September 2008 Photos
The September 2008 photo galleries are now closed. We were fairly busy last month with activities and took quite a few pictures. The end result is that the galleries are abundant with beautiful pictures of the kids. I love looking back at the latest chapters in their lives and think about the fun we had. The galleries can be reviewed at Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, and Olivia's web site. Or just access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's September 2008 Gallery ... (6 years, 2 month old)
Eliana's September 2008 Gallery ... (4½ years old)
Olivia's September 2008 Gallery ... (2 years, 2 month old)

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Project Update
The drywall subcontractor finished up the repair of the family room walls today. This evening Kristy and I spent some time taping and painting the walls. It took a couple of coats to cover the drywall primer, but it looks great now that it is complete. It was great to have Kristy help with the taping, we were able to knock it out in just a couple of hours. The family room is almost back to a pre-steel-beam-installatation state. We need to wrap the beam yet of course, but that process won't start until the 13th. Between now and then we hope to have the millwork installed and painted (not by us) and the ceiling repainted (something we will do).

The light at the end of the tunnel of our ongoing home renovation is getting brighter. Today our new patio doors were tied into the home security system and the carpet in our master bedroom was re-installed (it had been rolled back for the benefit of installing the new door). There are only a few things left to do!

2008 Home Preschool Class Pictures
Kristy, Kathy, and Ang have started up preschool for the younger cousins around here. The class this year includes four outstanding pupils: Emily, Olivia, Nathan, and Isabella.

And here are the four of them together for a class picture:

Class pictures for "cousin preschool" is a yearly tradition, albeit one that was partially interrupted last year because of our attic renovation project. Check out the previous years of "cousin preschool" class pictures here.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Final Touch-Ups
The painters showed up today to help me finish up the final touch-ups around the house. I worked side-by-side with Yuri and his son Oleg and we were able to paint all of the new material with the exception of the new trim Baxton installed around the three rear dormers. Yuri and Oleg will be back tomorrow for the last little bit and then the project will be done. The rain is due to start on Wednesday or Thursday. So I'm really happy that everything will be done before then.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: New Window Trim
We decided to have Baxton install cedar trim around all of the windows on the house. The trim matches what was done around the doors in the back and what has always been present on the front of the house. Yes we should have done this before the house was painted, but we didn't really realize how much the trim was needed until after the paint was done.

The last of the window trim was installed just yesterday. I've notified the painters that we are ready to go with the new stuff, but I decided to take matters into my own hands today and get a jump on priming the new material. The seasonal rain is forecast to roll in late next week and once it is here, it will rain 6 days out of 7 until April or May. I was able to get all of the material primed today except for the stuff on the 3rd floor that my ladder won't reach.

Movie Review: What Happens in Vegas

Title:	What Happens in Vegas (2008)
Rating:	4/10

It's laundry night... time for another movie. This time it was What Happens in Vegas, a movie about a couple of polar opposite personalities (Ashton Kutchner and Cameron Diaz), that mistakenly get married (in Vegas), win a $3 millon jackpot, are are then forced to live with each other (rather than get divorced) using one of the lamest plot devices I've seen in a long time. Instead of making the best of a bad situation, the two relentlessly antagonize each other, finally split apart, and then (of course) figure out they are soulmates. The fact that Diaz is starring in this movie made me think that the movie is very similar (in plot) to Shrek I guess, in that they are both movies about two primary characters that despise each other but eventually end up living happily ever after. However, Shrek is infinitely more clever.

The movie is not completely stupid (and does have a few laughs), but this isn't material that doesn't rise above TV sitcom type of stuff... e.g. it is forgettable. I'm sure I'll not be able to remember most of the movie by this time next week.

Olivia's New Light
For the past six or seven months (or maybe even longer?), the light fixture in Olivia's bedroom has been a $2 porcelain single-bulb incandescent lamp holder. Think the classic pull-chain type of fixtures you'd find in an unfinished basement (minus the pull chain). During these past months we have looked at and hemmed and hawed over probably tens of dozens of light fixtures. We have bought a couple fixtures (one on-line and one at a store) but then returned them after opening the box and discovered either how cheap the fixture looked, or how cheap the fixture was made. Indeed, a quality light fixture is truly hard to find... or least one that I approve of (and yes, I'm the picky one out of the two of us).

