Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Track Meet at Southridge vs. Beaverton

Andrew ran his 1500m in 4:38, beating his old best time by 8 seconds. He came in third best for Southridge, though there was a Beaverton runner or two ahead of him. It took a lot out of him, he looked a little tired for his 800m run an hour later. He ran a decent-for-him 57 second 400m as the first leg of the winning JV 4x400 team.
I brought Rian and Moose along with me, and saw Tiana and Isabelle and it was mostly a party-like atmosphere. Very fun for everyone, even through the intermittent rains.

Mali missed out on that, but seemed to have a great time at her rehearsal for The Music Man. She says they're ready, which is good since tomorrow is Opening Night! The grandparents will be here and it should be quite an event. Details tomorrow.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Hello.

Hi.
It's been awhile.
Life is happening here.
The biggest news:
In an amazing coincidence, Andrew is exactly the same height as me, and Mali is exactly the same height as Susy. I would show you a picture, but my photo PC is having network issues. Maybe some other time.
I took Mali to an orthopedic surgeon last week to review the x-rays of her knee. Her pain is apparently caused by growth, favoritism, and a lack of flexibility in her secondary soccer leg. The crushing news, the horrible news, the dismaying, sad, unfortunate news; uttered casually and without the necessary angst, yet with simple authority as the doctor pointed to the X-ray: "The growth plates around her knee have almost closed up, so she should be about done growing."
At the despondent look Mali and I both gave him at that, he kindly clarified and said that some growth has yet to occur from the back/spine region, and so she should have another inch or two to go before completely stopping.
She should end up taller than her mom, and that is all that really matters.
I fully expect Andrew to shoot past me any moment now. His shoulders are already higher, but apparently he does not possess the pencil neck or the elongated, egg-shaped head that would give him the height advantage, the poor kid.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Aloha Relays track meet

Andrew ran for varsity at the Aloha relays today (Saturday. It's Saturday until I sleep.) He only ran one race, the medley relay, which happily for us was the first one. This worked out really well, since it started to rain (and then hailed, sleeted, and snowed on Andrew) afterwards, but the rest of us got to come home (and Andrew got to hide out under a tent). Rian came to the meet with us, and came home with us and hung out with Mali, and stayed for dinner.
Andrew ran the 400m leg and did great. The relay sequence was:
1200m
400m
800m
1600m
Southridge had the lead after the 1200m, but barely, and Andrew ran like a maniac to hold the lead almost all the way to the finish - enough to keep the inside lane for Southridge - and just before the finish someone else barely overtook him. Southridge took third overall in the medley relay, out of 15 or 16 teams from all over Oregon. Andrew's distance coach Michael timed him at 54 seconds, which is a PR and is amazing. He's very happy - and he will get another medal. Also, Southridge was in first place when we talked to him an hour ago.
He's home now - the high jump was still going on so they don't know who won the meet, but the bus brought them back to Southridge anyway.

Susy got pizza for the kids, and she and I left for the Southridge Band dinner and auction. Pablo bought us tickets, and also Alana, Deborah, Paul, and Nancy. It was fun, and some of the food was good. Pablo and Rocio won a raffle for a two night stay at a cabin on Mt. Hood, and Deborah bought the big-ticket item in the live auction, a motor-scooter! She is excited. There was a great band - the Green Garter jazz band from University of Oregon played. Matias and some of the other band kids sat in and played with them for a song near the end.

After the auction I went over to Pablo's and played Scrabble with Paul, Rocio, and Alana. Very fun - we were all a little loopy at the end, as it was very late. Now it's later, and I'm going to bed. Good night!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Hearts

After dinner we all played hearts, but only to 50 because 100 takes too long. I won in 3 hands! I took them all, Susy took 24 to hit 50 to go back to zero, and I took them all again. Then everyone went to bed. Woohoo!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Recovery

I am all better now, at least once the Oxycodone wears off I will be back to normal. This afternoon I gave birth to a pair of baby kidney stones, and now I'm feeling much better.

