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Leah's August News is here. Can you believe she's going to be nine on Tuesday?

Summer Concert in the Park

Mercer Island sponsors public concerts each Thursday and Sunday evening at the Mercerdale park downtown, so we went there last night to watch.

Leah hung out with her friends, Nathan ran with his, while Martha just ran around near the stage.

Boating on Lake Washington

Our friends Mark and Elaine own a 9-person speed boat. They took us for a spin last night on Lake Washington, leaving from the south end of the island. We had dinner in Kirland, on the other side of the lake, and then came back again at sunset.

Fishing Lesson

Nathan and Daddy went to a two-hour fishing lesson sponsored by the Parks & Rec department. We learned how to tie a fisherman's knot and a few other things.

The instructor says there are plenty of perch in Lake Washington and that it's easy to catch them from the dock, especially if you go from 4-7pm. 

Five pints of jam

An hour of raspberry picking left us with way too much to eat. So Stowe took some jars, pectin, lots of sugar, then boiled some water and made this. 

Our first baseball game

We live a short and convenient 20-minute bus ride from SafeCo field, home of the Seattle Mariners, so you might expect us to make the trip regularly during baseball season. Apparently not. Through a remarkable oversight on the part of their sports-oriented father, we have not been to a single professional sports game! In fact, other than a couple of pro games I saw in Japan, I have never been to a real game either!

So when my office decided to hold a group “morale event” with families at the Mariners-Tigers game, we just had to go. Mom and Martha stayed home, but Nathan and Leah were surprisingly eager to see what it was like, and even more surprisingly we all had a great time.

On the way to the game, we happened to chat with another Mercer Island couple who were obvious, big Mariners. When they asked who we hoped would win, Leah immediately said Seattle, but then I pointed out that Grandma & Grandpa are from Detroit. To which Nathan, our precious conflict-avoiding middle child said “I hope it’s a tie”. As it turned out, the Mariners lost badly. We left at the end of the 8th inning, thereby missing the only Mariners hit of the day.

The kids had a great time, so will we ever go again? Tickets are $45 each (even for kids) and the food prices are outrageous ($4 for a bottle of water?!?) Still, I suppose I owe it to Martha to take her. So who knows, maybe we'll make that bus ride again someday. 

Stars of Neillsville High

I missed my 25th year high school reunion last weekend because my parents were in town for a long-planned trip out here. Fortunately Jimbo kept me in the loop, even filling out my class directory entry. Now Mark Foster sent everyone an email to a linked video from 1981. [click on the photo to watch]

You might notice that some people are featured very often in this video, at the expense of others who only have a cameo appearance or two. Back in high school, such grumbling about the "ritzy people" who get all the attention forced Mark, who made the film, to stand in front of the class and deny that there is any such bias. "Who are the ritzy people?" he asked, "I'd sure like to meet them."

So those of you from the Class of '81 who have wondered all these years, I'm pleased to announce that I was one of the Ritzy People. Yes, along with Jerry Poppe, we ran the school social scene. Notice how Mark had to redo the soundtrack for the Internet version? He did that because well frankly, too much of the dialog is about me. Do a frame-by-frame inspection and you'll see that Mark carefully edited out that scene of me with the cheerleaders--no doubt to spare embarrassment from my wife, to whom I am now happily married. So thanks, Mark, for your discretion.

That said, I admit to a little disappointment that, along with the missing scene of me driving Laurie and Cheryl around in my Corvette, it appears he also eliminated the famous shot of me catching the winning touchtown pass that at our senior Homecoming game. Anyway, the video was getting long so I suppose something had to go. But if you just want to see the scenes of me that are left after the editing, you can skip ahead to the following parts:

4:30: banging a book on my desk
5:25: with Jim, I'm at the back of the class reading a computer printout
6:14: reading a book
7:42: Jimbo by himself in the back of the class
9:39: I was editor of the Warrior Post (our school newspaper)
10:00: getting makeup for the class play
10:25: I’m at the far right, barely visible in front of Jeff Thoma
14:32: Jerry Poppe

To watch the whole video click here [Windows Media Player required]