I was also impressed by the show that the Dems displayed on the last night of the convention.  Very gutsy, but cool, to hold the last night outdoors at Invesco Field.  That place was rockin.  The other aspect I enjoyed were the stories of everyday people and how their lives have negatively impacted by the last 8 years of crap.  I particularly liked a gentleman named Barney Smith who said that we want a government that supports Barney Smith, not a government that supports Smith Barney.

In any case, I’m pretty jazzed about this election.  I’ve been saying over the last month or two that Mccain has no chance against Obama - no matter what the polls say.  Obama can inspire like no other…Mccain is old, rickety, boring, and lifeless showing no inspiration.

FYI, I was actually a Hillary supporter, although, I’ve always felt that the Dems had two very strong candidates with Hillary and Barack…and I would easily support either one.  Tonight’s speech has definitely impressed upon me that Barack is ready.

Lin came up for the weekend so the boys got a healthy dose of grandma.  Overall we had a mellow weekend enjoying the very warm (around 90 during the late afternoon and upper 60s at night) weather.  I missed the lightning last night so I’m hoping we get another round of thunderstorms tonight.

As I mentioned before the kitchen is done.  Here are two pictures.

We are waiting for the hardware for the doors and drawers.  Plus we still need to paint.  Otherwise, everything works exactly as expected.

Nate on the swing after his 2 hour nap.

A (dead) dragonfly…he never moved so I believe he had just croaked.

Bees on lavendar.

After our shopping we headed downtown and had drinks at Cellars Restaurant - very nice bar with a very friendly bartender.  We spent about 90 minutes there and had a very enjoyable time.  Next we went over to Brasa to meet up with some friends for dinner.  We had a drink in the bar and then sat down at our table.  The restaurant was not very crowded, relatively quiet, but there was music playing throughout.  The table to my left had a young, quiet couple - never saw them talk to each other - so either fighting, eavesdropping or both.

Anyway, we haven’t spent much time recently with John and Kim (who have similar aged kids to Nate and Zach) so we had lots of catching up to do.  Being parents, we naturally talked about our kids quite a bit and their antics and funny stories.  Eventually, Steph and I were going through our Where’s The Poop story (see further down in blog) and I was in the middle of describing how I found Zach standing upstairs naked with a poopy diaper in one hand - when the guy in the table next to me interrupted the story.  He explained, in so many words, that our discussion was repulsive and inappropriate since he was trying to eat his dinner.  He explained that us talking about poop while he was eating was not acceptable and asked that we change the subject.

Ouch!  Flashback to my comment earlier - he and his significant other were quiet - either fighting, eavesdropping, or both.  I think we know the answer…clearly it was both.  Unfortunately, I was speechless…I couldn’t finish the story since I didn’t know how without using the word poop.  Maybe, if I said ’shit’ that would have made it alright.

So we continue along our merry way with different conversation (not about poop)…the whole time we kept dropping unapproving glances their way.  Anyway, they finally left and went into the bar area.  Now for the other shoe to drop.

The hostess, in a not so professional tone, stopped by our table to explain that our conversation was inappropriate and multiple tables had complained.  WHAT!  Multiple tables!  We were asked to quiet down and change the subject.  Also, you could tell she did not personally approve of the topic - which was mostly about our kids…not necessarily about poop.  Once the shock and absurdity wore off, we felt kind of proud.  It’s been awhile since we’ve annoyed such a large group at a restaurant (think back to nights at Spat’s in Berkeley during Steph’s law school days).  Since the hostess was absolutely rude about it, we felt challenged to push the limit.

Actually, we basically ended up talking about which tables could have possibly been annoyed by us.  BTW, there was a couple behind us with a screaming kid who was much louder (definitely making it tough for us to hear each other)…I wonder if they got shooshed?   Supposedly, a couple had sat at the table to my right (never saw them sit there - neither did Kim) and they eventually moved away…so I assumed they complained.

Shoe number 3 is about to drop.  Next the manager comes over to talk to us.  Un-F*ck-ing believable…I swear we were not loud and at this point all we were discussing was how crappy this place was.  The manager was much more professional, explaining that some patrons were complaining about conversation and how loud we were.  We asked that she reseat us in a more appropriate place…even the bar area would be fine.  She agreed to reseat us after we finished our appertizers which had just arrived.

