PR Excitement

Andrew set a personal record in the 5k at the Southridge vs. Jesuit XC meet last night: 17:55.50, for 16th place against the obsessively good Jesuit team. It was the 5th best time for Southridge. I did not attend, as I am wrestling my new jobs in Redmond to the ground.

Saturday I retrieved the last of my stuff from the house in Beaverton. Mali studiously ignored me, while Andrew watched me like a hawk to ensure I did not leave with anything not on the official list. He is very protective of his mother, and I can appreciate that.

He is very funny. Once I walked up next to him and stood very close, hovering.
He just looked up and said, "You're in my bubble."
I love my boy.

International Baccalaureate (IB)

Andrew has started his IB program at Southridge. I found this link to explain it:
Wikipedia - International Baccalaureate Diploma Program

Andrew runs fast!

Southridge vs Beaverton XC meet:
Andrew runs 5000m in 18:08, for 10th place overall!

Weekend Sports Update

I did not see any sports this weekend, but the internet tells me:

Andrew had TWO XC meets:
Friday's Bill Chapman Invitational he ran a respectable 18:34.
Saturday's Track Mt. Assault did not go so well, but I don't know what happened yet.

I did notice Felipe is back! He ran with Andrew on the Beaverton Track Club for awhile.

Mali's team lost Sunday 1-0 in the first game for their new coach. They have two games next weekend.

Mali wins!

That's the swim meet news through the grapevine. I don't know what events or anything else - hopefully more news will be reaching me soon.

I am stuck at work. I even had to cancel my golf game with my dad and brothers tomorrow. Wednesday I go work in Portland for a couple of days.

Swim Meet

Mali had a great swim meet! She won her freestyle - or at least her heat - and won the backstroke easily. Her freestyle relay won easily too.
Andrew stayed home sick - he has a sore throat again.

Grandpa Turns 70!

Huge birthday bash for the old man - Over fifty people at the house - and still there was food leftover! LOTS of family and old friends there to help him celebrate. The brothers played a lot of lawn darts. Andrew won money, mostly at the Hillbilly (Ladder) Golf game. Denny's lawn-dart injury from the night/early-morning before (punctured foot, swollen), and David's still swollen finger (bicycle vs parked car) gave them excuses, but they narrowly avoided losing big to John and I in the lawn-dart game.

I took some photos of the grandkid group with my iPhone, but nothing worth sharing here. I'm hoping someone with a more substantial camera got a better shot, but it appears the distracted nature of the subjects is the issue. Below is a photo of Mali destroying the piñata fish on her first swing.

Mary brought the piñata, along with other activities for the kids. Mali spent most of the party carrying Cooper around. He was a maniac at the party, but it could have been lack of sleep and/or sugar intake contributing to that. Dalton and Conner spent most of their time playing with the new lawn beanbag game. Rylin was grumpy, but I finally got her to acknowledge my existence by allowing her to chase me around the yard.

Andrew gets a 5!

Andrew gets a 5 on his AP US history test - the highest grade possible! Any grade 3 or higher qualifies the class to count for college credit.

Andrew called and paid $8 to get the results early. Folks not as excited about the test results have another month or so before the news is mailed out.

Gogo's: Fail. Star Trek: Fail. Transformers 2: Fail.

An evening of disappointment!
Andrew and I headed out to Andrew's favorite restaurant: Gogo's Mongolian Grill, only to discover it is now: Gogo's Hamburgers and Salads.
It took as a minute of acute disorientation before we sorted it out.
- First - the giant fiberglass cow in front of the preparation bar.
- Second - the empty preparation bar, except for stacks of tomatoes and onions. The bar held no noodles, no broccoli, no sprouts, no chopped peppers; onions; pineapple, no steak; chicken; prawns; tofu; sausage, and no create-your-own-sauce.
- Third - No large, circular Mongolian grill.
The Mongolian grill-master was there, he's always there, but he was missing his grill sword, and standing behind an order screen. As I looked at him in confusion, he asked, "What can I get for you?"
I managed to stammer out "Mongolian grill?"
He pointed to the new menu board behind him. "No more Mongolian grill. Hamburgers now."

