I'm a Keeper

Been a while I know, but the good news is, I'm done with the 2013-14 school year! Woo!

Crazy finish, including Emily spending a week in Montreal while Franklin and I held up the fort at home. Luckily we had video calls to stay in touch:

And luckily we had Pete to help me pick Franklin up in time after school, get us dinner, and take that great photo :)

Meanwhile Emily spent some time with the foundress of the Sisters of Providence:




And not to worry, I found a fleuriste there who spoke English so was able to get some anniversary flowers delivered:

Self-serving to post this, perhaps, but I was pretty proud of myself...

Much as we missed Emily, Franklin and I continued to make the most of our week, no small thanks to the Seattle Fish Company:

They even gave Franklin a free t-shirt when we left! (Sized for a 6-year-old, but hey, he'll grow into it...)

You may have seen this video already, but I love how rather than show off his surprisingly solid batting skills Franklin instead took time to reprimand me for looking at my phone while we were playing:


Speaking of sports (sorry, is this too much to pack in? like I said, it's been a busy couple of weeks), hope you're enjoying the fun of the World Cup. Franklin's definitely getting into it, and he's decided that his daily ten minutes of screen time (give or take) will be spent viewing soccer highlights.

By far his favorite is this, by the Netherlands' Robin Van Persie:


I really liked Tim Cahill's kick:


Maybe my favorite entire game, though, was the amazing Brazil vs. Mexico:

0-0 draw, but probably the most exciting soccer I've seen in years. And how about that keeper?!

Keeper, by the way, is the position Franklin was most excited to play today. Wish I had video of his slow motion diving saves. Not sure if he was in slow-mo because of the replay highlights or to save his knees, but it was awesome either way. And the clear highlight of the day was when he turned to me on our walk home after lunch and said "I'm a keeper"... So true.

Anyway, we spent our day on an old-school Friday with Franklin: took the bus over to Capitol Hill, played soccer at Miller Playfield, had lunch with Pete at Coastal Kitchen. Super fun. And Franklin was even a good sport about taking two buses home on the way to nap time:



All right, well as I said, it's nap time now, so I think I'd better lie down. More soon, reader!

Exploring with Franklin

Emily went to Spokane last weekend for the annual Northwest Archivists Conference, so Franklin and I did our best to get into just the right amount of trouble exploring our new neighborhood.

Went down to Seacrest Park with Grandma to throw some rocks into Elliott Bay:


Video too (with apologies for the shoddy camera work):

Followed of course by a super delicious dinner at Marination Ma Kai.

And although Franklin woke up asking for Mommy, we are fortunate to live in a time where we could at least check in on the phone and see Emily's smiling face first thing in the morning:


On Saturday we hopped onto a bus and went to check out Alki Playground (aka Whale Tail Park) with Elliott:

Pretty cool park—definitely be going back again soon!

Great opportunities to climb up:


And back down again:

Well, almost... Probably would've made it if I hadn't been standing there staring and filming :)

Nice "parallel play" with Elliott in the sandbox:




Little map of our travels:


And with Emily back home on a beautiful, sunny Sunday, what could be better than to get some deck chairs and a new watering can and spend some time on the balcony:


I especially love the matching Franklin-sized chair:

I hope you'll come hang out sometime soon too, reader!

Work, Play, and Be Merry

Hope you're having an amazing holiday season so far, reader!

Really glad I had the chance to catch up with Will and Elliott last week!


I'm pretty sure he rebuilt the hard drive in my office at Seattle U., but it seems to be fine—maybe even a little faster:

I share that office with three other contingent/adjunct/non-tenure-track faculty members. Encouraging to me that our voice seems more likely to be heard on campus lately.

In what is perhaps a parallel effort, some of my colleagues have been pursuing unionization. There's been a big move in that direction across the US—read more about it with the help of the two most recent posts on the SU College of Arts & Sciences Faculty & Staff Assembly blog: http://sufacultystaffassembly.wordpress.com/.

Recently I've been thinking that this is too important to go on behind the scenes. And when the Provost's Office issued a statement asking faculty to stop pursuing the option of joining a union before having any public discussion, I decided it was time to call in a favor from our old friends at CHS.

If you ask me, they did a great job with the story. That story in turn got the attention of KUOW. I told them they'd be better off interviewing someone more directly involved, which they did. Take a listen here.

