Apple Photography

While I was bored out of my mind at the Bellevue Square Apple Store, waiting for her highness to pick out an iPad(more like iSad ya feel me?), I watched a class on iPhone videography. I was intrigued and am always interested in improving my iPhone skills, so I checked out availability on their website. I can't turn down a free class!

I found one that looked interesting at the University Village location:

Photo Tour: Framing Architecture

Discover a new point of view on photographing buildings, architectural details, and structures with your iPhone or iPad. We’ll head out and show you how to combine angles and lines to create perspective, add textures and shapes, and set the composition. Devices will be provided, or bring your own. Recommended for all skill levels.

The Apple employees that walked around with us seemed to be legit photography experts. One of them in particular was very intense and seemed to know a lot about both the theory of photography and the technical specs of the iPhone.

I was having fun on my photography class but Lydia was being a pill about it. There's no pleasing her.

Back at headquarters we learned some tricks on how to edit photos.

They then put our work up on the big screen. It was fun.

I worked so hard at photography we all agreed that I had earned a Hello Robin Mackles'more cookie.

Even the cars in the Tesla store had their Halloween costumes on.

Lydia has a bad case of Ernie belly.

Voting is very easy in Washington, and it may be my imagination but I feel like they ask us to vote more often as a result.

Modern Stone-Age Family

I always say that the closest you can get to the fun of doing something for the first time is to do something with someone and it's their first time. So I was excited to take Julie and Renaud out on a Halloween bar crawl in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood for their first Halloweeny experience.

Checking in was a mess with a lot of lines, so we didn't stay long. Our French friends were surprised at how revealing some of the costumes were.

I don't think Julie ever drinks and Renaud is a baker and had to go to bed pretty early, so we were trying to think of something to amuse them in the area and why the heck not mini golf at Flatstick Pub? The fact that we've already paid for lifetime passes had nothing to do with our decision, I can assure you.

Flintstones fit check. A lot of people gave me "yabba dabbas" on the street which I appreciated. One rando even told me how Fred was his role model because he always stopped working when the bird whistle blew at the quarry. I hadn't considered that he was such a working class hero.

I had the honor of spray painting Lydia's hair orange back at the house.

Wilmaaaaa!

We let our friends borrow some of our costumes from past years.

I beat Lydia's little butt.

Yabba dabba, yabba dabba dabba do now.

Halloween Warm Up

Bobae is always a good idea.

Decisions decisions

Lately I've been rocking the matcha latte with boba.

The official place to drink one's Bobae is looking out at Lake Washington and contemplating the universe.

Lydia and I got Flintstones costumes for Halloween this year. I took mine out for a test drive tonight with some friends in Seattle.

I cannot resist a grungy arcade bar.

Add-A-Ball is so weird and dirty that they have these weird half bottles of Miller High Life.

The statue of Lenin in Fremont was looking festive.

The night devolved into a very long walk, sometimes in the wrong direction, to another bar that was guaranteed to be better than Add-A-Ball. Spoiler: it was not. It was an amusing journey though. We passed by Last Call Bar, another weird place, but in a "I don't think I need to return here" kind of way.

Yabba Dabba.

The Who

Lydia has been getting the real princess treatment ever since we learned we would be having not a hideous Troll but a cute Baby Ernie.

We went to the Apple Store at Bellevue Square. Luckily there was a class happening that I could pay attention to while Lydia went on a shopping spree.

She did some serious and not last minute shopping research.

And walked out with a new iPad. Must be nice.

Since we have a human child on the way I've been swinging at pretty much any concert or event that looks even remotely interesting. We checked out The Who at Climate Pledge Arena.

I don't think Lydia knew who The Who was, but I calmly explained that they were on an episode of the Simpsons.

The arena seems to randomly have premium loungey areas open. So I took Lydia on a little tour. This is the Space Needle Lounge.

This is a fun gizmo. 

"You're standing in front of PitchBook's Winformation Wall

One of the world's largest flip-disc displays, it highlights event-specific capital market data and insights from the PitchBook Platform and spotlights live game day stats with:

98,000 individual flip-discs

35 fee of 7' high wall space

30 disc flips per second

1 ton total display weight"

We also checked out the Moet and Chandon Imperial Lounge.

It's pretty fancy with a lot of leather.

At one point one of the band members implied that he doesn't like touring but he needs money after his divorce. Yikes.

It was no Paul McCartney but we had fun.

We finished out the night with a nice dinner at the frenetic Bangrak Market.