"Love, Music, Wine and Revolution..."

Actually, there is very little music and revolution for us these days. And, Sarah's still steering clear of the wine. But, heck, I like that song* by Magnetic Fields, and that title sounds cooler than what we've been up to, which is more along the lines of Love, Scooters, Wine and an Auction.

Love
It's been a couple of weeks since I posted here. So, I'm a bit behind on the pictures of pregnant Sarah. So, let's get you all caught up on my wonderful wife and the tummy monkey.

Sarah at 34 weeks!

Sarah at 35 weeks, all dressed up to go to the auction (see below).

Sarah at 36 weeks. We are really in the homestretch now. At this point, the tot is basically ready to go, and is just filling out and putting on weight. Egad!

Scooter
Since moving into our house, we've noticed that just having the one car is occasionally problematic. We also knew that it would become even more difficult to have just one car, once the baby arrived. But, at the same time, we knew that we didn't want to get stuck with all the costs related to buying a second car (payments, insurance, gas, etc). so, we decided to look into getting a scooter.

After several months of browsing Craigslist, we finally settled on this '06 Honda Metropolitan.

I strike a "dashing" pose in our driveway. Me = Awesome Hip.

Wine
Last weekend was the start of another year of wine making. The '07 "Ranger Rick Red" has been bottled (and is quite good, I might add), and the crush is the big event starting off another batch off grapes on their way to becoming wine.

The '06 Round the World Red, '07 Ranger Rick Red and some grapes we found growing along the back fence in our yard.

The crush involves bringing a couple of tons of grapes back from Eastern Washington to our friends garage, where we crush them (sadly, not with our feet), de-stem them and begin the fermentation process.

I load grapes out of the back of the truck, and down a chute to where they are crushed. I'm quite fierce.

All the grape crush photos.

...and an Auction
Sadly, on the same day as the grape crush, it was also the Annual U-District Foodbank Auction. This is usually one of our favorite events of the year, which is why it was a bit of a bummer to have to juggle this and the crush (one of our other favs). Still it was a great time, hanging out with a table of friends and making bigs on a number of items.

Before the event, our friends Mike and Lane and us had decided we were going to go all in on the wine collection. But, the wind was taken out of our sails when a woman selected it as her door prize. D'oh! Still we ended up winning a Farmers Market Basket, and almost spent $1600 on a trip to Sri Lanka... until we realized that might not be the more practical thing to have when Sarah's just weeks from giving birth. Maybe next year.

Bonus: Haunted Georgetown Tour
On Friday, we decided to get into the Halloween spirit and a group of us went on the Haunted Georgetown Walking Tour. The tour itself, and our tour guide, were a bit -shall we say- uneven. But, it was still fun to walk through Georgetown at night. And gave us another chance to check out the haunted Georgetown Castle.

The tour group outside a corner store that used to serve as a brothel.

After the tour, we also did the Georgetown Brewery Tour, which was much more amazing. Featuring performances by the Circus Contraption crew (who I've raved about before, and who were even the inspiration for this blogs title), it was alternately creepy, fun and cool. Drunken ghosts, sword swallowers, atmospheric music and glow-in-the-dark gymnastic ghost... who could ask for more?

A creepy zombie woman poses on the beautiful spiral staircase of the brwery. A goth kid would love to have this image on her wall.

The gymnastic skeletons photographed using a 15 second exposure. Pretty cool visually... even more cool in real life.

All the haunted Georgetwon Photos.

As I mentioned earlier, Sarah's getting really close to her due date (less than a month to go). So, who knows if I'll get another chance to post between now and then. Both Sarah and I are set to begin our leave on November 14th, so if we are both sitting home bored, waiting for the contractions to start, who knows... maybe one or both of us will be inspired to post. But if the baby decides to show early, and we don't get a chance to post again, as Sarah says I'm too fond of saying: See you on the other side.

*EDIT: Not sure about that You Tube video... it was just the only place I could find Magnetic Fields "World Love" online.

Cribs and kitties.

Early on, while my mom set about planning Sarah's baby shower, I hit on the idea of having a bunch of guys over for a Men's Baby Shower. The idea would be that I would tempt them over with burgers and beer, and then put them to work painting the baby room and assembling baby furniture.

My friends Zeke and Chris work on putting the baby swing together while, in the foreground, my dad does some really hard work.

And, while my friend Bazor got stuck with the lion-share of the painting, I think it worked like a charm. Thanks to his work, and those of my friends and family, Sarah and I now have a painted baby room, and assembled crib, an assembled baby swing... and I even scored an X-Box out of the deal (thanks Ben, Luke and Bazor for that)!

The baby room so far. It still needs a lot of stuff, but at least the walls and crib are taken care of.

Meanwhile, across Lake Washington, at my Aunt's house, Sarah was quite literally being showered in gifts. By the time her and her mom returned home with everything, the pile of gifts was so large that it looked like a baby bomb went off in our living room. If nothing else, the tummy monkey will be well dressed for the first half dozen months of its life. You can check out a selection of pictures here and here.

Sarah holds up the wonderful baby quilt my mom made. One of the many gifts she opened (notice the pile in the lower right.)

In addition to the new clothes and furniture for the babies, we've also got two new additions to our house hold: Wesley and Buttercup!

Wesley. For some reason he likes to lay spread out on his belly like that, with his legs behind him. It makes him look really goofy, especially when he's also trying to look fierce.

Buttercup... still hiding shortly after arriving. I also just realized, we need to sweep the floor under our bed.

Earlier this week, our friends, Shahaf and Pnina, departed on their own Round the World Adventure. And, just to one-up us, they're going for a full year! Very exciting for them. Wanting to help support fellow travelers, Sarah and I offered to watch their two cats in the absence. We can understand the fears and hassles that come with leaving your life behind while you travel for an extended period of time. So, we were happy to watch the kitties while they were gone so that they hopefully don't have to worry about them while they are exploring the Tanzania, Jordan, Nepal or any of the countless places we are jealous that they are going to visit.

If you are interested in following their adventures, you should check out their travel blog: Honeysun. "What does 'honeysun' mean?" you ask. Well, check out their blog, Shahaf explains in their first entry and Sarah and I both agree it's a great idea for a travel blog name. Best of luck on your adventures, Shahaf and Pnina!

But, back to the cats. It's been great having them around so far! The male, Wesley, was a little freaked out at first, and spent the better part of the first 24 hours hiding under the couch... or in a corner... or under the bed, but he seems pretty content now. Buttercup, on the other hand, is more daring, and is already finding new ways to explore the house and create kitty chaos. I think it will be fun having them around!

Oh, and just to keep the record going...

Sarah at 32 Weeks!

Sarah at 33 Weeks! ...less than two months left!