Emergency Room Fun

Before you panic at the title of this post, let me inform you that the trip to the emergency room at 2:00 this morning was FOR ME, Darrin, OregonDad - and not one of the precious children or the lovely OregonMom.
I discovered, as the night wore on, that the muscle strain/cramp that I was feeling in my side and back was actually getting worse as I tried to loosen it up. I googled my symptoms and came up with appendicitis, as I was pretty confident it wasn't a tumor that suddenly sprang into my abdomen, and I've some healthy fear of appendicitis after Mali's friend Amanda lost a third of her body weight coping with the aftermath of a burst appendix.

I stumbled up to the bedroom (I was downstairs in my writhing, stretching, grunting and occasional moaning state, so as not to bother the lately sleep-deprived OregonMom) and woke Susy to tell her I was going to explode at any moment. After she wrapped her sleepy brain around that statement, and my additional 'Yes, I think so" to her query of "Should I take you to the Emergency Room?" she leapt into action, only yelling at me once when I was doing one last thing on the computer for work in case it was the last thing I was able to do for work for some long, undefined period of time.

Susy drove me to the hospital, after alerting a near-somnambulant Andrew to our departure (he exhibited his concern for me later by going about his morning rituals as if nothing unusual had occurred, the brave kid.) At the hospital, the whirlwind of uniformed people quickly concluded that it was probably a Kidney Stone, which was then confirmed by a cat scan, after the administration of an IV and some wonderful drugs. The good news: It is a small stone, only 2mm, and I should be able to pass it in the normal course of events, though also with the normal amount of the fabled pain that comes with passing a kidney stone. We, the doctor, Susy and I, discussed the upcoming event in great detail, along with the upcoming further pain-relief medication. Only then did the kind doctor bring up the less-than-good news: there are several more of the little pearls waiting in each kidney for their turn in the sunshine.

I intend to become an expert in these things over the next couple of days, particularly in the whys and hows of their creation, with particular attention paid to measures available for countering these whys and hows.

Right now my overwhelming desire is for sleep, and as soon as I email some folks at work with news that I have not yet slept, but intend to -- and email my Canadian customers with the information they need this morning, I am going to bed.

Good night/morning/whatever/night.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

From the coast

Saturday we drove out to Seaside and met up with Mali's soccer team. The team ran around trying out all the activities: football on the beach, arcade, bumper cars, bumper boats, and we all met at Fultano's pizza and arcade at 3:00.
Then we drove 2+ hours South past Lincoln City to the Catalina Cottage, where we are now.
We're two blocks from a narrow beach with pounding surf, but we think the huge waves may be a result of the 600+ small earthquakes that have happened off the coast here over the last week and a half.
I left Susy and Mali at the Lincoln City outlet mall today and brought Andrew and Rian back to the cottage. They went down to the beach:
Andrew and Rian above Bella Beach 

And after I returned for Susy and Mali, Susy jumped at the chance to make her own glass float. Here she is inspecting it in-between blows:
Susy inspecting her float 

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

I'm home!

I made it home today, after another long day in BC. Mali had play practice - Alana picked her up since I was still at the airport. Andrew had track practice and was able to catch a ride with Eric.
Susy made spaghetti for Andrew, since he will attempt to break the freshman 800m record at tomorrow's track meet. They go against Aloha H.S., and I plan to go watch. Look for an update here tomorrow afternoon.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Heading to Canada

I'm off for Canada this morning for work - setting up the Energy Accounting functionality for BCTC in Langley, BC, just East of Vancouver. I'm flying, since it takes an hour less than driving and doesn't involve me behind the wheel for six hours.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Mali's last soccer game for awhile

Mali's last game of the Spring season was against FC Portland - Rachel's team (also neighborhood kids Alyssa and Haley.) Mali has been looking forward to this game all season, and she played ferociously, as did the rest of her team. They lost 1-0, much better than any of us expected against such a good team. Rachel is a forward, so she butted against Mali the defender frequently. Twice she knocked Mali over, and we saw them both cracking up the second time as she helped Mali back up. With a minute to go Rachel's team had a break away towards the goal, and Mali brilliantly fouled outside the penalty box to stop the threat, but it was a surprisingly brutal play. Mali has definitely learned to be aggressive out on the field.

