November 2012December 2012 January 2013

12/31 - Two Out Of Four

This was a last minute Christmas present suggested by most recent flight back from Seattle. The climb out of Boeing Field takes one over an industrial area south of Seattle. It doesn't look like much by day, but there are all sorts of fascinating lights by night. One set was hypnotizing, a set of four columns lighted two at a time, moving about an invisible shape. A quick trip to the Radio Shack provided an Arduino processor and some red LEDs. JoAnn's fabrics and hobby supplies next door provided four plastic columns for supporting elaborate wedding cakes. Add in a glue gun, a soldering iron and some black foam board, and there was something new under the tree. Be sure to click and watch the dark video. It can be hypnotic.

Click the image to see the movie

The works in a drawer

Click the image to see the movie

Keywords: christmas, seattle, science, art

12/30 - Gray Skies at the Ridge

We managed to do a little bit of snowshoeing up at Hurricane Ridge. We are seriously out of snowshoe shape. Still, the scenery was wonderful, and we have never seen so much snow on the trees.

Gray skies

A dash of light

Mixed skies

More snow and sky

The trail

First of a six photo panorama

Second

Third

Fourth

Fifth

Sixth and last

Keywords: hurricane ridge, snowshoeing, winter

12/20 - The Kaleberg Christmas Party - Grownups Edition

Here are some photos from our grownups Christmas party.

Our welcoming shaman transforming

How many calories in a choucroute? If you have to ask, you can't afford to eat one.

The Christmas table lit by atomic fire

Definitely the grownups party

It was also the eighth night of Hanukah

Half and half cookies and other desserts

Our big tree

Keywords: christmas

12/19 - Seattle Sidewalks

With all its evergreens, Seattle doesn't have to work hard to be Christmassy. Still, a lot of folks make an effort as we discovered exploring the hills Capital and Queen Anne.

They've turned on their lights.

Another of the stately homes near Volunteer Park

More lights and a wreath

A very traditional display

A more modest home

Even the folks who maintain those communications towers have decorated for Christmas.

This year's trend - antlers for your car - We saw another set with lights, but they drove before we got our camera out.

Christmas brew

More Christmas lights - pooly photographed

How to dance the rhumba - sort of Christmassy in bronze

This was left over from the Day of the Dead - not Christmassy at all, but unusual

Keywords: christmas, seattle

12/18 - Christmas at the Volunteer Park Conservatory

One of our favorite places in Seattle is the Conservatory at Volunteer Park. It takes a bit of climbing up Capital HIll to get there, but the display there is always amazing. It's even more amazing around Christmas.

A winter scene in Seattle with the Space Needle in the distance

There are always orchids at the conservatory

But, around Christmas, they do the place up proud.

Christmas trees, poinsettas, and a model train set

More Christmas flora, decora, and wonderful, steamy greenhouse warmth

We dropped by to visit the cactus.

A nautical scene

Another view - so cozy

A plethora of Christmas trees - our kind of place

Winter foliage

There is always something even more amazing at the conservatory, like these flowers growing from the edges of this air plants leaves.

Keywords: christmas, flowers, seattle, winter

12/17 - The Gingerbread Display at the Seattle Sheraton

Whenever we get into Seattle around Christmas, we check out the gingerbread display in the lobby of the Sheraton. They always have some amazing constructions, and they always get us into the Christmas spirit.

This is actually the Macy's display which was on our way to the Sheraton.

That's Ariel on the left, Disney's Little Mermaid.

This one, with amazing spun sugar domes, is based on Aladdin.

Beauty and Beast, meeting on the bridge

This castle features tales from the Brothers Grimm.

This confection is based on Lewis Caroll's confection, Alice in Wonderland.

That's the Jabberwock up there.

That's Ursula, Ariel's nemesis, in her cave.

That's Aladdin with the genie.

Keywords: christmas, seattle

12/16 - Winter Mountains

Here are some pictures from our flight into Seattle on Kenmore AIr. It is definitely winter now.

