Deal, No Deal

Paul brilliantly imagined a "Deal, no Deal" game show with the kids, and we implemented it last night along with a pot-luck dinner at the S' house. A's were also there, along with Doug, Erin, and Natalie (Natalie was also at Mali's birthday party.)
Deal, No Deal is an interesting game of decision making, where the player plays against a banker to try and make the most money from a random selection of 26 cards indicating dollar values of $0.01 to $1 Million. The adults involved in our game last night agreed to offer a top stake of $100.
After the player makes a choice, but no one knows what it is, the player then selects six other cards for viewing. After all six are viewed, the banker than makes an offer based on the average of the remaining cards.
For a better description, check out Wikipedia's article.
(I just did, and also discovered the fascinating Monty Hall Problem.)

Our game allowed for one family member per round. Andrew was our representative, and got the banker all the way up to $26, but continued on, picking the $75 and $100 cards in his next two choices, and settling for a payout of $5. Matias was the biggest winner, getting $33.
It was a lot of fun cheering the kids on. The kids not playing helped run the show. Andrew even played the host (otherwise Paul) for Hannah's turn. Pablo and I played the banker, except when it was our kid's turn.

Mali's Birthday Party

Mali's birthday party is in mid-swing. I'm hiding in my office, looking at photos.
The bear sings a happy birthday song. He has been the running joke of the evening.
Andrew is entertained, and has been entertaining, hosting a scavanger hunt. There's been a lot of laughing. Now they're all watching a movie.



Rachel, Zoë, Savannah, and Natalie watch Mali open. Not pictured: Sara.
Mali conducts another birthday song.

Another great cake from Susy.

Snow!

Andrew got a two hour delay this morning, courtesy the surprise snowfall. Mali and I built the snowman before he was even awake. It has been snowing hard all day, but the warmth prevents the massive accumulation we always hope for.

Mali's Birthday, Take 1

Mali conducts her birthday song, then poses before blowing out the candles on her traditional birthday donut.

Mali Turns Ten!

Today is Mali's Tenth birthday! Few plans: spaghetti dinner, followed by the traditional birthday donut and a present or two. The Big party is Friday.

Last night we went to dinner at Alana's with the neighborhood crowd and watched the Oscars. Jon Stewart was my big draw, and I thought he was great. Mali found the whole thing boring.

Forced March

Mali's team played a terrific basketball game: They tied 17-17, and Mali had a great basket and some super defense.
Afterwards, Mali and I went for a walk with Nancy and Tinkerbell (her oft-pregnant schnauzer). It started small, but we ended up inadvertently going all the way up Cooper Mountain - about 4 miles total, a lot uphill. We stopped at William's, originally thinking that Andrew might still be there, but finally just settling for civilization. We found Larry there alone, and convinced him to give us a ride home.

Weekend

A Very Long week finally arrives at its end. Work has kept Susy and I very busy.

Mali has been wound up over her birthday. Apparently there is a long To Do list waiting for me today to prepare for her sleepover party on Friday. I only know one item: put up her new curtains and curtain rod.
Andrew is spending the night at William's. We had dinner last night with his family. Theresa got very excited over Mali's new sewing kick and gave her some patterns and fabric.
Today Mali has a basketball game against the best team in the league, and the kids all know it. Details will follow.

Sunshine!

That's all. It's just been awhile since I saw it here.

I guess there is a little more:
Susy was up all night working, but now is staying home, and this afternoon we go to the Portland Art Museum's after hours concert, tonight featuring Soul Vaccination.

Normal

Home from the mountain. Work and school and homework and dinner and Gilmore girls and bed.
Mali wrote a play from a book Susy gave her, and Andrew typed it up for her.

10 inches of new snow

While we play poker, Whistler gets eight inches of the lightest powder I've ever seen. Two more while we ski. Visibility gets tricky around noon, and soon my legs want to drop off my body. I know this because they tell me so, loudly.

Skiing

A good day on the mountain. Cold though. Sunshine in the morning.
We left a little early, and spent the afternoon in the Westin's hot tub (courtesy Bob's Mountain Club) and then at Earl's, drinking and enjoying the views. Now everyone is napping. Poker at 7:00.

Whistler

I am here, safely ensconced in Bob and Meg's condo. Bob and co. went tubing, but I'm relaxing and catching up. Tomorrow we ski. No new snow here, but tomorrow promises sunshine and fun.
Update: After tubers return we go to Dublin's Gate pub for dinner, then return to play Hearts where I win a close game after getting a perfect hand and taking all tricks.

Off like a dirty shirt

I'm heading up to Bellevue, then to Whistler for my weekend of skiing and poker.
Kids are coming up with restaurants to go to in my absence.

President's Day II

The museum trip turned chaotic very quickly. We all saw a marvelous old carriage, with technologically cutting-edge leather suspension and a coat-of-arms on the door. Then Susy got a phone call from work and had to leave to come home and get on her computer so she could explain things to people. The kids and I wandered the museum, meeting back up with Pablo and Co. at closing. There wasn't room for all of us in Pablo's car, so Mali and I rode the Max back to Bellevue, which was fun and different.

We had dinner at Paul and Nancy's. Hot dogs for the kids, and Paul made a delicious chicken curry for the adults and Matias. Pablo brought a great spinach salad, and Nancy made peanut butter and jelly cookies out of the S. Beach diet cookbook, and the adults were each allowed two (= one serving). Nancy hid the plate after I stole a third. I appreciate that now.

President's Day

To celebrate President's Day we are going to the Portland Art Museum with Pablo, Rocio, and Matias. Susy is on her way home from work now, and we'll soon be out the door. Free tickets today, courtesty of Fred Meyer.

Last night was dinner at Pablo and Rocio's: a delicious roast pork with apple compote. Alana brought a great salad, and Susy made little chocolate bombs that we ate with raspberries and whipped cream and ice cream. All good. Then we watched an episode from season 2 of the British The Office. It always makes me squirm.

Basketball victory!

Mali's basketball team had a great game today. Mali scored the first basket on a putback, laughing later because it was so easy. Andrew came with us and and watched, and Susy made it there from work in time to see the entire game.
Susy has to work again tomorrow, with a 7:30 AM meeting to start her day.
Hooray! We were just invited over to Alana's for chile.

Valentine's Day

A little late, but here's the story:
Mali brought a large, heart-shaped mug filled with chocolate coffee beans to her teacher, and of course a Valentine for each kid in her class. They had an hour-long party at the end of the day, but nothing amazing happened.
Andrew brought Valentines for the folks who sit at his table at lunch. Nothing special.
Susy got cards for the kids, and gave them a little note worth $10 at Moonstruck Chocolates. We went there last night after dinner at Subway and the kids got milkshakes.
I cooked dinner on Valentine's Day: Chicken stuffed with spinach and goat cheese. It was pretty good. The kids picked out all the spinach, but Andrew at least liked the cheese.

