Published, as usual

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Just a reminder, I am as talented behind camera as in front of it (nod the hat to the 1995 Sears Men’s Catalogue and my expert sock modeling skills).
This travel oriented site  set out on a global search for “just right picture to instill a childlike sense of wonder” about Laos.  Well call me Ansel Awesome and buy me a tall boy, because they used my photo.
Laos Water Fall Phoot
Laos Water Fall Photo
I am sure royalties will follow.
You’re welcome world.
The original is here:
I believe that photo was taken outside of Loung Prabang:


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Nursery v 1.0

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Last night I woke up around 3am and realized Bandit is due in like 3 1/2 months.  To put that into perspective, I have 12 Sunday naps left to take before that sweet screams of my heir will prevent me from following my favorite weekend pass time.

To mark this nearing of baby, how about I float a few photos of the nursery your way? I think it is development, perhaps some were along half way done.

A shot showing the clouds kate painting and the blue wall. Personally, I think that all boy bedrooms should be done in a Dinosaur motif, but I was vetoed. C’est la vie. I think Kate did an awesome job on the clouds.  They are extra fluffy.

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In this shot, witness the crib (thanks Grandma TJ).  It is pretty bad ass and is a mighty improvement over my plan of keeping the kid in drawer.  Also, the glider. Thanks very much to people that went into getting us this thing.  I suspect it will be one of the more heavily used baby accessories.   Finally, that painting is from a dude that used to hang out next to the alley by our old apartment.  $30 and it is my favorite art thingy we have.

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Various and sundry dolls.  Kate and I made the ones on the ends, our friend made us the Sock Monkey.IMG_6121

One more shot from the other direction. I am weary of describing stuff. Infer for yourselves.

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Chair Fixin’

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We have been downsizing our furniture for awhile, getting rid of my beloved gigantic lounger and generally reworking the sitting options in the house. I guess it was rude to have guests sit on the floor when my old chair took up about 30 sqft of the room.

Solution, find smaller stuff.  There are lots of nice smaller furniture and what not, but they insist on costing “money”. Which makes me sad, inside.  enter my neighbors yard sale.  Where they had this beauty of a chair for ONE DOLLAR. So take that, Washington Inside Furniture Fat Cats!.

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Torn fabric (corinithia leather) and odor aside, it was great. So I hefted it home. Kate bent her considerable mental powers to deciding how to make it not suck.  She ended up using curtains (cheaper, stronger(?)) for the material. We stripped it down and disassembled the chair.

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It had some super handy rails that held the arms and what not together, a pry bar and rubber mallet took it down nicely and made putting back together really easy.

Kate then used my Mom’s old sewing machine, restuffed, restictched and reassembled the whole thing one day when I was at work.  I am really impressed with her work.

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Kate enjoying the chair.

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Bonus: A quick video of Kate working away on the sewing machine, shot with new iPhone (my beloved 1G finally died).  It really got me right in the ticker to see Kate working away on my Mom’s machine.

BBQ – Real Ultimate Power

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Confession, I don’t grill. Or rather, I have never grilled. As youngest dude in the family I was essentially the C-Team when it came to BBQ time and never had to give it a whirl. After leaving home….well, I had a George Foreman Grill, problem solved.

Getting ready for a day with my Family coming over for food, I realized I didn’t have a grill (thanks Ballard Fred Meyer for helping with that) and didn’t know how to use one.

Now, I am well equipped for summer cooking. Which is great.

Here is a photo of Kate pretending she was cooking (she was not):

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As memory serves, that was a Vegetable Medley and some tasty steak that Kate picked up on a walk through Pike Place on her way home.  I am currently working on Grilled Cheese Technology.

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I want to try grilling up some fish, but that seems a little less intuitive than throwing slabs of red meat on the grill.  Will cross that bridge on a later day.

Un-Lazy Weekend

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Homeownership is pretty neat, back in the day (say, February) I would get up on a Saturday, drop Kate off at work then eat cereal and watch cartoons all day. Good times.

Now, my day are all productive and filled with yardwork. Awesome.

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While I was flipping sod or sharpening my axes or something, Kate was communing with nature (specifically this snail). I named Snail-o the Brave. Please note, Kate’s gloves are Purple and have a Delicate floral pattern on the back of the hand.

When we dug out the Ivy in the front yard, Kate informed me we would be planting Succulents. After going home and looking up what the hell those were, I decide it was a horrible idea and would fail. Turns out I was wrong. Below is a photo of one of happy little guys, I don’t know the name of plant and I don’t care. Its a plant, why would it need a name? Seriously, what’s it going to do…open a checking account or something.

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This is the plant I saved from Kate’s all chopping ways, I think it is a Heather or something like that. All I know is that this bush is like some kind of swingers hotel for birds, madness in there.

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