The Cool Enye

Baby Boom

2008-08-25T09:19:00.001-07:00

We went to a bbq last night where the hosts left as we arrived to go to the hospital to deliver their baby. The guests all stayed hoping to hear news and eat/put away all the food that they had prepared. Judging from a) the large volume of tasty food and b) the large number of babies at the party, it's no wonder that baby boy decided to say hello to the world yesterday. Seriously, there is a baby boom going on. Evidence of that is that there were 7 babies from the age of 2 yrs down to 1 month present. The number of adults 7*2 + 5 (and that is counting the hosts who were soon to have a baby) = 19 adults! If I've miscounted (there was sangria at the party, so this is highly likely), the numbers aren't off by much.

Best of luck D&H with your new baby!

Welcome to Miami...

2008-08-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

So, I got the job and we are moving to Miami! How soon? Soon! In fact, before the end of October. Much to do, much to plan. We want to spend lots of time with our friends in Seattle before we go. There was a birthday party we wanted to go to this evening. That would have been perfect. But, baby V goes to bed at 7:15pm and turns into a pumpkin around 7:00pm. She didn't nap much today, so she crashed hard. Happy 44th birthday, BP! I hope your evening was fantastic!

If you want to see us, we'll never pass up a brunch/lunch get-together. That's perfect time for the little one. Plus, we happen to enjoy going out for food and not cooking.

Easy as pie?

2008-07-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

We went to a PEPS (parenting group) bbq this afternoon. I was talking about a possible job, and describing what I'd be doing. I said something like they collect lots of data and they need someone with numerical modeling experience to help them understand the data. It's expensive and time consuming to put lots of instruments in the water, so we can use models to put limited observations into context. So far, so good. I hope I was that coherent.

Then, I came up with the most off-the-wall analogy.... I said it was like sticking your finger in a pie in three different places and trying to understand what was happening inside the whole pie. What the heck? It certainly conjures up a mental image that you can relate to... but what was I smoking, seriously?

p.s. For the next few weeks, I'll be blogging from France. Oui, c'est vrai! A plus!
~

Celebrity baby names

2008-07-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

Oh great. Angelina Jolie just named one of her twins, Vivienne Marcheline. That was one of the spellings we had considered for our baby. It was either going to be Vivianne, Viviane, Viviene, or Vivienne. All spellings exist in France. The "e" at the end is important. In France, Vivien and Vivian are considered boy's names. Anyway, it was not like we were trying to come up with a new and crazy spelling for "Vivian".

In the end we decided on Viviane. We thought Viviane would sound prettier in Spanish, French, and English. It's a name that we love, it has special meaning to us (means lively/vivacious and is associated with Arthurian lore), and isn't too popular in France/US at the moment. Baby V wasn't going to have 50-million Vivian's in her school.

Now that a celebrity has chosen that name for her babe, you know that it's going to become more common! Well, at least she is before the wave. Avant-gard you might say. Sorry for being so churlish. But really, what is a blog for if not for venting and churlishness?

~

You know you are old when

2008-07-12T10:04:00.001-07:00

You know you are old when... you no longer have an interest in keeping up with technology. I just started doing the Facebook thing. Sigh . It's okay, I suppose. But, I feel like I'm too old school for it. I blog, isn't that enough to make me hip? I guess not.

I remember when I was an undergrad and was one of the first people I knew to have access to email/bulletin boards/etc. I ran numerical models using Fortran 77! I used Matlab before it became en vogue (we are talking version 3!) and designed Graphic User Interfaces. Now, I'm a relic. :)

Maybe I'll go figure out twitter and get with the times.

Where did I leave my walker?
~

Ugh... baby food

2008-07-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

I've been excitedly making baby food at home. I, of course, buy jars of baby food too. I'm not a freak! But, whenever I have time I buy fresh organic produce and make some fruit or veggie purees. Since baby V loves eating, I recently upgraded to chicken and turkey. The results? Two words. Gag inducing. For some reason, I can puree fruits and veg with the best of them. Chicken? turkey? Not pleasant.

Today, I got motivated and made a big dish of turkey, potatoes, and squash, and then tried to puree it. At the time, it seemed a good idea. But, my little food processor/freezing system couldn't handle it. I had to enlist B's help to bag some of it in freezer ziplocks. Sigh!

I couldn't get the texture right and baby V didn't like it. She gagged ... and to be honest, I was right there with her. It tasted fine, just needed salt. But, the texture... ugh! It was like chowder, but without the cream. I guess I'll cut it with milk or some veggie puree. Hopefully that will improve it. Maybe V is trying to tell me she's a vegetarian? :)

Water related activities

2008-07-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

We didn't do anything exciting for the 4th. No BBQ's, no fireworks. Just the three of us chilling out.

We did head to the beach for an hour or so yesterday. Baby V learned what sand was all about. She loved grabbing fistfuls of sand. I'm not sure how she felt about the cold seawater on her feet. B only dipped her toes in the water for a second or two. Maybe she liked it, but she was all about the sand. Water she can find in her bathtub at home. Sand, now that's something different.

Today we spent an hour or so (with a baby I find we do alot of things for an "hour or so") at Greenlake for the annual Seafair milk carton derby. Saw a few races, that was fun. Pickup up some free swag, too cool. Got a helium balloon for V. Hold the phone, thanks mom for this new amazing toy! That's what I imagine she was thinking. She *loved* the balloon and grabbing the string. Her second favorite thing was when we sat on a fallen tree and ate food. Mainly because we couldn't watch her as closely as we normally do and she was grabbing fistfuls of grass/moss/flowers and was making eyes at an ant that wandered a little too close. He got off lucky, because we caught her in time.

Anyway, good times. There are some themes that emerge.

1) V likes grabbing things
2) V likes when we are distracted
3) If you want to do anything fun with us, we're up for anything that can be done in an hour or so. :)

ZAGOFOPO

2008-07-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

We got invited to a BBQ for fish-oriented people and others (the FOPO in ZAGOFOPO). I'm not sure I'm a fish-oriented person, but the fact that I work at NOAA where there are many fisheries scientists gives me some 'fish-cred'. I'm more of a climate oriented person (d'oh... that spells COP).

Anyway, here is a picture of the three of us (a rare thing indeed). We were very precise and had baby V stand in such a way that we could get an accurate height reading! She's 3 and a half feet tall!

My husband, the Ph.D.

2008-06-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

I love my husband. Some of us have Ph.D.'s and take off our scientists' hat when we enter the house, some of us don't. My husband is in the second category. Today was another warm day. Since the days are so long, it takes forever to cool down the house. B, genius that he is, ran around using physics to cool down the house before we go to sleep. He alternated sucking air out of certain rooms with our fan and pulling air into other rooms. While the sun was still up, he sucked air out of our bedroom (we have a huge westward facing window) and pumped air in from parts of the house that were in the shade. Before the sun set, he pulled air into our bedroom from outside and threw a bucket of water on the wall outside our window. Some of the incoming solar energy goes into evaporating all that water, and for a little while the air temperature drops. Ah, ice cold refreshing genius. Okay, maybe it's only a degree or two Celsius difference -- but he worked hard for that degree!
~

Weekend recap

2008-06-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Baby V just fell asleep. She fought her afternoon nap for 2 hours and finally crashed. We should take a nap ourselves... but we've are going to a party in an hour (strike that, whenever V wakes up), and I feel like a should stay awake and get some things done around the house.

It's been ages since I've blogged. Here's a short recap (in no particular order):

I resubmitted my manuscript and can finally clean off my desk and work on new things! Huzzah!

I'm having fun looking at cruise data and pretending I'm an observationalist. Why does real data have to be so patchy in space and time? Instruments fail, that's not surprising. But why do they always fail at exactly the wrong time/place? Models may produce unrealistic "data", but at least there are no gaps!

We still don't know what we are doing jobwise this fall. But, we are working on moving to South Florida.

In the meantime, we finally booked tickets to go visit B's family in France. Everyone is excited to meet V. We are looking forward to getting some zzzz's on the beach while the grandparents spend quality time with V.

It's finally sunny here in Seattle. It took long enough! The days are already getting shorter. I know I'd probably complain about the heat if we'd had months of sunshine by now... Let's face it, I like to complain. I've come to terms with it.

I took V around Greenlake. We stopped at the wading pool and dipped in our feet. Delicious. I had a good reason for why we weren't going to go swimming -- seemed less good when we were actually there -- and so I didn't bring her bathing suit, sunscreen, towels, etc., etc. We are going to try to go tomorrow and spend a few hours in a shady spot. Who knows, maybe I'll even prepare a picnic lunch?

Okay, you are now up to date. Let's do this again, real soon.
~

Trip to Corvallis, OR

2008-06-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

We just went down to Oregon to visit friends from graduate school. I gave a scientific talk while we were in town. The experience was quite enjoyable. It's nice to go back and share your research with people without the pressure of graduate school. It's rather like going back to high school after you've finished undergrad. You roam the halls and remember the good times. Enough time has passed that those few bad times no longer seem so bad. The audience was challenging, as always, but I take all of their questions as a sign of interest. At least they weren't bored!

Seeing all of our friends was fantastic. We stayed with our friends D&E and caught up on all of their goings on. Thanks for being such wonderful hosts! We got to see alot of folks at a BBQ hosted by B&D. It was great to catch up with everyone all at once. I finally got to see their new baby girl. She's ten months old and I hadn't met her yet! We managed to get a few pictures of our babies playing next to each other -- so cute. B's three year old son kept giving our baby hugs. He's really good with the babies. That doesn't mean I'm rushing to have another one any time soon. Hold your horses, seriously! We even managed to get a girl's night in after my talk. Some wine drinking, hot-tubbing, cranium playing, laughing... I don't know how, but baby V managed to sleep through all of the noise.

Unfortunately, the trip ended too soon. If any of you folks in Corvallis feel like making the trek up to Seattle, we are happy to host.
~

What's up?

