Tales from the Gorge: Mike & Corinne in Wonderland

Finally Some Snow

2012-01-25T07:34:00.000-08:00

In Trout Lake, it is typical to have snow on the ground from November to March. But the last two winters have been disappointing with the snow disappearing in January. Well, this year, we had a little snow the week before Thanksgiving and then NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING. On Christmas Day, mother nature humored us and sent a few flakes for a couple of hours. And then more NOTHING. It hasn't even rained much. The winter moisture builds the reserve for our dry summers, so this isn't a good sign for the rest of the year.

Well, we finally have snow falling with more in the forecast. Here we are enjoying our first real snow this winter. Anders is sporting his new moose hat from Darrell (daycare Dad).

Happy Winter (finally!)

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders

School Photo at Three Years Old

2011-11-03T22:43:00.000-07:00

It's school photo time again for Anders! Technically, he's still not in school, but "Uncle" Jeff was able to fit him in.

The difference between the photos from this year and last year is pretty dramatic. I know that we shouldn't be surprised by that; after all, he is 50% older now than he was a year ago. But there's really no denying it now: he's growing up.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

3 November 2011

Anders' "First" Halloween

2011-11-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

Despite this being Anders' third Halloween, I would venture to say that this was his first true Halloween celebration. He picked the jack-o-lantern designs, chose his own costume, and trick-or-treated through The Gorge. He is no baby anymore!

Brachiosaurus Jack-o-Lantern
I think every little boy has a fascination with dinosaurs, and Anders is no exception. So straight out of the blue one day he stated that he wanted a Brachiosaurus jack-o-lantern. We weren't talking about pumpkins or dinosaurs at the time, so it really was out of nowhere. It makes me wonder what else he has going on in that head of his!

For some strange reason, it was difficult to find a ready made jack-o-lantern stencil to meet the request. But with a little creativity on Corinne's part, she created a great pattern! (And since she was already doing one dinosaur, why not two? She chose one of its late Jurassic contemporaries, the Stegasaurus, as a companion piece.)

Best Brachiosaurus and Stegosaurus jack-o-lanterns ever

We let Anders use a crayon to draw a face on a third pumpkin. It took some "interpretation" of his marks to cut out a face, but I like it.

Astronaut?
Corinne and I are usually pretty last minute about Halloween costumes, but this year we were the lucky recipients of an astronaut hand-me-down costume from Zak. Perfect! Problem solved, right? Wrong.

About two weeks before Halloween, Anders stated that he wanted to be a firefighter. All of our attempts to convince him otherwise failed miserably. We even brought out the astronaut costume to show him. A few hours later (again, when we weren't even talking about costumes) I asked him an open-ended "what do you think, Anders?" question. His answer was clear: "I think that astronaut costume should be a firefighter costume."

Yellow raincoat + hat + (black boots X white reflective duct tape) + ping pong ball shooter = fire fighter!

We picked Anders up from daycare early on Monday afternoon and made a few office trick-or-treat stops before heading back to downtown White Salmon for some small town trick-or-treating with the Fluits.

Spy and Firefighter

Public servant, on the job

Is that a fire whistle that I hear?

We even stopped in to the local volunteer firehouse. Unfortunately, Anders was too shy to take advantage of the opportunity to sit in a fire truck. Too bad for us, since we missed a great photo opportunity!

We did capture a sample of "Anders, the Singing Firefighter."

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

It didn't take very long for Anders to get the hang of it: "Trick-or-treat" -> "Thank you" -> "Happy Halloween!" while waving arm violently.

Zak, Daniel, and Anders awaiting candy.
You can practically see the anticipation on their faces!

After an hour or so trick-or-treating downtown, we turned the tables and had the kids man the door at the Fluits while the adults ate dinner.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Happy Halloween!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

1 November 2011

Fluffy Ears

2011-10-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

Recently the three of us walked out to our garden to pick some flowers for a bouquet. Most of the flowers were still in full bloom, but Anders particularly liked how "fluffy" the zinnias were.

It didn't take too much encouragement to get him to pose for some "fluffy" photos with his flowers. (I use the term "pose" loosely.)

Fluffy Ears...

...Fluffy Eyes...

...Fluffy Nose!

A modern take on Three Wise Monkeys, perhaps?

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

The End of Summer Tomatoes

2011-10-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a long summer, our garden was still producing prolifically into October. When it looked like the first frost was coming, we harvested whatever was left: tomatoes, tomatillos, boxes of squash, and piles of herbs. We spent most of a weekend cooking and canning: Zucchini Dill Pickles, Chile Verde Sauce, and a wonderful Tomato and Sage Sauce. All made from garden ingredients! (Thanks to Debbie for some of her garden plum tomatoes.)

The blender technique to this particular recipe was a bit unusual for a tomato sauce. But with so many different varieties and colors, the process was beautiful.

Onions, garlic, sage, and chili pepper

Ready for jars

One last bit of summer tucked away, just enough to remember it by.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

2 October 2011

Anders is 3!

2011-09-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe, but Anders turned three years old today! Apparently three is when cheesy smiles and "mugging" for the camera begin.

Happy Birthday!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Snow! Finally! (and motion-activated cameras)

2011-03-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

Despite predictions to the contrary, it's been a pretty light winter in terms of snow accumulation. Here's a "time lapse" video of some driveway clearing work that we did after one of the late winter snowfalls.

Watch this video on YouTube or
in the original blog post

The video was created by stitching together a series of still photos taken with a motion-activated trail camera that we recently bought. The trail camera is designed to be mounted to a tree or other fixed object and automatically takes one or more photos or video when it detects motion. To start, we mounted it in the driveway as a trial run before we move it to another more interesting place on our property. The camera just happened to be mounted there when I had to clear the driveway. You'll undoubtedly see more interesting shots taken with it at a later time.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

Date: March 1, 2011

Dinner Party: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan

2011-02-20T12:17:00.000-08:00

One of the downsides of living outside of a city - and one of the things that we miss about Boston - is the lack of ethnic diversity. While there is great Mexican food in this area, you have to go to Portland for most other types. (For example: there aren't any Middle Eastern, Indian or South Asian restaurants anywhere in The Gorge. Period.)

That has never deterred us, though; we'll just do it ourselves, at home. But rather than go it alone in the wilderness, we have cultivated a cadre of similar-minded foodies and participate in ethnic food parties. Previous ethnic-themed dinners have covered Thai, Spanish, and German. For this one, we were inspired by our favorite restaurant: The Helmand, an Afghani restaurant in Cambridge, MA. (If you are ever in the Boston area, we highly recommend it.)

For our dinner party, we expanded the scope to include a few of the surrounding countries: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. We made two of our cookbooks available as inspiration: Afghan Food and Cookery and Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations. We invited a few dozen friends, made a few recipes ourselves, and just let the dishes roll in.

Chalau Sof / Afghan style baked rice (Afghanistan)
Koufta Chalau / Meatballs (Afghanistan)
Nani Afghani / Flatbread (Afghanistan)
Borrani banjan / Eggplant (Afghanistan)
Sfiha / Arab pizza (Syria/Lebanon)
Helawat al Jazr / Sweet Cardamon Carrots (Iran)
Chelo Kebab Barg / Roasted goat (Iran)
Lawang e Samaruq / Mushrooms in Yogurt (Afghanistan)
Channa / Chickpea curry (Indian)
Hummus / Hummus (everywhere)
Chicken Jalfarezi / Chicken curry (Pakistan)
Achaar Chicken / Tangy curry chicken (Pakistan)
Naan Berenji / Persian Rice Cookies (Iran)

Interestingly, only a few of the dishes used meat, which made the vegetarians in the group very happy. There were probably a few more dishes as well that didn't get included in this list. (Most of the recipes that aren't linked are from one of the two cookbooks above.) Here was the resulting spread, in all its splendor:

We encouraged people to bring beverages as well, with the stipulation that "all drinks must comply with the local customs in these countries" (aka "think twice before bringing beer or wine"). The resulting beverage list included two kinds of chai; Ouzo that was homemade by a friend of one of the participants (technically it isn't from one of the countries indicated, but how do you turn away a homemade liquor?); and Johnny Walker with water. That last one is apparently what all the Indian men drink in the backrooms. Yes, technically outside of the indicated countries, but it's a great visual, isn't it?

We love these parties. They give people an opportunity/excuse to expand their cooking experiences, but more importantly, we all get to help eat the results.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Pancake Revival

2011-01-22T20:55:00.001-08:00

Who doesn't have fond childhood memories of having pancakes? Anders, that's who. We have never made him pancakes. When we were first married, we tried several pancake recipes but were not impressed with any of the results. For us, waffles and french toast beat out pancakes any day. So pancakes were never on our breakfast menu.

But now that Anders is around, we have started to feel guilty. Have we been depriving him of a quintessential American adolescent experience? If it weren't for daycare, Anders wouldn't even know what a pancake was. So we came up with a plan. We were sure that some of our parent friends must make pancakes for their kids, and they can't all be as dull as ours, right? Time for another themed food party: Pancake Revival!

We invited some of our friends-with-young-children to brunch and asked them to bring a pancake recipe, either one of their favorites or a new one to try. We would cook up a batch of each different recipe and let everyone enjoy the variety, including the kids.

We had pancakes of all sorts: buckwheat, whole wheat; pumpkin, strawberry, blueberry, spiced; thick, thin. And lots of them. We had griddles going simultaneously for at least an hour. All of the kids, including Anders, got their fill of pancakes that day.

It certainly wasn't a contest, so I won't declare a "winner". But we did come away with a recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes that all three of us liked. It turned out to be a recipe from the cookbook of the Wildflower Cafe, a longtime favorite restaurant in the Gorge that closed several years ago.

Since this event was really all about the kids, here are some of the participants:

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Favorite Recipes of 2010

2011-01-17T22:14:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year - time for the 2010 installment in the Favorite New Recipes series. In last year's installment, we had nothing to report. As a result, we vowed to do better in 2010, doing more menu planning and just generally enjoying our mealtimes again. We are happy to report that we were largely successful and have many new recipes to relate.

#1: Spaghetti Squash with Jalapeno Cream
Source: Sunset
This recipe was an easy choice for the top of our year-end list. We were inspired to find new squash recipes after buying spaghetti squash from our organic farmer neighbor, but once we found this recipe we got stuck on it and haven't tried too much else. Milk is infused with jalapeno then mashed with roasted squash and topped with pepper jack cheese. How could that possibly be anything but delicious?

#2: Greek Lamb with Spinach and Artichokes
Source: Better Homes and Gardens
Slow-cooked lamb and beans, with artichokes and spinach tossed in at the end, all topped with feta cheese. To paraphrase Jerry Maguire: "You had me at Greek Lamb." We usually make a double batch, and it barely fits in our 4.5qt slow-cooker.

#3: Skillet Gnocchi with Chard and White Beans
Source: Eating Well, January/February 2009
We discovered this one in our quest to introduce more healthy, weeknight-friendly bean dishes into our (and Anders's) diet. Pick up some chard, and everything else is a pantry staple.

#4: Fried Chickpeas with Chorizo
Source: The Minimalist (Mark Bittman)
To celebrate his birthday, our friend Rat held ethnic-themed dinner parties where everyone was instructed to bring a dish from a particular country's cuisine. We attended Spanish night, and this was our contribution. (More beans - are you sensing a theme?)

#5: Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Source: Cook's Illustrated, December 2009
There's a delicious coffee cake recipe in Corinne's family that is legendary; it makes an appearance at virtually all family events. This isn't it. So the fact that this one makes the list says something about what we thought of it. It takes a little extra effort, so this isn't an everyday item.

And for completeness... here is the family coffee cake recipe which originally hails from Molfred Amole, a lady in Great Falls, MT. When Corinne's Mom Donna was in high school, she cleaned house and babysat for Molfred and her family.

#6: Raspberry Spoon Bread
Source: Eating Well, July/August 2009
We actually did discover a favorite recipe in 2009, but it wasn't until raspberries were back in season that we remembered. This one is a simple, cornmeal based dessert and a great way to use raspberries which are so plentiful in the summer months.

#7: Chorizo Bread Pudding
Source: The Spanish Table
This is the one recipe on this list that we didn't actually make ourselves. (I guess you could consider that a violation of the rules.) Our friend Mandy brought this dish to the aforementioned Spanish dinner party. It would be great as part of a weekend brunch.

And speaking of puddings... inspired by the McDuff children's stories, Corinne went on an exploration of puddings, including vanilla rice pudding, tapioca pudding, and a coconut milk pudding. Anders and I certainly appreciated the results!

Here's to more new recipes and continued meal enjoyment in 2011!

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

Max's 2010 Critter Count

2011-01-16T15:09:00.000-08:00

It looks like our reality show, Max: Extreme Hunter, is on hiatus.

Last year, Max was a super hunter. He caught more animals in a single year than the total of all previous years combined. But after his thyroid condition was discovered and successfully treated, his activities trailed off at the end of last year.

This year's results pale in comparison.

	2008	2009	2010
Mice	9	5	1
Birds	4	1	1
Gophers	2	25	0
Squirrels	0	3	3
Lizards	0	6	1

The most disappointing line is the gophers. None! And we have certainly seen no decrease in gopher activity; there's plenty out there to hunt, that's for sure.

We did have some excitement during one of the squirrel incidents. Whenever Max catches an animal, he consistently brings it inside and drops it on the dining room floor. Until this year, all of the animals that he has brought inside have been dead (except for the lizards - somehow ALL of the lizards have survived). But on this one particular day, when Max dropped a squirrel onto the floor something didn't quite seem normal. Its eyes were open and the fur was pretty matted down in sections, and just as Corinne was asking if it was dead, it blinked. At this point, Corinne hastily left the room while I came up with various schemes to get this squirrel back outside. It scurried under the furniture, climbed the log walls and generally did not acquiesce to my requests. Anyone who has listened to the classic This American Life episode knows how horribly this scenario could have ended, but thankfully I managed to wrangle him down the hallway and back outside. Crisis averted.

One of the symptoms of hyperthyroidism is an increased metabolism, so was the "extreme" hunting year just an anomaly spurred by his condition? We're hoping that Max will regain some of that hunting prowess in the coming years. He did spend less time outside this year (by his own choosing), and the vet has described him as "middle-aged", so perhaps his most extreme hunting days are behind him. But we just know that he's got more killing in him.

- Mike, Corinne, Anders, and Max

Nordic Lessons

2011-01-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

Two years ago we bought cross country skis, but haven't really used them yet. Corinne went once with Kris and Amy shortly after we bought our gear, but she didn't really know what she was doing. She survived unscathed but didn't leave with any more skills than she started. And I hadn't gone at all and had no idea what I was doing. So when we saw an announcement for a "beginner cross country ski clinic" organized by the Columbia Gorge Chapter of the Oregon Nordic Club (ONC), we figured that it would be a good place to start.

