band names

You know ... in the course of conversation sometimes phrases come up that really should be band names. Like:

Manatee Freelancer
Subtleties of the Bean
Knit Uterus
Wooed With Pickles
The Emergency Onion
Awkward Triangle
Beer Hat

Can't remember the conversations within which these particular phrases came up -- but I just found the paper on which I wrote them down. So there you have it.

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[10:30:09 AM] Andrew Kraybill Burkhalter: i hate computers

summer

Pictures from summer, featuring Daron & Kirstin's wedding, my 10-year high school reunion, Kim & Joe's wedding, cute pics of Clare and Eli, and fun times with Ashley and Ben in Portland.

Bonus video!

spam

This week I learned a lot about spam (the internet version). Did you know that in addition to automated robot spam, there are also real people who get paid a pittance to register for websites and then post links back to the spam website? This week my work site got hit hard by spammers and I got to scroll through a bunch of bios that spam-people posted on our site.

"Hi im Getaflat Stomach"

"I love to travel around the world, and also believe in green produce"

"I am part of all wedding ceremonies"

"I am Sandra. I am severe fan of coach tennis shoes."

"I am in school to be an accountant though now I am afraid that this is a bad idea."

"I have buried hamsters, painted homes, and helped people through painful medical problems like hernias"

"Internet has influenced my life to such an extent that now I cant do without this internet."

hey. you should watch these.

They will make you laugh.

may and june

Here are some pictures from May and June. They are on Facebook (but you can see them even if you ain't).

It only seems fair to come up with some Bonus Notes for my devoted blog readers.

1. We found car keys on top of Rattlesnake Mountain. We still have them. What should I do with them?

2. I went to San Francisco! For me, that is like hanging out again with someone you dated 5 years ago but are still in love with. So - wonderful, but difficult. But it was better than I expected - Mr. Galore was in a conference and I surprised myself by being able to happily wander the city by myself, without getting bored or sad. Not that there wasn't some crying (that's to be expected) but overall I felt so at home and so glad I made the last-minute plans to go. And I got to see Steph & Neil, and Jodie, and walk by my old house and walk through Golden Gate Park, and I even got a sunburn that faded into what-passes-for-a-tan. Hooray.

3. If you have been anywhere near us in the past couple of months, you know we are putting a shower in our downstairs, because that is all we talk about. We are in awe of and incredibly grateful for the time and energy and patience and skillz that Terry in particular, and Sheldon & Debbie & Janis as well, have put into this project. It is almost done! And I now look at walls in a totally new way.

4. Heather & Will's wedding was a hoot. Have you ever seen Korean couples ballroom dance to hip-hop songs? I have. It was worth waiting 11 years for :)

hi

We're still alive.

Read this and laugh so hard you forget that you're mad at us for not blogging.

late april / early may

April showers bring ...

Sounders games:



Parents in town:



Eating on the porch (we love our new patio furniture):


Eggs from Lee and Rob's chickens:


A surprise trip to Virginia:


Bathroom demolition:


Oatmeal, eaten off a plate:


Oh, and May flowers too. Thanks, Debbie!

just because

with thanks to Corey and Tom

vacation, all we ever wanted

Non-Facebook people should be able to see these public photos from our recent trips to Indiana and Pennsylvania and Pasadena.

And blog readers get BONUS ALPACA VIDEOS!!

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"Andrew and Sarah will go back to their home in Seattle. I will miss them. My poop is in the bathtub." -- Niece Galore (age 2)

Note: Only the first two statements are true.

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"It can't be bland if you use oatmeal." -- Father-in-Law Galore

Watch out Lighthouse

(Or Vivace's, Ladro, and Zoka)

I made my first latte and am enjoying it while writing this post! Last weekend we attended a fundraiser for the youth at Seattle Mennonite Church. Another couple from SMC donated an espresso machine and after some back and forth with friend Laura, she decided to let me be the highest bidder.

P.S. For the record, I have nothing on any of the aforementioned Seattle coffee shops, which are fantastic.

einstein

stress

This week is going to be one of the craziest in recent memory. So much to do at work ... so many visitors and evening obligations that keep me from working overtime ... maybe that's a good thing. We'll see. I'll just be glad when February's over, to put it mildly.

At the same time, I shouldn't get too much sympathy these days for complaining about too much work -- and work I enjoy, at that.

Last night it snowed. Tonight it hailed. But Saturday was a beautiful, warm day, and we took a walk up to a little-known park overlooking Ballard.


And Father Galore is back in town for a short visit. Hooray! See on the left the way he has been for the past 20 years; on the right, his newly shaven, young-looking, Brother-Galore-resembling state.


And here is a squid carrot.

viva la chain letter

There's this "25 random things" going around Facebook right now. As I'm always thinking of my non-Facebook peeps, I'll copy mine here. This one goes out to Mom, Dad, S1, and the rest of you who haven't (yet) joined. (All together now: Dude, shut up about Facebook already.)

