What to do w/ this thing?

I dunno--do we let this blog die? It started as a way to document our Seattle move and subsequent life. In the meantime, the internet has come out w/ all kinds of other ways to share pics and stories and whatnot and maintain some semblance of "keeping in touch".

I also think that I spend too much time online, so there's that. And Juli mentioned that our Seattle apt. is the longest she's spent in one home since her 10th grade year. So is documentation really necessary? Does it add up to something more akin to egostroking than updating? Not sure about this one.

Apparently Barack Used to Live on Our Street!

First of all, can you refer to the president as "Barack" now? Or do I have to say Obama? Or Mr. President?

Anyhoo, looks like when said leader was in diapers, he lived a few blocks away from us when his moms was a student at U-dub:

http://www.capitolhilltimes.com/main.asp?SectionID=26&SubSectionID=248&ArticleID=27447

I know this isn't very pertinent info but I don't want to look at that gross breakfast pic at the top of our page anymore, and I'm sick and tired of building frames...

Updates

Hmmm, updates. OK, recently I've been digging circular breakfasts:


What I didn't even include there was my circular travel French Press that Juli got for me so's I can drink tea and/or coffee in the morn. This was a short phase and more often I'm enjoying Irish oatmeal soaked overnight w/ some buttermilk and fruit, but the circular breakfasts are still choice.

Also, I started eating meat again after just over 12 yrs. of being veggie. I drove straight into the deep end and made meatloaf ("drove" was originally a typo, but I like the phrase now so it stays):


I also made liver, but it was foul and I couldn't finish it. Trying to still eat meat sparingly, but I'm glad that my options are more open now.

Let's be honest--both of those pictures are quite disgusting w/ all the grease (I think it looks worse than it was what w/ the camera flash, but still, that meatloaf was bathing in grease when I pulled it out of the oven). So to compensate, here's some recent artwork:



And here's what my desk has looked like recently:


All in all, I've got close to 40 pieces done, and maybe 10 frames or so. I'm doing it all, folks--cutting mats and glass, cutting, sanding, assembling/gluing, staining frames, the works. So yes, it's taking a LOT longer than I anticipated when I started this journey, but we're getting somewhere. As I've been telling everyone, it's been 2 steps foward, 1 step back the entire way, but that's still progress, and I'm proud of it. If there's a speedbump in the process, believe me, I've hit it, but we're almost there and hopefully stuff will be hanging on a wall in a month or so.

The frames, BTW, are ink-stained and the woodgrain still shows through, which I think is very cool. The ones posted above were Mom-and-sister-in-law specials, although they'll be available at an upcharge to those who want them. But I think the ink stain looks great and shoddy in a good way, so those will be the standard ones.

There are also white frames that are pretty much identical outside of the color (it's watered-down acrylic instead of black ink, and you can see one in the lower right corner of the pic), so multiple pieces hung together should look cool. Pics of finished pieces once I have them, but consider this a quick update to whet the proverbial appetite...

Um, also Jules helped me recover the speaker cloth on my amps, which I think looks quite bitchin':


I'm moved into the other bedroom now to have a place for all the music/artwork stuff (accumulating more tools than I've ever had before w/ all the frame work), and it's working out well.

That's all I got--mainly just letting you ones and zeroes know that we're still alive and kicking!

FESTIVUS!!!!!!!!

Well, Happy Holidays from the whole staff here at Teamboom--we're happy that you've selected us to continually provide our services to you, and we hope that you'll allow us to do so again in 2009. From all of us to all of you, cheers and may you receive all that your heart desires!

Here on the homefront, it's been snowing enough to nigh turn us into cavedwellers, heads dancing with visions of eating our neighbors and drinking our own bathwater while we wait for the choppers to deliver more parkas and anti-zombie tablets!

So we went to a party:

...where Juli listened attentively:

...and we passed the time appropriately:

...and shared our knowledge with others, totally blowing their minds in the process:


And it kept snowing. And snowing. And snowing.


So we went sledding. And sledding. And sledding.

This person got us hooked by going 4 straight blocks on a toboggan:

We didn't have anything nearly that Northern or Nordic, so we used a tupperware bin lid and some cardboard:



Here's a visual play-by-play:





WARNING--you cannot use your sled to store babies:

But you can use it on the sidewalk!

Or headfirst!

Sledding causes severe happiness:


The next day we got up only to find more snow! So we went walking and tried to keep Zane from breaking his nearly-already-broken wrist! Huzzah!



And in our adventures, we found our sled again, several blocks away from where we first abandoned it! Hooray!

This makes for giddiness all over again! Hoorah!


Also, severe cackling! Hahah!

Juli sez, let's take portraits! Of her!

Of me!

Of Zane!

Of snowy palm trees!


Well, day 3 arrived and whaddya know, more snow. So we went out at night and sledded again (what else can you do, really?):


Our curbs have disappeared at this point:

A bunch of other folks had our same idea, and there were cookie sheets, inner tubes, and plastic wrap being put to good use:

Zane had the brilliant idea of using the bed liner from his SUV, which went REALLY fast ('twas awesome):


By the time we got home, I realized that I had forgotten my gloves, and I'm fairly sure I got minor frostbite. Couldn't feel me fingers until the following afternoon:


But, all's well that ends well! ( and yes, we probably will make this same face every time it snows):

When you've got this much life to live, the blog can get behind a little...

So there we are, watching a movie when I smell smoke. We had cooked earlier, so I think nothing of it, and Juli is assuming that I burned sage again and is silently pissed. But then it gets worse, like when something gets stuck in a vacuum. Finally I say to Juli, "Do you smell something?" Of course she does, because by now our apt. is full of smoke, and we're running around the kitchen frantically trying to find what burner we must've left on w/ a sponge sitting on it or whatever.

Everything looks kosher, so I go down into the basement, which is full of smoke. I can hear our downstairs neighbor coughing, so I run around to the front and pound on his door. Nothing. Juli goes to the back door, which is open. She calls into the apt., but it's so full of smoke that she can't go in.

Long story short, we end up calling the fire dept. and they come over right quick. We hang on the sidewalk w/ our other neighbors and oh, by the way it's the first snow of the year. Also, fire trucks had already been on our street twice earlier today (once w/ a Medical Examiner paddy wagon, which is NEVER a good sign). Sorry, Dear Reader, nothing to quell the suspense as we never found out what the heck happened in any of the cases, including the fire downstairs. Life in the city...

So it's been a weird day, and then we remembered we haven't posted on this dang thing in near 6 months. Since we're learning first-hand how much can happen in one frigging day, imagine how much happens in HALF A YEAR. Yeesh almighty. There's no sense in trying to describe it--best to let the pictures do the talking. Feel free to make up your own story as you go along (maybe we'll post the best one if you send 'em to us!):