Burning Thumb.

We had the neighbors (A's and S's) over for a South Beach dinner Saturday night. Susy made a wonderful chicken and eggplant dish, similar to an eggplant parmeson. Pablo made a delicious curried tomato soup that he was sure was too bland but was really very good, and Paul made a wine-poached pear salad that was delicious too.

The big event of the evening Occurred just before Paul, Nancy and the girls arrived. Susy ventured into the oven to remove the broiling eggplants, and brushed the oven mitt on the burner without realizing it. She then removed the mitt without looking. Neither of us realized the mitt had started burning and melting, and she pulled it off with her thumb on the melting part, covering her thumb with melting polyester, or whatever the fabric is. It took us a minute to figure out what was going on, so her thumb got badly burned before we got some cold water on it. She thought she had just touched a hot part of the mitt, and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't stop hurting. The melting fabric was clear and difficult to see. It wasn't until I saw the mitt, burning and smoldering, that we knew it was bad.

Dinner went on, but she did keep her thumb in ice all evening. Paul nicely brought some French-Canadian burn ointment, which Susy was sure the non-sting claims had been mistranslated.

Trouble

Mali and I got thrown out of the school gym today. I was expecting it, but she was quite shocked. I told her we'd go see if we could sneak in and play some basketball, and we did, without any actual sneaking. Then the monitor from the Y showed up and was puzzled by us, but let us play for awhile, then finally told us we weren't supposed to be there. Mali ran to the nearest exit. I told her to wait, and she did, but the minute I turned she was out the back door.
We got a good half hour of practice in. She finally did a layup correctly, hopefully she'll do it again. She is getting better.

We got Andrew's application to Summa faxed in. I made him redo his essay a couple of times, and he ended up very happy with it. I didn't help him, except to tell him to give it some organization. It started out almost stream-of-consciousness. (Kind of like this blog.) He wasn't happy with me, I think, but he was very impressed with the final result, as was Susy. He has a much snappier tone to his writing than anything I've ever done. I should post it. I'll see if I can get his soft-copy tomorrow and hide it online somewhere. UPDATE: Here's his essay. He had to answer 4 of 6 questions, and he picked: special skills, favorite subjects, career plans, and why Summa?

Mali's birthday list

Mali has posted her birthday wish list at www.xanga.com/pinkypox

Andrew's Choice

Last night we went to an open house at Whitford, the middle school that contains Summa, the middle school for all the geeky smart kids. It was impressive, and Andrew has decided to go there next year. He still has to fill out the application (due Friday, of course), but there are openings, so he should be accepted.

We didn't tell Matias or his parents beforehand, as I didn't want to give them any false hopes, but they were at the open house. Matias had, of course, been chosen to be a tour guide for Summa. They were happy to see us, and excited that Andrew might go to Summa - they've been trying to talk us into it for 2+ years now. But Andrew's been happy in his mainstream middle school. Possibly it was the horrible behavior witnessed at Highland's science fair that prompted his change of heart.

Mali was bored through much of the open house (actually, we ALL were bored silly during the Whitford portion of the talk, before they got to the tour and then the Summa discussions.) She livened up later, and thinks maybe it wouldn't be so bad going to Summa. Of course, she hasn't had any of the standardized tests yet, so so far only her parents (and close relatives) know she's brilliant.

Superbowl weekend

Beautiful weather, and I did not go skiing. Instead, we went to Tsulan, Tom, and Tiana's house for a superbowl party. Fun, except the wrong team won and I didn't win the office pool even with great numbers. Mali won $5 for the first quarter of the party pool, but that was the only victory for anyone from this house.

Last night we had a South Beach Diet dinner at Paul and Nancy's. Paul cooked a roast beef and some ribs, Susy brought a capri salad with roasted red peppers, and Alana brought sugarless cheesecake.

Science Fair

Andrew's team (A + Tiana and Kyle) pulled together a nice project, but they did not win a prize. The competition was surprisingly good. Here's a couple of photos.




We saw many familiar faces, but mostly hung out with Tom and Tsulan, and Alana, and Annette G. Afterwards the kids picked Subway over A&W, which we ate at home while watching Gilmore Girls. Now I am off to Bellevue for work.

Sunshine gone.

Mali attributes yesterday's sunshine to her wearing her sunshine socks, which she picked out in just that hope. She is not wearing them again today.

No lawn mowing was accomplished yesterday, of course. Instead Mali requested we go to the gym early, so we shot hoops for half an hour before practice started.

Tonight is Andrew's science fair. I mentioned the electricity from produce project? I love their title, something about the project being a lemon. I'll try and remember to take a picture of it tonight, for posting.

Sunshine!

The sun is out, so I ventured outside and cleaned the gutters. If it stays out I may mow the lawn later. Mali has basketball practice at 5:00.

Uneventful, typical week. I've been cooking dinner and breakfasts from the South Beach Diet cookbook. Susy is rigorously sticking to it so far, and the beginning is the hardest. I'm trying at about half speeed. Monday was Steak Au Pauvre, last night chicken capri. It sounds good, but you really crave carbs. I've made toast and pasta as side dishes for the kids, besides the usual green item. Leftovers tonight. Breakfasts have been omelets or frittatas. I'm tired of eggs. Tomorrow I may try some low-carb blintzes.

Paul's Birthday

We abandoned Andrew home alone, and Mali under Olivia's care along with Zoë and Hannah, and headed off to Portland's Pearl District with the usual suspects: Paul (41) and Nancy, Alana, and Pablo and Rocio. The Vault Martini bar caught Paul's eye and we had a few crazy drinks crowded around the fireplace. It wasn't raining! and we weren't wearing heels, so Paul, Pablo, and I walked to our appointment at Basserie Montmartre for dinner and some live jazz. Nancy drove the ladies in Alana's supercool new Audi A6, since it was about half a mile away.
Dinner was delicious, the music was good, and I drank too much wine.

Roadhouse

Last night Mali and I went with Susy to a going-away party Susy organized for a co-worker at McMenamin's Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. Mali and I left for a break and went to the nearby Nordstrom Rack and bought her some shoes. Andrew didn't come with us - he was busy playing DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) at Carly's house with Carly and Kylie. David is going to pick us up a copy of the Xbox version.
We came home and watched three episodes of Gilmore Girls. A pretty typical evening.

Home

Home again! Susy and the kids are off today, because it's Oregon. I have some work to do, but not a ridiculous amount since I worked like a maniac up in Bellevue all week. We may get to do something fun this afternoon.

I finally got to see Rylin last night, though only for a few minutes. Long enough for her to tell me I couldn't sit with her, or read her a bedtime story. But she did give me a very cheery "Good Night." Dalton was a lot of fun, showing me his geology books from the library.

in Bellevue

Yesterday in the middle of my meeting I got the little chat indicator in the corner saying Mali sent me a message: "Hi Dad." We had a nice little chat while words of energy trading resettlement bounced all around me. But I was talking to my little girl! Very cool.

