What a weekend!

While Geoff was rockin' out to Backspacer and helping to welcome our newest niece into the world, I was on the other side of the country in Miami spending time with my parents and sister.

To start the weekend off my Dad was able to snag some time with one of the flight instructors at PolarAir Cargo in a 747-400 simulator. The four of us and Bill (our flight instructor) spent two hours taking off and landing a plane out of SFO airport in all sorts of conditions. (Folks when its foggy in San Francisco, thank goodness for autopilot). Most amazing flight experience ever. It was so real feeling that I'm pretty sure my mom had miniature heart-attack when we stalled out on our first take-off. Wanna get freaked out? Experience the feeling and sound of a 800,000 pound aircraft stalling... yikes!

I was able to stick two landings (bad landings and not without taking out a couple of baggage handlers)! Kinda proud of myself. Thanks to Bill for all his time and to PolarAir Cargo for a little time in their $40 Million Simulator. It was amazing!

The next day we spent the morning by the pool and beach. Water on Miami beach is nice! We went up to the room for a little lunch and I tried to watch the Husky game. Tried was the main word... ESPN was broadcasting the Ducks game. Really, the Ducks? So, I watched the ducks game, but was really watching the ticker at the bottom of the screen for the updates and score. My dad and I were jumping and yelling everytime the ticker would show UW. Also Geoff was sending me minute by minute text updates. For those of you who have not been tuned into college football, UW (unranked) beat USC (ranked #3) 16-13. Luckily ABC switched to the UW game for the last 30 seconds so I got to see the sea of purple storm the field after the winning field goal. Seriously amazing! I hope you enjoyed being at the game Brad!

The rest of the time was walking around Miami Beach, eating out, having a few cocktails and enjoying the "scene". Really an interesting place, all that old time Art Deco architecture was amazing and the people are fun to watch! It was really wonderful to spend some time with the family in a nice relaxed setting. The only non-relaxing thing about the weekend was the 2:30am fire alarm at the hotel... seriously? Also, the fire department took at least 15 minutes to respond... a little scary.

Now I'm on my way home, literally. Wi-Fi on the airplane (free trial run). Makes the flight go by way faster. Now if only the power outlet worked.... stupid battery.

It was a great weekend, but I cannot wait to meet our new niece on Tuesday and join Geoff for some quality Pearl Jam this week.

Backspacer

Oh mailman,
Thank you for delivering Backspacer yesterday!

It rocks! Kind of sad that it's only 36 minutes, but at the same time, that's one of the things that makes it so good - precise and to the point. Oh yeah, and totally frickin' awesome! Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. I'll update when I've had some time to get into it and figure out what my favorite tracks are thus far (seriously, they're all good; and you KNOW I'm not biased!)...

Calm before the storm...

So it's quiet this week. Jaime's out of town on business. I don't have any grand plans. I'm rather enjoying it. But it won't last. It never does.

Friday night is the start of Oktoberfest in Fremont. Yummy.
Saturday night is the pre-release of Backspacer, for which I have been waiting months. I'll be down at Easy Street rocking out with all my Pearl Jam brethren.
SUNDAY - We will be welcoming our 3rd niece (Ryan and Michal's 2nd daughter) into the world! This will be a grand event. I'd also like to mention that Ryan and Michal are two for two - Pearl Jam's last album (Self Titled) was released - can you guess? Do you know Kendal's birthday? That's right - May 2nd, 2006! Sunday is the official release date of Backspacer. I will officially have two totally rockin' nieces! (and a niece and nephew in England whom I miss dearly!)
Oh, also, Jaime gets home from traveling.
Monday - Night 1 at Key Arena - Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 are opening. We're going to pre-funk with neighbors Chris and Yvonne.
Tuesday - Night 2 at the Key. Same plan, except this time we'll be prefunking with Regan and Lindsey!
Saturday - I'm driving to Portland to rock out some more. Josh has never seen Pearl Jam live. We're taking care of that!
Finally, on Tuesday the 29th, Jaime and I are going to see Wicked at the Paramount. Word on the street is it's pretty good. And afterall, she's endulging my musical love, so I can only return the favor. Should be a good time!
I think October starts after that...

***Oh, also - begin ranting now - Seriously, Seattle Public Schools? You're ACTUALLY considering lowering the graduation requirements? SERIOUSLY? A D average? I mean, I was never a perfect student, but come on, that's absolutely absurd! Where's the f*cking motivation for that?

Boys will be Boys!!!

