When Abe was about 5 months I wrote about how this kid named Casey tried to throw a wooden instrument at Abe's face. Well, Abe is now having his go as the wild "bully". Yesterday I took him to Cuddlers and being the a.) big ham that he is and, b.) only kid who can move, Abe seized the moment and crawled back and forth in the circle screaming and throwing toys at all of the other little immobile babies. I think it's time for Cruisers.
Here is a video of Abe practicing throwing his toys.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Eleven months
This month's Abe/Banjo picture proved a little more difficult, now that both boys are mobile.
Babes in the City
Thursday, July 29, 2010
My first TV interview
Yesterday the local CBS affiliate came to the crime lab to interview someone from the DNA section. They were doing a story on Anthony Dillard, who had been indited the day before. DNA evidence had linked him to two cold-case sex assaults (2005 and 2007). Abi, our DNA tech manager came in the back office area to see if anyone wanted to be interviewed on camera. Since everyone had already gone home for the day and I was the only one back there, I got 'volunteered'. So I met the reporter and the camera lady, and the reporter asked me some basic, general questions about CODIS and the work we do in the DNA section while the TV camera was rolling. Abi was also asked a few questions as well.
So I was all excited to watch the 10pm news. But when they ran the segment on Mr. Dillard, they didn't air any part of either one of our interviews. An airplane at the air force base crashed that night, so I'm thinking that story took time away from the DNA story. That, or our interviews were really bad. All in all it was a good experience to talk to the media about my job, and good practice for when I'm in court.
So I was all excited to watch the 10pm news. But when they ran the segment on Mr. Dillard, they didn't air any part of either one of our interviews. An airplane at the air force base crashed that night, so I'm thinking that story took time away from the DNA story. That, or our interviews were really bad. All in all it was a good experience to talk to the media about my job, and good practice for when I'm in court.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Abe(less) in Seattle
We are enjoying Emily & Abe's visit to Seattle this week. Today we had celebrated the summer birthdays of Ruth, Elaine, Calvin, Melissa, Melyssa and Melvin at Tea Gardern. Yesterday Abe went to the Bon Odori. When they arrived last week, we had a little barbecue.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
NOW I'm a true Alaskan!!!
This weekend I had a true Alaskan experience - I went dip netting with my friend Mark. What's dip netting do you ask? It's when you 'dip' your 'net' into the water. Then the salmon swim into the net and you pull them out of the water. Simple as that! You can either do it on the shore of a river, or on a boat.
Mark just bought a 14-foot boat and was anxious to take it dip netting. He gave me a call at work on Thursday afternoon, wanted to know if I wanted to try it out as well, and I said sure. We left Friday afternoon for the Kenai river down on the Kenai Peninsula. It was about a 4 hour drive. We were in the river and fishing by about 6:30. I manned the net (which is 5 feet in diameter on a 15-foot pole) while Mark manned the motor. I'd catch the fish, move the next towards Mark who would pop the fish out in the boat. Then he would club it with his fish-club (think a tiny wooden bat - although we saw some people at there who actually used real bats) and rip it's gills out. Then he'd toss it in a cooler, or hand it to me to toss in a cooler.
Once we got going and I put my first net in the water, no joke we had a fish in the boat less than 2 minutes later. We made a killing. We filled up our first 2 giant coolers in about 2 hours. Then we went back to shore where Mark started cleaning our catch while I picked up 2 more coolers from the parent of our friends who lived in the nearby town. So we made it back on the water by 9:30, which left us an hour and half left to fish - you can't fish from 11pm - 6am. And in that last hour-30 we caught 17 more fish. Which brought our total to 52 fish. Not bad for a few hours of fishing, huh?
We decided to sleep in our cars that night at the boat launch. We didn't get out of the water until about 12:30am, so we were pretty tired. Banjo slept up front with me in the passenger seat. Banjo was a trooper the whole trip - I had to leave him in the back of the car the whole time we were out fishing b/c there was no room in the boat for him.
We got up at 5:30am the next day and went to Ames Bridge so we could finish gutting and cleaning the fish. Mark would gut them while I chopped the heads off. We were probably gutting and cleaning fish for about 2 hours. Then we were starved so went to this really good greasy spoon place in the city of Kenai. I had biscuits and gravy, hash browns, 2 poached eggs, and a sausage patty. I was so hungry, but I couldn't even finish it all b/c it was so much food. So Banjo got to finish the rest of my very-generously-sized sausage patty.
