Hurray for rain! After ~30 beautiful, warm, sun-shiny days, the rain is back. My parched plants are happy and somehow, it just is nice to have a little drizzle. And despite the signs pointing toward "no" I am hoping to harvest at least one tomato from one of the 12 plants (11 still surviving) that I eagerly bought in May.

School is out and our entry-way is littered with the remnants of a very busy 2nd grade year for Megan. She's exhausted but is looking forward to a bit of a break. Sophia on the other hand keeps asking why she can't go to elementary school. Funny kids.

On the wine front, I toured a pretty cool wine shop in Redmond, World of Wines. One of their good customers filled in and gave me quite the tour and education on favorite wines. I do plan to stop back in for some of their tastings - they have quite an exhaustive schedule.

I was looking for a local source of my new favorite, Thurston Wolfe PGV - but haven't found it in stock anywhere in the area. I did try two wines recommended by World of Wines, a Pinot Grigio (don't recall the label, but was nothing spectacular in my opinion) and a very good Tempranillo.

• ~$13 - Vilosell 2006 Segre Red Wine - Tempranillo blend from the region in Spain where Tempranillo originated. Yummy, spicy and very nice. The flavor really opens up if you warm it a little in your hand. Do be careful of the sediment in the last glass. It hides in the beautiful dark color of the wine. The wine bottle is cool too - the label is in Braille on the back!

The next few weeks are busy - will have to try and update the blog more frequently.

Father's Day will find us at the Washington Brewer's Festival at St. Edward's State Park - assuming the rain lets up. We traditionally spend one weekend day there - just hanging out with the kids, good friends and good beer.

The last weekend in June, we're heading up to Mount Baker Vineyards for another of their tasting dinners. Always a good time - though I always seem to spend more than we had budgeted. It's so hard when they offer such a good case discount and you can't find their wines at retail.

Then comes the 4th of July party - lots of planning, ideas and fun! Looking forward to it! Maybe a wine tasting or two; maybe a water rocket (or 13) project for the kids.

Ciao for now!

Mother's Day

Busy day! First thing this morning, Megan and I took off and ran in the Kirkland Mother's Day 5k. I didn't think it would be too difficult, but that was partially because I had misread the online map and thought it was along the Kirkland waterfront. When I realized it was at Juanita Park, I had the foresight to buy Gu for Megan... but promptly forgot it at home. (photo left: the half-marathoners queuing up to start)

We carb'd up on bagels and hot chocolate for Megan (coffee for me) enroute ... so I was hopeful that she would be fine. She wasn't. After the 2nd (and last) hill, she bonked, hard. Fortunately we were 2 miles in so the worst was over and it was a matter of encouraging her on to finish strong. The promise of a doughnut of her choice provided the second (and third) energy bursts required and she and I crossed the finish line at 39:37 - I think we made it through a little faster than our first, flat run two weeks ago. I know now, never to forget the Gu again. (Photo right: Megan, getting ready to roll)

Megan's ranking in the race - not bad, especially given the division is 01-19 years! (first name, city information edited out; full results available here)

Happily finished with the run, we made our stop at QFC for the long anticipated doughnut and then towards home to start getting ready for brunch.

Brunch schedule was agressive - got home at 10; had brunch (mostly) ready to go at 1:30 ... and had to shower and dress in there. Our folks got here around 1:00 and we feasted on all kinds of yummy, homemade stuff. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the afternoon - fun to have long lingering meals and conversation.

Menu:

• Omelettes (mushrooms, ham, leeks, red & green onions, garlic, shredded cheddar)Strawberries & Whipped Cream
• Ham & Mini-Rolls with Stone Ground Mustard
• Cranberry Black Walnut Coffee Cake (disguised as muffins with blueberries instead)
• Cheddar Apple Bundles
• Maple Smoked Bacon
• Coffee & Iced Tea

Dan played short-order cook, making omelettes to order - which is a fun way to handle the group, but meant we were mostly finished before he had a chance to sit down and join us. Afterwards, our moms and Dan cleared the table and ran the first (ahem, 3rd?) batch of dishes.

Here's the food, where are the people?

After everyone left, I literally crashed - long nap has never felt so good! I feel fortunate to be surrounded by such a loving family. Surrounded by loving girls, their Mother's Day artwork, roses and chocolates, I'm in heaven.

Ciao!

10-years wedded bliss

Posted 5/6 - back dated to event

Blink and suddenly you go from "newly weds" to 10-years and 2 kids!
I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Two other couples we are close friends with also celebrate their 10th anniversaries this year - Holly and Michael the same weekend as ours and Derek and Michelle later in the summer.

Thanks to Derek and Michelle's great idea, we got together and went to the Spring Barrel Tasting event in Yakima. While Yakima itself didn't impress me (did you know there's nothing to do there in the evenings? Not that we found anyway), we had a blast and I came home feeling like the inside of an old oak barrel.

I owe a more detailed entry of what we liked, what we didn't - we were surprised to find that many of the small boutique wineries with wines in the $25-$35 range weren't necessarily the most enjoyable. One of group's favorites stops was the massive Terra Blanca - with wines that were in the $10 range, a wide variety and an awesome destination.

Wineries we visited (in order):

• The Tasting Room (NHV, Wildrige, Harlequin)
• Donitelia
• Upland Estates
• Tapteil
• Hightower Cellars
• Terra Blanca
• Airfield Estates
• Thurston Wolfe Winery
• Agate Field Winery
• Two Mountain Winery
• Wineglass Cellars
• Sagelands

I owe a much longer post and need to upload pictures. Suffice it to say, we tasted too much, ate too much and bought too much. But, good times, good friends, good wine. Great weekend.

First 5k

Posted 5/6 - late, as usual, back dated to event date.