So this past weekend I left Jaime at home and headed down to Sisters, Oregon with brother Ryan. I figured before he has his second daughter and finds himself with more important responsibilities, I better get one last weekend of (slight) debauchery in for him. Really, we just wanted to visit Dave and Regan and have a few beers at the Deschutes brewery. The weekend was a grand success. We arrived in Sisters Friday night after a 6 hour drive, met up with Dave and Regan (and daughter Colby) and had a nice dinner at Three Creeks brewing. This was followed by several games of poker back at Dave and Regs. The next morning, moving at a leisurely pace, we first made our way up to Three Creeks lake in the Sportwagen. After a hike around the lake, we headed back to meet up with Dave and after some impromptu irrigation work, we headed out for a hike on Tumalo mountain.

(The view of Three Creeks lake and the surrounding mountains)

The web page that I found the hike on had said that it was a 1.5 mile hike with a 1200' elevation gain, and that it was rated moderate to difficult. Doesn't sound too bad...
However - the start of the hike was at 6500', and it ended up being more like 2-2.5 miles, in loose sand (think of walking on the beach, except at a steep incline). Dave, the resident of Sisters at 3000' quickly took the lead. Ryan kept up. About halfway through, I was breathing heavily through my mouth, and fell back a bit. Everytime I thought I could see the top of the ridge, I'd round a corner, or come out of the trees and be sorely disappointed. That and whoever designed the trail apparently thought switchbacks are overrated. We go straight up, or we don't go up at all!

But I am no quitter! I managed to (mostly) keep pace, and we made it to the top. With a few minutes of catching my breath, now over 7700' above sea level, I had time to take in the view. Any lingering fatigue that I might have been feeling was quickly gone from my mind. We had a 360 degree view of the Central Oregon Cascades - Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, and Three Sisters. To the east was the flat lands and lava fields that comprise the geology of Eastern Oregon. It was simply stunning!

(South Sister, Middle Sister, and Broken Top; North Sister barely visible behind Middle Sister)

(Dave and Ryan toast a successful ascent)

After our descent, our reward for the evening was dinner/drinks at the Deschutes brewhouse in downtown Bend. I don't think a cheeseburger and a cold beer have EVER tasted so good! Another night of poker and good conversation followed. Waking Sunday morning, we packed our bags, hopped in the car, stopped for a quick breakfast, and were on our way back to Seattle via Santium pass (the Sportwagen is an awesome road trip car, btw!)

MAJOR thanks to Dave and Regan for hosting us! We had an awesome time! Hopefully we can come back soon. I know Jaime wants to visit!

The lingering summer...

I say it every time - Jaime and Geoff are busy people. Last weekend was the first weekend in at least a month and a half that we had some free time...
Apparently that didn't include time to update the blog, so I'm doing it now.

When we last left our adventurous, good looking couple, they were suffering through a record heat wave...

The weekend following the heat wave we packed the Sportwagen and ventured to Portland to spend a weekend wine tasting with Josh and Liisa. After cocktails and a dinner party with Jaime's coworkers at McCormick and Schmick on Friday night, we hit the road and were in Portland by 11:30pm. The next morning, we headed out to the wineries near Hood River. Jaime can fill you in on the discussions of yielding right of way and what defines "passing" and the reference to Neil Diamond...

(Geoff at Mt. Hood Winery)

Hood River is an awesome city. Unfortunately it was still in the 90s and it made it tough to transition from one place to another. After lunch at the Double Mountain brewery, we hit up several wineries in the area. A good time was had by all, and by 4pm, we were beat (and some of us maybe slightly buzzed). We ventured back to Portland via the Bridge of the Gods (made famous by The Amazing Race 13) and had some damn good Mexican food and more drinks.
Sunday we headed back for Seattle and the usual trying to get caught up on laundry/dishes. Thanks Josh and Liisa for hosting us! Come to Seattle soon!

The next weekend, we had several engagements. Friday night we celebrated Craig's birthday a day early at Feierabend, the local German pub. They have the best pretzels in the US! (I would say the world, but I've never had a fresh German pretzel) They also serve beer in liter glasses. On top of fresh pretzels and liter beers, Jenny and Kelly joined us for some great conversation. Saturday night, we hosted our neighbors Carter and Dan for our monthly neighbor dinner (Chris and Yvonne were busy). Thai food from Buddha Ruksa and some exceptional red wine! As dinner was finishing, we discovered Chris trying to break into his own home, having left his keys with Yvonne, whom was not yet home. We all met in the street, finished off the leftover Thai food, another bottle of wine, and a few more drinks with neighbor JD and Chris. Yvonne eventually showed and the impromptu party continued...
Sunday, we met up with Ryan and Michal and Kendal for the Big Al Brewing 1 year Anniversary. More beer! After parting with them, we spent the rest of the evening cleaning the house for our soon to arrive guests, Jaime's cousin Colin and friend Remy arriving from New York. Quickly brushing over the week, I can say they had a great time in Seattle seeing the sites, except that the ENTIRE time they were here, Mt. Rainier was obscured by clouds!

