So long, and thanks for all the views!

Sweeping out the attic, mopping up the basement, clearing out the garage. Everything not of value must go.


Messages from people I haven't heard from in 5 years. Confirmation of orders from Amazon.com that I have received, used and probably thrown away. Promotional offers that I have never taken advantage of. Things that should have been marked as being spam, but lazily never were. Facebook notifications. Yes - someone commented on my blog post. No - sorry, you did not get the job.


Yes, after six years and sixteen thousand messages, I finally went through my GMail account and gave it a much-needed cleaning out. It took a while, and after a bit (the first twenty pages), I got pretty lazy, and, where before I was making surgically precise deletions with the finely honed scalpel of my own human intellect, I ended up trusting the machine and clear-cutting through the forest of emails with nothing less than the Napalm that is Google's filtering mechanism.


*sigh*


Much remains; letters from friends and family, mostly. And of course, every word that Carrie has ever tossed to me from across the transom that separates one DNS server from another has been lovingly saved and preserved and cherished, or will be on my hard drive (which prompted me to clean out the account in the first place - ever try to download sixteen thousand messages including several gigabytes of attachements? Not fun!).


But that is just the beginning. My Yahoo email account, my very first one ever, which I signed up for back in 1997, is no more. Neither is the Flickr account that I dumped in favor of Picassa. No longer am I documenting ad tedium about my Java Programming or ad nauseum about my the routes that I run. Pretty soon, I'll no longer be issuing ad infinitum massive missives about all things "just Charlie (or Tony, or C.A.)". Yes, folks, sadly, this will be my final post here on the (soon to be gone) "Caffeine - Nation, baby!".


I am taking a good hard look at the relations that I have on the overcrowded (and increasingly more trite) warrens of Facebook , and go about building the relations that I want. I am slimming down and straightening up, re-asserting the priorities that I had once held dear, and re-focusing my sights on the things that are truly important to me. Which doesn't include blogging, but (in what could be a rather paradoxical twist) blogging about the things that are important to me does give me relief of a sort; call it catharsis, I guess. It also give me pleasure; call it self-indulgence. But, rather than electing to speak solely in an ego-centric forum (which is what "Caffeine - Nation" really is), I will be speaking more and more within the context of the wonderful family that I am truly fortunate to belong to: the one that has Carrie, Charlie, Gabriel, Oliver and Axia at its core. Having said such, I invite you to read about our continuing travels, travails and "just the normal pace of life stuff" at C.C. and the Beans.


Of course, instead of focusing on three diversions, I shall be keeping notes of my one allowed dalliance, writing (which is one of the things that I am planing on focusing a bit more on) at Charlie's Cafe. You can join me there as well, if you'd like.


See you - there :)


- Tony / C.A. / Charlie




-update( September 11, 2010)


It has been a while since I originally wrote this post and saved  it as a draft. Several things have changed since then, which has caused me to rewrite it slightly. I am planning on starting up a programming-centric blog, but (hopefully) it won't be as tech and code heavy as the last one. But I will always put my blogging efforts first and foremost into C.C. and the Beans.


-update ( October 8, 2010)


I really should just push  this out there, shouldn't I? I've ported most of my Blogger posts to my Wordpress account, so hopefully things won't seem too strange there.

Is it over?

The heat wave (for us, anyway) lasted into last weekend, with things finally cooling down a few days ago with high temps in the 60's. The forecast for the next few days seems to be tolorable, with temps in the mid to high seventies. 


Having grown up in Maryland, I am used to much hotter summers than these, and I don't really mind being outside during the middle of a hot and muggy summer; however, growing up in Maryland, I was also used to this little thing called "Air Conditioning", something which is sorely lacking here in Seattle.  So, I'll continue to be glad (and hopeful) for lower temperatures for the rest of the summer.

Life is too short...

...for mediocre espresso shots.


In the mornings (and sometimes in the afternoon), my drink of choice is usually a quad vanilla espresso. I used to get very dry quad vanilla cappucinos, but few and far between was the barista who could either pull the shots correctly, or (more often) get what the 'very dry' part of my drink order meant.


