Seattle Cask Beer Festival

I am finally feeling fully recovered (near-enough) from my bout with pneumonia. This is good, as I was able to have a great time at Saturday's Washington Cask Beer Festival at Seattle Center with my golf/drinking team and Angie and Zen, our two designated drivers. I witnessed a huge field (auditorium?) of great beer, pouring freely (after admission), all cask-conditioned, which is by far my favorite, regardless of type of Stout, IPA, ESB, Pale Ale, or any other categorization the brewer wants to claim. Surprisingly, not much in the way of food or water/non-alcoholic drinks to keep the imbibers rational and the DDs entertained. John pointed out there were many truly magnificent bellies there, probably some $20,000 ones, considering the quality of beer that went into building them.

Post-fest, we went for food and still more cask-conditioned beer (a large and unneeded pint for me)at Brouwers Cafe in Fremont, where there was random punching, arm-wrestling and general silliness. This was followed with a trip across the street to the Theo Chocolate factory, where they very nicely did not throw us out as we stayed past their closing time, eating their samples and not buying anything.

Game Day.

Andrew, AndrewF, and Matias came over for a bout of various games Friday. We started with Hearts, then tried some crazy card game of Matias's. (Must get the name.)
Then we switched to ApplesToApples and Scattergories, then drove AndrewF home before his 6:00 deadline. Andrew and Matias came back with me, and we played two quick games of Settlers of Catan, then watched the sad end of the Kansas basketball game. (Ahead by 15, they lose by 5!)

Between games of Settlers, AndrewF called to say he could see us from his house. In the ensuing flashing-light and laser-waving chaos, the cinnamon dessert pizza was neglected and burned - especially sad for Andrew since his sausage-pepperoni half of the pizza accidentally had onions all over it.

I drove back to Seattle after dropping Andrew and Matias off, to rest and prepare for Saturday's beerfest.

Watchmen

Went to Watchmen with Andrew and Matias yesterday. I liked it, but it would have been easier to see if shorter and with some implied, not actual, violence. Except that would have been compromising, and Rorschach doesn't.

Matias then got to experience the wonder that is Gogos Mongolian Grill. Yum.

Pre-Season track meet.

Andrew took third in the 400m in tonight's track meet. Official time: 55.02. His 4x400m relay lost - they went from way ahead to just losing after their third runner (Caesar!) really struggled. He had already run the 1500m and just finished the 3000m, so maybe having him in the 4x400m wasn't such a good idea. I remember Caesar running it fine in last year's meets - it could just be that it's still early in the season.

After the game Andrew and I went to Gogos for dinner, where we both stuffed ourselves silly since it was nearly 8:00 and we hadn't had food for awhile.

Time Trials

Time trials for track have been going on at Southridge for the last week. Andrew got 8th in the 100m, not his best event, especially in the cold rain, and certainly not bad for a sophomore. He got 4th in the 400m with a time of 55 seconds, and so tonight he runs the 400m and 4x400m relay for varsity at their pre-season home meet against Gresham. He's nervous the coach will throw him in the 800m run at some point this season - a grueling event, but one he's very good at.

In other big, huge Andrew news: he did not set the curve in AP American History, he broke it! That means his score was so high his teacher opted to NOT use it as the high end of the curve. I'm a proud poppa!

Also still a sick poppa. Lungs are better (yay for lungs not heavy with crud! A vast improvement!), but random exhaustion and now a sore throat still plague me.

Soccer! Breakfast! Upcoming Track!

Saturday's soccer game was underwater, as the rain just kept coming down harder. The ball was squirting away and squelching off of feet in random directions. No one could score and so it drowned down to a 0-0 tie.
This morning's game started out wet, but the Xtreme scored twice quickly, the sun came out, and they scored again to win 3-0. Mali played great at defense both games, and ended today's having fun at forward in the sunshine.

