying to screw her over, chug the rest of your drink.

On Monday night we hosted my non-brother-in-law's family over for dinner, and after dinner his dad got on the floor and played hotwheels with Harry for at least half an hour. He would drive a car around and Harry would drive a car chasing his car but not catching him, and then Harry just started laughing harder and harder until everyone in the room was laughing with him. Harry has the best addictive laugh when he gets out of control like that.

On Tues I dug out my old kite which last flew October of 2002 at Ocean Shores when B and I took a 5 month old Harry with us on our anniversary getaway weekend. It was a nice cool evening, slightly breezy, and overcast, so I figured there wouldn't be many people on Kite Hill at Magnuson park. Sure enough, there was nobody. Isabel and Harry were SO excited to get to fly a kite. I laughed that there is still sand on the kite after being flown for half an hour. Sand never goes away.

Last night was the last night for my non-brother-in-law's family so he wanted to take them to a Seattle restaurant and he picked Ivar's Acres of Clams down on the waterfront on Pier 54. It's been around since 1938, and the founder Ivar Haglund was a nut who never missed a marketing opportunity. One time a traincar of syrup wrecked nearby so he quickly had some pancakes made and donned hip boots to get his picture taken in the middle of the mess.

Anyway, it was a fun meal, I had their "Clam Bake" which was tasty. The lobster tail half was pretty tiny, but I scooped it out and offered a bit for Bridget, telling her not to eat it all. She was sitting across from me and leaned over and ate the whole thing. (It was really only 2-3 bites, not huge) Aaaaaaagh! That was my lobster tail! By the time her brain had registered what I'd said, it was already in her mouth. Sigh. Oh well, no lobster for me. I really need to have LobsterFest 2005.

Ivars has one of their fish bar fast food places outside the restaurant, and I took the kids out there to feed some bread to the seagulls off the dock, and see the large Seattle FD fireboat that moors at the next dock. Those seagulls are amazing, they'll fly in big circles making loops past the dock and will catch food in midair. Fun. Not as much fun as a shotgun would be, but you can't have everything.
posted 3:45 PM | link | 2 comments

This weekend my not-brother-in-law Bill's family is here all the way from Dubuque, Iowa. Yeah, I honestly know someone from Dubuque. I also know someone who lives in Albuquerque, and someone who lived in Walla Walla Washington.

Anyway, we've been having dinners over at Judy and Bill's house the past two nights to meet Bill's folks and sister and because it's Judy's birthday. Last night Bill's father was doing a coin trick with Harry while Harry was sitting at the table snacking on a bowl of blueberries.

He took a coin and rubbed it, then dropped it. He picked it up again, rubbed it, and dropped it. He picked it up again, rubbed it, and made a motion like it was tossing it over Harry's head. Harry was smiling huge and looking all around for where the coin could be. Bill's father then reached behind Harry's ear and pulled the coin out. Harry laughed.

Harry then picked up a blueberry and rolled it between two hands. He then popped it into his mouth and said, "It's all gone!" Ha! Looks like two can play that game.
posted 12:18 PM | link | 4 comments

Lost $20 at poker last night. I was nearly broken even and got a K-3 spread in Acey-Deucey, and bet half the max or $5. Hit a King to pay double, so it cost me $10. That's a $15 swing. Jeffe had a K-2 and bet the $10 max bet, hit a second king to pay $20. It was an evil evil game.

My sister-in-law Annie and her two kids are staying with us this week. She had a bowl of grapes and was sharing them with Harry and Brooks. Isabel explained to her that "Mommy gives us all seperate bowls". Annie explained that they were fine and almost done. Isabel again trying to explain how that's not how it's done around here, and Annie again said if she has a problem with it she's welcome to leave the room.

Isabel stormed off with her arms crossed and said, "This totally does NOT work for me."

