Jennifer finished her very first quilt last week. The quilt was a gift for my mother. Great timing too. My mother just had some major back surgery and will be recovering from it for the next year. The day she came home from the hospital, the quilt of there waiting for her!

I took a few pictures over the weeks as Jennifer was working on the quilt. I though it would be nice for my mother to see some of the process.

Jennifer bought most of the fabric for the quilt at a store in Poulsbo, Washington called Heirloom Quilts & Fabrics. Everyone at the shop is so very friendly and helpful. The first time we went there, we arrived about 15 minutes before they were going to close. A couple of the ladies ended up staying about half an hour after they closed just to help Jennifer out with some of her questions about quilting. Great service and a great selection of products.

Spotted Cat was always willing to help Jennifer out with her quilt. I’m not sure if she would have finished without him!

I finally figured out what I’m going to be for Halloween. Check out my super video that I made!

Kodak Gallery set up a site called Make Me Super where you can make a video of you as a Super Hero. You can use any of your existing photos in your Kodak Gallery or upload a photo to use as your face. Since I don’t have an account, I uploaded a photo.

Really easy to use. I like the little dots around the face that you can move so you can crop the face perfectly. If you make a video, send me a link.

Last night I carved another pumkin. This time I was inspired by Jack from the movie A Nightmare Before Christmas.

Last Saturday we had a few friends and family members over for a Halloween party to decorate cookies and carve pumpkins. To get ready for it I made yellow, orange, white and black icing. Jennifer also made over 50 cookies of all shapes and sizes. There were pumpkins, cats, Frankenstein faces, owls, leaves, and other Autumn or Halloween shapes. We had all sorts of sprinkles, stencils, and other things to decorate the cookies with. Whatever anyone made, they got to take home.

Kurt made only one cookie, but he spent a lot of time on it. He got pretty creative with it. Beginner’s luck I think. If he could have repeated it, then I might call it skill.

Tim made a bunch of cookies. Each seemed to get better than the last one. Probably because he ate all of the ones he messed up.

After decorating cookies for awhile, everyone went outside to carve pumpkins. For my first Jack-O-Lantern, I just drew on the pumpkin with a dry erase marker. I used this so I could easily wipe off any excess marker after I finished. I think my first one came out okay.

Yesterday I went down to the New Hope site in Bremerton, Washington. It’s a Habitat for Humanity project that is nearly complete. I still can’t do much because of my recent surgery, but I figured I could get some photos of the work being done. Nearly all the volunteers in the pictures I took are in the Navy and stationed in Bangor, Washington. Despite their busy schedules, they still find some time to help out the community.

You can see more photos of the Habitat for Humanity project on my Flickr site.

Today I had an appointment at an Apple Store to get my MacBook Pro looked at. I think the screen was beginning to fail. The photo above only happened once, but that was one time too many. Also, the screen began to flash and in certain applications would fill with flickering blocks of white. Weird.

The person I spoke with at the store was extremely helpful. He told me that they could swap out the LCD screen that day while I waited. I also mentioned to him about a small issue I had with my iPhone. Sometimes it just wouldn’t turn on. He looked up my warranty information and saw that I only had 2 days left. I actually though it was already up. He said since my warranty was almost over, he would go ahead and just give me a new iPhone!

So, I got a new LCD screen and a new phone for free. Pretty good day!

Last Saturday, Jennifer and I went to the Point Defiance Zoo with Kurt, Wendy, Adele, and Sullivan. It’s a smaller zoo located in Point Defiance Park which is just north of downtown Tacoma, Washington.

The big news at the zoo was the birth of four baby meerkats back in September. It’s hard to see them in the above picture. I took all these photos with my iPhone, so they’re not very detailed. Plus, the adult meerkats are hiding the babies underneath them. You can see a couple of the babies poking their heads out on the side.

One of my favorite parts of the zoo was the Asian Forest Sanctuary. We walked through an area filled with giant bamboo and many different types of exotic plants.

On the way out of the sanctuary, we watched the zoo keepers feed the elephants and give them a little something to drink.

