Last weekend I brewed beer! Yeah! This was only my third batch, and only the first I've bottled. Sadly I had blocked from my mind how excruciatingly painful it is to bottle beer. There is a reason kegs are popular. Someday I will have a device to keep one cold so I don't have to bottle. So, after a long hiatus from brewing, things are getting back underway. Hopefully my new Seattle beers will soon be above par. The one pictured in bottles is a honey brown, and the one cooking is pale ale. More on brewing adventures as they happen. Take care, Bri

It's been a while. Yes, we went for our anniversary. Here are photos from Vancouver, Canada where we tried to stay out of the rain, walked along the beach, ate yummy Indian, and bought lots of Cadbury chocolate.

I have a crazy little sister. Emily is doing the Ironman Wisconsin on Sept. 9. For fun.

Wish her luck!

Oh, and she's no longer a vegetarian. All in the name of training.

Yes, it's been a while since I've blogged. Sorry about that.

I'm getting closer to my fundraising goal for the marathon. Thank you!! The running has been going well. I got new (sorely needed) running shoes. I'm up to 14 miles this weekend.
I have always run in cities. As the mileage creeps up, I forget how much distance you have to cover to reach your mileage. I'll do my long run on Thursday because I know I won't do it over the weekend. I'll run from Green Lake to Ballard to Discovery Park back to Green Lake and around the lake. Whew.

We're headed to Greg and Janine's wedding in Hood River, OR for Labor Day weekend.

Have a fun weekend!

Remember the Seafair pirates? Well today is the pinnacle of Seafair with the Blue Angels and other airplane, seaplane festivities. I'm not sure I feel great about such a display of US military prowess, but airplanes are pretty cool. They fly over our apartment and all week you can hear and see them practicing flying over the city. There is a big air show and according to the guy Alicia and I met while watching the Mariners game last night a big boat party on Lake Washington. Maybe next year we'll paddle a kayak out. Happy Summer! Brian

We’ve gone to some good baseball games but this one was awesome. The Angels are our biggest “rivals” right now in the AL West. It was a tight game, a pitchers duel. And the Mariners won!

We’ve been sitting in a lot of cheap seats lately but we’ve found the best deal. Brian found the $10 seats with the best views. It was Japanese baseball appreciation night. Everyone was decked out for Ichiro. Taiko drumming, free, ugly, MasterCard/Mariners shirts, tourists from our sister city of Kobe., and an interview of Johjima by Japanese school kids (adorable!). And Ichiro had a great game (a triple and some nice catches in center field). The Kobe Mayor threw the first pitch to Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols and managed to hit Nichols between the legs. Heehee

Note for non-baseball fans: Baseball is different from basketball. In the NBA, the majority (16 of 30) of teams make it into the play offs. Major League Baseball has 30 teams, divided into two divisions, American League and National League. Each is divided into 3 regions- west, central and east (making it 6 divisions total). For the playoffs, the team with the best record from each division gets in (6 teams) plus one wild card team from each League (2 teams). The wild card is the remaining team with the best winning percentage from each league.

The AL East is where the Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles and the Devil Rays play. So only one of those teams gets into the playoffs by being the first place team in their division. The others have to duke it out with all of the other AL teams (west, central and east)to secure that one wild card spot. The playoffs begin in early October. So get ready to hear a lot of talk between now and October about win-loss records and the wild card race.

Go Mariners! Although Brian would say "Go Red Sox!"