While @jetblue may have lost a customer (Flash-based online check-in and leaving a single individual to handle the throng of bag checkers at Logan), the trip was speedy, sleepy and comfortable. Glad I worked from home and had a chance to hang with the fam a bit longer.

Great drive into the city from the airport and I took a nostalgic tour of it while no one else was on the road as well.

Really hoping I get to see all the people and places I have designs on seeing this week.

At this time Monday evening I shall be on a plane bound for Seattle and cherishing the sight of the greater Boston area quickly fading into a tiny speck on the horizon. While I will really miss the fam, I haven't seen the majority of my Seattle-mates in over a year (and Twitter is hardly a replacement) . The trip is for work, but I hope to get to a MHC mid-week service, hit Monsoon at least once, collapse from a dim sum lunch coma, hop on a ferry and catch up with some of the best people on the planet at BigE's. If I manage to take some time off on Friday (as I've planned for), I also hope to swing by as many places I can to help re-etch them in my pattern buffers.

I know the area has changed quite a bit in the last year, mostly due to the economy. Even my home campus - MHC Lake City - is no more. Still, I suspect I'll have more "Movie Script Ending" moments of nostalgia than not.

It may be due to all the moving around and significant life-issues in the past four years, but I keep musing over how I don't recall things being this dynamic when I was growing up. Perhaps one of the benefits of youth is the immunity to the effects of constant, significant change.

Full set

The house is now claimed on Zillow.

1 Timothy 1:15-17

"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever."

No rhyme (not even an attempt at a Seussian muse...I promise!)

The snow globe is a good picture of what it has been like here since last week.

It's 22:53 as I begin typing and we started the day with...more snow (as the hiking pictures should have indicated).

For a change, we had all the presents (the trip to Florida is the major present for Tori & Jarrod, so their share is a bit slim) wrapped before 22:00 and I even have the 29 pound turkey seasoned, dressed and ready for the seven hour roasting session tomorrow. At the moment, two pumpkin pies are in the oven awaiting retrieval in ~50 minutes and a layer of ganache. (Update: pie FAIL..maybe...we'll see how they taste. meh)

Mary and Tori finished trimming the artificial tree earlier today and we surprised mom with as traditional of a Christmas Eve supper as I could let myself impress upon the children (it's mostly fish, so not exactly in anyone's "top ten" dinner menu).

Being snowbound, we wound up watching a service from Northland Church on the suggestion of daughter #1, Liz (Happy Birthday, btw!). It was a very lavish production but had a good message. I was a bit skeptical of it at first given that it started with a Charlie Brown song, but it turned out well (LED candles...meh).

FedEx managed to get here! (UPS still has not delivered Mary's presents or called me back as they said they would), so we trekked to the Wygle's on foot to ensure Eve received the remainder of her gift. A good four mile walk (we went back the long way and stopped to try to find stamps for Tori).

I miss friends and family back east. I miss Bethlehem at Christmastime. I miss celebrating the Moravian Lovefeast at the small church in our old-old neighborhood in town. At the same time, I am very thankful for new friends and church family. It's been a rough year (still kinda rough in many, many ways, actually) but blessings abound. It is a welcome opportunity to set aside everything to celebrate the birth of our Saviour tomorrow. I pray you manage to find the time to be still and know who He is amid the toil and chaos that will no doubt ensue at most of the households who end up reading this.

In closing, you really need to pick this up: How Many Kings by downhere. $0.99, no DRM and a great addition to your Christmas collection. (Lyrics at the end of the post.)

Merry Christmas!

(I'm sure we'll be posting pix tomorrow and potentially "uStream"ing presents, dinner or dessert, so keep watching the blog, Twitter or Facebook :-)

---

"How Many Kings" – downhere

Follow the star to a place unexpected
Would you believe after all we’ve projected
A child in a manger

Lowly and small, the weakest of all
Unlikeliest hero, wrapped in his mothers shawl
Just a child
Is this who we’ve waited for?