Andrew and I had a nice breakfast this morning before the game at Banning's Pie House. He's not really looking forward to a rainy week - 400m time trials are Monday, and the first track meet is Wednesday. Hopefully today's sunshine will keep going for awhile.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccckkkkkkk

I am still sick! It comes and goes and comes again. I went to the doctor and now am armed with antibiotics, so hopefully soon my lungs won't be heavy with crud.

Mali is sick. I am sick.

Illness is everywhere. Mali isn't even talking to me, but we're sharing a nasty virus. My symptoms include: Lungs full of junk, fever, sore throat, swollen glands, and a nasty, painful cough.
Mali missed school on Friday.

Another Xtreme Victory

Mali's team won their third game in a row last Saturday, this time only 1-0 from an early free kick from Amanda. Mali played great again - she is really figuring this soccer stuff out.
Here are a pair of pictures showing a very poised Mali delivering a great header.

Catch up

I finally got back in to my Flickr account! So I'm catching up on photos.

Andrew did well at the Metro District Swim Meet, moving from 6th to 5th in the backstroke. He was happy with his time, and also with his green ribbon (though it's hard to tell as he holds it like a dead fish.)


Mali has been playing great soccer, as has her entire team. They are now 3-0. The photo below is from their second game, which the won 2-0.

News: Eagle vs. Traffic

Traffic was unreasonably slow approaching the 520 bridge this morning, unreasonably slow even for 8:30 AM on a weekday, especially without any crazy weather (sunshine. rain. wind.) to blame it on.
I discovered the issue when I finally reached the bridge - there was a bald eagle perched on a lightpole, preening, and everyone was checking him out. His perch was hanging over the East-bound lanes near the sculptures-formerly-fountains. Traffic was backed up pretty far in both directions.

My observation:
The animals will soon figure out how to bring human civilization to a standstill.

My proposed defense against this particular animal tactic:
The DOT could place decoys of unusual birds on top of all the lightpoles, so no one notices when one is real.

That might have been a better use of art project dollars than the overly fascinating, beautiful and interesting-to-an-unfortunate-degree fountains that were there. I loved those fountains: kinetic, exciting. The way they were constantly changing based on the winds and the angle of the sun made them always worth a good long slow-the-car-down look. The replacement sculptures are nice, and nicely static, but they couldn't be too nice or they'd still be slowing traffic. (The DOT says they removed the fountains because of high maintenance costs, but I don't believe it.)

Anyway, I was itching to tell someone this random bit of news, and you all are my victims. I'm sure there will be more bulletins in the future.

Done for now.

Renovation.

I picked up my new (their old) loveseat from Dave and Susan last night, and also visited with Dalton and Rylin. They (kids and parents) loved showing me all the new stuff in the newly remodeled downstairs of their house: new floors, paint, furniture, kitchen (great multicolored small glass tiles, and under-cabinet lights to highlight them, amazingly huge countertop slabs of granite), reconfigured bonus room. The furniture had just arrived a few days before, and the kids were still having a contest over who had sat in the new furniture first, and who was first tickled on the new carpet.

Rylin read me a (long) story she had dictated to Susan and illustrated about picking pumpkins, complete with colorful winds and a tornado. Afterwards she said, "I don't remember what my room looked like the last time you were here." And so we happily raced upstairs to see her new bed and wallflowers, though I'd seen the bed before. She said she didn't know if the new wallflowers would *ever* get put on the wall, since she'd already had them so long.
Seeing the multiple layers of clothes and toys littering the room, I asked her if a tornado had gone through - maybe a Rylin tornado. She said no, she had a friend over.
So I said, "Ah! Two tornados!" She laughed at that (placate the crazy uncle or he'll never stop.) Then she raced to show me the new bonus room layout, explaining they redid it because it was their kitchen while the new downstairs was being built. "See, here's where the table was where we ate!"
She was really animated and fun, very energetic. She was even doing little hops with each homework question she answered when I first arrived, moving around like a hummingbird, or a quick little bunny. Very cute.
Dalton was smiling the whole time (even a timeout didn't phase him.) He had a new haircut, fairly short, a big change from the long hair from the last time I saw him.

