1966 In the 6th grade, Marlene came across her school principle, despondent over tax issues, moments before throwing himself in front of a moving school bus. After explaining the new tax laws to him, she went on to repair his situation, and even forced a $648 return, with reverse penalties.

Marlene is awarded a Certificate of Honor Roll Achievement for good grades, for saving the principal from the IRS, and for saving the front end of a bus from an expensive dent.

The IRS has been very careful with Marlene ever since.

1969 Jim answers an ad in the local newspaper for "Horn Player Wanted," thinking it had to do with the Sly and the Family Stone tour coming through town. Jim would have given anything to even play a single night with them and he knew in his heart he was the best horn in the city.

The image at left pretty much explains it.

1972 During a multiple-car trip to Yosemite, Quinn is accidentally left on top of the last car after a fill at a gas station, in the easy-to-understand, “We thought you had him” fiasco.

Subsequent efforts to get Quinn inside of a car were met with resistance, as he insisted on riding on top.

Quinn traveled hundreds of miles this way, and is credited with prompting stricter child seat legislation. Quinn also appeared on television’s That’s Incredible, and is known to many by the nickname “Roof Rack.”

1984 Jim wins the Apprentice of the Year award for the Associated Builders and Contractors of Oklahoma. The non-union program was licensed by the dept of labor as an alternative path to contarctorship in residential work, as most unions were more involved in commercial development."

In the same year, Jim invents an early version of the modern nail gun from a broken Colt .45, two sticky rattraps and an issue of Vanity Fair. The patent court battle went in favor of a much larger company that instead used compressed air.

1987 Jim answers yet another newspaper want ad. In what he thought was an ad for the "best over all position" at a "well-to-do company," Jim showed up for the opportunity to "test overall positions," with, as Jim put it, "questionable company."

It was a good move for Jim. Not only did Jim really like the overalls, but the manufacturer felt that Jim's physique was, as they put it, "Adonissing." Since 1987, every pair of overalls sold by this company has been modeled after Jim.

1988 While visiting the Paul Bunyan attraction in Klamath, California, Erik thought it would be funny to, as he said, “Shanghai that ax,” normally found in Paul Bunyan’s hand.

He did, and for 42 minutes, Erik ran amuck swinging it while singing “If I had a hammer.”

In the end he whacked 14 trees, a Honda, two bicycles, four semi truck trailers, an ice cream vendor and an uppity man from Iowa on vacation with his mistress. He also chopped off one of Blue’s horns seen next to Erik in this police dashboard camera image.

At the police station, Erik said only, “That uppity dude had it coming. Do you have any coffee?”

1989 This is the last known picture of Marlene with 10 fingers. You’ll notice the disastrous placement of Marlene’s left hand, commonly known as “Roofer’s Goof.”

While employing Roofer’s Goof, she simultaneously attempts the more advanced “Single Whack” nail driving technique. The move was akin to mixing bleach and ammonia.

Miraculously, she finished the roof and drove herself to a hospital 275 miles away because, “The doctors are just nicer there.”

1990 Moving to Seattle was a tough decision. But he, his wife and young son drove to Seattle singing Van Halen songs in round robin fashion.

Jim remembers standing in a Stucky’s, and reaching into his pocket to find only an unidentified key, a losing ticket from the dog track and $6k in sequentially numbered bills slightly colored with a blue dye.

“This is the right thing to do, right?” Jim said.
“Well you said you wanted a Stucky’s hotdog Jim, so let’s do it,” his wife answered.

Jim did like Stucky’s hotdogs. And he loved the Sonics. Moving to Seattle from Oklahoma was the right thing to do.

1991 Having promised to perform a la Village People at his son’s school’s PTA talent show, Jim grows a mustache and naturally performs as the construction guy.

His performance is so successful Jim tries out for the real Village People but is turned down due to “Ideological differences.”

Jim notices that with the mustache his contractor bid rate increased to 100%, and he kept the ‘stache for a number of years.

After a subsequent Seattle performance, Jim receives a cease and desist letter from the Village People, and has not performed since.

