The Weatherman

Steph is going out with the women to get her nails done tomorrow…so I’ll be watching Zacher during that time. Otherwise I need to raise the crib mattress, do some office work, some gardening, and continue to clean out garage. Nothing too exciting going on - oh well.

Steph inquired at West Seattle Blog about good take out places after Nathaniel shows up…here are the comments (a good showing I might add).

Zach playing on the slide at the park last weekend.

Took some photos from Duwamish Head looking back toward Seattle at sunset.

Seawall looking toward Alki at sunset.

During a diaper change Zach wizzed on mommy. It’s been a while since he’s done this. In fact I haven’t been pee’d on since his first few months.  I’m glad he saved this moment for mom rather than me…she can appreciate these good times better than I.

For his nap, I put him in our bed in a shirt and his diaper. He’s a warm sleeper so I didn’t see a need for pants. I checked on him after about 30 minutes and he was sitting up looking over the edge of the bed with a goofy look on his face. I peaked over there and his diaper was on the floor. Uh-Oh, that can’t be good. He was sitting on the bed holding his wee-wee (that’s what he calls it), and under him was a big wet spot. So I guess you could call this the start of potty training. He got his diaper off, but he never made it to the bathroom. Not a huge deal except Steph had changed our sheets and bedspread earlier that morning.

Tonight we played AC/DC for him while he ate his dinner. He got to listen to Back in Black, Hells Bells, Thunderstruck, and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Does this make us bad parents? He seemed to enjoy the music, at least he didn’t fuss.

We had lunch with John, Kim, and Harper today over in Queen Anne. Harper is an adorable 1 year old. At first Zach was a little shy around her but he got over that quickly. We went to the Queen Anne Cafe - good food, but we had a horrible waitress. She was continually late bringing us stuff, quite snappy in her attitude, and then dumped off a check that wasn’t added up - so the woman working the register had to spend time totalling our bill.

Here is a movie of the PEPS kids playing in our yard on Wednesday night.

I spent the morning over at Alki Kayak Tours at Seacrest Park demoing Eddyline Kayaks.  The Eddyline rep showed up with around 10 boats and Alki contributed some of their boats for the demo also.

I started out in the Eddyline Fathom LV…for those of you familiar with Eddyline you know that there is no Fathom LV.  Until yesterday…literally.  This is a brand new boat.  In fact this was literally the first boat made for production.  And I was the third person to try this kayak out in its history.  I thought that was pretty cool.  As far the boat - it is a foot shorter than the Fathom and an inch narrow.  The biggest issue for me was the tight cockpit - not as deep.  I felt very uncomfortable in it - definitely not the boat for me.

Next I took out the Eddyline Fathom.  I loved this Kayak!  I ended up taking it out 3 times.  The last time for a much longer demo and out into rougher water - even got a wave over the bow that got me wet.  Anyway, this kayak is very stable, very agile, and fast.  The front of the cockpit is deep so it feels larger than it is.  This is the definitely the kayak that I want to pick up.

While there I also tried the Equinox, Merlin XT, and Merlin LT.  The Equinox felt like a bath tub which is funny since I thought I liked it after taking it out about 2 weeks ago.  But after paddling in the Fathom, the Equinox feels much larger.  The Merlin XT was a nice boat and probably my second choice of the day.  The Merlin LT was for a much smaller person.

Before leaving for the day, two other paddlers got into a bit of a jam.  They were out near one of the barges and one of them flipped over.  Kudos to Greg (owner of Alki Kayak Tours) and the Eddyline rep for hauling A** and getting out there to help them.  The water temperature in the sound is only 48 degrees - so it gets dangerous if you fall out.  Both persons got back in their kayaks and back to shore safely.

Tonight we went to the Seattle Sounders soccer game at Qwest Field.  Wow - what an awesome stadium.  The Niners (yes, I’m a Niners fan) need something like that rather than the crappy Candlestick Park they play in now.  The game was good and Zach was good.  We only stayed through the 70th minute (longer than we expected) and then Zach was getting tired and restless.  Well, it was 9pm and that is past his bedtime.

Our day started with light rain but ended with a high around 75…not too shabby.

Sunrise: 5:10am

Sunset: 9:10pm

But we have 17h and 20m of visible light - that coincides with the civil twilight which starts at 4:31am and ends at 9:51pm. It’s nice having these really long days since you can do things like mow the lawn at 8pm at night - which is what I just finished doing.

Check out Friday Nights back before Zach was born.  PEPS:  this is the picture of Steph I was referring to (sorry honey…I know you are trying to forget this post).

Things have changed a lot now…we no longer do our grocery shopping on Friday nights…no way.  We can’t since we usually fall asleep too early.  Sigh!  Now our grocery shopping takes place during our precious weekends.  Oh well.

We had PEPS over tonight…what a beautiful evening to let the kids run around in the yard…Now I’m on our porch writing this out and watching a beautiful sunset up here in the Northwest.  Ok, well, I can’t see all of the sunset because of some tall trees but I definitely see enough to know it’s great.