I let the folks behind us go ahead while I pondered this news. I looked at Andrew, who was wanting someone to punish for this travesty. He said, "I'm not eating here!" And so we left, driving back the other direction to go to our second-favorite spot, the Thai restaurant on Scholl's Ferry, where the waitress already knew our order of chicken salad rolls and fried chicken won-tons.

Then, I renewed my hatred of distribution monopolies. The new Star Trek movie is still only in Regal theaters, and they conspired to have no showtimes between 8:00 and 9:40. This killed my plan to take Andrew and Matias to see it. Instead we went to see Transformers II. This was not a fair trade, as there was at least an extra hour of nothing but CGI robots loudly fighting each other. As is usually the case, the first movie far outshines the sequel.
However, because that was the first day Transformers II was in theaters, the next showing was sold-out. We bought tickets for the following one, and walked to the mall and got ice-cream at Cold-Stone.

Father's Day Weekend

The weekend was full of soccer and ballet. Mali had three soccer games and her big ballet performance. Andrew and I had a very nice Father's Day breakfast at Tom's Pancake house.
Here's some photos from the ballet. More on Flickr, especially another great Mali header.

Kids!

I have the kids!

Paint Explosion

Grandpa Del successfully unclogs the paint sprayer!

Murray Hill Cafe

After a crazy day - a meeting with Zvi, a loooonnnnnng meeting with the lawyers, and then a late doctor's appointment where the doctor forgot about me and snuck out the back door with no one noticing,
I picked up Mali at home and Andrew at Tiana's and we headed down to the Murray Hill Cafe for dinner. On the way, we stopped at the Murray Hill substation to see what we could of Sunday's explosion that knocked out power for three hours. There was nothing to see but a bright shiny new transformer where the old one used to be.

Dinner was fine - though Andrew's lasagna had carrots in it, which just seems crazy to me. Mali ate half of her gnocci with chicken, and I had no trouble finishing off my ravioli and Andrew's leftover sauce (I left the carrots also.)
I dropped Andrew off at a friend's house on the other side of Weir, and then Mali took me on a tour of the new neighborhood, showing me where some of her friends lived.

Andrew's birthday

Andrew appeared to like his second birthday present from me: The Game of Real Life. He opened it in the car on the way to breakfast at Tom's Pancake House. I watched him very much enjoy his happy birthday song phone call from his grandparents while also enjoying his chocolate-chip pancakes.

We picked up the other Andrew on our way home and I dropped them at the house.
Later: Andrew was surprised with a party at Kyle's house Saturday night. I think his birthday was a great success.

Happy Birthday, Andrew!!!!!

I'm taking Andrew out for breakfast this morning - Tom's Pancake House, where I will drink lots of coffee and eat cinamon roll French toast. Woohoo!

Andrew's new 800m record: 2:02.7

Oregon 6A High School Metro District Finals, Aloha, Oregon:
Andrew moved up from his 7th place seed to finish 4th in the 800m run with a new personal best time of 2 minutes and 2.7 seconds. Also a sophomore record at Southridge H.S., replacing the 2:04.23 record he set earlier in the season.
Lots of smiles. The only people to beat him were seniors. He was a tired and thirsty boy. We had sunshine and 70 degrees, a nice change from Wednesday's constant cold rain.
We waited until the very last moment of the event: the announcement of the winner of the 4x400m relay. Andrew did not run it this time, but he is the first alternate. Southridge came in third, but their was much discussion of disqualifying the first place team because of a mystery runner alongside the track. Since the first two teams go on to the State meet next weekend, it became a question of much interest to us. But there was no DQ, and so Andrew is now done with running until June, when cross country runs will start up again.

After the meet, he and I went to the Thai Orchid for our traditional chicken salad rolls and wontons. This was followed by a stop at Cold Stone for ice cream, where we bumped into another Southridge sophomore trackstar, Tiara, who was celebrating her victory in the 100m hurdles. Then I dropped my happy boy off at the elementary school by the house, where he met up with Andrew F. and Tiana.

