A perfect Sunday. After a relaxing morning at home, off to the beach for a bbq with friends, and a sunset on the Sound.

For dessert, just when I thought icecream had nothing new to offer . . . Molly Moon's comes to Capital Hill. Oh, why did Wallingford seem so far away before. We had two single cones: honey lavender and salted caramel.

Yeah! 1/2 marathon action! This was a really fun event. For me, it was great to get back to distance running. The weather was threatening, but didn't end up too bad (especially compared with St. Patrick's Day race with fist size, super cold snow flakes). It was cold and cloudy, with sprinkles of rain.

Mercer Island was a nice forested run, with many views of lake washington. I was happy at how fast I ran, and Alicia was right behind me the whole time. Plus, we made the Mercer Island newspaper at the start. Next up, the tulips.

Brian

This weekend a bunch of our friends went on a trip to Mt. Baker. We had 10 people, so we rented a house in this funny subdivision at the foot of the mountain. Picture old school suburban, but in the middle of no where with a gate.

We were cozy in the living room with a fireplace. Our bones were warmed by a barely functioning, but still fun hot tub. Friday we relaxed after a long drive from Seattle. Sat. morning we had a great breakfast with homemade cinnamon buns before a taking a nice 6 mile hike at Nooksack Falls. It was a groomed road, but there weren't many people and there were some nice views with a good steady climb. At the end we all threw snowballs into the pools above the falls trying to hit a little island. We were like 10 big kids, and one lab named Bailey.

Dinner was awesome pizza and brownies. We played pool, darts and watched Kid & Play House Party II in the rec room basement. This was followed by Balderdash and a late night dance party and a bit more hot tubbing, which included pans of hot water to keep the temp up.

Sun we relaxed with blueberry coffee cake, and packed up. We took a short river hike and drove home. Tragically we were drawn into a combo A&W/KFC where I drank too much root beer float. We even got home in time for the Super Bowl.

We had an awesome brew day at our apartment Sat. We made ten gallons of beer. Five winter warmer, five oatmeal stout. It was quite a party with 4 of our friends. Three girls knitted while three guys made beer, very gender role oriented. It was great fun. We finished with a nice supper of frozen pizza, salad, and cookies. Here's Christian and I by the brew kettle.

We have had a crazy amount of fog lately. Some days it is foggy the whole day. Others it burns off in the late afternoon. Last weekend there was a sunny patch, but as the sun was setting we watched the fog move in off the ocean fill the city in a slow, creeping glacier of fog. Very cool. Here's a photo.

While Emmy has wildfires threatening her house, we get rain.

Info HERE

And HERE

and cool video HERE

Snowshoe season is open

At long last, we opened up our season. We went up to Talapus Lake on Sunday with Keren and CJ. It's an easy 45 minutes from our house. My favorite part of snowshoeing is bounding down the hills through the forest.

As soon as we got home to Seattle, it started snowing. We got about 2 inches on Capitol Hill. Beautiful. By morning it was slushy and not slick (phew- easy bus ride!). Brian predicts one more layer of snow in the city before Snowpocalypse 2008/9 is done.

Happy New Year!

After a restful New Year's Day filled with food and friends, I'm ready to start blogging again.

We spent the holidays in DC, Maryland, New York (Alicia) and MA (Brian). Thank you to everyone who could come out in DC with us. We had a fabulous time.

In Hagerstown, my grandparents and my cousin Max were able to come from Belgium! Brian has renewed his resolution to learn French.

As promised, here are photos of some knitted Christmas presents.

Hawaii was awesome.

Stories and more photos to follow...

One week to go...

Is it over yet? I'm on every Democratic and environmental email list possible. Some funny person also put me on the McCain/Palin and Maryland Republicans lists too.

This is a snippet from one of today's "funny" emails.

The McCain health plan builds on the employer-based system.
Employers will have the same incentive to provide health insurance as they do today since they will continue to deduct the cost of health insurance they provide to employees.
For example, a 25-year-old employee in the 25 percent tax bracket with a $2,500 tax credit could purchase a policy in the individual market for the same amount. Why would people choose fewer benefits for more money?

Really? Because last time I researched health care plans in WA, they're at least $350/month for basic coverage. That's $4200/year/person in a small business. I don't think health care companies are in the business of working with individuals to ensure the best care at the lowest price. And employers are jumping at the chance to pay for their employees' health insurance. I guess we'll continue with the stellar rate of 35% of Americans under 65 as uninsured or underinsured.

Seahawks game

Someone from work had two tickets to the Seahawks-Packers game a few weeks ago. And gave them to us! The Seahawks lost (predictably). It was our first NFL game.

We're huge baseball fans so we brought sandwiches and knitting for the quiet moments. Silly us.

The energy in Qwest Field is amazing.



Not, like, say, sugar plum, amazing.

Like blood-crazed mob at a gladiator bout, amazing.