My share of our catch was 15 fish. Each 'head of household' is entitled to 25 fish per year, and you get 10 more per extra person in your house. Since Mark also has a wife and baby, that means we each can keep 45 fish. I kept 1 to eat that night, I'm shipping 4 down to Seattle, and the other 10 I took to Indian Meats to have filleted, vacuum packed and flash-frozen. Now I need to figure out where to put 53 pounds of fish????
All in all it was an awesome experience and I'm glad Mark invited me along. If the fish are running next weekend, I'm going to go down again and try dip netting from shore, which is about 10 times harder than on a boat. Hopefully dip netting from a boat hasn't spoiled me too much!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Fun in the park
Today we made the most of the great weather and went for a bike ride in Russian Jack park, which is pretty close to our house. The park is wooded, with a bunch of paved trails, which double as ski trails in the winter. We explored along the trails and made our way through a tunnel that takes you under the busy street to the other side of the park. We found a play ground over there, AND a dog park, which we'll have to take Banny to one of these days. We were planning on going for a hike this evening with one of my friends from swimming, but she is a doctor, and got called into the OR, so instead Neil and I enjoyed a nice game of Settler's of Catan--the card game. I won!
Which reminds me: On Friday we had Margaret and Ryan over to play Settler's. They were the ones who introduced us to the game. Since we told them how we had gotten into it, Ryan brought over 4 different expansion packs to go with the base game. We played with the Cities and Knights game (which is the same one I got Neil for his birthday). Ryan is funny, because he seems to have just about every expansion and version of the game that there is. He even has both the 3rd and 4th editions. I think they were excited to have more friends who like to play the game.
Abe tried to keep as much of his body off of the grass as possible.
Later on he got a little more into it.
Tired out after a fun morning.
Which reminds me: On Friday we had Margaret and Ryan over to play Settler's. They were the ones who introduced us to the game. Since we told them how we had gotten into it, Ryan brought over 4 different expansion packs to go with the base game. We played with the Cities and Knights game (which is the same one I got Neil for his birthday). Ryan is funny, because he seems to have just about every expansion and version of the game that there is. He even has both the 3rd and 4th editions. I think they were excited to have more friends who like to play the game.
Abe tried to keep as much of his body off of the grass as possible.
Later on he got a little more into it.
Tired out after a fun morning.
Dj Hero
On Saturday we had Rachel and Kari and Jared over for dinner for a belated birthday celebration for Neil. We made really good burgers, and Jared and Kari brought guacamole (which were perfect on the burgers) and watermelon, and Rachel brought Rainier cherries. For dessert I made an ice cream cake (Neil's been eating up the leftovers for breakfast). We had a great time hanging out. It had been a while, because everyone gets so busy during the summers. Afterwards we played Neil's new DJ Hero game.
"1980 Player of the year, Neil Hoff, Happy 30th Birthday" Kari and Jared gave Neil a great present (great, because he's going to put it up at his office and not in our house). Abe does enjoy playing with it though.
"1980 Player of the year, Neil Hoff, Happy 30th Birthday" Kari and Jared gave Neil a great present (great, because he's going to put it up at his office and not in our house). Abe does enjoy playing with it though.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Hiking Winner Creek
On Monday we went on a hike in Girdwood with our friends Guang Ming and Joel and their kids Charlotte and Luke. Neil and I had been wanting to go on this hike ever since we'd moved to Alaska, because at the end there is a hand tram that you use to pull yourself over the river. We first tried to go on it when Neil came up to visit for our first year anniversary, but it was being worked on then.
The trail leading up to the tram is really nice--many board walks, and very well groomed. Because the trail head is basically in the Alyeska ski resort, there were a lot of people on the trail. This was okay with us, though, because along the way we got stopped by a hiker who warned us about a little bear in a tree along the trail. (Our first Alaskan bear sighting!) Needless to say, be made it out unscathed. The hike was a lot of fun, and afterwards we had a little impromptu bbq at Guang Ming and Joel's house.
The kids had a cozy ride.
Charlotte (who just turned 2) hiked a little of the trail herself!
Here's use in the hand tram. Unfortunately you can't see how high off the river we were. It was pretty cool. Our friends (who are both lawyers from CA) said that something like this in California would never exist, because of the potential for lawsuits! Poor Banjo couldn't go with us on the tram, because he would have put us over the weight limit. He was quite distraught when we started pulling away from him.
Our little black bear. Just chillin'.
Towards the end of the hike, Abe had had enough. He kept trying to dive out of the ergo. (Note the hiking poles. We just started using them, and they work great with a baby in tow.)