About 6 weeks ago (while browsing the inventory at Seattle Lighting in Bellevue) we finally found a light for Olivia's room that we both really liked. It is an authentic colored mini crystal chandelier manufactured by Schonbek - a lighting company owned by Swarovski. The fixture is just about perfect; small, compact, sturdy, and completely configurable. We were able to pick out the finish of the chandelier body that closely matched Livy's furniture, and we were also able to select the color of the crystals to match Livy's wall paint color. Nice options.

The downside: we were told it would take approximately six weeks to fulfill our custom order and, uh, then there was the little thing called the price tag... $550! The dainty 18" chandelier is easily the most expensive fixture in the house. Only the massive (by comparison) 52" ceiling fans that I have installed in Berkeley's bedroom, my office, and out on the patio even come close... and those are fixtures which, you know, include substantial parts like reversible electric motors, RF electronic fan controls, etc. So, anyway, my feeling is that we couldn't win for trying on this one. We looked at so much junk that was half as much in price (but not nearly half as nice) that the decision to indulge in such an expensive light really was a no-brainer.

The light finally arrived... yesterday via UPS.

So, this morning I set to the task of installing and assembling the light for Olivia. I had no shortage of willing assistants eager to hang the crystals on the frame of the fixture... two to be exact:

Eliana helped quite a bit actually. If I recall correctly, she installed pretty much all of the crystal on the chandelier except the crystals hanging from the ceiling medallion. Here are a couple of pictures of the light after installation was complete... with both the lights on and off.

Last Week of Baseball
This is the last week of MLB for the Mariners. Berkeley and I attended the game tonight - our first of the season - with Berkeley's friends Fox and Tucker (and their Dads). The Mariners lost their 100th game of the season tonight and now have the ignominious distinction of being the only team in the history of Major League Baseball to spend $100+ million in payroll and lose 100 games in a season. Ah well.

We carpooled down to stadium with Travis and Tucker and Fox. We met them at the Bellevue Park-n-Ride. While we were there waiting, I snapped a few pictures of my son:

And here are a couple of pictures taken at the game.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Playhouse Interior Wall Painting
Kristy had been busy for the last couple of months painting the interior of the playhouse. First she painted a fire, a bookshelf, and a potted plant on the back wall. Then (more recently) she has painted the other three walls. Last weekend I installed some trim (that Kristy picked out) and then spent the last couple of days priming and painting the installed trim. Finally... it is done! Here are the pictures:

(Update Sun Oct 5 22:48:30 PDT 2008 // renamed entry)

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Progress Report
Now that the steel beam is installed, Baxton came out today and installed the master bedroom patio door.

Baxton is pretty much done now... we are only lacking the spiral stair and the handrail around the deck. That is scheduled to be installed on October 8th.

Meanwhile, Reid's helper re-affixed the drywall that they had carefully removed and put up new stuff where required.

The drywall tape and mud is scheduled to begin tomorrow. That should probably take two or three days to complete. After the drywall is done, then we can paint and start working on wrapping the steel beam in ash (similar to what was done up in the attic). I've already got the same carpenters lined up to do the beam wrap. They start on the 13th.

Eliana's Soccer Class
We enrolled Eliana in a 4-yr-olds-only soccer class down at Issaquah City Recreation. Her first class (of eight) was today. Kristy snapped a few pictures:

This is her first organized sports activity... looks like she had fun.

Stealing Lollipop Licks
I take Eliana and Olivia for a stroller ride to Eliana's preschool 4 days a week (Mon-Thu). On the way home, I typically give Olivia a Dum-Dum lollipop. Yesterday I forgot to pack a lollipop for the ride home. Today Olivia made sure we had enough:

She had licked each one and made a little lollipop bouquet.

Grandpa Sorenson Birthday
Okay, so technically it isn't my father-in-law's birthday until Wednesday the 24th, but since Grandpa Sorenson is in town we decided to have a small party over at our place tonight. We had a nice simple dinner and then had some of that Costco chocolate cake and homemade Oreo ice cream for dessert.

Here are some pictures of Grandpa Sorenson with the kids:

And here are a couple more (without kids):

There are few more pictures that I took of various members of the Sorenson clan during the party... take a look if interested.

At the Seattle Aquarium with Grandma/Grandpa Sorenson
Kristy took the two girls down to the Seattle Aquarium today and met her Mom, Dad, and Kathy there. Here are a few pics:

Hinckley's Blessing
With Kristy's parents in town, the Sorenson weekend of activities continued today with Hinckley's baby blessing. We all congregated at the Thurmond home for the purpose of the blessing and had a nice dinner too. With an equal number of Thurmonds and Sorensons present, it was quite a group.