2008-05-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a quick trip to Miami. It was an intense but fun work related trip. I got to work in some quality time (vs. quantity) with my parents and even got to see my g-friend from grad school. B stayed home with the baby and they had a great time! She seemed to barely miss me. If I wasn't so busy during this trip, I might have been conflicted about that. But, honestly it was such a relief to not worry. B is a great dad and is always involved in everything baby related... but... it's always nice when we are both around. That way we can play tag and manage to get things done.

Oh! I posted recently about my friend's Caribbean children's music CD. Her local newspaper wrote an article about it (link). I love the CD. She made it at home while her kids were asleep. I'm lucky if I do the dishes while my baby is asleep. Or if I'm really ambitious, I do a load of laundry and maybe *maybe* work on a paper.

Next Wednesday is our 6th wedding anniversary. We are talking about going to El Gaucho for a nice dinner. Or we might check out a Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) movie. We haven't seen any yet...

~~~~*~~~~

Banacado

2008-05-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

The answer is... What happens when you mix together banana and avocado for a tasty baby food treat? Maybe baby V will like it, but I gagged a little when I heard about this fruit pairing.
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NPR

2008-05-03T09:15:00.001-07:00

My colleague at NOAA, Greg Johnson, was interviewed by NPR this week. He coauthored a Science paper on expanding regions of oxygen-depleted water in the ocean. It's a pretty short audio clip. What's neat is that my dad heard it on NPR in Florida and called me to talk about it. It's not really my area of research, but it's nice when your family can say "you know that story on NPR" that's where my daughter works and that's part of what they do at NOAA.
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Caribbean/ocean themed children's music

2008-05-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

My friend Bridgette just put out a music CD of ocean themed kids' music with a real Caribbean flavor. Since lately I talk about my baby more than the ocean on this blog, I thought it was appropriate to post a link. Her songs are really fun, but they also infused with more oceanographically-correct detail than your usual kids' songs.

Feel free to check it out at www.bridgettemichaels.com.

I can't wait to play these songs to baby V.

~~-~-~~-~-~~

NEV

2008-04-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

Shout out to Pam at NEV. We just got back from Blue C Sushi. Yum. I just realized we actually had fish for fish Wednesday and I thought about you and your weekly culinary post.

B's current favorite there is their seared tuna. I tried a really yummy new lobster roll -- it's a purple plate. Our normal strategy is to load up on green-yellow plates (cheap/starchy items) and then have a few blue plates (more spendy sushi/sashimi items) and see how much we can eat and how little we spend. It's a frugal dining challenge. We were out with guests today, so we ended up eating a rainbow of plates rather than our normal limited color palette.
~

IPCC talk

2008-04-23T21:07:00.001-07:00

I got to see a talk by Dr. Susan Solomon today at work on "the climate yesterday, today, and tomorrow". Dr. Solomon works for NOAA and was co-chair of working group one of the IPCC. The same IPCC that shared the 2007 nobel peace prize with Al Gore for their efforts towards disseminating information on climate change.

We don't have celebrities, per se, in science. I mean you don't go around asking for autographs. It is very cool, however, to see scientists who actually make a difference in the world. One of the perks of my job.

Full disclosure: it was rather cool when I was a graduate student and Prof. Joseph Pedlosky came up to my poster and was interested in my work on Rossby waves. His text on GFD tortures us all in grad school and is referred to as the GFD bible by some. Can I help it if I had a total geek-out moment?

~~~

Bandwagon editorial... make that a rant

2008-04-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing our President finally admits that climate change is a problem. Can we say grossly inadequate and too little, too late? The scientific climate (e.g., making it difficult for scientists to get funded to study/publish results on global warming) is the only climate he's responsible for changing while in office.

Can we finally join the rest of the world and work towards curbing our carbon emissions? My daughter would like a future that doesn't involve a global apocalypse, thank you very much.
~~~

The end?

2008-04-15T20:37:00.001-07:00

We've been noticing a trend with "modern" children stories. They just end abruptly! What the heck? We were reading "bonsoir lune" - I ordered the french translation of "goodnight moon". After saying goodnight to every single item in the bedroom, it just ended by saying "goodnight outside noises". Then there were 3 blank white pages. Was that the end of the story? Would it kill them to have a page that says "the end" or "fin"? Does anyone know the true ending? I think we going to go to the bookstore or library to see whether it's a bad printing or if that's truly the end.
~~~

Tantalizing

2008-04-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

Baby V dangled the carrot in front of us Saturday night and slept for 9 hours straight! Ah, the promise of an all-night sleep. That's what sustains me at 1am in the morning.
~~~

Future oceanographer

2008-04-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

Baby V started her "swim-tots" class today. Basically it's a half hour class once a week that gets babies accustomed to being in the water. This being her first class, we thought she took it pretty well. It seemed like she enjoyed smacking the water with her hands and feet. Perhaps a future oceanographer in the making... or at least an avid swimmer.

At some point, though, it got too cold for her and fun-time was over. I've never had to get out of a pool with a baby, shower, and try to get a crying baby dried and dressed while still personally soaking wet (where did I put the key to the locker? why did I put her clothes under my clothes in the bag? why don't I have 3 arms? where the heck is her pacifier? d'oh, it's at home!). Only after halfway through this process did I realize that there is another row of lockers right next to a nice large changing table with a protective edge! Next time, I will definitely pick those lockers. Hopefully it will go smoother.
~~~

"We do El Niño"

2008-04-06T17:08:00.001-07:00

We invited several francophones/francophiles to a brunch yesterday at our place. B's parents were in town and we wanted them to meet some of our friends and be able to speak French.

The invitees included my advisor (physical oceanographer) and a friend from graduate school (biological oceanographer).

Best line describing the work we do in the climate research division of NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory courtesy of my advisor...

"We do El Niño"

Best sarcastic/amused response courtesy of my friend (slightly paraphrased)...

"Oh! You're the guys that do that?"

B's parents are as we speak flying home. Bon voyage! Gros bisous!
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Since last post

2008-03-19T22:06:00.001-07:00

Since my last post...

Baby V and I traveled to Orlando and Miami. She got to spend time with la familia cubana. Her cousin N even flew down (with her parents of course) from NYC to surprise V. My parents were so happy to have us all under one roof.

In Florida, Baby V found her toes and decided that they fit conveniently inside her mouth. She discovered she likes wearing minimal clothing and getting maximum sunshine and fresh air. She even tolerates all the frilly dresses put on by her abuela because at least she's not wearing pants.

The grandparents are visiting from France now... we'll see what trouble she gets into while they are here.

Castro stepping down

2008-02-21T21:22:00.000-08:00

I meant to post about this when I heard the news, but one thing led to another... better late than never, right? I'll bet it was pretty much all that was talked about in Miami this week. It's odd to be removed from that whole scene. My feelings are surprisingly mellow on the subject. Do I hope this means positive change for Cubans? ¡Si, como no! Do I want to go to Cuba with my parents and baby V and get to know mi tierra (my homeland)? Yes, of course I do. Will it happen this year? Probably not. Will it happen within our lifetime? I certainly hope so. So much time has passed it's not like my family is rushing to reclaim lost property/land. It's sad that not a single one of my grandparents lived to see this happen. Forty years passed and they were waiting, waiting, waiting for this to happen. My abuela Fefa almost lived long enough to see this happen. Maybe it's a good thing she didn't. I think it would have made her sad to have it happen so late.

The year of La Niña

2008-02-08T19:53:00.000-08:00

Well it's a La Niña year.... that means lots of snow in the Pacific NW (we've had snow in spades) and apparently lots of little girls being born to all my physical oceanography friends. The string of niñas started last March and is forecasted thru to this May. Baby V was the last girl, but two more are on the way. Will it continue beyond that?
Image from the TAO website. Middle panel is the sea surface temperature anomaly along the equator in the Pacific ocean. Patch of blue starting in March 2007 = cold temperatures!!! This is one time blue is a girl color!

Sharing is nice, but...

2008-01-27T14:58:00.001-08:00

I want to teach baby V to share. Share her laughter and toys with friends. Share her smiles and hugs with family. I did not, however, bank on teaching her to share her germs with mami. Poor thing has been sick all week with a cold and I'm not lagging far behind. I hope I'm at least generating alot of antibodies and that I can share them with V. That way, she'll get much better in no time. She's sleeping now... I'm going to take her cue and share a nap with her.

Editorial

2008-01-26T10:02:00.000-08:00

Both faith and science can produce miracles.
These two creatures are not incompatible and
to trust in one does not mean you must reject the other.

Breakfast at Whole Foods

2008-01-20T12:33:00.001-08:00

We went to Whole Foods this morning to have breakfast from their deli (one of our favorite weekend rituals when we lived a block away from Whole Foods) and then do some groceries. We were eyeing all the cute families there for an early breakfast and we realized... we are now a "family" doing the very same thing. What an identity change. Top it off by us buying two packs of 7th generation diapers simply because they were on sale for $9.99 (we'll need them sooner or later). The fact that we know how expensive 7th generation diapers are around town... it's sad, really really sad.

3 months

2008-01-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow baby V turns 3 months old! Time sure has flown. I haven't posted much lately, I know. Probably my readership (shout out to the special few) have thrown up their hands in disgust and given up checking for new posts. C'est la vie.

B and I have gone back to work. V is flourishing and seems to enjoy staying with the nanny. We are happy with the nanny and she seems attached to the baby. V is growing up so fast. Every time I pick her up at the nanny's she seems to have grown in my absence. You should see the smile she gives us when we pick her up. It's the same smile she gives when I leave, just heart-warming instead of heart-wrenching.

I'm planning for a conference in March in Florida. V is going with me and abuela is coming up to spend time with her while I enjoy attending meetings. Afterwards, B is joining us in Ft Lauderdale for some family time. My cousin in Miami is getting married the weekend after the conference. He couldn't have timed that any better.

This trip to Florida may help us eventually move down there. I'm going to talk to some folks at the conference about job opportunities in Miami. It would be lovely to move back and be closer to mi familia. I'm pretty sure my parents won't mind the extra time with baby V.

Daycare

2008-01-02T17:21:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow is V's first day of daycare and my first "I'm really back to work" day. Hopefully, we'll all survive the adventure. Best case scenario is that only B&I find the experience traumatic and that V will love daycare. Keep us in your thoughts...