Meanwhile, these happy workers enjoyed last week's Sisters of Providence Provincial Administration Christmas party:


But all work and no play, as they say... So Franklin and I continue our Friday visits to the Volunteer Park Playground, rain or shine:


No amount of sunshine or puddles for splashing would have helped, however, when we visited Santa:


At least Franklin can say he's carrying on a family tradition:


Christmas cards are also a fun tradition; happy to see Franklin enjoying the ones we've received. This one especially:

Hoping by the time we see Baby Rose on New Year's Day we can get a "Happy New Year" out of him :)

We didn't do a photo card this year, but please accept this blog post as our photo card. First, Yancy's most recent headshot:


And Franklin's school pictures. Our favorite is up top, but here's another:


And the whole class:

Note how everyone really wants to be looking at Emily, who is standing just off camera :)

All right, reader. If we're going to do this holiday, I'd better get back to work.

See you soon, and until then, the Merriest!

Only a Northern Weekend

Thank goodness Emily had that conference in Vancouver, BC: loved seeing Franklin's reaction to international travel, university living (we stayed on the UBC campus), and, of course, seeing the ducks at Stanley Park:


Like I said, we stayed on the amazing campus of the University of British Columbia. Seriously, it's amazing what actual funding can do for a university.

Beautiful new buildings, terrific landscaping, and even the Endowment Lands, which include, among other things, Franklin's first clothing-optional beach:

Wreck Beach
(If you're wondering, we opted for Yes on the clothing question :) )

Meanwhile, the main event was the Northwest Archivists meeting. (Full program here.) Emily presented as part of a panel titled "3-D Documents? How to Handle Artifacts in Your Archives":


They even had an activity where the audience tried to do an appraisal of some sample artifacts:

And who's that charming looking archivist there on the left?

But I'm pretty sure those ducks were Franklin's favorite part:


Which got him nice and tired for a peaceful crossing back into the US:

Speaking of, reader, I need to sit back and relax a little myself. Until next time!

Returning to Our Connections in the Northwest

We're packing and about to leave for Franklin's first international trip! Emily is presenting at the Northwest Archivists' meeting at the University of British Columbia this weekend. Looking forward to finally visiting Vancouver.

In the meantime, how about some more fun from this past week. Fun on the slide at Volunteer Park:


Fun visiting with Grandpa Ray and Grandma Rhonda:



Thanks again for the fun weekend!

This one is fun in a different way, and from the previous week, but I just loved this Daily Show segment on Australia's gun laws:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Whoop-de-doo indeed.

There are two more parts to the series, also worth a look.

Finally, Franklin is warming up to the song and dance action at Toddler Story Time:

We've been enjoying the nice weather & walking to the Capitol Hill branch instead of busing it downtown, and I do really like the more chill, neighborhood-ly vibe.

All right, reader. Have a great weekend!

What's Past Is Prologue

Franklin is really enjoying his new mobile lifestyle:


In a related story, we were looking through Emily's baby book the other day, and I think we've located the source of Franklin's awesome smile:

This is Emily at just about the same age as our handsome youngster.

So, I just couldn't resist using that Shakespeare quote for the title on this post.

Perhaps you remember it from our visit to DC back in '07:

At the National Archives.

Okay, that's all I've got. Back to Plato!

Home Cooking

He's dressed for dinner and ready to claim his seat at the table!



Franklin seemed ready, so we started him out with black beans. It was... a mixed reaction:


Also gave him some sweet potatoes, but the clear favorite so far is avocado:

Yum!

And now that we're back at home enjoying things like messy bibs after the long road trip, what better time to contemplate other homes and other lives?

So, Sławek (our cousin in Poland) recently sent this cool photo of my great-great-grandparents' house:

He also provided this helpful description:
It's the home of Joseph and Maryann Bodzioch - parents of Mary Kalucki [my great-grandmother]. The house was built or bought at the beginning of the 20th century (I do not know when, but it occurred between 1902 and 1906). The house stood at the border of the town Brzesko and the village Jadowniki. It stood at the bank of the river Uszwica. [Map with estimated location here.] It was the last residence place of Mary Kalucki before her arriving in the US.
The photograph was taken ~1968.
The house was demolished in 70s of the 20th century.

Merrica visited the area during her epic European trip last year... hopefully Franklin (and his parents) can visit soon too!

Okay, one last highchair photo, this time featuring the bib from Loretta (Emily's supervisor at Providence Archives):

Finally, speaking of Providence, it's getting exciting around here, as Franklin is getting ready to start day care at The Intergenerational Learning Center at Providence Mount St. Vincent.

