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November 30, 2001

House closed and a students wisdom

Well the house closed?!? Is that proper? The deal went through?? Whatever happened, today we got keys to a little house in Greenwood. Yesterday we signed about 50 pages worth of documents at the escrow business. Today we are homeowners. Yipee!
In other news, Robyn just got through telling the staff and students of Wedgwood Elementary that she is pregnant. The interest and comments from the kids is quite a kick. One boy, a second grader, came up to her and told her that when she has to go to the hospital to "be brave, cause it really hurts." Other kids wonder if the baby is growing okay. One kid stated that when a baby comes out it is still connected to your belly button and the doctor has to cut the connection. A little boy told her that when he came out he was all bloody. It is funny because some of these kids are only 5 years old. Some of the girls got to wondering a bit much, "...where does the baby come out from, Mrs. C?" It is so cute to hear all their innocent curiosities and concerns...
be brave...
When she told me that tonight about how the boy said it "really hurts" I thought just for a second that the beautiful face so calmly and cheerfully talking to me would probably be fatigued, in pain and yelling at me during delivery in just about 6 months. Wow. I don't know if I am ready!

Posted by clappstar at 11:24 PM | Comments (1)

November 28, 2001

Database Structured Query Language

Why am I wasting my time learning how to talk to a database?? I'm not sure, but here is a really good online tutorial that can teach the basics of SQL in about ten minutes!

Posted by clappstar at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2001

Beautiful Robyn is 26

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
We went bowling.

Posted by clappstar at 10:29 AM | Comments (3)

November 23, 2001

Day after Thanksgiving - Buy Nothing Day

I forgot to post this earlier, but today is a good day to relax after a grand holiday, be content and thankful, and BUY NOTHING. Today is international Buy Nothing Day, a fitting tribute to the previous day, Thanksgiving, where we are to be thankful for what we have. It seems quite right to follow that day enjoying all that one has and nothing more.

Posted by clappstar at 12:14 PM | Comments (2)

November 21, 2001

Pathetic cats - they never stop

The rainy days are too much for the lazy felines we so graciously accomodate.

Patheticats2

Posted by clappstar at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

Simply beautiful - Amelie

We saw the movie Amelie tonight at the Egyptian off Broadway. Excellent. It has everything I have wanted to see in a movie lately: nostalgia, childhood memories, eccentrics, simple life, romance, comedy, cleverness - joy. You must go see it. You will love it. The audience clapped!

Update*2005/02*
We just rented it on NetFlix and loved it again.

Posted by clappstar at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

Half day at work

The half day at work left the lab quite empty and some time to see how colorful and cool the place really is.

My shelf of reagents especially seemed intricate and colorful.

Posted by clappstar at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2001

Sista's bday

Jenn's bday is today! Happy Birthday, sis.

Posted by clappstar at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

Meteor shower

Living in the city darkness has a relative measure. Dark in the city is really light compared to the definition of dark. I know this because last night I tried to find somewhere in Seattle that was dark. This, I discovered, was nearly impossible. Every street on Queen Anne has either street lights or house lights that are way bright. Schoolyards I thought would be dark, but they light up the entrances with flood lights. Even along the southwest drive that overlooks Elliott Bay these funny globe lights are spaced every twenty feet. I finally went to Queen Anne Bowl and found darkness. There was still the street lights and a couple flood lights nearby but you could actually allow your eyes to adjust and focus on the stars.
Why was I searching for darkness? Only to better see the light...the light of the Leonid Storm. It was a treat. I have seen better views of the night sky, while hiking or vacationing at Lake Chelan - places that don't have a lot of light pollution and places it is peaceful and safe to lie on your back for hours watching the stars. However, I have never seen the intensity and quantity of meteors that I saw last night. There were a couple that burned streaks in the sky that lasted 2 seconds. There were others that felt close, streaking from one side of the sky to the other with a bright flash. I had heard conflicting reports that said to look at the Southeast sky and another that said the northeast sky. I think I saw most of them straight above me, maybe a bit south. I think I saw a hundred or so. It was cold and I didn't stay out long. I spent most of my time between 1:45 and 3:00 am looking for a good place to get a view. Very much worth it. Now I am tired.

Posted by clappstar at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2001

Forget the snow

I was all excited about skiing this winter until I read today in the Seattle Times what this year's fees are at the local ski areas. Whistler is just about the same price if you account for the currency change and is at least a few times better overall than any local place. Oh well, the new house will need some work. I guess I'll be skiing on over to Home Depot.

Posted by clappstar at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)

Change my style

Go ahead, click on the three style options to the right and change my style. Whaddya think about that? A little Javascript, some alternative stylesheets and *poof* a complete new look to the site. Thanks to A List Apart for tutorial and Javascript. It is a super easy install and I highly recommend it, simply because web sites are ultimately about the content. The layout is infinitely variable and should not be the main reason for practical web development. Sure, some sights exist to show style and what layout is possible. These aesthetic sights are great. I'm just saying develop the sight navigation, content, interactivity, content management and then change the style on the fly.