White Christmas

2007-12-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

Hurray! It's snowing in Seattle and it's V's first "white Christmas". We are enjoying every minute of V's antics. My parents are here and are loving their grandbaby.

We still haven't decided what our traditional Christmas celebration will look like. Some mixture between Noche Buena and Noel. We did alot of non-traditional things this year (had delicious grilled steaks and chicken with Chimichurri sauce for our Noche Buena meal, played Cranium afterwards, crashed well before midnight, didn't have my sister here to wake up our parents early on Christmas day to open gifts) and a few traditional things (cooked and laughed together, ate rice/black beans and key lime pie as part of our Noche Buena meal, sang "Feliz Navidad").

Hope you are all having a great holiday season and enjoying it as much as we are our "melting-pot Christmas".

How many Papau New Guineans does it take...

2007-12-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

How many Papau New Guineans does it take to shift the U.S.'s policy on climate change?

Apparently just one...

This CNN article about the recent U.N. climate change conference in Bali says that a speech by a delegate from Papau New Guinea challenged the U.S. to "either lead, follow or get out of the way."

Shocking

2007-11-17T17:34:00.000-08:00

A Ph.D. in oceanography does not prepare you for raising a child. Shocking, but true. When learning about geostrophy, I did not learn the best way to swaddle a child. When learning about Rossby waves, nobody told me what to do when your baby cries for hours on end. When preparing for my dissertation defense, I didn't read up on the best way to get your baby to go to sleep, change a diaper, or memorize good lullabies.

Some would say that "raising a baby isn't rocket science". Does that mean that a Ph.D. in rocket science is equally useless?

Somehow B is better at some of these things than I am. But he's an engineer and I guess a Ph.D. in engineering does prepare you somewhat for raising a child.

sigh

I'll get the hang of it sooner or later. It only took me a decade to get my Ph.D. How long could it take to figure out baby V?

Fussiness

2007-11-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

Baby V gets fussy. She reaches octaves that I didn't know existed. We are still trying to figure out exactly the best way to soothe her when she gets like that. I've been singing my favorite spanish lullabies from when I was a little girl.

1. Los pollitos (the little chickens)
2. Duermete mi niña (sleep my child)

What lullabies worked for you? Any suggestions?

Woodland Park Zoo

2007-11-09T17:08:00.000-08:00

We took baby V on her first "outing" that didn't involve a grocery store or a doctor's office. We went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Fremont/Phinney Ridge neighborhood. We first went to this zoo when I was trying to get labor going by walking alot. This park is so much fun. You have lots of interesting trails to walk along and there are excellent animals to see along the way. As far as zoos go, the habitats are really well-done. Usually I go to a zoo and feel bad for the animals. Here they've made an effort to make the animal habitats.... habitable. The animals may feel differently.

B and I decided to sign up for a membership. For only $80 (such a deal) we can go as many times as we want and bring up to five friends for half-price. Baby V is way too young to enjoy the animals, but we'll have fun taking her there for strolls. If anyone feels like a little zoo action just give us a call.

Baby V

2007-10-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Our bundle of joy, baby V, arrived October 20 at 8pm. She weighed 6 lbs, 9 oz and was 18 inches long. She is a beauty and has a *very* healthy appetite. She certainly has no trouble expressing what she wants and when. She's going to keep us on our toes for the next few decades.

Thank goodness for family. What would we do without them? My parents helped so much during the delivery and kept me distracted while I was waiting for V to arrive (she arrived 8 days late... or we were expecting her 8 days early). My inlaws are here now and helping keep us fed and making sure we get naps/rest. My sister - who has her own newborn baby to take care of - calls and gives me excellent pep-talks.

Anyway, V arrived, we are very happy, and there isn't much time for blogging. If you want recent pictures of the baby, just email me and I'll send you the link to our photos.

Nobel Peace Prize

2007-10-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- Former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work to raise awareness about global warming. (Full article)

Many congratulations to Al Gore and the IPCC! Al Gore, thank you so much for all your work to increase awareness of our climate crisis. IPCC, thank you for building a strong scientific consensus on this unbelievably important issue. Five bucks says the draftAlGore.com movement is going to step up their efforts in the wake of this announcement.

Arrivals in October

2007-10-06T10:30:00.001-07:00

Although the little one hasn't made her appearance yet, I am less than a week away from my due date! My parents (aka MaPi, Mami y Papi Brangelina-fied) arrive in a few days to help out with the delivery and taking care of the brand-spanking-new baby. Mostly, I suspect they are going to be making sure B&I get enough to eat and occasionally sleep. I'm hoping to get them to cook some yummy Cuban/Miami food while they are here. Arroz con pollo (saffron rice with chicken), maybe? Chop-chop (a favorite dish from a Miami Haitian-inspired fast food chain, the Chicken Kitchen), please! Tostones (fried green plantains), definitely! Arroz con leche (Cuban rice pudding) for dessert sound like a plan. My mom makes a killer arroz con leche. Mine is pretty good too, but let's face it comfort food is much better when it is cooked by mom.

B's parents arrive later this month and we can switch from Cuban food to French food. I know he is compiling his list of "things to beg my mother to cook for me" (gratin dauphinrois - scalloped potatoes with gruyere cheese - probably tops the list).

We are lucky in that even our father's enjoy cooking. My dad loves to experiment in the kitchen and *he bakes bread*. My dad, however, has an affinity for hot sauce. Don't ever get into a "who can tolerate more heat" contest with him. We've got a brand new bottle of Dave's Insanity Sauce ready for him. This habanero pepper sauce can supposedly can strip the paint of walls. It's so hot, my dad has to cut it down with olive oil. B's dad on the other hand gets props for his crepes and galettes (savory crepes). So decadent and delicious. Nothing like a galette filled with ham, gruyere cheese, mushrooms, and a bit of creme fraiche. I am getting hungry just thinking about them.

Somehow, I predict I won't lose much of my pregnancy weight during this month of visitors. Weird how that happens. The baby will at least get exposed to the best foods from Cuba and France in her first month outside of the womb. Hmm... my sister, brother-in-law, and niece are coming for Thanksgiving. Guess November isn't looking too good either. Thank goodness December isn't known for excessive eating and over-indulgence!

Imagine

2007-10-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

Imagine a world where science is valued and funded by governments rather than censored and cherry-picked. Could this actually happen?

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton on Thursday will vow to make science a high priority if she is elected president, a subject the New York Democrat claims has been neglected by the Bush administration.

Signing an Executive Order that encourages stem cell research and forbids “political appointees from altering or removing scientific conclusions in government publications without any legitimate basis for doing so,” are just two of several changes Clinton will promise to implement under her watch.

On the issue of space exploration, Clinton will guarantee to execute “a balanced strategy of robust human spaceflight, expanded robotic spaceflight, and enhanced space science activities.”

She will outline her scientific agenda before the Carnegie Institute on the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s successful launch of the Sputnik satellite.

– CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley

Red Bull Redux

2007-09-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

We made it to the Red Bull Soapbox Derby race (see previous post). We managed to a) find parking, b) get a sandwich from Paseo without having to wait in line, c) see the soapbox cars before the races started, d) find a spot to sit and watch the race, and e) get a post-race coffee from the Lighthouse. As Bertrand predicted, however, the viewing spot was not optimal. We were at the 150 meter mark of the race and when it got crowded you couldn't see much. It would have been better to lock in a spot at the start of the race (where the contestants did a funny skit and many of the cars had trouble with the starting ramp... e.g., crashed) or at the end of the race (where many of the cars came to a less than gentle stop... e.g., crashed). Still Bertrand managed to get lots of photos before it started raining. The rain, crowds, and uncomfortable baby belly got to me halfway through and we decided to head home a little early. It would've been fun to see the rest of the cars, but really after you see soapboxes shaped like a huge banana, a baby carriage, a sushi roll, a submarine, a salmon, the A-team van, and a tube of toothpaste rolling down Fremont Avenue you are pretty much set.

Some things you don't know about Fremont: you can get a nasty bruise from the falling chestnuts along Fremont Avenue and the bus-stops and trees can be easily climbed and provide excellent viewing for the race. For that matter, the roof of the port-o-potties they brought in for the race were the viewing spot of choice for some kids. Don't ask me why you'd want to sit on the roof of a port-o-potty. I guess I'm too grown-up to understand the appeal.

Que Bueno

2007-09-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

It's great to hear that the "hispanic" vote is increasing in the United States. As more first generation Americans become of age, they are voting. Hopefully, that will shake-up voter demographics in states who are so adamantly against giving illegal immigrants legal status. There will come a day when our voices will be heard. Granted our voices are varied. For instance, I'm a Cuban-American and liberal. Growing up in Miami, I know how unusual that makes me. Most Cubans in Miami are straight-up conservatives. Which is totally fine, but by aligning themselves with conservative Republicans they are also aligning themselves with folks who don't care much about aiding the lower and middle tax brackets, immigration, global warming, etc., etc.. I think first generation Cuban-Americans tend to vote differently. They are driven by different issues and priorities. Time will tell if that's true. Maybe 2008 will.

For the record... My parents came here legally and became U.S. citizens. My husband is a permanent resident and yes, it was an expensive/lengthy process to make that happen. Still, I bear no ill will towards illegal immigrants who want to become naturalized after living, working, raising kids, and paying taxes in the United States for so many years. The more the merrier. Porque no?

Red Bull Soapbox Derby

2007-09-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

B and I are very excited about the Red Bull Soapbox Derby taking place in Fremont tomorrow. Should be hilariously fun. I'm looking forward to seeing all the wacky soapbox designs and whether or not cool design translates into speed and maneuverability when they are roaring down the hill. I've never been to an event like this in Fremont. We are leaning towards taking public transportation to get down there because it'll probably be next-to-impossible to park. On the other hand, I'm so close to my due date... let's just say having the car handy is a good thing. Any suggestions from Fremont-ites where I should park? The event is taking place between 36th and 41st on Fremont Ave. If anyone wants to join us, just let me know.