Winter sky

Mount Rainier

Seattle's "magic mountain" is endlessly fascinating.

The Olympics

Cloudscape meets mountain-scape

Keywords: kenmore, winter, mount rainier

12/15 - The Morse Creek Trail - Winter Edition

The Olympic Discovery Trail west of Morse Creek heads through the Four Seasons community down to the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. It's an urban walk, fully paved, and with people's houses nearby, but it changes with the seasons, and the views of the strait are always worth the walking.

One end of the rainbow

The other end of the rainbow

The bicycle people are forever seasonal.

We don't know who the bicycle people are, but we love what they do with their mashed up bicycles.

Another reindeer on board

Keywords: morse creek, atmosphere

12/13 - More Christmas Pictures

There is no such thing as too many Christmas pictures Chez Kaleberg.

Our mantle - Yes, this is technically not a Christmas picture, but there is no need to get technical.

The big tree - There wasn't room for the spire on top!

Two kissing lizards

Keywords: christmas, kale

12/12 - Cookie Tree Preview

Here are is a first look at this year's cookie tree. Our thanks to all our friends for helping decorate it.

The cookie tree

Keywords: christmas

12/11 - Cookie Party

We held our cookie tree decorating party last weekend, and not only did we have more people hard at work decorating cookies than ever before, but we also had more people eating heartily than ever before. Luckily we had lots of saucisson en croute, grilled chicken kabobs on skewers, two bries en croute (with cranberry chutney) and a grilled skirt steak salad with red peppers, purple onion, and celery. There were also lots of gingerbread cookies, many of which were decorated and wound up on our cookie tree.

Art supplies

Fruitcake and champagne glasses

Brie en croute

Chicken kabobs, saucisson en croute, skirt steak salad

Christmas tree in progress

Keywords: christmas

12/10 - Our 1,000th Web Site Posting

We first registered kaleberg.com back in 1996. That's sixteen years ago. We created the original Kaleberg web site as a place for our restaurant reviews, humorous essays, travel pictures, software and the like. Around 2004, we shifted from a simple web page layout to a more blog like format with dated entries. Since then, we've posted a total of 1,000 such entries. That's a lot of entries.

In honor of the occasion, we're highlighting a link to an old version of our home page. It's the oldest one we still have around. We think it's from the late 90s based on its contents. To the right is an old version of the Kaleberg logo, from back when animated GIFs were a big thing on the web. They fell out of fashion, and we moved with the times. Apparently, they've been coming back in style, so enjoy an exciting Kaleberg action sequence and help celebrate our 1,000 web log posting.

The old Kaleberg logo - The Titanic hitting a Kaleberg

Keywords: historical, kale

12/04 - The Adventure Trail

The Adventure Trail is a minor trail. It's actually part of Waterline Road, because a water line runs along it. It starts roughly where the Lyre River starts flowing from Lake Crescent and generally follows the course of the river, now and then offering a glimpse of the rapids. It isn't a major, must-see trail. On the other hand, on a rainy day, it offers some nice scenery.

Clouds clearing

We parked here

More of where we parked

Keywords: lake crescent

12/03 - This Year's Christmas Tree

Every year our search for a Christmas tree presents a challenge. To start, we want a big tree, at least a nine footer. This means trudging through the Christmas tree lots and nurseries, inspecting tree after tree. But then it happens. We find our tree. This year was no exception. We found our tree.

In the tree yard it didn't look like much, but we knew it had promise. It was big, nine and a half feet big, and it took two burly guys to get it to our living room and set it up in its industrial steel stand. It drank nearly a gallon of water in its first 12 hours indoors. That was just the beginning. Then came the lights, an inner ring of LED lights for depth and an outer ring of incandescent lights for the true glow of Christmas.

Love at first sight

Standing

Illuminated

Keywords: christmas

November 2012December 2012 January 2013