These days, however, I am finding that fewer and fewer baristas are even attempting to pull the 4 shots needed for my quad vanilla espresso correctly. There seems to be this popularly held misconception that pulling a shot of espresso means filling a shot glass to the line with espresso; it does not. A good shot will be about two-thirds crema and one third coffee:

Usually, though, I prefer my shots to be pulled short, that is, stopped well before the crema forms, meaning that I should only be getting about an ounce. Too many places pull the shots long, and don't pack thier coffee sufficiently - or they use the wrong beans - so that no crema forms.


There are places that I frequent that "get it", and others that don't. In the former group:

• Trabant (I go to their downtown location)
• Victrola (Beacon Hill)
• Empire Espresso
• Vivace (Both the one in Capitol Hill and the one in Cascade)
• Caffe Bella

Maybes:

• The Station (Louis makes a good quad vanilla cappucino)
• Columbia City Bakery (I can get a good quad vanilla espresso from them, but only a fair quad shot)

And, finally, the ones who don't:

• Starbucks (No surprise there)
• Cherry Street Espresso (The one barista who pulled decent shots at the Mueseum location no longer works there)
• Motore (They used to pull good shots, but the last few times that I've been there I've noticed a definite downhill slide in shot quality)

Heat Wave 2010 - day deux (The Caffine-Nation edition)

The second day found Seattle in the grips of yet another day in the 90's,. It also found Casa Gaboli in the grips of being in a relatively enclosed space without the benefits of either decent natural circulation or air conditioning. For my part, I decided to do what I could to help my body deal with the heat:

There you go - Charlie Burrell's Shaved Head. If only I could get a band to name itself after the occasion ;) At least it makes running a cooler affair!

Some of you may think that it's a bit trite of me to kvetch about us having a few days of temperatures in the 80's and 90's. But you have to remember that, if you are one of those people, chances are that you at least have a nicely Air Conditioned space to retreat to at the end of  the day. At the very least, you probably have a place that has decent ventilation. Here in Seattle, the former is a rarity for residential establishments, and the latter is a luxury that is dependent upon location, and therefore priced accordingly. Our place lies on the downslope of Beacon Hill, and abuts neighboring houses on three sides  that are less than twenty yards away. We simply don't get any sort of decent ventilation in our place. But we're working on alternatives.

Heat Wave 2010 - day one

With the advent of temperatures above 80, I think that I will declare this to be the beginning of Heat Wave 2010. The situation is a bit different this year; we are not using our ghetto AC in the kids' room, we have 2 kids in that room, and we have an extra person in the household. We had a representative from a local HVAC place come out to our house to give us an estimate, but I have yet to receive the proposals. Grrrr....


So, I trekked down to Lowes last night in search of fans.  Just as I thought, there were rather slim pickings - a rotating model set atop an ugly iron frame for $160, and a smaller portable model for $20. I grabbed two of the latter and  then made my way home.  They make a little bit of difference, but not as much of one as would, say, a centralized air conditioning system installed by the same folks who came by our house to give us an estimate. Just sayin'.

Emerald City Fish and Chips

During their stay with us, Carrie's parents developed a hankering for fish and chips. Not wanting to waste time and  effort assembling the troops to make the arduous trek downtown for the ever-touristy Ivars, and following up on a personal recommend made by a friend, we opted to go with a local place, Emerald City Fish and chips. My father- and sister-in law flew.


I wasn't impressed at all. I got Catfish and my wife got Halibut. Both portions were less than a quarter-inch thick, the breading was soggy, and the fillets themselves were dry and rubbery. The chips were limp and tasteless. The tartar sauce, which had the right amount of tanginess, was the best thing about the entire affair

They came, they saw - grandkids, they went

My parents-in-law breezed into town from Utah for the 4th of July weekend. I had plans to do some major yardwork on that Friday and Saturday, but, instead, I spent those days hanging out for the most part; Friday,preparing my kick-ass pulled pork by liberally appying a sweet and spicy rub and letting it sit overnight, and Saturday, getting the 7-1/2 pounds of Boston Butt out and cooking it.


About that...


