Soccer, and finally: Poker!

Mali's team scored their first goal! They lost 3-1, but they had a great game, especially considering they were without substitutes. Their goal was amazing, from a free kick, with a header and a general melee in front of the goal. Mali played ferociously -- It was the best I've ever seen her play. Hopefully she can do it again.

Tonight was our poker game at Eric's house. Sadly, Eric wasn't there, because the girls basketball team keeps winning, and he is in the jazz band that plays at the games. Rian and both her parents made it this time. Joan had a lot of great food, and Jason brought a great bottle of wine. I brought one of the remaining growlers of Dead Guy Ale. We had a lot of fun, and Andrew and I won the most money so won the prizes too: ColdStone gift certificates.

Tomorrow is a day off from everything. I may work a little, but there's no soccer or track or anything. Hopefully we'll all sleep in.

Saturday night poker

Joan had to cancel our poker night because Eric is really sick with some nasty flu bug.
Andrew and I couldn't handle it, so we invited Rian and her mom, Terri, over to play at our house. Mali was barely conscious, but ended up winning. Everyone won except Susy and Rian. It was a great time = we just ordered pizza, set some snacks out, and played Texas Hold'em for a couple of hours.

Mali had a soccer game today - in Salem. They lost 2-0, but played great. Mali is playing very well so far this spring. On the way home we stopped at the Woodburn outlet mall and spent lots of money at the Nike store.

Music Man

Highland Park is performing Music Man this year. Mali is going to try out. She thought auditions were today, but they're next week.
Andrew has discovered Texas Hold'em on Facebook, and it's been sucking up a lot of his free time. Saturday is our poker game at Joan's. It will start late I think, since Andrew, Eric, and Rian will all be at the district swim meet until 7:00 or so.

Susy stayed home and in bed today. She's not any better for it, though she's determined to go to work tomorrow.
Tomorrow I head up to Redmond.

Whistler Poker.

David A. and Rick drove up to Whistler for the poker game, joining us just in time to prevent any napping after our second day of skiing. After a great dinner at the Dubhlinn Gate Irish Pub, complete with Guinness from kegs flown in from Ireland, we walked back to Bob's condo and settled down to coffee, poker, Scotch, cranberry vodka shots, and more beer.
I tripled my money, helped along by three separate four-of-a-kind hands, one of which was nice enough to beat out a flush and a full house. Very unusual, since I've only had 4-of-a-kind once before in ten years of the monthly game.

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.

Southridge Back-to-School Night

Andrew got stuck going with us to his back-to-school night because of traffic problems on the way home from allergy shots. This was lucky for us, since we had a guide to navigate to all of his classes. Most of his teachers seem very good - his Japanese teacher was very funny, and his English/Social Studies team seemed like a lot of fun too.
He didn't have soccer after school today, so Rian and Tiana came home with him, and Eric joined them and they all played poker for awhile.
Mali had her first Acting Workshop after school today. Rachel is doing it with her, and they both had fun with it - after the initial scare - Mali had to go to the office to retrieve her permission slip.

Tuesday Poker

Susy and I met for lunch at Shiraz - a little hole-in-the-wall Persian restaurant - the only indoor seating was a long and very tall counter. The food was delicious! We had gyros and hummus and baklava. Moose came with me, but sat in the car while we ate. He loves to go on car trips.
Tonight we played poker - Susy quickly ran out of her dollar of chips, and I lost 15 cents. Mali eeked out the win, beating Andrew by 20 cents. She was pleased.
Dinner was sausage and macaroni and cheese for the kids. I combined the leftover zucchini soup into a can of tomato-basil soup, and it was really good. Of course, it's hard to mess up when you start with Susy's Zucchini soup.

Home Again!

I'm back after three days in Redmond and the monthly poker game in Kirkland.
I took Andrew to the doctor this morning to get him cleared to play soccer next week. He swears his leg is healed.
Mali just had a game - they won 1 - 0. Now she and I are headed to the pool to meet Andrew.

The first week of school has passed. Andrew watched his soccer team beat Catlin-Gabel on Friday 4-0, then watched the football team lose.
Mali earned Positive Raiders for her entire music class when she named every kid in the class after the teacher failed in his attempt.