I did not get to Dave and Susan's house in time to see Rylin, and just barely saw Dalton as he went to bed. I got distracted at the mall, where I went to spend the $100 gift certificate I got from AREVA a couple of years ago and never get a chance to spend it. Here's the completely useless but fascinating thing I bought.

Sunday's basketball

Mali asked me to shoot hoops with her Sunday. I thought that was a great idea. When we went out back, we discovered everything coated in green slime like the inside of fishbowl. Apparently that can happen after 30 days of rain. I borrowed a pressure washer and cleaned it up, but we didn't get much playing in.

Now I'm in Bellevue for meetings with a customer. It did NOT rain Monday morning, which made the drive in very unusual for a Winter commute. Usually it seems every Winter trip up here is in the rain.

I got to Dave and Susan's just in time to say good night to Dalton. Rylin was long in bed, not feeling well - possible teething issues.

And another thing: Movies

We continue watching Gilmore Girls, now on Season 4's DVDs, courtesy of Andrew's Carly. For some reason, we all like that show.
Before last night's GGs episode, while Andrew was out DDRing, we watched Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which I'd gotten from the library. About all we can say for it is now we can cross it off our list. It was okay for an old movie, though definitely too long. Now we know where the line "We don't need no stinkin' badges" comes from.
I much prefer Casablanca, which we own, but Susy's never been able to watch it to the end without falling asleep. I may force them all to watch The Big Sleep, which I've also requested, as I never understood it before, but apparently the DVD has an alternate, less-cut take that makes more sense than the one shown in theaters. I may have to watch it first.
Any recommendations for MUST SEE classics?
My friend Jim, of Jim and Sandy fame, who sees a lot of movies, (with Sandy - they're very cultured) once told me he had a hard time recommending movies to me, since we saw so few. Once he realized that any movie we saw in a theater could easily be the only movie we saw all year, it was tough to tell us it was one we had to see. Something about prefacing any recommendation with "If you only see one movie this year, go see..."
Though now that the kids are older, and there are more movies with spaceships and/or swordfights, we do tend to get out a bit. We all recommend Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Mali and I loved the Narnia movie, but Susy and Andrew, who saw it while in Rhode Island, liked it but weren't as thrilled by it. We have NOT yet seen the Wallace and Gromit movie, which is probably awesome and we will probably just buy it on DVD. If you've never seen them (Wallace or Gromit), then you must go. Some of my favorite moments in front of a TV set are watching the three W&G shorts - the most famous of which is "The Wrong Trousers."

First basketball game

Mali scores! Mali got a rebound and calmly dribbled downcourt and threw in a bank shot like she'd done it a thousand times. Amazing. She had a couple of other good shots, but nothing fell. Her team won... I think the score was 12 to 9. We're not too careful about scorekeeping.

Andrew's day seemed very teenagerish. His friends Tiana and Kyle were over for a couple of hours working on their science project. They're evaluating the amount of electricity they can create using different fruits and vegetables. Afterwards there was a surprise party for Tiana's birthday at Isabel's house. Lots of DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) was played, and there was pizza and a spongy cake.

There was a big car accident up the hill from us, so we strolled up there to investigate. We walked up with our neighbors Dave, Gayle, and Kelsey, then spent the next couple of hours catching up with them. Everyone hibernates in the Winter, unless there's a party or something.

Photos - NewStuff!

Tuesdays, Sara comes over after school. Mali has been eagerly waiting to show off her new loft bed.




Here's a photo of our finally completed purple bedroom.

Back to work and school

Two Chocolate chip cookies remain, waiting for Mali and Sara's return from school. Maybe we'll make more. They went fast.
Susy and I stumbled our way to the health club this morning in the rainy darkness. A brief workout, but it's a start for a new morning workout routine. Check back tomorrow to see how routine it is.
Susy worked yesterday, so I entertained the kids. We managed to play a game of Puerto Rico - Mali's idea. She is surprisingly good at it.
Dinner was a rotisserie chicken with baked beans, green beans, and crescent rolls. Each of us did one thing: Mali the baked beans (she says she's tired of mashed potatos, a first), and Andrew did the rolls, watching them like a hawk - his first baking experience. Susy did green beans while I dismantled the chicken. Then we watched Gilmore Girls, and I made chicken stock.

Breakfast

I just made a perfect omelet without trying. Apparently that is the secret. And Mali's poached egg was perfect too, except she forgot about it and finished her toast just as it arrived.

I have to work for five minutes, and then Mali and I are making chocolate chip cookies, which we will use to tempt Andrew into eating a real breakfast.

Sunday

Muppets! From the library. Tonight we watched Elton John, then Julie Andrews, with lots of Kermit, Swedish Chef, Pigs in Space, old-man hecklers, Gonzo with chicken, and Sam the Eagle. Andrew complained the whole time, except when he was busy laughing. Mostly he was laughing. Then we watched Gilmore Girls, beginning Season 4 now, courtesy Andrew's friend Carly (not Calee, Kylie, or Kyle. Those are his other friends from school. Yes, phone calls are fun. And the one with a non-homonyfic name's voice (Tiana) sounds very much like Carly's, at least when saying, "Hello, is Andrew there?")

Today we went to OMSI for the NW Animation Showcase, excellently tagged on to the Cartoon Network exhibit showing there this month.

Still Raining. Friday.

I love the rain washing everything clean. It is the mud I despise. Luckily, we have sidewalks.
Mali spends tonight at Sara's house. Susy and I spent the evening dismantling her old bed. Tomorrow we install the new loft bed, which comes with a desk underneath.

Andrew destroyed me playing Sudoku tonight. Not sure why. He is just smart and determined to always win. We race. May have been the lone glass of wine. Not that more would have helped. It doesn't take much of a handicap for him to wipe the floor with me. He often does it without a handicap.
Andrew and I also did a chocolate tasting tonight. We went to Safeway and bought three different kinds of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Safeway's were pretty good, but the winner was Guittard, whom I'd never heard of. We didn't try Hershey's, knowing already that they tend to run slightly flavorless. Last place was an organic brand that was on sale. They tasted... healthier, somehow. Not really the desired chocolate chip flavor. Still not bad, and probably better than Hershey's. At least Hershey's has variety, but even their dark chocalate chips (I love dark chocolate! And somebody said it is healthy!) aren't as flavorful as they could be.
I couldn't sleep and went to the health club until 3:30. I realized on the way home it was probably the chocolate that kept me awake, especially since I never (rarely) eat it.

I got some new CDs from the library today, and read the lyrics to the Stones' "Gimme Shelter" for the first time. I can't believe I had no idea what that song was about, after hearing it some hundreds of times. The chorus is: "War, children, it's just a shot away." I will have to go buy Let it Bleed now.

