cascadian telegrams

progress - drywall, exterior and garage

the builders are making good progress on the house now: they've painted the gable ends (above) and we're closing in on making a color decision for the stucco; the garage is going up and the drywall guys just *flew* through the house and hung all the drywall in a couple of days (they still have to come back and finish mudding/sanding, but *still*)

  

I love the drywall stage as the area of the rooms take their final shape -- it is easier for me to visualize what they will look like when finished.  As expected, the house "shrinks" a bit due to enclosed walls and also grows more silent due to sheetrock and insulation.

reich endorses obama

former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich endorses Obama because he's disgusted with the Clinton Campaign's attacks.  He wouldn't endorse on Stephen Colbert's show, though:

Stephen Colbert does a wrap up from Tuesday’s Semi-super Tuesday primaries and wishes his buddy a Huckabye-bye.

Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary, appears to give his enthusiastic endorsement of the democratic process and to dismiss Colbert’s charge that the Democratic party is destroying itself from within, but just won’t give an enthusiastic endorsement of a specific candidate, no matter how many ways Colbert tries to wheedle it out of him.

   SC: Are you endorsing Hillary Clinton?

   RR: No, I decided not to endorse this round.

   SC: So, you’re endorsing Barack Obama?

   RR: No, I’m not going to endorse anybody. Because I’ve been a friend of Hillary...

   SC: But you’re leaning, you’re leaning towards Barack Obama...

   RR: ...for so many years, I don’t want to endorse anybody, I think that would be inappropriate.

   SC: Okay, let me put it this way: if we were at a restaurant together and the waiter brought around the dessert cart, and the choice was ladyfingers or Black Forest cake, which way do you think you’d lean?

   RR: Quite seriously, either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would make a great president.

   SC: Let me put this a different way. If I were a waiter and I were to offer you two different slices of pizza, and one was half-Hawaiian and you weren’t entirely sure what it was going to taste like. And the other was plain with cheese and had been under a heat lamp for 35 years, I mean, it had seen everything. Which would you go for?

   RR: I don’t think I’d be terribly excited about either of those slices.

   SC: Which movie would you rent? "Big Momma’s House" or "Medea’s Family Reunion"? Be careful, they are both about strong women who are actually black men.

   RR: Um, gosh. I think I’d try both of them out.

the tooth fairy cometh

Malcolm lost his first baby tooth today... one of the little ones along the bottom, in front.  It was loose for days.  I tried to pull it out w/my fingers but couldn't get a good grip on it.  Susan finally looped it with dental floss string and tugged it out.

He was nervous about it until we told him that the tooth fairy leaves him something under his pillow in exchange for the tooth.  In his case, a $2 'Jefferson' bill, which is probably a quarter from when I was a kid, adjusted for inflation.

it's... lightning man!

Thanks to the Klutz Superhero Starter Kit (with Red Cape) we have a new superhero in the house.  And every superhero has a sidekick.  For lightning man it is beer drinking canadian hockey grandma, who was a good sport and donned the helmet for a silly snap just like her mom did to entertain us kids years ago...

tell 'em, brother!

I was feeling down about the drumbeat of attacks on Obama's "bitter" comments from both John McCain and Hillary Clinton (interestingly, and maybe predictably, their responses were nearly identical, except McCain didn't go on about how he shot ducks as a kid).  Here's the actual quote:

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

but one of the great things about Obama is his ability to cut through political noise, and he responded ably and truthfully.  Andrew Sullivan, as usual, says it better than me:

"I'm not betting against him. You know why? He's not afraid. And by jettisoning fear as the lodestar of liberalism, he is doing us all a favor, right and left. Man, he cheers me up."

Hear, hear.  And here's the actual response:

whidbey with mumsie and pops

it was a beautiful day yesterday so I arranged an impromptu day trip to Whidbey Island with my parents.  Malcolm had some stomach virus where he couldn't hold down any food on Friday afternoon/evening so unfortunately he couldn't go and Susan stayed home with him.

Too bad.  It was lovely, warm and sunny the whole day, and we had a nice look around.  We visited Joe's Island Music, our friends Rob and Rachel's music shop, and had lunch with Rob (and checked out a mini-guitar as a possible birthday gift for Malcolm in June).

Whidbey is beautiful: still largely bucolic and rural despite some yuppification with long beaches, dramatic cliffs and incredible vistas from virtually anywhere on the island, looking over the water west towards the Olympics or east towards Mount Baker and Everett

We checked out South Whidbey State Park and had a nice walk along the bluff at Fort Casey (above) where the kids were flying kites and exploring the never-used WWII battlements and tunnels -- what a great place for kids.  Christopher's in Coupeville for dinner was a disappointment but I can't really complain... those Penn Cove mussels are so good you'd really have to screw up to make an unattractive meal of them.  Still, I'd rather have taken a bucket and gathered the mussels ourselves from the plentiful ones on the beach and cooked them up at home.

The m&p are considering buying some land up there and building a retirement home.  My 70-something dad likes to say he has "one house left in him" (he build a house mostly by himself when we were kids back in the 1970's... every weekend for three years!) so I hope they go through with it.  Between our friends, my parents and the lovely scenery and beaches we'd have no excuse to not just shoot up there on the weekends.  Plus Malcolm would benefit from time spent tramping around in the woods or foraging on the beaches. 

Snaps are here.

says it all..

via Miami Herald

how to improve your commute, Seattle-style

our friend and fellow vanpooler Eric snapped this shot of a house being barged across Lake Washington from the 520 bridge last Friday

that's one way to improve your commute:  float across as you have your toast.  float back in the evenings as you have dinner.  or just stay in the middle of the lake, drop a hook and hope for a salmon.

improvisational sculpture

'penguin spaceship lands on the banana planet' by Malcolm

family visit

a rare visit from both of my brothers this weekend meant my entire family (3 brothers plus m&p) were together for, well, I can't remember the last time we were all together!  Matt and Colleen were up from Los Angeles, and Dave and his girlfriend Marti from Portland plus my parents who are here for a few months

it was great to see everyone.  Matt & Colleen and Dave and Marti were all very generous w/their time (and lego-building efforts) with Malcolm, who of course lapped up all the adult attention.  Plus we had a great dinner @ pair on Saturday which I'd totally recommend... Malcolm loved the Moules Frites!  Unfortunately Susan didn't feel well on Saturday so she didn't go but I will bring her back some time soon.

Alas, we didn't make it out on Saturday to 74th St. Ale House as I'd planned for us (we're getting old I guess) but it was fun/brief visit.  I hope we get to see them again soon!  More snaps are here.