November 2007 Photos
The November 2007 galleries are now complete. You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "November 2007" links on Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, or Olivia's web site. You can also just simply access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's November 2007 Gallery ... (5 years, 4 months old)
Eliana's November 2007 Gallery ... (3 years old, 8 months old)
Olivia's November 2007 Gallery ... (1 year, 4 months old)

Theater Review: A Chorus Line
We culminated our crazy evening tonight by attending the musical "A Chorus Line" performed at The Second Story Repertory (located in Redmond Town Center). The play was a bit of a disappointment. The local cast just could not pull it off. After having been extremely impressed two years ago with Second Story Rep's production of Man of La Mancha, I had high hopes. I think that there were just too many "main players" for the local talent pool. Even apart from the performance thereof, I didn't care much for the story nor the music. I think there were as many as 16(?) archetypes portrayed in the Chorus Line, but I didn't identify (or sympathize) with one of them.

Eliana's music teacher was in the play... and coincidentally, the entire staff of Sammamish Learning Center was in attendance tonight. Weird.

Night Out with a Flat Tire and the Sharps
Kristy traveled down to SeaTac today to attend some continuing education for the benefit of her psychology license. Unfortunately she found that one of the tires on the BMW had become completely flat. No worries right? The 1996 BMW 328 includes a full-size spare as everyone knows. Well, about two years ago I ran over a razor blade or something and damage enough of the steel treads that the tire was a complete loss. So there was no spare. Oops.

I managed to find a small 12-volt powered tire inflator and rushed down to the hotel parking lot (thanks to the Coffeys for helping me out in a tight spot!) We managed to get the tire inflated enough to drive over to a nearby Les Schwab and get it fixed. Meanwhile, we had a dinner reservation with the Sharps at Tosoni's. We had to cancel unfortunately. The Sharps ate without us and then met us at the Second Story Repertory Theater for Chorus Line. We had dessert at Matts' afterward. It was a long, crazy night.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Final 2nd Floor Work
We are trying to meet a goal to move back into our home on December 1st. A small painting crew was here today doing touch-ups on the ceilings, walls, and trim of the 2nd floor. The new carpet (and carpet pad) is going to be installed tomorrow. We are hoping to move back into the northern side of the 2nd floor - which includes our master suite, Eliana's room, the laundry room/bath, Kristy's office, Olivia's new bedroom, and the green bathroom (between Olivia's new bedroom and Berkeley's bedroom). We seem to be on target.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Finish Carpentry Started
A team of two finish carpenters showed up on the job site today... two eastern European fellows named Vladimir and Vladimir. There is loads of work to do up there. We are wrapping the main ridge beam and the five smaller dormer ridge beams. Also, Kristy has decided we will have four-foot high batten board around all of the painted walls. So there is plenty of work to do... it will likely take several weeks.

Movie Review: Transformers

"Before time began, there was... the cube. We know not where it comes from, only that it holds the power to create worlds and fill them with life. "

are the first you will hear from the movie Transformers, a movie about a race of robots - some good, some evil - that have arrived on earth to battle over the cube's possession. OK, yes, this is a movie based on a line of toys from the 80s - but I mean, wow, that is really a lame way to start a movie. Could there not have been some semi-plausible science fiction that could have been used to frame this movie? I was probably not too old to play with the Transformers when they came out in the mid-80s. I remember the toys, I remember the cartoon; but I don't have any fondness for them... nor do I have an ax to grind. But I really don't remember the science fiction behind Transformers being so, well, so silly.

The movie is about a prototypical Average Boy that has washed out of sports, doesn't have many friends, is not popular, has just turned 16, and now drives a beat up car. Despite an enormous lack of good looks, Average Boy still manages to be clever enough to say all the right things to win over Hot Girl from the High School Jock. Not only that but Average Boy effectively hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning by saving the world (you get the idea). Average Boy and Hot Girl then live happily ever after. With a plot like that, it isn't hard to figure out the profile of an average Transformer fan-boy now is it?

Oh... and there some robots in the movie too. There robots were a camaro, a diesel truck, an airplane, a helicopter, and a fire hydrant. And maybe one or two more.

Summary: Extremely lame.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Attic Ceilings Painted
The attic ceilings were painted today. We chose a light gray. The inside walls of the kids playhouse also were painted the same light gray. The painters are also taking care of the final touch-ups around the second floor. We might just be able to move back into our home this weekend (or next).