I really need to pay attention to recipies. The pulled pork recipe, which was originally written for charcoal grills, had the following steps:

1. Rubdown pork
2. Let sit overnight
3. Take out allow to come up to room temperature
4. Preheat grill
5. Grill uncovered in a aluminum roasting pan for 3 hours at 275
6. Preheat oven
7. Bake covered with aluminum foil for 2 hours
8. Allow to rest covered in a paper bag for an hour

Guess which step I conviniently forgot? Yep. I forgot that that pig had to spend an additional 2 hours in the oven. This would not have been so bad, except for the fact that we had invited our good friends Alex, Refugiuo and Brad over for dinner. Hurredly we prepared a quick grilled pulled chicken tenderloin recipe alongside the homemade classic and North Carolina barbecue sauces and called it good. The pulled pork, which came out of the paper bag two hours after company left, was a delicious treat for all.

Happy (first) Father's Day

My very first Father's Day weekend was a pretty nice one. After getting up early on Saturday to watch two World Cup matches at Empire Espress (which is my new favorite espresso place in Columbia City), I pretty much lazed around back home and wathed los gemalos while Carrie went out shopping for my Father's Day dinner. Sunday we got up and had breakfast at Cafe Campange, one of the two French-style eateries in the Marketplace; Cafe Campange is more of a resturant while the seocond place, Le Pichet, is more of a cafe where food just happens to be served.


While we were in the area, we decided to head to Sur la Table in order to get a new nonstick griddle for eggs and pancakes and a wire mesh splatter guard. Carrie did want to get a nice wire mesh strainer, but I talked her out of it, reasoning that we would hardly ever use it. However, when we had gotten home, on the spur of the moment I decided to make Dulce de Leche (following Alton Brown's recipe). In making Dulce de Leche from scratch, guess what the final stage in the process is? And guess what I found myself heading downn to the Target in West Seattle to get?


Dinner was a real treat- home made Chicken Tikka Missala, a nice dark beer, and homemamde brownies and ice cream with my DDL sauce on top. For my Father's Day gifts, I recieved some primo e-Shave shaving lube and cream, and a mandollin slicer that will help me out a lot when it comes to food prep. But the best gifts that I recived can be found here!


Links:

• Empire Espresso
• Cafe Campange
• Alton Brown's Dulce de Leche redipe

Something I saw the other day

I found this old sign while walking home from the Beacon Hill light rail station a few days ago:

From Blogger Pictures

I had to do a double take. Someone in 20th century Seattle actually thought  that this was a clever name for a cafe?

Kid 1: "Hey guys, I"m bored. Where do you want to go?"

Kid 2: "I know - let's go hang out at the K.K.K!"

Ughh.

Fortunately, the Triple-K no longer exists (that I can discern, anyway). There is a bakery-flower shop at the site, and adjacent to it is the Seattle Supermarket. Which really isn't, but that's a discussion for another day. Maybe.

Just another weekend

Things are definitely better when I'm able to mow the lawn once a week. I was able to cut my previous times by a full hour due to the facts that (1) I didn't  have to mow the entire lawn twice, and (2) I didn't have to rake up a ton of grass.


Taking advantage of the fact that we have someone who is living with us who doesn't mind looking after the kids, Carrie and I went down to Georgetown on Saturday to eat at Calamity Jane's, a new American eatery. We found the food there to be pretty good - not stellar fare, but tasty nonetheless. We both opted to have half-pound burgers - which we both finished ;) I had the Calamity Jane while Carrie had the Wild Bill Hickock. We both liked the toppings and the burgers were cooked perfectly. The food snobs in us suspected that they were using pre-formed patties that may or may not have been previously frozen (verssus hand-formed patties which would more definitely be fresh), but I personally don't think that detracted from from the experience.


Sunday, I tried my hand at making a drink that I had first experienced last week at Toulouse Petit, called a "Breakfast Flip". Here is the recipe that I used in my first attempt:

• 1 cracked raw egg
• 1 shot vodka
• 1 shot maple syrup
• 1-1/2 shot Cafe Boheme
• Sprinkled cinnamon on top of the shaken mixture

My first attempt came out a little strong and sweet. I alleviated the former by adding crushed ice into the mix. I suspect that the latter could also be remedied by my using Baileys instead of Cafe Boheme; both are cream-based liqueurs, but Boheme has more of a sweetened coffee flavor  to it. To cut down on the sweetness, I may just cut out a bit of the syrup and up the vodka content. Next weekend, maybe ;)


Links:
Calamity Jane's
Toulouse Petit

Memorial Day weekend

Aside from running, mowing the lawn, watching over kids and the like, not much went on over Memorial Day weekend. The weather prevented us from really being able to get out and do too much until Monday rolled around.


