Snow again! and I am sick

We got an inch of snow last night, but school wasn't even delayed this morning. Andrew got a ride to early morning swim practice, because I am sick! I have a raging chest cold that is surprisingly painful. I am convinced it's caused from the general exhaustion following my insanely fun ski and poker trip. Nothing like drinking, skiing, and lack of sleep to bring an immune system to its knees.

Everyone else is fine, happily.

Snow!

I woke up at 2:00 and noticed a strange glow outside. I looked and confirmed my suspicions: the snow followed me home. It wasn't falling, but there was an inch or two on the ground. Of course this being Oregon, the kids are out of school today anyway, for some reason.
Susy stayed in bed an extra hour while the temperature warmed up and the snow started melting - it's going fast now. Mali and Moose just left to walk to Rachel's house. Andrew's doing homework.

Home!

John, Jonathan and I left Whistler at 10:15 and made it to Kirkland around 4:00. We went through a strange blizzard in Vancouver that was completely bounded by the city limits. Huge flakes, falling fast. There was about 3 inches on the ground in the city, and none anywhere around it. John made me an espresso in Kirkland and I was on the road again at 4:30, and finally made it home at 7:30.
The kids were over at Tiana's having dinner and watching a movie when I got here. Susy and Moose were happy to see me. I was asleep before the kids returned, but woke up when Moose went crazy when they walked in the door.

Here's one of the photos Joan was nice enough to send me since I missed Andrew's winter formal date with Hailey Saturday night. The group gathered at Tiana's before going to Red Robin for the pre-dance dinner.

Whistler Poker.

David A. and Rick drove up to Whistler for the poker game, joining us just in time to prevent any napping after our second day of skiing. After a great dinner at the Dubhlinn Gate Irish Pub, complete with Guinness from kegs flown in from Ireland, we walked back to Bob's condo and settled down to coffee, poker, Scotch, cranberry vodka shots, and more beer.
I tripled my money, helped along by three separate four-of-a-kind hands, one of which was nice enough to beat out a flush and a full house. Very unusual, since I've only had 4-of-a-kind once before in ten years of the monthly game.

Whistler

I am in Canada at Whistler with my friends from work: John, Bob, and Jonathan. Tomorrow is our poker game, today and tomorrow we're skiing.
At home: Mali's soccer practice was canceled again because of the cold. Andrew's swim meet went well - he beat his best times in the backstroke and butterfly.
I'll be home Sunday.

Cold here.

Moose's outside water dish has been frozen for the last several days. Mali's soccer practice was cancelled last night, to her great joy. It wasn't the soccer she objected to, but the cold. Below freezing here is not really normal. You can tell it's cold when you see Andrew in a hat. It was probably 25 degrees when he left for school this morning at 7:00.


Last night we watched Once. A cute and quirky story with lots of music. Susy and I liked it, but Mali was pretty bored with it. Andrew did his homework while watching.

Impromptu Poker on MLK Eve.

Paul called for a game night, and we ended up with a big Texas Hold'em poker game at our house last night. Players were: Andrew, Mali, Pablo, Paul, Nancy, Zoë, and later Alana sat in for Nancy when she took Hannah home. Susy took a shower and bonded with her book, since she had to work early this morning. Matias couldn't play since he's been ignoring his homework and has band practice for nine hours today.
Kids are home in honor of MLK. Mali has another birthday party to go to at noon, and Andrew has swim practice at 2:30. I am working away - except for right this second as I'm about to drive Mali to her party.

Friday Night Video

It was Andrew's turn for a swimming pool birthday party - for a girl named Alex at the apartment pool across from our Safeway. He took his goggles, and couldn't find them this morning for the swim-a-thon the swim team is doing to raise money. This made him grumpy. He has extra goggles, but they don't fit as well.
With Andrew gone, the three of us were going to go out to a movie, but over dinner we decided instead to go to the video store and we rented three. We watched Waitress, which was cute. We also rented Once and Hairspray, but we haven't watched them yet. Tonight, I predict, will be filled with Veronica Mars.

Mali Cured!

Mali went back to school this morning, complaining every step of the way. She didn't sleep well and is tired this morning, but she's healthy, so off she goes!
No games last night, after our dinner of leftovers we went straight to Veronica Mars. Tonight Andrew goes to a birthday party for Alex, and the rest of us may take in a movie.

Mali Fever, day two.

Mali is still sick with a fever and sinus issues. Susy is staying home today instead of tomorrow so she can hang out with her.
Last night after dinner (pizza), we couldn't decide what game to play. Mali was up for Puerto Rico, which Andrew and I always want to play, but Susy adamantly vetoed it, mostly because it takes around two hours to play. Instead we made little slips with all the games that at least three people like and no one vetoed (every one got one veto, but only Susy and Mali used theirs.) The winning draw was: Liar's Poker. We played for half an hour (instead of the initially thought hour) because Mali got too tired. (She won the first game.) So we quit at 8:00, and Mali was asleep soon after.

Mali Fever!

Mali is home sick today. She had a huge fever last night and again this morning. Ibuprofen cooled her down and she slept, but this morning was horrible until another Ib started to work. Then she got up and I found her getting dressed for school. I had to tell her she wasn't going anywhere. Now she's upstairs watching TV and sewing up Moose's favorite stuffed toy.

Andrew got to wake me up again this morning - he decided last night to go to this morning's swim practice. I was happily asleep, since for unknown reasons I didn't get to bed until after midnight.
Actually, one known culprit was an online game I discovered called Chat Noir, where you try to trap a cat.

Moose Foods (or: The Pistachio Boundary)

So far, we have discovered two foods that Moose doesn't like: pistachio nuts and kumquats. I love them both, though there is a definite boundary to the kumquat love. I have never been able to reach the pistachio boundary.

No one else in the house likes kumquats much. Susy can choke one down, but that's it. Everybody loves pistachios. Even Mikey likes it Andrew likes them.

Moose likes bits of orange, so I thought he might go for the kumquat. He tried it briefly, then left it on the floor. The other day we were all (except Moose) playing cards (Euchre or Hearts) and I gave him a pistachio. He dropped it on the floor and stared at it for a long time. He kept coming back to it for the next hour, but only to stare at it, very hard - as if he was willing it to be some other type of food.

Snow!

Okay, mostly just a little ice. Andrew woke me up at 5:00 so I could take him to swim practice. The roads were icy, but not bad. I came home and went back to bed. At 7:00, he called and asked for a ride home because school is delayed two hours. There was still no snow at our house, but there was about an inch at Southridge. Very unusual, since we're a couple hundred feet higher. I drove him, Tiana, and Alex(andria) to Rian's house. School MAY have been already postponed when we left for swim practice, but neither of us checked.
Here's Mali taking Moose out for a walk this morning.

Weekend

Not much happening around here. I worked most of the weekend. Friday Mali went to Lilly's roller skating birthday party. Mali and I made lasagna Saturday. Sunday night we watched our latest Veronica Mars DVD, and stayed up too late.

All Mali, All the Time

Mali is worried about today's science test, about energy and heat transfer. She has been milking it all week for drama, and we've all been testing her. She's bringing a stress ball to school with her today. She will do fine.
Tonight she goes to Lilly's roller skating birthday party.
This morning she thought I might like to blog her New Year's resolutions. They're pretty good for everyone, I think.
Mali's New Year's Resolutions:
Be happier.
Smile more.
No mean looks.
No rude/mean comments.
Get organized/clean.
Be nice to everyone.

New Rug and Indoor Soccer

Saturday, before poker, Susy and I went rug shopping while Mali was at a soccer team swimming birthday party book exchange. She had a great time, and her friends convince her to come play indoor soccer with them on Sunday - their last day and a double header. Mali was more than ready for that, she's been missing soccer all winter.
Here's a photo of Susy and Moose enjoying the new carpet.

Poker Saturday

Rian and her mom, Terri, threw a Texas Hold'em poker party Saturday night. Andrew and Mali were very excited - for entirely different reasons. Andrew is quite keen on poker, and Mali thinks Rian is her wonderful new big sister. There were four adults: Terri, Joan (Eric's mom), and Susy and I; and 7 kids: Rian, D, Tiana, Eric, Aaron, Andrew, Mali. Kyle was supposedly coming late, but never showed up. Food was an assortment of chips, candy, and pop until the pizza showed up.
We played on two tables and mixed them up a couple of times. I only got to play with Andrew and Susy once. We all made money except Mali, who, after losing her $2 initial stake and buying in twice more at $2 apiece, ended up coming back strong to only lose 90 cents of her $6. I was the big winner, ending with $5.31. This was difficult as I lost a lot early playing next to Joan, who'd never played before, so of course was ridiculously lucky.
All in all it was a great time, though a bit noisy with all the kids. It was very nice to get to know Terri a little bit. We will probably try to have a similar party here soon.

Home from Sunriver

Very stormy here now, and it was windy all the way home from Sunriver, though Santiam Pass was dry coming home. Mali and I had a great time with Alana, Maiara, and Samira. We overslept Wednesday, so instead of driving up to Mt. Bachelor we went into Sunriver and poked around skating, shopping, and eating, then came home and watched movies and played cards.
Yesterday we got up early and Mali and Samira got their first snowboarding experience! Mali was a monster and loved it. Samira did well, Maiara was validated as a non-beginner, and Alana's new boots worked out fine. The crowds were small and short-lived, and the snow was nice, with about 4 inches falling on us in the afternoon.
Here's the girls at the skating rink in Sunriver. More photos at Flickr, as always.

Sunriver Bound!

Mali is sick, but drugged and functioning. She and I are heading to Sunriver today with Alana and her Brazilian girls Maiara and Samira. And we're bringing Tinkerbelle, but not Moose. Andrew will be in charge of Moose for a few days. We plan to be home Friday.
If Mali is healthy enough tomorrow, she will take a snowboarding lesson with Maiara and Samira.

Happy New Year!!!!

We spent the evening at Pablo's with Rocio, Tsulan, and Tom. Pablo and Rocio threw together a delicious sweet potato soup, and so we barely touched the pizza we ordered.
Andrew threw a big bash at our house with Rian, Tiana, Eric, and Kyle. Mali made them cookies, and they cooked pizza's from Papa Murphy's. Matias and the twins crashed it early. We made them all come over to Pablo's at midnight for the New Year's toast, then the kids moved into the garage to play ping pong on Rocio's new table. They challenged me to a game since I'd been drinking, but I still managed to demolish Andrew and Matias with little difficulty.