Halloween 2009

A few pics from Halloween 2009, Reese’s third and Finn’s second:

Reese and Finn with Virginia Ball.

Reese and me on the way over to Ardeth's Halloween party.

Halloween at the Wallingford Center.

Our fam.

Longtime friends.

Carrie, Tamir and Tom Richardson.

Reese's first-ever trick-or-treating.

Four years ago, I'da never guessed it.

Reese and Finn, checking out their loot.

Better Late Than Never: The Jenkins Family Jack-o-Lantern

Tonight Reese and I carved up the Jenkins family jack-o-lantern for 2009. We waited until the 25th to get rolling on it — I thought six days with a pumpkin was sufficient, but I’ve noticed some of the neighbors — mainly Norman — got after it earlier. Not laziness here — I’m just not a huge fan of having holiday decor out for weeks at a time — except for maybe Christmas.

A few photos:

Ready to start carving.

Ah, there's nothing like the feeling of a pumpkin's insides -- yuck.

The kids jack-o-lantern photo 2009 brought back memories ...

of my all-time favorite ever Reese pic.

Reese’s New Obsession

Reese has a new thing.

Bats.

Rubber bat in hand, bat face on the laptop. This is what dinner looks like these days.

Not baseball bats. Bats as in the things vampires turn into. Flying rats.

She first took a shine to a giant rubber bat Halloween decoration that our neighbors Steve and Barbara Koh have hanging over their front door. She insists on visiting it daily. Now she insists on looking at pictures of bats on the Internet during pre-dinner time.

Who'da thunk that bats would do this ...

I trust this is a phase and, hopefully, a short-lived one.

Now if only her terrible two’s were a phase …

Finn Takes His First Steps

We can’t quite call it “walking,” but little Finn took his first steps last night. I don’t see him running any 100-yard dashes anytime soon, but he’ll get there soon enough. A few photos:

Woah, this is kinda cool ...

Houston, we have movement ...

Gettin' ready to bite it.

I Suppose There are Worse Ways to Spend a Saturday Afternoon …

This afternoon the Cheuk and Jenkins fams braved the crosstown traffic to attend the 2009 Mobile Chowdown near Interbay.

We should have stayed home.

The event held great promise. A collection of roach coaches selling good food at affordable prices — my kinda deal.

Well, the great food was there, but I’m not sure about the affordable prices. We heard about burgers going for $14. We had Thai phad for $8 — not bad, but not good, either.

Worse were the lines. There were only six roach coaches to serve roughly 1,000 people, so the whole event was six giant lines. We ended up waiting roughly an hour for our Thai food — not a wise investment of my time.

Roach Coaches R Us was an exercise in line standing.

Finding a seat was the highlight of the afternoon.

All in all, it was a nice thought, and it’s always fun to hang out with the Cheuks. But unless they get a few more than six coaches, you won’t see the Jenkins clan at Mobile Chowdown ‘10.

Ruminations on My First Month as a Fantasy Football Player

We’re through Week 4 of the 2009 Cascade Fantasy Football League season, my first fantasy season ever. So far I’m 4-4 — not bad for a rookie. I promised I wouldn’t use the family blog to ruminate about fantasy sports — can’t imagine Reese and Finn will care two toots about how my running backs did by the time they’re old enough to read this — but I have to do it just this once.

Fantasy makes the NFL an addictive proposition. I’ve watched more pro football games this year than I did all of last year. Sundays are officially couch time at casa de Jenkins. I feel like I’m living a beer commercial without the beer.

I’m doing it with smoke and mirrors. My running backs, Larry Johnson (KC) and Leon Washington (NYJ) have a combined total of eight (8) points in eight games. By way of comparison, Antoine Winfield, a Minnesota Vikings cornerback, scored nine (9) points last night — and he plays defense. If Johnson or Washington doesn’t get on track soon, the bubble’s gonna burst. My wide receivers aren’t much better. Larry Fitzgerald has been okay with 18 points in three games, but Terrell Owens has only eleven points in four games. Ted Ginn had six points in one game — and zip the rest. Zach Miller gets the ball toss to him — er, over his head — by JeMarcus Russell. ‘Nuff said.

This is about what Larry Johnson has done for me so far this year -- nothing.

At the beginning of the season I chagrined that I picked Ben Roethlisberger instead of Darren MacFadden with my first pick. Turns out I made a great move. With 50 points in four games, Big Ben has literally carried my entire offense this year. He’s the 7th rated QB in the league. MacFadden has a whopping seven points in four games for Al Davis’s Dumb Dumbs. I hope for his sake he can get out of Oakland before his career is officially ruined. Put him on the New York Jets and he’s a household name.

I dreaded picking him, but Big Ben is carrying me.