There is justice in this world. Our kids are the evil half of both of us.
posted 7:10 PM | link | 3 comments

There has got to be a word for someone who's iPod playlist is wacko. For instance, yesterday on the way home I heard "Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed (a truly excellent song, I recommend it to anyone) and then immediately afterwards I heard "Lost in Love" by Air Supply. Mind you, this is my 650-song playlist it's picking from, not my entire music collection. Radio DJ I am not.

Ok, so in "Shadow Divers", now they're starting to use trimix (oxygen, nitrogen, helium). Some still consider it "the black gas" "it'll kill ya". What the hell? Sure it's dangerous, but less so than air at those depths. It's not like it's unknown, Navy and commercial divers have been using it... The downside of course is air fills are a couple bucks and trimix fills are about $100, but if you've got the dough to be doing these crazy deep wreck dives, might as well enjoy it, not panic, and live through the experience. Sheesh. Good book if you like scuba, however, and not a bad book even if you know nothing about scuba but want insight into this extreme form of the normally-safe hobby.

Speaking of hobbies, a buddy is trying to drag half my peer group into rocketry with him. He's not talking Estes "D" engines, he's talking need-FAA-approval F through O motors, with your rocket going 5,000 feet or more. Doing a little research, I found a sweet little moon rocket (pdf here) for $150, and the motor is $150 with a user-replaceable $33 per-shot charge, but that takes it to 5,000 feet. Not terribly expensive to do 3 shots a couple times a year at a club outing, plus you'd get to see lots of other rockets, and go camping. As you may imagine, B isn't thrilled. In fact, I had to laugh out loud, she tried to tell me "no f'ing way" and I had to gently remind her, "you're not the boss of me". She was like, "oh... d'oh!" Gotta love that immediate first reaction that anything I say is flat-out insane.

Last night after Isabel's swim class at our local pool we took the kids to the awesome Mountlake Terrace pool again. Isabel was a demon, practicing all her swim class techniques. Both the kids had a blast, as did their cousin Brooks.

On the Clan Lord front, I passed the Plains Maha Ruknee Farming Challenge with the help of my Dwarven Militia buddy Mongo. We went to the Savannah, found some PMRs, had Mongo sit like catnip on one side of a wall in the mines while I gathered 9 PMRs around him, I waited until I knew there were at least 6 roaming wild, signed up for the challenge, came back and killed them all, and was done with it. Whew. I don't know how that challenge would ever be possible without farming them like I did. I now have the combat experience to become a Ranger, I just need to get my gossamer sword ranks up high enough, which I think will take a few weeks.
posted 7:55 AM | link | 5 comments

When I got home from work yesterday, I didn't need to ask how Isabel liked her dance class. She was dancing all over the family room, showing off her new moves.

Poor Bridget. She and her sister loaded up Harry, Katie, Alex, Brooks, and Faith to go to the Seattle Aquarium yesterday, but due to construction they didn't open until 11am, which was too late for them to be back to pick Isabel up from dance class at noon. They were NOT amused. Two infants, two 2-yr-olds, and a 3-yr old aren't easy to wrangle.

Wooo! My football is back on TV. I watched Monday Night Football in HiDef last night, it was awesome. The widescreen aspect ratio is great for football. Miami had the game locked, but gave it away twice in the last few minutes, once by letter Chicago score a touchdown with 3 minutes left in the game, and again by not scoring themselves when they had the ball on the 15 yard line with 45 seconds and 2 timeouts. It's SO nice that football is back on.

For some reason, Bridget sighed heavily when I turned on the game. Heh. I'm definitely ready for some football.

I started reading "Shadow Divers", about some crazy New Jersey wreck divers who discovered a previously-unknown U-Boat back in 1991. These guys were nuts, diving to 230' on air. Let's see, air is 80% nitrogen (N2). Double that for every 33', so at 33' you've got the equivelent of 160% N2, and at 100' you've got 320% N2. At freakin' 230' you've got 8x as much nitrogen in each breath as at the surface. Nitrogen levels above say 250% have a narcotic affect, and let me tell you, as someone who's been down to 160' on air, it's fuckin' stupid. You are narced out of your mind, and your ability to react is ruined. It's just crazy.