Board Game Review: Tikal
I bought a new game the other day called Tikal. I had played it last month over at Scott's a couple of times and liked it so much I decided to buy it for our family. The game is loosely based on Tikal, the ancient Mayan ruined cities located in Guatemala.

The game board is a hexagonal grid of jungle areas adjacent to some already uncovered Tikal temples. As game play proceeds more temples and treasure sites are "uncovered" in the unexplored area of the game board. The temples and treasure sites are located on the hexagonal tiles that each player places adjacent to the existing "base camp" and already uncovered temples. There are 36 tiles to place in a game. After all of the tiles have been placed, e.g. the jungle has been completely explored, the game ends.

The hexagonal tiles are ordered in groups 'A' through 'G'. Temples printed on the tiles in the early stage of the game have starting values of 1 and 2. The values increase as the game proceeds; temples uncovered later in the game can have a starting value of up to 6. Tiles can also be treasure sites where 2, 3, or 4 treasures are buried. There are also three "volcano tiles" or scoring tiles that are located in tile groups B, D, and F. A scoring round proceeds the placement of each volcano tile and at the end of the game for a total of 4 scoring rounds in total (the scoring rounds are similar to that of Alhambra).

On each turn, a player draws a tile and, if the tile is not a volcano tile, places it on the board. The player is given 10 "action points" that can be used to move explorers around the jungle, dig new levels of temples, dig for treasures at treasure sites, trade for treasure sets, establish new base camps, or place a guard on top of a temple. Each different action costs a different number of action points.

If a volcano tile is drawn, then a scoring round ensues. Each player is in turn is given 10 action points to use. The score is tabulated for each player after the action points are expended. Score is awarded for temples around which the player has the majority of explorers as well as for discovered treasures and treasure sets. After the scoring round ends, the player who drew the volcano places it on the map and then uses 10 action points to continue to explore Tikal.

The game is a lot of fun because it is unpredictable and dynamic. Each players' moves change the situation of the board on every turn. It is also fun because it is difficult to run away with a game. The scoring on all three games I have played has been tight. With the game decided by just a matter of a few points (where total points is around 120 to 150).

Summary: Highly recommended.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Attic Wall Paint
The painting crew spent much of the day at the house working on the second floor. In the afternoon, they also went upstairs and painted all of the vertical walls the stone gray color we picked out. Here are some pictures.

The ceilings will be painted next Monday... then hopefully the floor will be laid so that we can start on the finish carpentry. I have my doubts, however, as to whether our contractor has sufficiently planned ahead enough to keep the project moving. We'll see next week!

Thanksgiving at the Thurmonds (without the Thurmonds)
We are spending our Thanksgiving at the Thurmonds. The Thurmonds are not here but are up at Matt's folks house spending the holiday weekend. We had planned on being in San Diego today but because the kids are sick, we were ill-prepared for Thanksgiving. No turkey. No hand-made stuffing. No pumpkin pie mix. No hand-rolled pie crusts.

Instead of going crazy and trying to throw something together at the last minute, I drove over to QFC and purchased some prepared turkey dinner plates at the service deli counter. I had entertained the thought of going to Salish, but the $50/plate charge made me rule in favor of proximity and cost over taste (at least I can only assume). Actually, the QFC meal wasn't too bad. The turkey (all white meat) was moist and tender, the wild rice and apricot stuffing was pretty tasty, and the potatoes and yams were servicable. The QFC pumpkin pie wasn't too great, but I didn't think it would be - the ice crystals that were still present when I bought the pie didn't scream out "I'm freshly made!" to me. On the whole however, it was a good meal... and cheap too - only $9/plate. Maybe we'll do this every year, but just make the pie ourselves.

Here are a few pictures. After our meal, Berkeley and Eliana decorated a gingerbread house while Olivia walked around sipping on a juice box.

Kids Sick; San Diego Trip Canceled
Kristy took the kids to the urgent care tonight. Berkeley and Olivia both have strep and Berkeley also has croup. They have been given prescriptions for both steroids and antibiotics. The doctor recommended against air travel so we have suspended our travel reservations for our Thanksgiving San Diego trip. We were also to go to Disneyland next Monday; that too is also canceled. The kids are pretty distraught about the latter development.

