My Birthday

Is coming up on the 9th. I'll be 33. I'm like 7 years from 40. That's crazy. No big plans this year. I kind of want to do a family hike on my birthday, but with Finn almost 2 years old, I don't think it would be the best idea. It's been so long since Jinnah and I have been out and about in PNW nature. However, I'm not keen on schleping Finn's not-so-pint-sized-butt in the backpack either. That's just no way to celebrate a birthday as far as I'm concerned. So I don't know. Maybe we'll just do the Arboretum thing and put a lease on him or something.

UPDATE: Well it was a great birthday. We had an excellent dinner at the Tamarind Tree restaurant where they serve amazing provincial Vietnamese food. The atmosphere, service and food were all fantastic. It's really cheap too.

Then we went to Greenlake yesterday and had a great time walking around the lake with Finn. He had all sorts of fun checking out the ducks and geese that were everywhere. He also loved saying "hi" to all the dogs and babys that were there too. Here is a little clip of Finn playing at the lake.


Finn sings his version of Happy Birthday:

CSB - Your source for sick deals.

This guy finds the cheapest deals on the internets and posts them on his site.

Seattle's Best Foodie Blog

Seattle Bon Vivant is an excellent site for reviewing some of Seattle's best cuisines. The photos and descriptions are always a treat.

Bloglines is a great way to follow your favorite blogs

I follow a ton of different blogs and I only have so much time at work to do it in. Bloglines helps me see what sites have new entries before viewing so I only need to look at those, instead of the same old crap I've already read.

Did you know there is/was a nuclear reactor in Seattle?

Use the Internets to Stalk from Above

If you haven't already tried it, check out Microsoft's new local.live.com. Just type in an address and use the "Bird's Eye view" to scope things out from the perspective of a low flying airplane. Pretty cool stuff. They also have the satellite perspective as found with Google Earth too.

Bath time

I can't figure out how to wash Finn's hair without making him scream and try to climb out of the tub. I try to talk him through it and be as gentle as possible but every time he acts like I'm trying to drown him. I wet his hair and shampoo it and then pour the cup over his head from the back so it doesn't run down his face too much, but he still hates it. I used to just do it as quick as possible to limit his suffering, but that meant just pouring as much water over his head as quickly as possible to wash all the soap out. We even bought the special shampoo rinse cup thing, but now as soon as he sees it he wants out of the tub. I don't know what would help. Maybe we'll just hose him off out back. Does anyone have any advice?

Habeus Schmabeus

The radio show, This American Life broadcast an in depth report about the legal and constitutional shortfalls of Guantanamo Bay. Check it out here.

Our troops medical care

Check out this amazing 3 part series by the LA Times about the medical treatment provided to the injured troops in Iraq.

Cali Trip Recap

Jinnah, Finn and I went flew down to Cali 2 weekends ago to celebrate the birthday of our friend Amy Ramirez and to visit some other good friends. We had a blast! We flew into Oakland and rented a behemoth SUV and drove into the Mission where we met Erica and Ben for brunch . We had authentic Mexican style brunch and it was good. That's where Finn met Mr. Pickle. Mr. Pickle was across the street from the place we ate (name unknown). Then we drove to Santa Cruz and partied with Amy, Garrick and a bunch of other fun people including Amy's parents Alan and Patricia. They have one cool pad. Finn tried to terrorize Shasta their standard poodle, but he wasn't having it. The next day we drove to San Rafael and had dinner and stayed at Chris and Anto's place. Margaret was there too! Chris and Anto have a couple of extemely cute boys, Harper and Calder, that Finn LOVED hanging with. At one point they just started to morph into one big pile of cuteness. It that or they were re-enacting Wrestlemania. The next day we drove into downtown San Fran and had brunch with Amy and Uncle G at Cafe De La Presse. Service was poor but the food and company made up for it. San Fran is such an awesome city. Then we went to H&M which is a very cool place for clothes. Too bad Seattle doesn't have one yet, but we were tipped off by a sales person that we should have one here in a couple of years. Anyway it was a great trip and we miss our friends so much more after seeing them.

Uncle Jay's visit to Seattle

We had a great time when Jinnah's brother Jay visited from Indiana last Saturday. His son Mike, who's stationed at Ft. Lewis came up too. Finn and Mike are best buds, so Finn was really happy to see his cousin again. Finn really took to uncle Jay too. They had that Pinto connection. We went to the new Mioposto for an early lunch and had dinner at our place later in the day. It was a good time. Jay has a sweet Ipod loaded with all sorts of Pixar shorts and complete seasons of Monk, that Finn enjoyed. So far the only shows he gets to watch are Little Einsteins, Charlie and Lola, Clifford, Jakers and Sesame Street. Now Jinnah and I have the Ipod bug and it's the new thing we got to have. And by "we" I mean me.