This particular clinic was being held while my parents were in town visiting, so they could watch Anders while we learned. To make things even more convenient for us, it turns out that the clinic was going to be held on Mt Adams (rather than Mt Hood)! A twenty minute drive north of our house and we were at the SnowKing Sno-Park on Mt Adams meeting the rest of the crew.

But the conditions on this particular day were less than ideal. Plenty of snow was still on the ground, but a recent rainy warm spell followed by cold weather again made for some very icy conditions. (In fact, while we were getting our gear together one of the members in our party fell while traversing the parking lot.) After a short survey of the conditions further down the trail, the leaders made a call to move down to a trail at the Trout Lake School. The terrain was relatively flat and the trail had been groomed that morning, so it wasn't particularly icy. (Thanks, Robert!)

We learned a ton from the ONC members before even putting on our skis. We then all spent about an hour and a half doing a loop on the trail with periodic instruction. We both came away with much improved skills (and some sore muscles.) The following day, we spent another 45 minutes or so skiing around our own property. There are no groomed trails, of course, so the conditions were pretty different than the previous day. But I think we had both learned enough of the basics on the previous day that we felt comfortable and had fun.

Here's to more winter snow!

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

First School Picture

2010-12-05T14:01:00.000-08:00

Anders hasn't started school yet (he's only two), but he does have his first school photo!

The photo was taken by "Uncle Jeff," Debbie's brother, who has the school picture contract at the White Salmon schools. There's something about a school photo that is so unmistakable!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Deer Are Dirty Thieves

2010-11-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, Tara & Jason gave Corinne a T-shirt with a graphic of a deer captioned: "Deer are Dirty Thieves." We've had our problems with deer in the past, but this story takes it to a new level.

We recently bought two #20 boxes of organic Jonagold apples from a local orchardist, with plans to make applesauce and any number of other wonderful apple items. Since we didn't have space in either the kitchen or garage fridges for such a bounty, I decided that we should store them on the front stoop of the house until we could process them. The weather was cool but not yet freezing, so in the absence of a root cellar I figured that this would be the best option.

You can probably already see where this is going, but bear with me for a minute.

One night I needed to get something from the garage, so I slipped on my clogs and walked down the sidewalk. It was pretty dark outside, but for some reason I decided that I didn't need to turn on the outside light. As I got about halfway down the sidewalk, I heard an incredibly loud noise on the gravel driveway right next to me. The sound startled me so much that I jumped out of my shoes - literally. My bare big toe came down on the concrete sidewalk, scraping off a good sized chunk of skin.

Once I calmed down and regained my wits, I realized that the sound was caused by several deer that had been standing in the driveway in front of the garage. They had probably watched me walk towards them the whole time and bolted away when they decided that I had gotten too close.

When I got back inside the house I surveyed the damage and relayed the story to Corinne. She laughed all the way up the stairs to get a bandage for my toe. Less than 20 minutes later I glanced out the front window to see two deer standing next to the stoop eating apples RIGHT OUT OF THE BOXES. I quickly ran outside to chase them away, but much damage had already been done. They had probably eaten or taken bites out of around 20% of the apples. And we're pretty sure that this was not their first meal out of these boxes, which is probably why the deer were in the driveway in the first place.

We did manage to salvage the rest of the apples; ironically, the deer had eaten enough that we were able to fit the remainder in the fridge.

Peering through the window, wondering what treat we'll be providing next...

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

Another year, another trip to the pumpkin patch for Halloween. At two, Anders was able to better appreciate what was happening than during his first pumpkin patch visit. He spent most of his time running through the fields as fast as he could. (Amazingly enough, he only fell a few times.)

Occasionally he would stop and point to a pumpkin that he wanted to take home. But it wouldn't take long for him to change his mind and take off running again.

He did slow down long enough to walk through the corn "maze."

I'm sure that with each new year, he'll enjoy the holidays a little more. And so will we!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

23 October 2010

Creative Jack-O-Lanterns

2010-10-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

Our friends Simon and Lindsey hosted a pumpkin carving dinner party a few weeks before Halloween. It was a creative group, so the results were fairly impressive.

Since many of the folks at the party were from our office, we actually had a bit of a contest at work to see who could guess who carved which pumpkins. I don't think anyone got ours right: Corinne carved the owl, and I did the Lisa Frank-inspired unicorn with a rainbow.

We proudly displayed our artistry on the front porch.

Unfortunately, the repeated freeze/thaw cycle of the weather did them in pretty quickly. They didn't make it to Halloween.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

15 October 2010

Yard Sale Find

2010-09-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Each week throughout the summer, Trout Lake has a Saturday Market. Held in the Grange building, the market features local crafts, baked goods (homemade cinnamon rolls with huckleberries!), and over the past few years the selection of locally grown fruits and vegetables has grown as well. We have tried to go to every market we can, and Anders enjoys the trip as well.

On this particular weekend, when we arrived in downtown the streets were packed with cars. We quickly realized that it was the weekend of the annual Trout Lake Rummage Sale. The proceeds from the sale benefit the Trout Lake Community Foundation who sponsors scholarships for local graduates. They raise an incredible amount of money from the event, on the order of $15,000! So after our walk through the market we continued on over to the rummage sale area.

We wandered around for a bit, but once Anders found the toy section he was pretty much permanently planted there playing with the array of used (and abused) toys on display. One of the toys that he discovered was a "vintage" Fisher Price circus train set. Many of you will probably recognize this train set; both Corinne and I had it when we were kids. He really digs trains and spent a good portion of his time at the toy section playing with these particular pieces. This particular set was missing the engine, so we had decided that we wouldn't buy it. But when we announced to Anders that we were going to leave, he scrambled to pick up all of the train cars and try to carry them away with him. How can you say no to that?

Corinne was less excited about the other item that he picked up and wouldn't put down: a half broken, white Matchbox van with red and blue flames and monster truck wheels. Oh well. The whole pile plus a few books only cost us $1 anyway. We'll just find the engine on eBay - for a lot more than $1, I'm sure.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

September 4, 2010

Company Picnic

2010-08-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

Insitu holds several company-wide social events each year, and this summer's picnic was held in the community park in Bingen. The event is catered by a local restaurant, and there is an entire section of the park filled with activities for kids: a baby-sitting area (complete with staff), several inflatable bounce-houses, and a face painting station. We opted to keep Anders with us during the party; he was perfectly happy just wandering around the park.

Once he saw the bounce-house, though, it was a different story. Anders had been in one of these just a few weeks earlier at the Trout Lake Fair, so he knew what it was. But this time the house was bigger; it included stairs and a slide inside. And there was a larger flow of older kids cycling through the house. Apparently neither of those were enough of a deterrent, so Anders got in line and made his way into the house. Since he has a generally cautious approach to new experiences, he didn't move very quickly through the house. He was moving, but it was an order of magnitude slower than most of the other kids around him. We were a little concerned that someone might just run over him (not intentionally, of course) when an older boy who was in the house came up to him and started helping him along the path. He held his hand, guided him around turns, and even helped him all the way up the stairs that led to the slide in the middle. It was at this point that Anders decided that he didn't want to go down that slide and began to scream. Corinne stuck her head in and pulled Anders out, and he calmed down when he saw us. We thanked the boy who had helped him along. We got his first name - Nathan - but neglected to find out his last name so that we could relay thanks and appreciation to his parents.

Anders didn't get his face painted, but another member of our party did.

"Cow jumping over the moon."

- Mike, Corinne, Donna Mae, and Anders Rocket

Date: August 18, 2010

Ethan's 3rd Birthday

2010-08-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

Anders recently attended the 3rd birthday party for Ethan. The party was actually held outside in a local park - Toll Bridge Park in Parkdale, OR. We're considering stealing that idea since it makes cleanup (both before and after) a whole lot easier!

Anders hasn't had soda before. In fact, he hasn't really even had juice that much since we've tried to steer him towards water and milk instead. But we figured that a birthday party seemed like the right place for him to "live it up". I figured that he probably wouldn't like the Izze Sodas that Corinne and I were drinking; as a kid I remember disliking anything that had any sort of carbonation in it. But apparently it isn't genetic.

There were also juice boxes there which were for the kids. But interestingly, the Izze's Sodas had less sugar than the juice boxes! Anders did eventually switch to juice and managed to guzzle down at least two over the course of the party.

Ethan's birthday cake was actually constructed of individual cupcakes. Amy found a silicone cupcake kit that came with instructions for arranging individual cupcake molds on a baking sheet in various patterns. After baking the cupcakes would blend together on the top so that they could be frosted as one, but they still separated into cupcakes in the end. Pretty clever! And tasty.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Full Time Grandma

2010-08-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, we have finally gotten another family member to move to the Gorge! After following the Insitu job postings over the last several years, Donna is now the Executive Assistant for Insitu's VP of Sales and Marketing. It all happened pretty fast, too. She noticed the posting on a Tuesday and submitted her resume; HR responded on Wednesday and scheduled an on-site interview for Thursday. By the middle of the following week, she had her accepted offer in hand and would start just two weeks later.

With a total count now at three, we may have retaken the lead on "largest family representation" at Insitu. We held that same count from 2004 to early 2007 when Leif was still at Insitu as well, but we dropped to two when he left to pursue his artistic dreams. (Of course now we don't represent the almost 10% of the company that we did when we first started.)

Donna is staying in our guest room until she can find a place of her own, which is just fine with us and more than fine for Anders. He now has a full-time, live-in grandma! It actually works out great for us to have another person around the house to help out with Anders.

One of Anders's favorite things to do lately is "make blocks," which is to build something out of his Mega-Bloks. He isn't using modern building practices yet, but three out of four times the construction stays intact - that is, until the "elves" dismantle it overnight and put it back into the bin.

Another recent activity involved bringing out grandma's "jewels" from her jewelry box. Anders really enjoyed going through the box and pulling out each one.

- Mike, Corinne, Grandma Donna and Anders Rocket

12 August 2010

Too Much Nature

2010-07-22T17:51:00.001-07:00

Other than my 12 years in Boston and 1 year in Seattle, I've always lived in the country with plenty of opportunity to observe wildlife. In all that time, I had only heard a deer vocalize once. I was floating on a Yellowstone slough and heard a deer on the bank give an airy snort as we passed by.

Have you ever heard a deer scream? I have. Twice. This year.

Scream #1:
About a month ago, I woke up at 4:30 am to a screaming/bleating noise outside followed by a rustling, whirring noise. I immediately thought of the fawns we had frequently seen around the house over the past couple months - a set of twins and a singleton - and of our abundant coyote population. I was wide awake with my heart beating fast, so I got up to investigate. The sky was just starting to brighten with the rising sun. To the east, there was a fawn laying in the grass. To the north, a fawn standing alone. No doe. I watched for a while not knowing what happened to the doe and wondering where the coyotes were. I was fearful that there may have been several coyotes working together, with one or more luring the doe away while others waited for an opportunity to attack the unprotected fawns. After watching for a bit, the doe came running back to the eastern fawn. I never saw a doe reunite with the fawn to the north and they all eventually disappeared, leaving me with more questions than answers. My speculation is that a coyote approached a fawn, it screamed, and then the doe chased it away. I was hopeful the fawns were okay. About a week later, we saw a doe with twins and so apparently, the deer won. But what actually happened, I guess we'll never know.

Scream #2:
Last week, we were eating dinner when we heard coyotes howl. It's unusual to hear them howl in daylight so I got up to see what was going on, particularly in light of the earlier incident. Just then, a fawn went racing past the house crying, while a coyote followed on its heels! The fawn sounded somewhat like a goat crossed with a crow (due to the periodic nature of the bleating). I then saw another coyote in the distance; I sent Mike out to chase the second one away, but it was gone by the time he got there. The second fawn then went running by the house, but it wasn't being chased. About 5 minutes later, I saw the doe walking in the direction of the chase (presumably following a scent?). 20 minutes after that, I heard the coyotes howl again. This time I wasn't very hopeful. That coyote was right behind that little fawn. Mike decided to go out looking for any "evidence" of what had happened. He walked out into the woods in the direction of the chance and spent about 15 minutes looking and listening, but came back without much additional info. The incident ruined my whole evening and Anders was quite upset as well. I don't think he saw anything but responded to our reactions, associating danger with the coyote howling.

A couple of days later, I saw a doe but no fawns. Was this the same doe? I should have paid more attention to them all so I can tell them apart. Using the binoculars, I could see that this doe has a scar above her left front leg and is definitely a mother. Finally, four days later, I saw this same doe with twin fawns. They had survived the incident! I really thought that one was a goner.

The day after I experienced the Scream #2 incident, on my drive to town I passed a deer that had just been hit. It was laying in the road, head up, breathing but legs busted. (There were people stopped and presumably taking care of the situation.)

This is just too much of the ugly side of nature. It reminded me of something our landlord had said to us when we first moved to the Gorge: "Living in the country is all about death!". I don't prescribe to that perspective, but it's not an untruth. Time to go back to Boston? Not yet, but please, no more screaming.

- Corinne, Mike, Anders Rocket, and Mother Nature

Date: July 22, 2010

A Night in Eugene

2010-07-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, Corinne heard an interview on NPR with musician Trombone Shorty and has been infatuated ever since. His music is a unique fusion of jazz, funk, and rock with a lot of horn. Upon checking out his website, she discovered that he was going to be in Eugene, OR on the Thursday before the 4th of July weekend. We managed to twist Grandma's arm and convinced her to spend an extended holiday weekend with us so we could get away overnight for the concert. Our first overnight together without Anders! So we rounded up a few friends and off we went.

Our friends Kris and Amy both have their pilot's license and decided to fly from Hood River to Eugene rather than drive, so Corinne hitched a ride.

Hood River Bridge, Columbia River

Meanwhile, Rat and I drove down I-5 with the riffraff. In the end it took about the same time by both means, and possibly even with equivalent danger. (Man, I hate I-5.) Trombone Shorty was great in concert. The concert hall was a converted church, complete with pews! The acoustics at the venue could have been a bit better, but we specifically chose it over Portland (where he was also performing) because of the smaller, more intimate setting.

Our last trip through Eugene was back in 2004 and we were only there for a few hours on that trip. Since we were staying in a local hotel downtown, this time we had more of an opportunity to explore. Eugene has the feel of a small town while being the second largest city in Oregon - UofO probably helps with that. I think we did walk through the same district a few times since it looked like the most interesting thing in the downtown. I'm sure if we spent more time or asked some "locals" we could have found some really good spots, but that will have to wait until next time.

