Gabe, Chicago and a Hot Dog Guy

Gabe and Saupe encountered a Hot Dog Guy on their way out of Wrigley Field today...the guy is kinda little though, so maybe he's more of a Weiner Wink rather than a Hot Dog? You be the judge.

Oh, and props to random "thumbs-up-wearing-my-wifebeater-so-that-makes-me cool" guy. Gabe mentioned that there is a column in FHM magazine that talks about picture spoilers or all those random people that manage to get themselves into photos that aren't their photos, and he and Saupe submitted this one to the magazine to see if it will make it in. So, keep an eye out for future issues of FHM...you may see this exact photo of Gabe and Hot Dog Guy in that column. ;)

Weekend Update

Gabe made it safely to Chicago yesterday to begin his week-long work trip in the Midwest. I chatted with him this afternoon, and sounds like he's having a good time with Saupe, ordered in some good Chicago-style pizza from Giordano's and caught the Cubs vs. Cardinals game this afternoon at Wrigley Field. Not a bad way to spend a weekend, I'd say! Tomorrow he is at his company's Chicagoland office, then takes off tomorrow night for Detroit. He's in Detroit until Wednesday, and then that night he is off to Minneapolis where he will have more work-related things to do but will also be able to catch up with his buddies that live there and also drive over to Fargo for the weekend to hang out with C.J. Work trips that you can combine with fun things are the best -- especially when they are a week long, and you can get your employer to pay for the airfare. :) But, it will be nice to have Gabe home again, that's for sure!

I've been pretty domestic and lazy this weekend...I went to the grocery store yesterday to get things for the week, and it was our Safeway's "grand re-opening" celebration, which was a pain in the ass to say the least. The store has been remodeled and looks really nice, but I didn't make it to the grocery store early enough to beat the weekend -- let alone the "re-opening" -- crowd, and I had to jockey my cart through the aisles of people who had all their carts sitting in the middle of nowhere while they were off trying the many free samples that were available. I also think it must have been social security check day or something (do those come at the end of the month?), because there also were a ton of little old grannies and grandpas randomly stopped in the middle of the aisles, flipping through their coupon books and comparing what they had coupons for with what was on the shelves. I personally have nothing against the grannies, grandpas and their bargain shopping, but if they could learn to hug the side of the aisle instead of take up the middle, that would be just super. Or, I could just stop going to the grocery store on a Saturday morning and not have to worry about it. :)

But, one interesting thing that did happen while I was at the Safeway -- I also stopped by the Starbucks in the store on the way out and got a double, tall, half-caf, non-fat, sugar-free vanilla latte (yes, I do say all those things when I order), and with that one coffee I scored a free DVD player as part of the "grand re-opening" promotion for the day. Oh, and I also got 10% of our entire grocery bill by shopping during the re-opening. So, all-in-all, not a bad little trip, despite all the poor grocery cart etiquette people.

I've spent the rest of the weekend being a domestic homebody. I made this awesome Lentil Soup with Beef that I saw Giada what's-her-face make on the Food Network's "Everyday Italian" program, and it was awesome! It was a good weekend to make it -- it feels very nice and fall-like here, and Gabe already let me know that he takes an anti-lentil soup stance, so he wouldn't have helped me to eat it, anyways. So, I've got about four Rubbermaids worth of soup in the freezer and one in the fridge, and I've already eaten three meals from it. So, if anyone wants some soup, let me know! Happy to bring a frozen bowl to you (but I won't ship it, you can probably just make your own).

I have to travel down to Portland later this week for a night or two; I'll have to figure out for sure how long I need to be there when I get into the office tomorrow. So, the cats are going to have to fend for themselves for a couple of days. It's so nice that cats are so independent -- all you have to do is make sure they have a clean litterbox before you leave and enough food and water for the time you'll be away, and they are set to go. Granted, that only works for two-to-three days max as after that point they will need someone to come in and clean their litterbox and feed them again, but is still a nice perk to choosing cats as pets!

Off to go finish up the weekend with some news watching, lunch preparing and maybe watch another movie I rented. I wish weekends were longer. :)

RAGBRAI Week in Iowa

Well, not much has happened here in Seattle the past week...it has finally begun to cool off (YAHOO!), and the 90s we experienced last weekend will be replaced by highs in the mid-60s this weekend. I have to admit, I'm looking forward to the cooling trend and the fact I may even have to wear a sweatshirt or a fleece item, which is the preferred sweatshirt-type staple of many a Northwesterner.