	Here are just a few of the Sorenson clan present hanging out in the Thurmond living room. Kristy and her brother (Scott) are in the background, Kristy's mother (Bertha) is sitting on the right, and several of the kids are also present.
	The kids kept busying playing with legos. Or as Olivia calls them... "yegos".

(Update Tue Sep 30 07:32:41 PDT 2008 // left -> right)

Jenna's Baptism
Of the cousins that live around here (my kid's cousins), Jenna is the oldest. Jenna turned 8 last week and is thus eligible to be baptized; her baptism was held today. For the event, Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson flew into town. We congregated down in Gig Harbor for the ceremony and then had some dinner at the Coray's afterward. Here are a few pictures:

Not long after those were taken, power in the battery of the camera ran out. Oops.

Movie Review: 21

Title:	21 (2008)
Rating:	5/10

Unfolded laundry is stacking up... time for another movie. Tonight we watched 21; a movie inspired by the real-life events of a group of MIT students that used a card counting system to beat Las Vegas casinos by playing the card game blackjack. For me the best part of the movie was the exploration of the system from a purely mathematical point of view. The rest of the movie is just formulaic layers of plot, acting, romantic interest, and your typical revenge "twist" laid on top of an interesting premise. One such example of mathematics included in the movie is the discussion of a mathematical paradox which is used in a key sequence to test a prospective member of the gaming team before an invitation is made to join:

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?"

Is it to your advantage to switch your choice? Why?

The right answer is that it is advantageous to switch because you double your probability of winning from one-third to two-thirds. This is known as the Monty Hall problem (or Monty Hall paradox). From the wiki article: "... no other statistical puzzle comes so close to fooling all the people all the time". I didn't understand the solution either, so I had to look it up just now.

Summary: A decent run-of-the-mill movie.

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Steel Beam Installed
Reid and crew installed the steel beam today. They used a total of 137 screws to keep it in place - 46 screws in each of the end brackets, and an additional 45 screws running the length of the steel beam that are drillled vertically up into the pre-existing wood beam that is immediately above it.

(Update Mon Sep 22 07:11:50 PDT 2008 // "and and" -> "and an")

"My Mac-mac"
I took the kids to McDonald's this evening for dinner. The family room is a bit torn up - it has OSB laying down on tarps that cover the carpet, oh, and there are a couple of sections of scaffolding erected near the window that take up half the room. Kristy was at the movies, so I decided to do something easy.

On the drive over, I got all the orders squared away: nuggets, apples, juice box (Livy); burger, fries, chocolate milk (Berkeley); burger, apples, regular milk (Eliana). Getting the kids to decide on the compositions of their Kids Meals is literally half the battle. We arrived and I placed the kids order and then put in for a Big Mac and a glass of water for myself. Big Macs are actually the only thing I really like at McDonald's. OK, the Big Macs and the Fruit Turnovers. Now, I must confess that every time I place an order at McDonalds I secretly want to tag on an apple or cherry turnover to the end of my order, but then I think to myself: "One turnover is 89¢, however I could get two for $1.00; on the other hand, I don't want two... two are too many... and I'm not paying 89¢ for one turnover when they should be selling it for something like 60¢ - there's a principle at stake here!" So while I was revisiting this little conversation in my head about adding an apple Fruit Turnover to my order, the clerk interrupted my two-second argument with myself by telling me that Big Macs right now are on sale: 2 for $3.00.

"But I don't want two.", I explained, "Just one please."

"Well, one Big Mac is $3.19, and two Big Macs are $3.00", responded the helpful clerk.

"Alright." I muttered, "I'll take two."

While I was walking away, I imagined that MickeyD's would start selling one turnover for 89¢ and two for 80¢. Ha! I can dream can't I?

I got the food a few minutes later and commenced to dispense it into the three troughs... er, I mean I neatly presented it in front of my three clean eaters. I put the two Big Mac containers and the glass of water in front of myself. Livy was seated to my immediate left.

"My sandwich!", she said while grabbing one of the cartons.

"No Livy, those are Daddy's Big Macs."

"No, my Mac-mac.", Livy insisted.

"Alright, whatever." I shrugged and slid one of my $1.50 Big Macs over to her.

She put her two little hands around the Big Mac and actually managed to take a pretty good size bite... most of the lettuce fell down in her lap, but I was still impressed.

