Fun in Seattle with Oliva

After the adventures at the Conservatory, we went to Bainbridge. Then to the original Starbucks and Pike Place Market.

It turns out that Oliva had the same origami book Matt has. They made an Angel Fish together. Then a T-rex. But the newly born T-rexes were hungry.

Day 2 of Husky

The morning after Husky opened, it still smelled pretty bad. Since Doug is on vacation, Patty and Nile cut open a window so we can see the inside. Here you can see the male (yellow) and female (red) florets.
There were other flowers that opend that night too!
After walking through the conservatory, we went to the lower greenhouses. Here is Oliva with Sherry Baby.

Waldo's twin, Husky!

The Conservatory got a nother visitor from UW. This one is Waldo's twin Husky (for Waldo's photos, see June and July 2005). The flower started opening around 3:30. Doug came to visit us during his vacation! A fly also came to pay a visit.

It continued to open through the night. It was very nice that Husky waited for Oliva to come. Here we're taking a breather from being inside.

Earlier in the evning, the stink is still developing. The Conservatory stayed open past 9 pm.

The lighting made a cool reflection. The Queen of the Night has a quiet show that night too.

March through July - Takashi and Yoshie vist

Takashi and Yoshie visited for the past 4 months.

Takashi worked at Shima for a few days.He was really happy to be working with Sussy.


We did all sorts of fun things like eating the best burgers and onion rings in Seattle. We made meringues which took two tries and we still didn't get it quite right. Matt also did some baking with Takashi.


We went canoing and ate out at the best pizza restaurant in Seattle.


While they were here, some of their friends visited from Japan. Takashi and Yoshie always made great dinners.


Ronald showed us how to make empanadas. These were really amazing. They came out just right.


Kenkichi-san roasts and sells coffee professionally in Japan. He taught us how to make the best coffee. Now Nile can drink coffee black if it is brewed right. We also went to Shima with them.


While he was here, we bought an ice cream maker. Here we are pretending we are much fatter, like we will be after a few weeks of having this fantastic machine.



It was Takashi's birthday while he was here. We went out to dinner at a nice restaurant. For TK's birthday we also went to Cirque Du Soleil. We won't say how old he is.


We also traveled to Canada for a day. They have bears there, a lot like the NYC cows and the Toronto moose.


Sarah bought a new condo and moved into it. She had us over and Ronald made a cake for Takashi.



For a few weeks, Takashi and Yoshie left us and went to Peru. He hiked to Machu Pichu.
They also climbed the small mountain behind it.


On the 4th of July we watched the fireworks together. It was the night before they had to go back to Japan.


Thanks for everything, Takashi and Yoshie. We love you both very much.

Remodeling the kitchen

We attacked the kitchen next. Matt is cutting the counter apart so that we can remove it.

While Matt was at work, Takashi, Yoshie, and Nile took away the counter tops. Takashi is struggling to lift the very heavy iron sink out.

For one night we had no counter top or sink. Sarah came over to see the show.

The plumbing wasn't part of the new counter top, so we had to do it ourselves. It was much more complicated than we thought it would be. Takashi and Matt both cried a few times. (Note: we didn't end up using the white autracity shown in this picture. In the end, the plumbing was much more complicated, but made of metal.)

Next came the floor. This is the before picture with the base boards removed.

Takashi and Matt worked as a team to lay the linolium tile.


Here's a panorama of our new kitchen. We're very happy with the sand colored countertop. Originally we wanted something much lighter, but the designer at Home Depot told us that it would be much harder to resell. The light under the cabinets is new as well.

We also put up some very snazy spice racks.