That's why deep divers who care about living use mixed gas. Instead of air with 20% O2 and 80% N2, they might use 20% O2, 40% N2, and 40% hydrogen (H2). Thus at 230 feet you've only got the narcosis level of 100', easily managable. (In reality, you'd lower the oxygen level as well to reduce oxygen toxicity.)

Anyway, I'm not surprised they're losing divers left and right. Don't even get me started on their wreck penetration techniques.
posted 2:37 PM | link | 8 comments

Yesterday morning the kids woke me up at 7:15, I showered and went downstairs. They had let themselves out of their room and were waiting for me on the couch. I asked them if they'd like to take a walk and go out for breakfast, and they both thought that was a great idea. I got them dressed and we were out the door. Early like that it was a pleasant 65F with clear sunny skies, so you knew it was going to get hot later, but for now it was perfect. The kids were talking nonstop on our walk about one thing or another, like Isabel seeing a cat or Harry seeing birds on a wire or ants in a crack in the sidewalk. Very amusing.

We went to the Sunflour bakery and cafe for breakfast, it's about 5 blocks from my house. They open at 8am and we were just a few minutes past that, but they don't get crowded on Sunday morning until churches let out. We were immediatly seated and the kids got to work coloring their menus, Isabel had a butterfly and flower scene and Harry had a dragon. They both got orange juice and I had fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice, and they each got a huge plate-sized mouse-shaped pancake for breakfast. Isabel ate over 3/4ths of her pancake plus some of my sausage, and Harry ate at least 2/3rds of his plus some sausage and bacon. Harry ended up drinking all of his OJ and most of Isabels, she doesn't like OJ much, vastly preferring cranberry juice.

They were both hopped up on syrup and pancakes on the way home, with Isabel pretending she was a pony and prancing the whole way, stopping at each intersection for me to escort her across while she made whinnies and snorting noises and pawed at the ground with one foot.

They played together for an hour or so then we went out back to kick the soccer balls around for a while. B called from Spokane to talk. It's so funny watching Isabel talk to her, she walks around with the cordless phone making all sorts of funny gestures trying to imitate an adult. Harry has a problem on the phone of answering questions by nodding, which doesn't exactly work.

Afterwards the phone rang again and it was Costco Optical, grandma's new glasses were in, so we loaded up the kids and decided to have lunch at costco. I wanted to look at rugs while I was there, plus I was low on beer in the beer fridge.

At Costco while Peggy was getting her glasses we watched a costco employee setting up a drum kit. Both kids thought they needed one badly. heh.

Costco had some super nice fancy $1000 rugs, way out of my budget, and a really nice perfect rug for $185, also out of my budget. We went to the deli and got pizza slices for the kids, and while they were eating I thought it over. B had a really hard time picking a rug, the one she picked was grey and white checkerboard pattern, really ugly that we'd returned and I'd picked a nice persian-styled rug instead. I knew she'd spend months trying to find the perfect rug and just get frustrated, so I decided to buy that rug anyway. If she totally hated it, we could always return it. Turns out she loves it, it's just perfect. Score!

When we got home I put the kids down to nap while I cleaned house for B, but instead of napping Harry crapped his drawers. Dammit! That little bugger knows better.

Finally B and Annie and Brooks and Faith showed up. We had a tasty dinner of pot roast, and the kid were having a heck of time making noise while playing loudly. Fire trucks were racing back and forth, every musical instrument in the house was being played loudly accompanied by kids singing at the tops of their voices, it was pandamonium. Uff-da.

