Hellllooooo Toast!

School starts:

Mali plays defense on the girls JV soccer team. They won 2-0 and 7-2 their first two games, and there's some kind of jamboree this weekend.
Mali's courses:
- French
- Literature & Composition
- History
LUNCH - Andrew and Kyle have the same time.
- PE - Coach Terry is her teacher!
- Algebra

Andrew says "Senior IB = Junior IB on crack."
Last night's 5k did not go so well. He ran into a garbage can, a tree, and a Jesuit runner. Saturday is the Trask Mountain Assault - a fun (?) 3 mile race on steep slopes and across rivers.

Track season starts!

Andrew PR'ed in his first 400m of the year! Time of 53.93s! This with tendinitis (Achilles) that's keeping him from fully practicing.

Mali's Birthday! 14 orbits!

I took Mali, Andrew, and Mali's friend Tesia to Tom's Pancake House for a birthday breakfast. Then took Mali and Tesia to their first soccer game of the Spring Season, where they won 4-0! Woohoo!
I gave Mali a Flip Video camera, and I think she liked it. She started using it right away. As she set it up, she said, "What's the date?: Then laughed "oh yeah, my birthday." We all cracked up.
Andrew immediately posted it on Facebook.

Sports Update

Andrew is no longer undefeated in the 100yd Backstroke! He came in third to a swimmer from Beaverton, and Southridge's freshman prodigy decided to do backstroke too. Still, Andrew was only 0.7 off his P.R., and he had been sick - as all of us had been after Christmas.
Mali has her first Futsal game today with her soccer team. Futsal is an indoor version of soccer played on hardwood floors with a smaller, hard ball that doesn't bounce much.

Christmas

Andrew and Mali took the train to Tacoma from Portland and I scooped them up for a night at Grandma and Grandpa's. The morning of Christmas Eve I handed out some presents:
They asked for new Vans (shoes), which they got. Also included:
Magnetic Bucky Balls (and a little magnetic dude - not shown)


and new gloves, fingered AND fingerless.

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.

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.

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/

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

Cross country meet

Oregon State Cross Country Meet at Lane Community College in Eugene - Andrew ran for Southridge in the 6A division and had his worst time of the year. He could have blamed it on his ankle, which has been swollen for three days after tripping during practice on some uneven pavement hidden under fallen leaves, but instead said he just couldn't make his legs work any faster. He slept and ate well, so theories are that his ankle healing took energy away from him, or maybe he's getting sick.
His team did poorly - Cesar rolled an ankle and didn't finish, and the team ended up 13th out of the 14 teams that made it to State.

Mali was zombie-like at the meet, after staying up until 4:00 AM at a Halloween party. After the meet the team went for pizza and calzone at Mazzi's in Eugene. Very fun - I had a nice talk with tablemates: Coach Michael, Kat's (and Johnny's) parents, and Austin's parents and little sister.
Here's Mali (right) cheering for Andrew (far left), and below is Andrew prepping at the start amidst the foliage.