This past weekend was the Vancouver Marathon. It was one of the most tiring weekends we’ve had in a long time…Oh no no, we didn’t actually RUN in the marathon; are you crazy? We just happened to be up in B.C. during the event.

Charlie loves his toy trains and his Grandparents had the great idea to take him on a real one. The train ride to Canada was a lot of fun, although not the most relaxing experience with a one-year-old, who does not have the ability to sit in one spot for more than 4 nano-seconds (we timed it). Bribing him with Disney movies and his favorite stacks didn’t even work in our favor. He always wanted to be somewhere else.

Vancouver was sunny and beautiful. We stayed at the Opus in Yaletown, which, it turns out, is a pretty hoity-toity place. The typical hotel guest doesn’t arrive by cab from the train station, but rather by ridiculously expensive automobiles. The valet always leaves at least one of said cars outside the hotel at all times, just to remind the less-than-filthy-rich that it’s a privilege for us to be there. The staff was extremely nice—like, on-medication nice. There’s no other explanation; even with a one-year-old running through, wrecking their well-designed lobby and lounge area, they managed to stand calmly with pleasant looks on their faces. Upstairs, the rooms were not huge, but very nice and quiet. It was the first time that I was given the option to sit on the toilet while looking out of a fifth floor window. I could look down and see Starbucks from the shower…and I’m sure the patrons of Starbucks could look up and see us in our ‘bucks’. (heh)

Not having a car, we walked all over town—from Yaletown to Granville Island to Chinatown to Robson Street pausing briefly only for gelato and the occasional meal. So, maybe we didn’t "run a marathon", but between chasing Charlie up and down the aisle of the train and him not wanting to be strapped into his stroller all weekend—I’m guessing we completed at least a double marathon. Where are our metals? We’d settle for another bag of Ketchup flavored potato chips.

More photos from the trip.

Wednesday night I scraped myself out of bed to go with Jon to see The Swell Season or, as they’re now more commonly known, the Oscar winning couple from the movie, Once. We found out that our friend, the famous Sizzle was going to be at the show. Sizzle, being the on-the-ball blogger that she is, summed up the show quite nicely here. Of course she had a different perspective on the show—she was front and center, while we were way up in the balcony. We don’t usually mind the balcony, our only problem was that we were seated near one of the entrances and could hear any lobby-conversation, clear as a bell. It got out of hand when the security guards—"Sgt. Hightower" and "Mongo"—with absolutely nothing better to do, decided to hang out right outside of the theater and talk philosophy…or maybe it was wrestling…Either way, Jon finally got up and asked them to go do something else, which apparently didn’t make them happy, but it did shut them up.

All-in-all, The show was just amazing. Plus we got to see Sizzle, who, as far as we know is the size of an ant (’hellloooo down there!’). And if THAT wasn’t enough, Sherman Alexie, winner of the 2007 National Book Award and writer of the book/screenplay Smoke Signals was sitting behind us. That’s right, we had better seats than Mr. Alexie.

If you have the opportunity—if they’re coming to your town, don’t pass up seeing The Swell Season.

There are a couple of triggers have gotten me out of the house lately. 1)When it’s warm and sunny and Charlie is determined to go outside. “OUUT? OUUT? OUUT? OUUT?” with his shoes in one hand reaching for the doorknob with the other. And 2)When the local high school marching band practices by marching up our street, dancing to songs such as ‘Thriller’ How can we resist our own personal parade?

this one got me out of bed and interrupted Charlie’s bath time. “THRILLERR…”

Last Friday was the Dave Brubeck and Ramsey Lewis concert at the Paramount. The show was phenomenal, just as expected. I was a bit surprised that the legendary Brubeck performed first. Although, in retrospect, it made the most sense. The guy is…well, old; He’s about the age of Charlie’s GREAT Grandpa and if there’s any correlation there, he should have been asleep in his easy-chair midway through his set. Given the fact that his biggest songs were released almost FIFTY years ago, I expected the average age of Brubeck’s audience to also be on the older side. And, while I was righter than I thought, I was amazed by how energized the folks around us became during the performance. Especially the woman sitting next to me—I’m not sure she realized the noises that she was making, but I’ll just say they made us youngsters a liiittle uncomfortable.

"The Great Performer", Ramsay Lewis and his Trio were incredible. Although also not a group of youngsters, they brought a lot of liveliness to the evening that made me glad they closed the show.