Susy and I watched Secretary - a Very Weird movie about a strange relationship. Good acting, and interesting. Just weird, in a very non-white-bread-suburban sort of way.

Wednesday night

Mali's second basketball practice. They are already getting better. I drove Andrew to get a tetanis shot - he was due, and he got a slight cut Monday night cleaning one of our new knives.

Susy was home late, this time at a going-away party for someone. So I served up leftovers from Alana's house - parmeson chicken with bread and green beans for the kids. Mali made herself some mashed potatos, and I also had some meatball minestrone soup, also from Alana's. Now Susy's home, and they're all watching Survivor.

Today's internet find courtesy of BoingBoing but via SALON.COM: Zoe, the 15 year-old DJ podcaster from LA. Found at: http://www.zoeradio.com. I'm listening to her end-of-2005 show as I write this.

Another cool find, this time via BoingBoing as usual, a South American comic book about MLK and Montgomery, with a nice little sidetrip to Ghandi's India, at: http://www.ep.tc/mlk/.

Last night (Tuesday) Susy, Alana, and Nancy went to a wine and chocolate tasting in Portland. I took the kids, including Zoë and Hannah to A&W for dinner, where I ate tooooo many french fries. Amazing, since I didn't order any. We had coupons: everyone got to pick two items for $1 each. Everyone ordered a hamburger and fries except me and my two hamburgers which I ended up sharing with Andrew.

Paul stayed a bit when picking up the kids and we watched the first half of Anchorman on our NEW On-Demand-Cable. Coolstuff. The movie is marginal, though the on-demand bit is about-time-totally-cool where we can pause it and pick it up upto a day later. Don't know if I'll bother finishing - the movie just isn't that great.

Monday now Tuesday

I noticed Mali seemed unusually tall this morning, so we measured the kids. She's grown 2.5" since last May. Andrew 1.5" This explains why Andrew seems to be not growing: It is just his sister is doing all of her growing right now. I think she grown an inch since Christmas.

We were all up late last night, after Mali wanted to try playing Puerto Rico, and Susy shocked us all by agreeing to play. So after the inevitable strain of teaching/learning new rules, we had a very good game.

Weekend Update

Friday: Up in Bellevue for work. Made it to Kirkland for first poker game in John's new poker room. His almost 2-year-old Daniel took one look at me and said, "Funny hat!" Which is amazing since I wasn't wearing one this time, but I was when I last saw him two months ago.

Saturday: Made it home from Kirkland at 4:30. Locked out of the house, so poor Susy had to get up to let me in. Then I was up with Mali at 9:00, making us poached eggs on toast. Nice to be home. I spent the morning cleaning out my office, which is still a disaster. I'm going to paint the walls blue. With paint.
Saturday night we joined the neighborhood gang at Alana's to meet her friend Cheryl who is up from Scottsdale. Incredible chicken parmeson - no need for a knife. I wonder if there's leftovers... Went home early, as I was tired for some reason.
Paul and Hannah were late returning from skiing. Zoë got her cast off! but still isn't ready to hit the mountain (again.)

Sunday: Kyle came over at noon and he and Andrew played Age of Empires. Susy and I took Mali to Fred Meyer and returned the jeans that didn't fit and bought her a couple more pairs. Spaghetti for dinner, then Andrew and I played San Juan, the card version of Puerto Rico. Simpler and faster, and works okay with 2 players.

Mali starts basketball

Mali had her first basketball practice of the season tonight. I am again an assistant coach. Practices are at 5:00 at Mali's school, which makes it easy.

Andrew is thinking of playing Spring soccer, depending on the team he can get on.

I made soup for dinner: Italian stewed tomatoes with some of Susy's leftover spaghetti sauce and the leftover bean/corn/onion/feta salad. It turned out really good. Andrew had a steak sandwich and Mali had mashed potatos. Then we all did Math homework until bedtime.

TV, Sony, 27". And a big new dryer.

Yes, we do have a new TV. It is a measly little 27" because that is all my to-beautiful-to-hack-up entertainment center will allow. At least we got a Sony with a BEAUTIFUL picture. It is also HDTV, once the Comcast folks come Saturday to set up our digital cable.

We also have a new dryer. It is a Kenmore Elite 7.5 cubic foot capacity (large). Very nice. Susy was happy it had a light inside, which I thought was silly, but I love it.
Sadly, of course, the dryer has problems (nothing is ever easy.) The Start button is unnecessary, as the dryer starts up without pushing it. I finally contacted Sears service only to have me tell them their computers are down so they can't schedule anything. I will try again this morning.

School starts

The kids were giddy this morning before leaving for school. They wouldn't admit to wanting to return, but they couldn't stop giggling at breakfast. They were making me crazy. It is not so fun returning to work when you work at home. Though it was peaceful around here for a change. Once they left.

skiing

I went skiing today with Paul and Hannah. Hannah the powder pup is an amazing skier for a 7 year old. The weather was horrible at first, windy with an icy snowfall. After lunch the sun came out, and it was the best conditions I've skiied in over a year. Now I am a very sore boy.

Followed that up with the 3-ring circus here at home:
Paul came over to help repair our expensive and finely made bed with cheap screws that sheared off. Pablo and Paul and I then examined my new 32" HDTV which will never, ever fit in my entertainment center. It gets returned in the morning. And they also helped me carry the old drier out to the street for pickup today.

New Year's Eve

Party at Pablo's with silly hats. Lots of great music and crazy dancing. And I'm tired fo writing about great food. Paul made Lobster Thermadore which would have been great if you even just liked lobster.

Here's a couple of photos. Go to www.Flikr.com/photos/OregonDad for others I thought interesting enough to upload.

A non-holiday!

Yesterday we stayed home. Wow.
Leftovers for dinner, we have enough for a week. After dinner we played our new game: Scotland Yard. I played Mr. X running around London while Susy, Andrew, and Mali played detectives trying to catch me. Fun. (I won)
Afterwards I FINISHED painting our bedroom. It is now a deep, dark, relaxing purple. We are reassembling our bed and moving all the furniture back. Mali is out with Zoë and family at a Narnia play. Andrew is over at Alana's watching football on her TV. He was updating his pool spreadsheet and discovered two games on TV now. You should have heard the yell when he went downstairs and rediscovered that we have no TV.
When Mali gets home we are going to go buy a new one, but not HDTV. We will wait on that one. Hopefully I'd like to have one in time to watch the World Cup this Summer.

Tonight we wil be having our New Year's festivities at Pablo's place. Same old group, but we're missing Alana, who is in Sun River, and we get to celebrate with Tom, Tsulan, and Tiana this year, who are not in Hawaii for a change.

Holidays, cont.

Last night was a festive dinner at Gayle, Dave, and Kelsey's house across the street. Gayle made this delicious dessert, along with a delicious chicken dish. Pablo brought my favorite spicy sweet potatos, and I made Nancy's bean salad and brought it. Click the picture to see the chef.