On Friday we headed back home to see what had become of Anders during our absence.

As it turns out, he survived just fine. He didn't take any naps for Grandma, which I can't say is a big surprise to us. But he also decided on Friday that he wasn't going to wear any clothes. And for some reason, Grandma decided that would be fine. So when we got home, he was walking around the house wearing only his diaper.

Thanks, Grandma!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

July 5, 2010

Gooseberry Tart

2010-07-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

Gooseberries from a friend's garden, transformed into a delicious rustic tart. Yum.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-06-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when Anders wakes up from his nap before Mom has finished baking for the potluck.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Photos from a Summer Walk

2010-06-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

24 June 2010

Catherine's Birthday

2010-06-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

(This is another 'archival' post from summer 2010.)

Our friend Catherine celebrated her 30th birthday recently. At the party, there was a cardboard 'stage' and a box of miscellaneous costume accessories: hats, mustaches, etc. Fun!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

6 June 2010

Spring Walk

2010-05-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

During a recent walk, Corinne brought our her Digital SLR (the "fancy" camera) and took some artsy shots of spring's arrival.

Meanwhile, Dad and Anders walked around looking for dandelions.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

21 May 21, 2010

First Trip to the Library

2010-05-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Anders is a book-hound. He wants to read books all of the time, sometimes a little too often for Mom and Dad, in fact. So we figured that he would go absolutely crazy at the library.

But for some reason, on his first visit to our local library he spent the majority of his time climbing on the furniture, looking at the computer, and playing with the toys in the kids section. Go figure.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

18 May 2010

Happy Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

9 May 2010

Hunting Season

2010-05-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Hunting season has officially begun. I'm not talking about the hunting for which you need a license and wear bright orange clothing. No, I'm referring to Max's hunting, of course.

Max has been going outside periodically for the past several months, but we hadn't seen any evidence of any kills until very recently. Sometime last week we found a mostly-headless mouse on the stoop outside the house, but we couldn't attribute it to Max definitively. It wasn't until this past weekend that we had confirmation that he was up to his old habits.

Saturday morning, Anders and I were downstairs while Corinne slept in. I had let Max outside, but hadn't seen him come back in the house yet. Then I heard light footsteps coming down the stairs from upstairs, and Anders had a strange look on his face as he looked in the direction of the footsteps. It was Max coming down the stairs, and he had what at first appeared to be a brown stuffed animal in his mouth. I quickly realized that it wasn't a stuffed animal - it was a squirrel (dead, as they always are). Apparently Max had brought the animal in the front door, and when I didn't give him the recognition and praise that he expected, he decided to go upstairs to see if sleeping Corinne would oblige. It's a good thing that I closed the upstairs door, causing Max to return back down the stairs.

Anders was still very confused by the situation, but once Max dropped the squirrel onto the floor and started batting it around, he was no longer confused. Now he KNEW that he didn't like it. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get the squirrel away from Max while simultaneously making sure that crying Anders doesn't get in the line of fire.

I finally got the squirrel from Max, tossed it outside (where a coyote later found it and presumably had a snack) and returned to clean up the blood and comfort Anders. And so, 2010 hunting season begins.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

8 May 2010

Teenager Already?

2010-05-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

(This is an 'archival' post from May 2010.)

Anders has had "selective hearing" for some time now, choosing to pretend that he doesn't hear what his parents are saying. But now it has progressed one step further; he actively expresses that he isn't listening.

"I'm not listening, I'm not listening"

Why do I have the feeling that we can look forward to this for the next, oh, 16 years or so?

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: May 1, 2010

Two Moose

2010-04-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

When it became clear that Anders had chosen his stuffed moose as a comfort item, we bought a second one as a backup. Since then, we have periodically switched them, and we always had a spare at home in case one didn't make it back from daycare or was temporarily misplaced.

But recently, Anders's universe almost collapsed upon itself when he discovered that there actually ARE two moose. It was unintentional, of course, but somehow he ended up with two moose in his hands at once. He had a huge smile on his face, and that night he slept with both moose in his crib with him.

I don't think the significance of having two has really dawned on him (come to think of it, what IS the significance?) He's still perfectly happy having only one, so I guess there was no harm done.

- Mike, Corinne, Anders Rocket, Moose #1 and Moose #2

Spring Walks

2010-04-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

Anders still loves his walks outside; we try to do them as often as we can. He will even request them whenever he thinks of them - which is pretty often, and sometimes at inconvenient times like right before bedtime, or first thing in the morning before work, or when it is pouring rain.

Anders frequently turns the 'walks' into a run. I now have Anders take his ball with him on the walks (not a hard sell) so that if he trips, he has a chance of landing on the ball instead of the ground.

A typical walk involves a loop that starts by heading south and east down our driveway, walking north on Stoller Rd, then heading west at the fence on the north side of our property and walking through the field back home. We haven't measured it, but it's probably less than a quarter mile or so. About half of the time, Anders decides that he's done walking and wants to be carried before we're done with the loop.

- Corinne, Mike and Anders Rocket

Date: April 16, 2010

18 Month Well Baby Checkup

2010-04-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

Anders had his 18 month well baby checkup (at closer to 19 months) and has the following stats to report:

Weight: 25 lb 13 oz
Height: 33 inches long
Head Circumference: 19 inch

He's still tracking to the same percentile as at his previous check-up. But now that his default position is upright (standing/walking), I figure it is appropriate to report his "Height" rather than his "Length". It's pretty amazing that he's 3.5 inches taller than he was just 6 months ago.

The doctor has a list of developmental questions that we answer at each appointment. Questions of note this time:

Does he have at least 3 words? Yes, about 30 words.
Does he say "Mom" and "Dad"? No.

We hadn't really thought about it, but the doctor found it odd that Anders doesn't say Mom or Dad. Most kids say those words first. But overall she wasn't concerned about it since he has so many words in total. He does know who we are; he'll point to the right person or respond appropriately when we say, "Give it to Dad" or "Go show that to Mom". When we do ask him who we are, he'll respond in various ways but often the words of choice are "panda bear", "cat", or "pat".

I guess we have something to work on; here is our first attempt, which wasn't terribly successful.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Easter

2010-04-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

(This is an 'archival' post from April 2010.)

In addition to delaying our tree-planting by a week, we also delayed our celebration of Easter. Anders doesn't know any better yet, and all of Corinne's family would be present. I guess the Easter Bunny got our message about the postponement, too, since he left several baskets of goodies hidden around our yard.

The Easter Bunny brought some interesting things for Anders this year. First of all, he didn't bring very much candy. Instead, he brought Annie's Cheddar Bunnies inside plastic eggs. Apparently he didn't see the irony of giving out snack crackers shaped like bunnies. Anders loves those crackers, and so do his parents.

His baskets were mostly filled with toys and other play items: Playmobil animal figures; animal magnets; a new set of animal flash cards; a knit frog hat; and the book "Little Blue Truck Paves the Way", the sequel to one of his favorite books.

The Easter Bunny brought deliveries from Seattle containing more treats: chocolate bunny, more books, and a stuffed Westie dog (which he refers to as "cat").

It took some significant coaching on the part of his parents for Anders to actually find any of the baskets - or more accurately, I guess it was more a problem of motivation than anything else. It is a weird concept, after all.

It was great to have so many family members there to enjoy it with us!

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Date: April 13, 2010

Fence Fixing

2010-04-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

As a "bonus" part of this year's tree-planting extravaganza, we had enough time and help to repair one of our fence posts. The post was originally damaged during an event that we hosted a few years ago, but it managed to stay upright until this past fall when it finally collapsed to the ground during a wind storm. We collected up the pieces and stored them away for the winter.

Reidar spent the better part of a day preparing the new fence post, and the auger that he hooked up for tree planting ended up getting use re-digging the post hole.

Anders was very interested in the whole operation, but he watched from inside.

Success! With any luck, this post will last us another 20 years.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: April 12, 2010

Tree Planting, Year Four

2010-04-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

With spring comes our annual "tradition" of tree-planting. This is our fourth year of planting, and we've definitely learned more each year. The primary lesson from last year's planting is to get it done quickly! The 1,200 trees that we planted last year took all of our free time from March to mid-June to complete. The combination of our late planting and an unseasonably hot and dry spring weather resulted in a terrible survival rate: ~25%. Yes, you read that right - that's the SURVIVAL rate, not the loss rate. 900 of the 1,200 trees that we planted in 2009 didn't make it. The Douglas Fir seedlings fared particularly poorly, even though they were the first to be planted and thus received more rain and had more time to acclimate before the heat and dryness of summer arrived.

This year was dedicated primarily to replanting the losses from the previous three years. We knew that we wanted to get everything done early, and preferably in a single shot. We estimated that it would take approximately 90-100 man hours of effort to finish the whole thing in one fell swoop. If we could find two additional planters and some Anders care, we figured that we could get the whole thing done in a four-day weekend with only 5-6 hours of field work per day. So we scheduled a long weekend around Easter and invited some family and friends to join us for hard work, good food, good company, and lots of laughing.

A week before the scheduled event, Anders came down with a cold. In the interest of not spreading it to all of our volunteers, we delayed the work weekend by one week. It's a good thing that we did, too, as we received one of the larger snowstorms of this mild winter. It would have been difficult to plant trees in 6" of snow.

We managed to enlist Reidar, Donna and Leif to join us, but another friend who was planning to help out wasn't able to make the rescheduled date. That left us one person short of our goal to complete the whole project in a long weekend. On a whim, we decided to ask Loren if he would be interested in a short jaunt from Tulsa to help out. Being the seat-of-the-pants type of person that he is, he agreed. But we kept his planned participation secret from the rest of the group.

The weather was much more cooperative when the rescheduled weekend arrived, and Anders had recovered sufficiently. Each of our volunteers had a specific role: Leif, Loren, Corinne and I would be the planters; Donna was chief cook, bottle washer and Anders watcher; and Reidar was on tractor repair, fence mending, and cookie delivery. First to arrive were Donna and Leif, driving from Seattle on Wednesday night. Thursday morning we began our work in earnest with Corinne, Leif and myself starting in the field while Donna stayed in the house to watch Anders and work the kitchen.

Since Leif and Loren require naps each afternoon in order to function properly (yes, that's right - two grown men can't function without daily naps!), we decided on a daily schedule that could accommodate: breakfast; 2.5-3 hours field work; lunch; nap; 2.5-3 hours field work; dinner. We finished the morning work period roughly on the desired schedule and headed in for lunch.

Meanwhile, Reidar was driving down from Tacoma and stopped to pick up Loren from the Portland airport. They arrived in Trout Lake around 1:30pm while Leif and Anders were down for their naps. And this is where the real scheming came in. I met Loren and Reidar out on the street and offloaded Loren into our machine shop. Reidar then continued to the house as if he had arrived by himself. Loren took a brief nap in the bed of the farm pickup in the shop.

After Leif's nap, I walked out to the planting field ahead of Corinne, Leif and Reidar, stopping by the shop to grab Loren on the way. I hid behind some older trees near the field while Loren started working in the field. The rest of the group arrived soon after, and as planned Leif initially assumed that I was the person working in the field. As he got closer - and particularly after I emerged from the trees next to him - it began to dawn on Leif that something was going on. Corinne told Leif that the extra person was the neighbor. Leif's final realization came when he got about 10 feet away: "That's my bro-.... that's that asshole from Tulsa!" Much smiling, laughing and hugging ensued. Then the real work commenced again while Reidar walked back to the machine shop, laughing the whole way.

The deception wasn't over yet, though; Donna still didn't know about Loren. When our work for the day was complete, Leif and Loren swapped hats and coats, and Leif hid outside while Loren went in with us and pretended to be his brother. It only took a few minutes for her to figure it out, and more smiling, laughing and hugging ensued.

Now that all of that monkey-business was out of the way, it was time to focus on the work. While the weather was much better than the previous weekend, it was still odd. On Thursday, it snowed and melted three different times, including some hail. But it never rained (very hard), and the temperature stayed nice and cool - good for both the young seedlings and the field hands. Since the Douglas Firs fared so poorly the previous year, we opted to make all 1,200 of this year's trees Ponderosa Pine.

Our planting is a two-step process. The ground first needs to be prepped - sometimes called "scalped" - to remove the grasses that would compete with the young tree for water and nutrients. Then that spot can be planted. With Reidar's help, we actually experimented with using a PTO-mounted auger to plant the trees, but it was overkill given the small size of the trees.

Scalp...

...then plant

We decided to make an instructional video to help illustrate the process.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Since we are all pretty fair-skinned, we all tried to cover ourselves to prevent burning. Leif's choice of hats some days was, uh, interesting.

Each day we repeated our eat/work/eat/nap/work/eat schedule, though we tended to start the days a little later each time. We did all of our menu planning, shopping and some of the cooking ahead of time, and Donna manned the kitchen, preparing and cleaning up after each meal.

The rest of the time she spent entertaining Anders - or perhaps it was the other way around.

We had prepared, and we had all of the help that we needed. Now we just had to execute. At the end of each work period, I recorded - via my Facebook account - how we were doing against our goal.

Tree planting, Day 1 of 4, break time: 250 spots prepared. Only 950 spots to go, and 1200 trees remaining to plant.
Tree planting, Day 1 of 4, end of the day: ~600 spots prepared, 600 to go. Friday: start planting!
Tree planting, Day 2 of 4, midday break: 400 of the 600 spotted prepped yesterday are now planted in Ponderosa seedlings. 600 more spots to prep, and 800 more to plant. For the project management types among us: we are exactly 100% on track to our plan. ;)
Tree planting, Day 2 of 4, end of day: a productive day today, 800 trees planted and a few prepped spots leftover for tomorrow. Only 400 trees remaining! We are now officially ahead of schedule.
Tree planting, Day 3 of 4, early morning: The soreness begins to set in. Each morning we're starting later and later. We hope to finish all of the planting today and keep tomorrow as a day of rest, but we'll have to see how our bodies hold out. And BTW - I am not talking about Farmville here. We are actually planting a REAL FARM. ;)
Tree planting, Day 3 of 4, midday break: Almost done! Prepped and planted another 300, leaving only 100 left to plant. We're still well ahead of schedule and will hopefuly be able to get in the "bonus" work of scalping the ground of all of the previous years' seedlings as well.
Tree planting, Day 4 of 4, morning: Finished! We planted all 1200 trees yesterday, and even managed to get a start on the weed and grass scalping around the trees from previous years. Unfortunately, even though we "finished" early, today is not a day of rest. We're fixing a fence post and then scalping more weeds and grass.
Tree planting, Day 4 of 4, midday break: fence fixed. (Yeah, I know it has nothing to do with trees.)
Tree planting, Day 4 of 4, end of the day: ALL field work done, including the re-scalps from all previous years. Yeah!

