The Weatherman

I met our project manager/contractor assigned to our project today.  He showed up at around 9:45am and we stepped through a bunch of checklists for the next 45 minutes.  Today he laid down a protective floor covering, he moved in his tools, and basically demo’d the whole kitchen.  All of the cabinets have been removed as has the dishwasher.  I have some picutres from before the demo (haven’t took pictures of the kitchen yet today).

Just to make today even more interesting, the boys’ daycare was closed so daddy was very excited to hang out with them all day.  Well, not really excited…more like scared.  Trust me when I say that work is much easier than watching a 1 year old and a 3 year old.  So to make the best of it we went to Endolyne Joes for lunch (best french fries in West Seattle if you didn’t know) and then I took them to the Zoo.  Now this was dangerous since we didn’t leave the house until almost 11am.

The zoo was great.  Zach ran around the whole time with Cars backpack on checking out all of the animals.  I think he liked the elephants the most - at least that was his favorite today.  As for the backpack, we picked it up on Sunday so Zach could carry around his own stuff.  He seems to like it a lot.

Pre demo picture.

Second view of kitchen pre-demo.

Zach at the zoo.

Zebras at the zoo.

Zach’s favorite alphabet.

Bee in the yard (for those who know me, my lens had a min focus distance of 1.5m)

Nater on the swing.

Next up for the kitchen - complete the demo tomorrow, new appliances arrive tomorrow (to be stored in the garage), and the electrician will be here on Wednesday and Thursday working on the canned lights, plugs, and switches.

Kitchen starts between 8am and 9:30am tomorrow morning. It is empty! We completed clearing it out today and finished picking up what we need to live without kitchen (paper plates, paper bowls, etc).

Also, I picked up Autopano Pro for building panorama images. FYI, panos don’t show well in the blog, so click through on the image to see a bigger version.

This is the view from our backyard during our vacation in Chelan.

You can see the lake in the center of the photo far below our house.  We were about 1500 feet higher than the lake.  For those familiar with Lake Chelan, the lower right portion of the lake is Waputo Point.

As for the pano software, I tried out about 5 different ones…I definitely wanted more auto software that did a good job with the blends.  Autopano Pro, although it costs money, seemed to be the best fit for me.  Overall, the easiest software to use (although the GUI has some oddities that took getting used to - maybe I should RTFM).

Our kitchen remodel starts Monday morning.  Today we emptied out our kitchen, donated our plates, bowls, and glasses to goodwill, and setup a make-shift kitchen (ie, microwave) downstairs.  We’ll need to work a little more tomorrow to clean out the final items in the kitchen and move stuff from our upstairs fridge to the garage fridge.

We are excited but not looking forward to not having a kitchen with our 2 little boys.  Interesting times ahead.  Nate and I went down to Bed Bath and Beyond to look at new plates/bowls/cups.  I’m excited to replace what we had with something more suited for our needs.

We had dinner tonight at a local Mexican restaurant then we went for a walk at Lincoln Park…here are some photos.

Nate was tired during the walk.

Looking toward Coleman Pool.

Large freighter heading north.

Looking north along the park (same spot I took the header image from a few years back).

Tall grass along the water.

Above all this we saw the local bald eagle in his nest.  Unfortunately I didn’t bring my new lens so I couldn’t get a closeup.  Maybe next time.

Today we had a high of 86 at our house…a bit shy of the official 91 at SeaTac…but still a wonderfully warm day.  We took the boys to the wading pool at Lincoln Park.  Zach and I spent about an hour in the water - very relaxing.  I started the day on the water with a 6:30am kayak run with Tom…Nice way to start the day.

Yesterday, a group of us at work went to the 73rd floor observation deck at the top of Columbia Center tower in downtown.  Here are some shots showing our wonderfully clear day.

Looking NE toward 520 floating bridge.

Looking south over I5 toward Mt Rainier.

Elliott Bay and the Olympics.

Looking south towards our office and the stadiums.

What an amazingly beautiful place!

I captured these photos of a Seattle skyline sunrise right before heading out of a morning of kayaking on the Duwamish.