Around 9pm last night B asks if I'd be willing to go to Safeway. I asked what she needed, and she said she had a list. Sigh. Ok, fine. Wait a second! There was Wonderbread on this list. Crickey, I think it's more embarrasing to buy Wonderbread than it would be to buy tampons. Annie is still on her "eat nothing with milk as an ingredient" diet that she swears makes her breast-fed daughter less cranky. Sigh. Whatever, it's not my cranky baby.

Speaking of Faith, for some weird reason she really takes to me. I can easily get her to laugh harder than anyone else. What a sweetie.
posted 9:22 AM | link | 2 comments

Saturday morning I got up at 7 when I overheard the kids talking on the baby monitor. I took a shower then went downstairs and the kids were still in their room. When I opened the door it was too damn cute. Harry was sitting next to Isabel in her bed and she was "reading" his most recent library book to him. The book was "Window Music" and all the lines rhyme, which makes it easy to memorize, especially if you're a sharp 4-yr-old with a nice empty brain. "Train on the track, clickety-clack".

I told them that it was Saturday and that meant I was home all day, and maybe we should go on a walk through the ravine and to the park and then to the Farmer's Market. They both thought that was great, so we started getting them dressed. Isabel can totally dress herself, but Harry resists that. In his defense his big old melon is hard to get through shirt necks, at least shirts that fit him. Both of them had dry pullups, which is great. Isabel is fully potty trained and Harry is mostly so, he has occasional accidents.

I tell you, it's hard to believe how it's totally not a big deal to change your kids poopy diaper when they are babies and it's your kid, I mean it didn't phase me in the slightest. Now that they're potty trained, the whole concept totally queebs me out, it's like "oh god how can you deal with that?!?". Funny how quickly and easily our perspective changes.

Anyway, once I had them dressed, we took ziplock bags and put their choice of dry cereal for breakfast on the go. Harry choice rice crispies and a banana muffin B had made, and Isabel choose "daddy's wheat cereal" aka generic frosted shredded mini wheats. We loaded them into the van this time since B wasn't going to be able to pick us up at the end. We drove to the Ave, near our end destination, loaded them into the stroller and started heading back across Ravenna Ave looking for a way down into the ravine.

Once we'd crossed 15th Ave NE we went in a block then north on 16th NE, a dead end road but I was pretty sure there was some form of trail or something along the top of the south side of the ravine. I passed two awesome old houses, huge, with large porches, large yards, huge trees, copious off-street parking, just amazing houses tucked into a dead-end street. I would love to own either of them. Sigh. Sure enough, where the street dead-ended there was a trail along the top of the ravine. We followed the trail till the 20th Ave NE pedestrian bridge. This old bridge used to have cars on it but was closed to vehicle traffic sometime in the past, now it's just pedestrians and bicycles. It's pretty high, I'm sure the center span is 80 or 100 feet above the bottom of the ravine below, but it's a pretty narrow bridge, just two tight lanes and a sidewalk. From below it's a very pretty iron bridge painted green. The kids were a little scared of the height, but they were impressed to see their trail way down below.

Just past the bridge we found a trail going down the ravine, so we followed that and soon were down on the main trail. The kids were pretty excited that we'd found our trail at last. When we came out at Cowen Park, they both got out of the stroller and started running for the playground equipment. They both used the swings for a while, then I used my t-shirt to dry off the seat on the "digger", a mounted seat with two armatures to control a backhoe. The seat was wet from earlier sprinklers. Harry spent about 20 minutes on that sucker, digging gravel. Isabel and I took turns riding on the zip line, which still holds my personal record for craziest piece of playground equipment.

Finally I got them back into the stroller and we went down the Ave towards the Farmer's Market. There we bought "squeeky cheese" (cheese curds), two fresh peaches, two half-pints of fresh raspberries, a bread stick, the kids split a cherry struedel, and I got a granola bar. Once we were done there it was a short stroll up the Ave to where the van was parked, load the kids up, and off to their SoccerTots class. B had a baby shower to go to so I had to take them to SoccerTots.