More Track: Metro District Prelims

Aloha High School, Metro District Track Prelim meet: Lots of rain, but Andrew still managed to essentially tie his 800m PR with a time of 2:04.25, good enough for 4th in his heat. He hates running in the rain. He will run in the finals on Friday, and the magic iPhone says no rain and 73 degrees. Yay!

GoGo's Mongolian Grill, Hillsboro: Post-meet birthday celebration for Andrew with Grandma and Grandpa, who drove straight from their cold Idaho vacation to see the boy run and give him his birthday presents: a second Wii controller, and a Barnes and Noble gift card. He is a happy boy!
I gave him his first (of two) presents earlier at the meet: a brilliant lime-green fleece blanket, which he and assorted other Southridge track stars enjoyed between events. He gets his second present Saturday at his birthday breakfast.

Photos!

There has been an ongoing hostage situation happening inside my camera. After several weeks of tense negotiations, seeing only the release of a few small batches of hostages, I approved of alternate methods. By employing a sudden brute-force approach, all of the hostages were released (some for the second time) with no casualties.
The Andrew track photos are available for immediate media review. The Easter Family photos have requested a brief recovery period, and have promised full availability after a short rest and a light snack.

Here is the last of the Andrew photo hostages. More are available on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/

More Oregon Relays

Southridge takes 5th in the 4x400m relay! Andrew's split recorded at 52.3 - a personal record! He loves that once-around-Hayward field race!

Oregon Relays

Andrew's running for Southridge in the Oregon Relays at Eugene's Hayward Field this weekend. His team took 7th in the Medley relay yesterday. Tonight he runs in the 4x400m. Susy and Mali are down there watching him.
Here's a link to the results:
OREGON RELAYS - 4/23/2009 to 4/25/2009

Happy, Sunny Weekend

Newly Updated! With Photos!!! A few below, but more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/OregonDad.

Andrew ran in the Aloha Relays Saturday - the 400m in the Medley relay, and also in the 4x800m and the 4x400m. His team got an amazing 2nd in the 4x800m. Andrew is really running well, especially as the young kid on the relay.
He got a bit sunburned on the sunny track, but it's already fading into a tan. He's amazing.

Mali had a soccer game during the middle of the track meet, but I made it to the game for the second half and then returned to the track meet. The Xtreme lost the game 2-0 against a very good team.

Today they lost 2-0 in Eugene against an even better team - one with 7 ODP (Olympic Development Players) on it. The Xtreme are playing great, holding their own against these teams in the Gold and Silver leagues. Today was my day to get sunburned.

Andrew and I had breakfast this morning at Tom's Pancake house. I picked him up at 8:00 - waaayyy early for him, but he wanted to get an early start on his homework. We were both surprised at the lack of a wait at Tom's, though I didn't expect the huge crowd that accumulates there by about 10:00 AM on Sundays.
I discovered Cinnamon Roll French Toast. Amazing stuff - I can't believe I haven't had it before. Andrew knew his order before we sat down: Chocolate Chip Pancakes with whipped cream.

After soccer in Eugene, after the looonnnngg walk to the car - the car I had moved to park closer, resulting in being parked three times as far away (Mali threw a cracker at me for my foolishness), after driving out of Eugene, Mali and I stopped at Elmers to break up the long drive back to Beaverton. I had Berry Crepes for a second breakfast, and Mali had a giant omelet. Amazingly, she doesn't mind mushrooms. She also had a huge blended Raspberry Lemonade. We were both very full.
She told me about her stomach aches. She thinks it might be lactose-intolerance, and is pretty sure that it is NOT stress. Monday she goes to see the doctor about it.

Here's Mali, distracting the ball with her hand.

And here she is, allowing her opponent to talk to the hand.

The entire sequence of seeing ball, chasing ball, talking to ball, talking to opponent, meeting ball, kicking ball, meeting opponent(!) may be seen here.

Here's Andrew in the lead at the Aloha Relays 4x800m. They got second place!

Solar Oven

News on Easter with the kids coming soon, complete with photos.