However, as quiet as things are on Sandholm Ranch this week, it sounds like things are hopping in Iowa this week with RAGBRAI! It looks like a fun year to do the race, what with the regular parties and beer drinking, along with the added notoriety of Lance Armstrong participating for a couple of days as he stumps for greater cancer awareness in advance of all of the presidential hopefuls making their way to Iowa for the 2008 election. I like to read the RAGBRAI news coverage every year, and it always makes me wish that Gabe and I would have got ourselves in gear to do the ride.

Gabe has participated in the past with his buddies as the support vehicle driver for "Team Hasselhoff," and it sounds like he had a great time doing that -- and everyone on the ride sounds like a great group of people to have fun with for a week. But, the main sticking point is that it would require an almost two week vacation in order to get to Iowa, do the race, hang out with family a bit, and then get back to Seattle...but, I still think it would be a fun thing to put on the to-do list! Maybe next year. We can put the Wee Sandholm in one of those little kid bike trailers so he can enjoy the ride, and I'm sure there may be a grandparent, cousin or aunt or uncle who may be willing to be part of the "support crew," which would include taking care of the little one in case riding in a little kid bike trailer proved to be too hot, too long or too boring of a thing to do all day. Maybe someone needs to buy a nice motorhome or camping trailer in advance of RAGBRAI next year for us all to sleep in -- air conditioning and showers required. Now, that would be nice. :)

I love a parade!

Yesterday was the annual West Seattle parade down California Avenue SW, and Mike, Sarah, Claire, Gabe and I took our camping chairs and a cooler with some drinks and snacks up to the route, found a shady spot to park ourselves, and watched the festivities. It has been REALLY hot here in Seattle (it reached 95 yesterday and was a bit humid, made even worse by the fact that nobody has air-conditioning here because it is very rarely so hot!). But, we were lucky yesterday morning and afternoon to be under cloudy skies for the parade, so it wasn't so bad.

This parade isn't like the typical Iowa parade that I'm used to...there are no tractors, combines, big farm implements or horses in this parade. And this parade has some other things that the Iowa parades I went to never had:

• various drill teams with names like "The Dangerettes, " "The Dolls," and their group of littler girls, called "The Baby Dolls" who do step routines at as they march down the route in their cowboy boots while getting spritzed with water by their moms and coaches to help them stay cool
• the Chinese drill team with the girls decked out in their long, red silk and gold robes, wearing big head pieces and pulling a big drum and other percussion instruments to keep the beat
• the Seafair Pirates with their boat on wheels walking down the parade route scaring the children with their big swords and warning people with babies and dogs as to when they will be shooting the cannon off on their ship (which is REALLY loud!)
• the motorcycle drill teams from both the Seattle Police Department and the Vancouver, B.C. Police Department weaving in and out of each other and zooming around on their Harley Davidsons with the sirens blaring

But there are definitely similarities to the Iowa parades I've been to as well -- there are the floats, marching bands, fire trucks, Cub Scouts and pretty girls sitting in convertibles and waving because they were nominated for or had won various pageants.

This is the third time that Gabe and I have gone to this parade; we started going when we lived in our apartment that was one block off of the parade route. We found out about the parade by accident when one Saturday at around 10 AM or so, I woke up to hearing someone speak over a loudspeaker. I immediately thought for some reason, "Hey, I bet it's a parade!" And, I woke Gabe up, we took our lawn chairs about 50 feet away to the street through the alley behind our apartment building and watched it. We missed the parade the past couple of years since we moved to our house (I always started wondering about the parade and looked into it after it had already happened), but it was great to check it out again this year and have a nice, relaxing way to spend an afternoon. And, we got to be part of Claire's first ever parade experience! :)

Mid-Week Update: Not Much to Report!

