Martha happily climbs Daddy's shoulders but not the mountain.

Fathers Day Hiking on Mt. Si. It's a four mile climb, and we were pleased after 90 minutes to hike almost one mile, and nearly a 1000-ft ascent, before turning back. Leah would have easily made it the whole way, but Martha's little legs were wearing out. Meanwhile, Nathan captured two clown milipedes in his bug catcher.

The bus to downtown Seattle takes only 10 minutes from Mercer Island, and it's free on weekends. That's big excitement for our minivan-spoiled family.

Glassblowing video

I uploaded a short 2-minute video of our glassblowing class.

The final results!

Our Glassblowing Afternoon

For a real change of pace, Richard and I signed up for an afternoon (4 hour) class of glowblowing at a Seattle glass studio. For me -- a person who has always loved glass -- it was a great experience to handle glass, learn about which techniques are difficult and how results are achieved. I think Richard got a lot out of it as well -- he certainly was more proficient than I. The real key is constantly spinning the rod EVENLY at different tempos and at slightly different angles. One's constantly working with and against gravity and centrifigal forces to "dance" with the liquid glass. It's also neat to know that many times, it can take much longer to add colors and spin/shape the colors into patterns, than it is to form the actual piece.

Richard and I both made paperweights. I then made a bowl, and Richard made an espresso glass. We did "blow" the glass, and during the making of my bowl, one did have to inhale -- believe it or not -- to invert a bubble. However, the instructor did the inhaling as it takes lots of practice to do it safely.

The pieces need to cool overnight; when they are molten, they are over 2000 degrees, and our small pieces take 14 hours to cool. The lens on the Hubble telescope took a year to cool.

Can't wait to see the pieces!


blowing a bubble to form my bowl.

Richard "heats" his glass blob

Richard forming his glass

This is actually our first time handling glass...we tried out the different tools to pull, snip, and squeeze molten glass.

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The whole family watched Lemoney Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, which is based on a book series that Leah enjoyed about three young children (older sister, middle brother, baby sister) who find themselves suddenly orphaned and in the guardianship of an awful Count Olaf. They survive through cleverness and by sticking together, which is a nice theme for the kids but the movie was too dark for Nathan especially, who covered his eyes regularly through the frequent scary parts.

Leah was excited about this invitation to a sleepover at her friend K's house. Something about it seems a bit strange, though: a sleepover starting at noon?

UpdateK's mom doesn't know about the sleepover! "I knew that if I asked her, she would say no," says K.

We took a two-hour ride on Lake Union in an electric boat. The kids loved it and we'll definitely do it again. The boat is big enough to fit everyone comfortably, including a nice table for lunching on the lake.

Nathan's Preschool Play

Nathan and his buddy Nicholas were frogs in the MIPC production of "Noah's Ark".



(click on the photo to watch the video)

Nathan's latest masterpiece is this illustrated short story. Excuse me, I'll be right back -- I think the Nobel Prize committee is on the phone.

Leah's second grade class has been working with living organisms. Here she is showing off a fish she drew. See the classroom web site for more photos and background.

Leah performed in her first hip-hop dance recital today. (She's the second girl on the left). Or watch the video if you have Windows Media Player.

Memorial Day and it is 90. Leah lounges and then lunges for the pool...meanwhile just 6 days ago, she was bundled up for a skating party for her friend's birthday

Nathan's martial arts buddy recently suffered the loss of his 90s-year-old grandfather and was whimpering about it today at as the two of them were being driven to class. "Nathan, are your grandparents still alive?" asked his buddy's mother, attempting some consolation.

Nathan thought for a while. I�m not sure,� he said slowly. Then after a pause, a bit more confidently, �But I think my aunt is alive.�

Watch out, Martha, your friends Oriana and Avry are looking at you with preschool cruelty. You know the three of you are best friends and will spend the rest of the day playing together, but I guess you have to start the day pretending you're not interested.

We rented Star Trek: The Original Series Volume 1 ("The Corbomite Maneuver") on Netflix this weekend.

The kids have been watching Gilligan's Island for the past few months and they love it, so I thought they'd enjoy this one too. I know it was my favorite show back when I was their age.

