mmrobins.com

I realize that most of my friends and family don’t have a clue what RSS is or use any kind of feed reader, so I’ve setup email subscriptions if you want em.

I’ve also converted my feeds to feedburner so I can see if anyone ever actually does subscribe to an RSS feed. I figure once I move to Peru more people might be interested in reading about that than me moving across town.

It’s truly unbelievable how much ‘stuff’ we accumulate, and you don’t realize it until you have to pick it all up and move it somewhere. Moving from a 2000 square foot house to a 600 square foot apartment really shows it. Before moving Kim and I donated boxes and boxes of books, clothes and other things thinking we’d be lean and mean for the move. Then we opened up cupboards and cabinets and nearly cried. Thanks goodness we’re getting this taken care of now and not right before we’re planning on leaving the country for Peru.

On the upside, it’s easier than ever before to get rid of ‘stuff’ responsibly, that is not just throwing it in the dumpster. Anyone who hasn’t heard of craigslist has been living under a rock and missing out on the best mover of stuff maybe ever. Freecycle is another cool idea, but I use it much less often. People will come and take your stuff off your hands, usually picking it up at your house and sometimes paying for it! It’s a great way to accumulate a lot of stuff for dirt cheap too… Of course, if your stuff is worth a lot and small it’s probably better to put it on ebay and get more money for it. Or you could get all philanthropic and probably save yourself a lot of time by donating your stuff. I’m finding out the tax benefits are decent too now that I’m having to itemize my tax returns. For clothes we like giving to The Last White Elephant in Seattle, which uses money from sales for educating people about animal rights and vegetarianism. Books and CDs we always give to EcoEncore, partly because Kim used to work there but mostly because they’re a great organization that uses proceeds to support local environmental nonprofits.

EcoEncore even promotes a great book called Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everday Things that’s a great little read on how much energy actually goes into making ‘stuff’.

The less stuff I have, the better I feel lately, no matter how much I sometimes crave buying new toys, they don’t usually satisfy me for long, but having a clean, clutter-free environment really does feel satisfying, even if it’s difficult.

For Christmas I took my family to see Bodies: The Exhibition in downtown Seattle. Seemed a little odd to go look at dead people for Christmas, but it really was amazing. I think we spent close to four hours there looking at everything. We didn’t do the audio tour. There’s plenty to do without it.

The bodies are all very well preserved and sliced in very interesting ways. One really interesting display showed the skeletal system of a man looking at the muscular system from the same man. There was a section where all the nerves were separated and laid out. The circulatory section had just the arteries and veins with everything else stripped away, so you could still see the basic shape of the body.

One of my only complaints is that some things weren’t labeled as well as they could have been. A lot of the descriptions talked about parts that weren’t obvious in the accompanying body section. You could usually figure it out if you had some basic anatomy knowledge. Overall though, it was an amazing display that a lot time and effort has gone into.

I finally got an electrician out here from Boyer Electric to take a look at some of the funky wiring in this house. It turned out to be well worth it, despite the high hourly rates all electricians charge. He figured out a 3-way switch wiring that he called “California style” in the first half hour, and I had spent 3 or 4 hours trying to get right. Everything he did he made look easy and did way faster then I could have even if I had known for sure what I was doing. It’s always nice to watch someone work who is really knowledgeable in their field.

The storm last night did a number on our roof by knocking the neighbors tree onto it. We were in bed and about to fall asleep, when just at midnight we heard a very loud sound. I’m amazed at how strong the wind was. I didn’t feel safe even being out to look at the damage since there were other trees that could just have easily have blown down nearby. The only real damage was a small hole in the roof and the rain gutter got thrashed. Could have been a lot worse. I saw other places in Seattle that had been smashed by multiple trees and flooded.

I wanted to link to some of the vendors that made our wedding go off so well.

So if you’re in the area of Vermont for your wedding, a great place to have it is The Inn at Baldwin Creek. They do a great job of taking a lot of the stress out of things, keeping you organized, having awesome food and still being very reasonably priced.

If you’re looking for a couple great photographers who are reliable, good communicators and take sweet photos, check out St Phalle Photography. They had the proofs online in less than a week after the wedding, and they made us look amazing :-)

I wish I could link to our DJ’s website, but I don’t think he has one. Jonathan Britt went above and beyond the call of duty. He kept the dance floor full all night, played music we liked even with just general guidelines, and looked sharp in a tux. He also MC’d for us and also communicated very well. He showed up early to set everything up as well.

Finally, back in the Seattle area, engraved glass mugs are a great groomsmen gift, and you can find some beautiful ones from Northwest Creations Etched Glass from Doug in Kent, Washington. Of course they ship too.