Filling in some gaps

I know many of my biggest fans have been wondering if I have fallen off the face of the earth these past few weeks (or maybe got flooded out of my house, frozen in the snow, or blown away in the wind). Fortuntately, none of these are true. I just haven't had anything noteworthy enough to write about. So, without further ado, I'll fill you in on some of the noteworthy events of the past few weeks (Christmas shopping notwithstanding).

Two weeks ago, I convinced my roommate Brian to go snowshoeing with me up at Snoqualmie Pass. We had just gotten through with an unusual week of late-fall snow, and conditions at the pass couldn't have been better. An added bonus was that we used a Sno-Park facility that was marked as "Closed" on the highway, yet was fully plowed and actually had a few snowmobilers. (For those of you not familiar with the Sno-Park system, these are basically winter recreation parking lots in the mountains that are plowed througout the winter and make great bases for snowshoe, skiing, and hiking outings. The ones around Snoqualmie Pass are predictably overcrowded on the weekends, given the close proximity to Seattle.) We were the only ones on the trail, and it was a beautiful day for it.

This past week, my company's Christmas party was Thursday night atop the Space Needle, and, as luck may have it, one of those "100-year storms" was forecast for Seattle -- heavy rain followed by record winds (up to 60-70mph). Where would you least want to be on the night of such a storm? Yeah, you guessed it. The party was great, as long as you didn't mind the constant rocking of the structure. Though I've never experienced one, it felt like an earthquake that just wouldn't end. By the end of the night, almost a million people were without power, including large swaths of Seattle, all of Mercer Island, and most of Bellevue. Me? I only lost my cable/internet service for about 2 days, and more importantly, my house held up just fine to the beating. Best news of the month so far.

The other big news regarding my house is that my basement work is almost done. This evening, in fact, I began installing the molding (which proved to be a chore, considering the floors aren't level). Even with the unevenness, it looks 100 times better. Here are a few pictures of the front room and the hallway: