Scleroderma Auction

We made a mad dash for Seattle between the kid's last soccer games of the season. We left after Andrew's game yesterday (a loss, 8-1, with Andrew's defender scoring an own goal near the end) a little before 2:00 on Saturday and rushed to the Rainier Country Club for the Scleroderma auction. It was great fun, especially since so much of the family was there. Mary got the kids involved selling raffle tickets, and they did a great job, bringing in tons of money and having fun.
Dinner was great, we sat at a table with Grandma and Grandpa and David and Susan, next to tables with everyone else. Afterwards we had planned on driving to G&G's, then leaving for Mali's game (a 0-0 tie, with penalty kicks for fun afterwards) early in the morning. Once we got on the road Susy decided to just keep on going and drove all the way home while the rest of us slept.
Hopefully next year's soccer schedules will make it easier to get there.

Wednesday night - Austin

I meant to post this earlier (like Wednesday night.) Andrew had Austin over Wednesday, and we picked up subs for dinner. She played the part of Mali, who was at Awanas with Zoë. I've never seen Andrew laugh so hard as he did at dinner. He could barely breath.

Friday Day Off

Susy and I took today off and picked out new flooring and sinks for the kid's bathroom. Apparently that is going to happen.
Mali had Rachel and Lauren over after school, and they painted the inside of the playhouse. They finished about half of it, and only Rachel ended up with any on her clothes. Mali got in a little trouble later, when Lauren's mom showed up and the girls were no where to be found. They had gone down the cul-de-sac without telling anyone, and without her phone.
Pablo and I went for a nice little bike ride to Garden Home.

Thursday's Track Meet

Andrew ran the 400m in 1:02.64, which is close to his best time from last year - pretty good since he's just starting out this year. He won, and got second in the 200m, but we did not get his time for that. I was there late after dropping Mali and Rochelle off, but I didn't miss anything.

Track Practice

Andrew and I went up to the school to run on the new track. We calculated that one lap is 228 meters. We tried something new - finding how far we could run in one minute. Andrew ran about 1 and 2/3 laps - I did about 1 and 1/4. Andrew did a lap in 36 seconds - I took 45. Mali brought Moose. He followed Andrew around on his warm up lap, and then Mali took him home. They'd been waiting at the school for awhile before we even got there, it took us forever to find a working watch with a second hand.

Afterwards, we all went to Home Depot - Mali wanted screening for her playhouse windows, and hinges for a door. She also found some paint from the returned paint section. I think she's planning something fancy for the inside of the playhouse. Susy picked out four different colors for the playroom - I'm not sure what's happening there, but I'm sure I'll be involved later. Andrew sat in the car with Moose and a book. He was along for a ride to Austin's. He had dinner there, and Susy just retrieved him.

Mali's Soccer Saturday

Mali had a practice for two hours first thing in the morning to help out a coaches clinic, then had two hours in the pouring rain for a warm-up and game in the afternoon. At least they won 2-0. Yay!
Andrew and Austin worked on their candyland ecosystem project most of the day.
Susy and I went with the usual suspects to an auction for Matias's school's band. I bought a pair of pretty pretty pink lamps, and Susy bought a couple of nights at a beach house near Lincoln City. We're still sorting out how we're going to use them - the lamps and the beach house.

Friday Bike Ride

Without looking, I ate half of a large bag of peanut butter M&Ms for lunch. In penance, I went for a bike ride to rescue my fat cells from the impending peanut butter. I rode up Bull Mt, total about 4.5 miles. Here's a pretty map.

Moose and Max

Our neighbor, John, looked out his window yesterday to discover puppies in his backyard! Max was over playing with Moose, and led an escape to the two German shepherds who live nextdoor. The neighbor dogs are EXTREMELY well behaved, and luckily did not confuse Max for a squirrel. Moose immediately flopped over for them - he's met them before - but Max does nothing but tear around like a maniac.

Here's a photo of the puppies hiding behind tulips and the wall. Below that, Moose gets a bath!

From two weeks ago: Mali took this photo of Moose getting a bath. Click for full picture.

Movies at home

Monday night we watched Stranger Than Fiction, and loved it. Mali missed the first part because she was at her dance class.
Last night we watched MirrorMask, which was very weird, as expected, and Susy liked it more than she expected. I liked it a lot, of course. Weird is good.

Bike ride, etc.

Mali hung out with Zoë all day, and I did get a bike ride in - 20 miles with Pablo, Paul, and Dave. Here's our route: Tile Flat Rd. to Farmington to Hillsboro Hwy to Scholls Ferry to home.

Afterwards we had an incredible roast beef at Paul's (I brought potatos), and Pablo brought homemade vanilla ice cream. Andrew and Susy stayed home, since Susy had already eaten at Pazzo's in Portland with Alana and Debrah. She and Andrew watched Casino Royale, which I saw with David a couple weeks ago.

Soccer Weekend

We just returned from Andrew's soccer game. They lost 2-1 in a hard battle against a team they lost to 10-0 a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday they lost 5-0 in Corvalis, and Mali's team tied 1-1.
Susy is out at a play with Alana and another friend of hers - The Light in the Piazza. They're at the matinée, and then they plan to hit a happy hour somewhere. The kids just headed up to the school with Moose - A couple of Andrew's friends are already up there. I am probably heading out on a bike ride with Pablo.
That's probably it for our weekend.

Alana's Wine Fest. - and new house rule (dishes!)

Last night we stayed home and watched Happy Feet (the one with the penguins) with the kids.
Friday night we went to Alana's for a large party - all the usual suspects plus Robert and Jennifer and her friends Debra and Barb, and her horse trainer and her husband (Janet and Mike).
Alana opened a half case of Silver Oaks Cabernet (from Napa valley), she had a bottle for each year from '89 - '94, so we compared them. The '89 and the '93 were generally considered the best. They were Very Good. Everyone brought appetizers, and it was at Alana's so of course there was way more food than we needed. I brought the asparagus ham wraps we had at Mom and Dad's at Christmas, and they went quickly. It was a lot of fun.

The kids stayed home and cooked a frozen pizza by themselves! They did a great job except they forgot to clean up after themselves. They forgot again last night before the movie, so now there is a new rule:
Whoever sits in the "GET" chair (the one closest to the kitchen - they switch off every month.) is in charge of keeping the kitchen clean. The other one is in charge of getting garbage and recyclables out to the garage.

Easter in Washington

A horde descended on the grandparent's house for Easter. There are a dozen new photos on the OregonDad Flickr site.
Here's one of Conner showing off his Pokemon loot to Andrew and Mali:

Here's Andrew and Grandpa clamming!

Moose returns to Washington

I'm back up in Washington. Susy and the kids are taking the train on Saturday to join me for Easter weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We discovered that Amtrak does not allow dogs, so I dropped Moose off with the grandparents this morning on my way to work. Apparently, he didn't miss me when I left, much like the kids when they get dropped off in grandparent wonderland.
Mali stayed home sick today - still recovering from her bout of (probably) salmonella. Not good timing, with me AND Moose up here, poor kid.

Spring Break

For the kid's Spring Break last week, I went to work in Washington for a couple of days and dropped the kids at the Grandparent's house. Click here to go to Flickr and see more photos.

Saucebox

Susy's birthday dinner at Saucebox was a complete success. The place was incredible - every bite was delicious. It was so dark we couldn't actually see it, but we think the food was beautiful too. Nearly all of our light was provided by three small candles. They were so low to the table they had trouble getting their light up over the lips of the plates, but our drinks looked pretty in the candlelight.
Pablo was stirring his drink, enjoying the light flickering up through his highball glass, when he discovered a fly trapped beneath the ice of his Long Island tea. The waiter quickly brought him another drink, this time in a tumbler that was harder to see through.

The service was very good, with lots of young male waiters that the women politely appreciated. Everyone looked good in the candlelight. Alana was missed. She's in Ashland this weekend for the Shakespeare festival.
The sole issue with the service was, after recommending a pear brandy cocktail to Pablo, the waiter proceeded to forget it, TWICE. Pablo finally received it, and it was delicious. Also, Paul discussed it later with the waiter and it was removed from the bill. Not that you would have noticed, as the bill was very heavy even without it.

The Saucebox is known for its drinks. My favorite was a basil mojito-ish concoction that Nancy discovered. She lent hers to me and ordered another after I gave my delicious-but-too-sweet raspberry vodka concoction to Rocio.
Susy had one called (I think) a Frozen Chocolate Banana: a very tasty milkshakey thing. She followed that with a Kickboxer, described on their online menu as a "house-infused thai chile vodka, passionfruit purée and citrus juices, topped with raspberry purée, a real knockout!"
The drink menu was long and interesting. Pablo and Nancy asked about it, and were promised a soft copy if they sent an email. Apparently the restaurant loses a lot of them.

The place was great, and everyone complemented Susy on her choice. We'll return, though next time we may ask for a table in the restaurant, which we discovered afterwards in a separate room. It turns out we had been in the darkest recess of the bar.

Afterwards it was still early - before 10:00 - so we stopped at Haggen for a supply of decaf coffee and went to Pablo&Rocio's and made crazy coffee drinks. We got home at midnight, and discovered Andrew still up, so I kept him up even later with a long, free-ranging conversation about everything, closing with a threat to wake him early and take him and Austin to the Saturday market. Zoë spent the night, and she and Mali were asleep when we first got home around 10:00.