I knew it was held at Magnuson Park, the old Naval Station Puget Sound that went through a base closure in 1994. NSPS was where my Marine Reserve unit held our monthly drill meetings when I was in from 1986-1992. I didn't know exactly where their class was, but B said the kids could show me. Holy smokes, sure enough it was in Hanger 2, my monthly haunt for six years. NSPS was a naval air station from the 1920s until 1970, in fact the first round-the-world flight started and ended theire back around 1920 or so. (that flight took 4 months I believe). Our reserve unit had a big hanger which was half full of 5-ton trucks, Hum-Vs, some misc cranes bulldozers and other heavy equipment, with the rest of the floor used for formations and such. One side had old offices where the I&I staff (inspector instructor, the full-time Marines assigned to manage us reservists) had their offices, and the other side had a huge metal safe used as the armory, a big locked area for the supply guys, and locker rooms, classrooms, etc that we used when we weren't out in the hanger in formation.

When I left 13 years ago, I never really though I'd enter that hanger again. Going in there yesterday brought back an amazing flood of memories. Right now half the hanger has an indoor inline skate hockey rink, and the other half is covered with astroturf for soccer classes. The old armory is still there, since I assume it had to be built in place, being far too large and heavy to move. (This sucker is probabyl 15' wide, 10' high, and 40' deep, made of beefy thick steel) There are still Marine things spray-painted on the walls, like "MOB Station 13", "MOB station 14". Those were Mobilization stations, when we got called up to active duty for the first Gulf War, we went from station to station checking things off, like supply confirming we have a sleeping bag and 2 canteens and a web belt etc, or the Armorers making sure we had an issued M16.

Six years of all sorts of memories. My buddy and I sharing a locker in the NCO locker room before we were NCOs, because we were good scammers and in *just* early enough, since the unit doubled in size within a year after we joined. Most people didn't get a permanent locker like we had. The sign we made out of a 4x8' sheet of plywood painted camoflage commemorating one of our two-week summer deployments, except if you looked closely there were multiple cock-n-balls and other things hidden in the camo pattern. This was proudly displayed above a trophy case in the I&I staff office, with none of the officers knowing what was hidden in the pattern. I could barely hold in my laughter every time I saw it. Sigh, I wonder what happened to it? Hopefully it's still proudly displayed down at their new reserve center built at Fort Lewis when NSPS closed.

Before we'd gotten there, Isabel was saying she didn't want to do SoccerTots today, but once we were there she was gung-ho, and Harry was a little nervous. I had to go out with them at first, then they both warmed up to it and I was able to sit on the bleachers. Coach Nelly can't be more than 22, and let me tell you she's got one *fine* set of legs. Uff. I told that to B and she laughed, saying "I knew you'd like her". The kids had a great time and were well behaved, so after watching them kick soccer balls around for an hour, instead of going straight home it occered to me that they don't have soccer balls to practice with at home, so we went to Fred Meyer and bought them each one.

I'd told them I was going to get them a treat, but when we were leaving and Isabel was holding her new pink soccer ball, she asked what the treat was. I told them the soccer balls were the treat, and she crossly said, "Soccer balls aren't a treat, Daddy!". D'oh! To her and Harry, a treat had to be some snack-like food or candy. I spent some time explaining that treats are something good, not just food.

B got home from her baby shower just in time to pack and fly to Spokane. She flew there yesterday and will drive back today with her sister and her two babies. Sister-in-law and her kids will stay with us a week, then brother-in-law will fly here next Friday and drive them back next sunday.

The kids napped great, and I called my friend Thom to see if he was interested in grilling, since I'd noticed a local grocery store had ribeye steaks on sale $6 a pound. He agreed to host, and we invited over the few friends who weren't already busy. It was a pretty fun evening. My one friend who had a kid first showed up, his 7 year old daughter who is normal sized was barely taller than Harry (3) and was much shorter than Isabel (4).