Canceling our travel arrangements on such short notice (due to illness) was not a problem... with the exception of Alaska Airlines who apparently do not have a health/illness exemption. We will not be given a refund, but a credit toward future air travel minus a $75 per person "re-issue fee" - which is pretty lame. It's no wonder then that we rarely travel on Alaska Airlines - they just happen to have one a the few non-stop flights from SEA to SAN.

We will miss Bertha and Dick (Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson)... and several of Kristy's siblings. Because Kristy's parents have been on a mission (released earlier this year), our kids have not seen much of their maternal grandparents for the last couple of years. Kristy wants to reschedule our trip for Christmas, but I'm thinking it would be cheaper to just fly them up here (if they would come)... there is a pretty good nucleus of Sorenson kids up here and almost a dozen grandchildren. We'll see what happens.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Siding Complete
The siding crew finished up today. They installed the cedar skirl board on the front dormer (see picture at right), and then stayed here late to trim out and shingle the kids playhouse in the attic (see picture at left).

(Note: The walls in the attic were primed today.)

The siding crew I must say have been the most impressive subcontractors to date. They arrive early, work late, are happy to oblige even the most minor suggestion. I'll almost be sad to not see them any longer.

Movie Review: The Pink Panther

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Siding Progress (cont)
The siding crew was here again today. They installed the siding on the south elevation of the house. Here is the picture:

All of that gold will be gone next month when we repaint the exterior of the house.

Tomorrow the siding crew will install the cedar skirl on the front dormer and put the cedar shingles on the side of the kids playhouse in the attic. So I should have some great pictures to post tomorrow!

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Siding Progress
The siding crew have been here every day since last Tuesday. They work diligently all the way until 5:00pm and sometimes even 5:30pm (it gets dark around here at about 4:30pm). They have completely finished the northern elevation of the home with hardiplank. It looks great; I like the care they took to stitch in the new material with the old so that it doesn't look like a remodel job. It will look even better with some paint!

Here are a couple of pictures I took today (during the daylight). The first is of the rear dormers - now shingled. The second is taken of the siding crew installing the hardiplank on the northern elevation.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Painting Progress
The painters are making good progress. They have now finished painting much of the 2nd floor and should be completely done tomorrow. Here are some pictures.

		Here is a good shot of the new tray ceiling in our master bedroom. The drywall contractor had this marvelous idea of using up the dead space between the remaining bottom members of the old attic truss and the start of the TJIs that support the attic floor load. It was a brilliant idea and the results are very lovely. It adds a nice little extra something to the master suite to set it off from the rest of the house.
		The master bathroom ceilings have been completely restored. Kristy and I are going to redo the walls ourselves in the bathroom so we can save some of the hand painting Kristy has done in this area. I also need to take care of some loose electrical ends (see picture) - I decided to move the switch for the closet lights from inside of the closet to the wall just outside of the closet. It always bothered me that I had to reach in there to turn the lights on. Every other closet in the house had the light switch on the outside... now our master closets will too.
		Here is Olivia's bedroom. It is very pink ("pink? pink? what's wrong with pink?"). It's a bit small (compared to the other two bedrooms); small enough that there will not be room for a double bed. To make up for it, we are ordering her some fancy furniture from an upscale manufacturer called "Plenty's Horn" - namely their Camelot Collection.
		This will be the kid's study and double as the kid's music room or conservatory. We aren't actually sure what we are going to do with the room. But we like this rich chocolate brown on the walls. Eventually the window in this room will be replaced with a door that will walk out onto a two-story covered patio/porch... so we are putting wood flooring in this room.

Gerky Revisited
Olivia is now calling Berkeley by name. But, like Eliana, she substitutes the Guh-G sound for the Buh-B sound. She can say other B-words pretty good, like "ball" and "bird" so this must be a local dialect she is picking up.

Whenever Olivia sees a yellow bus (and if Berkeley isn't around), she will sound out "Gerky.... Gerky... Gerky". This is a behavior she picked up from while waiting for Berkeley to get off the Kindergarten bus each day at lunch. Kristy, Eliana, and Olivia will wait in the car near his stop and repeat "Berkeley" over and over until the bus comes.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Painting Started
The painting crew started painting the interior walls and ceilings on the 2nd floor today. I gave the painting crew chief all of our paint selections a few days ago. Some of it is ICI/Dulux, some of it is Behr (Home Depot), and some of it is Parker Paint. I figured he would just go to his preferred paint store and have the store match the color code. But instead he drove all over town and got the exact same stuff that we had used in previous projects. That's going the extra mile.

