The Weatherman

Grandma and Grandpa (Steph’s parents) arrived safely on Thursday night. Zach remembered Grandma and immediately gave lots of hugs and attention. Both grandparents were thrilled with Zach’s ability to say a version of “Grandma” and “Grandpa.” On Friday, Auntie Jan and Uncle Mike arrived. Let the noise and chaos begin. Some of the highlights include the great plunger search of Christmas Eve-Eve. Lets just say the toilet got plugged up and there was no plunger in the house. So a search began at 8pm that took us to 3 different stores before a plunger could be found. One store that didn’t have any even offered to let us borrow theirs. (While nice to have the Christmas spirit, that is just too gross.) Another highlight was Mike making breakfast burritos. This required him to bring up about 50 pounds of supplies including his BBQ. It took several hours of preparation prior to the big event Christmas Eve morning. Then it took another 2 hours of cooking in the morning, which included working the BBQ on the deck in the rain. (That is one dedicated chef.) It was worth it as we all chowed down, including Zach. None of us want to change those diapers. Christmas Eve was the traditional fare of spinach dip, meatballs, ham, turkey, and potatoes. We all ate until we burst. Dinner was a little late so Zach got to eat first. Mike was so upset that Zach got potatoes and meatballs before him, that he actually stole some off Zach’s plate. Zach thought that was hysterical and started feeding Mike more. Also during the Christmas Eve festivities, Paul suddenly yelled out “There’s something wrong!” multiple times. He claimed so have seen some big orange glow out the window a few blocks away. He wasn’t sure if it was a fire, explosion or what. None of us saw it. (Did aliens land?) Christmas morning was lots of fun. Zach liked to hold all the wrapped presents and bring all of them to grandma, regardless of the name actually on the tag. Zach still didn’t get the concept of opening the gifts, but once they were open he loved to play with them. He got lots of cool cars and trucks. He also got this popper that shoots plastic balls all over the house. He loved that (thanks Auntie Jan). So that is round one and we are looking forward to the arrival of Nonnie and Papa tomorrow (Paul’s parents) to continue with all the Christmas fun.

Also, our furnace stopped working on Christmas day night - so we are sitting around with the temp in the low 60s in the house (temp outside is 39).  We are waiting for the repairman to show up between 12 and 2 today.

In Steph’s write-up above, she forgot to mention the hit-and-run accidents.  A few weeks ago, Steph’s car was backed into and the felon drove off without leaving any info.  Steph contacted the cops and they took a report.  Fortunately there is really no damage to the car.

On Christmas Eve, Jan and Paul took Steph’s car to Sees’s Candy and while they were walking in, a large SUV backed into Steph’s car.  I saw them pulling out and waved them down.  They pulled over, roled down the window and then sped off once I was out of the way.  At least they waited for me to step to the side.  They almost took out 3 or 4 cars as they fishtailed wildly down the busy steet.  We got the license plate and filed a police report.  Fortunately, again, there was little damage.

Making the burritos - 1st phase.

Relaxing with mom (watching cars) after a busy morning opening gifts.

Mike making burritos from mashed potatoes, ham, and meatballs…and feeding Lou

See more pictures here.

We took Zach to see Santa today. Santa came out of his hut to say hello to Zach, Dominic, and Drew before we had their pictures taken. Zach was the first into Santa’s house…he cried. He wasn’t to excited to sit on some strangers lap.

Ultimately Zach sat on my lap, Steph to our left and Santa to our right. We did get some pictures outside before he met Santa and a few are below.

Hangin with the Reindeer.

Drew, Dominic, and Zach.

Who says these aren’t pants.

See the remaining pictures here.

We ended up having gusts to 70MPH here.  Our power was out from around midnight on Thursday until noon on Friday…and we were lucky.  Our neighbors behind us just got their power back after 40 hours.  We just got phone/internet/cable back this afternoon.

A quick survey of our neighborhood and within walking distance there are numerous trees down - some on homes and some on power lines.  Our trees in the backyard lost a few branches and our back fence will need some repair - 2 of the posts are broken and it’s leaning pretty bad.

And the weather keeps on coming. Today we got about an inch and a half of rain, but about .6″ fell in about 20 minutes. It flooded a section of our patio 4″ deep against our back door and the water started coming in. Fortunately our back door has a good seal. Between that and about 20 towels I saved our downstairs. If we weren’t home, I suspect we would have had water all over downstairs.

Now the wind is coming. SeaTac is showing steady wind of 32 MPH with gusts to 40 MPH. We are expecting sustained 40 MPH winds with gusts to 65 MPH. The coast is expecting gusts to 90 MPH. Check out this lame video - so you can hear the wind noise.

On Friday I had an appointment with a ski boot fitter since I have had issues with my current boots. He added some foam into the heal to raise it so it fits better in the boot.

Today I went up to Alpental which is only 50 minutes away. Alpental is 5% beginner, 20% intermediate, and 75% advanced. Alpental is part of a resort that has 3 other very small peaks (like Boreal) but Alpental has a vertical rise of 2280′. So, lots of steep bumpy runs. Overall, it was an excellent day except for the fog - it was tough to see.

The alterations to my boots were definitely helpful. I still need some additional tweaking done but they are not too far off from being a good fit.

I made it up to Stevens Pass Ski Area on Saturday.  Wonderful, dry snow - very light.  That’s where the fun ended.  I basically had a nightmare day since my ski boots were causing enormous problems.  After just 3 hours my arches were in pain and walking proved challenging.

I already have an appointment for Friday morning with a boot fitter.  Hopefully I’ll be able to salvage my current boots with some properly fitted liners.

Stevens Pass from the parking lot.  Sure looks cold up there.

What a ham