Shooting Range

Sami and Chris at the shooting range.

It's been our tradition for the last 4 or 5 years to go to the range with Chris whenever we're in Charlotte. Even though Sami doesn't practice regularly, he is an excellent shot.

Today the range was very busy, so I watched though the window and didn't shoot. I'm not very good with the handguns anyway. I'm much better with a rifle or a shotgun... something with a scope.

We Play Wii

Sami and I went over to see Chris's new condo. (There was still some stuff in boxes, so I didn't take pictures.)

Chris loves games of all kinds and so he has the Nintendo Wii. We'd never tried one before and it was a lot of fun.

First we played the tennis and bowling and boxing... Chris and Sami laughed at my boxing style, (they said I looked like I was drumming) but I got a KO on my first try!

After the sports games we tried one of the other games that comes with the Wii. The game instructs you on various positions for how to hold the remote (or Wiimote as Chris called it).

Then you have to complete the action show on screen in the alloted time. It's silly but a lot of fun.

Here Sami had to slash this log with the samurai sword.

It's amazing how the controllers work with the game... how they know what you're doing and reproduce it onscreen.

I took a video of Sami playing to give you a better idea of how it all works.

Actually Sami took a video of me too, but he held the camera vertically and movies can't be rotated the way pictures can.

Mrs. Edith's Gutters

The day after Chrismas we went over to see Mrs. Edith and take her some cake. We used to live across the street from her before Andrew was born and she is like an extra grandmother to us.

While my parents sat inside talking with her, I went outside and cleaned her gutters.

Cardinal (m) - Cardinalis cardinalis

Sami decided to stay safely on the ground and take pictures of the birds in the trees.

Actually, I'd been hoping to get some really great bird pictures on our trip. Since there are so many hardwood trees and the leaves fall off, you can see the birds pretty clearly in the winter. Also, the Cardinal is a favorite and we don't have them in Oregon.

Cardinal (f) - Cardinalis cardinalis

Unfortunately, the weather was grey and rainy for almost the entire week.

This is a good thing for NC after the long drought, but really disappointing to us. It was just like being in Oregon, except a few degrees warmer.

Merry Christmas!

Andrew, my youngest brother, loves Christmas lights. This year he managed to decorate the front of the house very tastefully.

He also decorated the tree house and the back porch. The screened in porch was just added to the house last year.

Unfortunately my mom had to work at the hospital on Christmas day. My brothers, Matt and Andrew, decided to stay up late on Christmas eve and make a special breakfast for her.

They set up the coffee maker with the timer, and made several different kinds of cookies, with hand written cards listing what kinds they were.

Daddy and Matt watching TV.

After opening presents on Christmas morning, we did a lot of sitting around flipping channels.

Andrew gave Cody the dog a giant bone.

It was so large she could barely chew on it. And on the following days she nearly woke the whole house up by dropping it on the hardwood floors in the kitchen.

On Christmas Day, Andrew cooked the turkey and Sami and I made biscuits, mashed potatoes and a rhubarb pie made from our own rhubarb we canned last summer.

We told my sister Becca that she could make the vegetables but she declined.

My mom came home just in time to make the stuffing.

Sami carving the turkey.

Sami loves to use the electric knife. My mom offered to give it to us, but we don't make turkey very often so we decided to leave it there.

If you're wondering why the cabinets look weird, it's because the kitchen is in the middle of a remodel and the cabinets have only been primed, and not painted. They used to be a dark brown.

Moon Halo.... Maybe Mars?

On our flight from Portland to Atlanta, the pilot pointed our the moon and mars but we were on the wrong side of the plane to see it.

Later, at my parents house in Charlotte I took this picture of a moon halo. Mars might be there too, but I'm not sure which bright spot it might be.

I was setting up my tripod and taking a couple pictures of it when my brothers, Matt & Andrew, came outside and said "Cool! How did you do that?" Although I'd like to take credit, it's a weather thing. When there are ice crystals up in the high-level clouds, they act like tiny prisms, bending the moonlight and making a 22 degree halo.

Port of Portland

Our friend Erica drove us to the airport today. Thanks!

As she remarked on the drive here, the name Port of Portland is pretty redundant. However, the airport is nice. No lines today, and going through security was super easy. That's our plane here, right on time. Also, there is free wireless here so we can check email, surf and make little blog posts like this one.

Trip to NC

For the next week, we'll be writing our blog from 4936 Broad Hollow Drive.

This picture is from our trip last year. Sami really enjoyed playing with the dog, Cody. We decided to take Daddy and the dog geocaching with us. Daddy really enjoyed it. Cody didn't like walking in the woods and refused to go any further.

