Seattle, Washington

We met up with Ben Venuto & Sista Flav at the Seattle airport and, because we were too hungry to do anything else, stopped at a random Chinese restaurant. There, Ben Venuto proceeded to speak Mandarin with the waitress and win the hearts of everyone. The food was unlike any Chinese I’ve ever had. Nice beginning.

We went to Nadine’s and got settled, then gathered ourselves up to go have dinner with Mystophur’s college chum, FightyFight (a charming and benevolent soul whose name does not denote violence of any sort). Mr & Mrs FightyFight produced an enormous tray of crab legs—the ones Seattle is famous for—and we ate until our bellies could hold no more. It was really really fun.

Nadine’s house is incredible with gorgeous views of the sound. Brick had hung all the art the weekend before, so we helped Nadine prep food all morning. The event itself was fantastic– really interesting people showed up and we raised nearly $4000 with another $1000 coming in from Microsoft Matching Grants. If you are a Microsoft employee, please donate through your Matching Grants program! What a difference it makes!

But perhaps the greatest donation we received at that event was the addition of a new team member: Natano! I’ve asked him to write a blog entry about his impressions in these early days of his exposure to the project. His thoughts are coming soon.

While the images have that charming gloom that only Seattle can make charming– we saw an incredible range of weather that weekend. From sunny and hot to snow and then hail, Seattle filled every hope of a weather show we could have hoped for.

Enormous thanks to Brick & Figgy for organizing the event– even though it was a high holiday for Brick and Figgy’s pregnancy marches on! You two are superstars!

BenVenuto & SistaFlav snuck off to Seattle proper to see the sites. Mr.Venuto’s photos are below–We met up with Ben Venuto & Sista Flav at the Seattle airport and, because we were too hungry to do anything else, stopped at a random Chinese restaurant. There, Ben Venuto proceeded to speak Mandarin with the waitress and win the hearts of everyone. The food was unlike any Chinese I’ve ever had. Nice beginning.

We went to Nadine’s and got settled, then gathered ourselves up to go have dinner with Mystophur’s college chum, FightyFight (a charming and benevolent soul whose name does not denote violence of any sort). Mr & Mrs FightyFight produced an enormous tray of crab legs—the ones Seattle is famous for—and we ate until our bellies could hold no more. It was really really fun.

Nadine’s house is incredible with gorgeous views of the sound. Brick had hung all the art the weekend before, so we helped Nadine prep food all morning. The event itself was fantastic– really interesting people showed up and we raised nearly $4000 with another $1000 coming in from Microsoft Matching Grants. If you are a Microsoft employee, please donate through your Matching Grants program! What a difference it makes!

But perhaps the greatest donation we received at that event was the addition of a new team member: Natano! I’ve asked him to write a blog entry about his impressions in these early days of his exposure to the project. His thoughts are coming soon.

While the images have that charming gloom that only Seattle can make charming– we saw an incredible range of weather that weekend. From sunny and hot to snow and then hail, Seattle filled every hope of a weather show we could have hoped for.

Enormous thanks to Brick & Figgy for organizing the event– even though it was a high holiday for Brick and Figgy’s pregnancy marches on! You two are superstars!

BenVenuto & SistaFlav snuck off to Seattle proper to see the sites. Mr.Venuto’s photos are below–