Steph had her checkup today.  Her blood pressure is slowly creeping up.  The doctor has started throwing the ‘bed rest’ term around.  We’ll have to wait and see.  The other possibility is that Nate may come out before July 17th if the BP keeps going up.  He’s already 6.5 to 7 lbs so he’s definitely big enough.  We’ll keep you posted.

My BP is AWESOME!  That’s because the doctor doubled my Toprol dose from 50mg to 100mg.  This has even greatly reduced the heart palpitations.  Unfortunately Toprol is a beta blocker so it takes a little time for my heart to get going when I’m exercising…a little irritating but my body will adapt.   In any case, I feel better.

Zach gets his cast off on Friday…none too soon.  That thing is nasty!

It’s a beautiful evening up here in the northwest. At 9:30pm it is 70 degrees after a high of 75. I took some shots of Rainier…here they are.

Oh, and a movie of Zacher playing in the house.

I finally got out to see the the minus tide. Yesterday was lowest at -3.8 but today only slightly higher at -3.6. It was very impressive. I’ll shoreline must have increased five fold from this low tide.

Looking south from Lowman Beach

Big purple starfish. I also saw a few moon snails and plenty of other things where I don’t know the names.

Looking north toward Alki Point.

Alki Beach…Wow…that’s big!

We got the TSX back from the body shop yesterday and it looks great.  They put on a new mirror, pulled out the dent in the door, repainted, and fixed the two minor scrapes on the bumper.  Kudos to the Gee Collision Center.  It was nice to get rid of the rental car - I really can’t stand rental cars.  Anyway, happy to have our vehicle back.

I had my latest in a series of doctor appointments and things are good.  Just need to take my high blood pressure meds in the morning (rather than at bedtime) and double dose on one medication - this will hopefully reduce the heart palpitations.  FYI, these palpitations have been determined to be benign - they are just a nuisance.

We’ve lived in this home for 11 months and we are finally getting a gas line run to our laundry room so we can hook up our washer/dryer that we bought while in San Mateo.  Finally!  It’s costing a bit ($2k) but they are also building out for some additional leads for future use to our fireplace and kitchen (for a gas range).  This work will be done on Wednesday - they’ll even hook up our washer/dryer.  The worker is also taking away our old washer/dryer for his own use - which I like since it take me forever to get rid of them.

As for this weekend - not sure what is up.  Probably spend some time outside today and then I need to put some blinds up in Zach’s room and clean up the garage so the technicians can work on Wednesday.  Oh and it’s Father’s Day so I can do whatever I want 

Well, there is one good thing about having this cruddy purple rental car - I won’t drive it.  I took the bus to work today.  It actually worked out well - I got to work about 10 to 15 minutes later than normal.  I wish the buses had cup holders for my coffee - that way I could enjoy my morning beverage and read a bit on the way to work.

In the past when I took the bus I was annoyed coming home since the bus was always 10 to 15 minutes late.  More frustrating was the fact that there were 3 to 4 other buses heading to West Seattle that didn’t go near my house, or so I thought.  As it turns out the 22 goes down California and stops at the bottom of the hill (a quick 10 minute walk away).  I could also take the 116 to Morgan Junction and have Steph pick me up.  I like these options so I’m not stuck waiting for one particular bus.

Ideally I would like to drive less.  I did take the Elliot Bay Water Taxi on Monday, however, that still requires that I drive to the water taxi.  Plus, it usually increases my commute by 45 to 60 minutes.  I mainly do this for the adventure of taking a boat ride during my commute.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m still pissed at the buses for running red lights.  I saw one go through a red light late last week.  I can’t wait for the day I see a police officer pull a bus over.

I took Steph’s car to the auto body shop today and they did a quick estimate and kept it - they can get the work done this week hopefully.  That meant I needed a rental car.  Enterprise picked me up at the body shop and took me to their office.  They had some PT Cruisers - YUK!  Those cars are crappy.  But they were basically out of everything else…except for the purple Chevy Cobalt they picked me up in.  So I took that.

What a piece of #$@&!  First, after being in it you wanna bathe when you leave the car.  Everything is manual on the car…not that I really care, but I didn’t think they made cars with manual windows, manual mirrors, and manual door locks anymore.  It does give the temperature outside though…props for that.

Can’t wait until we get Steph’s car back so I can have my van again.

So, Steph’s car got hit…again.  During the night last night someone sideswiped the car putting a long scratch on the driver’s side and busting the side view mirror.  The mirror alone will probably take this claim above the deductible (since it has a blinker built in).  We filed another police report which will probably go nowhere.  Just a refresher, this is the third hit and run on the car since we moved here.

As for the gasless mower, I picked up the Scotts 20 in push reel mower so I can now mow without polluting the atmosphere.  So, was it a pain?  Not really.  One pass over the lawn took me no longer than with my gas mower…the main difference is that I have to do two passes to get an even cut.  This is mainly an artifact of our non-flat lawn.  I’ll keep the gas mower since it can cut the lawn a lot shorter which is good later in the year.