On Monday, Carrie and I took a trip to lower Queen Anne to eat breakfast at Toulouse Petit, an eatery that does for Cajun Cusine what The Kingfish Cafe does for Creole. We went there for breakfast during  their happy hour. We were in line for a twenty+ minute wait, but when two spots opened at the bar, the hostess asked us if we would like to skip the line for seats and eat our breakfast at the bar, which we did.

The bartender was fairly prompt and very friendly. I started off with a Breakfast Flip, and my wife had a Breakfast Martini. Both drinks were excellent and generous. To eat, we had the Cajun Meatloaf and eggs and the Pork Cheek confit. Both dishes were very tasty and delivered to us pretty quickly, considering that the place was at the time packed for the breakfast happy hour, during which all of the dishes were $6. My only minor complaint is that our order of beignets arrived late, after our entrees, but that just meant that we had a desert course!

After that, we went to Lowes to pick up some supplies so that we could get started on our herb garden this year. We planted cilantro, basil, thyme, parsley and chives in pots, and put them on the bench on our porch so that they'd get plenty of sun. 

Aside from the herbs, we had to buy the pots, potting soil, peat moss and vermiculite. We have so much of the soil-related matter left over  that we should be able to plant a fairly full garden with it, and we'll always have plenty of compost for our efforts, since I started composting at least three pounds a week on average since we moved onto Beacon Hill almost a year ago.

Friday, May 14th and closing

It was a strange mix of hubris, exasperation and desperation that led Carrie and me to believe that we could make the trip from Salt Lake City to Seattle in one day without an overnight stay in Le Grande, OR, as we had originally planned.

We had started out that morning with the best of intentions; Carrie, Carla, Gaboli and I ate at the Olympian Greek restaurant in Salt Lake City - excellent breakfast, wonderful Greek Coffee - and planned on meeting up in Boise later on. Carla and Axia took off in one car, and Carrie, the twins and I in another. After the first stop things were going fine, but when we had to stop due to a crying child less than an hour later, we decided to tough it out and push through the night.

Bad idea - but then again, in retrospect, so was the entire endeavor of driving three month old twins and an eleven year old Yorkshire Terrier across a thousand miles and over a mile in elevation to Utah.  If driving all night to hit Seattle a full sixteen hours earlier than we would have otherwise was a mistake, it was certainly the right one to make.

I am certainly glad that Carrie's extended family got the chance to see the twins, as well as the fact that Carla followed us from the small town confines of Richfield, Utah to the big city of Seattle, Washington so that she could have a chance at a new life, as well as helping Carrie and I out with the twins for a few months.  But neither Carrie nor I are particularly keen on making any more trips with the kids that takes any longer than  the drive from our house to their pediatricians on First Hill in Seattle, at least not for a couple of years or so.

Babies are tough creatures at heart - muh tougher than we as adults give them credit for - but Gabriel and Oliver are still recovering, emotionally and physically, from the ordeal; Gabriel in particular seems to have picked up a sore throat that is most likely the symptomatic manifestation of an unknown something that had been transmitted to him by the many pairs of unwashed hands that had handled him. His cries are currently rather raspy shadows of their former selves; being such, his short throaty peals are especially dolorous. Note to selves and others: no handling of our twins with unsanitzed hands for the next few months.

----

Yesterday, I awoke to a lawn  that had been sorely neglected by human hands  - but taken care of to extreme abundance by the wonderfully bountiful Pacific Northwest spring rains - for three weeks. So long was the grass that I had to essentially cut it twice with our little manual push mower. Seeing as how we had returned home a scant seven hours prior, after three hours of labor, I was pretty much ready to pack it in. Making a trip through the chaotic, crowded aisles of Costco with two crying babies, who were surely freshly traumatized from their recent ordeal, in tow didn't help things any. This morning, I did a reset by running around Green Lake and stopping off at Peets for Coffee. Then  things seemed to be much better.

