Soccer, And Divorce/Farewell Party

Mali's game Saturday was a chilly disaster. The other team was really good. I think they won the state tournament. Mali's team tried to hold on, but they were overmatched all the way, and lost 5 - 0.

Saturday night was the big event: Alana's celebration for divorcing her mean and nasty and now very EX-husband, and the farewell party for Maiara and Samira, who are on they're way home to Brazil now. Around 50 people showed up to the Murray Hill rec center to congratulate Alana, wish the girls well, eat great Mexican food provided by Cookie, drink, dance, and be merry. We will miss Maiara and Samira very much. We will not miss crazy ex-husband one bit.

Impromptu Poker on MLK Eve.

Paul called for a game night, and we ended up with a big Texas Hold'em poker game at our house last night. Players were: Andrew, Mali, Pablo, Paul, Nancy, Zoë, and later Alana sat in for Nancy when she took Hannah home. Susy took a shower and bonded with her book, since she had to work early this morning. Matias couldn't play since he's been ignoring his homework and has band practice for nine hours today.
Kids are home in honor of MLK. Mali has another birthday party to go to at noon, and Andrew has swim practice at 2:30. I am working away - except for right this second as I'm about to drive Mali to her party.

Home from Sunriver

Very stormy here now, and it was windy all the way home from Sunriver, though Santiam Pass was dry coming home. Mali and I had a great time with Alana, Maiara, and Samira. We overslept Wednesday, so instead of driving up to Mt. Bachelor we went into Sunriver and poked around skating, shopping, and eating, then came home and watched movies and played cards.
Yesterday we got up early and Mali and Samira got their first snowboarding experience! Mali was a monster and loved it. Samira did well, Maiara was validated as a non-beginner, and Alana's new boots worked out fine. The crowds were small and short-lived, and the snow was nice, with about 4 inches falling on us in the afternoon.
Here's the girls at the skating rink in Sunriver. More photos at Flickr, as always.

Sunriver Bound!

Mali is sick, but drugged and functioning. She and I are heading to Sunriver today with Alana and her Brazilian girls Maiara and Samira. And we're bringing Tinkerbelle, but not Moose. Andrew will be in charge of Moose for a few days. We plan to be home Friday.
If Mali is healthy enough tomorrow, she will take a snowboarding lesson with Maiara and Samira.

Alana feeds us again

We told Andrew and Rian we'd go out for dinner and a movie, but it was easier, cheaper, and quicker to go to Alana's for her dinner leftovers: Pork roast and gravy with potatoes and vegetables. Then we all (except Maiara) went to see The Golden Compass, Alana for the second time. It was great - pretty close to the book and very well done. Andrew noted that it ended slightly earlier than the book, probably so it could end on a high note. The books are pretty dark.
Mali was happily sucking away on Rian's soda - not knowing it was coke. So she was caffeinated and giggly all the way home, and started cleaning her room at 10:30. Maybe caffeine will be good for her, but I'd still prefer she wait before joining the mass of caffeine addicts blanketing the globe.

Dinner and Stardust

Alana invited us over for dinner and a movie: A bean soup and a bean/sausage/rice casserole, and the movie Stardust. I loved the movie - kind of like Princess Bride, though a bit weirder and not quite as funny. The stuff about stars reminded me of the book DogSbody.
Andrew went to dinner and a movie with Rian and her parents. They went to see the second National Treasure movie.

Boxing Day

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

Samira's birthday!

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

We have tree.

Mali requested a tree this year. We have tried placating her in the past with several of the small, two-foot high, pre-decorated, artificial trees, but apparently that has not done the trick. We stopped getting Christmas trees after we had spider infestations three years in a row. Nothing like sitting down on the floor Christmas morning to discover those tiny black specks on the carpet are moving, and are really tiny baby spiders. Now that we have hardwood floors in the living room I thought it would be easier to monitor the spider situation. Or at least clean up afterwards.
The first words out of Mali's mouth this morning were, "Where are the Christmas lights?" We didn't decorate last night because we were across the street at a holiday party to meet the new neighbors.

Our new next-door neighbors are great. Jeff and Allison, and their kids: Andrew(4) and Holly-rhymes-with-Mali(1), the same age our kids were when we moved in. Other similarities: Holly was the happiest baby I've seen since Mali, just thrilled to be crawling her way into every cabinet and drawer she could get her hands on. She is late to walking, like Mali, whereas her brother was an early walker/runner like Andrew.
The other relatively new neighbors have a tiny kid too, but Molly stayed home with her dad.

More News: I finally got to see Maiara and meet Samira! Alana brought them over on the way to the Saturday Market downtown. Maiara is the skinniest girl I've ever seen. She looked like a model, which cannot possibly be healthy, but is very striking. Samira is her older sister - 23 and also beautiful.

Alana also rescued us by bringing over a box of appetizers for us to take over to the party. Mali really didn't want to go, because she knew she and Kelsey were going to be stuck watching the four mobile little kids, Lucy, Alex, Abby, and Andrew - only Holly was trapped in the kitchen with the adults. They did a great job, playing hide-and-seek, and of course Mali put on a show for them involving her and Kelsey in a sleeping bag moving around like a giant worm. I think she even had fun. We stayed after everyone left and talked with Dave and Gayle for awhile, finishing off the wine and eating too much of the artichoke dip that Karen brought.
We came home to find Andrew's roving party had been pared down to Rian and Tiana, Eric and Hailey had gone home. They were watching Pirates of the Caribbean 1. We crashed on the couches and watched the rest with them. They had started out at the nearby House of Good Fortune for lunch, and were all playing poker in our kitchen when we left for Dave and Gayle's house.

Maiara arrives!

I just dropped Moose off with Alana so he can play with Max all day, since I am heading up to Washington for work. Mali is excited to pick him up after school because Maiara will be there too! She arrives from Brazil at 11:00 today with her big sister. Susy and the kids have been invited over to dinner tonight to celebrate her arrival. Sadly, I will miss it. Instead I will be at my work group's holiday celebration tonight, drinking beer and playing darts.

Last night we had dinner at GoGo's to celebrate Andrew's straight A report card. Rian came along too, which made it that much more festive.

Heading North!

We're braving the recently-flooded/just-opened I-5 highway to go North to Amy and Stathis's wedding reception. They were married last month in Hawaii.
We leave as soon as Andrew's morning swim practice ends.

Crisis: Mali has no outfit! Actually, she did find a backup outfit, but Susy stopped and bought her a new one this morning. After careful evaluation, Mali decided that, though she loves it, it's a little too slinky for today's party. Alana is on her way over with a dress she just bought for her. Here's Mali's slinky new outfit.

Storm and Symphony

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

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

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

Winery Saturday

Saturday we ditched the kids and went winery hopping with Alana, NancyD and her friend Joe. We made an unscheduled stop at Ponzi just down the street - none of them had been there before, which is amazing since it's only two miles away. It's good wine, but pricey, partly because it's so close to Portland.
Robert and Jennifer found us at Elvenglade/Remy picking up our futures, and tasting them now that they're bottled. Susy bought a nice print of the painting they used for their labels, and I had a long chat with their photographer, bagribs, about Flickr.
From there we all headed South to Carlton and stopped at Ken Wright Cellars and drank expensive futures we declined to buy, and then walked over to the Utopia tasting room where it was my turn (I was jealous of Paul's purchase last time) to buy a case of their tasty and reasonably priced Napa Malbec.
We returned home and Susy fed the kids while I (Bad Dad!) let Alana drive me over to have more wine and food at Robert and Jennifer's house, and play Guitar Hero.
I came home in time for us to discover that Netflix sent us the wrong Veronica Mars DVD. And of course that is the one disk that has been unavailable at our local video store.

Elk Cove Fall Dinner

Here's Susy and I at the Elk Cove Winery last night. We went with Paul and Alana for the Fall Roosevelt's Club Dinner. The food was good, the wine was great, and the setting is spectacular.


------------------------------------------------
Andrew went out for dinner with Rian and her family to PF Chang's. Mali stayed home and hopefully slept - she was really wiped out after the sleepover at Tesia's house.
Before all that, there was another poker game at our house:

Halloween Photos

Moose got into the act too, though he didn't go out with the girls. We did walk him over to Alana's in costume, but removed it so he could play with Max.
He's a construction worker, in case you couldn't tell. He didn't like the yellow hat, so we left that off.

And one more photo of the girls in costume:

Leaf Attack

Mali had Rochelle over after their soccer game. They made cookies, then got out the blower and played in the leaves.
Afterwards, we all went to dinner at Alana's with all the usual suspects plus Annette and her friend Alita from Chile, and the big surprise: Deborah finally took a moment away from her new cookie store and joined us.

Halloween Begins - Friday

Mali and Rachel have been planning a Halloween party for over a month now. Luckily, it was at Rachel's house, which meant we provided pizza, chips, and pop, and then Rachel's poor mom did all the supervising. We couldn't help beyond that as we had Robert and Jennifer's farewell-we're-leaving-soon-for-Napa pirate-themed costume party to attend. We were joined on the first half's crazy Murray Hill treasure hunt by Paul, Alana, and NancyD. Susy proved brilliant at deciphering the clues - while driving.
Our pirate gang invaded Mali's party at Rachel's house to find a stranger to mummify one of our gang in toilet paper - a victory condition for the treasure hunt. That's when I got this cellphone photo of Mali in her Scientist costume:

Home from Redmond

Had lunch before leaving at the Celtic Bayou with Bob, Brian, and John and his kids. Made it back just after the start of Andrew's soccer game, and Jesuit was already ahead 4-0. Southridge lost 6-2. Alana nicely brought Mali and my camera when she came to pick up Olivia from her practice on the other field.

After the game we came home to get Susy and Andrew could shower, then we raced out to Deborah's cookie store to celebrate her taking it over and sample all the cookies. The macaroons were incredible. We all ate way too much sugar.

Soccer, Juice Joint, Homecoming

Mali Soccer -
Mali's team won 4-0 in McMinnville Saturday, and lost 1-0 at home yesterday. Mali played great, as usual. Actually, she was sort of asleep the first half of the first game, but THEN she played great. There's lots of soccer photos of Mali's team (some of Mali) at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alohaxtreme2/1401943691/
Here's the latest of Mali from MY Flickr stream:


Murder at the Juice Joint - Saturday night we went to the local Wine Styles shop to play a dress-up murder mystery game. Also there were: Robert and Jennifer, Paul and Nancy, and NancyD. Alana won best actress - I swear she never went out of character once. Susy went all out and really looked the part of a flapper girl/actress. I was Detective P.I. Pinkerton. I'll post some photos after I get them off Alana's camera.

Andrew news -
We have learned that Andrew is going to the homecoming dance next month with a cross-country running friend of Tiana's. Rian was over yesterday and somehow the topic came up. Here he is on the phone at Mali's game Sunday morning. Who's he talking to?

Mali's New Dance Class

Mali likes her new dance class. She knows one person in it already: Heather from her old soccer team. She showed me her latest dance move - some jive-y, kick-boxing inspired thing that actually looked pretty good.
Susy had a very long day today - she went in before 7:00, then picked up Mali at soccer at 7:30 on her way home. Then we met Alana at Coffee Rush for gelato to celebrate her birthday tonight. The big party is tomorrow at Deborah's.