Seattle Patriot

Last night I participated in a panel which, evidently, the richest man in the world (give or take) decided was worthy of his time. That’s right, about seven other Lakeside alumni (including one Mr. Jeremy Lazowska!) and I participated in a panel at Lakeside (scroll down to the May 17 posting) describing our years at Lakeside, offering advice to parents of current and incoming students, answering questions in front of the public, the head of school, college counselors, and apparently Bill Gates as well. Unfortunately, since he came in after our discussion had begun, I didn’t get to see him. My sister and brother-in-law were also in attendance and clued me in after the fact. Well, I suppose it is all for the best since the anxiety level and perhaps content of the commentary I made might have changed dramatically had I been aware of and thereby star-struck by his presence. I expect that was a once-in-a-lifetime occurance!

Pictures from today’s festivities with the family at the annual Seattle Cheese Festival. We ran into Carmen who was handing out some very tasty new Cheddar/Gruyere hybrid - so good! The lines were long but the cheese was tasty and way more filling than one would think. The last photos are from our last stop at the newly remodeled Seattle Art Museum.

This Thursday marked a great day in one country’s history - Norway. To commemorate it, each year Ballard hosts a grand parade winding through its streets, filled with Norwegians from all over the greater-Seattle area. Despite the fact that Ballard is a small community, and that Norwegians don’t often make themselves overly known (unless you attend a Lutheran church), this is supposedly the third largest Norwegian Independence Day parade in the world (and the largest outside of Norway!). There were sword carrying children, giant-headed people (costumes…), lots of flags, a parade of old cars, including a old C3 Corvette that was the official pace car of the Indy 500 (see photos) and even representatives from my mom’s undergrad, St. Olaf (in Minnesota). In celebration of Ryan’s new job, the Stewarts benevolently treated us to dinner at Snoose Junction following the parade. A truly unique event!

This Sunday was Mom’s birthday AND Mother’s Day. She graciously let us combine her two big days into one celebration (which I still don’t think was entirely fair for her). We celebrated at church, at the Hearthstone with Grandma and the Riekes, and visited the arboretum. We didn’t get the picnic lunch there that Mom wanted due to the weather’s non-cooperation, but we were able to end the day with the picnic foods and a rousing game of Pictionary. Despite mixing up the teams, Mom won every time! A good time was had by all. Love you, Mom!!