Martha walks down the steps at Nottoway, the big plantation. We stayed overnight in the "bridal suite", which turns out to be the best room for bringing kids.

We spent the night in this swamp near Gibson, Louisiana.

Here we are in front of Jackson Square, at the heart of the French Quarter.

We visited the Blaine Kern Mardis Gras museum, with its fabulous displays of parade sculptures and ornate costumes like this one.

White Christmas

It's snowing in New Orleans! This is the first snow since 1989, and the first white Christmas EVER! Now, tell us why we had looked forward to a warm Christmas "down south" and had travelled all the way from Seattle...? (Seattle is over 50 on Christmas day...)

Gramma-Gramma

The kids are having a great time visiting with their great-grandmother, and the family dog Reny:

Merry Christmas comes before Christmas at Christmas dinner with Granlea!

Sisters: Martha was just beaming when Leah invited her to sleep in her room on Saturday night. She started on a sleeping bag, but soon ended up in bed along with her sister.

Leah's Hip-Hop Video

Leah and her friend Jacob danced a HipHop Christmas with her partner Jacob and here's the video.

New videos

I spent the weekend getting caught up on some of my video editing and I made several new ones, including short clips of the kids on a visit to a blueberry patch, and walking around a pond while in New Hampshire last Summer.

 

Both videos were designed for a widescreen (16:9) TV display, so they look a little scrunched.  I would love to hear if there’s a Windows Media player that supports the different aspect ratio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leah has rediscovered an old friend, "Saru-chan", the stuffed monkey doll I picked up for her on a trip to Japan many years ago. She and Saru are inseparable, and she dotes on him with motherly attention to details of what he eats, studies, and wears. In this photo, she dressed him with clothes borrowed from a Madeline doll.

Mommy and Martha cuddle by an early morning fire.

Martha and I went on a date this afternoon, to Peet's Coffee. She wanted to talk about fish, and afterwards we stopped at Larry's to buy sea bass.

Mercer Island is visited by a Christmas Ship each year and we went to watch the arrival at the Beach Club.

The kids bundled up and watched with wonder from the lake shore.

We brought them to see Santa but they were too shy to talk. Nathan, who is never hesitant about such things, didn't want to see Santa because "I don't know what I want for Christmas."

Nathan and Leah skiing

Here's a video clip of Nathan and Leah skiing on Mini Mountain.

Nathan skis.

Leah practices her skiing.

The kids get ready for skiing.

Tony Pulokas visited us for the afternoon, so we brought him to Ellis Pond.

Finally, after all these years, I got permission to grill our Thanksgiving turkey! After hours of preparation and careful attention while cooking, it turned out perfectly. And how much better did it taste? Not much. A turkey, it seems, is a turkey.

Peter's here!

Leah classroom video

Here's a Quicktime video of Leah reading in her classroom.

Look! Martha has new shoes!

Leah: our pro.

Hey, John John!

Leah's comic book.

Leah decided to write her own comic book, called "Jewelry Rules", about a girl named "Jewelry". Here's the first page.

I saw this very cute high school girl.

Here we are together, caught in a surreptious moment.

Leah had her final soccer game of the season today. She played very aggressively and we were so proud!

Leah kicking

Happy Halloween!

Nathan kicking

Read my blog, please!

From the Cincinnati Enquirer, courtesy of Kevin Dugan, Tom Murphy, and Trevor Cook.

Finally, I got to see Nathan at his martial arts studio. His school does a great job motivating the students, and he really gets into it.

Seattle had wondeful eclipse-viewing weather last night (as you can see in this Seattle Times photo). Leah was particularly interested because they've been studying the moon for the past month at school.

Froogle does merchant reviews

When you do a Froogle Search, the results come back with a link to reviews of the merchant. Makes it much easier to comparison shop.

Hypo-allergenic cats

Allerca | is selling genetically-engineered cats that don't cause allergic reactions. By eliminating the gene that produces a glycoprotein, Fel d 1, secreted by the sebaceous glands, they promise to wipe out allergic reactions.

Cost is $3500 per animal.

The whole family helped get our pumpins ready for Halloween.

A scary Halloween pumpkin.

Am I at my desk?

Click here to see live video from my office.

Video of Nathan catching a fish

I posted a new video of Nathan catching a fish on a riverbank in Leavenworth, Washington.

another video here:

streamed.

Best sushi in Seattle

Shiro's in Belltown is the place.

Historical Fiction: Medieval Food

Slate reviews Medieval food and says the themed restaurants get it wrong. Europeans ate heavily-spiced dishes, with their hands, on "plates" of stale bread. From the sound of it, the royal feasts were pretty tasty -- not the bland, rugged simpleton chow served on pewter plates that the Hollywood sterotypes suggest.

Maven reviews

Kevin Kelly is a Wired editor who wrote this helpful summary of the best review sites on the Web. Look at all the geeky details for new products ranging from coffee machines, bird watching equipment, etc. etc.

Nathan found this fish at the river's edge, near our hotel in Leavenworth. He picked it up by the fin and it swam away!

Strange...Nathan has been finding "body parts" around the house: a head, an ear, and an eye. Something funny going on.

Spoilers: parental reviews of movies, with details

Here's a site that shows, in great detail, what's in popular movies so that parents can decide whether or not it's okay for their kids to watch.

For example, take a look at this review of THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN

Martha got a new purple dress today!

Leah had her first Japanese class today, with Itou-sensei (phone 206-230-5725). Two girls in the class already studied Japanese last year and annoyed everyone by showing off how much they know, but I think Leah will quickly outshine them.

Nathan attended Sunday School this morning, which began a new school year for pre-school kids like him. He learned the parable of the mustard seed, by drawing a picture of a tree.

Permitting his devout mother to enjoy some time of religious reflection (while his father snapped photos)

Catch me if you can is made up

IMDb :: Boards :: Catch Me If You Can (2002) has a summary of what was made up about the movie.

Martha and Leah had fun playing pirates today. 

NYTimes list of book reviews on the web

The NYTimes offers a list of web sites that review books. Most of the sites are for serious book lovers, like those interested in the publishing industry.

One that might be good is The Complete Review which gives a grade (A through F) to every book they review. They only have a few thousand books, though. I couldn't find Da Vinci Code or Steven Pinker, for example.

Trading Spouses and Wife Swap

There are two new reality shows about wives/mothers who swap homes with each other for two weeks: Trading Spouses and Wife Swap. Apparently both are worth watching, though Wife Swap adds interest by requiring the wives to live by their new family's rules for one week before changing anything.

The Slate review concludes that these shows demonstrate post-feminist values well, and offer stay-at-home moms a taste of what it's like to make different choices than those they are stuck repeating day in and day out.

Family Values - Dr. Phil's opportunistic parental-advice franchise.

Dr. Phil has a new prime time show about how to raise children, and Slate helpfully provides a summary of the basic idea:

Dr. Phil has a new book, Family First, tied to the show. He claims families are "systems" in which each member plays an important role, and he lays out a 7-point "toolkit" that includes things like setting up a "discipline" contract between parents and children. But his ideas don't live up to their claims, because he uses it all to create a reality show with underage kids confessing their secrets to parents in front of cameras. Sick.

Sister Johanna came to the Pulokas house this morning to give her blessings to the newlyweds. 

Grandma gave this section of the basement to Grandpa's health food workshop. He grinds his own flaxseed and prepares numerous healthy foods in his high-powered blender every day.