This week will definitely fall under the "potentially boring" category in terms of Sandholm Ranch news...although, I'm quite OK with that. :) We've just been L-I-V-I-N this week with the following:

• Going to work everyday. Although I did work from home on Tuesday to ensure someone was there to allow the Qwest guy in the house to move our DSL line. Good news, everything works fine and we now have an office area in our living room thanks to Gabe moving the desk out there. WOO!
• Took a pilgrimage to Costco. It's always best to go there on a weeknight versus a weekend day, as that place is almost ALWAYS a zoo. It may be like walking into those crowded international bazaars you may see on the National Geographic channel or something, but only with huge carts, plasma screen TVs and economy-sized boxes of macaroni and cheese and ranch dressing. I still think that it can be a daring trip nonetheless.
• Went to the movies. Gabe and I saw "Pirates of the Caribbean" last night at the Lincoln Square Cinemas in Bellevue, the Seattle suburb where I work. This is a really nice new theater, and the last time (and only other time) Gabe and I went there, we went out to eat first at Maggiano's Little Italy, saw the Pink Panther, and walked out of the building into the flashing lights of police cars, an ambulance and fire trucks responding to someone who was trying to wiggle out of an elevator that was stuck between floors, but -- instead of making it out -- fell down the elevator shaft several floors below and died. Happy to report that no one died there when we went this week.
• Had a doctor's appointment. Pretty straightforward appointment -- the baby's heart is beating appropriately, the doctor said the ultrasound results looked good, she said it's OK for me to clean out the litter box when Gabe is away (there is actually more danger in gardening than cleaning out the litter box of indoor-only cats), it's OK for me to continue taking Benadryl for my allergies, and I don't need to be alarmed by the fact that I regularly have "cankles." Oh, and although she's supposed to say that I can't eat lunchmeat without heating it up, the last time that there was a report of a listeria outbreak in Seattle was over 10 years ago, so I can enjoy lunchmeat at my own discretion.
• Visited our first daycare center. Although our friend Laura (the new mother of Christian!) has said she will be happy to watch the young Sandholm when he is born, we are taking a look at a couple of daycare centers and plan to get on a waiting list at one of them, just in the event that Laura decides that one baby is enough to take care of, thank you very much. We checked out the Discovery Center today. It is in-between Gabe's office and my office, so would be pretty convenient. One of Gabe's colleagues takes her daughter there, and she was super helpful and brought Gabe the literature on the place to review before we went. It's also one of the lower priced daycares we've found, so that is a huge positive as well. As of right now, it looks like a leading contender (behind the Laura Kincade Family Daycare, of course).

That's about it really. Have to say, really glad tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is in sight!

Roller Derby, Anyone?

Last night, Gabe and I had our first roller derby experience -- we went and saw the Rat City Rollergirls take on the Rose City Rollers in an old hangar at Magnuson Park on Lake Washington in North Seattle. Neither Gabe nor I really knew the rules, but it seemed like one of those sports that is kind of like hockey...you may not get how the game works, but there are a lot of people out there shoving each other around, so how can it not be fun watch?

For those of you not familiar with women's roller derby, apparently it was really big in the 1970s (I think) and is in the midst of a resurgence here in the U.S. Two teams are on the track at once, and there are five women from each team out there -- one "jammer" who is the sprinter of the group and whose job it is to get through the pack; one "pivot" who skates at the front of the pack to set the pace; and three "blockers" whose job it is to not let the other team's jammer through and help to clear the way for their jammer to get through. Each team scores one point for each member of the opposing team that they lap. Oh, and -- if it wasn't already obvious -- this is all done while wearing the old school roller skates, not the modern-day in-line kind. Needless to say, there are some pretty good blocks, shoves and falls to see! And, for the men in the audience, almost all of the women on the roller derby teams wear skirts that don't quite cover their rear ends, fancy undies, low-cut shirts, thigh-high stockings and garters. Quite the spectacle, to be sure! And this was made even more interesting with the "Score Whore" -- a woman who had on a skin-tight, butt-barely-covering red dress, a Farah Fawcett hairdo and big aviator sunglasses who skated around between matches with a dry-erase board to ensure all the fans were up-to-date on the score. It was great to hear normally clean-cut, mom-looking types say, "Where's the Score Whore?"

Another fun thing is that each player also has a special roller derby name -- for instance, "Jowanna Ass Kickin'," "Pris Toff," "Ann Munition" and "Carmen Getsome." The Rat City Rollergirls have a newsletter they send out, and it includes a game called "Match the Roller Derby Girl with Her Day Job," that is quite educational -- many of these women who may be "Tash-ya 'Round" on the track are cancer researchers, mortgage lenders or stay-at-home moms in their day-to-day lives. And the crowd is a neat mix of people, too -- you have the rockabilly, greaser types wearing their cuffed jeans and appropriately hip screen tees with their favorite roller derby team emblazoned on the front, to the grandma- and grandpa-types who were probably into roller derby back in the day, right on down to the typical-looking suburban family bringing the kids out for a little weekend fun. It was definitely good people watching.