When we got home, the phone rang. It was B. "Oh my god Eric what is Nate's phone number? There is a huge snake in the yard!" "Calm down. What kind of snake?" "It's not a garter snake it's huge! It looks like someone's pet!" "How big are you talking?" "Um, 2' long and at least an inch in diameter..." "Crickey, that's not even close to huge. I've caught garter snakes that big in Spokane, it's no biggie. Just leave the poor thing alone" "But it might get in the house!!" "why the hell would it *want* to get in the house? Sheepdogs." Anyway, I wasn't any help mocking them, so they called my friend Nate (he's an amatuer herpitologist and has a huge reptile collection) but didn't get ahold of him, so they then called some reptile rescue place to get the snake.

Sheesh. They live half a block from a huge steep near-cliff that I am sure has lots of snakes, they just needed to leave it alone or put it back down the hill. Turns out it's a bullsnake, they get up to 5' long, they're a cool constrictor snake so I guess I can sorta see how you could confuse it for a boa. I was laughing my ass off at them. OMG a snake! As long as it doesn't rattle at you, it's not gonna hurt you.

The kids went down to sleep easily, and I played some Clan Lord. I've been trying to turn Humbaba into a Ranger, but apparently I need to pass all the hunter challenges. I passed the Giant Crawler challege, but have failed the Plains Maha Ruknee challenge multiple times. 13 is my record, but last night in the savannah I was only able to find 3 of them in over an hour. They should spawn like crazy at night. I stash them in the mines so I can have enough stockpiled, start the challenge, kill them and get it over with, but this is SO frustrating. I can kill about 3-4x as many Savannah Maha as PMR. Argh! I also have to do the night wendie challenge, that's going to suck without pathfinder skill.
posted 9:01 AM | link | 0 comments

This weekend is Seafair weekend, Seafair being a month-long Seattle celebration that ends this weekend with hydroplane racing on Lake Washington. The highlight of the hydro races for some is the annual appearance of the Navy's Blue Angels. They do their show right over Lake Washington, which is chock full of boats, both running around and tied up to the log booms surrounding the hydro race course. They do two practice runs on Thursday, then their full show around noon on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Earlier in the week my friend and I were trying to figure out how best to watch the Angels on their Friday show. One of my poker buddies lives in the Seward Park neighborhood right above the hydro pits, his deck has an awesome view of the show, some of the jets turn right above his house some years giving you an incredible amount of noise and you're close enough to smell the fumes and see the pilot's helmet in the cockpit. Unfortunately, his wife was having a work party at their house on Friday so we couldn't go. My backup plan was to go to another friend's house, she and her husband live up the hill above where the I90 floating bridge goes into a tunnel to reappear downtown. They have a deck on the front of their house with amazing lake views, so I got permission to go there. My buddy said he'd supply the car if I'd drive, so we were set. He'd even loaded a cooler full of ice and Coronas into his van to help fight thirst.

On the way we stopped at Ezell's Fried Chicken, which is hand's-down the best fried chicken I've ever had. Oprah has had it air-couriered to Chicago it's so good. A couple of 3-piece lunch packs later and we arrived at my friend's house. She'd set out deck chairs for us with footrests, and there was a tree on one corner that provided a nice amount of shade. Unfortunately while her view is awesome, it's mostly to the north, resticting us in the direction we really wanted to see. The Blue Angels were awesome as always, a couple of their passes were right over the house. Amazing. I'm glad I didn't bring Harry, I'm sure it'd be too loud for him and he'd freak.

After that lunch it was great that it was the first friday of the month which means KEGGER! Wooo! The beer was Maritime Pacific's Imperial Pale Ale, dry-hoppped. VERY hoppy, a nice crisp beer. Deeelicious! I couldn't eat any of the snacks there because B and I were going out to dinner. B hadn't brought the kids because Isabel had been a pill that afternoon so they were home with Grandma. We stopped at McDonald's on the way home to get some $1 cheeseburgers for the kids dinner.