Cause how many kings, stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
How many gods have poured out their hearts
to romance a world that has torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

Bringing our gifts for the newborn savior
All that we have whether costly or meek
Because we believe
Gold for his honor and frankincense for his pleasure
And myrrh for the cross he’ll suffer
Do you believe, is this who we’ve waited for?
It’s who we’ve waited for

How many kings, stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
How many Gods have poured out their hearts
to romance a world that has torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?
Only one did that for me

All for me
All for you
All for me
All for you

Mary was gracious enough to let me burn a day off work to get in a long ride. I knew Friday was going to be gorgeous and we needed to do other stuff for Tori's bday anyway, so it worked out pretty well all 'round.

This is one of my favorite long rides in the greater Seattle area, partly because it involves crossing the Sound. I modified the route from the Seattle Bike Tours folks as this one is easier to follow, was over fresh asphalt that was very conducive to cranking on the road bike and also kicked it to a full 50 miles.

Ascent says I did 53.3 miles with a total climb of 2483 feet and an average speed of 14.4 mph. Here's the summary data and the elevation chart for the ride:

The full Flickr set of snaps I took along the way is available for viewing, but be warned they are iPhone camera phone pix, so the quality is "meh".

I've posted the GPX and KML files for anyone's use (despite my pathetic pace & cadence stats). KML is really cool since Google Maps and Google Earth both import it well (though Ascent has a feature to do the import and put Google Earth into "fly-by" mode automagically).

I am riding in the Redmond "Tour de Cure" for Diabetes. The event is in May and there are more details on my sponsorship page. If you're a Seattleite and would like to ride with someone, I chose the 45-mile route. Since I'm doing the STP in July, I didn't want to risk a longer ride and potential injury that close to 200-mile ride.

If I had been working back @ my previous big company (J&J) they have a national team. I think that would have been kinda fun, but I'm going to see if my current big company (Safeco) is interested in having a team presence at any of the national cycling-charity events. Red, black & white would make for a sweet jersey!

Again, please consider sponsoring me or joining me for the ride (or both!).

Great weekend. Took the kids over to Kingston on the ferry then drove down to Bainbridge and headed for Fay Bainbridge State Park. Walked on the beach for quite a while (pics coming soon) and let the kids have at the plethora of sea shells. They found a whole scallop or oyster (haven't opened it yet) and an intact starfish; they were quite thrilled.

I managed to get a decent & speedy solo bike ride in Sat and a relaxed one in on Sunday (with Ian in tow). Made an *awesome* chicken & spinach curry which we'll be eating through Tuesday at this rate (I always make too much).

I also managed to get some EVE time in and need to update the corp web site (official charter and new home base).

We got to hear some of "On The Media" tonight (a rare treat these days) and I was very disappointed. Will there be any media channel that doesn't deliberately promote Obama in some way, shape for form? I expected more out of a media watchdog organization. Nader's announcement should make things interesting for a while. Lest we forget, there's still time for martial law to be declared...even after elections are held. Sagging economy. Protracted overseas engagement. Cold war ruminations in the former Soviet Union and China...Pakistan in turmoil. India rising. Lots of kindling for fear.

Now continuing to enjoy a Düvel over the course of the rest of the evening (which may include more EVE) and trying not to anticipate the busy week ahead.

Mary & I did one of the monthly event dinners (part of the week-of-birthdays for her) at Monsoon last night and had a wonderful time. Eric did an amazing job giving us all a taste of Vietnamese new year with the fusion twists the restaurant is famous for.

We weren't expecting it to be family-style, but that only added to the collective enjoyment and we were lucky enough to meet the owners of Yama Japanese Restaurant and Red House Beer & Wine Shoope, both local eateries that we now are anxious to sample.

Here's what you missed last night:

• grilled flank steak with green scallions and vermicelli noodles
• fisherman's soup with morning glory greens
• five spice washington chicken "roti"
• braised leek and asian eggplant salad with crispy tofu paper
• braised baby back ribs with coconut juice and longevity egg
• kurabuta pork belly with pickled cucumber and banh bo
• mung bean sweet soup with tapioca

While you will hear reports of dismal northwest weather in the winter, we manage to get some gorgeous days fairly regularly. I had an opportunity to see something similar to this shot of the Olympic Mountains in person this morning and the video pales in comparison to the real thing, but will be a welcome reminder when the grey winter weather overtakes our fair city.



Via The West Seattle Blog

Follow the pix to the flickr set of the first and our first snowfall in Brier (Seattle) WA...

Follow the pix to some Flickr sets of Ian & Jarrod: