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.

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.

Dog Birthday!

December 27th: We had a bithday party for Moose and Max, who turned one year old. No cake, though Alana brought over all the leftover desserts from her Boxing Day party, along with Maiara, Samira, Ryan, and Max. Nancy made a salad and brought the dog's honored mother, Tinkerbelle, along with Paul and the kids. Pablo was healthy enough to come over too, along with Rocio and Matias. And of course my newest daughter Rian was also here for the festivities.
The people and dogs all had a great time. Alana brought presents for the dogs, and the kids helped play with them. Susy and I contributed teriyaki pork, garlic green beans, and brown rice to the dinner. Kids took over the kitchen and adults captured the dining room, except poor Ryan who got stuck in the kitchen with the kids.

Tinkerbelle sadly did not get to go home with her family, who were leaving in the morning for a long vacation in Arizona. We are watching Tink for the next nine days. So far it's been a breeze - she's pretty mellow, yet good at entertaining Moose. She tried to trick us into carrying her up the stairs, but we didn't fall for it. She makes it up and down fine, but only after it's obvious that she's not going to get magically transported upstairs, and that no one is coming back down.

Boxing Day

Alana's traditional Boxing Day party was a great time! About 35 people were there, and we knew most of them. Mali had fun with Rachel and Zoë, and Hannah and Rachel's sister Julia discovered each other. Moose had fun with Max, though they were shuffled outside for much of the party. Tinkerbelle did not come for the party this year. Last year she came because she was pregnant with Moose and Max and several other puppies, ready to pop, and required monitoring. She popped the next day, which made for exciting times.
Andrew brought Rian, and Matias disappeared with NancyD's twins to play pool downstairs. Sadly, Pablo stayed home sick. Alana's friend Cookie made a fantastic chocolate ameretto cake, and NancyD brought delicious appetizers. Alana made her standard salmon, which everyone loves (except the fish-haters.)
Paul went second in the gift exchange and won himself thong underwear, picked out by Maiara and Alicia. No one traded with him. Nancy won a Candle-Topper - for retopping candles, of course. Susy was pleased with her vibrating neck pillow, NancyD with her paperwhites, and I came home with a can of poppycock.

Merry Christmas!

Mali slept until 8:16, so we had until 8:30 before she and Andrew roused us for the great opening. Andrew said they have a deal: whoever wakes up first wakes the other one. There's really not any question as to who that would be.
At 10:00 we headed to Tsulan, Tom, and Tiana's for breakfast, and met Pablo, Rocio, and Matias there. We all stayed and watched A Muppet Christmas Carol. We just got home, and Rian is here. In an hour we're going to Paul and Nancy's for a ham and smoked turkey dinner.

Samira's birthday!

Mali and Moose walked over to Alana's yesterday afternoon, to help with her Christmas decorations. Well, Moose romped around with Max, while Mali decorated one of Alana's two trees. They were there all afternoon. Alana invited us over for dinner and birthday cake for Samira, who turned 23 on Saturday. I forgot my camera so didn't annoy anyone, though since Samira and Maiara are both beautiful enough to be models maybe they won't be annoyed by incessant picture taking.
Rocio and Matias also came over for cake. Matias brought along his Rubik's Cube, which he has just figured out how to solve. He demonstrated and explained it to all of us. Mali took pride in scrambling it up for him so he could re-solve it. Andrew thought a Rubick's Cube would be nice to find in his stocking.

Storm and Symphony

Wind has been shaking the house and tossing rain against the windows since early yesterday. Poor Moose sits by the sliding door like he wants to go out, until we open it. He's been outside twice for about two minutes each. Mali slept at the opposite end of Andrew's bed last night (their idea) to hide from any falling trees in the backyard. They moved Moose's bed in there for the night too.

We ditched the kids Saturday night for Robert and Jennifer's going-away dinner at Alana's, with all the usual suspects and also Annette's friend Jason. We ditched them again last night (their choice) for a trip downtown to hear the Oregon Symphony play Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Zoë, Hannah, and Matias all came along, along with their parents and Alana and NancyD.