(Ryan and Kendal at Big Al Brewing)

Thursday night I met up with Kevin and a couple of his buddies for Kevin's bachelor party. We hit up Bob's Burgers and Brews and the Tulalip casino (where I ended up $20 on top after betting it all on black at the end of the night) before heading out to Brett's family's cabin on Whidbey Island sometime around midnight. After several hands of poker, I called it sometime around 3:30...

(Soon to be wed Kevin, sometime early in the morning)

Friday having made it home and taking a nice nap, Jaime and I headed up to Kevin's house for the rehearsal dinner. Param's family from Australia and Malaysia were in for the wedding, and her sister made some awesome Indian food...we had a great time continuing the party and Param has a wonderful family. Her parents were very gracious hosts! Plus we got to see Kevin in a traditional Indian wedding outfit...nice threads, Kevy!
Saturday was Dan's 30th Birthday party! Congrats, Dan! We had a good time at the Dunne house on Mercer Island and got some good time catching up with Courtney and Dan. Here are all the pictures. We still need to come visit you guys again in Bellingham! After watching Dan snuff out the forest fire that was his cake, we headed out for neighbor Chris's 40th birthday party. More food was ate, more drink was drunk and all had a great time. We finally called it sometime around 12:00.

(Someone put that fire out!)

Sunday Jaime was a rockstar and got up to go cheer Craig on in his half Ironman (go, Craig!!!) at Lake Stevens sometime early in the morning. I slowly awoke and got ready for Kevin and Param's wedding at the Columbia Club (I was a groomsman). What a grand time! The view was absolutely stunning! And Kevin and Param are perfect for each other (no cliches!) We're so proud of our little boy that he's all growed up now and married! All the pictures can be found here




Like I said - this past weekend was pretty much devoted to cleaning up around the house and completing much needed yard work. Enjoy the pictures from the new camera!

-Geoff

Hot, hot, hot!

Well, the temperature in Seattle will be/has been reaching record highs this week. They are expecting over 90 degrees for five or six days in a row this coming week. We are (Geoff - not really) staying cool by using a fan and not turning on the computer at home, so there won't be many blog updates.

Last night the coolest the house got was 81 degrees. Yikes. We'll keep you posted on the heat in the house as the week goes along.

Our basement is even starting to get warm. A couple degrees warmer down there and we might have to ask someone with A/C to hold onto our wine! (and Geoff's record collection, which has taken up temporary residence there)

Wish us luck (and cool weather).

Big Ole Update

(view from the top of Mt Diablo - Geoff and Jaime's Cali Trip)

So - let's just keep this messy and get things updated.
Did you know...

On June 27th, Jaime ran the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon. She finished in 2:29:00. I'm super proud of her!!! And she's super proud of herself for beating her goal of 2 and 1/2 hours! ROCK ON JAIME!!!! Also many thanks to Craig for the running plan and the moral support. Have I told everyone I think running is a tool of the devil?


4th of July weekend Jaime and I traveled to San Francisco to visit our respective families. We had a wonderful time in Sonoma wine tasting, had a great lunch with Uncle David and Aunt Elizabeth, and spent WAAAAAAY too much on good wine. We FINALLY got the chance to get Jaime out to the East Bay and traverse Mt. Diablo (there's a road all the way to the top). The rest of the weekend was spent back in the city at Pagra (Grandpa) Steve's house, and in Pacifica for the 4th at Uncle Jack and Aunt Cindy's house, where I got a chance to exercise my primal urges (alcohol and fire).


Jaime's uncle Jeff (on her dad's side) got a new puppy - a Tibetan terrier. Jaime took like 100 pictures of the dog. Here's one -



I have a (slightly) new job in Nordstrom IT. It's not really official, and I sure as heck didn't get a raise, but I will now be a member of the TSS (technology support services) Project team. It means less time answering phones for me (a good thing) and a chance to develop some more of my IT/Project Management skills (also a good thing). I'll let you know how things are working out for me in a couple of months...

Other than that, we're just trying to keep caught up on housework and gardening, and finish out the summer. Somewhere in the fall we're hoping to get out to London to visit Tina and Ryan. Oh yeah - Pearl Jam in playing the Key Arena September 21st and 22nd, and I got my Ten Club tickets. I LOVE MY WIFE because I was stuck in a meeting and she faithfully got onto their website and scored me the tickets. General on sale is this Saturday at 10am through Live Nation. Get some and I'll see you there!!!!!

Josh and Liisa - we'll see you in two weeks!