2015 in review

Looking back on 2015, we saw a lot of delightful changes in D and in the house.  D went from just pulling up to standing, to walking, to running along with lots of other exciting developments.  It’s been really exciting to see him develop friendships and relationships with extended family.  Some of his milestones are described in:  the state of the vocabulary, D's 15 month vocabulary update and D's 1st birthday pictures.

Construction on the house started in August, and here’s how it looked at the end of the year.  There’s also been a lot of visible progress in the weeks since 2016 started, but that belongs in a different post.  The progress for 2015 can be seen in these posts:  ready set go, month one, month two, month four and onward and upward.


Books, Blogs and Work

• We spent the year at the same jobs we have had since returning to Seattle.  I wrote about how I generally like my job and then was lucky to survive two rounds of layoffs. 
• Ever so slowly, I made my way throught excellent collection of essay by Anne Patchett, called This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Anne Patchett.  Jack got back in the habit of reading (post baby) and particularly enjoyed The Circle by David Eggers.
• Jack read a great article (for those who are interested in sabermetrics)  and then was shocked to learn that it was written by his former baseball teammate, who was also one of our last roommates in 2007. http://www.fangraphs.com/community/stop-thinking-like-a-gm-start-thinking-like-a-player/
• This blog will live to see another day thanks to the Microsoft making Windows Live Writer in to an open source tool.  Trying to write long posts on Google blogger directly might have driven me crazy.

Recreation and Travel

• In February we visited Anne and Read in Portland.
• I spent five days away from D and Jack in Montreal for work. 
• Jack watched the winning Mariner’s opening day game with some of his teammates.  Like the Mariner’s, it wasn’t a great season him but he had a good time all the same.  We also went to a game on Jack’s birthday and managed to stay the whole time.

• At the Iron Springs Resort, we had a nice Washington beach weekend in May.
• On the 4th of July weekend we camped with our parenting friends at Deception Pass State Park. 
• We went to a couple of baseball games together, and even made it through a whole game.  We also spent a lot of time in parks and doing lots of little outings, fairly close to home, including a few rides on our old tandem, towing D in our new trailer. 

• Over Labor day weekend, we camped at at Illahee State Park.

• We celebrated our October anniversary, with our first little trip without D to a B&B on Lake Joy in Carnation.
• In November, we went to an Illinois wedding.
• We rang in the new year with my parents and Becky at Pt. Robinson on Maury Island.  It was clear and cold and lots of fun.

Friends and Family

• In June, Jack’s maternal grandfather passed away: Remebering Grandpa O.
• A new friend from our birth class, in whom I saw the potential for a closer friendship, was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, just after our kids’ first birthdaies, which is when we last saw her.  She tragically passed away in December.  She was generous, kind and smart and she wrote about her illness as long as she could at rubyroxy.wordpress.com.
• Three babies were born to our friends: Rufus (to K&C), Jamie (to P&K) and Olivia (to A&B).  Soon we’ll enter the wave of second and third babies among our friends.
• Becky and Jason visited twice this year and the best news of the year is that they’ll be moving to Seattle in 2016.

• Our friend, Gabrielle, who was a summer exchange student from France in 1999, spent a few days visiting us in Seattle.  She writes a great blog mostly about work and recreation in Africa at: http://gabakin.blogspot.com.
• We caught up with another fun and interesting friend, Rachel, as she passed through Seattle on her way out of Alaska.
• Jessica also paid us a fun visit last winter.

Personal Growth

• Abascal class – In January I took a class from Kathy Abascal, who wrote a book (and ongoing blog) about anti-inflammatory eating: ToQuietInflammation.com.  It is the new gold standard for how we should eat, but I struggled with it for most of the year, accounting for considerably and undesired personal growth.  
• I sailed quite a bit and we even took a J 80 sailboat out together with just the two of us in November, which was a really big milestone for me. 

