House Pictures; After

Here are a few "after" pictures... but we'll definitely post more. They don't really do it justice. We've moved more furniture in since these were taken, but it gives an idea of the progress we made.

Living room. The ceiling use to have the "popcorn ceiling" texture, but Rob put on the space suit and gas mask and scraped it all off in one long evening (yey, me!). Evidently the fireplace use to have an insert (a big metal wood stove-type device), but one of the previous occupants took it out and left it a big void.

Hannah and Christina doing what they do best :-)

Dining room with new chandelier. We have great evening sunshine in this room.

Jude's "pink" room - we have a fun crib set now, more pictures later. Rachel bought a great orange-ish, brownish set. And we also have the Harrod's teddy bear from Rachel's trip to London.

Kitchen: I know it may not "seem" much to look at, but we did a huge amount of work (mostly Rachel, Linda and Jeanne ... and Josh and Chris). Jeanne re-textured the gross space left behind when Josh took the cabinet off from above the fridge. Soon we hope to have a new fridge and stove sometime in the next year or so.

Kitchen again

Our new "kitchen nook" area. We mostly eat here. This kitchen is about 2x the size of our last cute rental house kitchen.

House Pictures: During

Here are some of our work party pictures. These are mostly from the 2nd weekend. We forgot to take pictures on the 1st weekend. There's no way we could have done this all in two weekends without everyone's help. We don't have pictures of Josh and Jeremy (our British friend), but they were definitely there and helping out.

Mom & Rob sanding cabinets. The process for each cabinet door and cabinet frame: 1) course sand, 2) fine sand, 3) pre-stain, 4) 1st coat lacquer, 5) 2nd coat lacquer, 6) sealer. Props to Linda, Rachel and Jeanne.

Chris, the master pin-nailer

Dad enjoying a momentary respite from painting the dining room

Dad working into the evening - he just moved everything in a few minutes earlier but thought a break was for wusses

Angela helped Jeanne paint the inside of the cabinets - they used to be blue and pink!

Jeanne working hard on the kitchen cabinets

Dad painting. I also included this picture to show the fabulous chandelier included with our home.

House Pictures: Before

Here are a few long awaited before, during, and after photos of our new home in t-town. First, before. The house was built in 1925, so there have been lots of previous occupants who did a real great job of "personalizing" the place. If you think this blue paint is "unique," you'd be even more impressed by the key-lime green underneath it.

From living room looking into dining room. Note the rough patch on the left side of the wall. Imagine that rough wall patch scattered throughout the house. Why would they be all over the house? Your guess is as good as ours. But it's because of those patches, and numerous other strange wall issues, that we had to call in professional wall texturers to smooth everything out.

Busy dining room with old chandelier. We still have the chandelier in the basement if anyone wants it. Let us know soon before it goes in the trash.

Dining room again - looking into the living room area.

Jude's pink room. It looks much better with the neutral beige/latte tone.

Old orange kitchen with plastic nobs! Now you can see why Rachel felt it was an imperative to "just do something" to the kitchen. Imagine that picture circling 360 degrees and all around you is orange cabinets and big white nobs. Not a relaxing way to make a meal.

Blue living room. We tore out the shelf above the window. Why? We just haven't been around long enough to accumulate so many knick-knacks.

America's # 1 Killer: Chocolate Cake

America, nay, The World is under a threat bigger than terrorism, war, global warming, AIDS, and BPA leaching from Nalgene bottles. The biggest threat to mankind is chocolate cake. Every year more citizens of this world fall victim to its yummy, decadent succulence. We've always known that heart disease, obesity, and type II diabetes together account for more American deaths than all other ailments combined. But we're now seeing the sinfully delicious killer strike more and more of the most vulnerable youths and elderly in places as far away as Holland, Bavaria, Oompa Loompa Land, and China.

My friend, Todd, chooses to ignore the peril of chocolate cake. He believes free will allows us to choose between eating the cake or ignoring its lascivious allure. Don't listen to people like him. Their fallacious spin doctoring is mere argumentum ad ignorantiam and they will try to confuse you by appealing to your lust rather than your sensibilities. Don't be ignorant to this man-made travesty. End this arteriosclerotic menace before it strikes you and the people you love.

