Halloween Morning

Mali was up early this morning in an attempt to get Andrew to acknowledge Halloween in some way. We tried pushing him on some easy costumes: Funky velvet sunglasses, a pirate hat, or candy-korn horns. He wouldn't have any of it. Mali wasn't as brave as she'd thought she'd be: she brought her costume in a bag instead of wearing it.
Then no one was at the bus stop - she almost missed the bus. Perhaps all the other kid's parents drove them to school in their costumes.

Spoons

Spoons is a card game involving dexterity - you grab a spoon when you get 4 of a kind up, and then it's a race among everyone else to grab the other one. Andrew had Rian and Eric over to play today, and then Mali joined them. More photos at www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/

Monday Night Festivities

Last night I grilled hamburgers for dinner, then we watched 10 Things I Hate About You. It's a movie about a high school romance based on The Taming of the Shrew. It was surprisingly good. It helped that we had just watched a movie of the play. Now we need to find a copy for Andrew to read. He has to write a paper comparing it to Romeo and Juliet to get honors in his literature class.

Mali got injured playing football in PE - she had to get a big strawberry bandaged up on her hip after sliding. She was very excited to have scored a touchdown, and has decided she loves football.

Leaf Attack

Mali had Rochelle over after their soccer game. They made cookies, then got out the blower and played in the leaves.
Afterwards, we all went to dinner at Alana's with all the usual suspects plus Annette and her friend Alita from Chile, and the big surprise: Deborah finally took a moment away from her new cookie store and joined us.

Halloween Continues - Saturday

More costume fun, as Mali and I returned to Party City to exchange the Gangster costume for a devil queen/bride costume. That was to no avail, as Mali stole Susy's new pirate costume to match up with Rachel for Kian and Koresh's party.


After Party City, Paul and I went on a bike ride. It was beautiful weather, but we took a few unintended hills circumventing a Google-Map error of a through street that was really a dead-end, very private road. Click here for a map of our 30+ mile route. It was getting dark quickly, so Susy retrieved us at Oak Knoll Winery.

I was in a good mood all day, even with Party City and unforseen hills, because my high school friend Angie - who I'd lost touch with - tracked me down and called me.

Oh - and the boy, who I hardly saw all day: Andrew spent the day with William and Kyle, first at our house, then at Kyle's playing pool and video games. We were in bed when he finally made it home around 10:00.

Halloween Begins - Friday

Mali and Rachel have been planning a Halloween party for over a month now. Luckily, it was at Rachel's house, which meant we provided pizza, chips, and pop, and then Rachel's poor mom did all the supervising. We couldn't help beyond that as we had Robert and Jennifer's farewell-we're-leaving-soon-for-Napa pirate-themed costume party to attend. We were joined on the first half's crazy Murray Hill treasure hunt by Paul, Alana, and NancyD. Susy proved brilliant at deciphering the clues - while driving.
Our pirate gang invaded Mali's party at Rachel's house to find a stranger to mummify one of our gang in toilet paper - a victory condition for the treasure hunt. That's when I got this cellphone photo of Mali in her Scientist costume:

Veronica Mars

We Netflixed Veronica Mars disk1/season2, so had a cozy evening last night with the first two episodes. We love this show.
Today is the start of the Halloween festivities. We're providing pizzas and punch for the Mali/Rachel bash at Rachel's house, then taking off to Robert and Jennifer's Wandering Pirate Party.

Mali has changed her costume AGAIN!!! Now she is planning a scientist costume, with not much time for implementation. Rachel apparently changed hers too, from a Federal Agent to a pirate.

Andrew will probably go to the final Southridge football game - his friends are all going and he's nothing else to do. His party is Wednesday - Kyle's family has a big bash at the club house.

Andrew's last soccer game!

Southridge JV2 beat Aloha 3-0 for their last game of the season. Andrew played good. He took one shot and slipped and wiped out a defender who had to leave the game. Kyle scored a goal, which Andrew said he'd predicted at school.
Andrew is now done with sports until November 5th when swimming starts. There's a meeting for the swimmers at school today, so we'll know more tonight.

