Christmas Video

I shot a bunch of video on Christmas morning. Here are highlights of the girls' reactions and comments.

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Puppy Bot

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With the break from school and work I have some time for playing. Last night I decided to build a new robot for the girls. I didn't have enough time to figure out something from scratch. Fortunately there is nxtprograms.com, which contains dozens of "plans" for robots that can be built with the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit. I decided on a puppy, since that is Charlotte's favorite thing in the world (well, next to baby dolls at the moment).

The puppy walks forward for two seconds or until he detects and obstacle. Then he looks left and right. If he hears a sound during that time, he'll turn the direction he's looking. If he doesn't hear anything he'll move forward again.

As you can see from the video, Puppy Bot was a hit.

Merry Christmas

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We had a great Christmas around the Methot homestead.

Due to the bad weather, our friends Scott and Susana couldn't get a taxi to the airport, so they called me midday Christmas Eve and asked if I could drive them in their Subaru Outback (all wheel drive). We were just relaxing around home so I was glad to do it. It had the side benefit of allowing me to do some last minute shopping, since we were otherwise still housebound with our alley almost impassable.

Carol and I were up late Christmas Eve getting the stage all set for Santa. Then we all had a good night's sleep. Charlotte woke up at 6, but I was able to put her back in her bed and I crawled in the big bed in her room and all was quiet again. Although I couldn't sleep because I was excited for the girls' Christmas. Audrey woke up at 7 and then the house came to life.

The girls got some physically large items this year: a play house to share and a doll house each. Santa had shrouded them all in blankets in case the girls woke up in the middle of the night. Carol distracted the girls downstairs while I went up and uncovered everything and got ready to take photos. Then we had the reveal.

Both girls loved everything. Carol and I got to sit and devour Carol's Christmas morning cinnamon rolls and read the paper for an hour while they played peacefully with the new toys. Later we all went downstairs and watched Wall-E. Carol and Audrey saw it in the theater but I had never seen it. It's a sweet, delightful, funny movie if you haven't seen it.

Then it was time to go to Aunt Tricia's for the feast. Frank's mother Carmen and her husband Henry were also there. Tricia is a fantastic cook and as usual everything was delicious.

Temperatures are increasing and the snow began to melt a little Christmas Eve, a little more yesterday and still more today. By Sunday everything should be back to normal for Seattle in December: 45 degrees and raining.

We're really looking forward to having mobility again. However, I must say we've had a pretty good time being housebound. Audrey and Charlotte have really enjoyed having me around full time, and it's mutual. Charlotte gives me spontaneous hugs a couple of times every day. It's going to be hard for all of us when I go back to work, but I have nine more days to not think about that.

Merry Christmas!

Still Snowbound

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Yesterday we had our third snowstorm in a week, which actually had two waves. It was supposed to stop snowing late morning and then have scattered snow showers in the afternoon. But after stopping briefly in late morning, it snowed steadily from noon until after 4:00. We got about 5 additional inches. We probably received about 10" in the last storm combination.

Seattle is not used to this much snow or this sustained, so it pretty much comes to a halt. The traffic cameras around town show that not many people are on the roads. I shoveled the entrance to our garage and the high center spot in the alley in front of the garage and took a little test run to see if we could get out. I got stuck twice: once getting from the alley to the street and again getting back into the garage. I guess the answer is "no". The temp is just above freezing and we are getting a little melting, so maybe tomorrow we'll be able to use the car again. Carol and I both are getting cabin fever.

We don't have snow tires or chains because we rarely need them. Although it might make sense to get some since we'll definitely use them in Boston.

The snow was pretty light and powdery as it was falling. Audrey wanted to build a snow man but it wasn't possible with that snow. But with the bit of warming today the snow moistened and we built a big snow man in the back yard. The girls loved it.

My sister Elizabeth was scheduled to fly to California this afternoon to visit our parents. Yesterday Alaska Airlines canceled all flights because after a week of freezing weather they had run out of de-icing solution. Apparently they obtained more because today some flights are getting out. There are many people stranded at the airport who were supposed to just make a connection - three days ago. Hopefully Aunt Betsy is in the air right now.

This weather is forcing me to take a real vacation. I had big plans to accomplish a bunch of projects around the house, almost all of which were outdoors (build a fence, install the last gutters on the garage, etc.). I can't do any of that, so I just have to relax and play with the girls and read. It's nice!

This morning my grades for Fall semester were finally posted: two A's. So now I have five A's and one B for a 3.83 GPA. I wish I would have worked a little harder in that B class. Straight A's would be cool. Three courses left to go.

Snowbound

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We're having quite unusual winter weather in Seattle at the moment. We typically get snow maybe once or twice a winter, and it usually melts quickly afterward. But we've had two snowstorms in the past five days and expect another tomorrow.

Last weekend it snowed a couple of inches. Our part of Seattle (West Seattle) got it worse than the rest of the city, and it apparently started with some frozen rain because there was a sheet of ice under the snow. It took until Tuesday for the ice to melt off the sidewalk. No one prepares for that here (e.g. by keeping ice melter on hand) and none of the hardware stores have any in stock.

Wednesday we were supposed to get more snow. Seattle ended up in a snow shadow of the Olympic Mountains all day while all of the surrounding areas were getting snow. But at 4:00am Thursday it started to snow and it snowed almost continuously until 3:00pm. Once again, West Seattle got more than the rest of the city (we got 8" on our patio) but the whole city got blanketed. We are also having an unusual cold snap where we aren't getting above freezing so the snow and ice are sticking around a lot longer than usual. We aren't expected to get any melting before the next snow storm hits tomorrow afternoon.

So we've been essentially housebound. Most people are just staying home - there is very little traffic even on the main streets. But plenty of people are out walking around.

We live on a bus route that loops around the north end of West Seattle. Today to get out of the house we hopped on it and rode to the nearby business district (called the Alaska Junction - where Alaska St. crosses the other main street, California Ave.). We visited the pet store and the toy store and then went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch.

Audrey was fascinated by the chopsticks. She experimented until she was actually picking up noodles with them and getting them into her mouth. No style points, but still I was impressed.

Coincidentally, Audrey and Charlotte have been getting along exceptionally well the last few days. Excellent timing since we're housebound.

I'm hoping it stops snowing, melts and dries out after the storm this weekend. I was hoping to get in a couple of bike rides during my vacation.