• Jack worked really hard on the house and ventured in to new territory with design and construction administration.  Getting bids and value engineering them was a new and challenging task that took about six months.
• D moved to a new daycare in August and transitioned seamlessly.  After we move to our house, it will be very convenient, but for now it is just less expensive, less convenient and more suited towards playing outside than his downtown daycare. 
• Emo and D’s relationship is vastly improved. 

• Jack spent most of the year sporting an on-trend beard.  D learned the word “beard.”
• A year ago we bought a much nicer camera, which makes it look like we became more talented photographers.

hiking post 5: continued

Our new blogging tool, Open Live Writer, won’t allow enormously long posts, so this one had to be split up.

16 Aug - Henry's Ridge Natural Area, Maple Valley
⦁    3.5 miles
⦁    Cari and Jack
⦁    We didn’t want to drive far from D’s grandparents so we ended up here. It was different from the forests along I-90, with young trees, a lake, lots of winding maountain bike paths and hardly any other people.

29 August - Glacier View, Gifford Pinchot National Forest

⦁    Read, Anne, Jack, Cari and D
⦁    3 miles – We turned around after a difficult (cold, rainy, whiney) 1.6 miles. Being in the backpack after a longer drive did not suit D.
⦁    It was a pretty forest, but the rain and wind meant we didn’t view any glaciers, or any other hikers.
⦁    http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/glacier-view-1
⦁    I got unfairly stung by a bee, on my shin, as I was walking and minding my own beezness.

6 September – Illahee State Park
⦁    1.5 miles down to the beach and back
⦁    John, Rennie, Drew, Yuko, Matt, Ellie, Jack, Cari, D

3 October – Luther Burbank Park
⦁    Jack, D and I walked about 1.5 miles through the park, along the water. This is stretching the definition of a hike, but oh well.

24 October – Bridal Veil Falls
⦁    Cari and Jack
⦁    4.5 miles in nice cool weather
⦁    The sky was cloudy but we got a great view from the top

24 December – Eagle Landing Park, Burien
⦁    A lot of the park is closed due to a landslide, so this was a short hike. We’ll round up to a mile. The exciting part was that D walked a lot of the way by himself.
⦁    Cari, Jack, D

31 December – Point Robinson Park on Maury Island
⦁    We walked about 2 miles, down through the woods and up and down the beach.
⦁    Becky, Jason, Janet, Steve, D, Jack and Cari

hiking report 5

previous hiking reports: 2014/11  4, 2014/01/  3, 2013/07  2, 2012/11  1.

1 January – Discovery Park, south beach loop

• 4 miles with D in a backpack
• Rennie, John, Drew, Jack, Cari, D

4 April  - Licorice Fern trail on Cougar Mountain

• Jack, D, Cari
• 3 miles out and back with D in the backpack
• http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/licorice-fern

 

31 May – Soaring Eagle regional park, Sammamish

• Cari and D
• 2 miles in the northern part of the park
• http://your.kingcounty.gov/ftp/gis/Web/VMC/recreation/BCT_SoaringEagle_brochure.pdf
• fragrant, pretty forest, flat
• D stayed awake, talked, played with my hair and was even quite for a little bit

6 June – Liberty

• to entice D to nap while camping during the family work party, Jack and I hike 3 miles
• hot, dry and dusty, but still pretty

4 July – Deception Pass

• 2.5 miles around goose rock
• Stacy, Keith, Tiffany, Johnny, Lincoln, Harper, Jack, Cari, D
• Jack and I walked another 1 mile down to cranberry lake and back with D

26 July - Tiger Mountain Trail north

• Cari, Jack and D
• D said “big” with his arms spread wide, six or seven times, turning 180°, to encompass the whole forest.  This was a sweet moment.
• Jack scared the crap out of D by jumping out from behind a tree at us.  D squealed and immediately signed “more”!
• 6 miles and D walked a little bit of it

onward and upward

Our house has a third floor, and we finally got to go up there this morning!

construction: month four

 previous posts: September, October
The November post never happened so this one covers quite a lot of progress.  Since late October, they have framed out the basement interior, framed level one, installed four steel beams and framed level two.  They’ve also done half of the backfill around the basement.  I think they’re holding out on the second half of the backfill so that they can have an excuse to keep the alley blocked off and use it as a staging area.  We have such a small “yard” that they can’t even fit the building materials in it.