"Mmmmm... good Mac-mac."

She ate a little more than half of the Big Mac... about 8 Livy bites. I wiped the special sauce off her face after each of those bites. She honestly seemed to have enjoyed it. She didn't touch her nuggets (which were vacuumed up by Eliana instead).

(Update Fri Sep 19 08:09:57 PDT 2008 // of -> off)

Olivia's First Day of Co-Op Preschool
Olivia started preschool today. Kristy and Kathy are doing a co-op preschool class once a week on Thursdays. We ship Olivia over to Kathy's one week (e.g. this week), and we host Emily the next week.

Olivia was pretty elated to go to her "school".

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Beam Work Started
The steel I-beam that will be installed under the existing wood beam (that spans across our family room) was delivered today. Reid and his helper have been prepping the family room for an install tomorrow. Here is a picture of one of the heavy duty brackets:

If all goes well then Baxton will be able to cut in the master bedroom door that opens out to the new deck next Monday.

Eliana's New Friend "Sarah"
One of Eliana's new classmates, Clara, lives fairly close to us. Clara's Dad called us yesterday to arrange for a play date with Clara today. When I picked up Eliana from preschool today:

"Daddy, I made a new friend today named 'Sarah'."

"You mean 'Clara'?", I asserted.

Eliana looked at me blankly for a moment, then offered: "Yes, 'Clara'."

Later on at our house, I kept hearing her say "Sarah" this and "Sarah" that. I reminded her more than once:

"Eliana, her name is 'Clara'."

"Oh, yeah." she would say with a big smile, "I forgot."

Here they are on the porch eating some pudding just before Clara returned home. (Eliana would not open her eyes for the picture... the little stinker.)

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Bar Counter Complete
Last Saturday, we distressed the apron that wraps around the support for the bar counter top. Kristy then sanded it down and stained it. I applied an oil varnish on it Sunday and yesterday and then today installed the solid surface slate counter top. It looks pretty good for something we pretty much made up on the fly... and should be eminently useful too as both a serving area and for seating.

Kristy is checking out a sliding screen for the kitchen window tomorrow. The goal is to be able to just hand out food from the kitchen window to be placed on the bar countertop. Cool beans.

Home Renovation Project: New Garage Doors: Hardware Installed
The final touch on the garage doors - the door latches and clavos - were installed. A full view of the hardware on the smaller garage door can be reviewed here. I have also snapped a close-up shot of the hardware on the larger garage door. See bleow (click to enlarge):

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: New Cedar Siding
I have a problem with letting the most minor of details bother me. Call it obsessiveness, or compulsiveness, or whatever. But I just could not get over the fact that the near-textureless uniformly-colored hardiplank installed around our smaller garage door clashed with the new stained garage door that we just had installed. Before the door and the hardiplank were painted the same color... that is no longer the case.

So I had Baxton rip off the hardiplank siding and replace it with cedar siding. The cedar siding will be stained using the same stuff that we used to stain the garage door. Problem solved (hopefully).

Last week, when I informed the head of the painting crew, Yuri, about what I was planning on doing... he laughed at me in disbelief (and perhaps with a little bit of annoyance since he had just finished painting the same area). My sister-in-law was more direct; she called me "crazy!" with an exclamation point. Probably true.

In any case, here is a picture of the new material Baxton installed today. Also note the new garage door hardware.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Gazebo Deck Stained
The painting crew sanded down the deck today and then painted it with a solid color stain that matches the house exterior color. Hopefully it will weather well.

The gazebo is now done... just need to re-stain the cedar shake roof and repair a few of the shingles. But I'll do that myself.

It's Just Another Day
Just another ordinary day with my beautiful wife (shown below making cookies); she's as beautiful today as she was yesterday.

(Update Thu Sep 18 07:40:09 PDT 2008 // corrected link to picture)

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Distressing the Bar Counter Apron
A couple of weeks ago, Joe from Kenis Loven was out to install our bar counter on the back patio. Today the five us spent some time distressing the apron that surrounds the supports for the bar counter.

After we distressed it, Kristy sanded it down, and then stained it. I'll snap some pictures later of the finished product.

The Girls Get New Shirts
Kristy blew the dust off of her sewing machine today to make something for her Grandmother (who turns 100 in about 6 weeks from now). She also made Eliana and Olivia some new shirts. Eliana is modeling hers in the picture below:

Home Renovation Projects: Exterior Painting: Gazebo and Front Door
The painters pressure washed the gazebo a couple of days ago, primed it yesterday, and then today put the top coat on all of the white railings, posts, and interior roof trim. It looks great!