We completed our appertizers and they moved us into the completely empty bar area…yes, a nice restaurant in belltown has a completely empty bar at 9pm on Saturday night…that should tell you something about this place!  We asked if we could be loud and obnoxious and they said ‘yes’…we had clearance to discuss poop all we wanted in the bar area.  The irritated hostess stopped by to see how we were doing.  So we asked who complained…she said 4 different tables filed complaints and she was personally offended.  Oh My God!  Amazing.  All this because we told some kid stories in normal voices and they contained the word poop.

Anyway, we finished off our meal, dessert, and coffee in the bar area.  I do want to point out that our server was awesome!  She never complained, she was always professional, always had a smile, and eventually shared her kid’s poop story with us.  She got a good tip.

It goes without saying that we will never go back to Brasa again.  If you can’t have normal conversation in a normal volume level - than what’s the point…unless you are fighting and/or eavesdropping.  We definitely give this place a thumbs down on service and atmosphere.  Food was hit and miss.  Some plates were very good, like the Paella, others like the pappardelle were not very inspiring - in fact, John didn’t finish it.

We got our menus and I noticed that the kids menu didn’t have much in the way of breakfast food…and no where was there listed any fruit. Ok, so not overly friendly for my kids. Anyway, I digress. I ordered Zach PB&J sandwiches (they cut them up into slices) and I ordered french toast with a side of bacon and coffee. BTW, they had no crayons (rare to not have crayons at a restaurant that seems to be for families)…they didn’t have children friendly cups either but our waitress improvised and provided apple juice in a coffee-to-go cup.

After ordering one other gentleman showed up and was seated near us and he eventually ordered. After no more than 10 minutes, Zach received his PB&J. I continued to wait for mine. BTW, I never asked to bring Zach’s food early. 5 minutes went by and the gentleman who showed up after we ordered received his meal. After another 5 minutes (10 minutes since Zach received his food) Zach was finishing up his meal and getting ancy and I had yet to receive my food.

I called over the waitress and asked for my food to go and explained that she gave us Zach’s food much too soon. Now that he has finished, I won’t be able to peacefully eat my food with him running around. She proceeded to get my food to go and check…albeit at a leisurely pace. She comped my french toast (which wasn’t very good to begin with - not sure the batter was completely cooked). We left and returned home where I ate my breakfast.

Today we were all tired or hung over (Jan).  We spent the morning eating Mike’s southwestern egg, sausage, and tortilla bake.  It was awesome!  The drive home was uneventful…I fortunately did not have to make any bathroom stops and the boys allowed us to drive nonstop.  We would have made record time if it wasn’t for the horrible traffic from Olympia through Fort Lewis and again in Tacoma.  Now we are home for another week of kitchen upgrades.

Nate making some burritos.

This is the RC Jeep we picked up at ToysRUs

Nate hanging in the yard.

Zach getting airborn on the neighbors trampoline.

Well, since our kitchen is out of commission, we travelled down to Eugene for the weekend to hang with Auntie Jan and Uncle Mike (Jeep). We arrived just after 6pm last night and spent the evening drinking rum…at least Mike, Jan and I. Steph had vino. This morning, everyone except Nate, was up by 6:45am. Yes, even Jan was up!

Mike promptly removed the soft top from the Jeep so we could drive around and enjoy the sun. The trip was to the coffee shop and butcher. Zach loved being in the Jeep. Second trip was to ToysRUs for the following cool toys:

• A rocket…Yes, a real rocket with a large explosive in it. We have yet to fire it.
• A remote controlled jeep
• 3 styrofoam gliding planes
• An Elmo remote control
• A handprint keepsake (don’t ask)

We had lunch at Mcmennamins North Bank - lousy service and OK food but you get to sit along the river. After words we went to the park where Steph and Jan rode the teater totter, Zach ran around on the jungle gym, and Nate sat in the swing. Mike and I launched glider #1 - we are now expert pilots after flying the original glider in the 50mph winds of Lake Chelan. Back to the house and we played with the RC Jeep and then everyone had nappy time.

Zach playing with water at the park.

Nate starting to melt down in Jan’s lap.

Mike watching the glider return to him in a loop d loop.

Steph stepped off the teeter totter and let Jan crash to the ground.

A quick kitchen update…base cabinets are in, canned lights are wired, and all other wiring is run.

Upper cabinets and tools being stored in our dining room.

Base cabinets.

They are making good progress - even a little ahead of schedule…so they should definitely make the scheduled completion date of August 7th.

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.

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).