Welcome home.

Thursday, May 13th

It was pretty much all over for us in Richfield, except for the crying. Rus and I went back to The Cove for coffees this morning, and made one last trip (this time around) to Katie' Cup. I then started to pack the car as Carrie and Carla bid their farewells to their family.


Carrie and Carla...?


Yep – that's right. Carla, Carrie's sister, is coming to Seattle to live with us for a few months as she looks for a new job and new life. In the process, she'll be giving Carrie some much needed help with the kids. Both Carrie and I (and Axia) are very happy to have her with us and our house is now officially hers for as long as she's here.


After mahy tearful farewells, we, in two cars (Carla took Axia, which was a huge load off of Carrie and I) made our way to my brother in law's house. Even during the (relatively) short drive from Richfield to Salt Lake City, Carrie and I still needed to stop one time to take care of the kids.


Rodney had just recently brought a new house in the Sugarhouse district of Salt Lake City, and this was the first time that Carrie and I had seen it. It's about the same size as our place in Seattle, but it has a full size basement and sits on about twice the amount of land as ours does – all for half the price. You gotta love variability between housing markets!


We ended up eating pizza, watching DVD's, and spending the night at Rod's place. We'd need plenty of rest for the next day's journey.

Wednesday, May 12th

A sweet pungent odor filled my my nostrils as I stepped into the cramped confines that was “The Cove” coffee shop on the outskirts of Richfield. I was pleasantly greeted by the barista, a young amiable man wearing a flannel shirt and a baseball cap who wore the air of one who was as comfortable reigning in steers as he was pulling shots. Smiling, he explained to me the menu; espresso drinks- here. Juice menu – here. Same with sandwiches and wraps. Pull your own soft serve yogurt, and here are your toppings. What will you have?


I inquired as to the possibility of getting a decaf latte; Carrie is still breastfeeding, and we've seen the consequences of giving the kids breastmilk with traces of caffeine. 


I didn't tell him that last part.


Oh – I'm sorry, we can't do that.


I smile and nod. I'll just have a cappuccino with four shots.


Four shots? Whoa – you like it strong.


You betchya. And some vanilla syrup.


Syrup? You mean flavoring.


Yeah.


He prepares the drink. Another man looks at me. This one could be the Bishop in charge of the Ward were he not standing here with me in a café. He still could be – I haven't actually seen him partake of any caffeinated beverages, just oversee the sale of such to the gentiles. Which technically I'm not.


I digress.


He asks me where I'm from. I say Seattle. No – wait. I say Maryland. I live in Seattle. He says Richfield is a small town. Nothing wrong with that. That's my contribution. I'm visiting my in-laws. That's also my contribution. Some more stuff is said, but it's all inconsequential. Small talk to fill a large void in time.


My drink is ready. I pay the man. I leave the ample change as a tip for the guy. I like this place. But I have to go back to Katie's Cup for the Latte. For today, The Cove is not a one stop shop.


After I drop off drinks, I spend a few hours with the family before I go to pick up some lunch. I drop off the lunch and then head to the Family History Center to do some research into my maternal grandfather's side of the family. I find a 1930 Madison Parish census record that indicates that he was raised in a house headed by a single mother alongside eight other siblings, two of them twins. I reach a dead end here because I can't find his birth certificate. But I do find out that he enlisted in the Army in 1941, rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, and was buried in a national cemetery.


An older Elder, fulfilling his calling, is helping me. He asks me if I am a member.


I fess up. I am inactive, though.


He cheerfully encourages me to continue to do research so that I can do some temple work. In his mind, at least ten additional people with the last name of Skinner have just been posthumously baptized and are awaiting their bounty in the Terrestrial Kingdom. I don't dissuade him of the fantasy.


We - Carrie, Gaboli, my mother, father and sister in law, and both of Carrie's grandparents, go to the local Wingers, where we get decent enough food delivered by inadequate service. Both Bev and Carla want the all-you-can eat wings and fingers special. Bev gets only fingers; Carla gets only wings. I get nothing, and Carrie gets soft chicken tacos with barely enough pico de gallo to call a smear.