1992 Jim gets lucky.

That’s all.

1993 Jim simply looks good with a beard. After catching his wife staring at him with “goo-goo eyes,” Jim practices this pose for hours in a mirror. He goes on to use it to win arguments, persuade people, cut in line, talk his way out of parking tickets and get 5% off building materials down at “the yard.”

The beard came to an end one day when his wife saw “Jim is dreamy” scribbled on a bathroom wall. Of course Jim tried explaining that it could be any Jim, but everyone knew the truth, and the beard was seen no more.

1994 - Though having the ability to build a dream house from scratch, and in whatever neighborhood he and his wife pleased, Jim decides to rebuild their existing house.

But this house was special. Many homes had been moved to make room for the I-5 freeway, including Jims. The location in Bothell was great, and was close to his cabinet workshop.

Though finishing the house in a short period of time, and being a talented cabinetmaker, it took many years to complete the kitchen.

He kept the original fireplace, and toilets.

The years between 1995 and 2006 were very interesting years, especially in the areas of green materials development, construction practices, and . . . where did the Sonics go?

Greenleaf went through a lot of effort weeding through materials distributors, sub contractors, city codes and of course an endless search for Seattle best hamburger.

Today, Greenleaf feels it has perfected its business. The hamburger is still under debate.

1996 Marlene catches the demo bug while chiseling out an old doorway. By the end of a single weekend, she’d chiseled out 11 more doors, 42 feet of copper piping and a fireplace.

She is also caught by the siding bug, the tile bug and the lesser known “Let’s dig a basement” bug. Acting as her own general contractor, she flips a house that really didn’t need flipping in just under three weeks.

The only original element left on the property was the dirt, and even then not much as she was also caught by the “Let’s dig a pool” bug.

1997 Jim is flabbergasted when his then two-year old daughter looks up at him and says, "Doze toos no doze pans."

Jims retells this to his wife. "She just told me not to bulldoze the pans with tools!"

Jim's wife looked him up and down and said, "No she didn't. She said those shoes don't go with those pants."

We're busy digging up more history.

Please stand by!

1999 In a very early pilot of Dancing With Your Kids, Jim and his daughter floor the judges with a combination Salsa, Twist, and a two-person Line Dance to a Merle Haggard song.

Their top score set off a chain reaction of backstage craziness by then little-known starlet-to-be Lindsey Lohan, also a competitor on the show.

"Daddy," Jim's daughter said, "You might think that's as weird as she's going to get. But I'm not so sure."

2000 10,000 Bobble Head Quinns are made and shipped with an obvious mistake. In a letter to the manufacturer, GLC complained.

“Mr. Xiang, it is with great regret that we write this letter, as we feel the mistake should have never happened. We were very clear when we ordered Bobble Head Quinn that the final product was to be delivered WITHOUT Sunglasses, as it clearly does not best represent Quinn.”

Bobble Head Quinn was remade without the sunglasses. Though the majority of them were destroyed, there are a handful in private collections and are worth a lot of money.

2001 Marlene senses something amiss when while playing a fancier Washington golf course, she goes rooting for her ball in some bushes and comes across Tiger Woods and a “stand in caddie” also “looking for Tiger’s ball.”

Recognizing the opportunity, Marlene grabs one of his shoes that had “fallen off” and absconds with it. Depending on Tiger’s future, Marlene will eventually rid herself of the shoe through either Craigslist, or Christie’s Auction House.

It is currently a conversation piece in her office.

2002 On a Saturday, Marlene gets stuck in a kayak (a storage hatch no less) and drifts from the dock without her paddle. On the following Tuesday she is picked up exactly one mile from Victoria BC, after apparently being pushed toward shore by a pod of killer whales.

After her four-day, 350-mile ordeal, she was quoted as saying, “I ate the remains of someone’s lunch I found in a cooler floating off Anacortes, and one very gullible salmon.”

She is now much more careful when entering a kayak, and keeps her paddle very close.

