meeting the miceli’s June 10, 2009
Posted by saltcastings in Family, Friends.Tags: Seattle Children's Theater
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While Dawn was off baking herself in the Palm Desert sun, the boys and I met Pat, Carrie, Max, Sophia and Rocco at the Seattle Children’s Theater for I Was A Rat. Show was ok but the kids really had a great time and it was fantastic catching up with Pat and Carrie. What a beautiful family!
Jack, Rocco, Sophia, Max and Noah
back in the saddle June 10, 2009
Posted by saltcastings in Family, Fishing.Tags: Leadership Tomorrow, Picnic Point, sea run cutthroat
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I know. Been a while. Whatever.
The boys started swimming for Innis Arden a few weeks ago and love it. The coaches are great and practice runs from 7-7.40 weeknights — a great way to end the day. They’re still not sure if they want to swim in the meets, but I think once they see one and all the excitement, they’ll be right there in the blocks with the rest of them.
Can hardly wait for the salmon to come back. The Game Dept. estimates there will be north of 5 million pinks this year through the Sound. I caught a dandy sea run cutthroat the other day at Picnic Point. Around 16 inches or so and beautiful. No sea lice at all. Picked him up on a simple white and brown baitfish pattern.
Heading to fish the Deschutes at the end of July. Yeah, baby.
Lucy started walking a few weeks ago. Still prefers crawling — well, being carried, actually — but seems to be stretching her legs more every day. Amazing how little she still is. 16 months old on Saturday and maybe 19lbs?
Leadership Tomorrow is almost a wrap. We’re presenting our project to our client, Seattle Education Access, next Tuesday and to the class on Thursday at our last challenge day. Graduation is on the 23rd at Woodland Park Zoo. Really glad I did this, but man, was it a lot of work. Love the people.
Pandora February 11, 2009
Posted by saltcastings in All-purpose.Tags: internet radio, pandora
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Props to my friend Eric Mattson – entrepreneur, market research guru and now surfer – for turning me on to Pandora Internet Radio. Just type in an artist or song, and the site builds you a free, streaming playlist of related music. You can also upgrade and pay for advanced features. Pretty darn cool.
Noah’s 6th February 10, 2009
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Noah’s sixth birthday was a complete blowout. Dawn invited his entire kindergarten class. 20+ kids, a bouncy house in the driveway and enough cake and ice cream to hop up the entire state. He was over the moon. We were exhausted. Among the gifts was the modern-day equivalent of a sea monkeys kit, a giant foam frisbie thing and a way cool magic kit. Oh, and a Red Rider BB gun. Yeah.
Two birthdays down, two more to go. I can hardly wait for March.
24 random things about me February 10, 2009
Posted by saltcastings in All-purpose, Family, Fishing, Friends, GS.add a comment
Copied from my FB page.
- I eat peanut butter almost every day and once bet a co-worker $50 I could eat a pint of Adams in one sitting. I would have done it if I hadn’t looked at the fat content and worried if my heart could take it.
- My oldest son, Jack is an amazing athlete and will be twice the soccer player I ever was.
- My youngest son, Noah, will invent something that will change history.
- My daughter, Lucy, will make me bald.
- I would fly fish every day if it would pay the mortgage.
- Dawn and I skied at White Pass for our second date. In the afternoon we hiked up a hill and threw snowballs at people going by and laughed until our sides hurt. I knew at that point she was the girl for me.
- My favorite TV show of all time is 60 minutes.
- There is nothing like the sight and sound of a ringneck pheasant exploding out of tall grass.
- I believe good people find each other.
- If money wasn’t an option, I’d have five bikes in my garage right now: silver ‘02 BMW GSA, ‘01 Ducati 996R, late-90’s Ducati Monster, ‘66 Ducati Mach 1 and an MV Agusta F4.
- My wife is the strongest person I will ever meet.
- When I was 12 I jumped off a 20+ foot cliff trying to catch a tree to impress my friends. I missed the trunk and caught my leg on the last branch. My head swung past a rock that probably would have killed me. I worry daily about the cliffs my kids will face.
- I wouldn’t be half the person I am today if I had not spent as much time with my grandmother as I did.
- I subscribe the theory that one can never have too many fly rods. Or shotguns.
- I have zero time/interest in watching sports on TV, so for years I’ve watched Sports Center highlights to keep up with my peers at the water cooler. Figure I’ve saved years of my life and they are none the wiser. The only exception to this is the World Cup.
- I can’t wait to get a dog.
- The anthems of my youth can be found in the lyrics of Minor Threat, The Cult and Public Enemy.
- I only wear shoes when I absolutely have to. Otherwise its flip flops.
- I love to cook, especially things that come with a chance to learn about another place, time or culture.
- I have been overserved in six of the top ten U.S. cities.