Insomnia

2007-09-26T04:41:00.000-07:00

One of the things I didn't anticipate experiencing before the baby arrives is insomnia. But here we are. It's 4:41am and I'm wide awake. I'm usally an light-sleeper but an over-sleeper and luckily, my sleep has not been plagued by insomnia.

Surprisingly, there is an upside to insomnia (caveat: this comes from someone who has never had to deal with it): while you are laying in bed trying to coax yourself back to sleep, tons of ideas pop into your head. I had to get up and sit at my computer because I got some ideas for new calculations to try when I get to work tomorrow. I thought I should type myself a "to do when coherent" list just in case I forget when I reawaken at a decent hour.

Perhaps I can slink back into bed and get in a sleep cycle before my rude alarm clock wakes me up.

Power of the purse

2007-09-23T17:56:00.001-07:00

The irony is not lost on me that Hillary Clinton is finally unafraid to use the power of the purse. It's about time senators wake up and start using their constitutionally-given power. She's not the first, but she's not the last. Hopefully a majority of senators will join in this fashionable trend. Supporting this war is so last year (sadly, it's so last 4 years). You might as well where ugg boots and stretch pants.

Alliteration

2007-09-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

Bye-bye Blackwater!

Cousin in town

2007-09-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

My cousin C was in town from Austin yesterday. We picked her up, took her to lunch at Baguette Box in Capitol Hill, visited Pike Place Market, and went to a housewarming party at our friend house. It was overcast yesterday and we got plenty of rain, so she got a good sample of "Seattle weather". Despite the great food and time spent with good friends, here is what we will probably remember most about the day.

1) Gorgeous colors of flower arrangements at Pike Place Market.
2) Street musician playing "jazz music" with a rolled up poster and a rolled up dollar bill.
3) Finding one of our favorite sodas from Miami, Jupiña, at a hispanic market.
4) Grabbing a Washington license plate that we found lying on the road after the potluck as a souvenir.
5) Getting four consecutive red gumballs from a gumball dispenser at the video rental store. [I hate red colored candy because of high probability of cinnamon or cherry flavoring. We kept trying to tempt fate and get a different color. Gave up after shelling out a dollar for a piece of candy that loses it's flavor before you walk out the door.]

Afternoon at Carkeek Park

2007-09-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

Trying to make the most of the late-to-arrive summer, B and I headed to Carkeek Park for the afternoon. Yet another place that we should have visited during the last two years we've lived in Seattle, but hadn't gotten around to. There are lots of trails (due to my impregnated state we only walked on a short trail), picnic areas, a creek, and the best part a great stretch of beach. We happened to stumble on a group of kite-boarders who were prepping for an afternoon of riding the wind (or whatever the appropriate phrase is).

It's impressive to see the boarders jump 20 feet into the air and land so close to the shore. A few of them even pulled off some maneuvers you'd see in a half-pipe. Pictures soon to follow.

Update: The attached pictures are courtesy of B. I love the last one. The wave looks like cellophane.

Keeping the economy up

2007-09-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

Not much to say really. We are scurrying around trying to get the house ready for the baby. We just did our part to bolster the economy by buying many necessary and some questionably necessary items for the baby. If America goes into a recession, it's not because of us!

Just packed up my hospital bag too. It feels weird to do that. Before I could say "I'm not ready to have the baby yet. I don't even have my hospital bag packed." Now, I can't. Now the baby is free to come at any time. Not that she couldn't before. This is 36-week pregnant woman logic.

I'm trying to write up a paper on the "tropical circulation cell in the central equatorial Pacific ocean" before I go into labor. Maybe that will hold her off?

Dropping the A-bomb

2007-09-06T17:52:00.001-07:00

Just when you feared that you had too much pride in the leader of this country...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — When President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq last weekend, he made clear he was pleased with what he saw.

"The security situation is changing," Bush told reporters during the visit. "There's more work to be done. But reconciliation is taking place."

But according to the Sydney Morning Herald of Australia, the president gave a more-to-the-point assessment to Australia Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile.

"We're kicking ass," Bush said to Vaile Tuesday, according the Herald, after the deputy prime minister inquired about his trip to Iraq.

On Thursday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino would not confirm or deny the reported comment.

This isn't the first blunt comment Bush was overheard making to a world leader. At last year's G8 summit, an live microphone picked up the president telling then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the United Nations needs to "get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s**t."

... sigh ...

The Future of Food

2007-09-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

B and I watched an interesting documentary last night called "The Future of Food". I highly recommend watching it or at least visiting their website. It's all about large insectiside companies who now sell the seeds, are trying to patent every seed there is, and are putting genetically modified seeds out into the world. It's enough to make you want to buy only organic produce at farmer's markets.

Mystery Lock

2007-09-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

Our guest bedroom was mysteriously locked this morning. One of us must have locked it during the BBQ last night while showing the house to our friends. Or... the house has decided that we aren't allowed in that room. It's a toss up, really, which explanation is most viable.

B is trying every ad hoc lock-picking technique that he can find on the web. He's very cute with his Petzl flashlight on his head, a pair of pliers, and several straightened out paper clips. Hopefully, one of the tricks will work. Otherwise, we'll be making an embarrassed call to the landlord to see if he has a key to that door and/or a locksmith to get the door open.

Update: Success! Thanks to B's perserverance we got the door open! Yeah! Now, why did I want to get in there... hmm...

Sunday BBQ

2007-09-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

We had a pre-Labor day BBQ yesterday. Thank you to all our guests for the lovely evening! We loved having the opportunity to entertain in our new house. If nothing else, we unpacked 2-3 more boxes, hung up pictures, sorted through knick-knacks, made a pile to donate to Goodwill in preparation for the event. All good things. We had a small-ish group of invitees because we don't have full patio furniture yet and we need a bigger dining room table. But we are slowly ramping our way up.

We did however have an abundance of kids at the BBQ. Boys to be exact. They are such cute, well behaved boys... but oh-my-goodness what are we getting ourselves into? ... these kids were really active and run around with so much energy and vitality. We have alot to learn about childproofing and keeping an eye on the kids while they explore new places. Both sets of parents assure us that it happens gradually. In other words, they don't pop out of the womb at full run. They at least have the decency to take a year to do it and we have time to slowly childproof the home. Good advice from A. on childproofing and overall discipline "pick your battles". Let them explore the world around them, but stay firm on the things that really matter to you.

What food did we serve? I'm glad you asked. We had BBQ chicken, hot dogs (beef and the faux tofu-variety), and thanks to W. and B. salmon and chicken sausage. We also grilled corn, yum. W. and B. also brought a delicious zucchini salad. A. and D. brought a too die for chocolate mouse and A. and R. brought delicious brownies and champagne (which Bertrand happily sabered open).

I was so excited to try out a recipe suggested to me on NPR. I emailed KUOW while they were doing a show "Reinventing the Food in Your Fridge by Thierry Rautureau" and asked what I could do with some Miami mangoes I had in my freezer. He suggested this yummy mango salad. Basically, you take the chopped up mangoes, add some white wine vinegar, and sea salt and let that macerate (marinate). You do the same with some chopped red onions, but in a separate container. I put them in the fridge for 30-45 minutes while macerating. I don't know if that's optimal. Then you mix them, add some chopped fresh basil, and some fresh blueberries (or grapes if you don't have blueberries on hand). It was so good -- even if I winged the quantities.

Rough mango salad recipe
*2-3 cups of mangoes chopped, 2-3 teaspoons of champagne vinegar, pinch of sea salt (few turns of the salt grinder)
*1 cup of red onions finely chopped, 1 teaspoon of champagne vinegar, pinch of sea salt
*2-3 tablespoons (about three sprigs) of chopped fresh basil.
*1 cup of blueberries

Let me know if you like it. It's somewhere between a salad and a salsa.

Argh!

2007-08-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

B has a day off today and I was planning on working on my paper at home. Sounds like a nice relaxed day, right? Wrong. Our cat, Silk, was apparently distressed this morning and decided to physically express that distress by defecating/urinating on our couch. Lovely. Number one on the list of things you don't want to do on a "relaxed" day is deal with number two.

I am not sure what has caused the distress, but it's probably related to the fact that we are on day 4 of adjusting the cats to having the cat litter in the garage. I think Silk is less happy about that situation than we are. We love having the litter outside of our main living area, but Silk apparently likes having it inside. Hope he gets used to it without any more drama.

I wish they could just talk to you and tell you "I'm pissed. I'm going to poop on your couch in five minutes." Then you would know, I need to resolve this situation before it escalates.

6 weeks to go!

2007-08-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

Crazy to believe but now there are only 6 weeks (plus or minus) left before the little one arrives!

Summer is back

2007-08-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

After several weeks of blah weather, summer has finally returned! It's about time, really. We were tired of shooting mournful looks at our BBQ and thinking "maybe tomorrow we can grill". We even had to dig our down comforter out of the closet and started using it at night. That's not summer, folks. That's not summer.

The past few days have been really nice and I hope it continues through the rest of the month and into September. The only downside to a late summer is that it's getting dark earlier. Today it got dark around 8:45pm. It's all downhill from here... next thing you know it'll be getting dark at 4:30pm. Damn you, mid-latitudes!!! It's enough to make a Miami girl want to move back to the tropics.

Nesting?

2007-08-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today is all about checking things off of our "things to do around the house" list. For me, item #1 was hanging curtains in the living room. We have a big beautiful window in the living room and we just wanted the curtains to add a bit of privacy. I've been meaning to do it for two weeks but hadn't mustered up the energy to hem the curtains. Now they are up (after twice the time that a normal person would have taken to do it) and they look great.

Item #2, go to dreaded baby store and order baby furniture. Ordering baby furniture sounds like it'd be fun, but the number of choices are overwhelming and they may have to special order certain items (e.g., items could take months to arrive). Hopefully, they'll have our favorites available this time and we can check off "buy baby furniture" from our list. Then when people ask us "have you set up the babies room, yet?" we won't get that shocked look when we sheepishly reply "um, no, not yet".

There are many more items on the to do list... but taking care of two of them is enough to sit back and rest on our laurels, don't you think?