I have the best defense in the league. Aaron Schobel and James Harrison have been monsters with 23 and 21 points, respectively. (Compare that to my offensive players and you’ll see the smoke and mirrors.)

It’s still early to be forecasting the ‘09 MVP, but I’d be willing to betcha (uh oh) that it won’t be a running back. Aside from Adrian Peterson, the league is light on dominant running backs this year. I’d put even money right now that the MVP will be either Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, or Tom Brady. It’s too bad Betcha’s not still around …

I better stop now …

The Skoochies Reunion

Oh to be 15 again.

Actually I’m glad I’m not, but for one night it was pretty fun.

I attended the first-ever Skoochies reunion party last night at the ol’ Skoochies (our pics I everyone’s). The party was organized by a gal named Holly, who put the whole thing together through Facebook. At last count the Facebook Skoochies fan club was 2900 old new wavers strong. Lots of them were on hand.

The club’s West Seattle branch started with a pre-func at Jay Tando’s hotel room, about four blocks east of the crime scene and just a block south of Denny Park, where Ian Ross chipped my front tooth in 1985. Jay, Brad Miller, Brian Fischer, Leon Moody, Joel Aro, Thom DiMitriou and select significant others were among those on hand. We had wine coolers, Olde English, and a play list straight from KROQ circa 1982 — seriously 80’s stuff.

At Jay's pre-func before the main event.

Out on the balcony.

Part of the Kennedy crowd.

We made it over to the big Skooch by 10 pm and proceeded to dance the night away. We ran into Julie Ferkingstad, Brian Mahn and Brian Folino. Jay, Julie and I closed the place down around 2 am — three hours past my usual bedtime.

Joel, me, Julie and Brian.

The crime scene on Sunday morning.

Good fun was had by all. I haven’t danced that much in the last ten years combined. Nor have I stayed out that late since, well, since Mtv played music.

Overall verdict: it was great fun, but I’m sure glad I’m not in that scene anymore. Once a decade is probably fine.

I’m sure Reese, Finn and Ronnie agree.

POSTSCRIPT: Jay and I made it over to West Seattle to see our old buddy Gary Smith on Monday. Regrettably he did not make it to Skoochies night — didn’t feel well, he said. Seemed fine on Monday:

Jay, Gary and me.

Did the Seahawks Just Wear the Ugliest Uniforms in NFL History?

I just finished watching the Seahawks lose to the Bears 25-19, their second straight loss in what is increasingly looking like another wasted season. I blog on it only to memorialize the day as, quite possibly, the day the Seahawks wore the ugliest uniforms in NFL history:

Don’t get me wrong — the thought was okay. The execution, however, was not. Lime green with dark blue pants and dark blue sleeves? Way too cute by half. Had the jerseys been all green, and the pants been light gray, this might have worked. It didn’t. The ‘hawks belong on the next rendition of this page — and at the top.

(For the record, the Giants and Browns home uni’s are the NFL’s best uniforms right now. Both are simple and very classic. “Simple” and “classic” were not words that entered my mind watching the ‘hawks yesterday.)

So Much for That Great Idea

Last week I had the great, uh, original idea of writing a sequel to The Breakfast Club. Sort of The Breakfast Club meets The Big Chill. I was going to write a screenplay, sell it to Hollywood, and make millions. My pal Roy rightly dissuaded me from that idea — seems Universal owns the rights — so I quickly ditched my effort.

As with most of my great ideas, it seems that someone else already came up with it. I did a quick Google search for “sequel to The Breakfast Club” and did not come up empty handed. Lots of people have come up with ideas for a sequel — Joel Mathis on Lawrence.com developed his somewhat.

It was a good thought, but my idea for writing a sequel to The Breakfast Club ain't gonna happen.

Apparently the chances of a TBC 2 happening aren’t great. According to this report, Emilio Estevez had no interest in the project a few years back. Perhaps he will change his mind after the death of John Hughes.

For now, however, I think we’re stuck watching TBC over and over and wondering what could be … sorta how I feel about Deadwood.

Finn’s First Birthday Party

Last night we officially celebrated Finn’s first birthday. We had lots of family friends over to the house. Night went off without incident. Eli Moeller snapped some great pics with Ronnie’s camera. Among them:

Norman doing my job better than me.

Betty, Finn, Ann, Logan and Eric.

Ronnie and Veronica Moeller.

The Richardson fam.

These balloons would soon be in the sky ...

and Reese and the other kids got quite the chuckle.

A rare site -- me lifting a finger in the kitchen.

The Jenkins and Otterlee fams.

Modest appearing, this cake was quite tasty.

Gettin' ready to blow out the candle.

Finn checking out his cake.

Kimberly, Sophia and Alan Lippmann.

Tamir, Finn and Reese enjoying the cake.

A rarity at house parties -- everyone out of the kitchen.