A few weeks ago we'd received a promotional gift card in the mail from Palomino's, $20 credit. It expired in a month, but it didn't have any restrictions, so we said what the hell and planned to go out to a nice dinner. I mean, I know I'm a tool for going to a national chain restaurant, but B and I have some history there, since it was the first restaurant we'd ever eaten at together.

Shortly after we'd first met at our 10 year high school reunion in 1996 (wow our 20yr is next year! damn!) we made a bet on the Apple Cup over who's team would win the annual state rivalry college football game. As it happens, the Huskies won that game. (They lost the next year in 1997 when Ryan Leaf took the Cougars to their first Rose Bowl since the 1930s, then the Huskies won the next six in a row only to lose again last year. The Dawgs are 7-2 against the Cougs since I've known B.) Our bet was lunch at Palomino's, which was near her office. We agreed on a day, and when I went to meet her I had to laugh. She'd gotten a new haircut a day or two earlier, and for some reason had a super short cut. I don't know what she was going for, but it looked terrible, and she knew it. I was like, "oh you poor dear". I always feel bad for people with tragic hair, and not because I'm bald. Even when I had hair I mostly kept to a high-n-tight Marine haircut anyway.

It was months and months later before we started dating (her hair had regrown to be beautiful again) but it still qualifies as the first place we eat together at.

I wasn't feeling much like drinking after Coronas at lunch and beer at the kegger as well, so I ordered a Mojito. I think that trend died, but the drink is flat-out darn tasty, and very refreshing on a cool day. B had never had a real one, just crappy homemade ones, and was surprised I'd ordered one, but it all became clear when she tasted it. Minty, sweet, cold, boozy, yummy. I don't even like rum, but I love mojitos.
posted 4:21 PM | link | 2 comments

Well, sadly my in-home beer study didn't involve tasting any beer. The guy showed up, set a digital recorder on the table, and spent 2 hours asking me all about my life. We barely talked beer at all until the very end. I did totally dis the company he was working for, New Belgium Brewing, makers of Fat-n-Tired Estrogen Amber. . What a boring beer.

Yesterday the temps were in the high 80s, it was the first time I walked home when it was really hot, but the walk was fine, I didn't feel very hot at all. I guess after six months that walk isn't anything anymore.

An Open Letter to the Kansas School Board. "Furthermore, it is disrespectful to teach our beliefs without wearing His chosen outfit, which of course is full pirate regalia."

Here is an obituary about Smokey Smith, the last Canadian winner of the Victoria Cross, the Canuck Medal of Honor. This hard-charging psychopath was promoted to corporal NINE times, demoted back to private each time. He had a half-meter club spiked with nails he used to kill Germans, and when he won the VC and was going to meet King George, his CO had a couple of MPs arrest him and throw him in the stockade to sober up and prevent him from drinking. Damn. He's my hero of the moment.

posted 10:16 AM | link | 0 comments

Last night when I got home B had dinner all ready for me to cook while she went to jazzercise, with a list of ingredients to dump into the fry pan in a set order so they'd all get done at the same time for a stir fry. I was happy to do so, since I like to fry the tofu to a nice GBD (golden, brown, and delicious) crisp, but B just lightly fries it so it stays goopy. Plus I got to add things she didn't list, like chopping up some leftover pork loin. Yummy!

When she got home we were going to go down to U Village for their summer wednesday concert series, but we needed to deposit the rent check that we'd gotten earlier that day, and B was positive she'd set it on the mantel where she always puts checks. It wasn't there, and 20 minutes of digging everywhere for it didn't turn it up. Finally B's mom found it not on the TV remote shelf, but hidden next to the DVR on the shelf above that. Crickey. At least I'm not the only person in the family who puts things in insane places. We headed off to the mall, got our normal spot, and let the kids play.