Internet restored

2007-08-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Our internet has been restored! Hurrah! It's feels like a cold drink of water at a shady oasis after walking in the desert for days on end. p.s. I do realize how lame it is that this was the major inconvenience in my life.

Additional comments... there seems to be nobody in our neighborhood that actually uses Comcast. This was confirmed by 1) not being able to "borrow" a connection while we were cable free and 2) the fact that our connection is mega-uber-fast now that we have cable. I'm doing the happy internet jig. It's pretty comical considering I'm 8 months pregnant!

Update

2007-08-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks. We moved out of our old apartment and into a new house. My parents came out to help us and hung out in Seattle for a week. We were given a wonderful baby shower at the Library Bistro. BTW, I highly recommend this restaurant for a nice brunch in downtown Seattle. Follow it up with a walk along the waterfront and a visit to Pike's Market.

We returned to Whidbey island with my parents and visited Whidbey Island Winery and Greenbank Winery. Greenbank hasn't been opened long and B and my parents thought their wines were a bit young. They do have a cool antique bar that used to belong to a soda fountain (or ice cream) shop in Nebraska. Whidbey Island Winery hasn't disappointed us yet. We still love their Whidbey Island White. So light and crisp. Perfect for a hot summer day. Not that we've had too many of those lately. What's the point of moving out of a stiflingly-warm-in-the-summer apartment into a nice-cool-always-breezy house if the sun refuses to shine?

What else is going on? We started our parenting/childbirth classes. It's good to get more information, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. Now we know a little too much about what will go on during labor... the acronym TMI comes to mind. It's nice, though, to meet couples who are having babies almost at the same time that we are. Maybe some of us will continue to get together after the babies arrive.

I'll try to get back into posting. We still don't have internet at the house - the horror! - and are not sure when it will be set up. So I'm posting now from the library at B's school. Yes I'm scavenging free wi-fi... I'm not ashamed!

Miss you all & hope you are enjoying the summer!

Trip to NYC

2007-07-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

I'm having a blast in NYC. I'm here visiting my sister, her husband, and my brand new niece. So nice to spend time with them. My niece is only three weeks old and adorable. Except for today, the weather has been superb. We got to walk around alot and take the baby out to fun places like Central Park.

I also got a chance to pop over to NJ to visit our friends from OSU and meet their 4 month old baby girl. They have a really great house and we had a terrific afternoon catching up/bbqing/smiling at the baby/etc.

This trip has provided a nice taste for what parenthood will be like for us in less than three months! I hope B&I do as good a job with parenting as R&J and J&F are doing with their little princesses.

I'll try to post photos later...

Day on Whidbey Island

2007-07-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

In another inspired move of "let's get out and enjoy the summer", we went exploring Whidbey Island yesterday. It was a nice day trip that didn't involve too much driving. We started off taking the Mukilteo ferry from Everett to get to the south side of the island. It was a really short ferry trip, most of the time went into loading onto and off of the ferry. There was alot of fog in the Sound and B said the gaps between islands look like mysterious fjords. The sky above was definitely blue and filled with whispy clouds... so despite the early morning fog we knew the weather was going to be great.

Our first stop was to a town called Langley on the southeast side of the island. We were told by friends that it's a great little town to hang out in. We weren't disappointed. Lots of cute shops, galleries, restaurants, and B&Bs. We briefly hit Whidbey Island Winery on the way in. B was a little squeamish about sampling wine at the uncivilized hour of 11am, so he only sampled some delicious, crisp whites that they had. We ended up buying two bottles of the Island white. It was really good (relax, I only dipped my lips to sample) and I can't wait to enjoy the bottle post-baby. It's the perfect wine to drink to cool down on a warm summer afternoon. After the winery, we walked around Langley and by the waterfront. It's a really nice area to spend a relaxing/no pressure weekend. The abundance of B&Bs is a clear testament to that fact. We had lunch at this great cafe called "Prima Bistro". B had the "moules et frites" (clams in white wine sauce with side of too-die-for fries) and I had a merguez sausage sandwich with frites. Yum... They had other things on the menu that we were wanting to try, so if anyone wants to take a Whidbey island road trip just give us a call.

From there we headed north towards Deception Pass. We stopped along the way and were sometimes very pleasantly surprised by what we found. We took a detour to head to Doublebluff beach and found a very nice little beach with great sand and inviting water. It reminded me of a beach on Sanibel Island on the west side of Florida. Main differences: we saw two enormous and majestic eagles in a big tree on the edge of the beach, you could see Mt. Rainier in the distance (no mountains visible from Florida), not many folks were swimming in the water and those that were had wet suits on. Everything else though was familiar: sand, sun, people sunbathing, people having picnics or bbqs. Other stops were nice but nothing to blog about.

Then we got to Deception Pass. First we hit a beach at the Deception Pass state park. This was amazing and it's a great place to spend a summer day for a family looking to not spend too much money. So many families were on the beach bbq-ing and have picnics. It was great. Right near the beach (and I do mean right near) is a beach on the adjacent Cranberry Lake. They've blocked off a swimming area in the lake and the water was not warm, but comfortably cool. So you can hang out on the ocean, but go swimming in the lake. You can also rent pedal-boats, canoes, etc. and go around on the lake. All around the lake are spots for camping. It seems the perfect place to spend a long weekend with the family or just drive up for a day of sun/fun/nature/discovery. We even had a family of deer crossing one of the state park streets right in front of us!

The pass itself is impressive. There are two huge bridges that B went and took pictures from the area they've conviently blocked off for such things. I stayed at the viewpoint just to the side of the bridge as I've got a bit of vertigo. It was nerve-wracking to watch B casually lean over the side to take photos. Vertigo-aside the views from Deception Pass were spectacular. Then it's a short drive back to I-5 and then ~50 miles back home. Not too bad for a lazy Saturday.

QuikSCAT in the news

2007-07-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

There is some QuikSCAT related news on CNN. Apparently, there is conflict over the new director of the National Hurricane Center saying that the eventual loss of the QuikSCAT satellite (more accurately the scatterometer aboard the Seawinds satellite) will deteriorate hurricane forecasts by something like 15%. Here is the article. I don't really have any comments about the drama/office politics... but I use winds from the Seawinds satellite (aka QuikSCAT) for my research. I know it will ultimately fail and it's not clear if a replacement satellite is in the works. These satellites take on the order of ten years of planning to get up in space. So if one isn't in the works... we'll have a huge gap of data. It's a fantastic data set and we've learned alot from it. Case in point: we have better hurricane/climate forecasts. Here's hoping it'll survive until 2009, because then we'll have a full ten years of data to learn from. If I'm really making wishes, here's hoping there is a QuikSCAT replacement in the works.

Day at the beach

2007-07-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

B heard that Edmonds beach was a nice place to hang out, so we drove up this afternoon and spent an hour or two on the beach and then walked around Main Street. It was a great afternoon. It was warm but breezy enough that we weren't uncomfortable. It's funny how just a short 5-10 mile drive away from the apartment puts you smack-dab on a beach where you find yourself blinking in the sunlight, reminding yourself what seaweed smells like, and what the ocean breeze feels like on your skin. You can scuba dive directly from that beach. We aren't sure what there is to see... B heard rumors of artists that make underwater paintings there. I guess you have to dive or at least snorkel to enjoy them. We hit a tiki bar that wasn't terrific, got a Nanaimo bar for dessert, and then hit a candy shop for some post-dessert dessert. I couldn't pass up the salt-water taffy. Nothing says "day at the beach" quite like a bag of salt-water taffy.

Positive energy

2007-06-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Positive energy and happy thoughts going out to my sister! Te quiero mucho!

Update: All is well and thank you all for the positive thoughts.

Home found

2007-06-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

We finally found a house that will suit our needs and we got there early enough to rent! Hurrah! It's a nice 3 bedroom/2 bath house near Haller Lake/Shoreline. It's a bit far from all the cool Seattle things, but very convenient for our work commute. We'll be moving in sometime in early August. Plenty of time to have a few BBQs before fall descends on Seattle.

Sun dog

2007-06-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

Just saw my first sun dog in the sky just outside of my office building. Pretty neat, it's like a rainbow-colored cloud. Check out Wikipedia for more on sun dogs.

Raising a multilingual child

2007-06-21T08:10:00.001-07:00

We are starting to think about this question "How to raise a multilingual child?" It turns out people have very strong (i.e., negative) opinions about this. We'll just have to come up with a strategy that works in our family and just ignore the negativity. I have some ideas of where I went wrong in becoming fully bilingual with Spanish and English. And now that I'm learning French and living in the Pacific NW away from "mi familia", my Spanish has sadly deteriorated. It's actually painful to me to not be better at Spanish as an adult. But, I grew up with Spanish and you never lose the ear for it. That makes it much easier to bring my skills up to scratch. B doesn't really speak Spanish, but he grew up hearing it from his grandmother and other family members so he has a pretty good ear too. Maybe the whole family will become trilingual. :)

Househunting continues

2007-06-16T18:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the more houses we see the better idea we get of what we are looking for and what we don't want. Unfortunately, we don't see everything we want in the same place. We visited two townhomes today. One in a not-so-great neighborhood, one just a block off of Greenlake (right near the wading pool). The former was too expensive, the latter well-priced. The first very cute with new appliances, the second was "quirky/vintage" with older appliances. The first didn't have storage space, the second did have storage space. So it continues... I think we are narrowing in on what we want and lots of nice things are coming onto the market in the Greenlake/Ravenna area. Hopefully we'll find the right place for us in the next two months. I'd like to be moved in well before "la niña" arrives (and by "la niña" I don't mean an excess of cold water upwelling in the tropical Pacific).

Update: We saw a place today. Again great neighbourhood, great backyard, plenty of space... but not so nice inside. The kind of place you would buy, paint, strip carpets, put in new appliances and immediately increase the value of the house. For a rental, though, that kind of effort just isn't worth it. We are seeing another place tomorrow... stay tuned.

Up-update: Saw another place. Loved it. Put our names down, but so did alot of other couples. I'm thinking happy thoughts and hoping it'll go our way. Either way, though, we have a fun more houses lined up to see this week that look very promising. For putting up with me griping about the house-hunt, you get to come over for a BBQ once we find a place!

