Game night, this Saturday, Feb 7

[for people 50 years old and younger]
Some people already know, but I'm inviting you all over to my house this Saturday, February 7th.
If you are reading this, and you've met me before, then you are welcome to show up.
You're welcome to come anytime from 5pm on. Unless people have special food they want to bring... then we'll either order some pizza, or I can make us breakfast for dinner (which would consist of Swedish pancakes).
If you have a game you like, bring it! If you have a special snack or drink that you enjoy, bring it!
If you have a special set of game skills.... BRING IT!!!
Games that I have (I'm sure the vast majority of these WON'T be played on Saturday, but just so you know that you don't need to bring any of these): Regular playing cards, Sorry, Monopoly, Risk, Stratego, Uno (no sore losers), Skip-Bo, Backgammon, Cribbage, Pente (ya'll can't handle this), Clue: Master Detective, Scrabble... I know there are others, but oh well.
If I haven't talked to you personally about this... and you can come, PLEASE DO. If you don't know where I live, just find the 2nd star to the right, and go straight on 'til morning. Or just talk to someone who can either give you directions - or maybe they can give you my phone number.
Anyway, come get your game on... this Saturday, 5pm.

Crystal M...

So, I did something very fun today. I went downhill skiing at Crystal Mountain with my friend John S. and his family (wife, 2 daughters). I hadn't been downhill skiing in about 14 years... (which had only been my 2nd time), and I wasn't very good at all back then. But, no doubt due to my experiences cross-country skiing over the last 4 years, today's skiing went surprisingly very well! I will now be comfortable going downhill skiing whenever, rather than being slightly deterred (as I was for several years) because of thinking it would be just as difficult as it used to be for me. I took a few pictures, but I don't have my camera with me right now.
John and I (and maybe his wife) are thinking of going cross-country skiing in a few weeks (she's never been; he's been once, with me). Side note: XC is a lot cheaper than downhill.
Random fact, although related to the topic: My friend Marcia... has an older sister Maureen who just tried XC skiing for the 1st time... and LOVED IT.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday

This past weekend had two themes: high school reunion, and softball tournament…

Friday night was an informal gathering of alumni at Tides Tavern. It was a bit of high school overload at first, but it turned out to be enjoyable, and very nice to see some of those people again.

Saturday contained 2 tournament games of softball. We won one and lost one. After that, I had to head home and prepare to go to the official HS reunion, held at the GH Yacht Club building. There were fewer graduates at this one, but maybe slightly more people, due to spouses/dates being present at this function. I got to talk to a few people that I didn’t get to talk to the previous night, so that was nice. The chicken was really good. My old friend Ryan (who grew up on Tanglewood Island, right up against Fox Island) came over to my house briefly after (with his girlfriend, who is great). The reunion was enjoyable – it’s kind of strange that it’s now behind me.

Sunday: 2^nd church service, then went out to the softball tournament to watch the 2 games before ours. We lost our game, which gave us 3^rd place. It was a big disappointment, since most of our team didn’t hit very well at all on Saturday or Sunday – compared to how we normally hit the rest of the season (and the first couple of rounds of this tournament). It was a great season, though. There’s one more softball day to go (this coming weekend), which will have a pitching contest, home run contest, and an all-star game.

Last Wednesday

While on my boat at Cutts Island, I had the pleasure of being visited by my Jaime, Cole, Chase, and my long-time friend Scott T. I had to take the boat into very shallow water, and they had walk on the beach a little ways, and then Scott and I carried the boys through the shallow water, over to the boat.

We had some very nice wind, and enjoyed sailing around with good speed, covering a lot of water.

After dropping Scott off, we went over to the sandy spit of Cutts Island so that we could walk the spit some, and the boys swam a little and played around. Here are a couple of pictures:

I love being able to bring my boat right up to the spit like that. It was a great day, with great company. The sunset was amazing...

The wind blew really strong all Wednesday night – enough to cause a little bit of concern, although it turned out just fine.

Wednesday was the last night of this little Cutts Island vacation.

A vessel for lembas bread

Vicky just left, after having endured a LOTR marathon. She had just finished the books a week ago, and had never seen the films, let alone the extended versions. This is the 2nd time for me, and both times I've made lembas bread. It was a succesful LOTR day, and a good time was had by all who were present.

Summary of Days

Thursday: did phenomenal at basketball – very fun.

Friday: got a smoothie with Marcia, and then we met up with Marcia’s friend Monica (and her baby girl “Avery”) to walk down at Ruston.

