It was cold and windy, and the dogs were as polar opposite as usual.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The coast and the mountains looked amazing as the weather started rolling in.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I notice he’s made a few changes to his candidacy statement.  Let’s review.

First of all, his photo is full-color now.  As a man proposing we leverage our considerable technological skill to colonize space, I’m happy to see he noticed that computers support color images these days.  Well done.

Second, he appears to be concerned with the three-fold increase in human population in the last hundred years.

Instead of starvation, genocide, and war, we should use nicer methods (such as the head tax and birth fees and study and work and social security) to decrease the number of people boarding Spaceship Earth. Goodspaceguy is pro choice on almost everything.

How could you ever disagree with someone who is pro-choice on “head tax”?

Thirdly, diplomacy is important in politics, and this guy’s got it in spades.  Read this passage and think about how much better it sounds than “Get off the couch, you lazy, bottom-feeding Americans!”

Meanwhile on computerized Spaceship Earth, Goodspaceguy wants us to raise the quality-of-life by longevity research and by getting more people working, producing the goods and services that will make up our improving living standard and health. Let’s improve the incentive system. Let’s coax more people into productivity. Goodspaceguy wants safety-net employment of helpers. Goodspaceguy wants more people studying at our colleges during the underutilized evenings and weekends.

Well, Michelle and I are off to vote tonight, and you can sure as hell bet I’m voting for GoodSpaceGuy.  This guy is a “Straight-Shooter” with “Upper Management” written all over him!

Read more from the horses’s mouth at http://colonizeorbitalspace.blogspot.com/

We started the week by cutting out of work early and watching two movies at the Seattle International Film Festival: The Fall and Before the Rains, both which took place (at least primarily) in India.  (Correction: the imagination sequences of The Fall mostly took place in India; the movie itself took place in LA.)  The former took place in North India where we didn’t travel, but the latter took place in Kerala, which is where we vacationed.  While The Fall was a much better movie, it was great to see Kerala again in Before the Rains, especially since it was filmed in one of the regions we visited.  We closed out the day with a nice dinner at How to Cook a Wolf in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle.

Saturday morning we woke up to a stunning day and enjoyed a nice espresso and a stroopwafel on the porch before heading off to the farmer’s market to pick up a bone-in pork shoulder from Woolie Pigs.  We had Jim and Jess over to enjoy some roasted pig and some St. Joseph that we brought over from France last time we visited.  It was the first time we saw them since we’d left for India, so it was great to catch up and swap stories.  Add to that a delightful cheese platter, a fresh, light soup, a delicious hunk of pork, fresh lemon gnocci, and a few great bottles of wine and you’ve got yourself one hell of an evening.  Provided that “one hell of an evening” for you doesn’t mean “going out drinking with friends and waking up in prison with a  I LOVE FORMALDEHYDE tattoo on your left shoulder”.  I’ll be honest with you: that just doesnt’t sound very relaxing to me.

Jim also brought over his home-brew which we had started before I left; it was awesome.  In fact, I proposed we start making two batches of it staggered so that we always have some beer of that particular recipe on hand.  It would require that I buy a supply of beer-making equipment.  Jim said it would be cheap if you do it ghetto-style like he does.  I said, “I can do it ghetto-style” to which Jess remarked, “You don’t do anything ghetto-style.”  Besides being spectacularly unfair, her statement is also annoyingly accurate.

Sunday, we woke up to another spectacular morning and spent the day lazily reading the New York Times.  One of life’s greatest indulgences is to spend Sunday on a sunny porch with a great cup of espresso while spending hours pouring over the paper.  We finished the day off by sipping Mojitos and grilling bratwurst, chickenbreast, and corn.  Beat that.

Memorial Day dawned with overcast skies.  At least I’m guessing it dawned that way, because by the time Michelle and I got up, it was overcast.  We started our day with our favorite breakfast: a fried egg on a sourdough muffin with ham, arugula, vinegarette, tomato and Beechers Flagship cheese.  We even managed to squeeze in some Bollywood and a dinner of fresh pasta.

