Have a scary Halloween

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

Happy Halloween everybody. This is a pic from a few months ago. The houdlums on our block though we called the cops on them when they were tresspassing at the house next door. It wasn't us, but we got the retaliation. What a waste of condiment.

Colin is going to put on his frog suit and hop down the street tonight, and we are going to hit up gramda's place too.

geek in training

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

We made a very quick trip up to Seattle this weekend. Christine had to go to a meeting on Sunday morning, so we drove up Saturday and hit the IKEA and hung out with John and Greg. Sunday while Christine was working I headed over to J&G&B's apartment to hang out and start Colin's geek training. Christine and I barely qualify as geek-lite so this was a good opportunity for Colin to get his hands on some dice and do a little dance. I was hoping he would show more interest in guitar hero, but he was underwhelmed. He liked the big d20 and was working on a racecar driver character before getting distracted by muppets, nerf guns and dance dance.

el hot pocket-o

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

In my attempts to reconsile my taste for Mexican/Latin cooking and my desire not to pay 11 dollars for 2 bucks worth of ingredients I decided to buy some masa and start trying out some recipes. I made these empanadas a couple days ago, and once the kitchen recovers I will give tamales a try. The filling in these is left over pot roast mixed with some red mole sauce. The first batch came out a little bland, so I seasened the dough better and crisped up the filling for round 2 which came out great. I ran out of meat and still had dough left so I made a goat cheese and black pepper, and a cashew butter and chocolate... both of which were really good combos. My conclusion as to why people (myself included) are willing to pay so much money for such simple food is the collosal mess involved in cooking them at home. It took me almost as long to clean up as it did to actually make and fry all the damn things.

Fall is here

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

Well, the leaves are changing and the temps are dropping. It is not quite cold yet, but getting there fast. This is a pic of Colin on the first big day of rain a week or so ago. We have our pumpkins out for Fall decorations, but there are a whole bunch of hodlum teensagers in our neighborhood so we will have to put them away on halloween night. I have a pic that demonstrates why, but you'll have to wait a few more days for that...

not a NIN show

Last week I saw The Hold Steady in concert. About a year ago John V. told me to check them out, and I ended up listening to their second album for weeks on end. The place was small and packed and energetic. The band was great and Craig Finn really seems to be having fun on stage. Unfortunately the stage was only about a foot higher than the crowd and the bastard sons of Abe Lincoln were up front blocking the view (if the singer has to reach up to give you a high5 you need to move back a few rows). The folks up from were crazy drunk - smashing into each other, throwing beers and trying to crowd surf. My favorite quote from an angered audience member who obviously failed to listen to any of the music was: "why are they doing that ... it's not like we are at a nine inch nails show"
The opening act was good too for a change, but they were hard to watch b/c his voice didn't match his body at all. He looked kind of like Ted from Queer as Folk, but sounded like a young angry indie rocker.
I am sure that the next time they come around will be in a much larger and more expensive venue, so I am glad I got to see them in a small, drunk, smoke filled club that fit their music quite well.

share the knowledge

I spent Friday night and Saturday in a weekend seminar class. On Friday night the woman sitting next to me packed up and left at the break and dropped the class. She left a pile of handouts behind so I took them b/c I like having extras. I pulled out the syllabus on Saturday and saw that she had written this on it (all punctuation and spelling is preserved) :

You know your the shit!
I know your the best!
Share the knowledge...
Show everyone your talent!


your the shit.
you know you are.
Kick like you know you are.
Show everyone that

Proove to everyone that
you kick like the
best and u are the shit.

--author unknown

I hope everything is okay...

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

I started writing this post a couple weeks ago but couldn't find the picture, so I went to get a better pic and now I can't find the car...

Practically every single day on our way to Christine's work we passed this car. It was always there, and the few times it was not I found myself worrying. I hope everything is okay... maybe somebody stole his car.... maybe he is missing... should I call someone? who would I call? (I know it is a dude b/c I saw him leaving once). The car has never been missing for more that two days, and I always feel a sense of relief upon it's return. This car has become a fixture in my commute. I expect to see it and I feel anxiety in it's absence.

Now the car has been missing all week. Is he on vacation? Did he find a better parking space? Was his car stolen by a vintage Japanese wagon aficionado? Win the lottery and stop going to work? Where could it be?

I need to know.

Bath time is finally fun time

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

When we lived in Olympia our first apartment only had a shower, so we filled a large rubbermaid tub with water and Colin would scoot and splash every chance he got. The whole year between then and now has meant a big fight at bath time. When I wasn't in the mood for holding him down in the bath I would just hold him in the shower with me and hose him off. A few weeks ago we got some new bath toys (not specifically for the bath, but nothing he could ruin). He threw a whole bunch of his toys in the bath, so we went ahead and filled it up and he got in without a fight. Today he loaded up some toys and demanded a bath. I told him it wasn't time yet and he threw a major fit. So we went from the stinky kid who ran away at the suggestion of a bath to the kid who won't get out. This is about a half hour into the bath, and the only reason he got out is that we wouldn't bring him dinner in there.

Bastards

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

Stone Brewing recently celebrated 10 years of brewing bold beers and bad-ass attitude. Making a living out of daring people to drink their beer is working pretty well for them. I didn't get to check out their new digs in Escondido on this trip, but I couldn't leave without checking out their 10th anniversary beer. They made a special IPA for the occasion (I was hoping they would introduce some crazy new beer, but this fits with tradition). The beer smells warm and sweet, the body is smooth and lush, the 10%ABV burns, and the mountain of hops that went into it pucker your face. It tastes a little young, and I'm sure in a few months (maybe a few years) it will be an absolutely incredible beer. The alcohol burn detracts from the experience just a bit, but otherwise it is pretty awesome-- and much more balanced of an experience than I expected.. Definitely worth checking out while you still can. Stone's image may be a little over the top, but they don''t shy away from backing it up.

It's not my keys...

I walked around all day yesterday feeling like I was forgetting something. I would check my pockets... keys, wallet... all in place.

They it hit me.

Shit!... I forgot my wife and son.

I am down in Carlsbad visiting my dad for the weekend, but I miss
having the rest of my family with me.