"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." T. S. Eliot
My life used to be full of social events and now most of the excitement in my day is potty events.
Conveniently I have Ern's school app on my watch so I am alerted the moment he farts.
Lydia got rear ended while driving Ernie home from school today. It was pretty scary initially but luckily when I arrived at the church parking lot all of the cars were waiting in things didn't seem that serious. I guess there were four cars involved but one just drove away. The one at the front who definitely wouldn't have been at fault, which I found to be very suspicious. A guy hit Lydia and then she got rammed into the car ahead. I guess he was trying to "misremember" events but the girl in front of her confirmed that Lydia wasn't at fault, so that's nice. He was driving a Tesla which made this pain in the ass very futuristic. In addition to the car being mangled we also need to get a new car seat as those are only rated for one crash each.
Ernie seemed to be ok when we got back home and got to the business of trying to pull ornaments off the Christmas tree. He can't crawl but he's figured out that he can transport his potato body by multiple rolls.
Ern enjoyed playing with the Christmas tree skirt that his great-grandma made.
He ended his day with a nice bath to soothe his poor car crashed muscles.
Today began our last trip before Baby Ernie's proximity closed our plane travel window for who knows how long.
My dear mother bought me an Apple AirTag for Christmas and I decided to use it to keep track of my suitcase. It feels a little bit like bugging my own phone but here we are.
Lydia's baby bump is getting bumpier and bumpier.
Finally this pregnancy started paying off. Lydia got to sit in the special people seat on the tram at the airport. Must be nice.
I wanna make love in this club (Hey)
In this club (Hey)
In this club (Hey)
In this club (Hey)
Our flight was delayed hours for deicing as it was snowing in Seattle.
It's funny that Istanbul is still such a gateway to the east. Fun fact: Istanbul is the most populous European city.
I have a unique illness where I like to record airline safety videos.
We were sitting in cattle class but I appreciate them handing out little menus like we were important too.
The sour cherry juice caught my eye as something a little bit exotic. Yes please.
I got some good cinema time in on this flight. Bullet Train was very fun and had an amazing ensemble cast with a ton of fun cameos to boot. I'm not generally the blowhard braggart type but I, probably way before Brad Pitt, have also taken a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.
Say what you want about Turkish Airlines but they are generous with the free booze. The food wasn't bad for cattle food.
Now I was just on a golden movie selecting streak. I really enjoyed Elvis too! I mean, it features the magnificent Tom Hanks which in my book makes a movie watchable all by itself, but it also taught me some (dramatized) bits about Elvis' life. For example the movie made it seem like Elvis' evil manager trapped him into the Las Vegas residency. Sadly Elvis wanted to go on a world tour but never once played outside of North America. His shady manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker, was essentially an illegal immigrant and was too scared to leave the country due to the risk of not being let back in.
There was what seemed to be a Russian child sitting in front of me that seemed to have been raised in a barn. I didn't check his passport or anything but he had a little gold chain and track pants on. He kept reclining his chair while I was eating which set off a Cold War. I'm a decent sized man and the seats are cramped, so it wasn't difficult for me to prop my legs such that the little russkie's dad had to ask me permission for him to recline. After a detente we agreed that the child would be allowed to partially recline but not all the way. Someday I will be the world's greatest diplomat.
It was fun because I think they were also on their way to Tel Aviv so I saw them a few more times. I made sure to always make lots of eye contact and smile at them. The Russians only respect strength.
Istanbul has a fun airport. It's funny I've been in the lounge here so many times that I could probably tell you the menu from memory. They have a station where a dude makes fresh pide, the famous baked Turkish flat bread.
I like Turkish delight, and I have on at least one occasion eaten about 40 free samples at this airport. They probably stopped that practice after covid because now I see not a sample in the house. It just goes to show, you have to follow your dreams.
It was late when we got to Tel Aviv, Israel and so we didn't do much besides go to the hotel and pass out. Getting through immigration was a bit of a hassle, and we needed to do some visa paperwork on arrival nonsense. Big sad.
On our cab ride from the airport we got our first baby mazel tov from the driver which I was excited about. We were in Israel during Hanukkah so I definitely did notice the Christmas tree on the hotel desk.
Any religion that involves free donuts is alright in my book.
Today we were excited to have our friends over for our annual Christmas party.
I saw this Christmas tree butter sculpture and knew that we needed it for our party as a reflection of our midwestern culture. Our people have long used butter as a medium to create three-dimensional works of art.
We started getting a ton of baby clothes from our lovely family and friends, some new and some hand-me-down.
At our party we did our beloved white elephant gift exchange, where we were the proud winners of a Korean toilet seat that says "fresh fish" on the lid.
Jason opening up one of our gifts: some laundry detergent.
We played some Frogger and other Atari games.
It's a shame but even the most beautiful butter sculpture is destined to be smooshed onto some bread.
It's starting to get all Christmasy in our lives. With a baby on the way I think things are even more homey and cozy at the apartment.
Lydia's been having a lot of fun deciding which baby gear to put on her gift registry. This has been a pretty eye opening reminder about exactly how much time has passed since we were infants. There's a baby monitor that measure's your baby's body movements to ensure that he's still breathing at all times, and you can watch him on it from anywhere on your phone. The future is now!
Belly! We got geared up in some ugly Christmas sweaters and ventured forth for fun jolly times.
There was a Christmas event in Kirkland by Lake Washington complete with a tree lighting ceremony.
We were in the Green Lake area for a Christmas pop up and needed to kill some time, so we first went to Spud for some fish and chips.
So fish. So chip.
We also killed some time at Latona Pub.
We were then finally able to get a table at Tinsel Town, a holiday pop up at Shelter Lounge.
I think they did a decent job decorating. These sort of photo op areas are less common and a fun addition.
"Feliz Navidad
tequila, Kahlua, spiced orange syrup, spiced Mexican hot chocolate, cream cayenne served in a Fa La La La La barrel."