Where have I been?

2007-06-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much lately. We've been running around looking for a house to rent. So far, we've seen a few places we've really liked (couldn't really afford, but that's another story) but were not picked because we got their too late or we couldn't move in a.s.a.p. The rental market here is tricky. You can find beautiful homes but if the rent is remotely decent (decent = obscenely expensive anywhere else but Seattle, New York, California), 30+ other people want to rent it too. So you just keep looking and hopefully you see a place that you love and happen to be the first person in line. A bit time consuming and emotionally draining, but c'est la vie.

Other than that, we've been enjoying movies at the Seattle International Film Festival. We saw "Day Watch" and "Tekkonkinkreet" last weekend. So far my favorite movie at SIFF was "Paprika" followed by "Day Watch". I am ambivalent about "Tekkonkinkreet". I thought it moved to slow for an anime movie. You meet/chat with interesting people while waiting in line for your movie or sitting in the theater waiting for the film to start. I swear some folks have seen 20+ films this year. Any movie you ask them about, they've seen and have strong opinions about. The good news is that the movies we wanted to see but missed will probably hit Seattle theaters this summer... like "La Vie en Rose" and "Moliere" and many others.

Summer is rapidly approaching and that means it's festival time in Seattle. We are hoping to go to a few of them and get out alot this summer. Once our little gamine arrives, we'll have less time for that sort of thing. Speaking of the gamine, she's kicking me like crazy. B can feel her kicking and my belly moves like a tremor when she kicks. B thinks she might enjoy playing soccer or like martial arts when she grows up.

Good day

2007-06-03T08:15:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a good day.

Walked around Greenlake and took advantage of the sunshine - check.
Put on sunscreen - oops... forgot that. Got sunburned - check.

Watched Pirates of the Carribean 2 with our French friend and his two young sons - check.
Missed Johnny Depp's quirky interpretation of Jack Sparrow due to French dubbing - check.

Ate fresh cherries and strawberries on the lawn after movie - check.

Visited local Thai restaurant, Royal Palm, for buffet to benefit breast cancer - check.
Felt guilty for number of times we revisited the buffet - check.

Spent evening with two friends who are moving to Brazil - check.
Very sad that they are leaving but glad we got to see them before they leave - check.

More photos of driftwood/cobbles

2007-05-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

More photos from Ruby Beach courtesy of B...

Cobbles and Driftwood

Incorrigible Tourists climbing all over rocks and driftwood

Olympic Peninsula Road Trip

2007-05-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

Despite the cloudy forecast, B&I set out to explore the Olympic Peninsula yesterday. That sounds like fun, right? Well, it was except for the carbon guilt. We just had no idea how much driving we'd pack into one day. We did over 400 miles in one day (by "we", I mean B drove all those miles)! The only thing good about the miles we drove was that we met the 40mpg efficiency limit of our car. There is not much you can do to get out there other than burn fuel. It's pretty isolated which is probably why it's still beautiful and not over-developed. Guilt aside, we had a great time.

We first drove down to Tacoma on I-5 and then headed up to Port Angeles via Bremerton. The only delay was the 20 minutes plus it took to get over the 104 bridge. We still aren't quite sure why it was backed up. There wasn't an accident when we reached the bridge -- thank goodness -- just a bottleneck of some sort. We hung out in Port Angeles awhile. We had a nice quick lunch at an Indian restaurant right by the pier with an open lunch buffet. It was a bit chilly, but the ocean breeze was lovely and the sun was out. We walked onto the pier and enjoyed the view.

After that, we drove towards the west coast of the Olympics. The drive by Crescent Lake was really beautiful. We stopped several times for photo ops and fresh air. We spotted what looked like a lodge or hotel on the other side of the lake. What a great idea for a long weekend to rent a room on the lake and just lounge about. We unfortunately didn't have time to check it out. Next time for sure.

All along 101 are some amazing camping spots. Anyone who knows me, knows I am not a camper. But, even these camps make me rethink that philosophy. They are well designed with picnic tables, bbqs right by each spot and they have nice clean bathroom facilities (we checked them out during a pit stop). The big plus is that most we saw had access to the beach or a lakefront with lots of hiking trails nearby. Maybe I'll turn into a camper one of these days. If I do, It'll be on the Olympic peninsula.

The last stop we made was at a long stretch of beaches that are nested between several coastal Indian reservations (Ruby Beach and Beaches 1-4). We spent a good while exploring Ruby beach. The piles of driftwood are enormous and beautifully stacked. Near the driftwood are mountains of volcanic rock (what I generically call "cobbles") of all shapes and sizes that have been slowly smoothed out by wave action and currents. Pouring into the ocean, is a tiny undulating river. I love how most beaches on the Pac NW are populated by tiny undulating rivers slowly moving forward to meet the sea. Walking to the water was no problem, because the beach was also sandy. Plenty of sugary sand to walk barefoot on, you don't have to worry about walking on rocks the whole way. There are, however, beautiful large rocks that are remnants of headlands eroded by waves (some are islands and you'd have to swim to them... I don't recommend that). B climbed up one that was just at the water's edge, so you can see the scale.

All those stops were wonderful, but now is the long task of driving back. Green trees lined our windy path. Unfortunately, so did long barren patches where the trees have been cut down. Amazing piles of dried out twisted tree trunks and brush mark where once beautiful trees stood. I hope it goes to good use, because it sure doesn't increase the beauty of the otherwise gorgeous Olympic National Parks. I'll leave you with a pretty picture instead of a desolate one.

Seattle International Film Festival

2007-05-25T23:30:00.001-07:00

Just got back from our first movie from the SIFF 2007, Paprika. It was very good. If you have an appreciation for wildly imaginative anime movies, I definitely recommend it. We are still discussing what happened and comparing our different impressions from the film. That's anime for you. Probably could do with seeing it again, it's hard to follow the subtitles and keep track of all the amazing images flashing past you on the screen. (Note: This film is not a children's animated feature, so probably wouldn't recommend it for young ones.)

I forgot that film festival movies have high attendance and you want to get there early to get a good spot. We got there about 45 min early and the line was already wrapped around the building. By the time they let us in the line extended for two blocks!

It's a ...

2007-05-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

We found out yesterday that we are expecting a girl!

My father said he hopes she's just like me. The wicked/evil-genius laugh that accompanied that statement makes me think he didn't mean that in the best way. I guess I was a challenging child.

Bienvenue

2007-05-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

Our friends R and F arrived from France late last night. They spent a couple of days touring wineries and seeing the sites near San Francisco and then they did the 15-hour marathon drive up to Seattle. They look like they've been having a great time so far. We chatted over beers (I miss beer), pizza, good French cheese, and dessert. Dinner was a bit impromptu because we thought they ate on the road. Looking forward to touring Seattle with them. Any suggestions of places to go this time of year?

Small world

2007-05-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

I was walking around Greenlake yesterday morning. The weather is so great right now. There is plenty of sunshine but you can still wear a long sleeve shirt while you walk around the lake. I was (as always) people watching and noticed a couple that were speaking either Spanish or French. I was dealing with a stitch in my side and was walking slow, so they easily passed me.

Later on we met some friends in Capitol Hill for dinner (The Elysian Brewery) and a movie ("The Valet" at the Egyptian Theater). Wouldn't you know that the couple that sits behind us at the movies was the *same couple* I saw at Greenlake. Seattle is huge, and yet it's a small world and you actually bump into people more often than you'd think.

It was a really nice evening and great to catch up with W&B and H&D. Side note: The Elysian brewery had pretty good beers and good food. B particularly liked the Dragonstooth Stout. The movie was pretty funny. If you are a fan of the French farces La Cage aux Folles, The Dinner Game, and The Closet, you'd dig this movie. We picked up the schedule for the Seattle International Film Festival and are excited about many of the entries. Looks like we'll be watching lots of flicks next month!

House guests

2007-05-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

We have guests coming over from France on Monday. Two of B's closest friends from university. They are going to hang out with us for about a week. We have tons of great ideas for things to do with them in Seattle, the only question is "how will we fit it all in"? We've got a ton of favorite restaurants, #1 on the list being Paseo (obviously). I hope the weather next week is as nice as it's been this week (sunny/windy and in the mid-sixties). Maybe we can go on some fun hikes in addition to the usual sight-seeing.

Next week will be all about fun, this weekend it's all about cleaning the house and making it presentable for guests. It'll be tough to stay inside cleaning while it's sunny and gorgeous outside.

French elections tomorrow

2007-05-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is election day in France. I think Sarkozy is leading in the polls over Segolene, but you never know how the center will vote. Will they vote a protest vote (abstention), will the go left (Sego) or right (Sarko)? We'll know by tomorrow night...

Update: Well the majority has spoken and Sarkozy is the new French president. I was hoping Segolene could turn it around, but what can you do? Maybe Sarkozy won't be as bad as he sounds.

Chocolati

2007-04-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

Sure on a sunny day like yesterday, one can walk around Greenlake, enjoy the sunshine, and get a bit of exercise. The other alternative is to walk just enough around Greenlake that you reach the Greenlake Chocolati Cafe and get some iced chocolate drinks. B and I enjoyed a decadent blended iced chocolate drink that had tiny balls of frozen chocolate syrup (what happens when you pour melted chocolate in a glass with something cold) in it. It reminded me of a oreo cookie ice cream shake only 10 times better. Our friends got a hot chocolate and an iced horchata. Both were really good. Their cute baby was stuck with regular milk -- no chocolate yet. Sugared up we walked back to their house (see some walking was actually involved) and chatted for a while - basically until all the sugar wore off.

Plastic Bags

2007-04-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

AP article about a town in England banning plastic bags. We try to recycle our plastic bags and use them for multiple purposes once we've got them, but it's with a guilty conscience that we accumulate them in the first place. I have several cloth bags that I use for groceries, but I do sometimes forget them and sheepishly ask for plastic bags at the store. Here's to trying harder in (and for) the future!

LONDON, England (AP) -- A small town in southwest Britain is banning plastic bags in a bid to help the environment and cut waste -- a move environmentalists believe is a first for Europe.

