Chapter 233: Happy Birthday, Carissa!

 First off, let me wish Carissa and Richard a hearty Happy Birthday. These are 2 1/2 of the best people on the planet.

Happy Birthday, Carissa

...and Richard.

Carissa, it's hard to believe that Dad will be holding your little girl in another few months instead of you as he is in this picture! I have kids in my high school class that look older than Dad does here.

Bob has wanted to get Baby Jelly Bean little teeny Carhartt overalls since long before she was on the way. While we were in Arizona he looked at all the kid stuff at each of the stores we visited. In the end, he bought her a little western dress and soft cowboy boots. Then, when we get home he resumed shopping Amazon for the perfect Carhartts while Nitro lounged on the floor ready to offer advice if needed.

Friday was a really nice day when I got home from work so I took Nitro out for his first walk for a very long time. He couldn't decide what he wanted to see first and couldn't stop eating the fresh grass shoots. It took us 10 minutes to walk to the compost heap to throw out some old potatoes with all of this lollygagging. Nitro likes to sit in the tree and spy on the neighbor's chickens.

Saturday morning I went to the Sewing and Stitchery Expo with Mary Lou. I haven't been to a Sewing Expo for about 15 years. My, has sewing technology changed since I was there last. Look at all the thread types and colors this vendor has.

We sat and watched this lady demonstrate some awesome sewing techniques for quite a while. Mary Lou and I ended up buying her sewing machine feet and video with the hopes of creating stuff as awesome as she had demonstrated.

Check out how she painted her sewing machine. She even has a video on how to paint a sewing machine to look like this. This signature machine makes her booth and her product stick in your mind and everyone knows who she is when you talk about her machine. 

Mary Lou is working up to another of her amazing quilts and had brought her fat quarter collection so she could find more shades that fit into the color spectrum she is planning. Ok, so we weren't on task most of the time and our interest often strayed from the goal of finding Mary Lou's fabric.

After Sewing Expo, I raced home and we met all the kids in Federal Way for dinner. After dinner we went to the new Sub Zero Ice Cream store that Carissa has been wanting to try.  Bob and Ryan held down a table while the rest of us went to order our ice cream. 

Choices, choices, choices.

Here Chris' liquid ingredients are mixed to order in a bowl

then blasted with nitrogen to freeze into the familiar ice cream form.

The store has this huge nitrogen tank and it looks very impressive.

Strangely, there is a poster covering the chemical-y looking part of the sign as you can see when Chris pulled the poster back. 

The happy gang after a round of ice cream.

Here is the magic of liquid ingredients meeting liquid nitrogen.

If the above video doesn't work properly, click here to view in YouTube.

Chelsea, this would be a good science field trip for you to brush up the 7th element on the periodic table. ;-)

As we were coming back from Seattle today, we saw the Red Bull car. When we drove past it, I could see the Red Bull driver chatting away on her phone. Way to represent your company, Sweetie.

It's a gray, rainy day and just perfect for laying on your pillow and looking at the world upside-down.

And I am going to close today with this corny cartoon is for Chelsea. No, it's not a true chemistry cartoon, but it's definitely your style.

Have a good week everyone!