Like Jiffy Pop

June really flew by! Amazing... Rachel is a little more pregnant (her belly looks like Jiffy Pop - Jude must be playing a game of hacky sack in there), and we moved into our new home in North Tacoma. We closed around the middle of the month but immediately began the following major projects:

1) Scraped the popcorn ceilings in the living room and dining room
2) Textured all the walls in the downstairs (professional texturizers)
3) Painted all the walls and ceilings in the downstairs (3 coats total)
4) Resurfaced all the kitchen cabinets and installed new hardware
5) Installed washer and dryer
6) Moved everything into the house!
7) Am I missing something? I dunno, but just thinking of all of that makes me tired. We've been installing curtains, buying extra furniture, spraying down the outside of the house, pruning the arboretum that came with the house, taking trips to the dump... it's crazy.

We could not have done this without the following special hard workers:

• Mom (Linda)
• Mom (Carol)
• Dad (Bob)
• Chris*
• Jeanne*
• Josh
• Andrew, the traveling Brit that Mom (Linda) met on the Amtrak train somewhere between Klamath Falls and Eugene. Very funny... I may write a special story about Andrew.
• Angela
• Hannah & Christina (they helped eat our food :-)

*Chris and Jeanne had so much fun the first time that they took 2 days off and came back the next week!

We'll definitely post photos in a few days. It's fun to see the before and after "greatest generation" style make way for the "gen x" style.

A Sunny Day in Seattle

We took advantage of the sunny weather the other day by taking Jackson and Jude to Lincoln Park (in West Seattle). Behind me is the Olympic Mountains. Rachel and I really need to get over there, but between Jude and moving into a house, such a journey might be delayed by another summer. (the Hoh Rainforest must wait...)

Rachel looking adorable and coy on the park bench.

A close up of Jackson, Jude (at 6 months along), Puget Sound, and the Olympics. We're really going to miss W. Seattle!

Danelle's Wedding

Congrats to Rob's sister, Dani, on her marriage to Adam. A couple of weeks ago, on a beautiful sunny day in Portland, the various families on Rob's side got together to celebrate and festivitize Dani and Adam. Dani's life story is almost Oprah-worthy. Truly inspiring. We love her and wish her and Adam the best in their new home in Longview, WA.

Mitch, Matt, and Nick entertaining guests as they arrive at the rehearsal. Rachel took this photo after telling them she wasn't going to take the picture "until you actually smile." This picture is probably my favorite. I can't help but smile.


We're excited to have a real picture (not a hand-out photo). And Rachel is doing very well, thanks for asking. She's six months along with little Jude and looking more like 3 months along!


A really great family photo courtesy of Adam and Dani's photo album. This is most of the tribe, but believe it or not there are more missing.

New Home

Rachel's mom once said you should separate major life changes by at least two years. But we think that's way to slow. Here's a link to the house we're buying. It closes June 10th.

Ode to Nau

I'm very sad to hear the news that upscale-urban outdoor retailer Nau has closed up shop only a year after opening. My good friend let us know on Friday that his job at the home office and all of his colleagues' jobs had been completely dissolved with less than 48 hours' notice. My friend introduced Rachel and me to Nau several months ago, and I immediately found their clothes to be perfect for my slender frame. Since then I've been one of their biggest patrons. As I look down at my extremely well manufactured Nau jacket and wool pants, I don't understand how the investors would allow Nau to simply stop production. It just doesn't make any sense. Where will I go now? North Face is so pedestrian, and all those clothing stores in the mall (ala Banana Republic & J Crew) have no personality and are made of extremely poor quality fabric for pear-shaped men.

Quick Nau highlights: start-up, investor money, lots of press, cult following, credit crunch, investor money stopped (huge missed opportunity & super dumb non-visionaries), cash flow = $0, 48 hour termination notices, very sad patrons, like canceling Seinfeld after the first season, big gap in the apparel world.

Tally-ho, Eh!

Last week Rachel was in London and Rob was in Vancouver. Yes, I know that seems strange since, a) we're no longer world travelers, and b) Rachel is five months pregnant. But, a) "it is what it is" (voted by USA Today as the #1 cliche of 2004), and b) we really had no choice. So we boarded our little Jackson, said our farewells to each other, and went our separate ways.