Carrie and I both order refills on our iced teas; I request vanilla syrup. The waitress returns with two iced teas, both with vanilla.


Carrie orders water to drink. She never receives it.


To close out the night, we, with the sole exception of Carrie's paternal grandmother, go to her maternal grandmother's house to play Tripoli. I win one poker hand and three kittys. It's past ten when we finally get home and retire. The kids are grumpy; Gabe is only taking his food straight from the source, and Ollie is extra hungry, thrashing about until I prepare an extra bottle for him and almost force an ounce down him. He then calms down enough so that he can sleep in the bed with the rest of the family.


Tomorrow, we'll be heading to SLC. The day after, we begin the long trek home. Great.

Tuesday May 11th

Today I had my first “real” cup of coffee. Almost.


I should have prepended that statement by saying that while I am not enough of a coffee-snob to totally dismiss the utilitarian benefits of ease contained within a brewed pot of Folgers or Maxwell House, both international travel and living in the self-proclaimed café capitol of the United States has definitely broadened my palette to the point to which I now regard the drink that is produced by extracting the essence of the grounds from mass-marketed tin drums through a Black and Decker coffee maker is, at best, a rather watery substitute for that which is garnered from micro-roasted beans finely ground, and then steam-pushed through a bail.


So, having said the above, I now rejoin the narrative in progress. In Richfield there are (to my surprise) two establishments which serve what I consider to be “café quality” coffee. The first is an actual stand called Katie's Cup that is located in the parking lot of a local appliances store. On each of my two previous visits to Utah, Carrie and I had stopped off here in the hopes of getting a drink that more closely approximated the ones that we were accustomed to getting back in Seattle. While both the quality of beans and technique used in constructing the drinks both left a bit to be desired, at the very least the desire to go above and beyond was there, and we did end up getting drinks that one could at least label as being a “Latte” and a “Cappuccino” (The second is a place called “The Cove” that I will review tomorrow). Plus, in their defense, Coffee culture is not quite as ingrained in Utah – especially in small town Utah – as it is in Seattle. So the fact that there are such places there is to be applauded, even if there could be improvements to be made.


But I, once again, digress. On Sunday both shops were closed, which is probably to be expected. However, yesterday, on Monday, both shops were again closed, which was more than a little bit of a downer, since I had gone without “real” coffee for the past two days. Today, however, I finally was able to sit back and sip my quad espresso with vanilla, and even though the shots were pulled a bit too long and there was a tad too much vanilla flavoring in it, I still proclaimed the entire affair “good.”

Monday, May 10th

Today was pretty uneventful. We took the kids to Carrie's maternal grandmother's place so that one of their many great-aunts would have a chance to say goodbye to them before she left town. We then dropped the kids back off at the grandparents' place so that we could go shopping together and get something to eat - just the two of us, something that we haven't had the opportunity to do for months now.


After we had finished shopping, Carrie and I were standing in line at a local restaurant, and I had gone up towards the front to take a look at a couple of items. On my way back to Carrie, one woman looked at me, then immediately turned to see if she could find Carrie; upon doing so, she practically beamed “I recognized you from the photos!” It turns out that this person had known Carrie ever since she (Carrie) was a teenager. The proud grandmother had either shown pictures to or sent links to the kids' photo gallery to just about everyone in Sevier and Wayne county who would have them, and this woman had recognized me as being “Carrie's husband.”


The night went pretty well. The kids, still recovering from the events of the day before, took a little while to go to sleep, but once they did, it seemed as if Gabe slept for three hours and Ollie close to five; he would have probably slept longer had Carrie not had to wake him up so that she could feed the two of them at the same time.


We are impressed at how quickly it seems that the twins are progressing. Both Gabe and Ollie are smiling back at people, and it seems that Ollie is actually grinning even more and being very conversant; he is also rolling over more and more, and entertaining himself. Gabe, for his part, is reaching out to objects and grabbing hold of them.


The days of dual-feeding are coming to a close, it seems. Gabe is definitely too long for the special U-shaped pillow that Carrie uses to feed the twins, and Ollie is not too far behind.

