Gingerslum 2006

The annual Gingerslum festival was held last Friday. The following pictures don't fully capture the experience, it is something you have to be present for. The evening starts peacefully with a quaint little castle sitting next to the Christmas tree...























...and then the crowd descends and covers the whole place with frosting and bits and pieces of sugar.









































There were even Cowboys at the party having a great time.



























































































And the result is both wonderful and somewhat frightening at the same time.

Thanks to everyone that braved the powerless Seattle to make it to the party





























And in no particular order, here are lots of pictures.

Prep for gingerfest 2006

Gingerslam 2006 is coming up this Friday and everything is almost built. Kirk and Laura have graciously helped out this year with all the construction work. With the extra help, it took much less time to make all the pieces and assemble them. Also, with new people came a new theme, it is no longer a "gingerslum", but a "gingercastle" (which I suspect will have some bad parts of town still present).

This photo shows the disaster the kitchen becomes during the construction phase. It is an explosion of sugar and gingerbread and tools of construction everywhere.


















There are the usual buildings showing up from years past...























...and several new buildings, the most significant being the castle. The castle will have 4 towers that were a challenge to build. Gingerbread wants to be flat, not three dimensional. The following photo shows many of the buildings, including the round towers.


















This is a collection of the tools of the trade. To make the towers, we cut a tall V8 can in half and draped the gingerbread over it while it baked. This worked in concept, but there needs to be some tweaking in the process to get consistent results. Maybe Anastasia can give us some ideas how to incorporate "Lean" and six sigma quality concepts. Also in the photos are the templates made out of manila folders. These are used as patterns when cutting out the pieces.























Gingerslam 2006 photos will be up on this blog sometime after next weekend.

Here are photos from past years....

The first Gingerslum was 2002 at Jens' place in Fremont.















This is from the very first Gingerslum in 2002
























I think this is 2003



















I think 2004 was the "year without a gingerslum" because I was deep in the middle of my upstairs bath remodel.

This is 2005

USGP cyclocross in Tacoma

This Saturday a USGP Cyclocross event was held in Tacoma, Washington. I went down to watch the race and take photos. It has been raining and raining and raining in Washington for the last few weeks (forever it seems), and I was expecting to have to wade through mud bogs to watch the race. Once I reached the race site, I found no mud. I was a little disappointed to be honest, but I am sure the racers were thankful.

There were many races throughout the day, I arrived about halfway through when the Elite level races were starting. When I arrived, it was near the end of the Masters class mens racing. The race course was a loop about 2 miles long, that the group makes several laps of. At the start/finish line they have a board that shows how many laps are left for that race. Unfortunately, one of the guys in this race didn't understand math and made a huge effort to win, only to discover he had one more lap to go. He came down the straight away sprinting for the finish line, raised his arms in triumph and then heard everyone yelling "you have one more lap!". He had quite the look of disappoint on his face.

Unfortunately, this is the picture I took of it. I guess I am still learning my camera.























The next group to race was the Women's Elite group. Pre-race, they had the top eight women line up in front of the crowd, and then announced them one by one.



















The start of the race was a long straight away, that dove into a left hand turn in front of the crowd. Here shows the beginning of the women's race.











Here is a long climb section























Here is a section through some woods...
























Every cyclocross race must have a section where you must carry your bike over some obstacles.























And uphill. The one in Tacoma is at the limit the rules allow (80 meters tall)

























and a random pumpkin photo.

Pumpkins Everywhere!

Friday night was the annual pumpkin carving this year. There was an even bigger turnout than last year, I will need to consider adding onto my house to make room next year. It would be a good excuse to add a front porch to the house.

Here is a few shots of the pumpkin massacre in my living room. I would list everyone's name that is in each of the pictures, but most of the people that will be looking this will know who everyone is. [click on each picture to see a larger image]









































Here is one of the Tiggers that were running happily through all the chaos (don't worry, there were no injuries)(at least not to the Tiggers, one of the carvers did sustain the first recorded injury in all of the annual gatherings)(no stitches were required)
























Michela is in the foreground of this picture. She certainly seems to enjoy stabbing the poor helpless vegetable. (in the background is Karine in her new bouffant hairdo)























Here is a group in the kitchen...


















more living room people


















And here is what you have been waiting for, the final pumpkins!












It took a few shots to work out the right camera setting...























Here is a couple of group shots...











































And Annie trying on the boufant..