I must say that I am impressed with the painting crew so far. They are methodical, meticulous, and the results have been fantastic. The job they did on the trim is exceptional. We have had experience with three different painting outfits during our life here in Sammamish, and this outfit - by far - puts the others to shame.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Attic Drywall Sanded and Finished
The attic drywall was sanded and finished yesterday and today. It's ready for a primer coat and then the plan is to paint the walls first, put the wood floors down, then install the finish carpentry (and cabinetry). Here are a pictures I took of the space today:

	This is a picture of what will be the media room (left) and what will be the wet bar (right). The media room is 13 feet deep by 12 feet wide. There will be flat screen TV wall mounted to the northern wall (which is to the right on this picture) and we will be ordering a sectional to put in front of the TV. The wet bar will include a small sink on the left and an under-counter refrigerater on the right. There will also be a microwave in the recessed area above the countertop on the right.
	This is the front dormer space. It is 12 feet wide by about 10 feet deep. This space will be used by the kids as a play area. As can be seen, access to the playhouse via the playhouse doorway is here in the kids play area. The opening in the upper left of the wall is the cold air return (this used to be in the ceiling of the 2nd floor).
	Here is the kids playhouse. There will two windows and one door. There is also a small light on the outside of the door. The door will include a mechanical doorbell, a working latch, and may possibly function like a Dutch door (where the top half can open separately from the bottom). The playhouse windows will not include any kind of vinyl or glass but will have shutters and window boxes. The outside walls of the playhouse will be finished with the same shingles on our own house. And the roof will be finished with the same roof material that will be on our house. So it will almost literally be a house within a house.
	Here is another view of the media room that shows the skylights and the built-in cabinet cut out. The TV will be wall-mounted immediately above the built-in. Access to the area behind the built-in is facilitated via a crawl entrance in the wet bar area. The skylights will have remote controlled window shades to remove any glare from the TV. The skylights also have a built-in rain sensor and will shut the skylights auto-magically when it starts to rain.
	Here is a view of the powder bath and small toy storage area that are immediately adjacent to the kids play area inside the front dormer. As can be seen, we have replaced the gable wall cover with ½" plywood. The drywall was pulled down and plywood put in its placed for the benefit of the brick veneer façade that will go up on both of the end gable walls.

And finally, here are pictures of each of the three rear dormers. From left to right... the northern-most dormer, the middle dormer, and the southern-most dormer.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Painting Started
The painting crew has been attending to the trim for much of the say. They actually started last night (after I left) by hitting the trim with a base primer coat. They sanded the primer coat a bit today and are now spraying it with two coats of our trim color. They will start painting the walls on Friday.

My First Parent Teacher Conference
I attended parent teacher conference today and met with Mrs. Weber, Berkeley's kindergarten teacher. Kristy was unable to attend (the kids are sick). I wrote down a few of the things that Mrs. Weber said such as: "wonderful little boy", "a gem", "listens well", "independent", and "good strong worker". She also said that when Berkeley and Jake play together that "they get quieter not louder" - a very encouraging sign.

Mrs. Weber also gave me a copy of a "self-assessment" that the kids fill out. It is a two-side paper with pictures of 9 activities on both sides. Inside the border around each activity there is an outline of a star. The kids were instructed to color in the entire star if they felt competent doing the activity pictured, color the star partially if they felt OK about the activity pictured, and leave the star blank if they felt completely unable to do the activity pictured. Berkeley left the star blank for "tying shoes" and "using scissors to cut paper". So I guess we need to work on that. He gave himself a half-star for coloring, painting, brushing teeth, and reading.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Shingles/Siding Install Started
Installation of new shingles and siding for the exposed exterior walls was started today. They got a pretty good jump on the large amount of work that needs to be done and finished the front shingle installation. See picture below:

We are planning on finishing the front dormer with the same cedar skirl planks that are on the second floor gables. The rear dormers will get shingle treatment and everywhere else (on the sides and the back) will get hardiplank. We will repaint all of our hardiplank to be dark brown... goodbye gold!