I even got a bird to fly through the photo!

A wider shot including the pier at Seacrest Marina.

A thirsty Nate.

The other day our team at work went on the Argosy Locks Cruise…what fun.  It starts in Lake Union next to Kenmore Air, cruises through Lake Union, out the ship canal, through the locks, around Magnolia, and ending up at the Argosy doc on the Seattle Waterfront.

View from Seacrest Park while I wait for the Water Taxi

Space Needle from Argosy boat on Lake Union.

Looking back at the locks as we exited.

Shilshole Marina.

Well, we kept pretty this weekend again.  Friday evening we held a BBQ at our house for Steph’s work…we had around 15 people over for a potluck - we supplied the burgers, hot dogs, and refreshments.  But the big story for the weekend was our one night of camping at Millersylvania State Park - about 10 minutes south of Olympia.

First, Millersylvania is a beautiful park and campground situated amoung a primarily Douglas Fir forest and bordering on Deep Lake (don’t think it’s very deep).  We had two adjoining campsights (the other site being used by the Alessi’s).  We packed up the van on Saturday morning and left home at 12:30…We were checked in just before 2pm.

The only painful part of this trip was the amount of stuff you need to bring camping when it involves 2 kids.  So we had our huge Kelty Green River 6 tent, the queen size air mattress, a single air mattress, and the pack-n-play.  We had enough room in our test for another queen size mattress!

We took a walk to Deep Lake where the boys ran around the little beach touching the water.  Zach did fall in - about 3 inches of water.  He got soaked and I think a little scared from his mishap so we had to hurry back to camp and get him changed.  The night was cool (Olympia got down to 37 which tied a record for this date), but the boys slept well.  Mom didn’t sleep since dad kept snoring (he was drunk).  The morning for dad was rough with his hangover.  But the boys jumped right into their playing routine.  We packed up camp and left at around 11:30am (home by 12:30)…then the unpacking started.  2 to 3 hours later everything we put back and things were cleaned up.

Lots of work for such a short trip…but we had a good time.

Palace de Arthur

Minutes before Zach fell in.

Looking out over Deep Lake.

Canoeist on Deep Lake.

Looking up from our campsite.

Random picture of Nate about a week ago…funny laugh.

And for the movie…This covers Memorial Day weekend with Jan and Mike, setting up the tent in our yard, camping, and post camping fun with the kids - It’s a long one.

We had another busy weekend for the Arthurs.  We didn’t travel far but seemed to move around a lot…trip to REI, trip to the grocery store, running, walk to coffee, morning trip to Seward Park, lunch in downtown, trip to pickup firewood, trial setup of our new tent, walk the dog, clean, and cook…it all adds up.

Before I forget, here is a picture from Zach’s birthday party that Steph took.

Rare moment on film where they are together.

While I was picking up firewood, I was able to take a quick shot of this racoon.  He wouldn’t look down since he was sleeping.  Jim kept throwing wood in the vicinity (absolutely far enough away to not even come close to hitting it) and finally the lil guy popped his head up.

Raccoon in the tree.

Zach at Seward Park

Looking over Lake Washington at Seward Park

Smith Tower in downtown Seattle (we ate just up the street at Collins Pub).

Now onto the tent…the thing is huge.  We bought the Kelty Green River 6.  It has floor space of 13.5′ by 9′ and an 80 square foot vestibule.  Center height is around 6 and a half feet.  I was able to get a good portion of it setup on my own but definitely needed help to move it and setup the rain fly.  It is a sweet palace.  We are going away for one night of camping next weekend - the first camping night with the boys - it could be interesting.

Today we cruised around a small portion of Seward Park along Lake Washington.  Wow, what a beautiful park.  It is amazingly untouched with beautiful forests and paths throughout.  I definitely want to head back and go running around there.

A quick comment about the firewood - Jim, friend of mine in Sammammish, lost some trees in the December 2006 wind storm.  He had cut up the trees into largish chunks last year and he has been splitting the wood over the last month - so I was able to pick up some (probably a fifth of a cord)…I agreed to pay $1.18 per cubic foot (don’t ask).

And now for one really annoying item.  As some of you know, Steph was at Whistler in early May for a conference.  Steph has an iPhone.  These two facts can really f*ck you over if you don’t turn off the data part of the iPhone.  We got dinged for $650 of data transfer fees…basically any email she downloaded on the phone incurred huge fees.  For example, one data transfer session for 6.2 MB (this could be one email with a largish photo) cost $94!  AT&T, those stealing bastards.  That’s ridiculous.  They have one page buried on their website that I found that discusses this.  I’ll be honest, even if I looked before she left, I may have not found it.  I need to call them, although, I’m sure it will just piss me off and I’ll get no where.

Sometimes, not all that glitters is gold.  During the week Steph and I talked about heading out to Mt Rainier on Saturday if the weather cooperated.  Friday night was wonderfully clear and we awoke on Saturday morning to clear blue skies.  We promptly packed up and headed out on our journey with Nate and Zach.  As we were driving south we heard there might be showers in the cascades…well, it didn’t take long…it started raining in Auburn (only about 20 minutes from our house).  So much for the clear blue skies.

The total drive up to Paradise took about 2.5 hours (we didn’t stop heading up).  The boys were very good the whole way.  Once at Paradise we checked out the inn and the visitors center.  We couldn’t do much hiking on account there was still 13 feet of snow on the ground…yes, thirteen feet.  Plus it was raining off and on.  We could see about halfway up Rainier - the remainder was stuck in the clouds.  We had lunch at the visitors center and took in the views between rain showers.

The plan on the way down was to stop several times so I could photos.  There are several scenic viewpoints along the way of waterfalls, glaciers, rivers, and forest.  There is one longish turnout with dramatic views of the Nisqually River - while there we decided to change Nate’s diaper.  He had been fussy since we left Paradise.  He had some poops, but otherwise no big deal.  Then Steph changed Zach…OH MY GOD!  He had shit down in his socks and almost up too his neck - I kid you NOT.  Every piece of clothing he had on had crap on it.  Not only that, we got globs of poop smeared in the back of the van.  Change of clothes for Zach?  Nope, we didn’t bring any - didn’t really think he would need them.  So Zach rode the rest of the back in his diaper and baseball cap…and yes, a few blankets.

Bag of poop and clothes - yes, we tossed the clothes.

Post poop nap.

Zach and Nate fell asleep for a bit but not long enough.  For the last 90 minutes of our drive, Nate cried.  The whole time!  We’d give him toys, he would throw them.  We gave him his binky - he would throw it.  We gave him a water bottle to play with - yep, he threw it.  We gave him a bottle of formula - he drank it then threw it.  He just wasn’t going to be happy (at least until he got out of the car seat, ie, home).  Zach was good except he kept bugging Steph every few minutes - ‘Momma, momma, momma, I want another movie.’  ‘Momma, momma, momma, I’m hungry.’  ‘Momma, momma, momma, I want a book.’  Steph was going looney.  I found this all pretty comical (which is odd for me - I usually get stressed out).

Anyway, we are back from our little day trip…here are some more photos.

A stream.

Grove of trees in the middle of glacier runoff.

Nisqually River as seen from Poop Point!

Tiny waterfall.

Jagged peaks across from Mt Rainier.

Near the entrance of the park.

Yeah, I know, no pictures of Mt Rainier…that’s what happens when it rains.

Auntie Jan and Uncle Mike drove up from Eugene to hang with their nephews for the weekend.  We had a great time.  They arrived around 8:30pm on Friday night - much earlier than expected since they left work a little early and there wasn’t traffic.

On Saturday we took the ferry over to Vashon Island and headed to Point Robertson where we threw rocks in the water and picked up shells.  It was incredibly beautiful and clear during the day - we were able to see for miles north, south and east.  To add to the amazing views, there is also a lighthouse on the point.  We had lunch at Casa Bonita Mexican Restaurant in town and we ended the day chowing down on Paul’s chili and Mike’s cornbread.