There are optional practices for her team for awhile, but really there won't be much going on until after the next round of tryouts and the new season starts.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Soccer

It is Mali's last soccer weekend for awhile. This morning she played downtown at the Portland State University field. It's a great turf field, but very difficult to get to because there is a lot of construction around there now. Also the Portland Saturday Market had its second open day of the year, which closes a few streets and makes parking even trickier. Luckily I found a spot near the field and next to the Starbucks. Coffee plus an almond croissant from the market made for a nice second breakfast.
Mali and the team played great, as they have been all season, but they lost 3-0. Afterwards we bought Mali a latte, then quickly ran into Dick's sporting goods at the Mall to get a gift card to give to Tyler at his birthday party. She barely had time to shower before leaving for that.
Susy and I had a great night out with Pablo and Rocio, who took us to the newest restaurant in Beaverton, Decarli's Trattoria. This was in appreciation of us letting them use our house while we were on our cruise and their house was having hardwood floors installed. We had a fantastic time, especially since we have not spent much time with them since Christmas break. Pablo even brought a bottle of Uruguayan wine, which I wanted to mock, but it turned out to be delicious.
Mali was home alone with Moose for dinner, and made herself a Southwestern chicken salad from a ready-mix bag of salad. She had urged me to buy it the day before, and it came in very handy. Andrew went to see The Superhero Movie with the usual gang, and then to Tiana's where they watched Fight Club. I was happily sleeping at midnight when he got home.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Scrabble

It has been a long time since the usual suspects got together for a game of Scrabble. Susy and I joined Paul and Nancy (where we left Mali) for awhile after Indian food. Then Alana joined us, Susy took Mali home, and we called Pablo to come over for Scrabble while Nancy watched Bruce Almighty.
Andrew had a night out watching movies at Tiana's with his usual gang (Rian, Tiana, and Eric.)

Indian Food

An Indian restaurant has just opened up where the old A&W was in our local shopping center. It's called The Curry Leaf, (Poetic, since curry is a collection of spices, not any particular plant.)
Susy and I are very excited about this, and we went there for dinner tonight and it was fantastic! The food was all good, and they had great chai, though strangely (to me) served it in a glass instead of a mug. It is different than most of the Indian restaurants around here: it has a sort of fast-food / take-out feel about it, but the tables and decor provide a comfortable urban vibe to the place. The manager was cool in his baseball hat, and as I gushed about the food and chai he very nicely brought Susy and I refills. (Okay, after I asked if they gave free refills. No, but he got them for us anyway.) I'm hoping to go back soon. It would be a nice little walking excursion for me at lunch, even if just for a glass of chai.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

First home track meet

Andrew's first home track meet today (at Southridge). He ran the 1500m (4:51), 800 (2:14), and the 4x400 relay. The JV relay team ran as varsity, since the varsity had an invitational the next day. They (JV) were clobbered by the Sunset varsity, but they got 2nd! For Varsity! (Okay, 2nd out of 2, but, well, okay...)
His coach thinks he has a good chance to beat the freshman 800m record of 2:06, especially if he doesn't run a 1500m race first.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Back in Oregon!

We're home! Pablo picked us up at the Max station, then I went to Paul and Nancy's and picked up Moose just as they were going to bed. And Paul fed me some of his chili for tomorrow's chili cook off. Great stuff.

It's been a long day since getting off the boat - 17 hours ago!
Good night! More later, with photos.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Sadness - We return to San Juan, then home.

They are forcing us off the boat. We like it here, and don't want to leave.
Tomorrow (actually later today, but after I sleep) we are out of our rooms by 8:00, and off the boat by 9:00. Then we head to the airport for our 12:30 flight.

Today was a pretty good day. I was up early and ran a mile on the track while we docked. Everyone was up a little later - though still early, because we had to go through immigration this morning. Then we all went to breakfast for the first time, and met some nice folks from Illinois.
We went into Charlotte Amalie to shop and hopefully find some stone turtles for Andrew to replace the ones I lost yesterday. We haggled over fake Coach purses - more expensive than in Curacao, so we weren't too excited by them. Everything (except liquor) has been more expensive than Curacao.
Susy and the kids weren't too thrilled with the town, mostly because we walked the 2.5 miles from the boat to get there. They headed back and I walked all over town and got a nice feel for the place, and found several very pleasant spots. I walked back to the boat and took a nap with the kids up on the pool deck. Susy got us for the trivia game, then we played Bingo and ALMOST won a huge amount of money - Susy did manage to win over $80. Then we went to the farewell show, and our last dinner with the Puerto Ricans.
THEN: we bought photos and had to pack up, and we leave early in the morning. So sad!

Heading into ?

some town in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands...

Very pretty here from the boat. Immigration, then breakfast already this morning. Now we're about to head into town, all properly sunscreened, shod, and hatted.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Philipsburg, St. Maarten, Dutch Antilles

Today we docked in Philipsburg St. Maarten.
I woke up early and tried out the track. It's very nice, and I managed to run two miles (WooHoo!)
The kids decided to join us in town today to search for gifts for their friends. We shopped for awhile, then ended up at a nice beach spot. Andrew found some stone turtles and T-shirts for his friends, and Mali found some odds and ends for the people on her list. I found a bunch of fake Nike shirts that were cheap and seemingly relatively well made. Susy found an Australian opal ring she liked, as we went into many, many jewelry stores.
Each store seemed to have a nice Indian guy that we met, and they were all from Bombay and knew each other. I found my watch for $40 cheaper, so I got it written on a business card so I could show it to the Indian guy from Bombay on the ship who sold it to us, so he could reduce the price still further.
The kids got some beach time and Susy camped out on a beach chair while I walked around the city some more. A waiter told Susy she had to pay $10 for the chair - instead she moved into the welcoming shelter of Bamboo Bernie's immediately behind her, and used her $10 on a frothy drink. I returned and joined her in a few more. The kids had their share too, but without the alcohol.

On the ship we had another great dinner with our friends from Puerto Rico, and the girls came by the room and took Andrew and Mali up to the Latin dance party outside at the pool so they could teach them the Merengue. I was hoping to go too, but exhaustion kicked in. The kids (apparently) made it to bed around 1:00.
Inside Bamboo Bernie's
The view from Bamboo Bernie's

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Willemstad, Curacao

The kids wanted to stay on the boat, so Susy and I went in to Willemstad, Curacao, and had a great time! It is a beautiful city, and all the people we met were wonderful.

The kids had fun on the boat, but were really disappointed the pool is salt water! They got the walky-radios working and had fun playing sight-tag around the ship.

Our table-mates joined us for dinner tonight. A fun family from San Juan.

Lunch! Note the Iguana on the wall. Willemstad
There's a great cheese shop behind me.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Aruba

Catamaran trip to snorkel today to a nice little reef with tons of colorful fish, then to the wreck of the Antilles to supposedly see larger fish. The wreck was in open water so was a little choppy and murky - spooky for us Jaws-influenced old-timers. Mali didn't try it at the wreck, and didn't like it at the reef as much as she'd hoped because she swallowed a couple mouthfuls of water. I did once too, which was more than enough.
The folks that took us out were really fun - the open bar on the boat (post-snorkelling) didn't hurt. They taught us the "Bacardi! Yellow! Limon! Coca-Cola..." song. The kids loved it!
Leaving the mother ship.
Mali on the catamaran
Andrew on the catamaran in Aruba
Darrin docked in Aruba