Anyway, if you're in Charlotte between Christmas and New Year's and want to meet up with us, post a comment, send an email or call us.

Looking forward to Sauna

We had hoped to have the sauna installed in time for a Christmas sauna, but because of the difficulty scheduling the plumber, we didn't make it. Anyway, we're starting to get really excited about it.

Sami's mom, Anneli, sent us these beautiful sauna bench linens. They just arrived yesterday. Thank You!

Also, Sami managed to find some tar soap (not common here in the US) and it smells delicious!

Oh My D-Lux Chocolate Chip Cookies

I seem to have gotten into the Christmas spirit. That means I'm baking cookies!

Yesterday I made Sami's favorite Oatmeal and while I will always love my favorite Chocolate Chip cookies, I decided to try out a new recipe for Coconut Crispy Chocolate Chip cookies.

Missing Addresses

I had the day off today, so after shopping and running errands I decided to write christmas cards. Yes, I know it's late, we've received several already.

Anyway, I've discovered that approximately 75% of my address book is wrong. So all of you that have moved in the past year or so please email me with your addresses.

Backyard Birds Bathing

New Camera Test - Extreme Fog

I got my new camera yesterday. It's actually my christmas present, but we wanted to test it out and learn how to use it before we left town for the holidays.

I stopped by Commonwealth Park this morning for a few minutes on my way to work. It was extremely foggy, so my pictures were pretty bad. I haven't learned all the settings for the new camera and I haven't tried out the editing software that came with the camera. I didn't have time to play around this morning, so I just used the AUTO setting.

American Coot - Fulica americana

This was the first time I'd seen a coot out of the water. They look like ducks when you see them swimming but they don't have webbed feet.

This one was sticking his beak down into the mud and pulling out grass or algae or something. All the other coots were diving for their breakfast.

Mikontalolights

Mikontalo (map) is the biggest apartment building in Finland (or at least everyone claims this to be true... I don't really know). It's located near Tampere Technical University in Hervanta, a suburb of Tampere, Finland. Sami and I have both lived there at different times. Anyway, the building is going through some renovations and some students decided to "create the world's physically largest colored graphics platform". Very Cool.

UPDATE: Eric told us he'd read of students at Brown doing a smaller non-color version in 2000.

Home Theater - Vinyl Tile Removal

We've peeled up about 3/4 of the vinyl tile and our trash bin is full. Hopefully it won't take us too much longer to pull the rest up.

Unfortunately we had to leave the screen in the room because we built it there and it's too big to remove without disassembling it.

We had to pull the baseboards off to get the carpet and pad out. We decided to cut the bottom 2 inches off of the paneling so we could seal the joint where the foundation wall meets the slab. The cut will be covered up by baseboard when we're done.

Sami found this old Highlights magazine from 1975 in the wall. The kid who read it must be in his 40's by now.

Got Him!

Anna's Hummingbird - Calypte anna

Yesterday, I watched this little guy go back and forth between feeder and the pear tree where he was hunting insects.

Home Theater - Soggy Carpet Removal

We never managed to get the carpet dry... the pad had been acting like a giant sponge. Yesterday we removed the baseboards, pulled out the carpet and pad and discovered... nasty vinyl tile that had been painted white at some time. We're still working on prying that up so we can seal the concrete slab and install some other floor covering.

It was sunny yesterday afternoon, so we tried to save the carpet by laying it out on the car to dry. It seemed to be working... until we got up this morning and it started snowing. Looks like that carpet is definitely a goner.

Sauna Project - Flood!

Friday evening Melissa and Erica came over to help remove some more drywall in the laundry room (to prep for plumbing work).

Yesterday Sami and I worked on installing the tile in the laundry room. We marked out the layout, cut the edge pieces and tiled the corner where the water heater will be moved...

We woke up to find our pretty tile job underwater... Don't know if we have to rip it up and start over, or if it will dry out ok.

Our bathroom and our home theater room flooded too.

Unfortunately, the carpeted home theater room was packed full of stuff since we're in the middle of several projects. We had to move everything upstairs.

After we cleared the whole basement out (and turned the rest of our house into a huge mess), we found this crack in the foundation wall under the stairs.

We're hoping it's the only one, but actually it seems like the water is coming from the joint between the foundation wall and the slab.

Unfortunately I think the only thing we can do right now is to buy a sump pump and get the water out of our crawl space so it won't keep flowing in.

Hungry Hummingbird

One of the hummingbirds showed up today. We couldn't get a good picture because it was dark and rainy (actually it snowed this morning, but didn't stick). We figured you could see how fast and hungry he was in this little video.