In order to get the tickets to Brubeck as early as I did, I had to purchase a Seattle Theater Group package, which means I had to buy tickets to at least two other shows. One of those other shows happened to be Dan Zanes on Saturday. We knew Charlie was a little young to truly appreciate it, but we figured he’d enjoy watching the lights and shiny instruments. We stayed in our seats the entire time, but it didn’t take long for the aisles and area in front of the stage to become saturated with sub-five-year-olds. As the kids became excited by songs they were familiar with, they’d jump up and down making the room look like giant baby mosh-pit. I thought about crowd-surfing Charlie, but Andrea didn’t seem to think it was a good idea.

photo courtesy: Brian Romero

While I’m on the subject of music, ZooTunes released their line-up and it includes Andrew Bird and the Avett Brothers—two of the artists on my top-ten of 2007! I just saw the Avett Brothers at Neumos—a local venue—a couple of weeks ago and they were magnificent—more than worth seeing again. We’ll be in line for tickets on Monday AM. And lastly, I had lunch with Duff McKagen from G&R and Velvet Revolver last week. He’s friends with a co-worker (and also former-rock-star) and now officially sits on our advisory board. He was extremely nice and surprisingly down-to-earth.

I know you probably wanted to hear some details regarding Andrea and ‘Betababy’, but I figured I’d let her fill you all in on the gory details, cravings, and so forth. She’s been more-or-less out of commission, but as soon she’s able to open the lap-top and type without barfing on the keyboard, I’m sure she’ll tell you more than you want to hear. Or…perhaps I already did.

…do you celebrate your birthday like the Romans? Happy Birthday, Auntie Magoo!

We’ve been a little spotty with our posting lately. We realize it. We’re sorry. We’ve been busy..you know, workin’ and stuff. We’ve also booked up just about every ounce of free time in April with concerts, dinner dates, play dates, etc. In the past weeks I got to see the Avett Brothers and Daniel Johnston. Tonight, we’re going to see jazz legend, Dave Brubeck. Saturday we are taking Charlie to see Dan Zanes and then finally—to end the month—we’re seeing Swell Season (from the movie Once) on the 30th.

We also—aside from experiencing stranger than normal Seattle weather—have been feeling under said weather. I’ve had a cold that seems to be getting better only very gradually and Andrea’s been experiencing strange flu-like symptoms that’s prevented her from eating anything other than bazaar, random cravings. I know what you’re thinking and I’m pretty sure it’s not pneumonia—in fact, it’s probably just allergies. I appreciate your concern though. Andrea? oh yeah, she’s pregnant.

The following image represents both the baby growing in Andrea’s Uterus and what might be blocking my left nostril.

10 weeks.

These May flowers better be #$%!ing good.

Perhaps we got a little cocky with our last post. The weather here seems to have developed Attention Deficit Disorder—snow, hail, sun, rain, sun, snow, hail, rain, hail, sun…The only thing that the weather gods seem to be consistent on is, cold. We’ve spent the past week avoiding outdoor activities, because we know that—even if the sun does come out—the moment we step outside, we’re going to be pelted with hail.

This past weekend, however, we discovered a couple of out-of-the-house activities that allowed us to remain warm and dry:

1) A five-course Moroccan meal. The only problem was this is an authentic Moroccan restaurant and apparently they don’t have high-chairs in Morocco. Instead, they have tuffet-like seats with no way to strap a 1-year-old to them—next time we’ll bring some bungie cords. On the upside, we were not only allowed to eat with our hands, but rather encouraged to do so. Perfect for a toddler … and … for most adults. Around the fourth course, Charlie started to lose his mind, so I took him for a little walk around the block. We got back right as a belly dancer was beginning her routine in the middle of the restaurant. Charlie was mesmerized. He sat and stared intently; and although I wanted to do the same, I took the opportunity to finish my meal. The early dinner we had planned ended up being a 3-hour experience. Thanks Korina, for inspiring the event.

2) On Sunday, we headed down to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. I’d never been, and we figured it might be fun for Charlie to see large airplanes up-close. Half-way there, we realized that we had forgotten to grab our stroller; instead of turning back, we decided to give it shot on foot. Charlie actually did extremely well running around, sitting in cockpits and making airplane noises at the aircrafts suspended from the ceiling. Of course his favorite part was the gift shop, where he made a mess of the toy helicopters and was almost successful at getting his parents to buy more crap for his playroom. While Charlie was obsessing over toys, I was plotting ways to smuggle Nixon’s telephone (with the presidential seal in the center of rotary-dial and buttons that connect you directly to the White house) off of Air Force One and into our car. I was also unsuccessful.

Happy Earth Day. Go Obama.