For now, just something that caught my eye - A great invention from simple items: The Kyoto Box, a cheap, easily made solar cooker.
CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/09/solar.oven.global.warming/index.html

Track Meets

Andrew is running well. At Thursday's meet versus Beaverton he ran a 2:07 800m in the rain. Friday he went to the Laker Invitational (at Lake Oswego HS) with the rest of the varsity, and ran the 1500m and the 4x400m relay. Southridge won the meet - both boys and girls. The final 4x400m was very exciting - Southridge was seeded 6th but won, and Andrew held down his leg very nicely with what I timed at about a 55 second lap.
Photos from Thursday's Southridge vs. Beaverton Meet:
Pre-Race Warm-Up:


Hand-Off #1 - Andrew is their second runner.






Comes down the stretch with a comfortable lead.




And finally: Relief at a successful hand-off!

Seattle Cask Beer Festival

I am finally feeling fully recovered (near-enough) from my bout with pneumonia. This is good, as I was able to have a great time at Saturday's Washington Cask Beer Festival at Seattle Center with my golf/drinking team and Angie and Zen, our two designated drivers. I witnessed a huge field (auditorium?) of great beer, pouring freely (after admission), all cask-conditioned, which is by far my favorite, regardless of type of Stout, IPA, ESB, Pale Ale, or any other categorization the brewer wants to claim. Surprisingly, not much in the way of food or water/non-alcoholic drinks to keep the imbibers rational and the DDs entertained. John pointed out there were many truly magnificent bellies there, probably some $20,000 ones, considering the quality of beer that went into building them.

Post-fest, we went for food and still more cask-conditioned beer (a large and unneeded pint for me)at Brouwers Cafe in Fremont, where there was random punching, arm-wrestling and general silliness. This was followed with a trip across the street to the Theo Chocolate factory, where they very nicely did not throw us out as we stayed past their closing time, eating their samples and not buying anything.

Game Day.

Andrew, AndrewF, and Matias came over for a bout of various games Friday. We started with Hearts, then tried some crazy card game of Matias's. (Must get the name.)
Then we switched to ApplesToApples and Scattergories, then drove AndrewF home before his 6:00 deadline. Andrew and Matias came back with me, and we played two quick games of Settlers of Catan, then watched the sad end of the Kansas basketball game. (Ahead by 15, they lose by 5!)

Between games of Settlers, AndrewF called to say he could see us from his house. In the ensuing flashing-light and laser-waving chaos, the cinnamon dessert pizza was neglected and burned - especially sad for Andrew since his sausage-pepperoni half of the pizza accidentally had onions all over it.

I drove back to Seattle after dropping Andrew and Matias off, to rest and prepare for Saturday's beerfest.

Watchmen

Went to Watchmen with Andrew and Matias yesterday. I liked it, but it would have been easier to see if shorter and with some implied, not actual, violence. Except that would have been compromising, and Rorschach doesn't.

Matias then got to experience the wonder that is Gogos Mongolian Grill. Yum.

Pre-Season track meet.

Andrew took third in the 400m in tonight's track meet. Official time: 55.02. His 4x400m relay lost - they went from way ahead to just losing after their third runner (Caesar!) really struggled. He had already run the 1500m and just finished the 3000m, so maybe having him in the 4x400m wasn't such a good idea. I remember Caesar running it fine in last year's meets - it could just be that it's still early in the season.

After the game Andrew and I went to Gogos for dinner, where we both stuffed ourselves silly since it was nearly 8:00 and we hadn't had food for awhile.

Time Trials

Time trials for track have been going on at Southridge for the last week. Andrew got 8th in the 100m, not his best event, especially in the cold rain, and certainly not bad for a sophomore. He got 4th in the 400m with a time of 55 seconds, and so tonight he runs the 400m and 4x400m relay for varsity at their pre-season home meet against Gresham. He's nervous the coach will throw him in the 800m run at some point this season - a grueling event, but one he's very good at.

In other big, huge Andrew news: he did not set the curve in AP American History, he broke it! That means his score was so high his teacher opted to NOT use it as the high end of the curve. I'm a proud poppa!

Also still a sick poppa. Lungs are better (yay for lungs not heavy with crud! A vast improvement!), but random exhaustion and now a sore throat still plague me.

Soccer! Breakfast! Upcoming Track!

Saturday's soccer game was underwater, as the rain just kept coming down harder. The ball was squirting away and squelching off of feet in random directions. No one could score and so it drowned down to a 0-0 tie.
This morning's game started out wet, but the Xtreme scored twice quickly, the sun came out, and they scored again to win 3-0. Mali played great at defense both games, and ended today's having fun at forward in the sunshine.

Andrew and I had a nice breakfast this morning before the game at Banning's Pie House. He's not really looking forward to a rainy week - 400m time trials are Monday, and the first track meet is Wednesday. Hopefully today's sunshine will keep going for awhile.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccckkkkkkk

I am still sick! It comes and goes and comes again. I went to the doctor and now am armed with antibiotics, so hopefully soon my lungs won't be heavy with crud.

Mali is sick. I am sick.

Illness is everywhere. Mali isn't even talking to me, but we're sharing a nasty virus. My symptoms include: Lungs full of junk, fever, sore throat, swollen glands, and a nasty, painful cough.
Mali missed school on Friday.

Another Xtreme Victory

Mali's team won their third game in a row last Saturday, this time only 1-0 from an early free kick from Amanda. Mali played great again - she is really figuring this soccer stuff out.
Here are a pair of pictures showing a very poised Mali delivering a great header.

Catch up

I finally got back in to my Flickr account! So I'm catching up on photos.

Andrew did well at the Metro District Swim Meet, moving from 6th to 5th in the backstroke. He was happy with his time, and also with his green ribbon (though it's hard to tell as he holds it like a dead fish.)


Mali has been playing great soccer, as has her entire team. They are now 3-0. The photo below is from their second game, which the won 2-0.

News: Eagle vs. Traffic

Traffic was unreasonably slow approaching the 520 bridge this morning, unreasonably slow even for 8:30 AM on a weekday, especially without any crazy weather (sunshine. rain. wind.) to blame it on.
I discovered the issue when I finally reached the bridge - there was a bald eagle perched on a lightpole, preening, and everyone was checking him out. His perch was hanging over the East-bound lanes near the sculptures-formerly-fountains. Traffic was backed up pretty far in both directions.

My observation:
The animals will soon figure out how to bring human civilization to a standstill.

My proposed defense against this particular animal tactic:
The DOT could place decoys of unusual birds on top of all the lightpoles, so no one notices when one is real.

That might have been a better use of art project dollars than the overly fascinating, beautiful and interesting-to-an-unfortunate-degree fountains that were there. I loved those fountains: kinetic, exciting. The way they were constantly changing based on the winds and the angle of the sun made them always worth a good long slow-the-car-down look. The replacement sculptures are nice, and nicely static, but they couldn't be too nice or they'd still be slowing traffic. (The DOT says they removed the fountains because of high maintenance costs, but I don't believe it.)

Anyway, I was itching to tell someone this random bit of news, and you all are my victims. I'm sure there will be more bulletins in the future.

Done for now.

Renovation.

I picked up my new (their old) loveseat from Dave and Susan last night, and also visited with Dalton and Rylin. They (kids and parents) loved showing me all the new stuff in the newly remodeled downstairs of their house: new floors, paint, furniture, kitchen (great multicolored small glass tiles, and under-cabinet lights to highlight them, amazingly huge countertop slabs of granite), reconfigured bonus room. The furniture had just arrived a few days before, and the kids were still having a contest over who had sat in the new furniture first, and who was first tickled on the new carpet.

Rylin read me a (long) story she had dictated to Susan and illustrated about picking pumpkins, complete with colorful winds and a tornado. Afterwards she said, "I don't remember what my room looked like the last time you were here." And so we happily raced upstairs to see her new bed and wallflowers, though I'd seen the bed before. She said she didn't know if the new wallflowers would *ever* get put on the wall, since she'd already had them so long.
Seeing the multiple layers of clothes and toys littering the room, I asked her if a tornado had gone through - maybe a Rylin tornado. She said no, she had a friend over.
So I said, "Ah! Two tornados!" She laughed at that (placate the crazy uncle or he'll never stop.) Then she raced to show me the new bonus room layout, explaining they redid it because it was their kitchen while the new downstairs was being built. "See, here's where the table was where we ate!"
She was really animated and fun, very energetic. She was even doing little hops with each homework question she answered when I first arrived, moving around like a hummingbird, or a quick little bunny. Very cute.
Dalton was smiling the whole time (even a timeout didn't phase him.) He had a new haircut, fairly short, a big change from the long hair from the last time I saw him.

When Dave and I came back in from squeezing the loveseat into the van, BOTH kids were sitting in separate corners in timeout, and stayed there until I left, except for goodbye hugs. Susan said she wasn't interested in who started what, if they couldn't be nice to each other they were both getting timeouts. They both seemed okay with that, there was no yelling that I heard, and they were (mostly) quiet little mice in their corners. Well, Dalton tried to explain a couple of things to me, but Susan stopped him quickly each time. I think if he knows something he just cannot help but share it with the world. "Coal is a fossil, not a rock."

The sad tale of the Duke Everyone Loves.

Andrew got sick and stayed home Thursday. Friday he valiantly went to school to take part in the assembly for the Dukes and the Winter Formal, but he threw up and passed out between classes, so there was no way he could stay for the assembly. He is still sick, and missed the Winter Formal last night. His friends texted him throughout the night, so he was kinda-sorta there in slightly more than spirit. His friend Andrew F. posted photos of Allie texting him.

Grandparents

Grandma Sue and Grandpa Del stopped by today on their way South for the rest of the Winter. We all ate Subway sandwiches at the apartment, and then played Hearts. Mali refused to play since she hates Hearts for some reason. She helped Grandma for awhile, then left her winning to dish up ice cream. By her return, Grandma was losing and Andrew ended up winning.
Moose also came along. He would come by every so often to put his head on my leg and give me a big stare. Andrew held him for the last half of the game, which Moose enjoyed watching until the ice cream showed up, and then he intently watched Andrew eat it, bite by bite.

Game Night

The two dukes (Andrew and Matias) were over for game night tonight. We got started around 7:00. Andrew and I went out for pizza at Pizzicato first while Matias worked on his essay on Abraham Lincoln. We played three games:
Settlers of Catan
Blokus
Puerto Rico
We each got first, second, and third in a game, and the winner was a surprise every time. We played until 11:00.
Tomorrow morning Andrew has the swim-a-thon from 7:00 - 9:00, and Matias has an all-day band practice from 10AM - 9PM.

Mali is at Zoë's birthday party sleepover tonight, so no skiing for us tomorrow.

The Duke Everyone Loves

Andrew is voted The Duke Everyone Loves for the Southridge H.S. Winter Formal! This is the at-large dukedom, won with most votes overall without winning a category. The categories:
        Intellect (Matias wins this one!)
        Athletic (Jacob - from our soccer team.)
        Style (Andrew's friend/classmate Bret)
        Humor
My theory is he got a close second in Intellect and Athletics, with a few votes in humor and style from his fan club, such as it is.

He was very happy, especially to tell Mali that he wants her to escort him at the assembly at school before the dance. This made her very happy too. I'll get photos. Here's a photo of them reading the invitation to the assembly, Andrew in the crown he had to wear all day, after the trumpets in his leadership class announced his position.

Swim Team

Andrew has been swimming great. He's won two backstrokes in a row now. The photo below is from the Aloha meet. Southridge won easily.
100m Butterfly: 1:07.21
100m Backstroke: 1:05.07
1st leg (50m Backstroke) of 200m Medley Relay: 29:59 seconds

Nutcracker

Mali and her friend Zoë finally had their Nutcracker performance, postponed previously because of snow. Their class made up the party-goers in the opening scene. Mali was actually the first person to walk onstage. More photos here.
Here they are, after their performance:

Here they watch in amazement as the toys start to move.

Braces!

Mali got braces this morning! I took them out to dinner tonight. I was late from dodging the flooding in Fife and Chehalis, and we arrived at Tom's Pancake House at 8:01, discovering a large sign saying "Dinner served 5 - 8 PM" So we went to Denny's, where we were the only customers.
Here's Mali's new look: