flat tire.... (not the beer)

so I was driving eastbound in the fast lane on the 22 freeway, when I felt this funny vibration. at first i thought it was a rough patch of the road, but then it only got worse. i then began to suspect i had a flat tire and tried to switch lanes... this proved slightly trecherous... and i almost hit a car getting into the slow lane. but i finally pulled over onto the shoulder, hit the hazards, and got out (on the passenger side).

getting out and looking at my front left tire, i could see that i had completely blown it out... it was pretty spooky, b/c traffic was zipping by and here i was hanging out looking at my tire. i decided i couldn't change it myself, so i'd call AAA to come out.

i called AAA and got in my car and waited... it was not too long before the guy showed up in his truck with the blinkers going flashing all over. he gets out of the truck and i swear the dude is a total carnie type... he just walks right over to the tire with little regard for the oncoming line of 80mph traffic and checks out the tire.

i told him he was crazy and he looks at me and says.. "Look Matthew (he had looked at my AAA card), if your luck is so bad that a car veers over here and hits us, you were meant to go." I looked at the generous foot of space between him and oncoming traffic and had my own opinion, but I just agreed with him.

anyway, we started getting the tire out and all the equipment we'd need, when we had a slight emergency. turns out that vw has a security key for their lug nut and we could not find it for the life of us. turns out vw stuck it in this total inoculous pouch in the toolkit... that was so not obvious. anyway, once we had that, things were good and my tire was quickly getting changed.

i tried to look non-chalant and snap some picts with my phone of him and his proximity to the traffic, but none turned out and then he started looking at me weird, so i stopped. oh well... at least my car got fixed for now, and i can get the tire properly fixed in the morning.

the day we had to leave ended up being the best weather of all (of course). you could even see the mountain from the bridge... i took c over and back on the bridge to look at the mountain... that was always my favorite part about living in seattle was to see this HUGE mountain overlooking these beautiful lakes. seattle is definitely an amazing place to live and visit. we were so lucky to be able to go and visit with all of our good friends.

c thought he was going to miss his flight - just kidding

on the inside, I think i would rather take BA first class today than pay the 3k for a seat ont he concorde

after we looked at some planes, we went up in the concorde... pretty amazing plane on the outside

c was loving it, flying the jet airplane

the kids were pretty stoked on the museum of flight... they put on a great exhibit and have a ton of planes up for show in great condition.

here we are at the gates of bumbershoot... oh well

here are the three boys in the car after the boat... we headed over to bumbershoot to try and see this lego exhibit, but they wanted us to pay full price, which would have not really been cost effective, so we headed to the museum of flight

classic jeff... hanging loose with the two nephews.

jeff even let c drive the boat for a while, which made for a lot of s turns at low speed... it was a big highlight for c, tho

on sunday, the weather was really good and we got to go out with jeff and his nephews on the boat... here's the proud skipper

here's my little drunk son... sipping a gin and tonic... just kidding, it's only water... or is it? hmm...

c was looking quite dapper... I have to admit

here's the couple just after being married

chris and todd got married on an old ferry permanently moored on lake union... very pretty!

dad and c ready to go to the wedding.

c got all dressed up for the wedding. he also really loves this collapseable sphere that jeff has... he fell asleep with it later.

everybody is checking out the new house. congrats chris and gemma, it's pretty dope

c found some rolliepollies in the backyard of c's new house

here is chris and chris at chris's new house

look at the little patriotic dude out on chris and gemma's porch...

jeff, jason, and c at the jitterbug cafe in wallingford... amazingly, c ate ALL of his grilled cheese and shoestring fries... i guess it pays to starve him!

here is jason, jeff, and c, out at jason's house in the backyard next to the wasp trap

here is our young hero at his finest... on the airplane, raising trouble

seattle trip

so c and i are heading up to seattle for todd and chris's wedding. should be a good time. we're staying with jeff, which is very kind of him. while we are up there, we are hoping to get out on his boat and go swim in the lake. depends on the weather. hopefully, we'll get to see payseur, chris and dave, and jason too... should be good.