Our front door also was painted a deep Chianti red:

The pictures were all taken late because after Berkeley's soccer practice and game today, we went over to Red Robin for some dinner.

Berkeley's First Soccer Practice (and Game)
We enrolled Berkeley in soccer this fall, his first practice and game were held this evening over at the Lake Sammamish State Park soccer fields. The Howeys put the bug in our ear to enroll Berkeley; their oldest son Tucker is also on Berkeley's team.

Tucker, who is already 7 (birthday in August) is nearly one year older than Berkeley, but they play in the same age group because the cutoff is July 31st. So Berkeley (birthday, July 29th) is pretty much guaranteed to always be the youngest player in his soccer age group teams. This is interesting (to me) because until 2006, the cutoff date for Little League baseball was also July 31st... which, of course, would also guarantee that Berkeley would be the youngest player on his baseball teams. However, currently Little League uses a cutoff date of April 30th, which means that Berkeley will always be one of the older players on his baseball teams. Does this matter? I don't know.

Below are two pictures of us standing around waiting for the rest of the team to show up. Berkeley is on the left dressed in his new soccer shoes, socks, and shin guards. He is standing next to his new ball. Our neighbor Jerrod manages one of the local SoccerWest stores and hooked us with all of the gear. Also shown (at right) are two of Berkeley's cheerleaders.

The following pictures were taken of Berkeley while he participated in the soccer practice drills. The team consists of six players. The team name is "Tunisia" (e.g. the country in North Africa). On the picture to the left, Berkeley is the third from the left and his friend Tucker is the little boy at the very left.

After a half-hour of soccer practice, then they have a half-hour soccer game. All of the boys on all of the teams have red t-shirts, so one team is given yellow vests to help bring some semblance of order to the mob following the ball around the field. In the picture at left below, Berkeley had just scored his first goal. He wasn't flagged for excessive celebration, but he came close. He had a lot of fun playing, worked hard, and at the end of the game was literally dripping with sweat.

Movie Review: The Dark Knight

Title:	The Dark Knight (2008)
Rating:	7/10

Kristy and I have not felt compelled enough to arrange a babysitter and take a night off to go see The Dark Knight, despite its universal rave reviews. I procrastinated seeing it until tonight, the last night it will be shown at the 90-foot-long, 30-foot-high screen at Cinerama Theater in downtown Seattle. So I organized an impromptu EQ Night at the Movies tonight and carpooled down with three of my church compatriots to see it. The trade-off is that Kristy is planning on going with a bunch of her lady friends to see the theatrical version of Mamma Mia one week from today. It's a win-win because Kristy isn't really chomping at the bit to see the newest Batman flick, and I would rather catch Mamma Mia on rental after having suffered through the on-stage musical production a couple of years ago.

The Dark Knight is currently ranked #3 in the IMDb Top 250. And reviews across the board are filled with high praise; Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 95% Fresh rating. Not only that, but the film has grossed about a half billion dollars at the box office (yes... 500 million!) and is currently only exceeded in all time gross box-office receipts by the epic Titanic (although if adjusted for inflation, then Dark Knight just barely makes the top 30). So anyway, I saw the new Batman film tonight with somewhat high expectations... I was prepared to be blown away.

Well, I wasn't.

It's a good film, yes... a great one? No. And certainly not better than the first installment - Batman Begins. There are many good things to say about the film. The action sequences and stunts are well choreographed. The special effects are top rate. The acting is solid, specifically that of the late Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker. However, the vehicle for all these fine elements of the movie - the storyline itself - was rather ho-hum: Batman good, Joker bad, Joker does bad things, Batman stops joker, The End. Noticeably lacking is the excellent character development that existed in the first movie.

Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie. I give it 7 stars out of 10 (see above). It just isn't as great as I thought it would be and it wasn't as good as its predecessor, which I gave 8 out of 10 stars. By contrast, the average IMDb rating for Dark Knight is 9 out 10 stars(!). I was just looking at my IMDb profile. Of the 750 movies I have rated there, I've only given three movies a perfect 10 and a rather tight group of nineteen movies a score of a 9. I'm looking over the list (Raising Arizona, Shawshank, Fiddler on the Roof, Gattaca, The Incredibles, It's a Wonderful Life, Empire of the Sun, A Christmas Story, etc) and I just can't put Dark Knight in that group.