On Sunday we went up to North Seattle to check out a Hawaiian store for Mike.  After that we spent the afternoon in a park in Wallingford.  Zach mixed up his time on the playground equipment, swings, and playing frisbee.

Today was a recovery day (yep, I had to recover from all of the drinkin we did).  The boys took long naps, we cleaned house, and did some shopping.  I took Zach to Lincoln Park - in addition to playing on the playground we went on a 30 minute walk through the park - he really enjoyed it (my little hiker).

Playing with rocks on Vashon Island

Auntie Jan and Uncle Mike hanging with Nate.

I can’t hear the ocean in this rock.

Looking out to the Olympics.

Climbing over driftwood.

Wildflowers.

More of the Olympics.

I like the swing.

No, I didn’t buy it.  I wish.  Here is the Amazon link to the lens.  Nope, my buddy Mike was over and he was ‘borrowing’ it for a bit from work.  So I took a few shots (wanted to take more but the wife was calling).  Here they are.

I was probably about 6 feet away…which is why it’s a tad blurry - that is the minimum focusing distance.

Two houses away - I love the telephoto effect - makes things look cool!

A great spy lens.  Yes Dominic, that is your room.

I hooked up with some work friend (Tom and Ron) for a 2 hour kayak outing this morning on Elliott Bay. We met at Alki at around 5:15am and we were on the water by 5:30am. We paddled around Duwamish Head past Seacrest Marina and Salty’s and came back around some barges. We didn’t see any seals or sea lions but we got up close to a few barges and otherwise had a great morning.

This was the second time I took out the inflatable kayak. Tom has an Eddyline and Ron has a Perception - so I was definitely the slow one in the group. So what do I think of the new inflatable?

• Easy to transport and setup. I’m ready to be in the water in about 15 minutes - not bad.
• Very, very stable. This has to be the most stable kayak I’ve ever paddled.
• Fairly comfortable, however it is a little tight in the foot well.
• Not quick but definitely not a slow poke either. I didn’t cause too much angst amoung my fellow paddlers. In fact, I think they enjoyed the breaks they got as I caught up.
• This time I didn’t pack it back into the bag afterwards. Instead I washed the kayak off at home and it’s on our front deck drying off. I need to keep it from smelling (thanks for the tip Jeff).
• I need to get a few things: paddle leash, bilge pump, paddle float, rope, better footwear, and some other clothing.

And for some photos…

Sunrise looking out toward the Space Needle.

Not lager?!?

Tom taking photos and trying not to fall over.

Ron heading for the mountains.

Update:  Picture of Ron and Paul taken by Tom…

We spent this last weekend down in Eugene with Jan and Mike.  It was a terrific weekend and the boys were awesome!  We left Friday evening just before 7pm…yep, 7pm.  Basically I wanted to wait until traffic died off so we could sail through Tacoma and Olympia.  While we didn’t sail through Fort Lewis area, traffic was much more bearable then it would have been had we left at 3pm or 4pm.  We drove straight thru to Eugene - yes, we actually drove nonstop for 4.5 hours with a 2 year old and an 8 month old.  Pretty Impressive.  Nate slept for 90% of the trip and Zach spent time looking out the window, sleeping, and watching a movie.

We started Saturday off by going to Bounce Gymnastics - a padded gymnastics studio that is open for 90 minutes for kids 6 and under.  Just imagine Zach jumping up and down on trampolines for 30 minutes straight.  We followed that up with Mike’s favorite part of the weekend - a trip to Chuck E Cheese.  We couldn’t hold Mike back…it was the highlight of the weekend for him.  Zach was good if you didn’t try to control him!

Then we came home and crashed.  I got caught up on all of my violent movie watching.  First we watched No Country for Old Men, followed by a 2 movies series by Quentin Tarantino - Planet Terror and Death Proof.  I must admit these were pretty cool and funny movies - but if you don’t like over the top violence these are not the movies for you.

This morning we took the boys to Skinner Butte Park and Zach spent his time on the slide and Nate split his time between the stroller and swing.  We left Eugene after the boys ate lunch (around 12:15) and we got home around 5:15 (1 stop).  We saw a nasty accident caused by the freakish snow we’ve been getting up here.  Based on what I read on the blogs, it looked like it snowed some more on Saturday in West Seattle.  It snowed in Eugene Friday night and parts of Saturday…not much really sticking.

On the running front, I have run 60 miles in March…my new monthly record.  My previous record was only 50 miles in one month.  I also saw an Orca pod about 50 yards offshore at Lincoln Park this evening…pretty cool way to end the weekend before heading back to work.  And now for some photos.

Hangin at Bounce Gymnastics

Mike, in the zone, at Chuck E Cheese

Goin down the really big slide.

Mom making sure Zach doesn’t go swimming.

Spring!

…Big Red Car…Yes, we saw the Wiggles on Friday night. Nate stayed with a baby sitter and we took Zach to his first concert at the Tacoma Dome. The performance lasted about an hour and 20 minutes and Zach loved it. He was definitely into the songs he knew but was not overly enthusiastic about the other songs.

When the Wiggles performed a familiar song, Zach would sing, dance, wiggle, and do everything he is supposed to do. As for mom and dad, we loved seeing Zach jumping around. As we walked out of the Tacoma Dome after the show, Zach was continually saying ‘Bye Wiggles’ or ‘Bye Wags the Down’ or ‘Bye Henry the Octopus’ for the better part of 5 minutes.

Yesterday was a beautiful Seattle spring day. We had our concrete poured for our spa - so the area is ready for the tub. We took the boys out to a friends place in Sammamish whose neighbors have miniature horses, sheep, baby lambs, chicks, ducks, and a dog! Zach loved it. He got to run around in the large open spaces, feed the animals, and pet the animals. The sheep were bahhing, the lambs were bahhing, the chicks were chirping, and the ducks were quacking - the animals obviously loved the nice spring day as well.

I picked up my next pair of running shoes yesterday.  I still believe that Road Runner Sports is one of the best places to buy shoes.  They have a pad that you walk on to register your pressure points and they video record you running on a treadmill - both of which help put in the correct shoe.  I put 319.27 miles on my last pair of Brooks Adrenaline ASR 4.  Yesterday I bought Brooks Infiniti - I did my 4.6 mile run today and they seem solid.

Today is a typical Seattle rainy spring day. Oh well, good day to do blogging, photos, videos, and reading. Oh, Happy Easter. We did do an easter egg hunt with Zach this morning - he had a blast. Actually, Zach has been in an awesome mood all day…now he’s napping.

Ducks on Pine Lake.

Nate studying the birds on the lake.

Happy Zach! It’s tough to get a smiling photo where Zach is looking at the camera - he moves to quick.

Checking out Pine Lake.

Feeding the sheep.

We’ve been up here almost 2 years and we had yet to spend any time in Tacoma.  So yesterday we took a drive down to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium on the northern point of Tacoma.  The grounds at the zoo are beautiful - they’ve done an excellent job at making it feel like a natural park.  Many of the plants and trees are labeled so you know what type of species it is.  It is a unique place since it has both zoo animals (ie, elephants, tigers, wolves, etc) and an aquarium with sharks, seahorses, beluga whales, and walruses.

Fortunately it is not very big so it makes it easy when you are lugging a couple of kids with you.  Oh wait, this is for them, but we are still lugging them.  We were only there about 90 minutes - we had to go get lunch since we got a late start.  We doubled back on North Ruskin Way and ate at Ram Brewery along Commencement Bay.

After lunch we shot up to the Point Defiance ferry dock but it was still over an hour from leaving.  So we drove across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (first time on it - famous for falling down in a windstorm in the mid 20th century), up the Kitsap peninsula and took the Southworth/Vashon ferry back home - this one drops off about a mile from home.

This morning I took Zach down to Seacrest Park so he could ride his trike.  We also spent some time on the small pier there and had breakfast at Skylarks.  Here are a few photos.

Zach loved the peacocks.  Sophie would be jealous.

Yeah, I’m a little freaked watching these guys after what happened at the SF Zoo.  They seem so peaceful and cute.

