Port Gamble Performance

All of Dan's groupies (except Joce - where was she??) were at Dan's performance at the Port Gamble Arts and Crafts Fair.

France vacation photos

A picture showing Becky actually there at the Castle Hotel. Our on-the-spot photographer took a picture that is even better than the one I borrowed from the castle website.

I'm sure Becky loved going to get bread, not only because of her famous bread diet, but taking her on the daily boulangerie errand is about the only thing she remembers from our big trip.

I suspect this is back in Holland, but due to other urgent duties that apparently cropped up during transmission, we did not get a photo description along with this one. It looks like a lot of fun whatever and wherever it is. It is so nice that Becky gets to go on a vacation while on her vacation.

We are expecting pictures of Russia from correspondant Graham, but due to the extreme distance, transmission appears to be delayed.

Skyscraper Photography Job

A couple of extras from my last Emporis shoot.
This very cool building is the 400 Yesler building. The poor thing is caught between construction projects. While waiting for that loiterer in the yellow shirt to get out of the scene, I took this wide angle view and talked to a curious pedestrian who worked in the building. I found out that at one time there were horse stables in the basement and that the rooms on the end are used as conference rooms.

Another building on my list turned out to be mostly a big hole in the ground.

Actual Hard Work in Mexico

Before: No house
(And note how clean everyone looks.)

After: House

The important details. This is Mexico in the summer, so it was 97 degrees in the shade. Unfortunately there was no shade. All supplies, including bags of concrete had to be carried up the hill by hand.

No one can say they have not experienced hard work.

Shade at last.

These foreign correspondants definately worked the hardest and ended up giving a family a home. Job well done!
What will Mel do next year? Go to the Arctic in the winter and save seals?

Postcard from Becky

When Daniel comes, we have a trip to Spokane planned. Meanwhile Becky is traveling around France, staying with his family in places like this.


It is not all fun and luxury, she had to put up with some very scarey mannequins!

Poor Peter

Peter was in a bicycle accident and - for all you cyclists who ride without helmets (!) take note - the dent to his helmet could have been his head! As it was, he had an exciting trip to Harborview and got to experience knee surgery. I was unable to obtain a picture of the surgery itself, but did spot him going for a jog around Battle Point Park now that he is healing.

Fortunately he has had his doting wife, loyal son and trusty dog around to care for him. Meanwhile, where is Brooke during this family crisis? Let's take a look.

Working hard as an American ambassador and adapting to strange foreign customs, like eating really salty corn-on-the-cob at the beach, and wearing scarey shoes, Brooke is doing her duty.

Cabin on Hood's Head

Not only did Carol and Steve, and Kelly and Allison build this cabin themselves, every piece came over by boat.

What a perfect way and place to spend summers.

Summer Olympics

Ping Pong Finals: Hot, humid conditions affected the performance of the athletes despite the shady location of the arena.

12 consecutive wins proved Jason to be world champion.

The sweat had not even dried from his back when the podium girls flocked to his side.

In the social news around the Olympic Village, a celebrity spectator is surprised with an ice cream cake.

It is touching to see how geographic prejudices are set aside in the thrill and excitement of these competitions as "Californians" socialize with "Islanders."

On the croquet field, Dan had a miserable showing, but that was undoubtedly due to his upcoming foot injury. Bruce (his real name) was favored to win the croquet gold medal, given his intellectual approach and the home court advantage. However, Keith pulled into the lead with a series of spectacularly precise shots. He attributes his win to his choice of ball color and to that cute signature kick.

It's like this every evening

Home at last

Having moved in HOURS ago, Gillon had his room all arranged and was out relaxing in the sunset with friends. That boy is so sensible.

Let's skip right to the most important part of the house, Hannah's suite. The new carpet and painted walls look great as well as her little touches of decoration.


Mary has the whole rest of the house to deal with. It would probably be well under control by now if her assistant had only showed up for work! Honestly, it is so hard to find good help these days.

Anacortes Beach Photo Shoot

Mystery Object in the Boatyard

Who out there knows what this is??? The top-secrecy of the workers there makes me want to know. This was the best picture I could get through the chain link fence. It has two huge pontoons connected by this weird structure.
A couple of theories:
some kind of raft for going down the Colorado River (not likely, I say)
for fishing and nets would be below
a way to observe whales from directly above them.
We are hoping Neal will use his engineering, analyatical and logical skills to tell us the answer.

A view from another angle.

7-20
Do you think Neal is pulling my leg with his comment about this being a ferry boat??
What happened to his theory about it being a secret invention for finding sunken treasures? I still think the best explanation is something for dealing with whales.

Puzzles are Us

We arrived in Anacortes after 9pm, but had to get right to work on finishing the 1000 piece puzzle. (Ginny and Lindsay already finished one earlier in the day.) In order to get Lindsay away from the puzzle and give the rest of us a chance to put pieces in, I showed her my Snoodoku program. She immediately warmed up on the medium and hard, breaking all my hard-earned time records, before going to the evil level.

My Ideal Job

After attending Edward Tufte's seminar, I realize this is my ideal job - I just need to find one. Blog readers are welcome to make suggestions. It is the perfect combination of art and science - turning data into a visual presentation.
Check his website at www.edwardtufte.com
This is one of his favorite examples from history - a map/diagram/chart/anti-war poster available on his website.
"Probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn, this map by Charles Joseph Minard portrays the losses suffered by Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign of 1812. Beginning at the Polish-Russian border, the thick band shows the size of the army at each position. The path of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in the bitterly cold winter is depicted by the dark lower band, which is tied to temperature and time scales."

More Holland

Becky in Holland

This is exactly the picture we expect to see. Typical Dutch people in a typical Dutch setting. Becky can pass for a Dutch girl.

Naked for Lunch

I have it on good authority that this is my boss's (alas, soon to be ex-boss) usual lunch at the bakery - ham sandwich and a Naked. Apparently the tips aren't necessarily any better for serving this.

I will miss my office and my desk and all those maps and my favorite dog (after Cleo).

And sadly I've removed this favorite picture of APG from my laptop desktop where I kept it as a little icon in the corner. I'll really have to leave when I erase those two hilarious messages I've been saving on my voice mail for a year.