at beard hat night with the very talanted mariners

“be of use”

Dr. Larch, from The Cider House Rules (which I just finished reading on Friday) would have been satisfied with us this weekend.  We managed to “be of use” at Jack’s grandparents’ house by constructing a steel-cable railing for the back porch.

marathons make me cry

Even when they are not the scene of senseless violence, like what unfolded in Boston yesterday, marathons choke me up. 

Viaduct/Alaskan Way tunnel: part 3

They are slowly unloading the pieces of Bertha, the tunneling machine.

crime and cars in the Central District

Over the past few months, we’ve become regular readers of centraldistrictnews.com.  One of the cool things about dense urban neighborhoods is the existence of hyper-local news sources like this blog.  I also read a local blog for Pioneer Square and occasionally check the prolific neighborhood blogs of Capitol Hill and West Seattle.

on the ramparts of Essaouira: with Jack, Cari and Daenerys Targaryen

Last weekend we watched the first episode of the third season of Game of Thrones.  For those who don’t know, it’s a current TV show based on a fantasy book series that read together during our trip. 
As we were watching, we were pleasantly shocked to recognize the setting for part of the episode!  There was the character Dany strolling along the very same ramparts where we were offered pot-laced cookies as we watched a spectacular sunset over the Atlantic.
Here are some pictures from the set.

“opening night” at Safeco

Cari and I went to the Mariners’ Safeco Field open house tonight, to walk around and watch the game (being played in Oakland) on the new big screen. 

Cari’s week in Boston

I spent the last week in Boston for work.  I welcomed the chance to catch up with a few good friends and former co-workers. 

a day with the dogs

Last weekend I went to my first dog show.

Mediterranean diet aspirations

I could write about this for a long time, but talk is cheap and I don’t think it would make for an interesting post.  From sampling restaurants and traveling, I've learned that my favorite cuisines describe a tour of the Mediterranean – Turkish, Greek, Moroccan, Italian - you get the idea.

annual winter picnic

Since sometime in the early 1960’s, my dad’s family (and some loyal friends) has had a winter picnic on the beach. 

house design, first of many

Over the past several months we’ve had a lot of fun thinking about house designs and details.

Emo’s 2013 calendar

We made these for a calendar and I couldn’t resist sharing them here.  Which one is your favorite?

Viaduct/Alaskan Way tunnel: part 2

The SR 99 tunnel project has been chugging right along since my last post about it in April.

2012 in review

Although our year has been documented by this blog, I can’t resist the chance for a good summary.

Emo, the Korat cat from the frat

In 2009 we adopted a cat. 

two-letter words: both classy and cheap!

For the last few months, I've been playing Words with Friends on my phone.  The biggest difference from a physical game of Scrabble is the possibility of trial and error.  I often doubt my spelling, so this is quite a boon for me.

Two-letter words are essential to competitive play.  This is a list of the accepted two letter words, with the words I would consider to be legitimate, outside of the game in pink.  

AA

AB

AD

AE

AG

AH

AI

AL

AM

AN

AR

AS

AT

AW

AX

AY

BA

BE

BI

BO

BY

DA

DE

DI

DO

ED

EF

EH

EL

EM

EN

ER

ES

ET

EX

FA

FE

FI

GI

GO

HA

HE

HI

HM

HO

ID

IF

IN

IS

IT

JO

KA

KI

LA

LI

LO

MA

ME

MI

MM

MO

MU

MY

NA

NE

NO

NU

OD

OE

OF

OH

OI

OM

ON

OP

OR

OS

OW

OX

OY

PA

PE

PI

QI

RE

SH

SI

SO

TA

TI

TO

UH

UM

UN

UP

US

UT

WE

WO

XI

XU

YA

YE

YO

ZA

I am not above playing "qi" and "xi," and I recommend memorizing this table!

the Smith tower from season to season

I spend my days walking in circles around the Smith tower. 

Columbia Tower – wow(er)

On Saturday we went up to the Columbia tower observation deck.  The views were spectacular and we enjoyed seeing our current neighborhood and our future neighborhood (the Central District).
north, including the Space Needle and my new hat

we are landed

Jack and I are really excited to say that we now own a tiny patch of land.  It's in the Central District, just east of downtown Seattle.  In a few years we'll be building a wonderful, small, tall house with a western view of downtown Seattle.