Shopkeepers in Modbury, population 1,500, agreed to stop giving out disposable plastic bags to customers on Saturday. They said paper sacks and cloth carrier bags would be offered instead.

Last month, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic grocery bags.

Internationally, legislation to discourage plastic bag use has been passed in parts of South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan, where authorities either tax shoppers who use them or impose fees on companies that distribute them. Bangladesh already bans them, as do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.

Modbury, about 225 miles southwest of London, has also declared a bag amnesty, allowing residents to hand in plastic bags that have piled up at home. They will be sent for recycling.

The Modbury ban was the idea of Rebecca Hosking, a local resident who saw the effect of bags on marine life while working in the Pacific as a wildlife camerawoman.

She said response in the town so far had been "really positive."

"Modbury's quite an old-fashioned town and a lot of people have wicker baskets to go out shopping anyway," Hosking told Sky News television.

The Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research agency, estimates that 100 billion plastic bags are discarded each year in the United States alone. More than 500 billion are used annually around the world.

Shopping for baby

2007-04-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

A whole new world is opening up to us... the world of infant retail. We went to Babies R Us yesterday to have a look at some baby gear. You research items on the web, but there is nothing like going to the store and seeing how robust, flexible, durable, etc. something is in person. We are total rookies when it comes to this stuff. There are so many choices to make and we certainly won't overthink them, but we don't want to underthink them either. Luckily the staff there was friendly and helpful. They totally recognized the "help me" look on my face and patiently answered questions about stroller A vs. stroller B.

We couldn't process it all in one day and walked out of there without boosting the economy. We'll go back in a month or so to actually pick items... By then we'll know whether we are shopping for a boy or girl. Thank goodness there are more color choices now-a-days than just shockingly-pink-pink or beyond-baby-blue. Yeah to an enriched color pallette!

Exciting French Presidential Runoff

2007-04-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

The primary in France took place last night and it's Nicholas Sarkozy (male, right wing candidate) vs. Segolene Royal (female, socialist candidate) for the secondaries on May 6th. Either candidate will represent a big change in France. Because of this voter turnout was above 80% -- voters actually care who their next president will be and didn't want a repeat of the last election where an extreme right candidate Jen-Marie Le Pen made it into the final two along with Jacques Chirac.

Sarkozy just plain scares me -- his ideas on combating immigrant violence are too rough for me. I like Segolene, but I don't live in France and so my take on it is probably different. I don't know if her campaign promises are realistic or not. They sound good.

What do you think?

Scientific Mystery

2007-04-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

Where are all the honeybees? I posted on this before, but scientists are still perplexed why honeybee populations are declining all over the US. It's bad news for crops that get pollinated by the bees.

Spring cleaning starts now

2007-04-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

Today marks the beginning of spring cleaning at our house. It may also mark the end, depending on how tired I am at the end of it. I started by cleaning up my desk, shredding tons of unsolicited credit card applications, and filing old paid bills. In the process I generated about 3 bags of paper to be recycled. I really wish Capitol One didn't send me 2 credit card applications every 3 days. I try keeping up with it all, but every few months or so the stack of paper to be filed on my desk gets unmanageable.

Next I sorted through our bathroom sink cabinets. I tossed out old medicines, removed beauty products purchased on a whim, decided exactly how many hotel room shampoos I need to have on hand. It looks nice and organized now and I can actually find things now. It will only last a few weeks or so, so I better enjoy it while it lasts.

Does anyone have good strategies for spring cleaning they want to pass along?

Strange Dreams

2007-04-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

My dreams have become vivid and bizarre ever since I became pregnant. The night before last I dreamt I was being attacked by bees. Nobody else around me was getting attacked and I was trying to kill the bees with a frying pan. Surprisingly, that wasn't the best "bee-killing" strategy.

Last night, I dreamt about the baby and apparently the baby (at an age technically unable to form words yet) would sing along with me whenever I sang "Endless Love". So random. What is worse is that I couldn't get the song out of my head at work today.

New York wrap-up

2007-04-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

On our third day in New York, my sister did an ultrasound for me. We got to see the little one's heart beating and watch amazing jumping around. It's a shock to realize they aren't just sleeping in there, but flipping around. B got some great pics and made some Quicktime movies. For lunch, we ate at B's favorite schwarma stand outside of my sister's apartment. For some reason, he fantasizes about that schwarma. Go figure. We went to window shopping and sat outside enjoying the sun at a nearby cafe. That evening we had a lovely Shabbas dinner with my R&J. It was a really fun meal, especially because they were kicking off 2 weeks of vacation for Passover. They work so hard, that having two weeks off is like getting a year of vacation for a normal person.

On our last day, B&I didn't do very much. Packed up, ate at a Mexican restaurant called Cilantro, and wandered into an outrageously priced antique store where Bertrand discussed a British coat of arms with the French motto "Dieu et mon droit" (God and my right) and "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (shame upon him who thinks evil of it). The store owner said it was a new piece and didn't know much about it. Of course, Wikipedia has plenty of information on those two phrases. The first refers to a ruler's divine right to govern and the second is the motto of the Order of the Garter. The English nobility had just switched from using French to English. Probably more information than you wanted... but it was kind of cool to so quickly pull up that information on Wikipedia. He said we could buy it for "35" which turns out to mean "35-hundred". A bit steep for our blood.

We had a great time in NYC. Thanks to R&J for being such excellent hosts!!!

Way to go Supreme Court!

2007-04-02T08:00:00.001-07:00

Article from today's Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ordered the federal government on Monday to take a fresh look at regulating carbon dioxide emissions from cars, a rebuke to Bush administration policy on global warming.

In a 5-4 decision, the court said the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars.

Trip to New York Part Deux

2007-04-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

Woke up late the morning of the second day. It's vacation, that's allowed. B worked in the morning and I did some reading. It's Spring Break, but there is still work next week. R took a break for lunch and we got some pizza near the apartment. After that we headed to the Asian Society and Museum that B&I spotted while walking around. It's at 725 Park Avenue and 70th Street. Adult admission was only $10. They have exhibits that change seasonally, a bookstore with a fairly large selection of Asian historical, cultural, and fiction books, and a Garden Court Cafe.

We saw an exhibit on the Sasnian culture (geographically includes pre-Islamic Iran but extended from Greece to Asia during its height, time period 200 - 800 AD). They had some great artwork ranging from stone carvings and mosaics to intricate rings with seals and glassware. There was also an exhibit by a Japanese artist, Yuken Teruya, called Free Fish who creates art from paper bags and discarded objects. We also enjoyed seeing the collections of several Asian art collectors ranging from statues of deities from all over Asia to Japanese glassware and porcelain to Tibetan tapestries and Japanese screens. After wandering through the musuem, we enjoyed some drinks (great teas and fresh juices) and dessert in the cafe. On the way back, B took lots of pictures of all the buildings. New York has so many different styles of buildings all smooshed together. We popped into an asian art gallery and saw this enormous (6 feet x 3 feet) jade dragon boat. It was incredibly intricate and looked so fragile. B asked the price, and it turns out that for a cool half million that jade dragon boat is yours!

That evening we went out to a French steak restaurant called Le Marais with R&J. We had amazing steaks (most had tourneados, I had a tasty entrecote) and frites. Afterwards we headed to Time Square/Broadway and stared at all the neon. We visited the new M&M store where you can create your own M&M color combination, the Hershey store, and Dale & Thomas popcorn. We were saturated from the meal, so staring at sweets was a bit overkill. But we did some walking and that's what counts. There is so much on Broadway. Don't you think some movies shouldn't be turned into a Broadway musical? What is the point exactly of "Legally Blond the Musical"? Does anyone know?

After that we started heading back to the apartment, but couldn't find a cab. We found ourselves not to far from Grand Central. We cut through the building and admired the great architecture. Even B, who is French and sees that stuff all the time was impressed. Finally, our feet wore out and we grabbed a cab on the other side. Time to get some sleep.

Trip to New York

2007-04-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful time visiting my sister R and brother-in-law J in the Upper East Side. B had a week off for Spring break and we decided to head to NYC for a little RNR. The weather was sunny and cool (50s to 60s during the day) and everyone was out enjoying the sunshine.

We took full advantage of the good weather on our first day and walked alot. This explains probably by the rest of the week we were a little lethargic and rode cabs a little bit more.

In the morning we hit Bagels & Co with R&J. It's a kosher restaurant that has excellent bagels and a wide range of high-fat and low-fat spreads. My choice was an everthing bagel with tuna-vegetable cream cheese. I enjoyed the bagels here so much, we went back on the third day for another bagel spree. J went to sleep (he was working nights that week) and we went exploring with my sister.

Fueled with carbs, we walked a bit through central park (near the zoo) and then wandered over to the new Apple/Ipod Store. It's got a beautiful glass entrance and you can take either the stairs down or a transparent elevator. Too cool. We didn't buy anything, but it was nice to gawk at all of the accessories. Right next to the Apple Store, is FAO Schwarz. We went in there and stared at all the huge stuffed animals, handmade candies, legos, barbies, etc., etc.

After that we hit Destination Maternity with my sister to shop for maternity clothes. Both she and I are pregnant at the same time (if you didn't know, you heard it here!) and we spent an hour or two trying on lots of great clothes. That store is really smart and they've set up leather chairs, a flat screen TV, and an PC with internet connection for fathers-to-be to kick back and relax. The upstairs has more affordable, staple items and the downstairs has higher end designer brands. On one of the floors there is the Edamame Spa where you can get special pregnancy massages/facials. That way you can get staple items, items for special events, or just grab a massage. Everything you need in one place, so smart. They also hand out complimentary water and juice to keep you hydrated while shopping and sell snacks. R had to work that afternoon so she headed back and left us to our own devices.