It was a pretty exciting moment when we finished planting all 1,200. Perhaps we got a little too excited.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Most of the trees that we lost in previous years just died, probably as a result of insufficient water. But we did find some that had been stepped on by wildlife or eaten by gophers. It was particularly annoying to find gopher damage to the three year old trees that we planted in 2007.

You can see teeth marks

In between work sessions, we had a great time entertaining ourselves. This was the first time in a long while that we had both of Corinne's brothers together, so we used the opportunity to quiz Anders on who was who. Amazingly enough, 80% of the time when we asked "Where is Uncle Leif?" or "Where is Uncle Loren?" he would point to the right person.

At one point during a dinner, Corinne was quizzing Anders on the sounds that various animals make. He got all of his "standard" ones right - cow, horse, sheep, goat, etc. We then tried a few that he didn't know, and he just stared blankly back at us. Uncle Loren asked one final question: "What does Anders say?", and without missing a beat, Anders answered; "CAT!" And of course, he was correct.

A week later, we actually planted a few more trees that were leftovers from our local Conservation District's "Arbor Day Tree Giveaway" - 20 Western White Pine. And after that last 20, I really have no desire to plant anymore trees. Until next year, that is.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Spring Walk

2010-04-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

Anders still loves his walks outside. He's stable enough on his feet that we can walk through the grass and uneven ground; we just have to keep him from getting too close to the barbed wire.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Lucky Day!

2010-04-04T16:07:00.001-07:00

We have what should have been a very nice blender, but it just doesn't work very well, particularly for smoothies. Reading blender reviews, it turns out that most home blenders don't work well. If you look at what the professionals are using, it is almost universally a Vita-Mix, a $400-$600 blender depending on the exact model. Mike has had one on his wishlist for quite a while. Over the last month, I had even contemplated buying one for his birthday and chipping in some recent bonus money... but I just couldn't do it. $500 for a blender?? There are so many other things we could do with $500.

I visit Anders at daycare every day during lunch. Usually I just walk directly back to work. But for some reason, yesterday I made the rare choice to walk back through downtown (so I could buy myself jelly beans). The White Salmon downtown is only about 3 blocks long with only about half of the businesses populated. One of these businesses was having a retirement sale and had set a random collection of goods out on the sidewalk, and there among the assortment was a Vita-Mix! It wasn't exactly the model Mike had been eye-ing; Mike wanted a higher end version which has variable speed control. This one was the $400 model with only two fixed speeds. But after a quick consultation with Mike we decided it was close enough. We are now the proud owners of a used Vita-Mix and out only $85! What luck!

The business owner actually had the exact model (speed control) we wanted inside. I inquired about that one, but she was only downsizing her business and was still planning to do some smoothies. So I offered that if she ever wanted to get rid of that one, she should let us know. She replied, "Oh no, that one will go home with me!"

We celebrated our Vita-Mix acquisition with berry buttermilk smoothies.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Foodie in the Making

2010-04-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

Anders loves playing with kitchen utensils, as we have mentioned before. Here are some recent examples of our "foodie in the making."

We set aside a lower drawer in the kitchen for some of his utensils. He discovered the drawer all on his own, so we just augmented it with some of his as well. The "taco rack" - a metal rack for cooling hard taco shells into an appropriate shape - is one of the original items still in the drawer that is brought out frequently.

The steamer basket, one of the original occupants of that drawer that still remains there, was pretty fascinating to him for a while. Notice the object in his other hand: a lemon. Yes, he is eating it.

While he hasn't made any of the recipes in this cookbook yet, we're hoping that at least some of it will sink in.

Believe it or not, we actually have gotten Anders to eat asparagus on at least two occasions. We have to make sure to capture it in photos so that we can use it as evidence later on when he gets older and changes his mind about its suitability as food.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Date: April 4, 2010

Reading the Directions

2010-03-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

Anders recently found the instruction manual to our (or really his) electronic thermometer and started reading it. He wasn't reading it as you would expect - flipping pages and looking at pictures - but rather it seemed like he was trying to imitate how an adult would read it. It's pretty hilarious.

Watch this video on YouTube or
in the original blog post

He's never done this at all with his own books. I wonder where he got the idea?

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Date: March 28, 2010

Cannon Beach

2010-03-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

It's been three months since we visited my parents at Christmas, so it must be time for them to visit Anders.

We drove in to Portland and met my parents for dinner at Screen Door, which is currently one of our favorite restaurants in the city. Corinne decided that we should split a slice of their ban-offee (banana creme) pie. But about a quarter of the way through the piece, she decided that I needed to get my own piece; she didn't want to share.

My parents had never been to the Oregon coast, so after dinner we continued west to spend a few days in Cannon Beach. I had rented a small cottage for us that was within walking distance of both the downtown and the beach. The cottage was small, but it was just the right size to act as our "home base" while we explored.

The biggest attraction in Cannon Beach is, well, the beach. So that was the place to start. Despite it being March, the weather was actually sunny and warm. We walked from the cottage to the beach for a great view of Haystack Rock, the signature feature of Cannon Beach.

Anders loved walking on the beach and playing in the sand. He probably doesn't have much memory of his previous visit to the beach last summer.

He wasn't quite as excited about the surf, particularly after dad misjudged the size of one of the waves and Anders fell backwards into the water. Oops. (Corinne watched the whole thing happen with a camera in her hand, but she managed to neither prevent the accident nor catch it on film! Oh well.) It's a good thing that the cottage was within walking distance for some dry clothes.

After our walk on the beach, we left Cannon Beach and headed south to Tillamook and the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Corinne has fond memories of a 1992 family trip to Tillamook and the fudge and cheese curds that she ate on that visit. During our last trip through the town of Tillamook, the cheese factory was actually closed, so this time it was a primary destination. We took the factory tour, sampled some cheese, and bought cheese, cheese curds and fudge to take home. (The fudge definitely did not live up to Corinne's expectations, but I was not surprised.)

And we ended with some Tillamook ice cream. Anders likes ice cream!

Debbie had recommended a place across the street from the Tillamook factory that makes sausage and jerky, so that was our next stop. Debby D's is one of those old-school, family operated shops. After we finished sampling the wares, we took home some beef sticks, sausage, and salmon jerky to go with our cheese.

We returned to Cannon Beach and walked to dinner at Morris' Fireside Restaurant. (Note: Oddly, their website highlights that they didn't have restrooms until 1976.)

The following morning we went out for breakfast at the Lazy Susan Cafe.

After breakfast we walked back to the beach. This time we walked all the way to Haystack Rock, although I think we carried Anders at least part of the way.

With my dad's two new hips, he had no problem with all of the walking that we did. He brought his cane with him just in case, and Anders thought it was pretty cool.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

After a couple days in Cannon Beach, we drove back to Trout Lake for a few days of relaxation at home.

On this trip my parents actually spent a day on either end exploring Portland, including talking to a realtor and looking at real estate. Maybe the long-rumored Daly family move to the west coast might happen after all! Now if only the NJ housing market would pick up a little bit so that they can sell their current place...

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: March 20, 2010

Ahhhh

2010-03-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

Kids are such sponges for information. It doesn't take too long for Anders to pick up on things. While we were in NJ visiting my family around Christmas, my mom had a "tea party" with Anders and inadvertently taught him to make an "aah" expression of refreshment after drinking his tea. He hasn't been "aah"-ing after drinking from his sippy cups but now that he is drinking from regular cups, he has remembered his Christmas "lesson". (We didn't remind him!)

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

...and the result several months later:

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: March 13, 2010

Granny's Knit Hat

2010-03-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

Granny is the mother of my uncle by marriage, so not my grandmother but my cousin's grandmother. But I grew to know Granny when I lived with my Aunt and Uncle during my senior year of high school and then spent time with her at many of our family holiday gatherings over the years. She knit a hat for Anders when she was 98 and just a few months before she passed away.

Anders is not a fan of hats and usually won't keep them on for even 5 seconds. We are working on that so that we can shade his fair skin in summer and keep him warm in winter. But he must have known that this hat was special because he wore it for 15 minutes. I guess it was his tribute to Granny!

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: March 12, 2010

Doh!

2010-03-10T21:56:00.001-08:00

Anders has a book that he received as part of a Kindermusik class that he and I took for some good father and son time. One night I was reading the book to him before bed, and I came to the lines: "Sometimes I go Do-Si, sometimes I go Do". Naturally, the authors were referring to do-si-do, but I took it in the direction that seemed obvious to me - The Simpsons direction, i.e. "doh." Anders thought it was hilarious. We must have repeated that page 20 times that night.

Watch this video on YouTube or
in the original blog post

It starts to get a little less cute around 2'20" when the "fake laughing" starts. But the fact that he tries fake laughing in order to keep it going is endearing.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Date: March 10, 2010

Daffodils

2010-03-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

During a recent trip weekend trip to Seattle, we decided to spend a day exploring the flower fields in the Skagit Valley. Rather than driving our own cars, we decided to rent a mini-van for the day so that all of us could fit in one vehicle for the trip: Mike, Corinne, Anders, Donna, Leif, Carol and Mark. Family roadtrip!

We started off at the Calico Cupboard in La Conner for some breakfast, including cinnamon rolls, coffee, conversation, and coloring.

The Skagit Valley is well known for its fields of flowers; apparently the environment is very similar to that of The Netherlands, and many Dutch immigrants settled there to continue their flower growing operations. It was too early and cold for the tulips to be in bloom - the annual Tulip Festival wasn't for another several weeks - but the daffodils were in full bloom.

So of course, we had to stop and let Anders enjoy the flowers - not to mention indulge his photo-happy parents.

Anders seemed more interested in the dirt than the flowers. Go figure.

Before returning, we just had to stop at the Snow Goose Produce Market for some ice cream - offered in "immodest" sizes, as the road sign advertised. Even their smallest size was more than any of us really needed; in fact, Leif asked them to stop scooping about halfway through his small. But the best part was that the ice cream was served in freshly made waffle cones. Yum.

We already knew that Anders liked ice cream, but at this stop we discovered that according to Anders, Chocolate > Coconut > Mint Chocolate Chip.

A fun road trip!

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: March 6, 2010

Anders These Days

2010-02-22T22:10:00.001-08:00

Snapshot of Anders at 17-months:

Food
Anders is still a great eater, though he has started to express more opinions about what he wants and what he doesn't. So far, he seems to be eating primarily vegetarian fare. Peas and kidney beans are particular savory favorites. But his true passion is for fruit. He is a fruit fiend: bananas, pineapple, grapefruit, apple, orange, pear, mango, and pretty much all berries.

His all-time favorite food, though, has to be blueberries. We picked up some organic blueberries recently and had to carefully ration them out. If given his way, he would eat them all in a single sitting. Looks like dad is going to have some competition come blueberry season.

Teeth

Anders has enough of his deciduous teeth at this point that he can pretty much eat anything he likes. He has all of his incisors and three out of four of his first molars. Teething hasn't been too bad for him, though we think that it is waking him up in the middle of the night or early in the morning occasionally. He also doesn't try to chew on everything in his sight. Needless to say, we have no complaints.

We've kept up the evening toothbrushing routine, and he is usually pretty enthusiastic about it, though his brushing skills are still not terribly effective. But at least it is now a part of his normal routine, even if Dad is the one who is doing most of the brushing.

Dislikes
Anders is apparently old enough now that he has started to exhibit some fears.

1. Horses. He doesn't mind pictures of horses, but anything three-dimensional appears to be a problem: his rocking horse, Zak's stick horse, even the horse-shaped jumparoo that he used to love. If he sees any of them, he will start pointing and yelling until they are taken out of his sight. (Sorry, Stef!)
2. Roaring. This one probably should have been obvious. Several of his books have pages that call for animals (usually a lion) to roar. One night dad read one such book, "How Loud Is A Lion?", as a bedtime story. When we got to the roaring page, Dad's impression of a lion roar was a little too good; Anders screamed and had to be consoled by Mom. I don't think that he's picked that story since. Anders also has a circus trailer that hauls a tiger and a lion and has a button on the front that produces a roar. Occasionally he will hit the button, causing him to back away and start crying. We really need to take the batteries out of that toy.

Activities
Anders loves his books. He will often just pick up one of his books, sit down, open up the book and start reading it out loud to whoever is around. It doesn't seem to matter that half of the time the book is upside down. He also spends quite a bit of time looking at his animal flash cards; the cat, giraffe, and lion are his favorites.

He still gets excited by cars, trucks, and pretty much anything with wheels. And sometime last fall, he learned to make car noises. Now he does it whenever he sees a car, whether it be in real life, in a book or magazine, or on his own shirt.

He seems to have pretty good hand/eye coordination. He likes playing "ball" and can do a decent job of throwing or rolling the ball to you. He doesn't quite understand that it's more fun if you are not standing right next to the other person, though.

If we want to keep Anders entertained, all we need to do is give him some crayons and put down a piece of paper. That will occupy him for a long time. And of course, the results will end up on the fridge.

It's really starting to get interesting now...

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: February 22, 2010

First Skinned Knee

2010-02-21T22:27:00.000-08:00

With the unseasonably warm spring weather, we have taken to walks with Anders. Anders is so thrilled to be outside and walking that he giggles most of the walk.

For us parents, it's an exercise in letting go as each walk usually ends in a fall. But practice makes perfect.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

As you can see at the end of the video, this walk resulted in Anders's first skinned knee. (See what happens when you don't watch where you're going?)

- Corinne, Mike and Anders Rocket

Date: February 21, 2010

Evidence for Parental Cause and Effect?

2010-02-21T18:36:00.001-08:00

As parents, you often wonder what effect your approach to parenting has on the development of your child. But occasionally I think you might get some hints.

Case in point:

At 4.5 months, we played this game with Anders while on a trip to Boston:

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Then, at 6 months we played this game with him:

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Now at 17 months, he has decided that this is fun:

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Coincidence? I think not.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Haircut #3

2010-02-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

Anders's hair seems to be growing as fast as the rest of him, so he was due for yet another haircut - his third. We went back to his personal stylist, Tifani.

He started off by wandering around the store, exploring the various hair products. You can see pretty clearly from this photo that he was due for a trim.

Everything started off normal, but once Tifani started cutting he decided to get upset. We still don't know quite what he thought was wrong.

After a few minutes of crying, he calmed down and was perfectly fine for the rest of the appointment.

Another satisfied customer!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: February 18, 2010

The Problem With Hats

2010-02-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

It appears that Anders has the same problem as his mom. The distance between our crown and eyeline is less than the hat's (i.e the hat is too deep). I had to special order a XS snow boarding helmet. Maybe this is why Anders doesn't like hats: they always end up in his eyes.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: February 6, 2010

Grandma Time

2010-01-30T13:30:00.000-08:00

Grandma Ilvedson visited for the weekend. There's nothing like Grandma-time.

- Corinne, Mike and Anders Rocket

Date: January 30, 2010

Sick Anders

2010-01-28T12:08:00.000-08:00

We feel very fortunate that Anders was not sick at all during his first year; I can imagine how stressful a sick young baby can be. But it appears that we are making up for lost time, since Anders is on his fourth cold since October. Poor guy! He holds up quite well during the day; other than a runny nose or cough, you'd have no idea from his behavior that he doesn't feel well. Nighttime is a different story, though. He just doesn't sleep well. One of us has taken to the guest room to make room for the sick little guy in our bed.

On the positive side, he's now immune to four rhinoviruses.

Since he's been sick, I have sequestered most of his stuffed animals in the closet. Now we'll only have a single moose to disinfect once he recovers!

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: January 28, 2010

Long Distance Grandmas

2010-01-23T14:19:00.000-08:00

All of Anders grandparents are long distance but we keep in touch via phone and Skype. Anders is surprisingly interactive. He shows off his toys both via Skype and on the phone, although he hasn't figured out that the person on the other end of the phone can't actually see whatever it is that he holds up to the phone.

I don't know what he's saying in this Skype session, but he is clearly communicating something.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

He does well on the old-school phone as well. We have taken to turning on the speaker and just handing the phone to him. As you can see below, he'll carry it around and babble to it for a long time.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

This video is even clipped pretty short; in the original, he was carrying it around the house for four and a half minutes. Let's hope that communications media are still unmetered when he gets to be a teenager!

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

23 January, 2010

Max's 2009 Critter Count

2010-01-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

It's time for another of our end-of-year traditions: Max's annual "critter count." This is only his second hunting year - 2008 being the first year in which he had unsupervised time outside - but this year's tallies show that he has already made some rather stunning changes.

	2008	2009	Change
Mice	9	5	(44%)
Birds	4	1	(75%)
Gophers	2	25	1,100% !
Squirrels	0	3	na
Lizards	0	6	na

Yes, that's right: 25 gophers. Individual hunting stories are documented here, here, and here. While we would have liked him to continue catching mice at his previous rate, his incredible gopher success more than makes up for it.

What has prompted this jump in effectiveness? Did he develop some secret gopher-hunting technique? Or is it the old "practice makes perfect"? Our favorite theory is that he is using his hunting as a way to prove his worth and curry favor now that he has some competition for our affection from Anders. He has to prove that he earns his keep.

His hunting slowed down significantly towards the end of the summer and into fall. It's entirely possible that he just didn't feel at full strength as a result of the thyroid condition that was diagnosed in November. Thankfully, the radio-iodine therapy did the trick; he just received a clean bill of health, his thyroid is functioning normally, and he has gained back most of the weight that he lost. When the spring thaw comes he should be ready to begin the hunt again.

Waiting for Spring

- Mike, Corinne, Anders Rocket, and Max

Favorite Recipes of 2009

2010-01-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

Ummmm.... we don't have any!

It all started with work's 3 month "surge" last spring where we worked crazy hours (while caring for an infant.) Work provided dinner so we literally didn't cook. In fact our neighbor from whom we buy all of our farm fresh eggs asked if there was something wrong with her eggs (there wasn't) as we hadn't bought any in some time.

We have both taken on more management responsibilities at work and our hectic days seemed to spill over into hectic evenings. And with the added evening activities associated with having a kid, our dinner routine tended to be: "What should we have for dinner?" "Uh, grilled cheese?" "No bread." "Do we have eggs? Omelettes?"

One of our new year's "resolutions" for 2010 is to enjoy dinner again. We are taking turns planning a menu for the week and (theoretically) just going to the grocery store once a week rather than stopping several days a week to pick up the missing ingredient for a last minute boring meal. We are planning a mix of easy dinners, more involved dinners, and make-ahead meals. So far, we are just 15 days into 2010 and have tried 5 new dinners - including one involving sardines! So far we've found the new approach to be much more enjoyable than trying to rack our brains each night for something to concoct.

So, here's to all the new favorite recipes we'll discover in 2010. Meanwhile, if you are looking for inspiration, check out our favorite recipes from 2008, 2007, and 2006.

And because Corinne's mom says every post must now have a picture of Anders...

Bon Appetit!

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Elk in the Yard

2010-01-13T21:29:00.000-08:00

Wednesday morning as I walked out to the garage to get the car, I heard a crunching noise coming from the forest. Since we've had a fair bit of ice, initially I thought that it might be ice and snow falling from the trees. After I stopped to listen for 30 seconds, though, I realized that the sound was somewhat periodic and was probably an animal walking through the woods.

I stood still for another minute, just listening and watching. My patience was rewarded when an elk walked out of the woods and into the yard not 50 feet from me! I stood still and just admired her as she gradually walked away from me and toward the fence to the north.

I walked inside to tell Corinne, but she was already watching. Soon after the first elk was joined by a second on the other side of the fence.

We've seen plenty of elk around these parts, typically in large herds. We're even fairly certain that elk have passed through our property - breaking a fence post on the way. But we hadn't actually seen any elk on our property until now.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Kibbles -n- Bits

2010-01-10T15:20:00.001-08:00

This morning when Anders woke up at 8am, I took him downstairs so that Corinne could get a few hours of extra sleep (she let me sleep in yesterday). He's pretty self-entertaining at this time in the morning, so he sat down at his toys to play and I sat down at the computer. We'd been downstairs in the Great Room for probably about 45 minutes when I noticed that Anders wasn't in the room anymore. I couldn't hear him, so I got up and started towards the kitchen to see where he'd gone.

As I looked down the hallway into the kitchen, I saw Anders sitting on the floor with what at first appeared to be a circle of Cheerios surrounding him. He often has his "snack cup" filled with Cheerios¹ with him, so I figured that he had just put a bunch on the floor and was eating them from there. But then they looked too big to be Cheerios...

Then I realized that is where I had put Max's food dish.

Sure enough, as I walked up I discovered pieces of dry cat food all around him. And they weren't actually dry anymore. Some kibble was in his hands, and his shirt had streams of cat-food-infused drool running down the front. And his breath smelled like cat food.

He didn't put up much of a fight when I took the food away and wiped off his hands, face, and shirt. And the pineapple that he had for a morning snack covered up any residual odor of "chicken and liver flavor".

The next time this happens, I'll make sure that I reach for the camera before taking the food away.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders "Ralph Wiggum" Rocket

¹It's not actually Cheerios, but rather one of a collection of organic, whole grain look-alikes. But he doesn't know the difference. They all taste better than cat food.

Aebleskivers

2010-01-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

We recently saw an intriguing product in the Williams-Sonoma catalog: an æbelskiver pan. When we visited our friends Tara and Jason in Denmark, Jason raved about these little Scandinavian pancake balls. But somehow we didn't eat any on our trip. Since I'm a sucker for kitchen gadgets, I bought a cast iron æbelskiver pan and tried them out.

The traditional filling is apple slices (hence the name), but you can use whatever you like. These had chocolate, strawberry jam and jalapeno jelly.

They are often a holiday treat in Denmark, and although they are not considered a breakfast food in that culture, we ate them as such. Even Anders was a fan!

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Date: January 6, 2010

Ode to Moose

2010-01-04T16:19:00.000-08:00

Back in August we took at trip to Seattle to help out Mom after her hip surgery. While there, Pastor Barbara (who married Mike and I) stopped by to check on Mom and to bring Anders a gift, a plush moose. Anders already had plenty of stuffed animals but for some reason Moose was special. He immediately took to Moose and has never looked back.

We've heard stories from other parents of what happened when their son/daughter couldn't find their favorite animal. Since it appeared that Anders has selected Moose as the "special" one, I decided that we had better find a second one, just in case. It took me some searching to find an exact match, but I did manage to find one from a seller on eBay. It never hurts to have a backup!

And now, a really bad original haiku about moose:

soft, brown and furry
your antlers make good handles
comfort while i sleep

Poetry is not our strong suit. ;)

- Mike, Corinne, Anders Rocket, Moose #1 and Moose #2

Date: January 4, 2010

Bobcat!

2010-01-03T22:02:00.000-08:00

This weekend something caught Mike's eye out our Great Room windows, and when we looked we discovered a bobcat hunting in our yard! We're hoping that he was hunting gophers.

He spent quite a while walking around the yard on the snow, in no particular hurry. We, of course, were excitedly snapping photos and video through the window the whole time. We eventually walked outside to see if we could get a view that wasn't obstructed by the window, leaving Max and Anders (who happened to be napping) in the house, of course. But when the cat detected us he bounded off into the woods.

But not five minutes later, he was back in the yard again. He sat on a rock surveying the area - including us, now back inside - for at least 10 minutes or so before continuing on his way.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

This was our first bobcat sighting at our place, but it makes one wonder what we miss when we aren't looking out the window!

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: January 3, 2010

Christmas in NJ, NYC

2010-01-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

We planned to spend this Christmas in NJ visiting my family. But in an exciting twist, Corinne's mom Donna actually made the trip with us! She'd never been to NJ or NYC and didn't have any other plans. But really, we think that she couldn't stand being that far away from Anders! And in a gracious gesture, my parents indicated that they would even share their "Anders-time" with Donna; they gave her the Midnight-8am timeslot. ;)

Despite our distaste for traveling during the holidays, our flights were actually pretty uneventful. Since we were traveling with Donna, we drove to Seattle and flew non-stop from there to Newark. We opted for an evening flight (rather than a red-eye), and everything went pretty smoothly - particularly when compared to our last travel experience.

We arrived in Newark around midnight, and I sent my dad a text message to let him know that we had arrived. He was waiting at cousin Mindy's about 40 minutes away, so the plan was that he would start heading to the airport while we waited for our bags. Once we had picked up all of our checked bags, I gave him a call to let him know that we were ready. It was at that point that I discovered he didn't have text service on his phone - so he hadn't left yet! Oops. At least Anders had fun wandering around the relatively empty baggage claim. (I'm still not sure how he was even awake at this point!)

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Anders's cousins, Katya & Nadija, were very excited to see "cousin Anders." (Apparently he has graduated from the "baby Anders" moniker that they used on our last trip east.) They loved spending time with him and just watching him do whatever he would do.

They would sometimes even fight over who could stand closer to Anders.

...and Anders would usually be oblivious (or at least indifferent) to the whole thing.

We try to keep Christmas a low-key affair. One rule that we have adhered to is "gifts for those under 18 only", which saves a lot of shopping, stress, and general hassle around the holiday, leaving lots more time for just enjoying each others' company.

Anders, of course, made out like a bandit. His haul included lots of new books, some toys, and a giant stuffed dog. We weren't sure how much we were going to have to ship back when it didn't fit in our suitcases, but with Corinne's mad packing skills she managed to fit everything in - no extra boxes!

For the girls, Corinne found pettiskirts from an artist on Etsy.com, probably her favorite shopping site and Internet time-suck. These particular dresses also had shirts with ice cream cones that matched the skirts, and Corinne just couldn't resist. The girls really seemed to like them too.

Since this was Donna's first trip to the tri-state area and she'd never been to New York City before, we planned a one-day NYC extravaganza that included as much sight-seeing and city experiences as we could fit into a single day. But given that it was the weekend after Christmas, we ended up with a more "authentic" experience than we had hoped.

Driving in to NYC can be a real hassle - not to mention expensive, considering average downtown parking rates - so we decided to take a ferry across the Hudson from NJ into the city. When we arrived at the NY Waterway terminal in Weehawken, NJ, we realized that we may have made a mistake. The line was unbelievably long and seemed to be moving very slowly. But by this point we were committed, so we waited the hour or so that it took to get tickets and get on a ferry.

The weather was relatively warm and clear, so we were treated to a nice view of the NYC skyline from the ferry.

Once in the city, the first scheduled activity was classic tourist: Grey Line Sightseeing bus tour. Corinne and I hadn't taken one of these tours before, and we thought that it would be an easy way to get Donna a broad overview of downtown. We wouldn't get to see anything particularly up-close, but we would cover Times Square, Greenwich Village, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center site, Battery Park and more, all in the span of just a few hours.

My parents had done the bus tour before, and Drew didn't think that the girls would survive on the bus for that long, so they wandered the city while we boarded the bus for the start of the tour. We found seats on the second story of the double-decker bus for our two hour tour.

It was fun to see the city from the higher vantage point, but the traffic was horrendous. The bus just crawled along the city streets, and what was scheduled to be a two hour tour ended up closer to three and a half. The bus was full the whole time, and since we had a scheduled event for later that evening, we didn't get off at any of the scheduled stops to do more exploring; we just didn't have time. We ended up getting off the bus before the last stop and walking to our destination to meet back up with the rest of our group.

We coordinated to rejoin our group near Rockefeller Center where we planned to take a quick glimpse at the famous tree before heading to dinner. But at this point the crowds became overwhelming. We walked down 5th Avenue, but only barely. It was virtually impossible to move - particularly with Anders in a stroller. At one point I found a corridor in which I could actually make forward progress, and it was inside of some velvet rope. It was only when I got to the other end that I realized it was a roped-off section in front of some of the 5th Ave windows displays, and I was walking the wrong way. I got some ugly looks and comments from folks in the crowd, but at that point I didn't care.

Once we found the rest of our party (thank goodness for cellphones!), we started looking for someplace to grab some dinner. Drew really wanted to see the tree while we were there, so he redirected us through the plaza in spite of the crowds. It was pretty slow going, but Donna did get to see the famed tree after all.

After that diversion, we only had a few minutes to eat before we had to get to our final scheduled event for the day. So we ended up eating at one of the many "original Ray's pizza". The place was packed, the lines were long, and the pizza was mediocre. We ate quickly and left.

After our rushed dinner, we split from the rest of our party. My parents took Anders and spent a few minutes relaxing in the lobby of the timeshare they own nearby where Anders got to experience his first TV dinner and football game. Afterward they took the ferry back to NJ and drove home.

Meanwhile, Donna, Corinne, and I remained to complete our NYC experience with a Broadway show: Fela. As a relatively new show, we didn't know that much about it other than there was lots of music and dancing. The show is based on the true story of Fela Kuti, a charismatic Nigerian musician and activist who operated the "Afrika Shrine" nightclub in Lagos during the '70s. The show immerses you in that environment as if you were at the club. Fascinating, energetic, and at times depressing show. After the show, we took the bus back to the ferry (which was now much less crowded) and headed home. After this experience, I think it will be quite a while before we go into New York anywhere near a major holiday.