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: 3rd Coat of Mud
The third and final coat of mud was put on the drywall in the attic today. I'll snap some pictures once the place is cleaned up a bit. After the mud dries, the finish carpenters are going to come in and put up some ½" plywood on the gable walls. The mason asked us to use plywood on the walls instead of sheetrock for the benefit of the brick veneer façade that will go up on both of the gable walls.

Beverage Review: Cola: Mexican Coke

There are a handful of cola beverages available that use cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Unfortunately, none of the large domestic beverage manufacturers are willing to use sugar any longer due to the artificially low cost of corn syrup; the result of the largess of the US government in the form of corn subsidies to the large US agribusiness firms. The US government also tariffs imported sugar to protect the domestic sugar industry.

But down in Mexico, they still bottle Coca Cola with the good stuff... sugar. You need only try a bottle of domestic Coke side-by-side with a bottle of Mexican Coke to notice the substantial difference in taste. In fact, as this article notes, Mexican Coke - not domestic Coke (sweetened with HFCS) - is the "Real Thing™". I emphatically agree. There just isn't any cola drink better than the original Coke sweetened with cane sugar. This is the gold standard of cola drinks and my high score for this wonderful nectar (97) is set accordingly.

I'm writing this review today because I discovered that my local Costco is selling 24-packs of imported Mexican coke for $18/case. That is an unbelievable price of 75¢ per bottle! I bought 5 cases.

Eliana's Preschool Portrait
Eliana brought home her preschool portrait today. Here is the scan.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Sanding/Caulking
One member of the painting crew showed up yesterday to start the caulking and sanding work on the finish carpentry. Today a full crew of 5 or 6 showed up to finish most of the sanding and caulking and started doing some masking. I'm told that they will start painting on the 2nd floor early next week.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: 2nd Coat of Mud
The drywall crew was here today to put a second coat of mud on the drywall in the attic. They sharpened all of the corners which makes the entire space look fantastic. They also paid special attention to the skylights. One more coat... then sanding. Then priming and paint. It's coming along.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: 2nd Floor Finish Carpentry Done
The finish carpentry on the 2nd floor is now done. The crown was restored in the laundry room, master bath, Kristy's office. We added crown to Eliana's room and Olivia's room and the new music room. There are two levels of crown now in our master bedroom - one around the perimeter of the room, and one inside the new tray ceiling. It looks great. We also added bead board in the music room and upgraded chair rail in Olivia's room.

More Random Pics of the Kids at Play
Here are some more random pics that Kristy took of the kids today.

Movie Review: Spiderman 3

So, here is the plot of Spiderman 3 in a nutshell. Some meteorite with a living organism that is black and creepy-crawly coincidentally lands about a few hundred feet away from Parker and his g/f while on a night picnic. Of course, they don't notice a meteor crashing next to them and of course, the creepy crawly thing just happens to be able to clamber on to Parker's moped as he drives away. The entire series of events is laughably implausible. The black creepy organism then proceeds to cause havoc for much of the movie and drives the plot along to its predictable conclusion.

Other than Stan Lee's cameo... Spiderman 3 can be missed.

Another Sketch of Our Family from Eliana
Here is a scan of another sketch Eliana made today of our family.

Berkeley's Sketch of Our Family
Here is a scan of a sketch Berkeley made today of our family.

Eliana's Sketch of Our Family
Here is a scan of a sketch Eliana made today of our family.

Random Pictures of the Kids at Play
We spent most of the day at the house today to give the Thurmonds a bit of a break from us. Kristy snapped a few pictures of the kids at play.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Work Update
The drywall team returned today with tape and mud. They put the first coat on the walls of what will be three coats. Looks great so far and it will only get better. Can't wait.

The finish carpenters showed up to start on all of the work needed to be done on the second floor. This includes restoring crown to the master suite, Kristy's office, and casing the doors for Olivia's room and the new kid's conservatory/study. The finish carpenters are a very nice pair of soft-spoken gentleman from the Ukraine; one is about my age (Slavik), the other seems to be about my Dad's age (Andre).

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Drywall Hung
The drywall is all hung now. The drywall crew started hanging rock yesterday and worked pretty late (they didn't leave until after we had finished trick or treating). They finished up today. It is hard to really do the room justice without a wider angle lens, but here is what I took today: