We have a new member of the family. Lumia Ann Hillman Scanlon was born May 27th at 1:04 pm at University of Washington Medical Center. She is 8 lbs 4 ozs, 21 5/8" long with a head 14 3/8" around. Bigger than Cael. Everyone is healthy, happy and now home. Go to our Flickr page for more. Right now he is requiring my attention so come back for more updates later.
On the NYT website I found a man who sees New York City in his kids LEGOs. http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/i-lego-ny/
My Mom had a cookbook when I was a kid that I loved to look through while she baked. It was the Better Homes and Gardens Cookies and Candies cook book. Due to the wonders of the internet she found a copy and we can now make the amazing peanut brittle contained within. Check out the cool 60's pictures.
So when your 4 year old asks you to make a Tie fighter and all you have are Duplo's you have to be inventive and let the details fall to the way side. Fortunatly he dosen't care about the fine points as long as he has a space ship to play with.
Behold the Tie fighter X-wing battle.
Then of course there is the Star Destroyer
The Death Star was expecially hard for me to visualize cause it is so round
He has also got into real space ships like the Saturn 5
But my proudest effort so far is the Enterprise
Use your imagination and any thing is possible.
DaddyWogg
You know even with the glum economic forecast I am still upbeat for the holidays. I think I feel the world wide love for our (collective our) change of political mood. I am optimistic.
If you have not looked at our Flickr page you should go and see Cael's official class picture. He is good. He is able to recognize and write all of his letters and read a few individual words. He can even do addition problems. His last birthday party was Saturday night where he received his first Star Wars toy. I vasilate about cool Star Wars stuff and my desire to have him never own a toy weapon.
I am making goodies for Xmas gifts. I just put up 40 jars of roasted garlic in olive oil and I am working on crystallized ginger which is taking a very long time. Should be yummy at least.
I am off this morning to meet with my first Mentoree. I am honored by my organization and a fellow employee when they consider me for this. Harborview set me up with some guidelines but largely it is up to me. Since this employee and I share a similar career arc I believe that I also can learn from this experience.
I am making the holiday pledge to post more often. I am feeling the need to get back into my writing and this will be a good exercise. Feel free to chastise me if I do not post at least weekly.
Belated happy birthday to my Mom on November 6th.
On a final sad note I want to quickly mention two of our friends. One is Sarah Hedman (mother of Miranda) who is loosing her long battle with cancer. She has been going strong for I believe 10 years now but time has caught up with her. Stephanie visited her this weekend and she can no longer speak. Please keep her in you thoughts. You can visit her blog here. My second sad news if about our friend, the maker of the pickle car, Doug Pasch. He died suddenly this last weekend. It is a blow to many people not least of which his SO Lisa Jaret. He touched many people professionally with his grand, imaginative and whimsical puppet work. I and many others will miss him.
Happy days ahead
P-Blog
Yes we can!
It's been a bit since our trip and I have been thinking about its high lights. I've been trying to narrow it down.
1. All that time spent together as a family. I'm glad Stephanie pointed this one out to me, I had not formed it yet in my mind.
2. All the good food. Each meal seemed to get better and better. Wild boar ragu over long wide noddle, zuchini savory tart, hand made pastas, fresh porchinis, gelato... I could go on and on.
Il Ghibellino Osteria in Siena. We went there twice.
That mom and daughter place in Vagliagil
La Grotta della Rana in San Sano where the owner used animal noises to tell us what meat was what.
Tratatoria Za-Za in Florence
Best Gelato in Italy in San Gimigniano
The fancy restuant at the base of the Castle Brolio
Ristorante Giglio in Lucca, Best sevice ever.
3. I love a good wine and we had many in Tuscany but I had one of the best beers in my life in Germany. On a little island I had Inselbrau. It was so good I made everyone wait while I had another. I will have to put this experience up there with the Althorp Coaching Inn in England back on 2003.
4. Seeing things through Cael's eyes. I will never forget the "Church of the Lady with the Dead Finger."
5. Wandering through ancient places