2003 Marshmallow Peeps is born in a wooden beer crate in the back of a New Orleans saloon. And under a bad sign. His early years are spent at the feet of unknown blues guitarist Peekaboo Creep.

After Creep’s death, and a paperwork mix up, Peeps is sent to an address in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, which had been a popular blues saloon in the mid 1930s. Undaunted, Peeps hit the streets.

During a temp job at Microsoft, he connects with a less-than-tough crowd on a Redmond construction site where he is quickly given a good shampooing, a henna tattoo and a new job.

2004 GLC’s Marlene Boone comes across a picture of Brian as a child. She notices a strange pattern in his graduation gown, and recognizes it as the new GLC logo, not designed yet for another 20 years.

Marlene completely freaks out.

An already embroiled Vatican nonetheless sends an envoy to investigate. During the visit, representatives are so impressed with Greenleaf’s work that a new Papal Library is commissioned, and Playhouse Design Group goes to work.

About the mark, Vatican officials said, “Yeah, it happens.”

2005 After what was called the longest Pitbull gestation since Mike Tyson, Peep’s girlfriend was rushed to the hospital and underwent an emergency cesarean.

A sweat-soaked veterinarian walked into the waiting room and announced that Peeps didn’t have a litter, but instead One Big Puppy.

OBP sticks as a name, and suspicions are raised as OBP is recognized as closely resembling not Peeps, but conservative gabber Glenn Beck.

Beck’s people denied the inference (no official allegation was ever leveled), however still sends a monthly check for the sum of $975.37.

2006 As Greenleaf’s new director of artistic diligence, Peeps attempts to popularize a trend coined “New Yeller,” a play on the color yellow and the famous sad dog movie, Old Yeller. (Peeps insisted that we explain the reference.)

It failed to catch on, however was successfully revived in a pretty weak coup de tat by Greenleaf’s upstart intern designer Quinn Borseno.

Peeps was bitter for months, however settled the dispute with GLC management by accepting a new position, as Peeps puts it, “chomping fools who steal tools.

2007 In a bet Quinn squats 315 pounds while singing Cat Stevens without any signs of strain. He walks away with $276.97. He's fine until three hours later when he goes numb from the gums up, and remains that way for four days.

One that fourth day Quinn wakes up in Reno to the sound of nickels pouring into his lap from a slot machine, and his new wife Mildred at his side. That relationship did not last, however, and Quinn learns that he was not the first to be scammed out of weight-lifting bet earnings.

2008 Brian has always been pretty tough. When it rains, Brian is digging trenches. When the wind is blowing, he’s on the roof laying tar paper. And if there’s lightening, he’s climbing poles stringing powerlines.

When Seattle was shut down by the winter of 2008, Brian toured the city shirtless and in the back of a snow-tired ‘65 Continental, helping stranded drivers and city busses stuck on frozen streets.

For reals.

2009 Erik, a long time coffee disciple, pledged to give up coffee for the period of Lent, which started during a trip to Hawaii. He returned and swore success to other devotees.

Months later, while browsing through a random Facebook photo gallery, an unnamed Greenleaf staffer spots this image, which clearly shows Erik with a cup of coffee before even the ash from his forehead had worn off.

Horrified with embarrassment and stricken with guilt, Erik swears off coffee for good, only to be found later that day hiding behind a Starbucks counter and eating discarded espresso grinds by the handful. He said only, “I am a sinner.”

2011 Quinn is still quite upset with the whole Mildred ordeal. He trains and trains, and drinks half his body weight in protein smoothies every day. He has frequent visions of tripling the amount of weight from 315 pounds to 945 pounds, thus tripling the bet, and returning to Reno to face Mildred in the 2011 Senior's Poker Tour and Rodeo Raffle Bingo Championships and Jello Cook Off.

It is an understatement to say that Quinn has been
. . . driven.

Just because our calendar ends in 2012, don't go making any harsh assumptions. Our calendar doesn't start until 1984 and lots happened in years such as 1876, 754, and or course 0 was banner.

But let's just say 2012 turns into a real bummer. Our project will still be standing, we're sure of that.