Posted by clappstar at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2001

Thanks for the house...I mean *home*

Thanks to Stacie Youngblood, of Ballard Windermere, we are set to move into our new home in the beginning of December. The story is a short complex one, but here is the quick version:
We were recommended to Stacie through Robyn's friend's sister. We had an hour and a half meeting with her on a Thursday night in which she outlined the service she provides as a real estate agent. She let us know what we could expect and interviewed us about our goals and what we were looking for in a house. She is very personable and we quite enjoyed our meeting. Literally a few days later she gave us advanced details about a house that had just got on the market. She said it was a close match for what we sought...so we went and looked that night. We really liked it and she contacted the seller agent. A few initial offers didn't work out so she helped us accelerate a loan pre-approval through QPoint Mortgage (loan officer Kathryn Keller) and early Saturday morning we faxed an offer that was accepted before noon. *Yikes*
The inspection the following Tuesday went great and all of a sudden we can move in the first week of December!! We had a great experience and really have enjoyed the relationship with Stacie. If you are looking for a house in Seattle we totally recommend Stacie!

Posted by clappstar at 02:05 PM | Comments (1)

Left Hand Smoke

Shane's Brother's Band (SBB), better known now as Left Hand Smoke is playing a Seattle show soon. Here are the details:
Date: Saturday, Nov 24th
Venue: THE TRACTOR
Address: 5213 Ballard Ave
Phone: (206) 789-3599
With: Chickenhead (opening)
Notes: Special Thanksgiving Weekend Show. Tractor shows have sold out, so be
sure to buy advance tickets: www.ticketweb.com or 800 965-4827.
Highly recommended by *clappstar*

Posted by clappstar at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2001

Birthday, old car, big cat and more

We went to a raging birthday party in Gig Harbor at one of Robyn's childhood friend's sister's house. It was her friend's sister's husband, which makes him my wife's friend's sister's husband. He is also real cool, real crazy and has the largest, coolest fire-pit for bonfires I have ever seen.

They have a cool business, Kettlecornmachine.com - I love kettle corn!
Saturday we got going with some breakfast and coffee in downtown Gig Harbor, then we went to Robyn's parent's house in Tacoma. Her dad worked (closely guarded by the dogs) on the old Subaru fixing problems caused by mechanic's poor workmanship in the past.

Be careful when you get your car serviced! One time the Subaru was leaking oil in a major way and so he came up to check it out. Turns out the guy who changed the oil only a couple days before had failed to screw in the oil drain screw. He saved the engine for us that time and this time had to fix a leaky connection that only a few months ago was worked on at a shop. Can't they just do it right the first time?
Anyhow, it turned out well because the problem with the car kept us around through the afternoon so we could see her dad's brother and we all ended up playing a new game of dominoes that was quite fun. Here is a picture of the ever elusive family cat, Garfield, the biggest, toughest cat I have ever seen.

Posted by clappstar at 12:47 AM | Comments (1)

November 09, 2001

Publishing a database to the web

I gotta learn how to do this...the new Mac OS X is basically Unix. I upgraded the old revB iMac 233mHz to 256MB RAM and 40GB HD and installed Mac OS X on the first partition (7GB) and Mac OS 9.2 on the second partition (~20GB).
I am beginning to investigate all that is available with Mac OS X. For one it comes all ready to be a web server. Apache web server is preinstalled, as is Perl. It comes ready for PHP and MySQL. Basically it is a fully functional web developer work station. Now I just gotta learn how to do this stuff! Here is a pretty cool PHP/MySQL tutorial I am working on.

Posted by clappstar at 11:57 AM | Comments (1)

A test drive of my sister's TV

Went over to watch Friends and Will & Grace at my sister's place in Madison Park. She has a cool little apartment right near the water only a couple minutes walk to the Madison Park Bakery. Had fun with her, but boy am I glad I don't watch those shows regularily because they are really total trash. Okay...so I still like Chandler and think Joey is funny, but Will & Grace should be called Jack & Karen, because they are the only funny ones on the show.
My sister is working at Barrier Audi selling the new sleek, sporty S4 Avant. Go take a test drive.

Posted by clappstar at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2001

House inspection - Passed with honors!

Here is a the house again.

We had the inspection done today and everything checked out quite well. Robyn's dad came by to lend his expertise on the details the inspector mentioned. The house is near 97th and Palatine Ave.

Posted by clappstar at 05:38 PM | Comments (4)

November 04, 2001

Rainy day, lazy day

What do you do on a lazy Sunday afternoon when it is raining? This looks like a good way to pass the time - patheticats.

Posted by clappstar at 07:43 PM | Comments (2)

I think...

We just bought a house!?!??

Posted by clappstar at 02:43 PM | Comments (2)

November 02, 2001

In the spotlight

Here is a recent picture of us from a computer kiosk in a women's razor exhibit at the Puyallup fair.

Posted by clappstar at 02:23 PM | Comments (1)