- You can find a picture of Tiger Woods and me in a 2-page Accenture ad in the January-February 2009 issue of the Economist.
- I once hauled a brand new surfboard all the way to Fiji and never put it in the water. There were no waves that week anywhere in the islands. Not even Cloudbreak.
- I love to win, learn from getting beat, and hate to lose.
- I’ve managed to catch crabs three times in the past three years. Dungeness, that is.
planned obsolescence January 8, 2009
Posted by saltcastings in All-purpose.Tags: GE front load washing machine, obsolescence, washing machine stabilizer, WSXH208A
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Our three-year-old GE washing machine [WSXH208A] went kaput this week. Well, not totally. When I cracked the case I quickly saw both stabilizers had snapped. The stabilizers are built just like a shock on a car to hold the drum in place while it spins. Fortunately both were easy to get at so I figured an easy repair. Called two places trying to track down parts and both responded the same way:
“Yep, about three years, that’s when these things typically break.”
If Rancho can make a shock for a truck that lasts for nearly 100k miles, why the heck are companies like GE using parts that are pretty much “scheduled” to break just outside the warranty timeline? The answer, it turns out, came to me from a GE customer service rep today.
After installing the replacement shocks last night, I was still having a problem getting the drum to rotate, so I called the company today to talk to someone about troubleshooting. Turns out I can order parts directly from the company, but if you have any sort of technical or operational question, they will only help arrange a service call to your home via their network of local contractors. The rep said they had no staff and no knowledge base to respond to technical inquiries of any sort. So if you have a question about their product, you have to pay them for the answer. Planned obsolescence. Lovely business model. For them.
The dryer that we bought at the same time has also been nothing but a headache. The possibility of me buying future GE appliances = zero.
Goodbye, 2008 January 4, 2009
Posted by saltcastings in Family.add a comment
I’ve been putting this one off for weeks now. Just not sure how best to sum up the year, I guess.
In the positive column, and in the simplest terms possible, I’ve still got my wife, she’s healthy again and the four of us got Lucy. We’ve been talking a lot lately about this time last year — the hospital, the doctors, the surgeries — how surreal it all seems now. Dawn found some old notes yesterday in her planner as she was transitioning her her new 2009 book that brought back some of the specifics. I still don’t know how she did it. I would have thrown in the towel weeks before. But her strength brought more joy to our lives than I could have ever imagined. The months between then and now have been some of the richest of my life. They’ve also been among the most challenging. If you’ve ever transitioned from man-to-man coverage to a zone defense you know what I’m talking about. What little hair I have left I’m sure will continue to recede in 15 equal increments so that I will be completely bald on Lucy’s 16th birthday, if not sooner.
This year Jack proved to be a proud, yet distracted second grader. Noah embraced Kindergarten with equal parts curiosity and skepticism. I think he’s actually having more fun than he lets on, but that’s Noah. February is just around the corner and my God, how are we going to pull off four birthdays in one month?
Don and Becky continue to be a huge and important part of our lives. I can’t describe the gratitude I have for their help this year.
2008 was also filled with more loss than I ever thought possible. Nana, Shawn, an old friend from West 30th in Kennewick. And Carol. I’ll never forget that call from Dawn, just days after Nana’s funeral. I said if anyone can beat the odds, it’s Carol. She wasn’t going to give up on her family and they sure as hell didn’t give up on her. Scott, Darla, Heath, Shawn, Jim, Judy – day in, day out, right there by her side. And she did. And she is.
I think it was Wendy who first spoke of the timing of Lucy’s birth and how it happened to coincide with Nana’s last visit to the hospital. Dawn and Nana happened to be a few floors apart for about three days, I think. At first I couldn’t believe my luck — the two most important people to me in the world, both in the same hospital at the same time. But once Lucy arrived it was obvious it had nothing to do with luck. You can see it in her personality today, the same sparkle in her eyes, the same laugh, the same sweet smile.
All part of Nana’s plan. I miss you so much.
What a year it was.
christmas treed December 7, 2008
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We picked up a permits from the ranger station in North Bend today and headed up to the area around Denny Creek to harvest trees with Uncle 
Beefer, Erin, Kate, Don and Becky. The open area was along FSR 5510. We drove up about 3 miles, just above where the snow line would be if there was any this year. I know this because the rain turned to hail and then to snowflakes the size of golf balls just as we parked. The wind howled and we all got soaked. Dawn paraded LuLu around in a puffy pink one-piece getup – complete with idot mittens – in the backpack. Once the trees were loaded up we piled into Don’s van for hot chocolate and ham sandwiches. Ho Ham Ho.
the boys, someday December 1, 2008
Posted by saltcastings in All-purpose.Tags: justice, simian mobile disco
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I could see the boys doing this sort of thing someday. Just hope it’s not me who takes the fall…
Justice v. Simian Mobile Disco: We Are Your Friends