Just before leaving, I walked by many more strange plants. One in particular was a tree that I had been trying to figure out the name to for awhile now. Luckily at the zoo there were little labels on everything. It was a monkey puzzle tree. It’s has a cone shape like a normal evergreen but its branches are covered in spikes. Most of the ones in Chile only have branches at the top. I ended up purchasing a small one at a local nursey that I will keep in a pot outside.

This past weekend, my friend Angee asked me to take photos at her daughter’s sixteenth birthday party. It was an 80’s themed celebration. Lots of eighties inspired outfits. Armed only with my Nikon D200 and SB-800 Speedlight, I was able to walk away with some good candid shots of the evening. I’m not posting them all, but you can see a few more photos of Kayla’s party on my Flickr site.

Yesterday, Jennifer and I spent a few hours with our niece Adele. First, we took her to a small park in Bremerton, Washington. It’s call the J.A. and Anna F. Smith Childrens Park. It’s easy to find. We’ve past by this place probably a hundred times, but never stopped here until Beth took us Geocaching. There is a sign for it just off the road. Near the sign there is a trail that leads down to the main area of the park. Following the trail, you cross a small bridge. We stopped here for awhile watching some of the bugs dance on top of the small pond next to us. Our attention quickly turned to the dozens of dragonflies that were flying all around us.

In my opinion, the best part of this park is the Children’s Garden. The garden is separated into sections that you can walk around. There was an area for huge sunflowers, herbs, exotic flowers, plants that bees like, wine grapes, and even a bunch of fruit trees. Jennifer and Adele ate a few fresh plums!

After spending at least an hour here, we took Adele to another park with a huge playground. The playground has a giant structure that looks like a castle with all sorts of slides, poles you can slide down, swings, bridges, and secret areas. Pretty cool place. Adele was running all over the place. By the time we were ready to go she was extremely thirsty. She guzzled down over half of my water bottle!

Jennifer got a picture of me taking this picture of Adele. You can see that picture here on Jennifer’s Flickr page.

Lately I’ve been craving sushi. So, I’ve been trying to find a good sushi restaurant near me. Unfortunately I can’t find one. All of this got me thinking about an awesome sushi restaurant I went to in Tamuning, Guam called Rotary Sushi.

First of all, I would have never found the place if my taxi driver didn’t mention it. Cabs and Taxi’s in Guam are extremely expensive, but I was able to find an awesome taxi service owned and operated by a guy named Dan. At the time, he was the only driver and he only had one car. He doesn’t even have a set rate. He says that you can pay whatever you want. Dan’s been in Guam awhile so he knows the place well. I asked him where he would recommend I should go eat and visit.

Dan said that Rotary Sushi was a popular place with the locals. That’s the type of place I like to go to. Away from the tourists and the high prices.

This place was awesome! Now, I haven’t eaten a lot of sushi before this place. In fact I’ve only been to one other sushi restaurant. So I know I might not be an expert in the field of sushi, but the food here was delicious.

When you walk in, you immediately can see a big rectangular island. Customers sit around the rectangle while the sushi chef is in the middle creating dishes. Around the island there is this conveyor belt thingy. It reminded me of how the luggage moves around in the airport, but on this conveyor was the sushi. When the sushi chef finishes a dish, he places it on the converyor and it travels around and around the island until someone grabs it. Believe me, it doesn’t stay up there long. Chances are, if you pass on it once it probably won’t be coming by again.

There are other items on the conveyor such as wasabi, ginger, fruits, and vegetables. Each item is on a dish that is color coded. Each color code corresponds to a different price.

I ended up going here quite a bit. I got to know the sushi chef Tatsu of little. I had know idea how much training was needed in order to become a sushi chef. Many, many years.

If you don’t see anything on the conveyor that you want, you can place an order with the sushi chef. I saw something on the menu called Wasabi Dynamite. Later I found out that this was a unique dish that only Rotary Sushi had. This was something that the chef created and became a favorite with the locals.

The outside of it was lightly toasted giving it a bit of a crunch. Of course, there was a lot of wasabi in the middle and on the outside of this monster.

When you bite into it, it was like dynamite went off inside your nose! You think it’s over, but more it continues with each chew. This was my absolute favorite. Lots of wasabi, but lots of flavor too.

When I went, I ate a lot. I think the sushi chef Tatsu was a little amazed by how much I could eat, but I think he took it as a great compliment. There’s always room for more sushi.

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