We searched around trying to find some food and just when we were getting frustrated B&I spotted a restaurant called Tao with promising exterior. It turned out to be a really nice restaurant with great ambiance. Huge buddha statue, posh furniture, low lighting, etc. B&I just sat at the bar. Even though it was a bit spendy, they had a great selection of appetizers and we just ordered dumplings, spring rolls, salad, and seared tuna and enjoyed all the different tastes. To work off our meal, we headed back to central park. The sun was out and we decided to lay down on the rocks a bit and look at the brave souls who were ice skating on the melty ice. We decided to walk back to R&J's place but took the scenic route back through the zoo, watched kids playing on the park slide and using cardboard boxes to provide more speed, took pictures of building ramparts, checked out museum times, and stopped at a pastry shop for a treat.

New York bound

2007-03-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

B&I are heading to Manhattan to visit my sister and brother-in-law. I'll try to blog from the road. The weather in NYC is supposed to be nice with highs in the 50s and *sunshine*... glorious, glorious, sunshine.

Political Link

2007-03-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in trying to persuade Al Gore to run for President in 2008, there is a petition at the following link. It would be nice to have presidential debates that focus on climate change as one of the most important issues facing our country (and the whole globe for that matter).

Taste of Spring

2007-03-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday's weather in Seattle was like the first taste of Spring. There was a break in the rain and the sun actually came out. I can tell because Greenlake was crowded with people outside enjoying the sun. There were even people out in shorts!!! Sure it was warmer than usual, but come on! That's just showing off.

We ate ice cream (not possible when it's cold and rainy), walked outside, and even wandered in to an open house near Greenlake. It was a cute 2 bed/2.5 bth townhouse with wood floors, great kitchen, fireplace in living room and master bedroom, lots of bay windows, and a rooftop patio with an amazing view of the like. All that for just $725k! I guess the cost of a Greenlake view is equivalent to the cost of a beachfront property in South Beach, Florida. So spendy. Sticker shock nonwithstanding, it was a great day.

La Niña?

2007-03-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

If you look at recent maps of temperature in the tropical Pacific, it seems things are a bit chilly down there. That is consistent with a La Niña event. What is a La Niña event? Check out this link from the NOAA website. Basically in the tropics, the Trade Winds blow stronger than usual and more cold water is upwelled from below (say 100m-ish) in the eastern equatorial Pacific (off the coast of South America) and the surface waters are cooler than usual. This means more nutrients, the fish are happy, and fishermen are happy too. La Niña (like El Niño) also affects the global climate. One affect during strong La Niña events is more precip and colder temps in the Pacific Northwest! We didn't need that! Thank you very much.

Addendum: It's really still too early to tell if it's La Niña, it could just be normal conditions. Stay tuned!

Renters woe

2007-03-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

We are renters. We dream of a day when we can purchase a nice 3 bedroom home of our own with rooms we can customize and make our own. But in Seattle it just ain't easy. It is so discouraging that a 3 bedroom house we could rent for say $1500/month has a mortgage of $3000/month*. Housing prices in Seattle are - in a word - insane. Home sales are declining all across the country, but not here...not here. The one thing you see is houses on the market for longer, but that doesn't make the prices less insane. People are still being outbid by buyers who offer tens of thousands more than the asking price.

I keep telling myself it's a good thing we are renters. We are mobile and not tied down. We can use all that extra money (hmm... what extra money?) to travel abroad and visit our families. Maybe we'll continue renters and never take a dip in the home-owner pool... who knows.

*Numbers are just picked as an example.

Best of luck to "An Inconvenient Truth"

2007-02-24T10:11:00.000-08:00

Not since Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the Oscar have I had such a good reason to watch the award show. This year it's Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" that has been nominated for best documentary and best song. I'm looking forward to his speech, should he be given the award. What a great opportunity to reach a wider audience (than his film and his talks reach) and spread the message of reducing greenhouse emissions to slow-down climate change.

Update: Congratulations to "An Inconvenient Truth" (notice typo in previous post) for winning two Oscar's last night. They teased us a little bit with Leonardo DiCaprio asking Al Gore if he had "anything else" he wanted to announce in front of such a large audience... Oh, how I wish!

Mea Culpa

2007-02-23T09:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been a bit fatigued these days and haven't had too much to say. I have been cracking up at the Ph.D. comics lately (if you click on the image, you'll get the true colors and an enlarged image).

Maybe the humor doesn't translate if you've never been in graduate school. But you have to think of a situation where you are working hard to finish and the cross an undefined goal line somewhere off in the void and everyone in your family thinks in terms of concrete deadlines. Will you be done by graduation, because we want to be there and plan our holiday travel? Research is all about following leads and some can paths can take you straight into a dead end, so you have to head back and take another path that will lead you to the answer to your question. Rinse, wash, and then repeat until your committee says you are finished. I am so happy to be finished with graduate school. Don't get me wrong... I loved that time in my life and if it wasn't for the guilt (an energy sapping emotion to the nth degree: why are you resting at home, you could be working? why haven't you finished yet?) I wouldn't have minded being a student forever. Now all I have to worry about is publications....

Peace everyone

2007-02-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

My friend Sheila sent me this picture. It was taken by Gerald Hebert of the Associate Press on Tuesday Feb 13. Peace everyone!

Meany Lodge

2007-02-18T08:53:00.000-08:00

We had a really nice day at Meany Lodge with some friends. It was opened in the 1920s on land donated to the Mountaineers club. They have a rope tow that takes you up ~1000 feet and then you can ski down and take the rope tow back up. The lodge has a communal approach and everyone chips in to cook meals, clean up, etc. There were alot of families there, a troop of boy scouts, and groups like us who were only up for the day. If you like family summer camps, this place has that kind of vibe. If you want to teach your kids how to ski, this seems like a nice way to do that. The slope is small but uncrowded and nobody is stressed. You also don't have to drop 50-60 bucks for a lift ticket + the fee for classes. Everyone is volunteering, so the costs are minimal ($25 for a day pass which includes lunch). I didn't do any skiing, but walked about a little and enjoyed chilling out in the lodge.

The best thing about Meany is that they pick you up in a "Snow Cat". I wouldn't call it a Snow Cat, that makes me think of the big plows used to groom ski resorts. It looks like a truck you'd see in the Caribbean with bright colors and speakers blaring reggae or soca music. Only this truck has been covered in tarp and has serious snow handling capabilities. The driver is sitting in a little box in the middle of the truck that looks like the inside of a formula one car (you have to squint really hard to see it). The snow was a bit melty, so the drive up was a little worrisome -- would we be able to make it up there? The drive down at the end of the day was nothing but pure fun. We picked up some good speed and if you want they'll tow you on your skis behind the truck. That sounds like a blast, just make sure you've got your video camera prepped for the yard sales that will surely follow.

Happy Birthday to me!

2007-02-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

Today is my 32nd birthday! Lots of exciting things going on.

We went out to a superb dinner last night at Le Gourmand. It's a really nice French restaurant (the owner is an American chef trained in France) in Ballard. We've been dying to go there but were waiting for a good occasion. The meal was fabulous, but be prepared to drop down serious duckets if you ever go there. Right adjacent to it is a bar with a simpler menu called Sambar. It's owned by the same people as Le Gourmand. The atmosphere in the bar is posh without being intimidating. They have steak frites and croque monsieurs... so you know we'll be back for that.

Tonight we are having folks over for birthday cake and a movie, Little Miss Sunshine. We've seen it before, but it was so good I am happy to re-watch it. The characters in the story are so dysfunctional and yet so funny.

Tomorrow we are going to a cooperative ski lodge about an hour away from Seattle. I'm not going to ski, but I'm going to definitely frolic in the snow and possibly build a snowman. Afterwards, I'm planning on drinking hot cocoa and sitting by the fire in the lodge.

Weekend at Edgefield

2007-02-12T08:11:00.000-08:00

I spent the weekend with four amazing friends from graduate school at the McMenamins Edgefield hotel in Troutdale, Oregon. It was lovely to catch up with the ladies and laugh, dish, shop, eat, drink. We went to breakfast on Saturday morning in the hotel restaurant and saw a group of five ladies about a generation ahead of us doing the same thing. How great would it be to have a tradition of coming back to the same place as we head off into our twilight years. I hope when I age, I become one of those cantankerous but fun-loving old ladies.

We rented out the family room. In terms of space and accomodations it was great. But the second night, it was bitterly cold in our room and they couldn't do anything to fix it. We had space heaters (provided by the hotel) that kept blowing a fuse and knocking out the power in the room. Finally, we hooked up the heater with an extension cord to the outlet in the hallway and the power crisis was averted. We were wrapped up in a bazillion blankets, playing card cames, laughing, and enjoying the drinks the hotel gave us.

Edgefield is a funky sort of place and prides themselves on it. It used to be a hospice and various things during its history and the artwork reflects all the older residents. It's kind of nice but kind of "The Shining" all at the same time. That's all part of the charm. That plus the seemingly unlimited number of places to drink and eat (winery, brewery, distillery, restaurants, bars, etc.). They even supply the rooms with pint glasses for beer. Because of that, people book the hotel for weddings and it can be very crowded. It was definitely crowded this weekend and we had to wait a bit at all the restaurants.

They call Edgefield a European-style hotel *but* I've yet to visit a hotel like that in Europe. Anyway, most of the rooms don't have bathrooms and you share bathrooms with the other hotel guests. They are nice bathrooms and except for in the morning rush when everyone is trying to shower are kept in pretty clean condition.

We ended up getting comped one night after complaining about paying peak rates to essentially camp (e.g., blankets, darkness, etc.). So that was very nice of them. All in all it was a great trip. Next time, we are talking about renting a house on the Oregon coast.

Yoga

2007-02-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

It's not a New Year's resolution, but I am trying to incorporate more yoga into my weekly exercise routine. I was doing yoga-lite at my local gym, but this year I signed up to the yoga studio just next door, yogalife. My intention is to work on my form and become a bit more serious about yoga. In other words, take classes more than once a month. Anyway, so far so good. The first class I attended was a Level II-III Hatha class and I instantly realized that I'm more of a Level I.
Is there a Level 0? It's alot of fun and the classes are always full.

I'm also seeing B's chiropractor. Basically, I'm attempting to improve some of my neck and back issues and improve my posture and alignment. Yoga fits into that nicely.

I hope I can persuade some of my friends to join me for a yoga class. I've already run into a few people I know there. It's funny how the city may be huge, but the world is small.