Illinois

Arrived in Ilinois yesterday. As is now customary with any trip here we went to a hospital to see a family member. This is the fourth trip out of the past five to Illinois where we’ve had to spend time in the hospital with family. I’ve decided that’s it. This will be our final trip here for the foreseeable future. Family will have to come visit us from now on.

Fourth of July

Just want to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July. This date was my grandfather’s birthday and for many many years we celebrated it with a great parade through the home town followed-up with a huge party with friends and family at the grandparents’ house. So much fun in all those decades of fun at their house on the lake.

Christmas 2008

I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas!

I spent this morning making Belgian waffles (complete with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream), coffee and bacon. Anna got home from work at 9:00 a.m., we ate, opened presents and then Anna went to sleep.

I hooked-up the XBox 360 to the work-out room’s tv and to the internet, logged into XBox Live and, voila! Played Gears of War 2 on-line for nearly 2 hours while walking on the treadmill. A 4% incline at approximately 2 mph is awesome! No more just sitting on my butt when I play video games.

Seattle

Flew down to Seattle yesterday morning. We ate a great Thanksgiving meal at our friends’ house with their family. We took their 4 month old Gordon Setter, Ziggy, for a long walk before dinner. Great times.

The live in the Alki neighborhood and with its old brick moss-covered homes I am reminded of Britain. A wonderful view of Elliot Bay and the powerful smell of the ocean. Quite awesome.

Holiday Trip 2007

Just returned from a holiday trip to sunny and warm San Diego. We had a great time visiting the (new to me) family. Did some tailgating at Qualcomm before the Christmas Eve Monday Night Football game Chargers’ win (23-3) over the Broncos.

Los Dos Pedros Taco Stand in La Jolla – surprisingly it was open late on Christmas Eve. Good food too.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without some garish inflatable decorations.

We also got our first chance to play on some friends of ours Wii. It was very odd. I think I may have permanently damaged my right elbow playing baseball on that thing. It was funner than hell though and now we want to buy one too.

On the ‘let’s tie all of these posts together’ view of life, I did get first class on the flight this morning from San Diego to Seattle. That rocked. Throw-in waiting at the two-story Alaska Airlines Boardroom between C & D concourses at SeaTac and it was a rather enjoyable morning. Unfortunately, driving 60 miles each way out to Palmer to pick-up the dog on icy highways immediately after getting off the plane sucked. But, the dog was very happy at Wetland Retrievers and I recommend them to anyone needing to board a retriever.

Vacation?

Leaving tonight for mildly cloudy Southern California for a week to visit the in-laws. Just arrived back in town this morning from Chicago after attending a family funeral. I’m rather tired of flying but this is the holiday season so traveling is basically par for the course here in America. Too bad we won’t be flying first-class ’cause that would have been awesome.