Susy's home!

And very tired. Me too. I grilled teriyaki salmon for dinner, with rice and peas - as usual. Unusual: Andrew said, "Great dinner, Dad!" Such joy I'm feeling! Andrew said he could have that for dinner every night.

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.

Valentine's Day

I'm a lucky guy, with my Valentines. Mali and Susy and I went to Cafe Murray Hill for a wonderful dinner tonight. Mali had their specialty chicken sandwich, which was delicious. Susy had their awesome squash ravioli, and I had the goat-cheese stuffed chicken breast. Then we shared some desserts - chocolate cake and caramel apple pie, and coffees. All delicious.
Mali's soccer practice was canceled - to our joy, which led to the wonderful dinner. She had callbacks after school for The Music Man, and should find out tomorrow what part she will play.
Andrew is at the state swim meet and won't be home until after 10:00. Susy's missing her favorite valentine. I'm a close third, behind Mali. She says Mali and Andrew are tied, with Moose a close fourth. At least I'm ahead of the dog...

Quiche!

Susy and I went to Costco at lunch today, and I just missed the quiche sample, so Susy made us a feta and spinach quiche for dinner. Yum! Mali tried it and didn't like it, so joined Andrew in his chicken nuggets. Now Susy's making peanut butter cookies! The rain (and the day off) brings out the baker in her.
Andrew started time trials today at swim practice - they're doing them all week. He, Eric, and Rian walked home together afterwards since the rain had let up.
Mali went to Rachel's after school for awhile and they did their homework together.

Mali Soccer

I got home Saturday just in time to catch the last half of Mali's soccer game. They played well but lost 3-0 against a very good team. Saturday night (after hide-and-seek, see below) Mali went to the U of Portland Pilots game with her team, then spent the night with Tesia at Rochelle's house. They have another game at noon today, which will be the next time we see her.
Susy, Andrew, and I went out for dinner to Jopa with William's family on Larry and Theresa's recommendation. It was great food, and a good menu. We'll be back to try other things. Andrew and I split a pizza and fish and chips, and Susy had the yellow squash ravioli - all delicious!

Mali's Dinner

Mali's dinner was wonderful! She made Chicken Yakitori skewers from the South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook. I am angry that I didn't get a picture - it was an attractive dinner. She also made delicious walnut brownies for dessert. Pablo joined us, and brought Mali flowers! It was a very nice evening.

DinnersDoneRight, And: Our Canadians Return

I returned from Redmond/Kirkland and work and my monthly poker game at 10:00 Saturday. Everyone was still hanging out in the big bed. Andrew didn't want to go to the Sandy track meet - over an hour away and he was only going to run the 200, so we called Pablo and he made an appointment for us all to go to DinnersDoneRight. This is a new business that offers frozen dinners: You go and select some amount of dinners (each serving 4-6 people) from their May menu and create them there. We went in together on their package of 12 dinners for $170 so that we each only have to hide 6 meals in our freezer.

Each dish has a station where the ingredients are all layed out with easy instructions. Some are easier than others: The Maple-Mustard Glazed Balsamic Flank steak was simple. The Dijon pork chops were difficult because they were frozen, so didn't take to the breading easily. The Sicilian Meat Roll was messy, but Mali loved it. That was the last one, and Mali said, "I don't want to be done!" She had a great time. Andrew missed out and stayed home.
It was almost like a cooking class, in that we made things we don't normally do, with people there to help out. Pablo's favorite part is that they come around and clean up after you make each dish. Mine is that it is relatively inexpensive and that we don't mess up our own kitchen. Now we've got plenty of meals in the freezer to supplement our weekday standards of pizza, storebought rotisserie chicken, and Subway.

Last night we had dinner at Pablo's, where we tried out one of our two Sicilian Meat Rolls and their Roast Bacon Wrapped Pork, since they weren't already frozen. Nancy brought a salad, Susy made a blueberry pie, Mali made a small strawberry pie, and Alana brought cheese enchiladas and Lemondrops. Everything was great, though I did not get to taste Mali's delicious-looking strawberry mini-pie. The event was just a typical Saturday get together, enhanced by Wednesday's return from Ontario of a still slightly jet-lagged Paul, Nancy, Zoë, and Hannah.

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.