Rachel spent the 9 hour flight in business-class luxury - a necessity given her medical issue (child in belly). She arrived well-rested at Heathrow on Sunday morning, checked into a Sheraton near Trafalgar Square, and began a really enjoyable work-week. Besides meeting folks from the London office, Rachel reports eating lots of great food, including Starbucks, Pret a Manger, and Wagamama. Those lucky enough to live in American's Northeast already have access to those last two restaurants. Rachel was impressed by the healthiness and freshness of food in London. Whole juices, fresh veggies, and scrumptious meats seem to be more common over there than over here. We hope the trend makes it over to this side of the pond. Rachel reports hearing of some football matches in the area (Chelsea and Arsenal) and she made the time to find me (Rob) a snazzy slim-fit dress shirt with French cuffs... so of course she also had to get me a pair of cuff links. And I admit I'm very hooked to the English dress shirts. I've already found the company's website, priced it out, and am collecting my next order (Let me know if you want to go in with me on the "4 for 100 GBP" deal). Rachel also visited the Tower of London, where she took the following pictures:

Tower of London

Nice Flowers somewhere near St. James' Place

Tower Bridge


The day after Rachel's flight to London, Rob hopped in a taxi to Seattle's train station. Yes indeed, I took a train up to Vancouver. A new experience for me here in America. The Amtrak between Seattle and Vancouver was about four hours - roughly the same as driving to Vancouver, but without the long delay at the boarder. Once in Vancouver, I checked into the Kimpton and got to work for the next few days. Unfortunately I don't have as many snazzy stories as Rachel. I was slightly disillusioned from my long-held notion that Vancouver was sort of part of America. I heard my share of "American's take all of our energy" and "Canadian cattle was banned for two years!" and "America is our biggest trade partner" and the likes. I realized then and there that while Canadians act similarly to Americans, their world-view is probably more closely aligned to the British and even the Romanians than to Americans.

Did you just say Religion? Probably not, but I'll mention it anyway: I was impressed by Canada's personal convictions towards their Christian faith. When I explained my bizarre childhood of moving over 40 times (my dad was a church planter - someone who starts churches in new communities and shepherds them for a year or two before moving to another community), several different people started talking about the churches they attend, their parents who are pastors ("I'm a PK too!") and their brothers who are youth pastors. The fact that Canadians tend to view faith and Christianity more similarly to Americans than do the British or Romanians added to my metaphysical "what does it mean to be Canadian" dilemma .

While I sit and ponder the meaning of all of it, below are a couple of simple photos from my camera phone:

Downtown Vancouver (aka, Metropolis from Smallville)

Inukshuk statue (you'll see this in the 2010 Winter Olympics)

Springtime At Last

What a remarkable spring day - the finest day in Seattle since around October of last year. At last, the winter has passed! We made it! It's been a tough time these past five months, but today Rachel and I donned our short sleeve shirts and headed to Alki (northern tip of W. Seattle. We live in W. Seattle). Here are a couple pictures from our part of town. This is what our family and friends miss when they don't come visit :-)

Obligatory hold-out photo. We really need a camera tripod!

Little J loves the spring and summer. He's been packing some weight over the winter months due to our great antipathy towards walking in the winter rain.

Rachel with a teeny tiny view of the Olympic Mountains in the back. Over the summer we'll have more pictures of the Olympics and Cascades.

Another fun view of the Seattle skyline from W. Seattle. When Jackson and I ran to the end of the dock, he just about jumped in.

Just for kicks, I added this super cute photo of Rachel trying on an outfit for her trip to London. She totally looks like an Austin Powers stand-in.

Introducing Jude

Something big is on its way. Day by inexorable day, it grows bigger, stronger, more masculine, and less like a sea monkey. The “thing” is Jude Michal, our T-minus 21 week old little tiger taking shape inside Rachel’s cute little frame. ETA is 9/3/08. Those closest to us may already know, but today we’re announcing to the world the upcoming birth of our little baby boy.

The 411: Several months ago, Rachel admonished that while it felt like the time was right to start a family, my job – which literally required 90% travel – precluded us moving in that direction. Not only did I heed Rachel’s warning-slash-suggestion, but I did it quickly! About two months later I started a new job, and little “J” began his journey into this world. Over the next couple of months, we kept our little guy a secret from even our parents until nearly the end of the first trimester.

The last few months of our youth now quickly trickle away, but we couldn’t be any more excited. We’ve lived overseas in China and Romania, had a fantastic adventure in Austin and Houston, graduated from business schools, found exciting jobs up in Seattle / Tacoma, and we are now ready to take on the challenges and joys of parenthood.