Looking east toward West Seattle from Vashon Island ferry.

Nate’s first ferry ride.  What a ham!

Zach doesn’t like photos - so just getting this pose was lucky.  He was actually having fun…really.

A little late…well, we were sick, busy, and unable to get photos up.

Boeing DreamLifter taking off.  This beast is used to fly 787 fuselage pieces to Everett where they are assembling the 787.

A WWII Corsair at the Museum of Flight (handheld with canon 17-55 f/2.8 IS lens).

Zach and Auntie Jan at the zoo.

I really do like to swing.  But this was my first time so I’m a little freaked out.

Dad taking photos from the top of Crystal Ski Area.

Some giraffes at the zoo.

After several beers last night I woke up in a haze this morning. Today we hit some closer sites. We spent about an hour at each of the following:

St Patricks Cathedral - your basic European cathedral. Very beautiful inside (and out if it wasn’t plastered with scaffolding) and amazing stained glass windows. It is setup with informative displays about the history of the church and Dublin.

Christ Church Cathedral - this is the oldest building in Dublin dating back to the 11th century. They provided an excellent pamphlet explaining everything you needed to know about the church. It contains a crypt which was probably one of the coolest areas we’ve seen.

Dublin Castle - very odd place. It’s a mish-mash of architectural styles and materials caused by fires in different parts requiring rebuilds. They did excavate a section around one of the original towers where the moat existed. You can still see the water flowing underground and the original outside of the tower - very cool.

That’s it! We are done. Very, very tired. Right now we are hanging out in the hotel lobby (needed a change of scenery from the room) doing the internet thing. I went ahead and converted a bunch of photos (from raw to jpg) and I am in the process of uploading some photos now so I can post on the blog - stay tuned (obviously the photos are showing up).

Back to being tired - haven’t had a good night sleep yet. I’ve been getting around to 5 to 6 hours per night - could it be the Guinness? Not sure but the hotel is quiet and comfortable so it is not a problem there. I feel it catching up with me now so I’ll probably sleep well tonight.

Street in Dublin - going to work.

Christ Church Cathedral

The River Liffey.

The Brazen Head.

Smitty the Cat (he killed mice and when he died the workers had him stuffed) at Jameson Distillery.

I forgot to mention that we did the tour at the original Jameson Distillery. Very lame tour. They miniature replicas of the equipment used in the process - it’s no longer a working distillery. It was basically an educational tour on how to make whiskey. The cool part came at the end - I was one of 6 people who volunteered for a whisky tasting (3 Irish, 1 Scotch, 1 American). Definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip considering I’m a huge fan of Irish whisky - not so much of Scotch or American whisky.

St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Crypt at Christ Church Cathedral.

Goofy colors on Dublin Castle!

Go here to see all of the Ireland photos.

A bit of a cool breeze  blowing out at Alki Point

Both of these were mucked around with in Aperture.

Since I’m not working between Christmas and New Years, I actually have time to update the blog. 

Sunset just south of Alki Point.

Another shot…notice the water is blurred a bit.  These were taken with no tripod (trying out my IS lens).

From Highland Viewpoint.

We are supposed to get snow tomorrow…hopefully I’ll get some good pictures.

On Saturday we did some trick or treating in Alaska Junction (downtown West Seattle). Zach and Nate were both looking good, even though Nater only had the hat on for his costume.  We walked around to the local businesses getting candy.  It started out good but got fairly crowded as the afternoon went on.  We made a quick exit and headed home.

Before I get to the photos, a little update. Last week was a nasty week at work. I was busy every day with some fairly involved things. Steph had her first week back and that went fairly normal for her. Otherwise not much new to report

From L to R, Matthew, Dominic, Drew, Jacob, and Zach (he’s so cute)

The family including our little lobster head.

That sure is a bright flash! Getting ready for school.

What a cool ride man!

PEPS on Wednesday will be at our house. We are all meeting here a little early then heading out trick or treating. Unfortunately we only have one little pumpkin - sad, I know. But we have plenty of candy unfortunately.