[7.0] Family Encounters: Part I

Sorry about the hiatus from the blog for the past several weeks. I've been traveling quite a bit and Lisa has been too busy watching Fozzie--and, I suspect, trying to turn him against me--to post. Over the past three weeks, I've only spent about four or five days at home, with trips to Mexico and China for work and few days in Oregon to celebrate Thanksgiving with a good chunk of Lisa's family--more on this later.

So I guess first of all, I still owe you a few paragraphs on my parents' visit to Seattle. After all, it's been almost two months since they were here. The first thing of note about my parents' visit was the weather. It was the worst stretch we've had since we arrived here and we saw nothing but rain for the four days that my parents were here. This led to a never ending stream of sarcasm from my dad about the loose definition of "70s and Sunny" in Seattle.

The parents spent four days here and we kept them busy for most of that time. We took them on the 10-cent tour of the city on the first day where they got to see Pike Place market, the waterfront, and the downtown area. We went up in the space needle (my first time as well), but a storm passed through while we were up there, resulting in less-than-spectacular views. Luckily, they have a full panoramic photo so that you can see what is actually out there when the weather is clear.

Saturday was the highlight of the weekend as we headed east over the Cascade mountains to a small mountain town called Leavenworth. They have an Oktoberfest celebration every year here for each of the first three weekends of October. It took a bit longer to drive up than I anticipated and thus we missed the ceremonial keg tapping which is conducted at 1PM each Saturday during Oktoberfest by the Mayor of Leavenworth. The town was hopping with tons of folks enjoying the local shops, restaurants, and yes, beer gardens. We're already planning for next year and looking to get a room so that we can celebrate and not have to worry about the two hour drive home after hoisting a few steins.

Sunday we saw the Gold Rush Museum, which was quite interesting and told the history of the gold rush in Alaska and the role that Seattle played as an outpost for the throngs of speculators that headed North in search of riches. One point of note is that one of the few people to actually make a small fortune and hold onto it during the Yukon gold rush was John Nordstrom. He used his claim money to start a shoe store in Seattle. I think by the last name you can tell what happened next. Lisa and I then put my parents on the Underground Tour, which we had already done (see this post to read about our tour of the underground) and decided to have a drink while we waited.

Monday we decided to drive up to Everett and take the tour of the Boeing jumbo jet plant up there. The assembly plant is 472 MM cubic feet, making it the biggest building in terms of volume. Each door to the plant, there are six, is the size of a football field...that's pretty big. They assemble only wide bodies there so there were several 747s (still the largest passenger plane from Boeing) on the plant floor in various stages of completion. Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures inside the plant, so I lifted one from the website. If you get out this way, I would recommend a trip up there. It's quite impressive.

I think we tired my folks out, keeping them on the run for most of the weekend. I just hope that they were tired enough that they fell asleep on the plane just before their departure and thus could not see the glorious weather that came in just as they were leaving and which stayed the rest of that week.

[6.4] Yup, These Are My Neighbors

Lisa and I were able to experience our first real festival in our Fremont neighborhood on October 31. If you've been following the blog, you've seen pictures of the Troll under the bridge that brings a bit of fame to our little corner of the world. Well, apparently every year on Halloween, or Trolloween as it's called around here, a group of folks have a big event to bring the Troll to life (and no, B, that's not a sexual metaphor). Well we had no idea what to expect, light-hearted party or full-blown voodoo ceremony. As it turned out, it was a bit of both.

Lisa and I headed down there that evening and were surprised that the police had blocked off the street. Apparently this might be more than a few zealots chanting at the Troll. As we neared, we saw a crowd of people, maybe around 500 or so, encircling a stage that was set up in the street, in front of the Troll. About half of the folks there wore some kind of costume, which Lisa and I had forgone. The "show" had already begun. We staked out our spot up on the hill where the Troll makes its home, throwing caution to the wind and counting on one of two things, either a) the Troll was not coming to life, or b) if he did come to life, he was a kind and benevolent Troll.

The show consisted of several warmup acts such as a fire eater, sword swallower, fire twirler, and two really poor singers. Lisa was ready to go, not really being entertained, or more to the point, not having enough alcohol in her system to appreciate the goings on. After the acts finished, we heard loud drums off in the distance--down the street. The crowd around the stage parted and a parade of drummers and dancers emerged, all clad in tight black body suits painted with skeletons. It reminded me a bit of the scene in King Kong where the natives call Kong with their sacrifice of the young blond. This was entertaining, but alas, failed to bring the Troll to life.

After the ceremony, the drummers and dancers led the parade of revelers from the Troll, down 36th street, and into the center of Fremont for more revelry. As we checked out the folks in the parade, I was a bit disappointed by the costumes. The creativity was nowhere near the level that you see in the Halloween parade in the Village in NYC. There were a couple of people that put serious work into their costumes, but they are tough to describe, like the guy who wore a "V for Vendetta" mask with an afro and a smoking jacket. Next year this will take place on Friday night, and we promised ourselves that we would take part in the festivities by dressing up and by having a few drinks before the show.

[6.3] Back East, Again

Good day, loyal blog-ites. I first have to apologize for the sparse frequency of posts recently. We've been quite busy. However, while this has meant a gap in posts, it also means the posts should be coming fast and furious for the next few days since we've got so much to clue you all into. When we last left our heroes, Lisa and Dave were awaiting the Vlady-parents. After a few fun-filled days with them, there was a treasure trove of blog material. However, I'm going to hold off on that post until I get the pictures from Mom. After the parental visit, we headed back east for a wedding, which is documented below. Future posts will also include Trolloween, the comedy club, and our "meet the neighbors gathering", so watch this space as I hope to cover all this material before spending a week in Mexico starting on the 12 Nov for work.

