Fairest Isle

Ern is a super fan of Ms. Nancy, local kids entertainer. She reads books, she plays guitar. What can't she do? Well for one thing she can't seem to return voicemail inquiries concerning her availability to perform at children's birthday parties despite her website indicating she offers that service. ANYWAY, this time she was doing her thing at Island Books on Mercer Island.

Next Ern wanted to unwind at some breweries so we first toured Urban Family Brewing. We're really more of a Suburban Family at this point but the bartender said we could still drink there.

Cutie man or cutiest man? You decide.

Fair Isle was one of my favorite breweries until I had a child. They annoyingly had a no kid policy. Well they've seen the error of their ways and turned their lives around and now we're back. My recollection is that there were one or two other kids in there even so I'm glad they figured out who their costumers are.

Alexandra - Saison with fireweed

Montgomery - Saison gin casks with foraged larch tips

Oba - Montmorency cherries and red leaf shiso leaves

Cherry Paulie - Dark saison with cherries

Ernin Around

Ernin around at school.

I don't know why we bother buying toys. Old tupperware lids will suffice.

I think that this was Dong Ting Chun in Redmond Town Center. I remember it being pretty... authentic Chinese. Like it was difficult for us to order. We haven't been back.

The massive Christmas tree was up.

In my textbook flipping days, I did a lot of business with Chegg. I still remember the first phone call I had with someone in their corporate office... I felt like I had really hit the big time. So seeing them getting wrecked by AI has a personal significance. RIP!

Multimedia Experiences

Lydia is real big on watching all of the Christmas classics every year, and now we get to share some of them with the big man. Now that I think about it I think these might be the only time she really wants to watch movies at all.

Ernie was grumbling about brushing his teeth so we called in the cavalry: an Elmo clip where he brushes his teeth. You wanna be just like Elmo or not?!

Election Results Tallied

Oh what a day.

I don't remember if this particular little paragraph is what pushed me over the edge or not but as of September 2026 I still don't read political news anymore. If no one is keeping score then why am I wasting my time watching the game?

The case of champagne Zoe and I split finally arrived. The packaging was a bit worse for wear but that just builds character.

Ernie is really cute. Lately he will just randomly say his friends from school’s names. It’s weird to think that he already has a life that I’m not apart of.

Ghosts of Nebula

Ernie is a big library fan.

Ern's so spoiled he needs snacks while being carted around. MUST BE NICE.

Lydia, I, and our friend Christopher went to an immersive show called "Ghosts of Nebula" at the historic Georgetown Steam Plant. It was pretty cool. There was some fun special effects. There was a time-loop type thing where we saw a character enter a door from afar during one scene then later on that character entered the room we were in through that same door... sort of closing the loop. I thought that was a cool story telling device the illustrated that time was not acting normally in the dream world we had entered.

It was also a fun opportunity to explore the Georgetown Steam Plant which is a very interesting building with cool stories to tell in its own right. I love immersive shows so much.

We had a beer at Jellyfish Brewing Company to discuss the adventure we'd had togther before heading home.