Paint Explosion

Grandpa Del successfully unclogs the paint sprayer!

Murray Hill Cafe

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

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

Andrew's birthday

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

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

Happy Birthday, Andrew!!!!!

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

Andrew's new 800m record: 2:02.7

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

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

More Track: Metro District Prelims

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

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

Photos!

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

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

More Oregon Relays

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

Oregon Relays

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

Happy, Sunny Weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solar Oven

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

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

Track Meets

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


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






Comes down the stretch with a comfortable lead.




And finally: Relief at a successful hand-off!

Seattle Cask Beer Festival

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

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

Game Day.

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

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

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

Watchmen

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

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

Pre-Season track meet.

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

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

Time Trials

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

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

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

Soccer! Breakfast! Upcoming Track!

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

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

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccckkkkkkk

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

Mali is sick. I am sick.

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