After a month of relentless sunshine, it’s funny how refreshing a nice cloudy day can be.

But we love Christmas Season. As Michelle puts it, it’s ChowDownTime plus Presents. That equals Awesomeness, for those of you who are weaker in the math department. In equation form, it’s

ChowDownTime + Presents = Awesomeness

In essence, it’s all the best parts of Thanksgiving, plus you get presents.

Since we celebrate Sinterklaas, the season starts for us the first weekend after the 6th, which is when we get a Christmas Tree. Every year, Michelle and I have the same struggle: she wants a Christmas Tree that is at least four feet taller than our ceiling and has a girth somewhere between two and three times what our house can accommodate. I have input on which trees I do and don’t like and Michelle does her best to find something that will fit in our place, but once Michelle has her heart set on a particular tree, my protests have limited influence. To be fair, I am easily swayed by a quick estimation of how much loot we’ll be able to fit under the bigger trees. Needless to say, Santa’s got his work cut out for him.

Due to our powers of self-restraint, we usually come home with a tree that’s only about two feet taller than our ceiling. The tree has to get shoved into a corner in our house between the front wall and our bookcase which houses our stereo. You can imagine how much fun it is to turn the stereo on or off, or to swap out records on the record player with pine branches poking me in the ass and going up my shirt. “Tree Hugger” doesn’t begin to describe it.

After pruning the tree from both ends and getting it set up in the house, the real fun begins. Michelle insists on having about 100,000 lights on the tree, with the trunk cloaked entirely in light so it glows from the inside out. (Don’t worry, we live near a fire station, and I’m told they’ve got our backs.)

Since I’m taller, I’m the one who “gets” to put the lights on the tree. This involves getting maimed by the tree’s branches and needles, and getting into a life-or-death struggle with the strings of lights which insist on tangling no matter how carefully I roll them up. I invariably fall into cursing fits, it’s part of my process. Michelle remedies this by buying me a bottle of Scotch of my choosing, which I get to bust open as the first lights go onto the tree. The downside of the deal is that I’m not allowed to swear once it’s open.

It’s that bottle of The Balvenie Founder’s Reserve that tells me it’s Christmas Season.

In a flash of brilliance, Jim suggested a week ago that we go hiking on his and Jess’s back country skiing route near Steven’s Pass and camp at Skyline Lake near the end of the route. This obviously established a “need” for various pieces of equipment, especially anything titanium: cups, spoons, forks, and a French press. Oh, and a stainless steel grill that about doubled the weight of my pack.

Being the compulsive over packers that we are, we brought everything we could think of including 5 different lights, a GPS, enough batteries to last a month, 6 different types of rain-gear, hiking boots for us and the dogs, special sleeping pads for the dogs, flashy lights for the dogs, and bear bells to attach to anything with a pulse. We would have put bells on the actual bears if only we could have found some. At one point Jim turned to me – decked out head to toe in Gore-Tex, headlamp, and technical pack – and said, “I like camping with you, you guys make me feel less like a gearhead.”

We hiked about a mile and a half up a jeep trail which gained around 1,000 feet in that distance. Jim and Jess had been camping with their dog before, but Michelle and I had not been with ours. We were pretty sure that Mack would do fine, but our expectations for Kirki ranged anywhere from her being dragged up the trail to her being carried up the trail. We almost packed a wagon in case things turned out worse than we expected.

Mack did what he always does, which is run at full speed wherever he goes and jump on top of any object big enough to support him. This results in the occasional miscalculation and resulting collision with the ground or a nearby obstacle. Kirki, to our amazement, was incredibly active as well, bravely exploring the camp and surrounding woods.

We set up camp in the middle of a huckleberry patch. They’re incredibly comfortable to sleep on, by the way. Jess became progressively more obsessed with the berries and was sure they should be used in a recipe. The next day on the way back to the car, we picked a bag full of berries which Jess used to make an awesome cake.