It's just two days a week for the first year, but I'm still nervous—and I'm especially worried that I'll get jealous of all of the fun Franklin's having there without me. But it sounds pretty cool—just check out these program descriptions! I'm sure it'll be great... and who knows, if the little guy is having too much fun, I might just have to volunteer there :)

And We'll Be Jolly FriendsForever More

The Sisters of Providence, Providence Archives, and the staff of the St. Joseph Residence had a very nice shower for us the other day.

Good looking cake:

(Thanks, Peter, for the photos!)

Quite a turnout—great to see that Emily works with such great people.


They even sang a song!


I had the chance to meet Sister Rita, the original archivist for the Sisters:


Speaking of archivists, Loretta staked a claim with this great bib that she made:


Getting close now!

38 weeks and looking great!

Summer Brilliance

Is it Monday already? And mid-July? Yikes... Good start to the month, though.


Spent the 4th on The Joker, a boat that our friends booked for a combination birthday and Independence Day party.

Love that silly flag on the front of the boat :)

Emily with Nick, the birthday boy:


Amazing to see the fireworks from the lake.

Nick & Ben

Next morning we left for Spokane. Emily had some work to do there, and we'd heard great things about Highway 2. Great drive, and part of the Cascade Loop, a scenic byway through western Washington.

Much better than the Interstate, but still a tiring drive by the end. Fortunately, Spokane has a number of nice outdoor pools, including the Comstock Aquatic Center, our first stop once we were in town:


For the rest of the week, I read about Aristotle while Emily finished some projects in the Spokane branch of the archive—she even put together an exhibit of historic medical artifacts:


But don't worry, there was also time for relaxation, including a nice dinner in Coeur d'Alene, followed by a sunset hike around Tubb's Hill.

Took Highway 2 again back home, and found a nice picnic spot on the Wenatchee River:

Yummy lunch from the The Gingerbread Factory. Tasty "Cool Hand Cuke" sandwich; and of course the cookie was good too!

Speaking of sweets, did you know that Liberty Orchards, makers of Aplets & Cotlets, is in Cashmere, on Highway 2? The factory was closed when we stopped by, but thankfully the store was open... and they have free samples!

Yum!

Before getting back to the city, we enjoyed the short trail at Deception Falls, not far from Stevens Pass:

Jams and Bread

As I mentioned, we checked out HONK! Fest West last weekend. Lots of fun music, even if it was accompanied by stilts, kilts, and jugglers...

Our favorite was definitely the Seahawks drum line:

Makes me think I might have to go to a football game one of these days!

Was such a nice day that I rode my bike there (!) with my friend Laura, and we met up with Emily, who'd just finished up at the Seattle Archives Preservation Roadshow.

As Laura captioned this, "sunglasses needed!"

Back home, we've been losing our minds over the no-knead bread recipe that Mark Bittman wrote about a few years ago.

Incredibly easy, and incredibly tasty—nice crunchy crust too! And, as Jim Lahey says in the great video, it has "beautiful crumb structure."


You know what else is beautiful? Plato's Greek is truly beautiful. I've been fortunate to have found a few other faculty members at Seattle U. who'll read Plato in Greek with me lately.

Lots of fun, and a nice chance to spend time with faculty from all over the University—Physics, History, Theology, Philosophy.

Right now we're reading the Euthyphro. Slow going for most of us, but rewarding. Want to take a look? The Perseus site will gives you access to a side-by-side Greek and English version. Good stuff.

All right reader, back to work. Cheers!

Collecting Memories in Helena

You probably heard that Emily recently spoke at the annual meeting of the Northwest Archivists, which was in Helena, of all places.

Fortunately, I was able to join her for part of it. Her session on artifacts in archives was a smash, and we had fun visiting friends and family.

My first meal in town reassured me I was in my hometown, where they almost always put ranch on the table next to the ketchup:


Speaking of ranches (sorry), Emily's conference reception was at the charming Kleffner Ranch:

That's also where she got that great sunset photo that's up top...

Had a nice drive up to York for dinner with Marisa and Dave:


And we saw Mike and his family. Unfortunately they're all too fast for my camera, but here's an action shot of the Easter egg hunt:

That's Mike, and his kids—Gavin, Skylar, and Tatum.

Is it the second biggest Easter egg hunt in the country? That claim sounds suspicious to me, but it was in the paper, so who knows?

Spent our last evening in town with Maraya and the rest of the family.


I got a couple of photos of Ryan, but I guess we'll have to go back for pictures of Tryna, Connor (well, he's in the background above), and Devin.


Fire pit!


Cheers, reader. Hope you're having a great week!