<p>A really cool sunset shown on Baker this evening.</p>

<p>So many old friends came out today, the sun, blue skies, Mt Rainier and an animal!</p>

<p>I took these photos a day early because the weather forecasts called for cloudy skies this evening and I wanted to capture the <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/09dec_fullmoon.htm">largest full moon</a> of the year.</p>

<p>We saw quite a show on the ride home tonight – even the iPhone gives a sense for the colors and what looked like a sky on fire.</p>

<p>I’ve been wondering if the actual ferry path resembled that on Google Maps so I tracked it today.</p>

<p>We’ve not yet exhausted the <a href="/2008/11/11/submarine-pineapple-express-polar-bear/">great</a> <a href="/2008/10/28/summit-sunset-pierre/">stuffed</a> <a href="/2008/10/16/cycling-puncture-hippo/">animal</a> <a href="/2008/10/20/sunset-trauma-pig/">collection</a> but we’re mixing it up today anyway. My daughter has a small collection of farm and safari <a href="http://www.anamalz.com/">Anamalz</a> so today we decided I would indoctrinate this menagerie in the…

<p>Polar Bear was chosen as today’s ambassador for the great stuffed animal collection. While we’ve been experiencing some really heavy rains recently courtesy of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple_Express">Pineapple Express</a> today wasn’t so bad. I’m a bit of foul weather junkie so this weather suits me for the most part.</p>

<p>I, like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Berenstain-Bears-Doctor-First-Books/dp/0394848357">Papa Bear</a>, rarely get sick, but this week is the exception to the rule – I only went into the office twice and with no animals.</p>

<p>“Gus wants to go on the ‘big boat’. He hasn’t been in a long time.” And so Gus spent a slow, rainy, start-of-winter day with me. I like Gus and I wanted him to have a good time but nothing much exciting happened. Sorry buddy.</p>

<p>My silence of late is attributable to having spent the better part of last week at <a href="http://www.ebay.com/">eBay</a> attending the <strong>Next-Generation Distributed Systems Summit</strong>. I was fortunate, in time and invitation, to attend, meet some really amazing technologists and learn a Tremendous amount (thanks <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blueberries-Picture-Puffins-Robert-McCloskey/dp/014050169X">Little Bear</a>). I’m still consolidating my final notes and thoughts on…