Last year at this time, Nathan was starting his first season of playing t-ball. Today was Nathan’s first baseball practice! This year, they have a pitching machine and Nathan connected with his first pitch.

Last year, it was all about making the kids comfortable with the sport, so they didn’t enforce the rules and each kid had a turn at bat and got to run the bases. This year, they start to play by the rules, which I’m told can make for some long game days

Then there is Cole. I was busy watching Nathan’s practice and when I turned around to look for Cole, I found him at the top of the monkey bars and quickly shot this picture of our fearless little climber.

Finally, here’s a shot I took of Ian before packing it in and calling it a day. It’s going to be a fun Springtime

This past Friday, Erin and I visited the O/8 Seafood Grill with another couple. I’m not a professional food critic (not to state the obvious) but we were very pleased with the menu, the service and the atmosphere. Highly recommended! I had the Mahi with Wasabi sauce and Erin the Salmon. BTW, the seafood bisque is unbelieveable! Try the pear torte for dessert too!

The restaurant is in the Bellevue Hyatt on 8th and Bellevue way…..

I don’t think I left the computer all day today. I worked on the blog and a bunch of other stuff and looked at the time and it’s after 9:30PM! I did take a few minutes however, to capture a few shots of Nathan by the window in my office.

I thought that each of these expressed a little different side of Nathan.

Click on the picture for a slideshow!

Erin has been honing her photography skills and having a blast taking pictures of the kids. Check out her latest work spanning the last couple of weeks.

Erin loves to cook a traditional Irish dinner on St Patricks Day and this year we had some friends and their kids over to share in the celebration. Just in case you are wondering, the image below is what the kids had to eat, not the adults Click on the picture for a short slide show.

On a recent night out, Erin and I tried a new drink called an espresso hazelnut Manhattan. Manhattan’s are pretty much straight bourbon with a dash of sweet vermouth and a maraschino cherry, so needless to say Erin isn’t much of a fan, but this particular espresso version tastes anything like a real Manhattan. Kind of like comparing a real Gin martini to a chocolate vodka martini. The only thing they share is part of a name, but I digress. Getting back to the story, the espresso hazelnut Manhattan was so good that I had to order two more (1 was for Erin). We asked the bartender what she put in it and she said that it was bourbon + an espresso/hazelnut infused vodka from Crater Lake .

Last month, we dropped into our local liquor store and we found the Crater Lake vodka! We were looking forward to experimenting and I used it as an excuse to pick up a bottle of Makers Mark bourbon. The first several batches favored the bourbon too heavily. I’d say the ratio where it tasted most like the drinks we ordered in the bar was when we mixed three parts vodka and one part bourbon. Mix the liquor with ice in a shaker and pour into a martini glass; garnish with a cherry and enjoy. Here’s another website with a bunch of recipes for crater lake products. They include the recipe for the Manhatten and they suggest the opposite ratio I list. You’ll have to let me know which one you prefer (presuming you the reader is at least 21 years old and not going to drink and drive…)

It’s not Irish, but you could always whip one up on Saturday and chase it with a Guinness
Enjoy!

Amazon launched a service called Listmania that allows you to write up reviews pertaining to a group of products that you like (e.g. favorite movies) and publish them as a list for others to view and hopefully purchase.

I’m not sure why someone might actually think that they should purchase something because some total stranger thinks that they should, thus I don’t have much use for this service. John Miller’s “A total Waste of Money” list however…..now that has some potential