Wheaton College Finals Week 2014!

This is what I've done today to avoid studying. 

Westward: A Journey through Photos

Most of you know by now that I'm in Seattle. If that's news to you, then I apologize for having been sorely out of communication for the last several months.

I drove west from Minneapolis over three days, and took many (many) photos along the way. Fortunately, for you, I've edited the batch down to a representative sample. So grab a mug of coffee or hot chocolate or spiced cider (or a boring glass of water, if you're Dad), and travel west with me.

The wide open sky of North Dakota. This is just west of Fargo, and what most of the rest of the day's drive looked like.

The farmland of North Dakota.

The landscape started to get at little more interesting as I neared the border with Montana. These hills are part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. By the way, the fenceposts are slanted because of the way my cameraphone shutter works; they're actually quite vertical.

More hills and grasslands in western North Dakota.

I'm in eastern Montana now, and starting to see a little more change in the landscape.

More hills in the Great Plains.

At last some mountains! I believe these are the Bitterroots, which is part of the Rocky Mountain Range. At any rate, I got to look at them for a long time.

Downtown Belgrade, Montana, where I found a nice steak and baked potato and got to watch a little baseball.

The next morning, from my hotel in Bozeman, I got to see a sunrise over the mountains.

Lots of scenery like this in western Montana. Miles and miles and miles...

And this...

And this... (Right about now you're probably thinking I could have done a better job editing down those photos.)

This might be in Idaho. Or western Montana. Idaho was the briefest part of my trip, so I might not remember this correctly.

But this, at last, is Washington. This is eastern Washington, just beyond Spokane. This area is known as the Palouse, and it's where a lot of wheat is grown. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the hills are soft and rolling, and it's lovely country. I hear it's amazing in the springtime when everything is green. The clouds are pretty nice too.

Coming down to the Columbia River in central Washington.

Some rain as I drive through the Cascade Mountains. I hear they have a bit of that out here.

My first glimpse of Seattle (off to the right on the horizon). It seemed a little auspicious that it was sunny for my arrival.

And a little closer shot of downtown Seattle.

Kevin and I went for a "Welcome to Seattle" dinner at a pizza place near my apartment.

And speaking of the apartment, here's what it looks like. This is the dining room, looking toward the living room.

The living room.

The bedroom.

And the kitchen.

This is Lake Union, which is about a ten-minute walk from my apartment. There are lots of sailboats on this lake, and floating houses, and it's a great spot to sit and soak up the sun when it's out. Do yourself a favor and search for images of "floating houses Seattle" in Google. I'd never seen anything quite like them before.

These intrepid explorers are standing at the top of Hurricane Ridge after an arduous climb up the Olympic Mountains. Some will say that the car did most of the work, but they had to walk from the parking lot to the grass, where this photo was taken. That was plenty difficult.

Here's downtown Seattle from the ferry. When David was out here, we took the ferry out to the Olympic peninsula, and then returned by ferry back to Seattle.

This picture is pretty blurry, but it's taken from a footbridge just behind my apartment. In the distance, which is south, is downtown Seattle. I cross this footbridge a couple times each week, as it's the quickest way to get to my neighborhood grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and that scenic view of Lake Union I included above.

Is this enough wood to build a shed?

Oscar and I went to the saw mill that bought my timber last spring and picked up the pine they cut from my trees so I can build a storage shed.  I need to let it dry over the winter.

I have

120-  1X6X16
14-    2X4X16
77-    2X4X8
24-    2X6X8

looks like a lot of lumber

"Finishing Touches" on the House

The Grey House (that's what I'm calling my Minneapolis residence now that I'm in Seattle) has undergone some improvements in the last couple months. It still needs a new roof and windows and siding, but in the meantime it's gotten a new deck, patio door, and trim on the first floor. Here are some pictures to show you all how beautiful the old girl is looking.

Matt and I tore the old deck boards off and put new deck boards down.

Now with 100% less chance of breaking a rotten deck board and falling through!

A new door that you don't have to fight in order to close. And it locks!

Baseboard trim in the dining room.

Baseboard trim in the living room.

Here's the finished mudroom, with a tile floor, closet, and trim all around.

Another shot of the mudroom (you can see a little of the new window trim here).

Here's the trim around the dining room window.

There's also a new water heater and toilet, but I didn't think you needed to see pictures of those. You can just imagine how glorious they are.

The Jeep is back on it's feet! (or wheels)

Shiny new pistons, rings, and bearings are what it took to get the Jeep off the mat and back on it's feet. I wouldn't say it is ready to contend for the title, but at least it is running without sounding like it's going to launch a piston through the hood at any minute.  Thanks to neighbor Scott for advice and Snake man Fred for help.  My contribution was to tear it all apart and reassemble it multiple times until it was right. Oh ya- and to pay for the parts.

Honey Makes Some Friends

To celebrate our one year anniversary (almost!), Amber and I are out in Las Vegas this week for a quick trip. We were worried about what to do with Honey and tried to see if any of our friends could take care of her. Nothing quite worked out, so in the end we had to find a place to board her for a few days. Honey tends to be shy of other dogs, so we worried about whether it would all be a traumatic experience for her.

We brought her down yesterday evening and dropped her off, along with her food, a bag of chew bones, and her bed. This morning we got an email from the dogcare place. They said that Honey seemed to be having a good time and was even sharing her bed with some of the other dogs. We found it hard to believe, until they sent along some photo evidence:

Looks like Honey's made quite a few friends after all!

The Jeep is down for the count!

A broken piston has the Jeep down for the count.  I'm trying to throw a bucket of ice water in it's face and put it back in the ring but I just don't know if it's gonna make it.

Giving the old lady the boot

once upon a time we fed Aunt Jemima our pennies and she feed us pizza.  It worked out well until we stopped feeding her and she stopped feeding us.  Pizzas cost too many dollars to buy with pennies now.

So I don't want her and she doesn't want me.  Anyone have it in their heart to take in a homeless old lady that you remember from your childhood?  She comes with enough pennies to give her a little self respect.

Honey Triptych

We took Honey to the park and, since she's always shedding lots of hair, brought her brush. Here's a good visual synopsis of how it went:

 

Summer is for Biking

The kids have been having a great time biking this summer.  They've all since moved up a bike size, but here are some photos with their old bikes.