Saturday, 4/18 - Megan and I ran in the Northshore YMCA 5k as a part of their Healthy Kids Day event. We arrived about 10 minutes early and I had the tiniest feeling of "I don't belong here" as I looked at a medium sized group of what appeared to be serious runners. In my moment of self-doubt, I thought to myself, how many people casually say, 'hey, let's go run a 5k today!" After all, Megan's never expressed an interest in running before and I certainly don't love it. As more and more people arrived, I realized I was being silly - the thing I'm learning to love about running is that it's an activity open to everyone - all body shapes, sizes, kids, grown ups. Feeling confident again, we finished stretching and got ready for the race.

We were a few minutes (10?) late starting and I didn't look at my watch - but we were done by 9:50 - so certainly couldn't have been more than 40-45 minutes on the course. We jogged virtually the whole way and I found it's actually good for me to jog with Megan - it forces me to keep a slow, steady pace. I tend to want to run in bursts (like she does).

Favorite memories of the event:

• "My little legs are tired," said Megan about 3/4 of the way through


• Watching her respond with a new burst of energy whenever there were volunteers cheering us on


• Watching her confidence level raise through the day as she started telling people that she ran the 5k


• Watching grown-ups reactions when Megan told them she'd ran a 5k


• Megan asking if we can do it again the next day.

I think her favorite part was the Jamba Juice at the end - she was about to bonk and the fruit smoothy totally re-energized her.

Mother's Day 5k in Kirkland is next. By the end of the day, I had myself comitted to the Cougar Mountain 5 mile run too - May 16.

New Scherer - "Meow"

Posted May 6 - back dated to event date

Sadly, we lost a cat in February (Schitzy). As the weeks went on, we realized that with only fish and a feral rescue, who won't let you pet her, that our family was in need of a new pet. The hunt was on - lots of research into hairless felines (I think they are cute). Definitely focused on a cat, not a dog in hopes that Moochy (the feral) would settle in and accept the new pal.

Searching online one night, I came across the cutest face and I knew! The next day, I begged Dan to stop by the shelter - and after about 10 minutes, I made him bring the kids in. Needless to say, we adopted "Fabio" from the Homeward Pet Adoption Center in Woodinville and have since renamed him "Patches."

He's a great cat - loves having our yard and surrounding woods to explore. The girls simply adore him and he's settled in, taking ownership of our house. The only one not happy about the arrangement is Moochy - she is not impressed. Well, maybe he'll get through to her yet - meanwhile, we're a dual cat-zone household.

White Christmas

We're supposed to host Christmas Eve dinner and a Christmas Day open house. Right now, I'm wondering why we don't have Christmas in July. Most of my online orders are stuck at the distribution centers and we're not sure folks can make it to our house (hey, even the mail didn't arrive yesterday!).

It's been snowing all week with record lows (the lowest at our house was 9-degress fahrenheit (-12C)). We're quite happy that we're not trying to stay warm in a motorhome right now. The lowest we encountered while traveling in Europe was -14C. Not a fun night on metered electricity!

Blick from our back deck 12/21

As we look forward to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, my wish this year is for the roads to clear enough for folks to get here; for the snow to hold off so they aren't stuck here; for the packages to arrive - or at least be available for Dan to retrieve from distribution centers. But most of all, for each of you to have a very warm, Merry holiday with your family and friends.

I'm back!

For me, blogging isn't the same without pictures. Besides, you and I know the grandparents are only reading the blog to see pics of the grandkids.

Long story short, after upgrading to Vista, my flash card reader no longer worked. My attempts to fix it fell flat. Sony said that the laptop I'm using isn't rated for Windows Vista "Business" and that I would need to contact Microsoft for support. I didn't bother - Microsoft would just tell me it's an OEM issue and to contact Sony. I gave up.

Dan recently started bugging me. "Are you sure the issue wasn't fixed with SP2?" he'd ask. I finally relented and checked again - no luck. He ran a manual update cycle and Voila! A search of the Sony site generated, by Windows Updates found the missing drivers and installed them (though Vista still thinks they were not installed properly) and my flash card reader works again.

I'll make a few "historical" posts and back date accordingly. After all a ton has happened in the past 2.5 months.

But first, a weather update. This week brought winter cold (bitterly so) and snow! Yeah! We're really happy that we aren't trying to keep warm in a motorhome right now - though the condensation on our bathroom windows did freeze on the inside a couple mornings this week.

Saturday morning - the kids were thrilled to have slush to play in from the overnight weather pattern. Megan kept asking if she could build a snow angle ... but I managed to convince her the snow was too wet. Instead, she "snowplowed" the back deck.

Saturday morning slush fest

Saturday afternoon - the snow started at 12:00 and started sticking at 6:00 pm. Sunday morning, all of Megan's hard work "snowplowing" the deck was undone, replaced by fresh, powdery snow. About 3-4 inches worth. She was bummed that she couldn't make snowballs out of it.

Sunday morning wake up call

Monday-Wednesday the weather just turned COLD. Dan was awesome, putting up with my refusal to drive on our side streets, and played chaffeur, ferring me back and forth to work.

Forecasters promised 4-8 inches Wednesday (today), resulting in schools closing before the first flake fell (Northshore, Bellevue and Redmond to name a few of the districts). Needless to say, nothing happened all day in these regions.

At 5pm, I was on a conference call at home and heard this funny "ticking" noise. 20 minutes later, realized the skylights COVERED in snow! We got about 2.5 inches in 2 hours! It stopped around 7; but forecasters are promising another 2-4" overnight.

Wednesday night blick of our driveway, about 20-minutes after it started snowing.

Am hoping this stuff goes away for Christmas and New Years ...

Ciao!