Our NYC trip provided enough excitement and mayhem, so for the rest of the trip we didn't do anything in particular. Going for a walk in downtown Newton sure is a lot more relaxing than in NYC!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: January 1, 2010

This Year's Tree

2009-12-22T21:32:00.000-08:00

Despite our best intentions, somehow we made it all the way to mid-December without a Christmas tree this year. Since Anders is mobile now, we actually briefly considered whether we should even get a tree. But in the end we decided that it just wouldn't feel like the holidays without one. So two weeks before Christmas, I ventured out into our stands to find a suitable tree.

We decided to go with an even smaller tree this year compared to last year. Originally I had wanted to "go big" again this year, but in the end a smaller tree just made sense. A smaller tree wouldn't need guide wires and would hopefully be less dangerous to a toddler. And we would be in NJ for part of the holiday season anyway. Oh, and remember that commercial Christmas tree stand that we ordered last year? Well, one of the legs was missing when it arrived. Finding a replacement leg has been on our "to do" list since last year.

A thirty minute walk through some of our grand fir stands resulted in several reasonably sized and nicely shaped options. Time to bring out the rest of the family. Anders may not be a net positive in terms of productivity yet - (question for all you parents out there: at what age does that actually happen? Does it actually happen?) - but he is old enough to participate.

Once we had made the final selection, I cut it down and all three of us carried the tree to the house.

We decided that we would leave the tree under the eaves of the house for a bit before bringing it inside and setting it up, to let some of the snow and water on the branches dry out. Of course, the following day we received a foot of snow which covered the tree up again. It wasn't until the following weekend that the tree finally made its way into the house.

Believe it or not, we managed to bring the tree into the house, set it up in the stand, string it with lights, and hang all of the ornaments all during a single Anders nap! (Thankfully, he slept for over 2 hours.) The tree is only about 10' tall, but looks lovely.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: December 22, 2009

Bad Holiday Sweaters

2009-12-13T16:38:00.000-08:00

Our friends Simon and Lindsey celebrated the season with a "Bad Sweater Party". Prizes were awarded for "tightest fitting", "best holiday spirit", "so ugly it's cool", and "overall most hideous". We later learned the Simon had designed the categories around his outfits. (He had several.) But being the host, he wasn't eligible to win.

Our problem was that when we have "bad" clothes like that, we generally donate them. I mean, why hold on to something like that? But of course, now we know why. We happened to be in Portland a few days before and so we stopped by the Good Will "Super Store" to see what we could find. Mike and I each found something but we were surprised at how little they had for holiday attire. Other folks at the party had shopped in The Dalles and apparently that store was a gold mine. I guess Portland has too many shoppers wiping out the supply.

A fun activity at the party was a Polaroid photo booth, complete with photographer, designed like a police mug shot. (Too bad the sign is covering up my hideous holiday sweatshirt: a polar bear decked out with 80s black sunglasses, holly, and rhinestones.)

We didn't win any prizes, and that was just fine by us.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: December 13th, 2009

Chasing Anders

2009-12-04T17:32:00.000-08:00

Now that Anders is getting more confident walking, we've started to play chasing games with him. I figure that it's a good way to give him some added motivation to get stable on his feet - plus it's lots of fun for everyone.

Corinne usually ends up playing the role of "safe" or "base". His first reaction to being chased is often to just fall down, which is not terribly effective if your goal is to avoid getting caught. But then again, I don't think that is the goal.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Grandpa even got in on the action during a recent visit.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Silly Anders

2009-12-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

Anders has decided that it is funny to open his mouth as wide as he can such that his face is practically stretched to max. He pulls out this trick when he wants attention or when he is trying to make us laugh... like when I'm trying to convince him that it is nap time.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Anders's First Artwork

2009-12-01T17:39:00.000-08:00

Anders has produced his first piece of art!

Anders just loves playing with crayons. When we drop him off at daycare, he immediately heads for the tin of crayons. He finds it the most fun to take them in-out-in-out and carry them around; coloring is almost secondary. It appears that his favorite colors are those in the orange, yellow, and white families.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: December 1, 2009

Christmas Shopping

2009-11-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

Should it be taken as a hint when your 1 year old leaves the toy catalog open to the page with the wooden trucks?

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: November 28, 2009

Good Mornings

2009-11-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

Scenes from a couple of good mornings.

A neighbor calling on us one frosty morning

Father and son "reading" the paper

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: November 22, 2009

Our Radioactive Cat

2009-11-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

Max was due for his annual checkup in October, so I brought him in to Dr. Dave (our vet) for the usual vaccination updates and worm checks. But right off the bat it turned out to be more than we had anticipated. When Dr. Dave put him on the scale, we discovered that he had dropped 2 pounds in the previous year, going from eleven pounds to around nine. Something was definitely wrong.

We hadn't noticed anything different about his behavior, or even noticed his weight loss. But we probably had become used to picking up Anders, and as he kept growing our perception of Max's weight became a bit skewed.

Dave and I briefly discussed the most likely causes, then he drew some blood and sent it to the lab for analysis. A few days later the results came back: Max had feline hyperthyroidism. His thyroid glands were overproducing - probably as a result of a tumor of some sort - resulting in increased metabolism and thus weight loss. The condition is one of the most common diseases in otherwise healthy (i.e. not overweight) cats. We were presented with several options for treatment.
Option 1: Twice-a-day medication to control the thyroid activity, given daily in perpetuity.
Option 2: Surgical removal of the overactive thyroid tissue.
Option 3: A one-time injection of radioiodine that destroys the overactive cells and should return the cat to normal functioning.
After doing some research online and talking to Dave, we chose the radioactive cat.

Since radioactive substances are involved, there are a limited number of veterinary facilities that are qualified to administer the treatment. The actual procedure is simply an injection under the skin which takes no more than 5 minutes, but the resulting radioactivity requires that the cat be in a controlled, secured environment for a period of time so that the terrorists can't get hold of him. (Or something like that anyway.) We contacted VDIC, the facility in Portland that Dave recommended, and a few weeks later I dropped Max off on a Tuesday morning to start his recovery.

Since he was going to be "behind bars" for 4 days, we brought some of his food and one of his fleece blankets from home so that he might feel more at home. During his stay, we were able to view him on their cat-cams:

Virtually every time we looked at the camera, Max was sitting on that upper ledge, just staring down at the blanket that we brought for him. And since the blanket would be irradiated, we wouldn't be getting it back. Oh well. We did find him sitting on it once, so I guess that makes it worthwhile.

On Thursday I drove back into Portland to pick him up. He had done fine at the facility but was definitely glad to be heading back home. Little did he know that things wouldn't be returning to normal quite so quickly.

When administering radioiodine to cats, many facilities keep the cat for 3-6 weeks until the radiation levels were reduced enough to return him to the owners. While VDIC only kept him for 4 days, he was, in fact, still radioactive. So we had some specific instructions to follow when we brought him home.
For the first two weeks, wear latex gloves when handling any of your cat's waste products and bodily fluids and when cleaning the litter pan.
The litter pan should be cleaned twice daily, placing all contents in a double-lined container. After two weeks, the container should be closed and stored for 3 months in a remote location, away from children and other animals.
Due to the radiation, we ask that minors (<18 years of age) and pregnant women should avoid any contact with your cat or its waste products for 5 weeks following release.

So, not exactly back to normal. We lock Max out of our bedroom at night so that he can't sleep on the bed; we've moved his litter box; and we monitor Max and Anders to minimize any significant contact.

Since Anders is still sleeping in his crib on the landing outside of our door, he ends up on the other side of the now closed door at night. To ensure that we can hear him, we set the baby monitor on the floor right outside the door. We quickly discovered a side effect of that setup: the very first night back, Max sat outside the closed door and meowed directly into the monitor.

Soon, though, the two weeks will be up and we can begin to return to normal, though we will have to keep Max and Anders apart for a few more weeks. I guess that can be our Christmas gift to both of them this year!

Oh, and we'll definitely let you know if Max develops any super powers.

- Mike, Corinne, Anders Rocket, and Glowing Max

Okay, Okay, Okay!

2009-11-21T13:54:00.001-08:00

Taryn is starting to send us "hate" mail; Becky thinks Anders is "slow" because she's reading about him sitting up when he should be walking.

Yes, we're still way behind on our blog. To appease the masses, we are going to start posting a mix of current and old posts until we are caught up.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Haircut #2

2009-11-21T13:50:00.001-08:00

The first time Anders got his haircut, we didn't cut his bangs so that he still had the baby look. But like the rest of him, Anders's hair is growing quickly. His bangs have now gotten quite long and have started hanging in his eyes. So it was time to head back to Tifani for another cut. Like last time, Anders didn't mind the process but he was much more wiggly this time. He came away with an official little boy hair cut and looks quite handsome.

But somehow we don't have any good photos that really show it off.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

November 21, 2009

Spiders!

2009-11-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

Mike went on a business trip back in September and so Anders and I invited Nikki and her son Bridger over for a slumber party. We were loading up the car getting ready to head out for a hike when I noticed a beautiful spider in the garage. Big, black, and so shiny. "Nikki, come check out this spider!" As we were admiring her, we noticed the red hourglass. Yikes, a black widow! And a big one too. Her abdomen was at least the diameter of a dime. As we were checking her out, she quickly ducked out of sight.

I'm generally pretty tolerant of bugs as long as they aren't crawling on me, but black widows are a whole different story. We store things in the garage. I would hate to accidentally threaten a black widow or bring one into the house. Time to call in the exterminator.

We love our exterminator. We had him out a couple of years ago when carpenter ants had decided that a log house seemed like a good place to live. We contacted him on a Saturday, thinking that we could at least leave a message so that we could schedule an appointment for the following week. Instead, he returned our call within about an hour and a half and said he would be "super excited" to come out right then to help us out. He is such a bug geek and even recites findings from academic papers on spiders. He had so much fun finding the ant trail, following the ants from the house back to the forest, and explaining to us how carpenter ant colonies work. On top of all that, he uses the least toxic substances he can. The ants were gone the next day.

So, back to our spiders. We decided to have the exterminator do his thing while Max was away at radioactive camp. Meanwhile, Anders and I would head over to Nikki's while the exterminator did his work. The exterminator came out and I gave him a tour of the trouble spots. He got started in the garage while Anders and I packed up. Shortly thereafter, he came running back to the house: "Corinne! Corinne! I found a black widow!" And he has a live black widow hanging from his equipment - pretty cool. I just love that this guy gets so excited about finding the bugs. Mind you, this was a different (smaller) spider than the one that I saw, so there was more than one in there! I'm glad I called him.

While the exterminator worked, we had a lovely afternoon in Underwood. Nikki made us a delicious lunch and then we all went on a hike with Bridger and Anders in the stroller together. In this photo, they have traded toy cell phones. Looks like gadget envy starts early in these two boys.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Swimming Lessons

2009-11-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

Anders took "Minnows I" swimming lessons at the Hood River pool this month. With a little help from mom, Anders sang songs, swam on his stomach and on his back, learned to hold on to the side of the pool, and had fun throwing and fetching toys in the pool.

The goal of the class was to acclimate him to water. At the first class, he was quite clingy and cried when I dunked him under water. In later classes I had to put effort into holding on to Anders as he wiggled around in the water, and there was no crying after going under.

In the video, it takes a little longer that usual for Anders to recover from the dunk. He must have been distracted by Dad with the camera.

(Embedded video)
Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

He is now more tolerant of getting his hair washed in the bathtub as well. Class goal achieved.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Weekend in Portland

2009-11-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

As a mini-vacation, we decided to spend a long weekend in Portland. So we booked a room in a nice hotel and treated ourselves to a relaxing time in the city - or at least as relaxing as you can get with a one year old. To help, we paid for a train ticket from Seattle for Grandma Ilvedson and made sure to get a room big enough for the four of us. Donna would get to spend "quality Grandma time" with Anders at the hotel while we puttered about the city.

We did lots of window shopping and enjoyed good food at various eateries such as Saucebox (disappointing food, good drinks), Clyde Common (excellent), Jam on Hawthorne (best corned beef hash ever), Barista, Cupcake Jones, Nicholas Restaurant, and Besaw's.

Barista is an interesting coffee shop where rather than serving coffee from only one roaster, they feature roasters from around the country. So not only do you choose your drink, you choose the roast as well. Yum.

Donna's proud accomplishment for the weekend was teaching Anders that cows moo.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

A fun weekend for all!

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: November 16, 2009

More Scenes From Daycare

2009-11-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

We really can't overstate how lucky we feel to have our daycare situation. Anders receives lots of love and attention, and there's always a host of visitors who drop by. It's really like he has a second family! He likes it so much that he is never upset when we drop him off in the morning.

Below are some typical scenes from daycare.

Storytime with Grandpa Herm

Zak and Anders (wearing Zak's old boots)

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: November 11, 2009

Pie Party 2

2009-11-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

It had been too long since our last food-related party, so we decided that it was time for us to host another Pie Party!

We used the same rules as our last Pie Party, namely that everyone is required to bring a homemade pie, preferably one that is homemade by them.

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. (Wikipedia)

Another characteristic of the party is that we make no attempt to coordinate what people will be bringing. This adds an element of surprise, and I think it encourages people to try something different so that they are less likely to bring the same thing as anyone else. Last time we had no duplicate dishes, and we managed to repeat that feat this time around as well.

I did mention in the invite that we had quite a few more sweet pies at the last party than savory. And guess what? This time we had many more savory than sweet. I think next time (and there will be a next time!) I'm going to ask people to RSVP whether they plan to bring sweet or savory.

Savory

Artichoke Pie
Sweet Potato, Onion and Fontina Tart
Curry Chicken Pot Pie
Broccoli Quiche
Egg Cup Pies¹
Two-Bean Tamale Pie
Sausage and Sauerkraut Pie
Spinach and Feta Pie
Very Unhealthy Quiche
Pork Pot Pie
Drunk Shepherd's Pie (lamb/potato/tomato)

Sweet

Rhubarb Pie
Mincemeat
Chocolate Mousse Pie
Hawai'i Pai'i
Green Tomato Pie
Canadian Pecan Pie

There aren't many types of food that can result in that kind of variety, and also give people the ability to just make it up. That's what makes a pie party so great!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

¹AKA Deviled Eggs. Technically these are not pies as defined above, but how can you tell that to a 9 year old who was so excited to make and bring them?

Date: November 8, 2009

Anders Walks 13 Feet

2009-11-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks, Anders has been getting more bold about trying to walk. He'll pull himself up on something - chair, stool, Mom, Dad - and take a step or two towards one of us. We weren't really sure whether we could call it truly "walking", but it was pretty clear that his days of having to scoot himself across the floor were coming to an end.

Then he removed all ambiguity by walking 13 feet across the room. We didn't catch that particular jaunt on video, but here he is on the same evening.

(Embedded Video)
Watch this video on YouTube
on in the original blog post

And yes, we actually used a tape measure to determine that it was 13 feet. What kind of type-A engineers would we be if we didn't?

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: November 7, 2009

Soccer at Daycare

2009-11-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

The video below is from early November of Anders playing 'soccer' while at daycare. While the cinematography may not be the best, we like the video because it is a good demonstration of several things:

How fast Anders has gotten with his "scooting"
The fun atmosphere at daycare
How much fun everyone has, and how excited Anders is to be there

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Vacation in the Ozarks

2009-11-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

We don't get to see Corinne's family in Tulsa very often, so we took a vacation to visit them this fall. The trip wasn't quite as relaxing as we had hoped as a result of the horrible travel experience we had getting there, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We had planned to split our time between Tulsa and an outdoor resort near Branson, MO, but since we arrived a day later than originally planned, we only spent one day in Tulsa before embarking on the 4 hour drive to the resort.

We'd never been to the Ozarks before and were looking forward to a nice fall drive through the country. I guess we were a little late to catch the fall colors, but it was still a nice drive. In order get a flavor for the area, we made several stops on the way. The first stop was at a local bait and hunting shop. We didn't plan to do either on this trip, so this was an informational only visit. Our second stop was at AQ Chicken House for some down-home fried chicken.

We arrived at our destination, Big Cedar Lodge, right around dusk. Tor and Clare have stayed at Big Cedar before; in fact, it was a frequent retreat location for Clare's family when she was growing up. Our 2-bedroom cabin was what I would describe as "upscale rustic": log construction, wood floors, stone fireplace, with windows overlooking the lake below. One rather odd aspect, though, is that our cabin had a Dale Earnhardt, Jr theme. Not NASCAR, mind you, but Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The walls were adorned with photos of him receiving various trophies, etc. And because Dale's sponsor is Budweiser, it was really more of a Bud than Dale theme. Just odd but otherwise lovely.

The campus of Big Cedar provided quite a few amenities, and the weather was perfect for late fall. We didn't get a chance to enjoy the hot tubs, but we did spend some time outside on the shuffleboard court.

Since we were only 10 miles from Branson, we spent a day exploring the "Live Music Show Capital of the World." With two small kids in tow, we decided not to venture to any shows, but we did drive down the main drag and check out the pavilions, Southern plantations, and concert halls that host the performances for which Branson is famous. But for us, a game of mini golf and some Krispie Kreme donuts was about all we could handle.

One of the biggest motivations for the trip was to give Anders more time with his cousin Josephine. During their last meeting, Josephine was fascinated by Anders and all of the things that he could do. She was equally enthralled this time, only she would occasionally get so excited that she would shriek like a velociraptor right in his face. Anders has always been a little sensitive to loud noises so as you might imagine, he didn't like that very much. He did get used to it though. We knew he had made progress when he didn't cry one morning after Josephine veloci-shrieked while simultaneously pulling his hair. Josephine wanted to be with Anders all the time and Anders just wasn't sure what to do with a cute little creature younger than he. I guess he needs to spend some more time with babies.

Other than that, we mostly relaxed at the cabin and just enjoyed being together.

Sunday afternoon we returned to Tulsa, stopping for shakes along the way.

We were originally scheduled to fly back to Portland on Monday, but we decided to extend that by a day so that we could make up some of the time lost at the beginning of the trip.

This trip happened to coincide with Halloween. We had gone out of our way to get a costume for Anders, but since it was stuck in our luggage until late on Halloween night, we didn't actually get to use it. But since we were really looking forward to putting Anders into it, we figured that he wouldn't know the difference if we put his costume on a day late.

As it turns out, he actually didn't like wearing the costume as much as we liked watching him in it.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Josephine was a much more willing participant.

One of the other discoveries of this trip is that Anders loves cellphones. Josephine had a flip-phone style toy cellphone that he immediately knew how to use. He would flip it open, hold it to his shoulder and start talking. He didn't quite get the position of the phone right, but it's close enough. At first we couldn't figure out how he know how to work it; neither of us have flip-style phones. But then we realized that Debbie (daycare provider) has one. It's amazing what they just pick up and learn!

During this trip Anders also started initiating peek-a-boo games and improved his furniture cruising skills to the point where he would "walk" the 2 feet from couch to chair.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Anders and Josephine did have a great time playing next to each other with Clare's makeup. They would take it in and out (repeat) of the crystal bowl Clare keeps it in. Anders's favorite was the silver lipstick tube. He'd keep that safely stashed in his right hand while he played with everything else using his left hand.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

One last stop while in Tulsa: a Western store for cowboy boots. Corinne has been trying to get me into Western-wear for some time: boots, big belt buckle, hat, the whole shebang. We've already scoured the stores in Portland but didn't have much luck finding good selections that fit my small and slightly wide feet. We figured that there couldn't be a better place to look than Tulsa. While we shopped, Anders spent most of his time exploring the selection of Radio Flyers in the center of the store.

In the end we did find what we were looking for, but I'll save that for another post.

Alas, our trip came to an end. And thankfully our return trip was much less "eventful".

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: November 3, 2009

Worst Travel Experience Ever

2009-11-02T10:30:00.000-08:00

At the end of October we took a vacation with some of Corinne's family in Tulsa. In order to separate the travel experience from the vacation, we'll talk about the actual vacation separately. But the traveling experience itself was quite unbelievable and deserves its own story entirely. This is the type of story that no one ever wants to experience, but we did. It's fairly long, but it's 100% true.

Such excitement! Little did we know...

Flight Delays and Mechanical Problems
Our flight to Tulsa was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon flying through Denver, but an October snow storm in Colorado caused a one hour delay in our departure from Portland. When we finally arrived in Denver, we had about 5 minutes to make our scheduled connection time. We checked the status board at the airport, and our connecting flight wasn't even listed - not a good sign. We rushed to the gate, and when we got there we were informed that the plane hadn't even arrived in Denver yet; our connecting flight was therefore delayed, but would still be leaving that night.

After about an hour and a half of waiting at the gate in Denver, our flight was then canceled due to mechanical problems with the plane. When we got to the rebooking counter, there were two airline agents at the desk and a line of about 30 people. By this time it was about 9pm, so there were no more flights to Tulsa that day. We were then informed that there were no seats available to Tulsa on the FOLLOWING day, either; the earliest that we could get there would be Friday morning. Needless to say, this did not make the line happy.

Hotel Shuttle
There were, however, flights to Oklahoma City on Thursday morning, so we decided that was our best option. Loren had agreed that he could pick us up from there, about a one and a half hour drive from Tulsa. Since the flight was canceled due to mechanical problems, the airline provided us with a voucher to a local hotel and some food vouchers and things. All of our bags had been offloaded, so we grabbed our luggage and head out to the hotel pickup area. By this point it was 10pm, and the snow was really coming down. Corinne stayed inside with Anders while I waited outside with all of the bags. Given the weather, I called to make sure that the shuttle was still running, and they said that the shuttle should be there in 30 minutes. So I waited. And waited. Shuttles came and shuttles went - many times - but ours did not. Keep in mind that this whole time I was dressed for Portland and Tulsa weather, not blizzard in Denver. After 45 minutes I called the hotel again, and this time they said that there had been "an accident", but the shuttle should be there in 20 minutes. 45 minutes after that (and two additional phone calls later), our hotel shuttle finally arrived. By this time a good sized group of people had accumulated, waiting for that same shuttle. We were last to board the shuttle, and all of the seats were already full. Someone graciously gave up his seat for Corinne and Anders, and the good Samaritan and I sat in the back on top of the luggage for the 25 minute drive to the hotel. The roads were pretty ugly.

Once at the hotel, we checked in as quickly as possible and all three of us got in bed at about 12:30am. The flight to Oklahoma City left at 7:15am the following morning, which only left us about 4 hours in the hotel before it was on to the shuttle again. (The hotel seemed lovely, so it's too bad we couldn't have spent more time there... but I'll get to that in a moment.)

Oklahoma City? No
We arrived back at the airport the following morning and waited for our flight to Oklahoma City. After about an hour this flight was also canceled, this time due to the continuing weather problems. We managed to get rebooked on a flight to Tulsa leaving that evening, exactly 24 hours after our original flight was to leave. But that still left us 12 hours with no place to go. We had already checked out of our hotel, and the airline was not providing hotel vouchers since this time the cancellation was weather-related. Rather than stay in the airport all day, we found an inexpensive hotel that would let us check-in early. But this time, our luggage didn't get returned, so we would have to make due with our carry-ons.

Stranded in Denver
First order of business in the second hotel: sleep. All three of us spent several hours sleeping on the cheap, relatively uncomfortable bed. It wasn't until sometime after noon that we awoke and started to recognize some of our problems:

We couldn't go anywhere but the airport. Two feet of snow covered the ground, and we weren't about to trudge through it in our only pair of shoes.
We had no food. Anders was still nursing, but he needs solid foods to augment some of the nutrients. And we need solid foods, too.
We were quickly running out of diapers. When we packed for our trip, we didn't pack enough diapers in the carry-on for the 24+ hours that we ended up needing.

We could have taken the hotel shuttle back to the airport for food, but there was little chance that we would find diapers at Hudson News. When I went down to the hotel desk to ask about calling a taxi, a former hotel employee happened to be there visiting. He overheard my story and offered to drive me to the grocery store that was just a few miles down the road. This was our second - and much more significant - good Samaritan of the trip!

Brakes On A Plane
At 5pm we were back to the airport for our latest attempt to get out of Denver. It looked like we might not make it this time, either; after boarding and closing the doors, they were unable to depart the gate as the brakes on the plane were apparently frozen. It took at least an hour to free the wheels and de-ice the plane before we departed.

Melting the brakes with a portable heater

Luggage? No
We finally arrived in Tulsa after midnight, and it looked like our trials were finally behind us and we could just enjoy what was left of our vacation. But our journey through hell was not yet complete. Remember when I said that our luggage didn't get returned to us after the last cancellation? Well, it didn't get sent to Tulsa with our flight, either. But the Frontier agent couldn't tell us where they went, because Frontier doesn't scan their bags. We would have to wait until it showed up unclaimed somewhere.

So it's 1am Friday morning, we're extremely travel weary, and we're standing in front of a Frontier ticket counter with no bags but our carry-ons. Suddenly, there's a pool of liquid directly underneath Anders in the stroller. You have got to be kidding me. Damn you, disposables! But I guess that about sums up what we think of Frontier at this point.

Luggage? Still no
Our original plans were to spend 2 days in Tulsa, then drive to a "wilderness resort" near Branson, MO to spend a relaxing weekend with the family. But our delays eliminated most of the time in Tulsa. We would be driving the 4 hours to Big Cedar Lodge later that same day - after getting some much needed sleep, of course. But that meant that our bags needed to be delivered to us on Friday so that we'd have them for the rest of our trip. "That shouldn't be a problem," says the agent.

Yeah, right. We got a call later that day indicating that they had found our bags in Oklahoma City, which is where our second scheduled flight was headed. But here's where the next major screw-up happened. Rather than driving the bags from Oklahoma City to where we were in Tulsa - a 1.5 hour drive - Frontier decided to fly the bags BACK TO DENVER. By the time they arrived, there weren't any more flights from Denver to Tulsa, so now it looked like we would have to wait until Saturday. It also meant that the airline would have to drive our bags from Tulsa all the way to Branson. The airline assured us the bags would be delivered first thing in the morning arriving by 2pm.

Saturday morning we talked to the baggage delivery service who informed us that because of our distance from Tulsa (remember, we're 4 hours away now) we would be at the end of the delivery route and probably wouldn't get them until nighttime. At 8pm on Saturday, we finally received our bags. (Recall that we left home on Wednesday.) And we were returning to Tulsa the following day.

Oh, and did I mention that Saturday was Halloween, and that one of the checked bags contained Anders's costume?

It is worth noting that through all of this Anders was as easy going as could be. I think because he didn't really understand all of the things that went wrong that shouldn't have, it was easier for him to just go with the flow. I think we should all take a lesson from that.

"There's Nothing I Can Do..."
Since the beginning of our trip was so frustrating, we decided to extend our stay in Tulsa by a day. And since the airline caused so many of the problems, they were surely going to change our flight without a problem.

When I called Frontier to change our plans, they made no attempt to make things right. They were initially going to charge me the change fee, any fare difference, and the full baggage cost for the return trip. After a long phone "discussion" with a Frontier agent and her supervisor, I finally got them to eliminate the change fee and allow us to use the free "travel vouchers" we received after the first cancellation to cover the fare difference. (I figured we would never use them anyway, since there's no way that we would willingly choose to fly Frontier again.) When we checked in for our return flight, the ticket agent was sympathetic to our plight and sent our checked bags gratis.

There were a bunch of other Frontier customer service snafus not worth the time it would take to explain them. But now that I've written all of this down, I will never have to think about those experiences again.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: November 2, 2009

Weekend in Walla Walla

2009-10-25T21:49:00.001-07:00

We haven't had much of an opportunity to hang out with our friends Malinda and Jean in Seattle, even though we don't live that far away anymore (250 miles is a lot closer than the 3,000 when we were still in Boston.) So we decided to take a vacation together in Walla Walla, WA.

Why Walla Walla? It's only about a four hour drive from both Seattle and Trout Lake; it's a small town but has a college (Whitman College) that is more likely to give it some energy; and none of us had ever been there, so why not?

We used VRBO.com to find a three bedroom rental house that would be big enough for the four adults and three kids to fit comfortably for four days. Rental houses are a great option because they offer a more comfortable "home-like" environment. In particular, the presence of a full kitchen allows us to cook most of our meals.

We didn't have many planned activities for the trip, and that was on purpose. The whole point was just to get together someplace away from both of our homes (and the associated distractions). And with a total of three kids under 3 years of age, any planning that we did ahead of time would inevitably be futile anyway.

A few friends of ours actually went to Whitman, so we did have a few recommendations for things to do while we were there. One destination was the "taco truck" on Rose St downtown, known for being one of the best taco trucks in the region. Good stuff, although it's a good thing that they had pictures on their menu; they had things that we'd never heard of before.

