Tag - you're it: Thom Hartmann speaks

Last night we "escaped" the heat by heading to the Bagdad Theater to see Thom Hartmann speak about his new book, Threshold: the crisis of Western Culture. We haven't read it yet, though Mike did brave the line to buy the autographed copy, but I'm excited about it. Thom shared some stories and insights from the book that were actually new to me. I feel that so often I listen to people speak of politics, culture, society - the general state of the world - and they say the same thing, and it's always depressing. While not particularly uplifting, this lecture did leave us both thinking.

Salad, Mojitos, Beer & Friends

Last night Jessica and Bobby came over for dinner in our shaded backyard (still 85 degrees in the shade, though). They brought a "green" salad filled with all sorts of wonderful things, including figs and nasturiums. I searched for recipes to utilize ingredients from our garden, and made the following.

Green Bean & Cherry Tomato Salad, adapted from Alice Waters, via the Smitten Kitchen

Viennese Cucumber Salad, adapted from Gourmet via the Smitten Kitchen

Good ol' pickled carrots, mentioned earlier. Also adapted from Gourmet, via the Smitten Kitchen.

And for dessert? Ninkasi IPA and Banana-Coconut muffins, of course.

Pickled Carrots

Tiny carrots from our garden turned into wonderful and tangy pickled carrots. The Smitten Kitchen recipe uses carrot sticks, but our baby carrots were already the right size.
I knew there was a reason we planted them so close together...

Teeny Tiny Watermelons

Woof

On the way back from the beach Vanessa and Aidan decided to see what it felt like to be dogs. They got dry tongues.

Surf's Up: Mike celebrates another year

Last week we celebrated Mike's birthday in grand style. Playing hooky on Friday we headed to the beach, lucky to bring Sara & Bobby, Susanna, Aidan & Vanessa along.

While a gorgeous day, the waves were virtually non-existent, and Mike was the only one to catch any (he usually is, though).

While unable to catch many waves, the kids did spend plenty of time in the water, until their shivering forced them onto the beach. To warm up, they crawled inside the board bags.

Then they took to the dunes with Uncle Bobby, and made it to the top with the promise of running down the dune as encouragement.

Stanford University

Last week Elizabeth and I took a trip to the Stanford University Medical School for work. While it was a quick trip, we did allow a little extra time to check out the rest of the campus. Over two very hot days we traipsed across campus checking out the wonderful architectural features and artwork. We stayed at Dinah's Garden Hotel, which I can recommend, and had an amazing Greek dinner at Evvia Estiatoria, also highly recommended.

Hotel pool - no time to use it, but it certainly looked nice.

The Start: Seattle To Portland - 200 miles on a bike

Mike and Papa started the ride at Papa's house on the Kitsap Peninsula in order to avoid the crowds at the UW start line. Only a mile or two longer, but far prettier (judged to be the best part of the ride).

They're off!


Scratch that - flat tire in the driveway


On the road again - I'm back to bed

Day One: Seattle to Portland - 100 miles more to go

While Papa and Mike were pedaling South, I leisurely took my time driving there (with a quick stop at Sandy Lew in Seattle). When I arrived I was quick to set up our tents, as space was quickly dwindling, and then grabbed a seat at the mid-point finish line to watch all the bikers come in.






After a shower, beer, dinner and ice cream, they prepared for day two... 100 miles more to go.

Day Two: Seattle To Portland - final 100 miles

After catching a few hours of sleep and waking to pouring rain, thunder and lightning, Mike and Pop headed off down the road towards Portland.

With 10,000 people in the ride, it was a slow cross over the finish line, but they both looked happy to be there.

We drank a quick beer while huddled under the umbrella and then headed for home, showers and hot food.

Green Garden

Vegetables, growing strong and tall

Baby bean


Roople was not so interested in the pea, so I ate it.