We attended a graduation party tonight held at the Alki Bathhouse. What a wonderful place to host an event. The room is large enough for 30 to 40 people and it’s right on the beach. Tonight’s party was for Mark - Matthew’s dad who graduated from University of Washington.

Zacher was very good…just had a lot of energy. He ran around constantly for over 2 hours and he was screaming (in a good way) every 10 seconds…after about 15 minutes all of the kids were running around and yelling (again, in a good way). Check out the video of this action.

Some pictures from tonight.

A ferry at sunset on the Sound.

Steph watching Zach.

Zach throwing rocks into the water.

I demo’d the Eddyline Equinox today over at Alki Kayak Tours.  What a great kayak!  Excellent maneuverability - no problem getting that boat to turn.  It was pretty breezy out (up to 20 mph) but it tracked very straight.  This boat does not have a rudder or a skeg - which I liked - those just complicate your experience.

It’s also a very light boat - around 46lbs - easy for one person to carry on their shoulder.   The cockpit was roomy and it has two watertight compartments to carry your gear.

Eddyline will be doing a demo day at Alki on June 23rd (need to preregister) - hopefully I can go to that and try out a few other boats like the Merlin XT and Fathom.  I’ve already taken the Night Hawk 17.5 out for a spin - excellent kayak also.

I headed down to Stan Sayres Park along Lake Washington for the REI Paddle Demo Day. Manufacturers of Kayaks and Canoes, of which REI sells, bring in their boats for anyone to try out for free. Basically I got two and half hours of free paddling. SweeT!

Oh, and to make it very Seattle, it rained the whole time. But that doesn’t matter when you are kayaking since you are wet anyway. I showed up at the opening (10am) and grabbed a life vest, a paddle, and tried out the Wilderness Systems Tsunami 145. I would classify the Tsunami line as a rec/touring boat. This boat had lots of initial stability and it was very easy to enter and exit. I next tried the Wilderness Systems Tempest 170. A much tighter cockpit and I didn’t feel overly stable in this boat - probably my least favorite. Again, a kayak fit is very personal - everyone likes something a little different. I then tried the Wilderness Systems Tsunami 175 and Tsunami 125. Some of the kayaks had rudders - the demo rudders were definitely abused and not as usable as one would hope - but again, I believe this is because they are demo boats getting abused every weekend. Overall I was generally pleased with Tsunami series. I unfortunately didn’t try any pro series boats which may have made me a bigger fan.

I next tried out multiple Delta kayaks. First I took out the Delta Fifteen 5 Sport. The first thing I noticed was the greatly improved rudder system over the Wilderness Systems boats. The pedals on the Delta kayaks are stationary and you use your toes to manipulate the rudder, and these rudders were in better condition than the ones on the Wilderness Systems’ boats. In addition, the overall look of the Delta boats was nicer (again, I didn’t try an Pro series boats from Wilderness Systems). The stability was better on these boats also - both primary and secondary stability. On the Fifteen 5 Sport, the cockpit seemed tight to me - otherwise I enjoyed it. I took out the Delta Twelve - mainly since no one else wanted to. Not a bad boat - good stability and decent tracking. Finally I took out my favorite of the bunch - the Fourteen 5 Expedition. The dimensions between the Fourteen 5 and Fifteen 5 cockpit are not different - but for some reason it felt much different for me. I’m not sure if the seats were adjusted differently or what (just checked the stats - the cockpit volume is bigger on the Fourteen 5 Exp then on the Fifteen 5 Sport). Anyway, I loved this kayak. The rudder system worked well, it was comfortable, and the stability suited my abilities. I even adjusted the foot pegs while adrift in the lake with no difficulty.

By this point two and half hours had gone by and I was cold. Since it was a demo day, all the kayaks were wet inside from people getting in and out - so I was soaked all the through on my pants. My upper body, while dry, was cool. Time to leave and get a beer.

Oh, one more thing…this was my Father’s Day gift…leaving the house for 3 to 4 hours to go kayaking…I loved every minute.  Thanks Hon!

We had a pretty warm day today - it got up to 84 degrees. But late this afternoon the clouds built up quickly and within a few hours we had overcast skies, but not your typical Seattle overcast. These were thunderheads moving up from the south. So the temp didn’t really drop much. We ended up getting about 10 minutes of rain and some Thunder - I love this stuff.

Here is what it looked like about 10 minutes before it started raining.

Check out this picture from 9pm tonight when it 70 degrees and no wind (high of 80 today) - taken about 3 blocks from my home. The sun is setting to far north for me to watch it from our deck.

Zach throwing rocks into the Sound at Lincoln Park.

Update: Just killed a fairly large indoor spider…most likely a Hobo Spider based on its speed and size…that’s the other thing summer brings around here.

Finally got a picture up with Zach and his cast.

is coming to Washington…

DATE: June 9, 2007 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
LOCATION: Stan Sayres Park, Lake Washington
HOST STORE: Seattle Flagship
PHONE NUMBER: (206) 223-1944, (888) 873-1938