Saturday: finally got some work done outside, which feels good. There’s a lot more to do, of course, but it’ll get done when it gets done… (and not a minute sooner or later). Also played some music with my friend Kyle (one of my Blimpie-peeps). He played drums, and I played loud electric guitar. He had never played the drums before.

Sunday: went to a church service; did things around the house; went to Blimpie; went to softball - first games just started today, and we had a double-header. We won the first game, 32 – 9, and won the second game 35 – 6. I’m pretty sure all of our players got to get on base multiple times each game, which is nice.

Tomorrow: I’ll be getting fitted for a tux for my brother’s wedding (August 2^nd). Several family members will be there.

Captain’s Log: Cutts Island

Last Friday, my dad and I launched my boat into the GH bay. After launching, he left, and I motored the boat over to the public dock for the night. After getting things situated, I was visited by my friend Kara K, who had wanted to see the boat for quite some time. After that, I hung out for a little bit by myself before going to bed (for the first time on the boat).
I slept well, but was woken around 5:30, due to the light. A blanket over the head, and I was back out until about 9:30. Shortly after 10:00, my friend Scott C. (whom I went to HS with) arrived. After loading his stuff into the boat, he accepted my suggestion that we take a 5 minute walk up to the grocery store for doughnuts and cold chocolate milk (“waking up on a boat and walking to get fresh doughnuts and cold chocolate milk” is something I really love doing, but don’t do very often – which is probably a good thing). It really hit the spot! - he concurred. Then it was time to get the show on the… water – destination: Cutts Island.
I prepared the sails as he steered while motoring out of the harbor (that seems to be the routine, which I prefer). The wind was a little light at first, but we were able to have a few nice stretches of good progress, and were able to pass in front of Brian and Marcia’s house on Salmon Beach. They were out on the deck with a group of people. While I was on the phone with Brian, I could hear Marcia say “is that Jesse??” – directed at the sailboat she saw in front of their house.
Once Scott and I turned towards the Narrows bridge, the wind starting cooperating more, and we made excellent progress until right before Point Fosdick. I made tuna sandwiches for us (I elected to put swiss cheese on mine, which is something I only started doing in the last year or so, thanks to my mom’s influence) – yummy! We had a short stretch of good wind to finally take us around the point, and then it was fairly slow all the way through Hale Passage (on the North side of Fox Island, where I spent the first 20 years of my life). I was able to point out the house I grew up in, as well as the tightly-packed monstrous buildings (homes) a few “houses” down, which totally adulterated the charm of the waterfront-row of homes that was constant for several decades (this adulteration took place during the first couple of years that we were no longer in the neighborhood – my brother and sister had already moved out, I moved to my house in GH, and my parents moved onto a power boat for a few years).
Approaching Tanglewood Island (which sits right up against Fox Is.), we elected to use the motor for a little bit, until we were on the other side of the Fox Island bridge. Going under the bridge reminded me of some short family trips we took on a 27’ sailboat. It was here that we realized that the current was going against us, even though the tide wasn’t supposed to start going out for a couple more HOURS… There must be some sort of anomaly in that stretch of water that my parents probably know about, but I didn’t. We were able to turn the motor off and have some decent wind until just past the spit at the northernmost point of Fox Island. Then it became a challenge to make headway around a different point, which was on the mainland. We ended up choosing to use the motor to get more out into the open water in Carr Inlet. Due to the anomaly with the direction of water-flow which contradicted basic assumptions based on the low-tide/high-tide schedule, combined with the mostly lighter level of wind in Hale Passage, I decided that the next time I go from GH to Cutts Island (which will happen this summer), the route will be to go on the South side of Fox Island, through Carr Inlet, which is a lot more open, and should have better wind and shouldn’t have an antagonistic current.
After some unimpressive wind, combined with the quickly-approaching change of tide (and checking the fuel level in the gas tank), I decided that we should probably motor the rest of the way, unless we came across some great wind. It was nice when Cutts Island finally came into view, and when we got close I started to prepare the anchor and chain. It turned out that there were a couple of buoys available, so we tied up to one of those instead (I hadn’t been sure of whether there were buoys at the island anymore). Then I made some macaroni and cheese with my Jet Boil apparatus that I got from REI two years ago (for camping, etc., even though I didn’t go camping at all in the past two summers, which is totally lame). We had also been stuffing ourselves with chips all day (which happened on Sunday, too – I ate more chips on this overnight trip than I have in the last few months combined). Shortly after that, we were ready to go to bed. I played my guitar for a little bit and then it was sleepy-time, which went well (with TWO people this time).
We had cold cereal for breakfast, and then untied from the buoy, and moved a lot closer to the spit (Cutts Island has a pretty long stretch of sand that is exposed most of the time, and is impressive at low tide), so that we could go from my boat to the beach without having to swim (but still got wet, of course). We walked to the end of the spit, and then back, and then around the small island. Since the tide was on the way in, I handed Scott a couple of things, and then walked into the water and swam a tiny bit to the swim-ladder. The water was cold, but not so bad, really, and any effect of coldness was quickly gone after I was on the boat. I went to the bow, and pulled up some chain – enough to where the anchor was no longer on the bottom. This was so that the boat would drift closer to the beach so that Scott didn’t need to swim – he only went waist-deep, and then was able to climb up the swim-ladder. We then got the main sail ready, and I lifted the anchor up, and (very fluidly) we started smoothly sailing away from the beach – it worked perfectly. The wind was great, and we spent a couple of hours making the short trip to Horsehead Bay, where my dad was going to meet us later to pull the boat out. Before ending up in the bay, we were able to cover a LOT of water, back and forth through the large expanse of open water - excellent wind conditions.
Also, during this time of great conditions, I pulled out a little CD player I brought with me, and played Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 4”, which I have long associated with a great memory of sailing on the family boat while that song was playing on a cassette tape. Since getting this sailboat, I have been looking forward to sailing to that music during great wind conditions. I was not disappointed – it was great! Once we were stable in Horsehead Bay, I heated some tomato rice soup (which we ate), and then put the sails away, and packed everything up, in preparation for the end of the adventure. All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip. I look forward to doing it again, with a couple of small adjustments (such as the route change previously mentioned).

Sailing, etc.

I have uncovered my sailboat for the season. It is exciting for me. My dad and I will be going sailing this Saturday!
Saturday evening will be a Fastenal party at the Rainiers game. It should be fun. Friday is a birthday dinner for my friend Kelli, now back from Germany for a few months. That will be fun as well.
Softball practice starts next week!
There's a lot going on lately... But all of it is good!
Okay, I'll talk to you later (as if this was an email).
Jesse

Mother's Day Weekend

On Saturday I went for a bike ride through parts of GH, over to the new Narrows bridge. The picture of my bike is at mid-span. After my ride, my friend Mitchell and I cleared off the church parking lot with what Kelly and I call "powerblowers" (leaf blowers). It went faster than any other time, we're pretty sure. We've got a system down. A little later, I drove out to the Phil Keaggy concert in Tacoma. It was great! There was a 7-piece band, and Phil was his usual, genuine, playful, amazing self. "What a guy" (Kelly knows what I'm talkin' 'bout). After the concert I went to Applebee's with my friend Jeremy and his friend Gary (they were both at the concert, too).
Sunday, I went out to my sister's house in Auburn to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom, dad, Jaime, Joe, Cole, Chase, Jeremy, and Amy. I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day!

Saturday

Saturday started by selling my old TV. It’s nice to no longer have it in my garage. Later in the day, Brian & Marcia and I met up with a friend named Aaron, and went to The Elks in Tacoma. We were joined by friends Mike and Janae. There was dancing and conversation, and then we bowled (in the basement of The Elks). Fun! After that, we left, and decided to go to Shari’s. I had a ham and cheese omelet with hash browns and toast (wheat). I was slightly tempted to get a chocolate milkshake… but didn’t indulge myself.
People dancing at The Elks.

Intentional cheesy grin, check...
Unintentional star right above head - check.

Skiing with Kelly

My great friend Kelly and I went to Snoqualmie today to go cross-country skiing. Kelly leaves for Korea in about a week, and I'm very happy to have gotten the chance to spend the day with him.
This activity is prone to surrounding you with [mostly] unadulterated beauty and freshness, with elements of freedom and adventure.

Chehalis, Washington

Two Sundays ago, Katie and I went to Chehalis (with a group from the YMCA) to help clean up some of the mud (at one residence) that was left from the major flooding that took place recently. There was more mud than you would ever need. There were probably 15-20 people helping this day... but there was more mud than we could possibly get rid of. Some of it could be removed from the natural soil in chunks, since it was so pleasantly cold out. The mud was being dumped into a field adjacent to the home. The first 2 pictures show what used to be their yard. The pictures don't quite do it justice, of course, but here's a few anyway.

Rock & Roll Legends

Katie, Brian, Marcia, and I went to see Elvis, John Denver, and Patsy Cline this past Saturday night, at the Gig Harbor Eagles. Fun!