Mali FINALLY has a Halloween costume. The Little Red Riding Hood one was too small and went back to the store yesterday. Now she is a gangster, which is a nice compliment to Rachel's Federal agent. Mali now has four parties in three days, but the two on Saturday are at the same time, so we're not sure how that will work out.

Here's a photo from last month - Susy and I at the '20s costume murder mystery party at WineStyles.

Back from Redmond!

I'm back from a very quick trip to Redmond. I spent the evening with David, Susan, Dalton, and Rylin - dinner and then Halo3 with Dave. Here's a photo of Dalton and Rylin. They were having fun shining the flashlight at me.

Work went well - Much better than the drive. All kinds of traffic problems there and back. I got to meet a Police Officer, a road rage nut, and Portland's Interstate Ave.
I made it home to pick up Moose from Alana's, and take him and Mali to Andrew's last soccer game.

Catching up

I am slowly catching up to real time. Our furniture is all in now, but nothing is put away yet. Here's a photo of Mali sitting in the lone furniture that made it down before Pablo helped me move in all the big stuff on Saturday.

Tara In The News

Tara had a busy day last Thursday! Here's the article in today's Kitsap Sun.

Oregon Caves photos posted.

I've posted the photos from the Oregon Caves, at
www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/ as always.
Here's one:

Beckie's Cafe

We had fun at Beckie's Cafe, the restaurant at the Union Creek Resort. It seemed to be under different management than the cabins. The food was good -
Andrew: French Dip
Mali: chicken strips (?) and hot apple cinder (sp?) - she asked about the cinder and the waitress didn't bat an eye and just called it cinder right back to her.
Susy: Blue Cheese burger with Swiss cheese
Darrin: Fish and chips - two HUGE pieces of fish and great homemade tartar sauce.
The atmosphere was great.
Here's another photo from my cellphone:

Photos!

I finally put together my office yesterday, so this morning I was able to get the photos from our trip last weekend on the PC. I've only uploaded the first few from Crater Lake so far, the ones from my cellphone, so they're smaller than usual. I will do more this weekend. As always, there's a few more at www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/

Furniture garden

Our furniture is slowly popping up again on the new floor. The smell is gone, though the first night back after the re-refinishing was tough. It doesn't help that the rains have begun - squeaky floors beneath wet shoes.
At least Andrew got sunshine for most of his game yesterday, but the field was a big muddy mess and kids were slipping all over the place. They lost to Westview 3-0, with all the goals coming in the first ten minutes. They play the other Westview team Friday, then Aloha next Wednesday and the season is over. His next and last practice is Monday, so it is definitely winding down. Swimming starts November 5th.
Mali had drama workshop after school yesterday, where they did a funky take on Cinderella and she had a good excuse for not getting wet at Westview.
Today: no practice for Andrew, but Mali will be out in the muck. Susy was up at 5:00 to get to a class at 6:00 this morning.

Home again

We spent Sunday night across the street, since our house was still full of fumes from the floor. The floor guys hadn't opened any windows. We also decided to have another coat of sealant put on, so we've still no furniture downstairs. We think we'll be able to sleep in the house tonight, with bedroom windows open and doors closed. I will work from the garage, which is stuffed full of furniture.

From Medford

We've been busy! I'm in the hotel lobby at 5:00 AM in Medford, awake early, as always. Here's an update:

We got out of the house earlier than expected on Friday - it really helps when the hardwood floor guys show up an hour early! They were really nice and helped us move all the furniture, which we had cleaned out and were just starting to move ourselves.
So at 8:40 we were on the road to Crater Lake, after getting gas and stopping for food for Moose because we finished off the last of his that morning. We stopped at a rest stop where I discovered, as I tried to take a picture of Mali at her second phone booth in two days, that my camera battery is still sitting in its charger in the kitchen. I wanted to be sure I could take lots of photos this weekend. Irony.