Most of the meals came out of our own kitchen. We took turns preparing dinners, and Jean and I both brought some of our favorite kitchen tools (Jean brought his knife set; I brought a 5qt dutch oven.) Agriculture is the largest industry in Walla Walla, and the farmers' market that we attended was packed and full of delicious in season fruits and veggies, including large bags of the eponymous sweet onion.

On one evening, we did venture out of Walla Walla to nearby Waitsburg for some of the best Southern food we've had in a long time at the Whoopemup Hollow Cafe. Certainly not where we expected to find it!

And of course we just had to go out for breakfast to a local pastry shop. Yum.

Anders caught a mild cold on this trip, his first ever, with a runny nose being the most visible sign. But thankfully it didn't seem to affect him much. We slept in as much as we could (which actually wasn't much.)

Most of our time was spent at home, but we did do a bit of exploring around Walla Walla, including a jaunt around Pioneer Park.

With the kids around, there wasn't much actual "downtime" for true relaxation. But I guess that's just part of parenting, right?

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Beautiful Evening

2009-10-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

We captured these photos on a beautiful fall evening.

This is why we live here. There's really nothing more that needs to be said.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: October 18, 2009

Professional Photo Shoot

2009-10-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

We like to think that we're fairly good photographers, but there's still no substitute for a professional. So around Anders's first birthday we scheduled another photo session with Michael Peterson.

We tried to be creative with the props that we brought to his studio for the shoot. Overall Anders wasn't quite as cooperative as during his previous session at 6 months, but we still got some good results.

TOYS
We picked bright, primary colored toys: Viking Toys "Chubby" cars, wooden stacking rings, megablocks toolset, etc.

KITCHEN
We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and Anders seems to have picked up on that. He has his own set of kitchen utensils, bowls, tupperware, etc., though for the photoshoot we brought some of "ours" as well.

SQUASH
It was fall, and we happened to have some around. Why not?

FLOUR
This one was suggested by Michael and we had high hopes for it. We envisioned him throwing the flour into the air and just generally having a good time. But he was much more cautious and tentative about it, and rarely looked up at the camera; he was focused entirely on the flour. By the end he started to loosen up a bit and actually have fun.

DIAPER SHOTS
Okay, so we know that these are "fake" in the sense that the diapers will have a white cover over them so that you won't actually see the color underneath. But what fun is that?

BLANKET
The blanket shots from the first photo shoot came out so well that we just had to try them again. The blanket and hat were made by my mom, and who knows how much longer the hat will actually fit him.

READING
Anders still loves his books. This shot was an excuse to use Michael's super-fancy low F-stop lens to get a really shallow depth of field.

FAMILY SHOTS
In addition to all of the studio "prop" shots that we had planned for Anders, we got some good family shots as well.

If you reached the end of this endless slew of photos, congratulations! You must be one of Anders's grandparents. :)

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: October 13, 2009

Picking Apples

2009-10-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

Fall means apple harvest in our orchard, and it was a pretty good orchard harvest last year in general. We had cherries for the first time, and apples were plentiful. The plums were virtually non-existent this year for some reason, but I guess we can't expect everything to be bountiful every year.

We did eat some apples fresh, but most were processed into applesauce. We used to go through the effort to can the applesauce, but it turns out that freezing applesauce is just as effective and a lot easier.

Anders loves applesauce, so it's pretty convenient that we have a reliable source of pesticide-free (though not bug-free) apples!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: October 11, 2009

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

Parenting 101 says that you must take your kids to a pumpkin patch around Halloween, so we hopped in the car and drove to Draper Farm in Hood River.

This farm also advertises a "corn maze" each year. I've always been fascinated by the idea of a corn maze, imagining a corn version of the maze from The Shining, carefully groomed and offering a new challenge each year. But alas, this wasn't really a maze but just a fixed path through the corn with no actual choices to make. We were disappointed, but Anders didn't seem to mind. Next time I want to find a real corn maze.

The wind was particularly cold and gusty, so the visit to the farm was quick. We finished off the evening with some warm food and brownies at the Eliot Bay Pub in Parkdale, where we discovered that Anders likes brownies and ice cream. (duh)

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: October 10, 2009

White Salmon Homecoming

2009-10-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

Since we live in a small town (technically, we live in a REALLY small town 20 miles from a small town), one of the things that we have observed is that we do more activities in the community than we did when we were in Boston. There was so much to do in Boston that no particular events bubbled to the top. In a small town, when something is happening everyone knows.

The White Salmon High School Homecoming Football Game was one such event. We brought Anders and met our friends Debbie and Darrell at the game, along with Anders's "big brother" Zak.

The following video showcases how much Anders loves to jump, something he's been doing as much as possible since we introduced him to the Jumparoo in May. It's also evident how much Zak and Anders enjoy each other.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

The White Salmon Bruins didn't fare particularly well on this outing; they lost to the La Center Wildcats 50 to 28. But it's not about who wins or loses, right?

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: October 9, 2009

Toothbrushes

2009-10-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Now that Anders has teeth we really need to start brushing them. I tried using one of those little rubber "thimbles" with nubs that I place on my finger but Anders would just try to chew on my finger. Those teeth are sharp!

Anders has always been interested in watching us brush our teeth so we decided to try a real toothbrush. We started with one toothbrush for Anders but that didn't work so well because he wants to hold it himself. He seems to know what to do with it in general, but his technique isn't very effective. So we decided we would buy a second toothbrush so that Anders can hold one and we can brush his teeth with the other. Well, guess what: Anders has two hands. I think we need to get a third. He loves those toothbrushes.

He has good form, but sometimes misses important details:

The toothbrushes are so popular that they come along for the rest of the bedtime routine as well.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: October 7, 2009

Anders's First Word Is ...

2009-10-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

Anders's first word is officially "peek"! His Aunt Joie taught him this word while we were in Seattle for Labor Day Weekend. Initially we weren't so sure that he was actually saying it, so we spent some time listening. We and Debbie (daycare) have now confirmed that Anders does indeed say "peek", and only in the context of a peek-a-boo game.

In the video below, Corinne is ducking down below the counter, then popping her head back up.

(Embedded Video)
Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

It's not enough to just say the word; you have to use it appropriately in order for it to count!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: October 6, 2009

Insalata Caprese

2009-10-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Alas, we had our first frost on Friday night. Luckily we had a heads up from the weatherman. So Mike shifted his hours on Friday so that he could come home early to harvest all of our tomatoes.

This year our neighbors, who have certified organic land, started vegetable farming. (This has been great for us given that our garden was largely a bust¹ other than the tomatoes.) They bought a new seeder and in the process of trying it out had planted five 1,000 foot rows of basil. Yes, that's almost a mile of basil! Since a frost was imminent, they told us we could pick all we wanted. So on Friday afternoon Mike also picked a kitchen garbage bag full of basil. And to put things in perspective, this was probably only about 5' of the 5000'.

We decided to devote a good portion of the weekend to the kitchen, making and freezing tomato sauce and pesto. Anders also had his first insalata caprese. We had given him a few pieces of tomato a couple weeks earlier and he didn't seem to be a big fan. But apparently tomatoes are a whole lot tastier - or at least more interesting - when he gets to hold the whole tomato and snack on it.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

¹ Bust = crazy work schedule which delayed or prevented us from planting + gophers who ate the entire bed of garlic Mike planted last fall

Date: October 5, 2009

Anders at 12 Months

2009-09-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

(This is an "archival" post from September 2009 - yes, that's right: 2009.)

At Anders's 12-month "well baby" checkup, he did such a good job of charming the nurse that she asked, "Did you bring a camera?" I happened to have it with me so we captured a few pics. I'm sure the nurse enjoys Anders as he doesn't really mind when she measures him or gives him shots. And after she's done he still has smiles for her. (The nurse has told me that she has kids who see her in the grocery store and immediately start crying.)

After all the measuring, Anders had the following stats: 22 lbs 15 oz, 18.5 inch head circumference, and 29.5 inches long. And since we're engineers, here is a plot of his 3, 6, 9, and 12 month numbers against the standard "growth chart" from the CDC.

In general, he's following that 50% curve pretty well. The only exception (not shown in this chart) is the "head circumference" in which he is closer to 75%. And we're pretty sure that the 6 month length figure is probably the result of "measurement error," since it doesn't match up with the overall trend. We have lots more weight measurements than are shown here - a weekly measurement for his first 6 months - but we figure that you get the general idea.

A few more milestones achieved at 12 months: He has 6 teeth; 4 on top, 2 on the bottom. He stands up on his own and can pull himself up to standing. Once up, he will "cruise" around the furniture. He can go up steps, but he doesn't know what to do once he gets to the stop step. He waves. And he'll walk if you hold him up (and prance if he has shoes on).

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Last but not least, he has started to appreciate reading. We used to try to read to him but for some reason he didn't like it. But now he has figured out that books are a good thing and will even read to himself.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

It's not clear how much of the material he is actually retaining, though.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

PBE Reunion

2009-09-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

In September I traveled to Boston for my fraternity's 119th Anniversary reunion. It had been a great number of years (a specific number that I care not count) since I've seen many of these guys, so it was good to get back in touch.

Here's looking forward to next time!

- Mike (and Corinne and Anders Rocket, from home!)

28 September 2009

State of the Union

2009-09-25T22:36:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Obama's eloquence, Anders has started working on his speeches.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

I don't recall seeing the president fall over backwards in the middle of any of his speeches, though.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 25, 2009

More Birthday Pics

2009-09-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

Since first birthday's only come along once in a lifetime - literally - we thought we'd share a few more photos of the birthday boy celebrating!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 21st, 2009

Child of the 80s

2009-09-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Anders went to bed shortly after his bath and woke up the next morning with a stylin' hairdo.

We thought it was so funny that we left it that way for the day and dressed him as child of the 80's: navy shorts, leg warmers, and his jacket reminiscent of Members Only.

This same day, Anders had another first. Over the last several months at daycare, Anders had enjoyed looking at Zak through one of those tunnel tubes, but today he crawled through it. Debbie and I had tried to convince Anders to do it but Zak had the magic touch.

Watch this video on YouTube or
in the original blog post

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 21, 2009

Happy Birthday, Anders!

2009-09-20T20:37:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe, but Anders is now one year old! When other parents have said that the time goes fast and we should enjoy it while we can, they were sure right. We invited over some friends to celebrate our little guy turning one.

At the party, Anders's "big brothers" Zak and Daniel spent most of their time with him. Since Anders couldn't walk by himself, Daniel would hold him up by his armpits while Anders "walked" around.

The kids all had a good time playing together, and the adults enjoyed the ability to socialize a bit while they played.

Then it was time to bring out the Rocket cake. Before singing Happy Birthday, we instructed everyone to not clap at the end of the song since Anders has on occasion started crying at sudden noises, and no one should be made to cry on their birthday!

Corinne decided to be "brave" and put the cake right down at Anders's level on a footstool. You'll have to watch to see what happens...

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

I'm still amazed at the way he handled that. Now that the obligatory song had been sung, it was time to eat! Anders sure did like that cake.

There were some gifts to open as well. Wheels... lots of wheels.

Thanks for a fun birthday party! Time to eat more cake.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders One-Year-Old Rocket

Date: September 20th, 2009

Birthday Cakes

2009-09-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Inspired largely by fond memories of our childhood birthday cakes, we decided that we would make Anders an extraordinary cake for his first birthday. But before we go into that, I thought it would be fun to take a quick look back at some of those inspirational cakes that we had as kids.

For my second birthday, my Aunt Jill made me a merry-go-around (or is it circus tent?) cake.

Mike's 2nd Birthday: Merry-Go-'Round(?) Cake

I actually don't have a lot of pictures of my various birthday cakes, as most of the photos are still with my parents. I do have a few good birthday cake stories, though. When I was turning somewhere around 9 or 10 and my brother Drew was turning 3 or 4 (our birthdays are only a day apart), my birthday cake was sitting on the dining room table awaiting the arrival of the guests. But before anyone arrived, Drew decided that it would be fun to put his arm into middle of the cake. Oops.

And a few years after that my parents arranged a birthday party for me at the local roller rink, which was a pretty cool party setting in the 80s (actually, I wouldn't mind a roller-skating party now, either.) Everything was going great until the rink brought out the cake that they had made for my party, and the icing read: "Happy Birthday, Michelle." Decidedly uncool.

Corinne has very fond memories of some of the creative cakes that her mom made for her and her brothers when they were little. We recently dragged out the photo boxes, warmed up the scanner and brought those memories back to life.

Leif & Loren's 2nd Birthday: Circus
(I guess that must be the official 2nd birthday theme)

Corinne's 5th Birthday: Lamb

L&L's 5th Birthday: Trains
(These would become a recurring theme, as you'll see)

Corinne's 7th Birthday: Strawberry Shortcake

L&L's 7th Birthday: Trains (again)

L&L's 8th Birthday: Snoopy

L&L's 11th Birthday: Fishing

L&L's 12th Birthday: Trains

So with cakes and stories like those, we knew we wanted to do something memorable. (Of course, Anders is probably still too small to remember it himself, but that's beside the point.) Corinne decided that for Anders's first birthday she would make him a Rocket cake.

With a little searching online, she found some example cakes to use as a starting point. She picked out her favorite cake and frosting recipes, ordered cake molds and frosting tints, and set out to make the coolest birthday cake ever. The design consisted of a Rocket sitting atop a double sheet cake base. The rocket portion would be banana cake (Anders loves bananas) and the base two chocolate cakes with chocolate sour cream frosting. Since we're fairly proficient in the kitchen, making the actual cakes would be the easy part; the real challenge would be in the decorating.

Once Anders was in bed on the night before the birthday party, Corinne pulled out the cakes to decorate. It was a painstaking process that lasted late into the night; I think we finished close to 1:00am. But we think that the end result warranted the extra effort.

And now, the final result!

With the cake done, the only thing left was the party!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 19th, 2009

Company Picnic

2009-09-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Insitu recently held its annual employee picnic. One nice perk this year is that they hired photographer Michael Peterson to wander around and take pictures of the event. (They claim that it was not to "take attendance".)

The "newbie" shirt was a gift from our nerd friends Evan and Erin, and we thought it would be appropriate attire for the day. The shirt received quite a few chuckles from many engineers at the picnic.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 18, 2009

Big Fan

2009-09-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

Like most babies (or at least boys), Anders has been fascinated by ceiling fans since he was very little. He is constantly pointing at ours at home, and it's usually the first place he looks when entering a room.

I ran into IKEA the other day and found Anders staring at the ceiling. I looked up to discover a HUGE ceiling fan. I have to admit that it was pretty cool.

Watch this video on YouTube or
in the original blog post

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 17, 2009