Anyway, back to the wedding weekend. Lisa and I made a whirlwind trip to York, PA. We flew in late Friday night to Harrisburg and headed back out Sunday after the wedding. Mark, Lisa's friend from her east coast ski club was to marry his sweetheart, Lucy. We were, according to the invite, supposed to witness "rock and roll history as Mark and Lucy swap spit for the first time as husband and wife."

But before the wedding itself we have cover the locale, York, PA. I learned that York served as our nation's capital (actually, I might have known that once back in 7th grade Social Studies but hey, c'mon, that was 25 years ago). We stayed in a great old hotel on a main drag in downtown York and got to walk around a bit on Saturday before the wedding. Lisa went to get her nails done and I walked out to meet her. Well, about half way through my walk I met Evangelist Bill, as I call him. He shook my hand, and proceeded to shake my hand while walking for two city blocks. In that time he also asked me if I was prepared for the afterlife, said a prayer with me, and made me promise to recruit servants from the west coast to work for the Holy Spirit. I'm working on it, Bill. So far I've recruited our two cats and the afternoon barrista at Lighthouse Coffee Roasters around the corner.

Two other notable things about downtown York. There are posted signs that say "No Cruising -- You will be ticketed if you pass this sign more than twice between the hours of 8PM and 3AM." You know you live in a pretty boring town if there's a "no cruising" sign. And then we walked into a Rite Aid to pick up a few things and saw one of the most disturbing things ever. The video below is pretty raw since it was taken with my phone, but take my word for it, I'm not voting for Hillary if her election means more of these on the market. I've not been this freaked out since the first Chucky movie.

Anyway, on to the wedding. It was held at the Valencia Ballroom, which was pretty cool in itself. It was where the big bands used to play back in the 1920s -1940s. We knew it would be a slightly different affair when the string quartet played "White Wedding" by Billy Idol among its classical pieces pre-ceremony. Lucy and Mark swapped spit, with a little "ass grab" by Mark for good measure. The wedding party was introduced and each entered the ballroom to their individual songs. Rock on. After we got the DJ to play a string of danceable 80s stuff and disco, we wore the varnish off the floor.

We didn't know that many folks at the wedding, outside of the other ski club representative, Bruce, with his wife Mara. Mark and Lucy represented the third ski club wedding in less than a year, following Bruce and Mara in December and Lisa and myself in May.

So a great time was had by all and we end with congratulations to Mark and Lucy as they head off to Tahiti to start a great life together.

[6.2] The PGA We Ain't

Just a quick post today as Lisa and I are heading back to the east coast for Mark and Lucy's wedding in York, PA. Thus you'll all have to wait for the much anticipated description of my parents' visit this past weekend. For now, just a couple of quick tidbits on my trip to Myrtle Beach with the boys. This is primarily for Scott, who used his move to Phoenix as an excuse to bail on this year's trip. If Alan had his way, we'd have sent Scott text messages constantly throughout the weekend telling him what a good time we were having.

Thanks to Mike for finding us another great house right on the beach (photo to the right is of the sunrise from our deck overlooking the dunes)

Congrats to Alex for putting together three great rounds of golf and not giving anyone else a chance at individual honors


Congrats to all of us who played three days of football on the beach, before and after golf, and managed to avoid any hospital visits

Earle continued his long history of really random injuries by ripping the skin off of the bottom of both big toes


"Old School" play once again rules at the pong table...although any play by a bunch of guys approaching 40 has got to be considered old school


Kudos to Tommy for only two club throws in four days---and for getting out of this mess


Honors to JJ for worst travel experience by being stuck at Newark for 6 hours waiting for his flight to Myrtle to leave

And thanks to my team for putting the team competition pretty much out of reach on day 2



See you guys next year in Ireland...

[6.1] East Coast Update

Hey, all. Apologies for the delay and lack of posts for the last two weeks, but East Coast things were afoot. We've got lots to catch up on including our weekend in NJ, my trip to Myrtle Beach, and my parents visit to Seattle so we'll take this in manageable chunks. We flew into Newark on Friday and after dropping off our things at my parents house, we headed into Hoboken for dinner with the gang. Some highlights of the dinner:

• Watching the bug-filled Yankees/Cleveland game while waiting for our table
• Finally meeting Jack's new girlfriend, the lovely Monica
• Preparing Monica for her introductory meeting with Jack's parents that Wednesday
• Getting our Hoboken updates
• Sharing stories of Earle and Kelli's visit to Seattle
• Hearing about Tommy's escapades of that day (his "luncheon" for work caused him to show up late for our 8:30PM dinner reservation as there was some Patron involved)
• The always excellent fare at City Bistro

And what trip back to Hoboken would be complete without an after dinner drink or two at Ted n' Jo's?

The next day was Auntie's surprise party, which was the premise for our trip to NJ. She was mostly shocked, but she was a bit tipped off to at least part of the surprise. Earlier in the morning, we were telling my eight-year-old niece, Hope, what to say when she called to wish Auntie a Happy Birthday. After all, Auntie did not know that the family was coming up from Virginia. We ran through several dry runs and reinforced to Hope that if Auntie asked where she was to tell her that she was at home. Well, apparently Hope drove that point home on the call, telling Auntie several times during the call that the whole family was at home in Virginia. Auntie was a bit suspicious. But even if she had some inkling that Brian, Jen, Hope, and Justi were coming from Virginia, she had no idea that Lisa and I were making the trip from Seattle.

The whole day was a blast, particularly having the time to spend with our two year-old nieces, Justi and Hailey. After the birthday lunch at Bella Notte we headed back to the parents' house for some more family time. Just look below to see how comfortable Lisa looks with Justi.