Still Christmassing

Okay, last night was birthdaying. We went to Chevy's for dinner with Theresa and Larry for William's 13th birthday, and surprisingly, ate too much. Then at home Larry kindly helped me haul our new dryer inside.

As I was buying the dryer at Sears, after backing into the nice Democrat's rubber car, Mali called my cell to tell me our TV is broken. It really is. I was planning on replacing it today, but now I'm thinking maybe to wait a bit and see what life without it is like.

Day after the day after Christmas

A fine meal tonight: Paul's amazing turkey curry. Who would of thought(?) turkey would make such a fine curry, but the flavor seems to fall right into it. Followed it up with a largely unnecessary pumpkin pie. Included the Sageville wine received Christmas Eve from Unka Jim, which was very nice.
No painting today. Tomorrow I get us a new dryer, as the old one is making grinding noises.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day at Alana's: More food! More presents! More people!
The fun just never stops around here. Tonight Paul is making a curry with the leftover turkey from Christmas dinner. And we have a complete pumpkin pie leftover. It is leftover night!
I have been laughing all day as I read through my newest book: a Boondocks treasury: A Right to be Hostile. Hilarious! I'm finally getting to start at the beginning with one of my very favorite comic strips. Mali keeps sharing her Baby Blues book with me. I haven't yet shown her my new humungous Little Nemo in Slumberland book. It is not overly funny, but has amazing artwork. Cute, too.

Post Christmas

The whirlwind is over, though still tonight we feast at Alana's Boxing Day party. Tomorrow we've been invited to dine on leftover-turkey curry at Paul and Nancy's. It's all about the food. The diet may begin with a fast, to start at some indeterminate date.

Last night's Christmas feast was great fun. It began with a bang, as Nancy created a potent pomegranate lime punch. The food was incredible. My favorite dish was the huge squash stuffed with onions and peppers. But the turkey and trimmings and blueberry pie were all fantastic. I'll post any recipe's I can get.

Christmas!

Click for full effect.

More photos can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad

Kids everwhere! We had great fun at Mary and Jim's for Christmas Eve. Rylin and Conner stole the show. Fame is fleeting: Next year it will be Cooper and Alex.

Andrew declared it the best Christmas ever, so we must have done something right.

Breakfast was scratch pancakes and scrambled eggs from Tsulan, who called to invite us over just as we began discussing breakfast. We returned so Susy could cook her share of the Christmas feast, and I could paint the bedroom. It is purple now, and soon to have it's final coat.

Billingses

We had visiters last night, and their little dog too. I forgot about Maple, the worlds cutest toy poodle. Pete gave me a CD by switchfoot, which looks very good, but everyone is asleep right now so I haven't listened to it yet.
Susy and I both worked, so we just ordered pizza, which everyone seemed very happy with. Mali saved the day with dessert - a little something she whipped up after seeing it on a food show: A brownie with cream cheese on top and a design of chocolate syrup. I'm betting it gets made again, as it was very tasty, and quite beautiful. And she did the whole thing herself, except for the part where she wrote me a little note while I was on the phone working that said, "I need cream cheese." Walgreens had it, which I had to go to anyway.

Yesterday, we completed our first ebay sale. This is possibly to be Andrew's money factory. He sold his BUM luggage, and Susy helped him package it and I dropped it off at the Post Office. All that's left now is the hopefully positive feedback we will get. If all works out, he can help people sell stuff for a small cut. The professionals here charge 30%, so 20% should get him some business and still a nice return.

Christmas Season Continues

Last night we had a festive dinner at Tom, Tsulan, and Tiana's. They are usually in Hawaii for Christmas, but they went for Thanksgiving this year. Also there were: Alana, Olivia, Pablo, Rocio, and Matias.

Tonight we will be visited by Pete, Megumi, Marissa, and Anna. Very fun!

Snow and Ice.

The snow kept falling yesterday, and then the freezing rain came. It let up for a bit so we walked over to Alana's for dinner. Paul, Nancy, Zoë, and Hannah also walked over to join us, and Pablo drove Rocio and Matias and his friend over, in Pablo's supercool all-wheel drive VW Passat. Handily, Alana just happened to be making a typical dinner, so had no trouble feeding all 15 of us.
Susy risked the roads to drive to work this morning. They are getting better now, as the temperature has gone all the way up to 33°.

Photo of Andrew at Rhode Island meet

Susy just found these photos from the Cross Country meet in Rhode Island. Click the picture below to see more of them.

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Snow!

We have snow here. Big, fat flakes coming down. An ice storm is predicted for later tonight.

Christmas Season

I have finally entered Christmas Season. My body rejected it after spending Thanksgiving in Mexico. But now the kids are celebrating the start of another vacation (though they hardly seem to go to school anyway) and the party season is upon us. Susy and I went to a Christmas party down the street last night while the kids spent the night with friends. Very fun, with lots of decorations and Christmas cheer. We met several new neighbors, and saw some people we don't see as often as we'd like.

Mali's latest look

Mali tries out a new hair style today:

Andrew recovers

Andrew stayed home from school yesterday, and appears to now be fully recovered.
I'm working in Portland today. Mali was invited to go home with Rachel after school, which works out nicely.

The saga continues...

Andrew woke up at 2:00 AM to throw up. He also made full use of the air sickness bags on the plane on their leg to Atlanta. Apparently, he has a stomach virus. We are to meet them at the airport with a lime popsicle.

In other, seemingly unrelated news: Zoe broke her collerbone yesterday while skiing. We'll be visiting her this afternoon.

Yesterday's weather here was beautiful. I spent several hours out in the backyard, cleaning up mole mounds and the yard in general. I was unhappy to see a new mole mound out there this morning. The battle for lawn supremecy rages on.

East Coast Update

First let me give a big shout out to all our new readers out there: Hi Dad!

Susy decided to share course conditions with me at 6:00 this morning. Snow everywhere, but temperature above freezing. She and Andrew called again afterwards to tell me Andrew survived. He doesn't know his place yet - they'll call when they know. The OCC team took 15th. Marcus got third, and Jackson lost a shoe right away and went most of the 3k without it.
In other news: Last night Mali and I went with the neighborhood gang to see the Narnia movie. We all loved it.

Update: Andrew took 212th out of 246. Snow is not his thing.

East Coast Arrival

Susy and Andrew have made it to Rhode Island. They have heard that the cross country course is closed today and they're not allowing walk throughs because of the snow. Many of his team members are still travelling because of all the weather delays.

More travelling

This time Susy and Andrew are flying - attempting to get to Rhode Island for Andrew's cross country meet on Saturday. They are stuck in a snowstorm in Chicago. Originally they were scheduled to fly through Atlanta, but their early morning flight was cancelled. Hopefully they'll get there at a decent time tomorrow.

Mali and I had dinner at Alana's, then we went and visited with Rocio and Pablo.