The only snag was that, while Jim, Jess, and Bromley peacefully shared their tent at night, our plans to have Kirki and Mack sleep in the vestibule of our tent didn’t work out – due in large part to the fact that it was snowing. So the dogs came into the tent. Both dogs were still pretty cold and since we neglected to bring a jacket for Mack, we ended up spending the night taking cat naps and alternating Kirki’s jacket between the two dogs.

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Everything ended well; we had no encounters with beasts of any kind and didn’t get lost or frozen. But Kirki did pay a price for her efforts on the hiking trip: she didn’t get up off her pad all day Monday and whined any time she had to lift her head.

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Michelle and I discovered some time ago that things go much better when you spread the celebrating out over longer periods. Enter Birthweek and Birthmonth. The concept is simple enough: once you enter the month of your birth, you can officially begin celebrations under the umbrella of Birthmonth. Then, celebrations intensify during Birthweek. Birthweek is the week during the month that contains your actual Birthday. There is some leeway here, as the person of honor is allowed to choose the official start and end of Birthweek – the only stipulation being that Birthweek can only last seven days and has to contain the actual birthday. Of course, the festivities are most intense on your Birthday.

My birthday is in September, so I have the glorious honor of currently being in Birthmonth. Festivities started this past weekend. It’s the last weekend Michelle’s parents will be in town, so we celebrated my birthday early. Technically, we celebrated both Michelle’s and my birthdays because her parents won’t be in town for Michelle’s birthday, either. I’m going to ignore that. It is my Birthmonth, ergo, I get to ignore things like that.

We spent an awesome day Saturday in the city. We started with breakfast at Cafe Besalu in Ballard before heading over to South Lake Union to take an air tour of the Seattle area by waterplane. The weather was perfect and the trip was spectacular. After the plane ride, we headed up to Shilshore Marina and walked along the shore at Golden Garden Park. Finally, we headed over to Ray’s Boat House for dinner. We took advice from regulars and sat at the Boat House Cafe and ordered from the restaurant. The Cafe has outdoor seating on the rooftop patio, but the restaurant has a superior menu, so it’s the perfect situation. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a more glorious view than the one from our table. We were lucky enough to catch the sunset while we ate in almost perfectly clear weather.

We love this city.

Enjoy the photo album, but if you’re not interested in flipping though 95 photos, make sure you skip to the end and see the photos of the sunset; there really is no sunset like a sunset on the West Coast.

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Dutch Lesson: “Tante” [tahn-tah] means “Aunt” in Dutch, and “Oom” [oh-m] means “Uncle”. Doortje is pronounced as Door-t-yah, and has the American equivalent of “Dorthy”. Max is pronounced with the same “ah” that my name has, M-ah-x, and has the American equivalent of “Max”. Max’s sister’s name, Anyez, is pronounced as Ah-n-yez, and has the American equivalent of “Agnes”. Take-away message of the lesson: Dutch people rule.

My response back to them appears to have been a bit “overly excited” because, in hindsight, I’m quite convinced they had not finalized their decision to come to Seattle, but my enthusiastic reply left them with no choice but to come visit us.

A few months later, they emailed again, wondering if we had any suggestions for a car route from Minneapolis to Seattle which avoided the usual suspects like Yellowstone National Park and Mount Rushmore (which looks “fakey”, by the way). We were stumped, but, as luck would have it, we met a great guy at the Tasting Room who highly recommended the Canadian Rockies via Banff as a worth while route.

Taking nearly two weeks to drive from Minneapolis to Seattle via the route we suggested, they arrived in Seattle on Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, we were both unable to take much time off work, so we were left with evenings to spend with them. We recommended various activities for them to undertake during the day while we were at work, including the Underground Tour, Pike Place Market, the Japanese Garden, the Ballard Locks, and a drive along Lake Washington Boulevard. Each evening, we met up with them and showed them a part of Seattle that we love – like Fremont and Ballard – and then we went out for dinner.

For us, this was a wonderful three days of spending quality time with dear family and sharing with them our favorite parts of town.

The basic trouble with seeing family is that it really makes you miss them just that much more.

