Patches of Hope Quilts

Here's the link for anyone who's interested in the quilts.
There's some quilts for sale on the website & it sounds like they list more every now & then. I actually got mine from an alternative gift fair here in Seattle--two fairs I went to this year had a booth for Patches of Hope & had piles of quilts to choose from.

China

When I was 12 I went to China to play in a baseball tourneyment. This was the time before birth certificates were taken too seriously and we got destroyed. However the trip is something I will never forget. We spent 10 days in Beijing and saw many amazing things. We walked the great wall, spent time in some of the walled cities, and went through Tiananmen Square. I brought back many souvenirs. Two of the more interesting souvenirs were the art masks and chopsticks. About a month ago my mother got them framed in Spokane. This guy does excellent work and I though I would share it with you all.



Sorry for the flash but the room is not well lit on that wall.

Kitties & quilt

Here's the kittens & my new quilt. :)
I bought the quilt from a non-profit organization called Patches of Hope. The quilts are made by Cambodians living with AIDS, enabling them to work for their livelihood within a society that otherwise made this impossible. Each quilt is signed by the Cambodian who made it, making it all the more special & personal.
(Kristen: the dark colored stars on the edge of the quilt are a deep red, very pretty).

Another photo from Christmas

Here is my sweet Grandma with the newest of the grandchildren, Amanda Jane:

Merry Late Christmas All

We have had an exciting week. As with any good week it started with a trip to the Jolly. Good times and beer were had by all. Eric was with us though as always he failed to land in a picture.



We then (after a good nights sleep) headed to Spokane to have Christmas with my family. We had several nice meals, applied icing to cookies,

opened presents, and attended our traditional midnight Christmas service.


The next morning. ie Christmas morning we headed back to Seattle. The drive was uneventful, but it did make for a long day. When we got home our kitties were in for a surprise. They managed to get a little too dirty while we were away and ended up getting baths.






The reason we rushed home was the Gowey Christmas. I believe 33 people were present, but I didn't count. The highlight of the night had something to do with a Possom in a pine tree, but no one every really understood the true meaning. Maybe next year.

That brings us to today. We celebrated Christmas with Eliza's Family. Good times were had as always.

Saturday night

I attended a "book signing" last night by Johan Keri. While he did talk about his book "Mind Game" and it was interesting enough for me to buy a copy the majority of the evening was spent talking Mariner baseball. The evening was co-anchored by an individual named Jeff who is one of the contributors to ussmariner.com. A summary of the event can be found here. The just of it however was "what the _____ are the Mariners doing signing Everett and Washburn". It was of course backed up with stats an logic.

A little background on Keri. He is the CFO of Baseball Prospectus which is a highly regarded source for the evaluation of Baseball Statistics. Each year BP release a book for the upcoming year. Last year was the first year I purchased the book and I used it during the entire season. It covers everyone who played for the big league club the previous year as well as many of the top prospects. I was able to sit down in August pull out the book when I came across someone in a game I didn't know and get a little background on their minor league or major league past.

Keri also has another book coming out this spring called Baseball Between the Numbers. He was very excited about it and looking at the TOC it looks to cover extremely interesting topics for baseball fans.

Kelsey's Blog

My first dorm-mate at Western has started a new blog.

Tis the Season

Eliza has started addressing Christmas cards. Luckly she has a helper.

More Friends who have joined the Blog World

Meet Cory and Kim. The blog is called Lanman life.

Pictures from Megan's Birthday

Jollying

We will be at the Jolly tonight (8:30) if you are in the area say hi.

December comes and so does snow

Well it is the first day in December and has been snowing since noon. The snow isn't sticking very well, but it did make for a wet and foggy bike ride home. Glad I road the mountain bike today. Eliza, as always, is very excited about the snow. So far not enough snow to bring the city to a stand-still perhaps tomorrow morning.