Next week Rachel is taking Jude with her to London (Rob’s in Vancouver, BC the same week but that’s not as exciting). While in England, Jude will enjoy fish n chips, Pret a Manger, Starbucks (of course), and perhaps Jamie Oliver’s restaurant.

Our friends and family can be sure of more fun news and information as it occurs.

Coming Soon: The Next Big Thing

Introducing Jude, the next major topic of conversation in the Mardock family. Details to follow shortly.

Update: More details coming soon. We're very excited to have something new, unique, and exciting to talk about on our family blog. 7 out of 10 people will agree that it's a bigger deal than our Yorkie, Jackson.

1 Year Older, 2 Years Wiser

Tomorrow I turn 30 and old. Wo is me... Sigh... But enough of my pity party: here are two fun events from the past couple of weeks:
1) Star Wars Party
Chris is even older than I am. For his midlife moment he chose a Star Wars themed birthday party. Guess which characters we are. As always, Rachel looks cute even wearing a drape on her head and lipstick dots on her cheeks. I was trying not to smile, hence my goofy smirk.

Darth Maul Dip (we also made Bubble City Salad, Double Darth Dogs, Han Burgers, and Tie Fighter Somethings... Many better pictures available on Chris' blog)


2) Family Reunion in Medford
Rob and Rachel at Jeff & Desi's wedding. The family had a fun time reconnecting, including a special visitation from Andy and Joanne, in Oregon from Florida.

4 girls getting ready, with rare appearance by Joanne


We also visited Mitch, Kel, and the kids in Dallas (OR) but once again neglected to take meaningful photos. Just one snapshot of Kelleigh hopping into her Jeep ... not really "worth a thousand words."

1999 Flashback

Some fun OLD photos we found of our trip to China back in 1999:
Rob @ Tienanmen
Rachel in Xi'an
Group Photo with Buddha
Pictures borrowed from our sponsoring program, CCCU's CSP.

These photos go way back to the pre-millennial days when Rachel and I were just considering ourselves a couple. Very exciting and frightening at the same time. At the end of the semester, we figured if we could survive a relationship in China, we could survive a relationship anywhere. And that theory was strangely accurate: making a relationship work in the USA was so much easier! During the trip to China (Fall 1999), we spent most of our time in Xi'an, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. We visited many other cities along the way.

Our favorite moments in China (in no particular order):
1) Top of the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai
2) Trekking around Xi'an on the famurs "City Wall" (you're not suppose to go around the whole thing , but we did).
3) 37-hour train ride from Guangzhou to Xi'an
4) Horseback riding in Gansu Province
5) Tai Chi lessons (cloudy hands!)
6) Street food vendors (hepatitis on a stick)
7) Beijing: Great Wall and Rachel's 21st birthday bash (same day)
8) Beijing (Continued): Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Ming Tombs, Silk Alley (which is now lame. No more "authentic" North Face copies. Now they're flagrantly "Noryth Face.")
9) Xi'an's Old District / Muslim Quarters / Terra Cotta Soldiers
10) Starbucks in Beijing. You wouldn't understand unless you lived in a developing country with little familiar around you, then one day seeing the blessed Green Mermaid in a window across the street after being away from home for 4 months.

Temporary Space Filler

Here are the only thoughts going through my head at this time:
1) My wife is really cute and smart. She works hard and I cherish the brief four hour window we see each other between 6:30pm and 10:30pm. I love getting ready for the day together (between 6:25am and 7:15am). And I look forward to us seizing the weekend with a trip to the mountains, downtown, Oregon, the beach, or even to a humble local coffee shop.
2) We like Jackson, our little 8-lb bundle of energy. No matter how long or tired our day was, Jackson always greets us with a supercharged tail wag, a few hops of excitement, and a low growly-gurgly roar.
3) I don't like to write about myself.

Real Estate Mess: Scapegoating

There must be no crisis, because everyone is convinced they didn't do anything. Why don't their Pollyanna attitudes make me feel warm and fuzzy? Greenspan, Bernanke, Bush, Century 21, mortgage brokers, appraisers, Countrywide, Moody's, FICO, WAMU, speculators, and my favorite: HGTV and "Flip That House," have all come out to say they were just victims of a systematic shift in the underpinnings of our socio-economic reality.

So if it's any consolation, I'm happy to take the blame. My bad. While Rachel and I were in Romania herding sheep and teaching their Gen Y to speak idiosyncratic American English, I was plotting a diabolical scheme to secretly signal to the Fed to keep interest rates low after the tech bubble burst and convincing banks to unload their liabilities into investment vehicles (CDOs) that people all around the world could buy in small "risk-free" chuncks (according to S&P), thereby aleviating the barriers to entry for sub-prime borrowers and creating a supersized proletariat uprising of home buyers and flippers - egged on by dreams of riches as promised by HGTV. As you can imagine, Rachel and I had quite a bit of extra time in the Peace Corps.

Online Investment Portfolio Optimizer Tool

If anyone knows where to find an online tool to optimize your investment portfolio, please send the link my way. I'm tired of guessing: "Hmm, I think I'll take 62% of Diversified Value Fund #3, 30% of International, and 8% of Bond Fund #A ... no Bond Fund B, yes! Now I'm diversified!"

For a company like Yahoo / Google Finance, Reuters, MarketWatch, etc, it would be super easy to develop one. Just enter the security ticker symbols (or if no ticket symbol exists, just enter a few assumptions about your asset), and voila - it tells you exactly what percentage of each asset to invest in to optimize your portfolio (the easiest way is to just maximize the sharpe ratio based on historical returns).

These companies already have the historical price information, from which you can calculate variance (risk), and return (reward). All they have to do is create an asset optimization function. This may sound like bizarre jargon, but I'm not a financial wiz and even I created an asset optimization function for up to 6 assets (my story in a previous post). Just have someone brighter than I make a function that incorporates more than 6.

Final thought: if this doesn't exist for free, then whichever company develops the investment optimizer tool first (it's super easy) will be rewarded by good press and TONS of money from users and advertisers. These do exist, but they either cost money and don't use historical information, or they do and they're closely guarded by Wall Street money managers (even though it isn't hard replicate!)

How Can We Get Your House?

A funny 82-yr old lady approached Rachel and me today while we ate our scrumptious goodies at the grocery store. Feeble yes, but also spry and with an ascorbic wit. She is the kind of person who feeds pigeons and talks about the good old days in the Great Depression, when everyone in her Minnesota town came together as a social collective to help one another. She mentions she lives alone in Alki (beach-front area of W. Seattle). She laments her lonely life and blesses us as our conversation is therapeutic to her soul. Eventually, after we pry ourselves away from a 30-second conversation that somehow stretched into 15 minutes, Rachel and I walk back out to the car where I tell Rachel, "the whole time she was talking at us, I thought to myself, 'how can we get her house!'"

Domino's Pizza Tracker

We have a new best friend - the Domino's Pizza Tracker. The other day we were tired, hungry, and possessed nothing in our fridge except eggs and mayo. Pizza sounded good, so we decided to give Dominos a chance. We're glad we did! You can now order your pizza online with:

1. all of the coupons right on the website, one click away,
2. an incredibly user-friendly pizza topping arranging tool thing (it's hard to describe), and
   
3. the ability to pay online with your credit card.

But the very best part of the experience was after you place your order. Domino's takes you to the "Pizza Tracker" where you watch your pizza being topped, baked, boxed, and delivered. Within 30 minutes of pushing [place order], and 10 minutes after the pizza tracker displayed "delivery," the pizza was at our front door. Amazing!

Image borrowed from T&S

Video Church

New trend, or just really bad luck?

In our "no surrender" battle to find a church in Seattle, today we stumbled into a second church where worshipers (hereby referred to as "spectators") stare blankly up at a big screen projection of a pastor's giant head - located 10 miles away at the "main campus." Even more oddly, the video feed wasn't live, but a playback from earlier in the morning. The A/V guy at the back of the sanctuary literally pushed the [play] button and the pastor's image appeared on the screen (with a little blue caption for a few seconds: DVD begin).

We were immediately disheartened, as a normal, traditional churchgoer might be. Is this not normal, or are we just really out of touch with modern evangelistic trends? For one, if we wanted to see a pastor's mug projected onto a screen, we would have stayed home and watched Joel Osteen in the comfort of our living room. For another, the entire purpose of church is to fellowship with other believers. Like Dietrich Bonhoeffer said from his Nazi jail cell (paraphrase): "you should be lucky to go to any church (you could be in jail like me)." Bonhoeffer emphasized the importance of fellowshipping in a church. But how can you truly fellowship when the people around you are agog, jaws open and eyes glazed over at the screen atop the stage? I dunno... I guess it works for some. For us - who don't consider ourselves spectators or voyeurs - it's back to square one in the church search. This experiences makes us understand why so many people don't go to church.

Churches in Seattle?

Do you know of a good church in Seattle? We thought we'd use our public blog to ask this important question. I know Seattle isn't known as a religious place, but over 3 million people live in the greater area - there's gotta be something here! We've lived here for about 8 months and have visited over a dozen churches. One very popular church we visited showed the pastor literally projected onto a screen (he was preaching from a remote location north of downtown). Another church we visited was way out of our comfort zone: shouting in tongues, people falling down, "spirit-led" laughter, and an indoor water baptism all in one hour. So we're feeling pretty isolated, and it isn't because we're not trying to integrate ourselves into the community.

We don't think of ourselves as picky people when it comes to churches, but maybe we are (?) ... We're just trying to find a church where they teach and study the bible - not preach a topical message that applies to a select downtrodden few and ends up turning the Good News into a therapy session.

Finding a church is hard when you're new to the area. Too many churches have denominational and philosophical baggage. We love the following churches. They are alive, hip, not lame, and not a tacky production:

• Medford, OR: Trail Christian Fellowship, Applegate Christian Fellowship, Rogue Valley Fellowship
  
• Portland, OR: River West Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship
  
• Austin, TX: Gateway Church
  

Politiking

Why are our presidential candidates decided by random people in Iowa and South Carolina? That's lame. Obviously, the same goes with the general election. Why are our presidents only elected by people in Ohio and Florida? The electoral college and primary systems are really, really ... really, super lame. I think the democratic processes in China and Iran are more transparent. This isn't a political statement, just an observation.

To Me, Christmas Means...

Family _ Fellowship _ Coffee _ Food _ Drama (ask Chris for endoscope pics) _ Giving more than you receive (negative cash flow) _ Board games _ Rescue Christmas CD _ Crowds _ Activities _ Anticipation

Every year, Christmas means something slightly different. When I was younger, my dad and uncle stomped on the roof yelling, "ho! ho! ho!" to signal the advent of the blessed day of gift receiving. If only we could maintain that same level of excitement - but alas the older you get, the more other attributes of Christmas move to the forefront (like board games and coffee):

Pressos. A fantastic little manual espresso device. You can only find these on eBay now. Jeanne and Chris influenced Rob and Rachel to get one, who influenced Katherine and Jerrod to get one (not shown here). Andy and Joanne have the third one shown.

Chris says it better than I can explain

Rachel and Jackson with Mike and Laura's Yorkshires (Murphy and Abbie)

Andy, home from Florida, shows the love

An Unsettling Trend

This blog's gradually decreasing number of posts has unsettled more than a couple family and friend voyeurs. Rachel and I recognize this. We see an unsettling trend between busyness at work and number of compelling things to write about. We'll try to write more fascinating tales of our lives as they arrive (including, possibly a Christmas update?), but in the meantime, here are a couple of deep thoughts to ponder:

Deep Thought # 1: Maybe we should praise single motherhood and teenage pregnancy. Brittney's little sister's bun in the oven should be a celebration, not a scandal. I applaud anyone with the conviction and grit to bring a new baby into this world in spite of the cultural climate that tolerates terminated pregnancies over actual childbirth. Maybe I'll write to James Dobson and tell him he needs to convince religious leaders to preach tolerance and celebration of prostitots and their big bellies. For another reason, the natural (non-immigration) US birthrate is very low, and the more children we have, the better off will be our future economy. The next time you see an unwed teenage mother, give her a high-five. Think of the many times more numerous teenagers (and their parents) who believe shame trumps a baby.

Deep Thought # 2: I'm disturbed by the trend of parents to teach their children to "do what you want" and "follow your heart." As a result, little kids decide they want to be artists, musicians, bartenders, counselors, and sociologists. At the same time, children in India and China are influenced by their parents to become needed. Science and math take a little extra effort, and children need to be encouraged by their parents to look harder at these "hard skill" classes.