Summary: Good enough.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Third Coat of Stain
We had the painters put a third coat of stain on the cedar shingles. The shingles didn't stain as dark as the cedar skirl siding, but a third pass seems to have done the trick. I snapped a few pictures of the house in the mid-afternoon (3:30ish) after the painters were pretty much done.

Eliana's First Day of Preschool
Since last week (specifically since Berkeley started going back to school), Eliana has been getting more and more excited to return to Sammamish Learning Center for preschool. We visited the school yesterday during the morning to allow Eliana to meet her new teachers (she has the same teachers that Berkeley had when he was 4: Miss Katie and Miss Karen). She returned today for her first day of preschool. Here are a couple of pictures:

She sure is a cute little schoolgirl!

Of Palin and Politics
I was cold-called today by the folks that run the Rasmussen Reports. I generally hang up on such calls, but today I was happy to participate in the political survey if only to register my voice of disaffection for both candidates of the major parties. (I was a supporter of Ron Paul and am likely to write in Ron Paul's name for President or vote for a third party candidate). The survey (among other items) asked a set of questions that gauged my general impression of the four Pres/VP nominees as well as my impression of the job performance of our current President using the following heirarchy: 1) very favorable, 2) slightly favorable, 3) slightly unfavorable, and 4) very unfavorable. I rated President Bush (as you might guess) using the "very unfavorable" selection. Sen. Obama, Sen. McCain, and Gov. Palin all received "slightly unfavorable" and Biden was given an equal share of disdain as President Bush received.

Much hay has been made lately of the Vice Presidential selections: Sen. Barack "The Change We Need" Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden (a 36-yr Washington insider); and Sen. John McCain selected the unknown Governor of Alaska, Governor Sarah Palin. The Palin pick is immediately interesting (to me) for the comparison to that of Sen. Obama's pick, Sen. Joe Biden. Sen. Biden detracts from all of Sen. Obama's strengths and adds little to Sen. Obama's so-called "weaknesses". For example, during the run up to the Iraq war in 2002, Sen. Biden was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Biden was in a position to allow a real debate to be held on the rush to Iraq War, yet not a single "anti-war" voice was allowed to speak in those hearings. Of course (like so many others), Sen. Biden now regrets his vote in favor to authorize the use of US Armed Forces against Iraq - not because the Iraq War was wrong per se, but rather because the Executive Branch didn't do a great job with the implementation phase. Biden is certainly no Dick Cheney, but as one commentator put it... Biden is very "Cheney-esque" - in other words, business as usual.

Governor Palin on the other hand is pretty much a blank slate with regard to foreign policy matters. Many commentators (well, mainly bloggers) are making this molehill into quite a mountain; one has even suggested Palin will either resign or sabotage Sen. McCain's campaign in part because of this issue of inexperience. I remember another such governor with little to no foreign policy experience... he ran for the office of POTUS back in 2000 and has been our President ever since. Clearly inexperience in these matters is not that big of a deal to a large part of the US population.

The brilliance of the Gov. Palin pick (and it was a brilliant pick) is two-fold: 1) she complements Sen. McCain and fills in all the gaps and dispels many of the doubts the GOP base had with McCain, and 2) her pick sucked the air right out of Sen. Obama's sails heading out from the Democratic Convention and the media has been Palin-this, Palin-that ever since... the momentum shifted - big time - and the Democrats may be unable to regain it. Don't believe me? Check out the latest Rasmussen polls.

I read an article the other day on Daily Kos that basically said that Gov. Palin is "Bush in a skirt". Insulting? Yes. But actually - this is probably Gov. Palin's greatest asset. In a nation seeking "change" and "hope" who better to wave that banner than an ignorant, arrogant, (and perhaps angry) Governor hockey-mom with a grassroots-local-type of a appeal? This drama reminds me of articles I read back in 2000 during the primary leading up to then Gov. Bush's nomination. In one of the interviews with local small-town residents of some state (South Carolina I think), one such citizen responded to the reporter stating that he would be voting for Bush because *ahem* Bush once ran a Major League Baseball team and this citizen liked baseball. In other words, a lot of people - really, a lot - vote for someone that they can relate to, rather than someone that is the most capable person to lead the nation. It's a concept that the RNC understands all too well, but one that the DNC has never seemed to figure out. Exhibit A: President George W. Bush. Exhibit B: Two terms(!). QED.