When Dave and I came back in from squeezing the loveseat into the van, BOTH kids were sitting in separate corners in timeout, and stayed there until I left, except for goodbye hugs. Susan said she wasn't interested in who started what, if they couldn't be nice to each other they were both getting timeouts. They both seemed okay with that, there was no yelling that I heard, and they were (mostly) quiet little mice in their corners. Well, Dalton tried to explain a couple of things to me, but Susan stopped him quickly each time. I think if he knows something he just cannot help but share it with the world. "Coal is a fossil, not a rock."

The sad tale of the Duke Everyone Loves.

Andrew got sick and stayed home Thursday. Friday he valiantly went to school to take part in the assembly for the Dukes and the Winter Formal, but he threw up and passed out between classes, so there was no way he could stay for the assembly. He is still sick, and missed the Winter Formal last night. His friends texted him throughout the night, so he was kinda-sorta there in slightly more than spirit. His friend Andrew F. posted photos of Allie texting him.

Grandparents

Grandma Sue and Grandpa Del stopped by today on their way South for the rest of the Winter. We all ate Subway sandwiches at the apartment, and then played Hearts. Mali refused to play since she hates Hearts for some reason. She helped Grandma for awhile, then left her winning to dish up ice cream. By her return, Grandma was losing and Andrew ended up winning.
Moose also came along. He would come by every so often to put his head on my leg and give me a big stare. Andrew held him for the last half of the game, which Moose enjoyed watching until the ice cream showed up, and then he intently watched Andrew eat it, bite by bite.

Game Night

The two dukes (Andrew and Matias) were over for game night tonight. We got started around 7:00. Andrew and I went out for pizza at Pizzicato first while Matias worked on his essay on Abraham Lincoln. We played three games:
Settlers of Catan
Blokus
Puerto Rico
We each got first, second, and third in a game, and the winner was a surprise every time. We played until 11:00.
Tomorrow morning Andrew has the swim-a-thon from 7:00 - 9:00, and Matias has an all-day band practice from 10AM - 9PM.

Mali is at Zoë's birthday party sleepover tonight, so no skiing for us tomorrow.

The Duke Everyone Loves

Andrew is voted The Duke Everyone Loves for the Southridge H.S. Winter Formal! This is the at-large dukedom, won with most votes overall without winning a category. The categories:
        Intellect (Matias wins this one!)
        Athletic (Jacob - from our soccer team.)
        Style (Andrew's friend/classmate Bret)
        Humor
My theory is he got a close second in Intellect and Athletics, with a few votes in humor and style from his fan club, such as it is.

He was very happy, especially to tell Mali that he wants her to escort him at the assembly at school before the dance. This made her very happy too. I'll get photos. Here's a photo of them reading the invitation to the assembly, Andrew in the crown he had to wear all day, after the trumpets in his leadership class announced his position.

Swim Team

Andrew has been swimming great. He's won two backstrokes in a row now. The photo below is from the Aloha meet. Southridge won easily.
100m Butterfly: 1:07.21
100m Backstroke: 1:05.07
1st leg (50m Backstroke) of 200m Medley Relay: 29:59 seconds

Nutcracker

Mali and her friend Zoë finally had their Nutcracker performance, postponed previously because of snow. Their class made up the party-goers in the opening scene. Mali was actually the first person to walk onstage. More photos here.
Here they are, after their performance:

Here they watch in amazement as the toys start to move.

Braces!

Mali got braces this morning! I took them out to dinner tonight. I was late from dodging the flooding in Fife and Chehalis, and we arrived at Tom's Pancake House at 8:01, discovering a large sign saying "Dinner served 5 - 8 PM" So we went to Denny's, where we were the only customers.
Here's Mali's new look:

More Christmas

At David, Susan, Dalton, and Rylin's house, after much game-playing and other funstuff: