2/28/08

Tomorrow I have the big Charrette for the St. Andrew's housing project in Bellevue. This should be a long meeting - but hopefully it will clarify the program and massing of the building.

I met Heidi and Logan at Red Robin's for lunch. Logan seemed very happy. Heidi said he'd had a sort of on again, off again morning. He tantrumed from time to time, but was otherwise happy. He had fun at Red Robins - he ate some french fries, some apple slices and a little bit of grilled cheese. Mostly he hopped around on his booth seat and had fun.

This morning he woke up very early - around 5:30 - crying. I think he had a nightmare. He's not sick, and he wasn't wet or cold. I went in to comfort him, but he wouldn't have it. He wanted mom. He looked up at me and said "mommie!" Then he got worked up to the point I thought he could throw up. I realize now that I panicked a bit, based on previous experience. Heidi had to sit with him for about half an hour before he went back to sleep.

2/23/08

Logan threw up again last night. I'm feeling like this isn't a big deal, but it's somewhat worrying. I guess kids throw up a lot. Logan's been throwing up about once every other week. From reading other parent's comments on the web that's not entirely uncommon for normal, healthy kids.

Logan loves looking at my moles. He points at them on my neck. I have a "big mole" and a "little mole."

2/21/07

Heidi, Logan, Chazz and I just got back from our trip to the Scottish Lakes High Camp yesterday. We spent most of three days up at the camp, a collection of cabins at 5,000 feet in the Cascade Mountains. It's located off of highway 2, about a mile from the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

To get to the camp we parked our car at a parking lot just off of Highway 2 and road a Suburban up a one lane private road to a "parking lot" where we unloaded the truck and got onto snowmobiles. Then we traveled up a narrow cat track to the camp. The entire route was covered in snow, except the first quarter mile. On the trip up I held Chazz, who struggled a bit right when the snowmobile started, and Heidi held Logan, who went to sleep pretty quickly.

The cabins were all very small. They had no electricity or running water. Water was brought in from the spring at the main lodge. Heat was from wood stoves. Light was from gas lamps. It was all very primitive, but it wasn't a problem. Except for the heat. We put too much wood into the stove on several occasions, making the cabin unbearably hot. We also had to keep adding wood to the stove throughout the night.

The cabins are in a treed valley surrounded by ridges on three sides. It's right at the tree line - above the valley most of the hillsides are lightly treed. Cross country ski trails radiate out from the cabins, through the surprisingly gentle surrounding hills.

While we were there I was slightly nervous. I worried that Logan or Heidi would get sick, miles away from access to an ambulance. Logan did get a cold on the third day, but nothing serious.

Logan had fun. He loved the snowman diorama in the Main Lodge. He liked playing with balloons in our cabin. He said that our bunk bed was a "metro bus" and he pretended to drive it. He got used to the Chariot sled, and seemed to enjoy our hikes.

On the second day we had a long snowshoe hike. I hauled the Chariot sled behind me while I walked. It worked well as long as there was no cross slope, but on the upper part of the trail there was a significant cross slope. It sucked - I kept running into trees. When we finally got to the high ridge overlooking the camp the view was wonderful. Logan woke up in a good mood - he had slept most of the hike - and we played with the shovel a bit.

On the last day we didn't do much. Logan wanted to "ride" the snowmobiles. When we left Chazz and I skied down after the snowmobiles. It was pretty amazing - lovely open slopes with good spring snow conditions. Chazz was a bit slow, and skeptical of following down the steeper slopes. But we made it just fine - if a bit late!

2/14/08

Happy Valentine's Day.

I got a call early today from Jerome Burns at Common Ground. He let me know that we had been selected for the project. NOW we have a lot of work to do.

I'm really excited to get started on the project, and I think we'll be able to make something that's pretty amazing for St. Andrews.

Logan threw up again last night. I was going to put him to bed, and I noticed that he was sticking his tongue out and looking unhappy while I took his shoes off. I knew something was coming. He threw up while I was carrying him out of the kitchen. He emptied his stomach. No fever. He wasn't sad or mad. And the next day he was fine in the morning.

Hmph.

On the bright side they had an avalanche into Alpental's parking lot. 36" slab. Yeep.

2/10/08

Gotta make a presentation tomorrow. If we do well, we get a new project. I hope we get the project - I've worked pretty hard on it.

2/9/08

We went to the caucus today.

Our caucuses were held in a high school near our house - it was within walking distance for us, but we left late enough that we had to drive to make it on time. The reason we were waiting was that the state web site that showed the caucus locations was down - the web traffic was too high. The Obama site had a caucus locator as well, and it was also down. Finally we took the chance that we would go to the same place as last election. We should have walked - there was a major traffic jam down by the school.

I had the impression that there were more people at this caucus than four years ago, but not twice as many. Our precinct had about 80 people. We were in one corner of the small high school gym. When we separated by candidates there were 67 Obama, 12 Clinton and 1 Kucinich. I didn't know Dennis was still in it. Perhaps he's not. Kucinich people are cranky that way.

Logan ran around the gym kicking his ball and playing with his garbage truck. He loves the garbage trucks. There was a knot of kids who played in the exact center of the gym - away from the crowds at the four corners.

It seemed that Obama had lopsided victories in all of the nearby precincts. I can't say what that means for the whole state. The Clinton supporters had more signs and buttons. The Obama supporters were better speakers, by and large. We desperately needed a PA system or a bullhorn.

2/5/07

Yesterday Logan vomited an enormous quantity of food and milk all over his blue coat after our evening walk. He was not upset - not nearly as upset as Heidi and I! Actually, he took it pretty well, and was cheerful as Heidi put him to bed and I cleaned up his stroller.

We don't know why he's sick. Or even if he's sick. He doesn't have a fever. He's pretty happy. He seems fine - other than the fact he threw up twice in a day.

Today he was fine. No vomit. No fever.

I'm working on the interview questions for the St. Andrew's Housing RFQ. It's a bit stressful. We don't have much time to do a thorough job.

I may go skiing tomorrow.