Gabe and I had general admission tickets, so we either had to sit on the mats surrounding the track or on this teensy end of wooden bleachers in the beer garden where the poor general admission suckers like ourselves could try and squeeze in. We managed to score a seat after standing near the bleachers for a little bit, and Gabe was able to enjoy a couple of PBR tall boys to get the full roller derby experience. It was definitely a good time, and I'm sure Gabe and I may check it out again.

Friday Night @ the Hennessey's

Last night Gabe and I went over to Seth and Kelly's to hang out, have dinner and see the young Mr. Alistair at home instead of at Children's Hospital (Woo!). If the evening were to be recapped along the lines of the "society" pages of the local, small-town papers I grew up with as a kid, it may read something like this:

Seth and Kelly Hennessey of Bothell hosted Gabe and Ranae Sandholm of Seattle on Friday evening, July 14. The Hennessey's invited the Sandholm's over for a wonderful dinner and to visit their son, Alistair, then a week home from his stay at Children's Hospital in Seattle following his birth on May 30. The dinner was quite delicious and included a lettuce salad filled with vegetables which accompanied the main course of flank steak, shrimp and corn on the cob prepared on the barbecue. Dinner was enjoyed al fresco on the Hennessey's deck, and was capped off by a very tasty and summery dessert of cornmeal shortcakes topped with macerated peaches, locally grown blueberries, loganberries and raspberries; homemade whipped cream with a hint of peach schnapps; and vanilla Blue Bunny ice cream, which was bought especially in homage to the Sandholm's Iowan heritage.

Ok, so maybe that is a smidge over the top :), but I do remember reading equally funny and descriptive synopses of people going over to other people's houses in papers like the Tripoli Leader. Can anyone confirm for me that these columns are still written? Maybe in the LeMars Sentinel or still in the Tripoli Leader? Although I am sort of making fun, I do hope they still do them!

So, yes, it was a great time -- good food, good company, and I got to hold Alistair for the first time, which was very cool. He has grown a LOT since he was born on May 30, and his little personality is really coming through. He also has some pretty good facial expressions...my current favorite is the pursed-lipped "prim and proper" face. He looks like a proper old grandmother trying to reprimand you for something. Classic.

Babies Abound on Sandholm Ranch

Well, it's been a big week here on Sandholm Ranch. On Monday, we found out that we are going to be bringing a little Boy Sandholm into the world here at the end of the year, and that everything looks healthy and seems to be growing properly. The ultrasound photos we got weren't super exciting as the wee one chose to stay curled up and facing down in the ol' uterus, but it looks like he has a really nice spine, so we have that going for us.

Gabe and I also got to test out our child care prowess on Tuesday night when we got to baby-sit for the one and only Baby Claire Popelka. She is such a good kid, and funny! She just randomly giggles and squeals -- it's great. She seems to have some pretty funny stories stored in her little head that she wants to share with anyone who will listen. We propped her up in the corner of the couch and put her toys around her, and she had a good time communing with her plush friends. We were also watching a "Good Eats" rerun on the Food Network and then the "Daily Show" a little later in the evening, and Claire stopped paying attending to her stuffed animal buddies and focused on the voice and commentary of both Alton Brown and Jon Stewart. Maybe Claire will be the one to start a new genre of television program -- the fake and satirical cooking show? That might be pretty cool.

We're also starting to reconfigure the Ranch a little bit on the inside. Yesterday, I made an appointment with the Qwest people to come out and move our DSL jack so that we can begin to move the office space out of our one spare bedroom--soon to be the baby's room--and put it into an empty cubby we have in the living room. We also bought a crib from Sears yesterday -- it is super cute, was on sale, and Baby Bargains gave it a rating of B-. I'm OK with the B- rating considering the cribs they rate in the A range all seem to be in the $500-$700 range, making me think maybe there was some lobbying done with the Baby Bargains authors to help grease the ratings skids a little. I work in PR, people. I know about these things. (As an FYI, we don't pay for good ratings for our clients. But there are much less reputable companies and firms who do!)

Another topic top of mind right now -- boy names. If you have any suggestions -- and they are names you aren't hoping to name your own future male children -- please let us know! We aren't going to be publicly unveiling the child's name until his birth, but any ideas are appreciated to help us get the old creative naming juices going. And I don't think a first name starting with an "S" will be a good idea...Samuel Sandholm? Steven Sandholm? Sebastian Sandholm? That's really just a speech impediment waiting to happen.