1. I have hitchhiker's thumbs.
2. I love llamas and the color orange.
3. I love surprises. I hate static shocks.
4. I would estimate that I have only personally purchased 25 percent of my wearable items. The rest have been gifts and hand-me-downs.
5. I am quite certain that at some point I will actually calculate the exact percentage of non-purchased wearable items that I own.
6. I want a bunny. I think.
7. I just had this conversation with Mr. Galore: "What do you think is a random thing about me?" "You like bunnies." "I already put that one."
8. I love it when people describe me as "quirky."
9. In May of my freshman year of high school, I tripped over a hurdle, fell on my face, and fractured my cheekbone. Two weeks later, I stepped on an oyster shell and was on crutches for 10 days.
10. I like to compete for the sake of competing. Most of the time I don't care about winning. I lose a lot of bets this way.
11. I am, however, competitive about spelling.
12. When I typed that, I misspelled "competitive." No joke.
13. I love my job, and recognize what a rarity and blessing that is.
14. I hate loud noises, small spaces, and drafts of air. Airplane bathrooms combine all three of those things, and I never use them if I can help it. I also try to avoid elevators, blenders, vacuum cleaners, and fans.
15. Mr. Galore and I are ridiculously in love. We try not to be annoying about it, but I imagine we fail occasionally.
16. I love my life. I also have what I hope is a healthy nostalgia for other times of life that I loved: running track in college and living in San Francisco for MVS.
17. When things just work out, I take it as a sign that they're meant to be.
18. I have a really good memory for things that I see written down, but am terrible at remembering the events of my life. I wish it was the other way around.
19. I cannot say enough good things about Ballard (my neighborhood).
20. I draw nearly exactly the same way I did when I was seven.
21. I put high value on honesty, integrity, communication, and community.
22. I am the rare urban ethnic Mennonite.
23. I'm much better at spending time with myself than I used to be. But I still get bored when I'm brushing my teeth.
24. I first wrote this last night and have changed at least five items since then. As soon as I post it, I will think of more things to add, come up with better phrasing for things, and have to fight the urge to amend it.
25. I'm a different person than I was five years ago, and a very different person than I was a decade ago. But I still feel that I've been me all along.

i like llamas

And I can prove it.

snow camp

Mr. Galore's favorite weekend of the year has come and gone again. The snow was nothing to write home about this year, but we still did some skiing and game-playing ...

And hiking!




And igloo-building! And wedding reenactment!




And broomball!

brush with fame

Michael Pollan -- author of The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and In Defense of Food -- had lunch at Grist today. A potluck lunch, no less. I think my apple lentil salad went over quite well, though I am not sure that he actually ate any of it. But I did sit next to him and shake his hand. Also have I mentioned that I email semi-regularly with David James Duncan? I'm kind of a big deal.

(h/t Neah, who once asked a stranger on a plane, "So are you kind of a big deal?" That's one of my favorite stories ever.)

recent conversation

"I'm not ready to join Facebook. The spirit isn't willing and the flesh is weak."
"How can the flesh be weak if your name means strong and manly?"
"Oh, you're right. The spirit isn't willing, but the flesh would be just fine."

roommate!

For those of you not on Facebook. Yes, I've become one of those people.

Roommate came to visit again, so we got to see Friend JC too. Yay! Sooo fun.

i'm a joiner

If Mr. Galore had this idea, and I took the time to actually calculate it, then we would be gigantic nerds. So let's pretend this never happened.

qooc

"I'm Johnny Dangerous and you're Wifey Boring." -- Mr. Galore

holidays

This blog post was going to be titled "Christmas in Indiana" until I realized that I never put up pictures from Thanksgiving.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving!

At left, the feasters gather, soon to be joined by Jacob, Heidi, and Jonnali. We had a whole countertop of food, including turkey; excluding stuffing, lamentably. And with youthful memories of only being allowed a small glass or two of sparkling cider, we took advantage of grown-up freedom and guzzled nearly a bottle a person.




Then a month happened. Then we went to Indiana for Christmas!

We flew out during Seattle's epic snowfall, and were very, very lucky -- we waited on the plane for three hours through multiple de-icings, but managed to get ourselves to Chicago and not have to sleep in the Seattle airport like 3,000 other would-be travelers. One mother of a toddler shared her stash of cereal, another guy bought $100 worth of sandwiches, somebody had trail mix, and the flight attendants divvied it all up into cups and passed it around so that no one would starve.

Left: The view from our house the morning that we left. At least three more inches of snow fell while we were at the airport. Unprecedented for Seattle!
Center: Mmm ... dinner.
Right: De-icer to the rescue! Except for the part where they failed to de-ice the whole right side of the plane.




We had a wonderful time in Indiana, seeing Mom Galore for the first time since August and Dad Galore for the first time since -- well, he visited recently, but it was still nice to see him. It's been a long time since all these folks were in one place at once, and we enjoyed every minute of it: making Christmas crowns, playing toddler baseball, playing trivia at the bar, sleeping in, eating, laughing, singing, and just generally Miller-ing.













The immediate Galore family then spent a weekend in Chicago, where neither Brother Galore nor I had ever been (except for the airport). We ate deep-dish pizza and listened to blues -- then Mr. Galore, Brother Galore, and I flew back to Seattle. It was weird to fly back home and have the Parents Galore stay behind.

And back home again, Christmas was still not over: The Galore-in-Laws had visited earlier in the month and brought us our stockings, but we had yet to present our presents to each other. Mrs. Galore usually wraps her Christmas gifts in newspaper; this year, she upgraded to sheets and pillowcases. Longtime readers may recognize Al, who made it through a whole year to spruce up our home for a second time.



And hey, as long as we're here, we'll just finish off the year. After Mrs. Galore attended a taping of the NPR show "Says You," we bussed up to Everett to celebrate the eve of 2009 at a friend's bar. As the new year begins, we are so grateful to be happy and healthy -- here's to more of the same.