Watson said...

At Greenlake Bar and Grill. Melissa told the kids that soda was complementary with the kids' meal.
Watson to the waiter:"I want a free soda at no cost."

Watson said...

We were talking about birthdays.

Watson: "And for my birthday, we are going to *kill Papi*."

Me: "Aber dann bin ich ja tot."

Watson: "Well no, we are not going to kill him, we're just going to shoot him with a bee bee gun."

He was all cheerful and thought this was really nice and a good idea!

Watson said...

Watson: "Ja, papa, aber war der ein Gutewicht in dem Film?"

Winter for Real!

So it looks like we got hit by a real storm and stuff. It's an inverted weather pattern they say. What that means is that -20F temperatures were blown from the north east into the Puget Sound area. It never gets this cold usually, but it did this year.

So what can one do in this kind of weather except take some time off, relax, enjoy the snow, sled, and drink some Gluehwein? Well not much else, but it's not like that's a short list of things to do anyway.
Check out the pics below, you're bound not to have seen anything like this. Well maybe Rico there in Munich, but defintely not Pueppi hanging out in Miami Beach galavanting with Johannes in 80 degree weather.





The first bout of snow was not so intense. Just a few flurries really but that's a lot for Seattle.







On our way back from sledding, though there wasn't much snow.







Two days later the bis snow hit.







Look at the house! totally snowed in. The heater is humming away and given our single pane windows from 1928, no insulation and giant living space, I am not looking forward to the bill.







There is also a neighborhood church! Granted not easy to tell from these pictures but throughout the whole neighborhood strolling exercise - by the way Watson was walking so slowly through the snow, stopping at every step to pick up snow and throw it at me, but I digress - I had a distinct feeling of being in a Bavarian village.









Everyone at the sledding hill.







Once again our place all snowed in.




And finally I strapped on the snowboard to go down a side street. Unfortunately I didn't get enough speed for a 360 -



Cool!

Thanksgiving 2008

This year for Thanksgiving we went back to good old Kansas City, KS. Melissa's family live there for a large part. We stayed with her awesome Uncle Jerry and Connie, who know exactly what things to stuff a house with to keep kids and guys entertained. How about a movie theater in the basement with reclining seats that have cupholders? That's the mancation part. Then there is the PS 2 and the WII, which is the kids part.

We also played soccer and football outside, with the German showing up the Americans on both ends (Justin, Mark - that's you). I do have to say Justin has gotten so big now, he is a real man. I can't believe it the first time I saw hime he was 6, and playing with newborn Milo! Both him and Maddie have turned into such great kids.

And while we were playing soccer and stuff there was a news caster interviewing Jerry. They asked what he thought about opening up the park for hunting all the deer that need to be gotten rid of? His answer: allow folks with bows and arrows to shoot them. Great!

We also visited Melissa's grandma, the kids' greatgrandma. We went to Larry, KS, the Freestate brewery which was as awesome as ever, checked out some of the houses we all lived in and such.

Melissa's dad also showed us around some parts of Lawrence, especially the house where they lived when Melissa was born! Great to take that trip down memory lane!

The kids in front of the Kansas Union.

The house I lived in with Seb and Xavi during grad school. The frontporch is a new feature.

The kids playing rockband.

The cutting of the Turducken. No bones - you slice it like bread!

More turducken cutting.
All wrapped up. It was now 1:30 am.

The duck wrapped up with the chicken inside of it. ca. 1:00 am.
The chicken all wrapped up with stuffing in it. The duck is partially pulled over the right side to measure the suit for fit.

All of the animals on top of each other with stuffing between the layers. Roughly 12:30 am.
Deboning the duck around 7pm.

deboning the chicken. I started at 4pm, it would take all night to debone, brine, wrap up and slow cook at 225 degrees.

Herbst in Seattle... immer noch!

Der Herbst dieses Jahr ist ausnahmslos schoen. Wie haben immernoch 17-20 grad an einigen Tagen. Die Sonne kommt immer mal wieder raus. Und das auch am Wochenende! Einige von den Baeumen in meinem Garten haben noch immer gruner Blaetter.


Beim Pumpkin Patch. Fuer Halloween hatten wir drei sehr schoen gemachte Fratzen! Halloween war dieses Jahr eh der Hammer. Wir waren schon eine Stunde unterwegs und die Kids wurden muede. dann sind wir noch eine Stunde weiter. Und dann noch eine halbe. Ihre Tueten waren bis zum Rand gefuellt mit Candy. So viel, dass sie sogar mit mir geteilt haben.




Playdate gestern mit Brunch bei uns. Weisswurst, Bierwurst, Bierschinken, Salami, Laugensemmeln.

Fall fixie pics

So I took these pics for a project I am doing at work. How to become a liberal west coast hipster. I'll post the project once it's done, in the meantime enjoy some of the pics... I have them in 12 MP as well if you want.