Crater Lake was/is beautiful, of course. We were very lucky as it was 60 degrees or so and there was a couple of inches of snow covering everything but the road, making everything exceptionally beautiful. We threw lots of snowballs, and took lots of pictures with my sad little cell phone camera. We stopped by the lodge to check it out - and of course they had openings because of cancellations because of the snow, but we were stuck with our reservations at the Union Creek Resort.
We made it there in time for a fun dinner at Beckie's Cafe. The cabins are very nice - it is an old, well-maintained CCC logging camp. No TV, which was fine. We played hearts, and we all laughed like crazy - I had tears in my eyes. EVERYBODY went back to zero except Andrew, who'd been ahead the hole game but ended up losing. It was the longest game of hearts I've ever played.

For Breakfast, Mali and I made S'Mores in the oven, a trick we learned camping with everyone at the coast. We experimented and made some banana ones too, which turned out surprisingly yummy, but of course very messy. We got a late start heading towards the Oregon Caves, but we had time to stop at Wal-Mart and buy me a new camera - the pocket-sized one I wanted for my birthday. Stopping was good, because we also got an important correction to our directions to the caves.
The Oregon Caves are incredible. The outside mountain was wonderfully green and mossy, and the inside was quite an experience. Even the cynical teenager in our group was impressed with the cave itself. Our tour guide - Suzan - was fun. There is a big CCC lodge there that is even better than the lodge at Crater lake. They had available rooms too, but we left to meet the soccer team at the Marriot Courtyard in Medford.
Mali was in the pool with her teammates before we had half the stuff in the room, since we ran Moose around outside for awhile. We left him in the car for a couple hours while we had dinner, and then snuck him in with us for the evening.
Dinner was take-out from Kalaidescope Pizza, which Susy, Dan and I picked up for the whole team, and we ate and drank beer and wine in the lobby until 10:00.

Post-Birthday Breakfast

Mali made me biscuits for my birthday breakfast, since she's off the rest of the week. Today we took her to the Blue-Moon diner for breakfast after dropping the car off - 60K check-up to prep it for our big trip to Southern Oregon.
The diner is a wonderful, shiny, reflective building, and I love the sign. The best part was Mali's discovery of a pay phone! She does not remember ever seeing one before. She thought she should call someone.

Maliday Schmaliday

Mali's maliday is turning into a bad holiday - yesterday we got another estimate for putting in hardwood floors, and it was good from a guy who's work we've seen, so we're having it done - This weekend - while we're gone to Crater Lake and Medford. So we have to get everything out of the downstairs today. Mali's plan was not to spend her extra time off cleaning and moving things.

Yesterday was extraordinarily hectic. We discovered Andrew's game didn't start until 5:45 instead of 4:30 like always, so our evening got all squished up. Andrew played great, and they tied 1-1 at Sunset High School (at sunset!). They went down by a goal right away, ferociously fought back to tie it at 1-1 in the first half, then got clobbered the second half but managed to hold on to the tie.
We rushed from the game to Mali's teacher conference at 7:30. Dinner was reheated pizza at 8:30. Happy Chompo to me.

Mali's conference went great: Her science/social studies teacher has Mali all figured out, and so Mali should be poised for greatness this year. And Mali talked to her large scary math teacher and sorted out her missing assignments. So the rest of her weekend is free and clear, except for the cleaning and moving part.

Susy took this great photo of the game at halftime. All my photos turned out blurry - it may have been too dark to capture all the motion going on.

Maliday - A holiday for Mali: She's off today

Today and the rest of the week. She made up the word - maliday. Susy is off too. Oh, and it's my birthday, but I'll be working. Andrew has school. He's off Friday, when we will drrraaaaaagggggggg him to Crater Lake. Andrew says it should be called Caldera Lake. The crater is really a caldera. I love my little nerd.
We're watching Veronica Mars most evenings now. We got the first disk from netflix and I now have the whole first season from the library. We love it.

Moose as Fruit

Moose found the wrong end of a Washington Apple sticker. He looks very noble, almost.


Mali won her soccer game 1-0. It was boring - the other team all sat back in their goal blocking shots. At least the weather held out - it was cool, but no rain.
Afterwards Susy and I took Mali to the Greek Festival downtown. The idea was to meet up with Rachel and her family, but they left just before we got there. And then the rains came, but it was mostly under tents so we were fine. Mali got to try gyros, baklava, and Loukoumades.
Andrew is still injured, so is not playing in his game tonight. He's walking around okay, as long as he's in shoes. Reportedly he ditched the crutches about two minutes into homecoming. He had a good time - lots of pretty girls in fancy dresses. The only complaint, from both Andrew and Matias: really bad music.

Homecoming Dance

I don't have the report from Andrew yet. Mali and I were sleeping when he came home, and he's still sleeping now. Susy said he had fun. Here's a picture she took when he got home.


Susy and I had fun at Christina's wedding. Willamette Valley Vineyards is a beautiful place for a wedding. It didn't rain on us, but was a little chilly during the ceremony. The dinner was delicious. Each table had their own cake as a centerpiece, which I thought was a very interesting way to do that.

Big soccer news: Susy and I missed the game in Canby, so of course it was the game of the season and Mali was the big star. They tied the first place team 0-0, and Dean said Mali was the MVP! Hopefully we'll hear more about it at her game this afternoon. Mali also had a fun sleepover at Rochelle's house before the game.

Andrew Injured again!

This time it's the other leg, his ankle. He made a great play clearing a ball out-of-bounds, but the big guy fell on him. Andrew got up and tried to play, but came out right away, and we had to help him to the car after the game. So: He didn't get to go to the homecoming football game, instead spending the evening on the couch while Susy and I went on our big date to the Portland Art Museum.
At least they won the game, 3-2. Since it was at Beaverton HS, Rian and Calee were there to watch. Mali was Thrilled to see them. Here's a photo of a great header Andrew made, shortly before getting injured.


The art museum was great fun, as it always is. We sat with some nice people, and I even got Susy up and dancing to a very fun band. They played old covers in funked-up fashion with a drummer who played everything from xylophone to a typewriter. Susy enjoyed hearing Pink Floyd played with nothing but mandolin, bongos, and bass. They also mashed up the Rolling Stones and Beethoven in a very cool treatment.
The food was pretty good - the salads were incredible. Dessert was brightly frosted cupcakes, I think to go along with the artistic theme of the evening, which was the preview of the Chuck Close Prints exhibit. Once again we never made it to the exhibit - the reception was just too much fun. We will go to see it later, it continues through January 6th.

Home from Redmond

Had lunch before leaving at the Celtic Bayou with Bob, Brian, and John and his kids. Made it back just after the start of Andrew's soccer game, and Jesuit was already ahead 4-0. Southridge lost 6-2. Alana nicely brought Mali and my camera when she came to pick up Olivia from her practice on the other field.

After the game we came home to get Susy and Andrew could shower, then we raced out to Deborah's cookie store to celebrate her taking it over and sample all the cookies. The macaroons were incredible. We all ate way too much sugar.

In Redmond

I'm up in Redmond, working. Well, right now I'm at Dave and Susan's house. I just read a book to Rylin about Never Fairies and tucked her in for bed. Now Dave and I are waiting for Dalton to go to bed so we can play Halo 3 again.
Reports from home: Mali went home from school with Sara Monday, and had dinner there. Andrew skipped soccer practice to get his allergy shot, and afterwards got a haircut, so he's all set for homecoming (the haircut, not the shot).
Susy was heading out after work to look for a new dress - we're going to a wedding Saturday for Christina, who used to babysit for the kids about 8 years ago.

I should be able to leave here tomorrow after lunch and make it home in time to see Andrew's soccer game vs. Jesuit.