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!

Oh, hey, it's a blog!

Updates soon, I promise. Jaime and I have been buuuussssssssssssssssy!

Brewfest 09

A bit late, but that's ok. On Saturday, Jaime was kind enough to play DD for brother Ryan and I at the annual Washington Brewers Festival. The weather was perfect, it wasn't too crowded, and we were surrounded by (99%) great beer! I'd love to say what my favorite was...but honestly I don't remember.

Where else will you see grown men with tiny little glasses and their pinky fingers sticking out?

This cool doggie's gone to heaven...

It is with a VERY heavy heart that I have to share the news that our dog, Chance, passed away Saturday night...

He was very lucky when we found him, we weren't really looking for a dog at the time, as we had recently lost a pup to a car. But I was insistent (and 14) at the time, and my parents cautiously agreed. We found him at a boarder's house. He had been returned to his breeder by the family that bought him as a puppy when they discovered Brittany pups are bundles of energy and maybe don't compete well with young babies. He was around 1 when we got him in the early spring of '95. They had given him the ubiquitous name "Buddy." We worked hard to change that, and soon he was "Chance." He also took on a habit of hauling around an old blanket that we had given him. Over the years, he went through several, ripping them up, burying them, and generally wearing them out.

(Chance with his first "biddy")

Chance only ever really aged in the fact that the hair on his face turned gray. He was definitely slower in old age, but he never lost his youthful look. As my sister said - "It looked like he ran into a wall with his nose when he was young!" (As a compliment, of course).

(Chance with Jake at the cabin, Aug. '08)

He was always friendly, and will be greatly missed...

All Kinds of Awesome!

North Carolina State student accused of creating a monster...