Sunday, May 9th

Carrie's parents had arranged for their siblings (and their children) to stop by to see the newest additions to the family. When all was said and done, the kids had been passed, handled, cuddled, kissed, viewed and touched by upwards of five dozen individuals. Three hours, three feedings, and four changings later, both the kids and the mama were pretty bushed, and took the opportunity for a much-needed nap. But even with the respite, the kids still showed the signs of overstimulation a few hours later; Carrie and her mother left the kids in the capable hands of Grandpa Rus, Uncle Rod and myself, and even though Gabe, was content to sleep off the nervousness caused by the day's events (he actually slept through much of the handling and being passed around), Ollie was still cranky enough to have a pretty major meltdown, and it seemed that only the tender ministrations of Aunt Carla could save the day.

Saturday, May 8th

We started out this morning at about the same time as last; we left the Shiloh Inn Riverside in Boise around 8:30, and headed on the road out of Idaho. Carrie took the first driving shift, and we made it about 100 miles before we had to stop off and take care of the kids. After that, I drove for the next 300 miles or so until we hit Ogden, Utah while Carrie rode in the back seat with the kids. After Ogden, Carrie drove us to Nephi then Richfield.


We pulled into Richfield around 6:30 that evening. While the mother, kids and dog settled in, my father in law, Rus, and I went out briefly to get food for everyone, then we all settled in for the evening. The children's maternal-maternal great grandmother and great-aunt stopped by for a sneak peak at the children; around 9 that evening, Carrie, the kids and I went to bed for some much overdue sleep.

Friday, May 7th

We had packed the kids, dog, and ourselves into our trusty blue Prius and set off to Columbia City Bakery in order to get some breakfast and coffees. I had packed Axia into her Sherpa brand soft dog carrier and left her in the car, which was in a shady spot and had its window cracked open. We spent about twenty minutes in the cafe; when we came back out, we discovered that Axia, in her zeal to be totally unfettered or uncaged, ha chewed a hold into the nylon mesh at the front of the carrier. Big sigh – that carrier had seen her transported from Hawaii to Washington state, and from Bremerton to Silverdale to Seattle. Now its time is at an end. Services at eleven.

Moving on. Or, not moving on. At least not quickly or far. We had barely made our way to the eastside when our Gaboli's hunger started to manifest itself in the well-known litany of grunts, arm-waving, half-screams and, finally, crying that no amount of talking or replacing of pacifiers in mouth could assuage. We pulled off at a gas station in Snolqulamie so that the kids could be fed and the Anderson – Burrell twin show could once again hit the road. Which it did for about another hour or so, when Gaboli's primitive needs of food and mom broke through the more moderns appeasements of pacifiers, music and vehicular motion. We went through another couple of cycles of this before an accommodation was made; the mother would sit in the cramped space between the two car seat, holding hand, making bottles and replacing ejected pacifiers, while the father would drive. In this fashion, we were able to make our way with relative quickness through the rest of Washington state, Oregon and into Idaho.

We stayed for the night at the Shiloh Inn Riverside in Boise, which is an okay enough place. The front desk service was excellent, the room was clean but needed some major updating / refurbishment, and the continental breakfast was decent enough for the purposes of calorie provision. They charged us $25 extra for Axia, but they took off almost that much due to the fact that we were first time guests.

We ordered food from Flying Pie Pizza. We had the Stromboli Pizza which was okay. The toppings weren't really anything to talk about and the dough was average. They were cool enough to deliver beer to the room for us – we had a six pack of Alaskan Amber.

After the first day, we came to the conclusion that the five hours of discomfort that we would have gone through had we flown would have been greatly preferable to the twenty-four that we would have to eventually endure driving to Utah. We also decided to un-invite Axia to any future outings; we love the dog dearly, but she clearly was ill-suited to long drives.

Making our way to the land of Bountiful Beehives

Carrie, Gabe, Ollie, Axia and I are making the drive down to Utah to spend Mother's Day with her family.Not only will this be our first road trip together, but it will be the first time that the Gaboli show has hit the road. Personally, this will be the first time that I will have had the opportunity to visit the great state of Idaho.


When we come back, our household will have an additional member :) Stay tuned!