Level one floor (with tracks for radiant heat) and walls


Installing the beams


Level two



The last few weeks also brought a lot of rain, as you may recall.  The basement flooded several times because the drains are not yet connected to the sewer.  It’s supposed to be okay, but it’s not a pleasant sight.


The current timeline says it will be done in June.

owner provided

Our construction contract specifies many fixtures and all of the cabinetry as owner provided.  This gives us some cost savings (about %15) and a lot more control, for longer.   However the time for final decisions is fast approaching.  

We recently spent a grueling afternoon at IKEA and the appliance store and Jack has done more modeling of the kitchen cabinets.  We have also picked a floor and some material colors though we still have more decisions to make. 

The highlight at IKEA was discovering some of our chosen cabinet fronts in the as-is room for something like 75% off.   Now they are in D's closet.  

We also ordered one of the kitchen sinks from China.  It was extremely hard to find and I worried it would disappear.  Naturally we are storing it in the extra bathtub. 

the return

I’ve read several articles in the last few years on the relatively new field of happiness research.  If what they say is all true, I’m about to get a lot happier.  Sometime in 2016 my favorite sister will be moving to Seattle!
Having a sibling, especially a sister, and especially one who lives close by provides a major happiness boost!  She left for college over half my lifetime ago and I can’t express how excited I am that she is coming back!
This is made possible by my brilliant brother-in-law’s acceptance to a fellowship program in Seattle.  We’re so excited to see more of both of them!

reflecting on apartment living

 

Last weekend D and I sat on a couch in our building’s cozy lobby and watched the Seattle Marathon runners speed by our window in the brisk morning air.  That tradition and all of the holiday events downtown are making me a little be nostalgic-in-advance for our time living downtown.   What’s more, as we pick out colors and floors and feel closer than ever to finishing our house, I’m reminded of all the perks of apartment living that we’ll soon miss.

• parking place:  On rainy days like this it is so nice to stay dry while loading and unloading the car.   Our future neighborhood also has a fair amount of car prowling so we won’t be leaving anything of value (or that looks like it might be of value) in the car, except for D’s car seat :)
• tiny trash trek:  I love not knowing for certain when the trash, recycle and compost are picked up.  Also, recycling large quantities of cardboard from Costco and Amazon is a not (much of) a problem.  Lastly, a trash chute is a big benefit to the diaper changing set.  Who needs a special diaper trash can when you can easily get rid of small stinky trash bags so conveniently? 
• winter warmth:  In the winter we never really get that cold.  D still doesn’t sleep with covers very well, but it’s okay.  When he was a newborn, I was never tempted to put a hazardous hat on him either.  This winter coziness does translate to nearly unbearable summer heat, so that’s the tradeoff.
• cat corralling:  Emo has no desire to leave our apartment, but many cats do, and going out the apartment door is no big deal for an adventurous indoor cat.
• protected packages: In our building, packages are delivered to our apartment door, package lockers or to a shelf by the mailboxes.  It’s impossible to say which option will be used, and I’m not ordering to the building much over the holiday season after my experience last year, but all of these possibilities are better than just leaving a package out on a wet, highly visible doorstep.  We’re going to have to figure out some alternative once we’re in the house.
• small space simplicity:  This covers all kinds of changes we’ll experience once we are living in a house again.   Yes, we are looking forward to things like the possibility of one person sleeping in a little bit when the noise from D and breakfast can be a little bit farther away or even to both of us working from home at the same time.  But, there are a lot of perks to having a smaller space.  We’ve never needed a baby monitor.  It’s easy to do laundry while working on something else.  When things are misplaced, they are never far away.  When it comes to parenting tasks, it’s easy to get help with a disastrous diaper or the delivery of some needed item because the other person (when home) is never out of earshot.  I think we’ll be a bit lonely when we’re on different floors of our tall futurehouse.