Rian had some reason for going to the ceramic place down the hill and invited Mali and convinced Andrew to also come and paint stuff. Susy picked them up and dropped Mali off at Zoë's for the afternoon - they haven't done much together lately. I'm driving Mali back to Zoë's this morning, but she's only getting a ride because of the wind and rain.
Rian came over for the afternoon yesterday, and we all let Andrew convince us to play a game of Euchre. Susy and I won, of course.

Rocio and Matias return!

After 5 weeks in Peru. We tried to beat them home from the airport to be in on the surprise, but the swim meet ran slightly longer than expected. They looked great, but exhausted - they left Lima at 1:00 AM. Pablo grilled yummy stuff and gave us white Sangria, and then we ate Nancy's delicious chocolate cake. Rocio fell asleep on the couch, but Matias was going strong.

Rocio's Birthday

Pablo took the usual suspects to Benihana's to celebrate Rocio's birthday. Then we came home and ate Alana's delicious chocolate-Bailey's cake with Pablo's homemade vanilla ice cream!
Here's the kids at Benihana's from my cellphone:

And here's Zoë and Mali back home:

Rocio after blowing out candles:

Sunday Barbecues

Andrew had Kyle over and I snuck in a game of 3-dragon ante with them. Mali had friends Rachel and Dana over, and they washed the car and I took them to the pool for a couple of hours.
Later, Andrew went to a barbecue with Austin, and we threw one at our house for the usual suspects except for Paul, who had already left for California. Andrew was missed, and Matias and Ryan were forced to play Xbox without him. Hannah, Zoë and Mali had fun with Moose, Max, and Tinkerbelle running around the yard, though Tinkerbell got the neighbor dogs all worked up and we had to keep them away from the fence. Andrew came home just as folks were leaving, and we fed him a hot dog and some cake.
Mali poses while washing the car. Click to expand and see the rest of Rachel.

Gengar watches Andrew Text. He had been ducking the camera, texting distracted him long enough for me to capture him.

World Cup weekend

Pablo and his new bike made me rediscover mine and we went for a couple of rides this weekend. Yesterday we went to the Hillsdale farmer's market and bought berries for his new ice-cream maker, and so ate ice-cream at Paul's last night with our delicious and HUGE smoked ribs.
Susy and the van rescued us and our bikes at the Safeway, so we just missed the start of the World Cup final. Matias touched the already shaky cable from the wall to the TV just before halftime and it went out. Susy went out and bought another cable while we watched downstairs, suffering through some non-HD viewing. We only missed recording about a half-hour of it. Rocio's father, Isaac, requested Rocio record it for him - he and Marianne will be here in a couple of weeks. We think he'll like seeing it in HD. The difference is astounding.

First Track Meet of 2006

Saturday was sunny but windy for Andrew's track meet at nearby Sherwood High School. It was a long meet, partly because it was the first one, so they explained how to start to every athlete for every race. Here's a photo of Andrew receiving instruction. Click it to see the actual race start.



Susy met us there to watch the 400m (1:11.66). He also ran the 100m (14.xx?) We all got a little sun on our faces - everything else was covered because of the wind.
Andrew and I were gone from 9:00 to 3:00. I came home and took a nap, and Andrew embedded himself into the couch with his book. I slept until 4:00, then worked in the yard a bit with Mali. She found Pablo and Matias walking next to the house, so we talked across the fence until I invited myself over to their house for Mate'. The rest of my family followed me over. Rocio is painting, so I helped a little, drank some mate', and looked at some photos from their trip to Italy. Then they had a dinner date with some friends (which we made them late for), so we came home and finished watching The Fellowship of the Ring. Two more movies to go. The two I haven't seen yet, so that is exciting. Mali is less then thrilled by them (they're scary) but she's watching - ensconced firmly between Susy and me.

Quiet

It is all quiet here, finally.
Mali was invited over to Kendal's this morning after swim practice and is still there.
Andrew just left with Olivia and Matias to go play tennis down near the pool, and they took their swimsuits. Alana and Rocio are joining them later. I may, if I get my work done. But it is so quiet! How am I supposed to concentrate? Oh yeah, easily.
No track practice tonight.
It is nice to have Olivia back home from California. Apparently she played a lot of tennis.
This Summer looks to be a good one - even if I wasn't taking it off. Two more days and counting, and I'm done until Labor Day! IamSoooOOOOooo thrilled/relieved/excitedANDcalmed all at once.