Seattle Tuba Guy

I can't imagine how many times I've seen and heard the Tuba Guy playing outside of Safeco during Mariners home games. He wasn't the best but you can count on him to be there playing for tips. I was sad to learn he passed away. There was a small mention in one of our local paper. He was a victim of a mugging; attacked, beaten and robbed by a few thugs. He was treated for his injuries but passed aways days later. I'm going to miss him as well as any sports fan in Seattle.

Election Day

Want to see how the world would vote if choosing between McCain and Obama?

According to the informal poll, McCain is favored in Albania, Niue, and Macedonia. I know this is not a scientific poll but it's hard to believe that more people from Antigua and Barbuda voted than those from Argentina. Either way, it's interesting to look at the results.

Swimming Class

We signed up Iris for swimming class. Today was her first lesson, and she seems to like it.

Happy Halloween

Jim and some of his co-workers masquerading as JP Morgan Chase workers.

Having fun eating a teething biscuit

She sure makes a mess of eating her biscuit.

Dancing Queen

Here are short medium & long videos of Iris having fun dancing. Look for Fred in a supporting role (literally) on video #3.

Eleven Months Old - such a big girl!

Happy eleven months old, baby Iris! Your mom & I can't believe how fast it's gone by or even remotely remember what our lives were without you. Even harder to believe is that it's only one month until you turn a year old! that's crazee!

Here are some photos I took today at day care. (The iphone doesn't have a flash, so they're a little blurry.)

Here's our happy girl having lunchIris mostly feeds herself now. Maybe she's a lefty, like Pepere & cousin Will?Iris is getting the hang of a sippy cup. Hmmm... maybe she's a righty after all, like everyone else in the family? Too soon to tell, I guess.Sorry folks--show's over--I need to go play

It's Over

Well the Sox pushed it to a seventh game with a 4-2 win last night but couldn't get it done tonight, losing 3-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays, and only getting 3 hits in the game. But it was a great run anyway--I'm much happier and prouder of my team than if they'd just lost on thursday night, when they were down 7-0 in the 7th and came roaring back to win 8-7. oh well--we'll get em next year, right?no, this is not me, it's Dustin Pedroia, who homered for the Sox only run tonight. Dustin offered some wisdom, via the Onion.

Out to brunch

For mommy's birthday. (we're a day early)

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!

The sox freaking won tonight! They trailed 7-0 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th & won 8-7 after scoring 4 in the 7th, 3 in the 8th and 1 in the 9th--UN-BE-FREAKING-LIEVABLE!! I called my dad right after it ended & woke him up--he went to sleep when they were down 7-0 in the 7th. He seemed kind of groggy but I think he was glad I called.
More about my dad - he was at the 9-1 Sox loss in ALCS game 3 on Monday, and of course went to the 19-8 rain delayed marathon loss with my brother & me a couple weeks ago, so if you have tickets to a game the rest of this year--don't invite him, he may be a jinx!!!

Now on to Tampa for game 6 & (we hope) game 7. Can't wait for Saturday!

UPDATE friday morning 9:45AM*****************************************
Sports Guy wrote a great piece about the comeback. (I especially like the line about Manny's playoffs OPS being almost as high as sports guy's freshman GPA--I can relate)
My experience watching the game was similar except instead of calling my dad to see if he was still watching (he was asleep remember), I was texting my friend Eddie to make sure he was. At one point Eddie told me that if he could have gotten the remote away from his dad, he would have changed it. Also a great running description of the game from the Boston Globe here.

Birthday Ideas

The Red Sox must have known that Irene's birthday is this week when they sent me this email. The hard part will be figuring which Red Sox gear to buy for her.In other news, the Sox face elimination tonight, down 3 games to 1 against Tampa Bay in the ALCS, so they need to win 3 in a row to make the World Series. They've come back from deficits like this twice in the past 5 years, so if there's any team that can do it, it's the Sox, but most Sox fans I've talked to are pretty pessimistic, since they got crushed the last 2 games, both at home. I'll be watching for sure--hopefully they won't be down 5-0 by the 3rd inning like in the last 2 games. GO SOX!

***************************UPDATE 9:45 PM Eastern time****************************
Sox were down 5-0 after 3 innings just like I was afraid of, and are still down 5-0 in the 5th. Tito just took Dice-K out of the game. So it looks like "wait til next year" time--this blows

Iris is finally crawling

We're excited that Iris started crawling last week. She's not that quick but it'll be a matter of time before she's zipping around on her hands and knees. Guess who's not too excited about Iris's progress.

Rainy night

Iris and I went for a walk the other night & got caught in the rain.

Here's how we looked when we got home

Weekend away at the San Juan Islands

It's hard to tell but it was a cold and wet weekend when we were up on San Juan Island 2 weeks ago. We had fun and Iris didn't seem to mind the rain and windy conditions. Somehow we missed seeing 60+ orca (killer) whales; we heard there were a few pods hanging out by a state park with a great viewpoint but we were there a couple hours before the whales showed up. The house pictured is the place we stayed for the weekend. The owners happen to be the parents of Laura Veirs, a local musician.

Red Sox update & more game photos

The Sox won their 1st round playoff series last night & will open the American League Championship Series on Friday at Tampa Bay. Should be an interesting series--the teams brawled earlier this season & there's lots of bad blood there.

In honor of their season continuing I thought I'd post a couple more pictures of my recent trip to Boston to watch the Sox-Yankees game on September 26. (Sox lost 19-8, in case you forgot)

Here's my brother Gary, my dad & me. Gary flew up from Texas while I was on my way from Seattle--we met up at the Manchester aiport and drove to my dad's house together.My friends Sean, Eddie and me. We realized that this month makes it 30 years that I've known these guys. They already knew each other when I met the 2 of them on the first day of 8th grade in first period French class with Madame Morea.Then we got to our seats at Fenway & fellow Georgetown Hoya and pub employee Raphael Bastian and her husband James were sitting right in front of us. Raph and James flew up from Miami to see the Sox (though they got to see 3 games), so they were as determined as we were to see baseball that night, since we were all flying home the next day. Since it poured all day most of the ticketholders that night weren't as stubborn as we were, and Fenway was more than half empty when the game started.

San Juans bound!

Yay!

Waiting for ferry to San Juan Island

Chase/WaMu Update

We had an all-employee conference call earlier today and learned that all WaMu employees will find out on December 1 which of 3 groups we all fall into:

1) getting laid off right away
2) have transition jobs (short term, 4 or 5 months probably)
3) full time jobs w/Chase.

Here's the story from the Seattle Times.

The feeling in my group from the few people I've discussed this with, is that our group will likely fall into the 2nd category--short term tranmsition jobs. This is all a guess on our part so we'll see what happens in December, I suppose.

I'll be fine--been laid off before and probably will again, so don't worry too much about me.
Here's a cute picture of Fred to cheer you all up

Sweet Camouflaged hat

Check out my brother's new hat. We're leaving. Sox down 16-5 after 7

And it's pouring again

Yankees lead 13-4 top 5th and the tarp is coming back onto the field