I love a parade

Wait, what?

Zebras!

Flying Spaghetti Monster!

My mind...!

Fight Global Warming!?




Who knew? We celebrated the Solstice this year (I guess) by dragging Elaine down to the self-proclaimed Center of the Universe, aka the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle, to witness the legendary Solstice Parade. We got there way in advance and scored some front curb seats. It was pretty incredible. There was a lot of dancing and tribal drumming, costumes that ranged from the lavish to the bizarre, and the signature opening event: cyclists wearing nothing but body paint. I was highly entertained from start to finish. Elaine was a little freaked out. The coolest thing for me was that every float/exhibition/whatever-the-hell-that-thing-is had some sort of meaning as related to the Solstice celebration or some progressive cause, but there were no signs or symbols associated with the parade to clue you in to it. It was art, and it was lots of fun. Flaky as Fremont is, they really manage to pull off a great parade.

Since I've got a general rule against the posting of bosoms and weewees on my blog, I kept those images out. If you'd like to see more great images of the parade (and I recommend that you do), including an extensive gallery of the naked/painted cyclist parade, visit this page. In addition to gratuitous nudity, you'll be rewarded by pics of the completely awesome Soviet era statue of Lenin, situated at the heart of Fremont.

She's Two!

Deal with it!

This past weekend, we marked the event of Elaine’s second birthday with a bash for the ages (of one, two, and three). Jill took care of most of the prep with a very productive Target run. We had a small helium tank and balloons, cupcakes, a pizza lunch, and little gift bags for all of the kids which contained plastic dinosaurs, party favors, and bubbles. Some of the children blew bubbles, some poured bubble soap onto the lawn, and some just drank it straight from the bottle.

The party, with Elaine's big present in the background. Clockwise, from top: Big Molly, Madeleine, Susanna, Phillipe, Elaine (not pictured: Matthew, Olivia, little Molly


The festivities got underway a little early when Jill got locked in the bathroom at T minus ten minutes. We disassembled the doorknobs, but the mechanism had been installed from the edge of the door. Jill decided that we needed to call someone, leading to this exchange:

Me: I could kick the door in…?
Jill: Really?
Me: Sure!
Jill: (after a pause) OK, I’m in the bathtub.

Needless to say, I didn’t wait for her to change her mind. How often does one get to fulfill destructive fantasies like this? Amazingly, the door survived intact, but we’ll need to get the jamb reassembled. Anyways, this is a total word of warning to any crooks out there who think they can hide from the kicking foot of justice. I know you’re in there, and I’m a-comin’ in! (Please don’t have any weapons, because Jill won’t let me have a gun.)

Sunday night, I got to play Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization for the fourth time. This time, it was just Josh and I. Man, this is a really well-done game at 2, 3, or 4 players. I believe the third printing is underway right now, so I’m definitely going to be picking it up.

Elaine’s birthday fun times continued into Monday night, when we took her and her grandma (technically, grandma paid, but I drove) to Red Robin! Milkshakes, burgers, and balloons, oh my! When we got home, there were presents that had come by mail from various people. She scored some radical toddler clothing, a few small empty boxes (awesome idea), a bunch of crayons, and some books.

We got a lot of good video from the party, but not very many pictures. I’m looking into editing the videos on my MacBook (it has to be good for something) to post at a later time—perhaps on Picasa or Vimeo. Any suggestions for video hosting are welcome.

Deploy the grappling hook

A friend of a friend knows this guy who builds weird cars. Most of them are based loosely on the ship Serenity from the movie of the same name (and the series Firefly). I got to drive this one yesterday:



I was not able to see the looks on the faces of other drivers and pedestrians, as it took all of my concentration to keep it in the intended lane. Steering this vessel did approximate drifting through the vacuum of space: any direction on my part was largely suggestive. Also, it kept wanting to stall out at traffic signals. Also, it is a manual transmission vehicle, which is not a recommended feature in a hilly place like Seattle. It was fun, though.

Oh, and if you've never seen Firefly, do yourself a favor and rent the whole series (it is only one season long, as it was tragically cancelled), and then watch the movie. I can't recommend it enough.