Speaking of President Bush... he beat two opposing tickets that both featured two Democratic senators. Does the DNC (and really it must have been the DNC pulling the trigger on the Biden pick) honestly believe that another two-Senator ticket is going to be enough to get it done this time? With the Palin pick reaping dividends, I have my doubts... and I'm sure Sen. Obama is having doubts (about the Biden pick) as well.

So what does Gov. Palin bring to the table? She has single-handedly re-invigorated the GOP base that were always lukewarm to the "RINO" McCain. Furthermore, she strengthens Sen. McCain's bonafides with respect to energy policy... where McCain has a clear advantage. And what does Sen. Biden bring to the table? Not much really. However, he detracts significantly from Sen. Obama's reasonable foreign policy strengths. If you judge the presidential candidates by the choices they make rather than the promises they can easily break, then Sen. McCain makes a very strong case with his VP choice. Sen. Obama bombed with Biden.

So will (as a friend of mine suggests) Gov. Palin either resign or sabotage McCain's campaign? That would imply the Palin pick is incredibly bad... worse than Cheney (2000)? or Edwards (2004)? or even Dan Quayle (1988)? None of those three resigned and two of those three were winners, yet... all three of those are arguably much poorer picks than Gov. Palin (imho). Palin resign? The selection of Gov. Palin is not even the worst VP pick in 2008.

Eliana's (Half-)Birthday
Eliana turned 4½ today. We have not traditionally celebrated half-birthdays in the past. However, since the rest of the family has had a "real" birthday in the last 6 weeks, we decided to make it a special day for Eliana. It was Kristy's idea really (to her credit); the rest of us were happy to play along. Here are some snaps taken this evening of the (half-)birthday girl:

Some gratuitous shots of the other two kids:

Eliana got a few presents... all of them were $3 or less. Stuff like new t-shirts, a new skirt, and the like. She also got a small box of (very) cheap costume jewelry. The girls put the jewelry on and struck a few poses for the camera:

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Final Trim
The painters have finished painting the trim. I snapped a couple of pictures in the evening just before dusk, so the sunset gave the trim a bit of rosy tone to it. But it's a very dull cream color, not the slight pink that is pictured at left below.

Now that the trim is done I scaled up on the roof and re-installed our antenna for the benefit of over-the-air HD reception:

The painters are essentially done now. They still have to paint the gazebo in the backyard, the front door (a Chianti red color), and put one more coat of lacquer on the garage doors. And, of course, we still don't have that door installed in our master bedroom (pending installation of the steel beam), so once that is in, then the painters will need to come back and touch up around that door.

Holding Olivia
When Olivia wants to be held:

"I hold you Daddy."

or

"I hold you Mimi."

Translation: "Daddy/Mimi, will you pick me up hold me?"

Funny thing is that Eliana said the same exact thing at her age.

2008 Neighborhood HOA Barbeque
This annual neighborhood barbeque was held this evening. We alternate locations for the BBQ between the "west side" of the neighborhood and the "east side" of the neighborhood. This year it fell to the "east side" properties to host the event, e.g. roll out our grills from our back yards to the street. I usually take quite a bit of pictures at these events for the benefit of everyone else, but I was busy on the grill and forgot to take pictures like I had planned. However, Kristy snapped a few pictures, including this one of Olivia after she had eating a handful of Doritos.

Overall, the event was a success, though several longtime residents were unable to attend... much to our collective disappointment. I'm not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but those that did not attend were the residents that have older kids (or no kids). The rest of us enjoyed a good time and the kids had an especially good time. We have had 4 homes recently turnover in ownership (well, within the last 18 months anyway) and all 4 of the new owners have younger kids and the parents by and large are the same age as Kristy and myself.

Since the party was held in the cul-de-sac right in front of our house, we were asked to provide tours of the new attic and deck to several of our neighbors. That was a lot of fun since many of them have the same exact (or very similar) floor plan that we once had. The attic is impressive (if I don't mind saying so myself) and so the tours were all very well received.

(Update Tue Sep 16 16:24:59 PDT 2008 // fixed several spelling errors)

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Painting the Trim
A couple members of the painting crew started work on painting the trim today while the other one finished up painting the siding the new house trim color. Here are some pictures to document the progress made:

Movie Review: I, Robot

Title:	I, Robot (2004)
Rating:	7/10

Kristy and I watched Will's Smith's I, Robot tonight and both of us thoroughly enjoyed it. The movie is loosely based on Isaac Asimov's written work and is centered around Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics: 1) a robot may not injure a human, 2) a robot must obey orders from humans, except where such orders would violate Law #1, and 3) a robot must protect it's own existence insofar as it does not violate Laws #1 and #2. The theme of the movie explores the somewhat common science fiction meme of machines turning against their human inventors (a la 2001, The Matrix trilogy, etc).

The movie production is very good. The futuristic city of Chicago, circa 2035, looks great and the cars 30 years from now look pretty sweet (kudos to Audi for the eye-catching product placement). And I must say, the computer generated aspects of the movie integrated very well into the flow of the movie. I was never distracted by a "that looks so fake" moment. Looks fabulous on Blu-Ray.

Summary: First time I had seen it, but if it's been awhile. Grab it on the Blu-Ray and watch it again.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: New House Color
So, yesterday we decided on a paint color: one called "Cowboy Boots" available at Lowe's. The painters matched it up and applied it on two sides of the house today... see pics below:

I'm wringing my hands about the color. It doesn't look as good as I thought it would where the new color is immediately adjacent to the small garage door and also where the paint is up against the soffit material on the rear patio. But, I guess I'll get used to it... maybe.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Second Coat of Stain
A second coat of stain was put on all of the new cedar material today. It has darkened up considerably, but may need one more coat to get it as dark as the old stuff. Perhaps we didn't color match well?

To be fair... in the picture above, the new material is in the sun and the old material is mostly in the shade. I'll have to give this a closer inspection tomorrow at midday.

Berkeley's First Day of 1st Grade
School started today. Berkeley has been looking forward to this day for a few weeks. Here are a couple of pictures:

You can't see it, but inside his backpack is his 3-ring binder filled with Pokémon cards he is anxious to show all his friends that ride the bus. He came home with a proud report that he had lunch in the cafeteria (for the first time) and "Guess what Dad? I had two recesses!" Wednesdays are short days here, so tomorrow is his first "full day" of school. He'll leave at 8:45am and won't get back until 3:45pm.

Brown-eyed Susans, Blue-eyed Eliana
Eliana was outside (coincidentally) at the time I was snapping a few pictures of the painting that was done today. She insisted that I take a picture of her standing in the flowers.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: First Coat of Stain
We are finally starting to stain and paint the exterior of our home. This is the culminating step for two projects: our attic conversion and our back patio and deck. We aren't completely ready for the paint around the back patio and deck, but we can't put off the painting crew any longer without getting so far back in their schedule that they might have to push us back until next spring. We are still waiting for the stell beam to be installed in our family room so that we can cut in our master bedroom door out to the deck. And there is a bunch of siding repair around the future door that has yet to be done as well. *sigh*

Today the first coat of stain was applied to all the cedar siding and cedar shingles. See below:

We are also trying to decide on a house color, but nothing seems to really "pop" out at us.

Pictured from left to right: "Chocolate Cocoa", "Gardener's Soil", "Roasted Coffee", and "Cowboy Boots".

Family Day Out
For Labor Day today we traveled to downtown Seattle. Our first stop was at the Pacific Science Center IMAX theater where we took in an 11:00am showing of Fly Me to the Moon in 3D. The kids seemed to like it, though Olivia (predictably) became bored with it about 30 minutes into the film. After the movie, we rode the Seattle monorail to the heart of downtown and walked over to Pacific Place, where we ate at Mexico Veracruz. Our meal there was very fine. Before boarding the monorail to ride back to the Seattle Center, we took a 30-minute horse-drawn carriage ride around a few blocks of downtown Seattle. The girls absolutely loved the carriage ride; Berkeley said it was "kinda boring". Heh.

We forgot the camera and left it at home. Oops.

Movie Review: Fly Me to the Moon

Title:	Fly Me to the Moon (2008)
Rating:	4/10

We spent part of our Labor Day seeing the 3D IMAX movie Fly Me to the Moon today. I'm not sure if the goal of the film was to be an entertaining kids movie or an educational documentary about the Apollo missions. Since this movie is only available in 3D IMAX, I kind of presumed that the film fits more in the mold of the latter rather than the former. As a kids movie it was just OK. Much of the non-space-mission stuff seemed like it was included to show just off the 3D aspect of the movie; which was actually pretty neat. If the goal of the film was to be an educational documentary then it did a very good job of showing/describing each part and phase of the first Apollo moon landing including an account of man's first steps on the moon.