I just talked with Susy. They're at a very nice Holiday Inn in Chicago. They have a flight out to Providence at 7:00 AM tomorrow.

Nearly back to normal

Whatever normal is for us, we're almost back to it. The kids were off today (We do live in Oregon, after all.) Mali spent the day at Sara's house, and Andrew spent the day doing all his leftover homework, and asking me about it every 10 minutes.

A few more photos

There are a few more photos now posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/

Here's one:



Andrew hates this photo, but it reminds me of how happy we all were.
It's good to be home, but we sure had fun.

Photos

I've posted some photos on my flickr account. Please note that they are in opposite order (more or less) of occurance, so if you want the sequential effect, you should start on page 3 and work back to 1.

I have more that need additional tweaking to be presentable. Also there are many on Mali's camera to upload.

We're home!

We made it! Quite a shock to come out of our Mexican Summer to Christmas trees and lights and music everywhere.

Yesterday our last day of cruising was full of fog (I guess that was our transition). The boat's foghorn went off every couple of minutes all day. We played a lot of ping pong, and played bingo for the final jackpot. We had a nice dinner one last time with Irene and Melissa, and said our goodbyes before we went to bed. They were leaving early in the morning in the first group off the boat.

We left towards the end, opting to stay on the boat as long as possible. We had a nice breakfast, then played more ping pong, before heading out nextdoor to Pier 39. Andrew took a box of Fruit Loops off the boat and he and Mali fed it to the pigeons, while Susy and I looked around. Then Susy played bag-lady with the luggage and read her book while I bought the kids some fudge, and Mali got a new, cheap watch. We spent several hours at the airport, with Mali announcing the time to us whenever it occured to her, occasionally by-minutely.

Alana the wonderful then picked us up at the airport and now we're home and going to bed. Andrew has finished his homework and his marathon phone call with Carly, we have an explosion of dirty laundry in the hall downstairs, and all of our trinkets and such are out in the kitchen. Hopefully we'll be all recovered by next week!

San Diego Public Library

Free Internet, but no time. Lines for all the computers, I get 5 minutes on this one, so I'll type fast.
All is well. Cabo was great. Susy, Irene, and Melissa went shopping while the kids and I hit the beach. Then the three of us took a glass bottom boat trip around the corner of the Baja peninsula. Saw some yellow-tailed fish, sea lions, and some famous arch.
Mazatlan was okay too. We went to old Mazatlan - Mali was not impressed. My little starlet definitely preferred the 'Gold Zone' touristy area. Andrew discovered filet mignon at dinner the other night.

We're havign a great time! I'll write more later, if I ever get a chance. THe boat's internet has been extremely spotty.

Cruise Participation

Today we're in Mazatlan, with no plans. Everyone is still asleep, and the internet is up, so here I am with your cruise update.

We let the kids drag us to kareoke night on Tuesday. It was fun, some of the folks were truly, astoundingly, amazingly awful, which prompted Andrew to get up there and sing. He and Mali were the only kids there, so there was some surprise to see a kid on stage. He did pretty good, and the crowd loved him. He couldn't compete with the grandma singing Aretha Franklin.

The weather has been very warm down here. Wednesday we were out by the pool waiting for the party games to start. When we learned they were for adults only Andrew was unhappy, but he had no trouble signing Susy and me up for them. They divided us into teams and then poured beer down our throats, set us through synchronized swimming, then watched us stuff fruit in our swimsuits, including melons, pineapples, and a watermelon. Pretty bawdy stuff. Susy is now famous for having a pineapple sticking out of her top. Our team lost at the end in the balloon race, but we won a waterbottle, and a beer and a coke. The kids loved it.
We finally shipped the kids off to the kid activities for a mini-olympics and a movie. Susy and I entered the blackjack tournament. That was a mistake, and it gobbled up $60 before we came to our senses. Happily, Susy won it all back at the regular blackjack tables.

Yesterday was Puerto Vallarta. We took a tour to a tequila hacienda, which was educational and delicious. Andrew got to haggle for a bead lizard and Mali bought a hairclip for her friend.

Thanksgiving dinner was great. I had the traditional Thanksgiving Cod. Susy, Irene, and Melissa all opted for the turkey. EVERY single item on the menu had pumpkin in the description somewhere. I had to try three different desserts: the pie, a pumpkin cream brulee, and an apple and pumpkin struedel. The cream brulee was incredible. The pie was good too, but I let Mali finish mine off after she devoured hers. Then she attacked Susy's also. Andrew went for his second cheesecake of the cruise. I swear I could go for a week without food and be fine.

Cruising!

We are at sea off the coast of California. So far all is well. Tonight is formal night, and Mali is excited and will be getting a haircut in an hour. Right now Susy and kids are painting ceramics. They just went to see Monster-in-law at the theater. Andrew and I played Bingo yesterday morning, which was very fun even though we lost. Mali and I had a workout session in the gym, and she's eager to do that again (strangely enough.) Our rooms are great, though there's no door between the two. We were able to get extra keys so we all have one for each room.
The kids have not yet tried the kid activities, but tonight is a movie, Kicking and Screaming, that Mali has seen and wants to see again and it's aboutsoccer so Andrew's into it. That will be after dinner. Then we are thinking of going to see the Princess Idol competition.
Yesterday's shore expedition on Catalina island was interesting. We walked to the Casino, which had the most fantastic murals all over it. The kids were less than thrilled, but Susy and I loved it. Afterwards we went shopping, then had our bag stolen while we took photos just before heading back to the ship. Very annoying. But we have recovered from the loss, and we're back to having a great time.

Our first traditional dinner did not go well. Irene and Melissa signed up for Free-Choice dining and weren't able to switch. They were stuffed anyway, so opted out of dinner Sunday. We were seated by the kitchen with two families with other kids. They were fine, but it was very noisy, which really bothered me since I'm still fighting off my ear infection. Then we seemed to have really lousy service from our waiters. Then the killer was Andrew didn't get his hamburger until everyone was almost finished with their entrees, and we got our entrees last among the entire dining area. So: we switched to free choice, made reservations, and had a wonderful dinner last night with Irene and Melissa. Tonight is formal night, and it should be great. I'll post more tomorrow, we'll be at sea off the coast of Mexico.

Spokane CC photos

I found the camera buried in a heap of Andrew's unpacked carnage.
Excited Boy, Tired Boy, Happy Boy.

Cross country meet

I had hoped to have pictures, but Andrew brought the camera in and I can't find it. He's sleeping. We have to get up at 4:00 to catch our flight to San Francisco in the morning to start cruising!

The cross country meet in Spokane was cold, as expected. Andrew's team won, and he sprinted at the end to get 33rd place overall, and 6th place on his team. We're planning on being in Rhode Island for the meet December 10th, but we don't have tickets yet.

It's late, and I'm packed except for the camera. Hopefully I'll remember to get it from Andrew in the fog of the early morning.

Cruise Countdown

One more week and we'll be on our way to Mexico! We are ALL counting the days. If not the hours.

Friday night we all went to Nancy's birthday party. Paul made several fondue's, all delicious. We were back by 10:00, but still,
It was maybe not the best lead-up to Andrew's cross-country meet Saturday. He did not have a great run. He started out with a sideache, and never really got going. He is still going to run at regionals in Spokane next Saturday. He and I will be flying all over the place, starting Friday afternoon.
Friday: PDX to Spokane, 1:45 - 2:45
Saturday: Spokane to PDX, 3:10 - 4:15
Sunday: PDX to San Francisco, earrrllllyyy

Pictures!

Finally, I have some photos for you.
Group shot in front of the house,
Mali at Starbucks beneath her apple,
Andrew and Mali notPondering gravity, and
Mary and Amy looking at different things.

Mary and Amy visit

Mary and Amy have come and gone. They got to watch Mali play soccer in a cold, pouring rain. Mary made some awesome chicken and ginger wontons, and we went to Starbucks to see Mali's first art exhibit, pictures to be up here soon. There was also lots of catching up, and Mary helped Andrew with his school project - He's comparing the structures of a cell to those of the Titanic, with a big relief diagram of the big ship.

I played Poker in Kirkland Friday, and Andrew and I played at Paul's with John and Colette (Nancy's mom.) Andrew was the big winner, and walked away with the two Canadian chocolate bars grand prize.

Halloween II - The rain

The other story was the curious incident of the rain -
There wasn't any. It rained all morning, then by nightfall it stopped and was even nice and relatively warm. Today, the clouds are making up for lost time. It is like living beneath the surface of a lake.

Halloween

Mali dressed as a spider princess, and she went out trick-or-treating with her friend Sara, who was also dressed in a spider-related costume. They returned with lots of loot. And were very nice about sharing it.
Andrew did not go out hunting candy. Instead, his friend Carly came over and together they went to Tiana's and watched a scary movie.
Susy and I stayed home and watched Batman Begins. A great movie. I missed it Sunday when Susy and the kids watched it, because I had to work. Work is keeping me busy!

Mali's Music Program

Nancy Ryles Elementary had jazz pianist Michael Allen Harrison as their artist-in-residence this year, and they put on a fun program last night. The classes worked with him last week, each writing a song to fill out the themes of the Dr. Seuss classic, "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" The songs were great, very creative and very fun musically. They recorded the songs onto CD, so I'll post some here when I get a copy.

Mali - soccer star

Mali has been playing soccer! Friday night her team scrimmaged with 7th grade boys, and she more than held her own against them. Must be that she's used to playing against her brother. Then in her game Saturday she dominated in the backfield, as her team coasted to an easy 3-1 win.

Foot Traffic Championship

Andrew got 3rd again in the Foot Traffic Cross Country Meet, but this one was the championship and had nearly twice as many runners. He got PR by over 30 seconds, with a time of 11:36. His pal Brian also did well, getting 5th and a PR by 45 seconds. Their team won, with Marcus getting first place to cement the victory.

Andrew and Mali look for humor

Here's a photo of Andrew and Mali sharing the paper over lunch. This has become the new routine, usually for breakfast. Click for full size.

Another soccer shocker

Mali's team AGAIN scored with only seconds left, this time to tie the game at 3-3 after being down 3-0 in the first half.

Mali and I missed Andrew's cross country meet again, since it was right after Mali's soccer game, but on the other side of Portland. He got 6th overall, and 3rd on his team.

Tonight we went to Pablo's for pizza for my birthday, and were joined by:
Alana, Olivia, Tsulan, Tom, Tiana, Nancy, Zoe, Hannah, Dave and Gail. Lots of good food. Now I'm stuffed and going to bed. Good night!

Thursday.

Andrew ran his 3k in 12:10 today, sprinting from the top of the hill in the last lap. Then he and Brian hung out with some girls from their team. Amazing.

Mali got to spend the day with Alana, shopping and lunching and getting a manicure. Very nice - Thanks Alana! Then she let Mali take what she wanted of Olivia's castoff clothing. We whittled down her 3 large plastic bags to one and a half, and Mali is now wearing one of the MANY new outfits she has.

books 'n learnin'

Mali is out of school Wednesday - Friday this week. Andrew's off Friday. Luckily, Mali spent yesterday at Sara's house, after spending the night there.

Susy, Mali, and I went to Mali's teacher conference this morning. Very enlightening. We have lots of things to work on now. We're going to concentrate on Math facts (x, /, and -) and vocabulary and spelling. Spelling is not normally high on my list, but we're going to work on it.
Afterwards, we went to the school book fair and bought lots of books. Andrew tagged along for that, then rushed out to catch his bus.

Birthday Banality

For my second birthday dinner I ordered Papa Murphy's pizza. Really splurging, I even added spinach to the usual zuccini, onion, and green pepper. Then I threw a tomato on (best if added when nearly done cooking.)
Andrew had double pepperoni, Mali had pepperoni - pepperoni = cheese.

Susy got home in time to share it all with us, which was a nice surprise. In her absence the kids and I started cleaning out the pantry in preparation for adding Andrew's old desk to help organize things in there. Then we watched a Gilmore Girls episode and went to bed. Good night.

Birthday Beginning

For my (first) birthday dinner I let my parents take us all to my favorite restaurant - Swagats. It is a very low-key Indian restaurant. The kids weren't thrilled but they found chicken pakora and tandoori edible, at least. They also brought me a delicious apple cake, and brownies for the kids. And zuccini bread for breakfast. All wonderful, and all but a few slices of bread are already gone.

Saturday was busy:
Mali had a great soccer game, her team winning 5 - 2. It was wet, but didn't rain. Erin scored the first goal, and Heather got one and almost two others. Mariah scored on a pass from Chandler. Amazing how these former wallflowers have come alive to play good soccer. That is my favorite part of coaching. Very similar to track - teaching the littlest, most timid kids how to long jump. It is hard to go wrong there. Mali was a force for good, playing great defense as usual.

Andrew and I left soccer immediately to get him to his cross-country meet. After sitting in traffic on I-84 until the actual start of his meet, we sadly decided there was no way we were going to make it, and so exited the first chance we got. I asked Andrew if there was anything we should do downtown, since we were already there. He asked me if there was a bookstore.

SO: I took my boy to THE bookstore, Powell's, for the first time. He liked it, and was properly impressed. We had a good time. We bought a dozen half-priced books, then went across the street for some gelato. He wasn't too broken up about missing his meet.

For dinner Saturday we joined the A's and S's at Alana's house for dinner. Paul was missing, because he's down South trying to help hurricane victims. Alana made tortilla soup, and I picked up a pizza for the kids. Rocio had picked up a pizza too, so there was an over-abundance of food, as usual. I was stuffed for the second night in a row. I didn't eat much today. I think I'm on rabbit food for awhile.

Sunday was lazy. We watched Gilmore Girls, then Kyle came over. I played one game of Settlers of Catan with the boys after I put some purple paint on bedroom walls. Then William came over too, along with Larry. Larry and I had a beer while Susy napped and Mali played Apples to Apples with the boys.

Long week

Another week full of work and school, homework and soccer and running. Andrew had another Foot Traffic race in Portland yesterday. He got third this time, so got a ribbon. His time was slightly worse than last week, 12:25, but it was raining.
I arrived from Bellevue just in time to watch and cheer the last lap of his race, which is amazing timing. It took an extra hour to get there because some loser was putting a banner up on I-5 in Tacoma and the police closed the highway.

Mali's book fair is going on. I think she is angling for a little extra help with purchases. This morning she woke up early and cleaned the upstairs in preparation for Grandma and Grandpa's visit this afternoon (for my birthday.)

Gilmore Girls

We've had a Gilmore Girls marathon this weekend, as the rains came down. I finally got the first season on DVD from the library, so we've started at the beginning. For some reason I can't explain, we all love the show.

We also had cake at Matias'es house for his birthday today. A nice, calm weekend here, for a change.

Soccer Shocker

Mali's team scored two goals in the last minute of their game this morning to win 3 - 2. It was a very exciting ending as her team finally came alive as time ran out. Mali was playing forward at the end of the game, and took the ball downfield nicely to set up the tying goal.

Andrew placed 6th in his Cross Country meet this morning. Susy took him, and traffic was bad so Mali and I couldn't make it in time to watch.

NotWashingtonBound

No trip to Washington today. No poker game, and my latest assignment has not properly jelled yet. I'll be going to Washington next week instead, probably Thursday.

Yesterday Andrew ran another 3K at Overlook park in Portland. He cut 10 seconds off last week's time. Mali came with me and loved the teeter-totters, which we haven't seen since our stop at Rockaway Beach with Pablo and Co. (where Mali fell in love with plum honey.)

Just discovered some new stuff from Curtis Stigers, Boise BeBop SaxMan. New link to the right, if your speakers are up to it.

There's guys on my roof doing roof-guy things. Soon our roof will be ready for Winter.

I am sick. I'm going to bed. I will dream of hammers and shingles.

Monday

We had a busy weekend. Mali's soccer game was great! They won 2 - 0. Mali played goalie the second half. Andrew skipped his CC meet since it was in Salem and we headed up North to Mike and Anna's Alex's baby shower. It was great to see everyone.

We were all tired, mostly Susy and me, so we went to bed very early after a quick dinner and a 4-person game of cribbage. Mali and I were ahead the ENTIRE game only to lose on the last hand. Very sad. Mali wouldn't play tonight, so we had a three-handed game. Andrew won. Mali went through the Cranium Cadoo cards and watched her mother's hand.

Thursday night Cross Country

Andrew will have a meet every Thursday evening at Overlook Park in Portland. The final of these meets is October 20th and is a championship meet.
It is a very nice 1K course mostly on a bark path, with a big hill in the middle. Andrew's age group runs the course 3 times. He did very well last night, coming in 4th in his age group (Time 12:19). He seems to like cross country running. Of course he hasn't had to run in the rain yet. He did enjoy the mud last weekend, so there's hope. It helps that his friend Brian Morgan is running too.
He also has a meet every Saturday. This Saturday's is in Salem at Willamette University. The Regional meet will be in Spokane (Plantes Ferry Park) on November 19th. Nationals are December 10th in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

Tuesday night soccer

Mali's team raced nightfall in their soccer game tonight. They beat nightfall but lost to another Aloha team 3-2 in a very hard fought contest. Mali played awesome at defender, even holding the line all by herself as we sent everyone up to try and tie it up as time ran out. She was a little nervous by that, but she managed it very well.

Results

Mali had an excellent soccer game. They won 2-0, and she almost had a goal, kicking a hard shot against the goal post. The rain held off, and actually it is very nice out now. We may go to the pool this afternoon.

Andrew got 4th (we think) in his Cross Country meet. Marcus was there, and beat everyone, including the 8th graders, by a lot. We just learned that Andrew will also have meets on Thursday nights.

Weekend

I've been back at work this week after a nice long Summer break, so I find myself noticing the weekend. Andrew has his first Cross Country (XC) meet this morning. Susy is taking him because I'm going with Mali for soccer pictures, followed by her second game. It rained a lot yesterday, so the weather could be questionable.

A night out

Susy and I joined Pablo, Rocio, Paul, and Nancy in taking Alana out last night for her birthday (today). We went to Marrakesh, a Morrocan restaurant in NW Portland. We ate communal dishes with our hands and sat on low couches - I sat on a very low, very soft pillow that was basically impossible to get out of, even before I stuffed myself silly. The food was Delicious! especially the B'stellela Royal appetizer: a large fillo pastry stuffed with chicken, almonds, raisins, and other goodies, smothered in powdered sugar. Did I mention we ate with our hands? Very messy, but we had big towels and our waiter came around a couple times to pour water over our hands into a large metal tray he carried with him. A belly dancer came by during our appetitizers, and she got Alana up dancing with her after we revealed she was a birthday girl.
Here's a healthier recipe for Bastilla.

Afterwards we walked around, heading down towards St. Honore, which had closed early, so ending up at Vivace, where we shared crepes with coffee. Then we rolled back to the car and came home - relatively early as Olivia had a softball game to play at 7:30 this morning.

We contemplated bringing the kids with us, but it was a little pricey - especially for those who would have been (oh so very) unappreciative, so they all stayed home. Andrew picked out a Subway sandwich and Mali picked out a pizza and ice-cream cones to take to Zoë and Hannah's. Olivia babysat and played Pictionary and Scattergories with the three of them after she finished her homework and they finished watching Hillary Duff's latest: Raise Your Voice. Andrew stayed home alone, happily playing on the computer, watching TV, and snacking on popcorn and grapes.

Soccer Starts, in the rain.

It only rained prior to gametime, and it was kind of cold at 8:30. Mali's team battled to a 1-1 tie vs. HubbaBubba this morning. Mali played goalie the first half and held them scoreless, but they managed to tie it up in the second half. Our girls were looking pretty tired - maybe it was the grapes they got at halftime.

The first week of school has passed without incident. Everyone likes their new teacher(s), though Mali's friend situation is still a little shakey. Andrew's friends are getting along FABULOUSLY. Andrew and Isabelle have managed to finally get Tiana and Kyle together. This is big news. Further updates as warranted.

Summer's End

School has started. I am back at work. Life returns to normal, such as it is.
Here's the kids just before leaving for school. Mali had her outfit planned for weeks, a funky skirt with boots, then changed into jeans at the last second. Note Andrew's toes. As always, click photo for larger version.