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.

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.

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.

Finn’s First Haircut

Finn got his first haircut today. We took him and Reese to that place in Wallingford Center. It wasn’t a minute too soon — Finn was starting to look like a hippie:

Before: Matthew McConaughey

After: Chief Justice John Roberts

More pics available here.

Finn Celebrates the Big Numero Uno

Today was Finn’s first birthday. We celebrated as a family, birthday party to follow this weekend. A few pics from tonight’s four-person, two-dog, one-cat soiree:

Now whose present is this ...?

The birthday boy in his birthday hat.

Reese: Now this one looks an awful lot like a Reese toy. Finn: Uh ...

Mama mia, I'm in for a long slog ...

Don't have this chocoloate cupcake thing worked out just yet.

My First Ever Fantasy Football Draft

Yesterday I attended my first ever fantasy football draft. I’m playing in the Cascade Auto Glass Fantasy Football League, run by my good buddy Brad Nelson. Paul Sharkey, Norman Cheuk and Tim O’Brien are also members.

About 16 of us spent a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in the basement of Fox Sports Grill drafting players for ‘09. I inherited Larry Fitzgerald as a keeper on my team. Among the other big names I nabbed: Ben Roethlisberger (whom I stupidly nabbed over Darren McFadden), Terrell Owens and Larry Johnson. Deion Branch — not sure what I was thinking there.

I think I made a big mistake picking him ...

instead of him.

Anyway, I was up at 4 am this morning lamenting my Roethlisberger-over-McFadden decision.

I think I’m going to be addicted.

These Guys Are Still Good

Yesterday Steven, Norman and I headed east to the Boeing Classic. It was the first tournament I’d been to live in roughly seven years and the first senior event I’d been to in probably twenty.

Steven and I at the range. That's Bernhard Langer in the background.

These guys are still very, very, very good. To say they stripe it is a serious understatement. Even guys who aren’t known for their length — guys like John Cook or Nick Price, for example — bomb it by me a good forty yards.

Me and Steven by the 14th tee. That's Dan Forsman in the background, next to Mark O'Meara.

We spent a good deal of time following Messrs. Price and Cook, who were paired with John Jacobs. We also followed Mark O’Meara around. I spoke briefly with Hal Sutton — “hey Hal, how far is to carry over to that bunker?,” and he responded with an analysis of the hole.)

Mark O'Meara strutting down the 14th fairway -- tough life.

Maybe the coolest point was when we were leaving. We get in the car and who’s getting out of the car in front of us but John Cook himself. So I rolled down the window and asked him how it is that Tour players get all their free clothes. It turns out the companies (in his case, Nike) send big boxes of clothes to them at home about 3-4 times a year. From there, they actually have to pack their own bags.

Norman behind the 18th green. A few minutes after this, Loren Roberts got up and down to take a one-shot win over Mark O'Meara.

Sounds tough, I know.

John Cook is officially my favorite Champions Tour player.

Ronnie and I Meet Another Captain from The Deadliest Catch

Two summers ago, Ronnie and I met Sig Hansen of The Deadliest Catch walking down the aisle at the Ballard Safeway. A chance happening. Sig was a talkative fellow.

Today we met our second Deadliest Catch captain. Phil Harris and his boys were at the UVillage QFC signing autographs and promoting Phil’s new coffee.

We chatted with Phil for a few minutes and he was really a very nice fella.

Us with Phil and his boys.

I'm sure I'm dishing out some pearl of wisdom...

The Fam Hits Forks for Surfing and the Twilight Tourilight,

Yesterday Ronnie, Jon, Danielle, Sara, Reese, Finn and I headed northwest to Forks to do the Twilight tour. We left the house at 5:02 am, caught the 5:40 ferry to Kingston, then drove three hours to the far west of the United States. We snapped a few pics along the way:

Reese and me on the Kingston ferry, 5:40 am.

The Hood Canal Bridge: no connection to Twilight.

Ronnie, Reese and me in front of Lake Crescent. (Finn was sleeping, and he wouldn't have looked at the camera in any case.)

Danielle, Ronnie, Reese and Sara at Lake Crescent.

Sisters.

Once we got there we stopped first at La Push so Jonathan and I could surf for a few hours:

Ronnie and me at First Beach, La Push.

Sister and brother.

Ronnie and Finn at First Beach.

Reese, leaving her shoes behind.

Finn and Sara.

Jon and me -- after the beating.

Very, very hungry.

La Push is where the guys in Twilight allegedly surfed. Then we went to Forks:

Sara and Danielle in front of the one thing that was actually in the movie.

We snapped a few pics in front of the “Bella truck,” but Jon thought it was strange that this was neither the color nor the model of Bella’s actual truck.

Jon in front of a red truck that sorta looks like Bella's.

Ditto.

Come to find out — Twilight wasn’t actually filmed in Forks! It turns out it was filmed in Kalama, Oregon.

Me at Dr. Cullen's alleged parking spot.

Home of the Swans? Not really.

I suppose I should have known this, but I didn’t think to research whether the Twilight tour was a sham.

Why the movie wasn’t filmed in Forks is an interesting question. According to a local we spoke with, the folks at Summit Entertainment bowed out when, two days before filming was scheduled to begin, Governor Chris Gregoire’s office demanded that the production company cough up more fees and taxes. They declined and went to Oregon. The news stories that addressed the question leave that part out. They say the fees were just too high in the first place, that Forks was just too far from anywhere, and the company decided to go to Oregon from the get go. Where the truth lies? I wouldn’t count on the government telling us.

The next Twilight is supposedly being filmed in Vancouver, BC — this after the state legislature passed a bill to attract Twilight to the Evergreen State. That Twilight’s producers would skip over the story’s actual setting state but film in the areas right around it instead (Oregon, British Columbia) suggests to me that something bad happened between the production company and state government, and that Twilight won’t be coming to Washington anytime soon.

A great family day out, no doubt, but it would have been nice to know that the Twilight tour was a sham before we ferried and drove across the state to see it. I know we’re not the only ones who fell for it — we met a gal in the hardware store who said the same thing. I’m glad I didn’t come all the way from France to see Bella’s (Kristen Stewart’s) truck. Then again, if I came all the way from France to see a one-stoplight town, it would serve me right.

Mulligans Are There For a Reason

This weekend I played in the Royal Oaks Member/Guest with my good buddy Paul Sharkey. This was the fourth time we’d played together in the annual event. In years past we hadn’t made much noise.

This year, however, we did quite well.

Yesterday we fired a two-over 74 (net 62) in alternate shot to finish at 128. Our round featured my first ever, semi-well executed driver off the deck, Alvaro Quiros style. We won our flight gross by like eight shots. We tied for first low net in our flight (128) and tied for second overall, two strokes behind Casey Ribera’s team (Greenspan ‘07).

Other than the par 5 6th, which we double bogeyed, we played like a couple of Tour stars. We missed a handful of birdie putts inside of ten feet. Had we made even half of them, we would have won the whole thing.

And it’s not like we didn’t have the chance.

At the beginning of the tournament we bought mulligans — one each per person per day. On Friday we flat forgot about them. We ended up shooting a respectable 66, but if we make good use of one of our two mulligans it’s a 65. I remembered them on Saturday on the second tee. We ended up using mine but not Paul’s. So we used ONE of our FOUR mulligans. Put two of the four to good use and we tie for first.

Still, it was a great event and we had a blast. We knew we were within shouting distance on the back nine on Saturday and we played in in one under. Pressure was on, we got it done. Big time.

Not unlike a certain Mr. Woods.