The trail leading up to the tram is really nice--many board walks, and very well groomed. Because the trail head is basically in the Alyeska ski resort, there were a lot of people on the trail. This was okay with us, though, because along the way we got stopped by a hiker who warned us about a little bear in a tree along the trail. (Our first Alaskan bear sighting!) Needless to say, be made it out unscathed. The hike was a lot of fun, and afterwards we had a little impromptu bbq at Guang Ming and Joel's house.
The kids had a cozy ride.
Charlotte (who just turned 2) hiked a little of the trail herself!
Here's use in the hand tram. Unfortunately you can't see how high off the river we were. It was pretty cool. Our friends (who are both lawyers from CA) said that something like this in California would never exist, because of the potential for lawsuits! Poor Banjo couldn't go with us on the tram, because he would have put us over the weight limit. He was quite distraught when we started pulling away from him.
Our little black bear. Just chillin'.
Towards the end of the hike, Abe had had enough. He kept trying to dive out of the ergo. (Note the hiking poles. We just started using them, and they work great with a baby in tow.)
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Happy Birthday America! (And Happy 30th to me!)
Today I have had a fabulous 30th birthday. Emily made me Peanut Butter M&M pancakes for breakfast. One was even shaped like an 'N'. Then I opened my presents from Abe and Banjo. Abe got me a 2-player Settlers of Catan card game (so now Emily and I can get our Settlers fix while we don't have any guests). Banjo gave me a book about a man and his dog as they walked the 800-mile Alaska Pipeline one summer. Emily's gift is still in the mail. Then we did a nice hike at South Fork Eagle River. And for dinner we had pulled-pork sandwiches (with homemade BBQ sauce), homemade coleslaw and potato salad, and corn. I even played a little DJ Hero that I bought with my birthday money from Jeanne. And I received many birthday well-wishes from friends and family. It was a great 30th birthday!!!!
Emily calls this, "Tired Yankke-Doodle"
Check out that stylish backpack!
By the time Emily was carrying Abe, he was pretty tired.
I thought it would be fun to think back to all of my past birthdays and reminisce about where I was on past birthdays, what I've done, and what some of my favorite presents were.
1987 - Family reunion in Black Hills, South Dakota. I got some cool Transformers. And went to Mount Rushmore.
1988 - I got a bike AND a Nintendo. Pretty much the coolest birthday ever, presents wise.
1989 - For my friend birthday party, we saw UHF at a theater downtown that is now a Banana Republic. And I had a sleep-over. Lots of fun.
1990 - Went to see the fireworks at Gasworks. And had Ezel's Fried Chicken for my birthday dinner. It was a lot of fun b/c I got to stay up past midnight (since it took so long to get home after the fireworks b/c of all of the traffic).
1991 - I was in Chico Hotsprings, Montana for another family reunion. Had lots of fun playing with my cousins. And I pushed the neighbor lady from "The Hogan Family" around on a Merry-go-round, b/c she was filming "A River Runs Through It" nearby.
1992 - Had a neighborhood party at Ravenna Park. But it absolutely POURED (like many a 4th).
1993 - I think this summer Scott worked as an ice-cream man. For my birthday he got me WWF Royal Rumble for the SNES. My brother and I spent many hours playing that game together. He said he paid for it with nothing but 1's and change - and it was like $70!
1994 - World Cup - USA vs. Brazil. I watched the game with my Dad and Scott (my Mom had to work). After we watched the game we saw 'Blow Away' in the theater (pretty bad movie). Had burgers for dinner, and Scott made guacamole.
1995 - Medora, North Dakota. We were in Chico again for another family reunion, and afterward we kept going east. We were suppose to see some fancy play with horses and whatnot in Medora. But they canceled that show b/c it was so rainy and wet - too dangerous for the horses. That was all fine with me, b/c I just really wanted to play Pinocle with Scott, Dad and my Grandma Dorothy (which is what we did).
1996 - Long Beach, WA. This is where Scott was working. It was crazy along the beach - people lighting fireworks off like crazy. There was smoke everywhere. And we saw 'Independence Day'.
1997 - Went to Tony Roma's with my Mom and Dad for some ribs. Then I went to my friend Bill Hope's house (with Teddy and Karl) to light off boat-loads of fireworks.
1998 - ???
1999 - What I remember about this birthday is that while I was working at Video Update, my high school friends came by to drop off my present. But I had to go out to the parking lot to receive it, because it wasn't very appropriate (i.e. - pornography. They gave me pornography).
2000 - I think this was my first birthday celebrated on The 'Juan (San Juan Island). We went to the parade in Friday Harbor, which was real cool b/c the UW marching band was there. Then we went to Roach Harbor for some Fish 'n Chips, look at all the expensive yachts, and watch the dounut eating contest. And I got a Gameboy Advanced.
2001 - I turn 21! But I celebrate by waiting in line at the ferry to go to the Island with Scott. My Dad said there was an 11:30Pm boat - there wasn't. The next one didn't come until 5:30am. So my brother did what any great older brother would do - he took me to an Indian casino and I watched him shoot craps!
2002 - Ketchum/Sun Valley/Hailey, Idaho. I got to spend my birthday with my Aunt Val and cousin Jim. It was real fun watching the fireworks at night.
2003 - My first birthday with Emily (sort of). My family went to the Island for the 4th, so Emily and celebrated before we left. We went to see 'Spellbound', and she gave me a baseball (that showed how to grip it differently to throw different pitches) and a brownie. Around this time we were laying our 800-square foot deck made of paver stones. My whole family worked our tail off laying that sucker - but we took the 4th off, because I've never worked on my birthday.
2004 - More parade and dounut-eating fun on the 'Juan. Emily came along. She got me an M's hat, tickets to a game, a bag, seat cushions, and a score card.
Dog park break.
2005 - Up on the 'Juan with Emily and my family. Emily got me a cool USA Men's National Team soccer hat, which I sported at the World Cup the next year in Germany.
2006 - Scott and I had just returned home from the World Cup. We celebrated up on the Island, during the day. Emily was in China with her family. I actually went back down to Seattle the night of the 4th b/c my first day of work at Amgen was on the 5th. Which meant I was able to go to Teddy's 4th of July party at his family's apartment, which is about 4 blocks from the Vine Maple.
2007 - First birthday as a married man. We all went up to the 'Juan to celebrate. And Emily's parents came up for the day as well.
2008 - First birthday in Alaska! Emily's family was visiting, and we drove to Homer that day. Hannah bought me a bottle of whiskey. I was a month removed from my jaw surgery, so when we stopped for lunch at Subway, all I could have was their clam chowder. (HINT: Do not get the clam chowder at Subway)
2009 - Emily, Banjo and I had a picnic up at the loop by the parking lot for Flattop. We went to a baseball game at night - and someone hit a grand slam in the first inning.
The family gathering 'round for a tasty birthday/4th of July dinner.
Now that's a 4th of July meal - corn on the cob, cole claw, potato salad, and pulled-pork sandwiches. Yumm........
Abe helped me blow out my candle (we had to improvise a bit). That key-lime pie sure was good.
Emily calls this, "Tired Yankke-Doodle"
Check out that stylish backpack!
By the time Emily was carrying Abe, he was pretty tired.I thought it would be fun to think back to all of my past birthdays and reminisce about where I was on past birthdays, what I've done, and what some of my favorite presents were.
1987 - Family reunion in Black Hills, South Dakota. I got some cool Transformers. And went to Mount Rushmore.
1988 - I got a bike AND a Nintendo. Pretty much the coolest birthday ever, presents wise.
1989 - For my friend birthday party, we saw UHF at a theater downtown that is now a Banana Republic. And I had a sleep-over. Lots of fun.
1990 - Went to see the fireworks at Gasworks. And had Ezel's Fried Chicken for my birthday dinner. It was a lot of fun b/c I got to stay up past midnight (since it took so long to get home after the fireworks b/c of all of the traffic).
1991 - I was in Chico Hotsprings, Montana for another family reunion. Had lots of fun playing with my cousins. And I pushed the neighbor lady from "The Hogan Family" around on a Merry-go-round, b/c she was filming "A River Runs Through It" nearby.
1992 - Had a neighborhood party at Ravenna Park. But it absolutely POURED (like many a 4th).
1993 - I think this summer Scott worked as an ice-cream man. For my birthday he got me WWF Royal Rumble for the SNES. My brother and I spent many hours playing that game together. He said he paid for it with nothing but 1's and change - and it was like $70!
1994 - World Cup - USA vs. Brazil. I watched the game with my Dad and Scott (my Mom had to work). After we watched the game we saw 'Blow Away' in the theater (pretty bad movie). Had burgers for dinner, and Scott made guacamole.
1995 - Medora, North Dakota. We were in Chico again for another family reunion, and afterward we kept going east. We were suppose to see some fancy play with horses and whatnot in Medora. But they canceled that show b/c it was so rainy and wet - too dangerous for the horses. That was all fine with me, b/c I just really wanted to play Pinocle with Scott, Dad and my Grandma Dorothy (which is what we did).
1996 - Long Beach, WA. This is where Scott was working. It was crazy along the beach - people lighting fireworks off like crazy. There was smoke everywhere. And we saw 'Independence Day'.
1997 - Went to Tony Roma's with my Mom and Dad for some ribs. Then I went to my friend Bill Hope's house (with Teddy and Karl) to light off boat-loads of fireworks.
1998 - ???
1999 - What I remember about this birthday is that while I was working at Video Update, my high school friends came by to drop off my present. But I had to go out to the parking lot to receive it, because it wasn't very appropriate (i.e. - pornography. They gave me pornography).
2000 - I think this was my first birthday celebrated on The 'Juan (San Juan Island). We went to the parade in Friday Harbor, which was real cool b/c the UW marching band was there. Then we went to Roach Harbor for some Fish 'n Chips, look at all the expensive yachts, and watch the dounut eating contest. And I got a Gameboy Advanced.
2001 - I turn 21! But I celebrate by waiting in line at the ferry to go to the Island with Scott. My Dad said there was an 11:30Pm boat - there wasn't. The next one didn't come until 5:30am. So my brother did what any great older brother would do - he took me to an Indian casino and I watched him shoot craps!
2002 - Ketchum/Sun Valley/Hailey, Idaho. I got to spend my birthday with my Aunt Val and cousin Jim. It was real fun watching the fireworks at night.
2003 - My first birthday with Emily (sort of). My family went to the Island for the 4th, so Emily and celebrated before we left. We went to see 'Spellbound', and she gave me a baseball (that showed how to grip it differently to throw different pitches) and a brownie. Around this time we were laying our 800-square foot deck made of paver stones. My whole family worked our tail off laying that sucker - but we took the 4th off, because I've never worked on my birthday.
2004 - More parade and dounut-eating fun on the 'Juan. Emily came along. She got me an M's hat, tickets to a game, a bag, seat cushions, and a score card.
Dog park break.
2005 - Up on the 'Juan with Emily and my family. Emily got me a cool USA Men's National Team soccer hat, which I sported at the World Cup the next year in Germany.
2006 - Scott and I had just returned home from the World Cup. We celebrated up on the Island, during the day. Emily was in China with her family. I actually went back down to Seattle the night of the 4th b/c my first day of work at Amgen was on the 5th. Which meant I was able to go to Teddy's 4th of July party at his family's apartment, which is about 4 blocks from the Vine Maple.
2007 - First birthday as a married man. We all went up to the 'Juan to celebrate. And Emily's parents came up for the day as well.
2008 - First birthday in Alaska! Emily's family was visiting, and we drove to Homer that day. Hannah bought me a bottle of whiskey. I was a month removed from my jaw surgery, so when we stopped for lunch at Subway, all I could have was their clam chowder. (HINT: Do not get the clam chowder at Subway)
2009 - Emily, Banjo and I had a picnic up at the loop by the parking lot for Flattop. We went to a baseball game at night - and someone hit a grand slam in the first inning.
The family gathering 'round for a tasty birthday/4th of July dinner.
Now that's a 4th of July meal - corn on the cob, cole claw, potato salad, and pulled-pork sandwiches. Yumm........
Abe helped me blow out my candle (we had to improvise a bit). That key-lime pie sure was good.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Lord I was born a travelin' man
Abe was a travelin' fool in June. His trips included two nights down on the Kenai Peninsula with Teresa in Homer, Exit Glacier, and Seward. Then it was off for his first cross-country flight for a 10-day trip to Washington, D.C. There he visited the sights, met Molly, Jimmy & Mary, Lexie, and even went to Baltimore. Then it was back to Alaska for another road-trip - this time up to Fairbanks with the Lockes. That was a 4-night trip. All in all, Abe spent 15 of the 30 nights of June sleeping somewhere else besides his comfy crib. And at one point, he was spent 16 out of 22 nights away from his home (counting the last night of May down in Homer). I bet he traveled over 8,000 miles. What a travelin' little boy!
Taking in the great views in Seward. It was hot that day!
Beach combing in Homer.
Here Abe is in front of the White House.
Eating outside the yert at Chena River Hot Springs
Abe taking in the view at the top of Angel Rock hike in Chena River.
Taking in the great views in Seward. It was hot that day!
Beach combing in Homer.
Here Abe is in front of the White House.
Eating outside the yert at Chena River Hot Springs
Abe taking in the view at the top of Angel Rock hike in Chena River.
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