this is actually from a week or so ago, but we had a beautiful afternoon beach combing at Discovery Park. If you go down at low tide it is great!
Malcolm didn't actually go in the water but had fun finding shells and crabs etc. among the rocks.
Snaps are here.
this is actually a week old but we had a nice visit last weekend to Woodland Park Zoo with John and Jacki.
pretty nice view of some lions, monkeys and hippos!
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.
oh the holiday season is in full swing now, with a 'Big Holiday Play Date Extravaganza' with Zoe, Kai, Sarah and assorted friends (plus some Danish æbleskriver as a bonus) then our friend Megan's annual Ugly Cookie Day to see who can make the ugliest Christmas cookie... I vote for either Borat in a Thong or Larry Craig in a Men's Room Stall (no photo evidence of that one). The nicest/ugly cookie IMO was the Spice Girls set :).
Thanks for including us Megan! (Note to self: Not really for boys... Malcolm and I crashed but I tried to stay in the basement w/Brett)
Snaps from Ugly Cookie Day are here.
I know, I know, another sunset. What can I say? I see 'em and get enthralled, and the camera comes out.
they've had a few weeks of dry weather so progress has been good: The slab is poured, the posts to support the floors and the stairwell are in, the plumbing is roughed in the basement (including the radiant heat tubing in the slab -- which passed the high-pressure leak test - yay) and the first floor joists and warm-board (plywood channeled for radiant heat) are in...
The engineered wood products are amazing to me... basically wood scraps and resin, waste products engineered into incredibly strong structural members - it took 7 guys to hoist each of these 20' beams carrying the floor
Only major hold up right now seems to be the subcontractor doing the concrete work such as the basement stairwell and steps. He was supposed to be there middle of last week, but all I can see are forms sitting there waiting for him to start.
At least it is starting to look more like a house than a hole in the ground
and once the basement steps/stairwell are done, we can backfill around the foundation
slowly we are getting out of the ground...
oh man what a great Halloween this year. We had the Halloween Party at the Seattle Aquarium (Monday) , which included underwater pumpkin carving (thanks Jacki!), the Wallingford Boys & Girls Club Halloween Fair (Friday) and trick-or-treating with Mark, Julie, Parker, Roan from across the street in our new neighborhood on Halloween Night. Now we're all partied out!
That's Jacki being harassed by the SeaFair Pirates @ the Aquarium Party, which was ostensibly for 'Otter Club' members ($1000 and over donors) but Jacki snuck in her prole-friends (that's us) -- Cheers! What a cool place to have a Halloween party... it's great to run around in there at night, and the new observation tank is awesome
The Wallingford Boys & Girls Club held an annual 'Haunted Fair' which was also fun... Malcolm got to play a few games and win a few prizes
and the finale was taking part in our new neighbor Mark and Julie's annual tradition of inviting over their neighbors for food and beers then trick-or-treating with the neighborhood kids
that's the neighbor's dog dressed as Princess Lea, there were a lot of dogs-in-costume this year for some reason
I went as a hockey player... how original (Susan said "you wear that stuff every week... how is that a costume?" Smartass).
Malcolm had a wild time of it on Halloween Night. It was his first real Halloween... the closest facsimile in Denmark is Festelavn (like Mardi Gras) which we celebrated over the last three years... it is fun but not the same.
You learn a lot about a neighborhood by cruising around on Halloween. There's some good candy to be had in our Green Lake neighborhood, and lots of it! The kids visited the houses on one side of one block and their bags were nearly full. Most of the neighbors' homes were decorated and alight with pumpkins, candles and decorations, and they really got into the spirit of the thing (I think the adults enjoyed it as much as the kids). Some of the jack-o-lanterns were beautifully and elaborately carved, and I got to chat with some of the neighbors I hadn't yet met.
But anyway, as I said, he had a wild time with the neighbor kids... a pack of feral little boys swinging weapons at each other and gorging on candy, like Lord of the Flies with costumes. They'd hit a sugar crescendo and sprint house to house then get crestfallen and whiny when the sugar ran low... hilarious to watch. Looking forward to next year when we'll actually be in our house!
snaps: Halloween 2007
It was Malcolm's friend Zoë's 5th birthday on Sunday, at The Little Gym. Great to see Zoë, Kai, Sarah and Steve again, they're friends from Copenhagen and Zoë is one of Malcolm's longtime friends ("do you remember me?" he asked her bashfully :)).
It was great fun with lots of running around, silliness and a few games, and of course a pink cake... always her favorite color.
and little Kai is getting big!
Tillykke Zoë! Snaps can be found here.