It's one of the original episodes from the 1960's and boy does it seem whacky and low-budget. By today's standards, all the technology seems humorously low-tech. A countdown timer is one of those faux-digital rolling digits that were sometimes used in clock radios before LEDs were available. Even the set looks like its made from wooden furniture mocked up to resemble a pre-plastic persons idea of the future.

Leah received First Communion today, May 7, 2005. A glorious angel, she is!

May 1 is a glorious, sunny day to celebrate Martha's 3rd birthday with friends. Here, the children are parading around a "may pole" in our backyard.

Nathan rides without training wheels. He resisted for months, but this morning when we finally forced him to try, he immediately hopped on and rode like a pro: starts, turns, stopping--he does everything, without hesitation. Didn't fall down once.

Beijing is hotter than Singapore: about 90 degrees, but less humid. I'm only here for a day, though. Here I am in the courtyard of my hotel, the Shangri La, in the HiaDian district.

Singapore

I'm in Singapore, speaking at a Microsoft MVP Event held at the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre.



My hotel, Mandarin Oriental, just completed a major rennovation in December and it's fabulous.



My plane was an hour late, so I didn't get to my room until 2am, and I'm so exhausted I haven't had much chance to look around. The weather is hot and humid, like New Orleans in July.

Narita Airport in Tokyo is only the halfway stop on my trip to Asia this week. Turned out that the rest of my MS colleagues were on the same flight, so we relaxed a little between planes. They're headed straight to Beijing, but I won't get there until Wednesday, after a couple days doing a presentation in Singapore.

Devoted, loving, husband and wife.

Vancouver, British Columbia is only a three hour drive from us, so we drove up for a week of sightseeing during the kids' spring break.

Easter girls.

Nathan's swimming class is over, and here's his certificate of completion. Hmmm, what does his teacher really think?

New video from Christmas: click here or on the photo to watch a short video of our Christmas in New Orleans. (I finally got around to editing it)

Martha's signature: here's what our two-year-old progeny can do all by herself. No adult hands were used in the making of this picture.

Stowe presents to the Mercer Island City Council about preschool and early childhood issues. Click here to listen to a recording of her presentation.

Leah raises her hand to flag down guests who will view her slide show. The 2nd graders made KidPix presentations about Australia and parents were invited to the school computer lab on Wednesday morning to view them.

Nathan has a new bunk bed and he couldn't be more proud.

Spring has sprung, with this beautiful display from a tree in our front yard.

The new landscaping and patio are finished.

Nathan wanted badly to go fishing this weekend, though I explained we were unlikely to catch anything off the dock on Lake Washington. He didn't care.

Martha has kneepads to go with her elbowpads to go with her new bike helmet.

Nathan is a fish!

He found the nerve to swim without a life jacket, spending half an hour with me in the pool this afternoon swimming back and forth by himself in the swim lane. He even tried it in 11 foot water.

A rare date with Tessa and Eric, here for the weekend. We went to Teatro Zinzanni for dinner/theatre.

Nathan has a new bunch of crickets, which we bought him on our trip to Petco. He hadn't been feeling well lately, so has been taking lots of long naps--his hair gets so messed up when he sleeps.

Somebody backed a minivan into my car, creating this dent. Theresa and Eric suggest next steps.

Baby name wizard

We deliberately tried to find uncommon names for our kids, so it's too bad we didn't consult the babyname wizard site first:
http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Note that "Martha" is a great name for a girl now, because it's been out of favor for almost a century. Both "Jennifer" and "Richard" have been uncommon for so long that they're worth revisiting. Unfortunately both Leah and "Nathan" are poised for big rebounds. "John" is a great name too, and maybe "Steve", though "Michael" is still a bit too popular--but wait another decade or two.

Happy birthday! The kids helped mommy blow out the candles.

Birthday cake for mommy. Leah took this photo with her camera.

Valentine's Day at Leah's school. They made hats and exchanged little Valentine notes.

Our live tadpoles arrived in the mail! Now Nathan finally has a real pet, so expect him to spend hours staring at his Planet Frog aquarium.

We dropped in at the Rainy Day Event sponsored by Mercer Island Preschool Association. Nathan, Leah, and Martha did lots of crafts, including these pavers complete with their handprints.

I got a new iPod Mini this week, and look who is lounging around listening to the latest music.