While I was there I stopped into the Apple Store and checked out Apple's new Mighty Mouse multi-button clicker. It was alright, I kinda liked the side-squeeze Dashboard, but that teeny tiny trackball for a scroll wheel was flat-out terrible. I hate trackballs enough at normal size, this tiny one sucked big donkey dick. Give me a nice wheel anytime, maybe one that rocks side to side for side-scrolling, which with a widescreen display I rarely have a need for anyway. I'll be sticking with my Logitech MX510 mouse.

Holy cow. That birdfeeder I got the other week has been discovered. There are often birds on all 6 roosts with a few others flying around trying to get a spot. I think it holds a pound of birdseed, and they'll easily eat that in a day now. Fortunately it has small openings and tiny little roosts, so only small birds get access, not the big-ass crows that need shootin' anyway, damn flyin' rats. The main purpose of the birdfeeder is to give the kids something to watch, and they love it.
posted 8:47 AM | link | 0 comments

It was fun having Luke and Fishpimp show up at my weekly poker game last night. We'd moved it from Weds to Tues just for Luke's sake, and the little bastard won something like $20. I was doing great, then lost a bunch of money at Sheriff Lobo, then my jacks lost to Jeffe's hidden kings in psycho naked 3-5-7 to the tune of $10, but bizarrely I managed to win a $9.50 pot in acey-duecy and another large pot in the next game to end the night exactly broke even.
posted 2:59 PM | link | 3 comments

Woo! I got a call last night from that dumbass market research company, and instead of asking me for the millionth time whether or not I listen to the radio (um, no, I don't), this time they asked me if I drank beer. Do I drink beer? Hell yeah!

Anyway, on Thursday someone is coming to my house for an in-home survey. I'm hoping it involves me tasting beer, because getting paid to drink beer would utterly rock.

Tonight Luke "Dead Money" Thayer is coming to poker for some schoolin', we moved poker night from Weds to Tues this week for him.

Last night B had jazzercise and then an accupuncture appointment. The accupuncture is actually working, her back is getting less and less tense, which is making her feel a whole lot better. It may not be helping her migraines, but it's not totally worthless. I wonder it it's all placebo or if there is some biological explanation. For that matter, I'd love to know how the hell placebos work.

Anyway, since I was alone with the kids I decided we'd go for a walk along the water at Magnuson Park, part of the now-closed Sandpoint Naval Air Station. Isabel can barely walk these days, she has to go on 200 meter runs then wait for us, often running back to us. Way too much energy in that girl.

I haven't walked at Magnuson in a while. It was strange seeing the old Commisary building is still there, still unused. Most of the other buildings and hangers on the base have been re-used, in fact I think Isabel and Harry's soccer tots class may well be in the same hanger I spent 6 years worth of 1 weekend a month during my stint in the Marine Reservers.

They have a cool new public art installation. Well, new in 1999, so I guess that makes it old. Anyway, the Navy ship wrecking yard at Bremerton had apparently been stockpiling dive fins off old nuclear submarines as they got chopped up, and they installed about 25 of them in a row sticking up, looking like shark fins. Each has the name of the sub it came off of, and the name of a whale in the Puget Sound orca pod. It would be pretty cool with just a few, but with 25 of them it's amazing.

Unfortunately, they've closed off the gate to the NOAA part of the park where the soundgarden is. That's a bunch of pipes on swiveled hinges that each blow a different note in the wind, it's damn damn cool, and what the local band Soundgarden was named after. We could hear it blowing but couldn't go stand in it.

I need to remember to take my kite there with the kids. The last time I flew it was in Oct 2002 with Harry as a tiny baby and Isabel home with Grandma on our anniversary get-away trip. The time before that was when I bought it when we camped at the ocean in 1999 or so. It's never been flown anywhere but the WA coast.
posted 2:16 PM | link | 3 comments