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Back to business. It’s well documented that Tommy M considers me a dear, dear friend – that’s not news. But, our friend Jess has recently also rocketed to stardom. We’re proud to say she had pieces published in both Seattle Metropolitan and Seattle Magazine this month. Here is her Contributors summary from Seattle Metropolitan:

Coincidentally, the Thomsons moved to Seattle from the East Coast the same month we did, and her article talks about her first experiences here. The piece is wonderful, and Jess graciously made it available for reading online for those of you who aren’t local and don’t have access to the magazine. If you live in the area, help support her and get yourself a copy!

Read: Snubless In Seattle

First of all, notice his picture. One word: awesome. Check. Next, review his statement:

People-with-problems have difficulty finding employment. Let’s raise the living standard and quality-of-life…Competition is good. King County should not hand Boeing Field over to the Port.

To glorify King County, ask that governments make it easier to make movies here. Let’s raise the living standard by getting a larger percentage of our people working. Employment cures many problems and helps some homeless people buy vans.

Governments should make showers available to our people and should give employment as helpers to minimum wage applicants. We could then open our libraries more and investigate more crimes…Unemployment is a huge waste.

Goodspaceguy studied at universities in Germany, Sweden, and America. Goodspaceguy earned a university Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree..

My first thought is, he must have said to himself, “Well, if George W pulled it off, then I’m trying.”

I’m not sure who he’s talking about when he says “people-with-problems”. This could be anyone. I’m guessing he’s referring to people who like blue cars. In that case, I agree. 2-0 for Goodspaceguy. Next, I totally agree with not handing Boeing Field over to the Port. I’m not a pilot myself, but I can imagine that having the airfield under water in the port would make it tricky to land and take off. Check. 3-0 for Goodspaceguy. Second paragraph is a no-brainer. Movies rule. 4-0 for Goodspaceguy.

Now we get into the real meat of his platform. Minimum wage workers who shower = more libraries and crime investigation. I’m surprised not more people have made this connection. 5-0 for Goodspaceguy. Unemployment is a huge waste. Duh. And we’re at 6-0. Goodspaceguy went to school. 7-0.

So, obviously, I’m on board. If this guy keeps on the same Coolness Trajectory, he’s going to have to change his name to Kickingassandtakingnamesamesspaceguy. And, I’m betting he does that before I get cool enough to change my name for the first time. Name suggestions welcome. Names on this list are excluded.

Read his full statement here.

A few weeks ago, the seasonal farmer’s market opened in our neighborhood, Phinney Ridge. It was typical Phinney: simple, but everything you need. Just being there made us feel healthy and wholesome. Inspired by the fresh garlic and piles of basil, we decided to make fresh potato gnocchi with a basil pesto sauce and lemon-crusted chicken. We got what we could at the market, and then headed off to the grocery store for the rest. Did we go to Fred Meyer or QFC? Hell no. We did it up hippie-style, and went to Whole Foods. We almost always shop at Whole Foods and we feel good about that. They have organic foods, work hard to provide fair trade prices, and provide locally grown produce and humanely raised meats. It makes us feel like we’re helping the animals lead better lives before they’re ruthlessly slaughtered for our meals.

When we came home, we came upon our neighbor lighting his grill on his front porch. Now, I have to say, this guy can make a grill smell so incredibly good that I have on more than one occasion considered stealing the meat off his grill when he’s not looking. Thinking I’d lend an amusing anecdote to the conversation, I told him this. He wasn’t surprised. In fact, he revealed that it has happened before. Breaking the awkward silence after the revelation, Michelle asked him what they were planning on having that evening. “Ribs,” he said.

It appears he had been planning to grill ribs for a few days, and he had run into some difficulty obtaining them at the co-op he and his wife belong to.

They haven’t had the ribs for a while now, and I said to the butcher, ‘What are you doing to me, here? You’re going to make me go to the Dark Side.’ And I did! I had to go to Whole Foods!

He shuddered when he said “Whole Foods” like he had just swallowed stale motor oil. And that, my friends, is what Seattle is all about.

Note: I think my spell checker needs to be trained. The suggested spelling for “gnocchi” is “genocide”.