Here's a secret, until I was in college, I wanted to be a musician and a teacher. I was going to be the best band director in Texas, and my loving parents encouraged me to be the best director I could be. But the world is a tough and competitive place. I analyzed the future and realized it probably wasn't what was best for me or my future family. Several years later, I'm an analyst. Rachel's an analyst too! As a kid, who says, "I want to be an analyst when I grow up!" But the truth is, it's very cool indeed! Rachel and I get to look at numbers and tell stories with them. Those stories influence business leaders and change processes and strategy.

My prayer is this - that parents will teach their children to do what is best for society, for America, or for their future families. Not necessarily for what children think is the most fun or the easiest path to a mediocre level of success. Be patriotic! Teach your kids to love math, science or a trade!

Final Thought: Not a deep thought, but based on last night's results from Iowa, I think it would be totally rad if the presidential race was between Obama and Huckabee / McCain. It would be the first time in my brief existence that I would be excited no matter who won!
(See Chris, we keep telling you that we're "independent" not "liberal")

Family Festivities

Rob and Rachel like to think of themselves as extreme weekend warriors (in a cosmopolitan way). Until the moment when our family expands by a kid or two, we have tried to see as much of the world as possible. Although Seattle has been home for only six months, we've seen more of the greater Puget Sound area than many locals. We have been known to plan and execute weekend trips to Dallas, Oregon after a five minute discussion. October and November have been no exceptions. We managed to pack an absurd amount of activities into eight small weekends including 1 trip to Tampa to see Andy and Joanne, 1 trip to Houston to see Katherine and Jarrod, 1 "Octoberfest" weekend that included bratwursts and a corn maze in Woodinville, 1 lazy weekend of family photos (Photogenic Family), 1 trip to the Oregon coast for Rachel's grandparents' 60th anniversary, 1 birthday weekend for Rachel, and 1 upcoming Mardock Family Thanksgiving Extravaganza (pictures in a week or so) in beautiful Porterville, CA. Below are a selection of pictures and links to pictures from the past few weeks.

Andy and Joanne recently moved to Tampa, FL for a big promotion. We visited them a few weeks ago and saw Myakka State Park (closer than the Everglades). Below, we're crossing a "canopy walk" in the trees. We also saw gators, wild pigs, and about a hundred hungry turkey vultures. We also visited the Tampa Bellamy's favorite coffee shop, Sumatra Coffee, and enjoyed a great iced mocha. Late night the next day we visited a highly rated coffee shop close to USF with the worlds most expensive coffee. I won't revel the name, but I did submit a clever review here. In addition to coffee, Andy, Joanne, Rachel, and Rob intricately carved pumpkins for a few hours and ate very good BBQ at a local dive. Fun times all around. If you're wondering what to do one weekend, go visit Andy and Joanne in Tampa. I'm sure they would be happy to have visitors.

Canopy Walk, leading to a scary-high observation tower

• View from the scary-high observation tower. Rachel felt dizzy
• Myakka pictures: guidebook to Myakka, Andy with four of the hundred turkey vultures, Rob and Rachel posing, gator and marsh
• Very Amazing Carved Pumpkins, part 1 and part 2
• Andy and Joanne torture their cat - graphic image
• Sumatra Coffee in Tampa

A couple of weeks later, Rob and Rachel visited their good friends in Houston. Below are Katherine, Jerrod, Ryan, and Rachel. We also saw Jude, Suzy, Ejituru, and Zach. It was exciting to be back in our home of two years. It always feels strange when you return after a long time. Like everything will have somehow changed. But the only change was that Rachel and I felt a big warm fuzzy inside for being back "home."

The best part about Houston is the people

• Corn maze and kettle corn, part of our little "Octoberfest"

Obligatory beach photo at Yragui 60th anniversary (Rob's always the one taking the picture)

• Jackson has hops, at the beach
• Desi and Jeff - recently engaged - at the Yragui reunion. Congratulations!

Rachel turned one year the same a couple of weeks ago, and family from the Bellamy and Mardock side came over to say hello. Unfortunately, Rob's habit of taking candid snapshots reveals none good enough to post here (unless you want to see a photo of Chris tormenting Jackson with a party favor).

• Rachel's birthday weekend - a trip to Stumptown's new Seattle location

Jeanne made the amazing spice cake from the recent Sunset Magazine cover