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!

Another Xtreme Victory

Mali's team won their third game in a row last Saturday, this time only 1-0 from an early free kick from Amanda. Mali played great again - she is really figuring this soccer stuff out.
Here are a pair of pictures showing a very poised Mali delivering a great header.

Soccer! Track!

Soccer tryouts for Mali's team - the Xtreme - were held on Saturday and Tuesday night. Coach Dean called Mali yesterday to tell her she made the team. Their team appears to be about the same, with a change of only two or three players.

Southridge lost a close meet against Jesuit for the conference championship. It was the last dual meet of the season. Andrew's last meet will be the JV District meet this Friday, where he's going to run the 1500m and try for a PR (Personal Record - best time).
Andrew's goal at the Jesuit meet was for a PR in the 800m, and he got one in the JV race, getting 6th place with a time of 2:10.97. His JV 4x400m relay team won against 5 other teams, though this great track web site Andrew just showed me only lists three of them. On the web site you can click any of the completed meets to see the results, and if you click on Andrew's name it will take you to a page summarizing all of his high school results.

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.

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.

Soccer! - - and - - The Complete History of America (abridged)

Mali's team played another great game, but lost 3-1. This time a lot of the loss can be credited to some sadly inadequate officiating. To properly illustrate this, let me tell you that my darling, sweet, lovable daughter - full of laughter and dancing, fine drama, kind words, and love for all - my wonderfully smart and cheerful girl Mali got a yellow card!!!!

To the referee's (only) credit, it MAY have been a slight foul -
To Mali's credit most of our fans were sure the foul was on the other girl who tripped/collided with her, and
To Andrew's credit we practically had to restrain him from going after the ref after this crazy call. He loves his little sister.

Later, we realized that the ref may have mistaken Mali for the even sweeter-looking and smaller Caroline, who earlier had received the referee's warning for flattening an opponent with the audacity and temerity (or perhaps blissful ignorance) to wander into Caroline's range with some small relationship to the ball. Caroline is quite vicious on the pitch.

Later also, the referee awarded a penalty kick to the other team when their player tripped completely on her own in the penalty box. She made the shot to tie the score at 1-1 just before halftime, and the wind sort of went out of the Xtreme's sails.

Except for Mali's. After the game she sailed over to us skipping and singing the new "I got a yellow card" song that she made up.

We had to rush away from the game so we could get to the local theater troupe
Bag & Baggage's performance of The Complete History of America (abridged). It was bawdy, funny, and clever, and thankfully the kids loved it, after expressing much pre-show resentment for our activity choice. We met Michael, Dominica, Eric, and Aaron there. Dominica had told us about the show - and Aaron's teacher's recommendation of it - and was horrified at the bawdy nature of the whole thing, mostly I think because she had recommended it to us and wasn't sure how we would take it. Also possibly because they arrived just after the nice man walked the crowd explaining to all the parents how the show would be a bit pg-13. But without that old Shakespearian trick of appealing to the least-common denominator, I'm sure the kids would have been as bored as they expected prior to the show.

Spring Soccer, Game 1

The X-treme had their first game of the spring season today. They've been moved up to the Gold bracket, which is much better, and today they played a very good team and lost 3-0. Mali played well, as did the rest of her team, but it wasn't enough. The weather is beautiful here, so it was a pleasant game except for the score.

Tonight we're going someplace called Players, to meet with Eric's family - dad side. We're bringing Rian.

Snow gone. Susy sick.

Susy went to work today, where she feels miserable. She was sick all weekend, including her Friday off. She wanted to go in today to pick up her new laptop - otherwise she had to wait another month. I am finally mostly better - I'm able to take a deep breath without coughing up my lungs. But coughing still hurts.
Mali has soccer practice tonight - it's been raining off and on but it's been in the 40's all day. Andrew and Rian walked halfway home from swimming practice before I picked them up.
Yesterday I picked up Paul, Nancy, Zoë, and a sunburned Hannah from the MAX - the van and I were the last leg of their trip home from their 10-day Cancun vacation. Mali went over to hang out with Zoë most of the afternoon. They brought me back a bottle of D'Aristi Xtabentun, a honey and anise rum-based liquor supposedly based on a Mayan spirit made from the Xtabentun flower on the Yucatan peninsula. I opened it and we tasted it at their house when I dropped Mali off - very delicious.

Maiara's Birthday!

I am still sick, but getting better. Drugs help. Now Susy is also sick. At least she got to sleep most of today since it was her Friday off.
Andrew's swim meet last night was his best yet. He got his best times and took second place in the backstroke and third in the butterfly. I got to go since it was at Aloha H.S. and Mali's first soccer practice of the year was also there. Chauffeuring made easy, for a change.

Today is Maiara's birthday! Susy made a chocolate cherry cake and we're bringing it over in a few minutes. We won't be staying long, since I have a strong desire to fall into my bed. Andrew went to a feast at Southridge, and just called to tell me he's going to the basketball game with Tiana and Eric. The feast was to follow a fast several classes did to raise money for Uganda, but athletes were supposed to raise money some other way. Andrew did this by exchanging the fasting bit with a promise to eat extra food next week. Some of the swimmers fasted, and their coach yelled at them today. Duh. Most of the freshman swimmers look like scarecrows.
Here's Maiara with the cake and the only candle Alana could find:

First Swim Meet

Andrew swam with the varsity, and did great. He got second in the 100yd Butterfly, and missed winning by a hand. He also got second with his friend Eric in the freestyle relay.
Susy and I were both timers, which was surprisingly fun, but didn't leave time for taking many photos. The Beaverton Swim Center is also really dark, so most of the ones I took were blurred. The too-dark photo above is of the sign we saw hanging at Southridge when we went there after the swim meet for the end-of-season soccer party.
The party was more fun than I expected. Since we'd been at the swim meet all afternoon, our contribution to the potluck was a well thought out pizza order. Our two pizzas joined the half-dozen or so already there. Mali sat with Andrew and some of the freshman players, while Susy and I sat with Kyle's, Ethan's, and Eric's parents. Kyle received the Most Improved award - as voted by his teammates, and the coach said lots of nice things about all the players. It was a very fun team. I hope it works out as well next year.

soccer 2007 ends

Mali's team battled hard in their last game of the year, but lost 1-0 against their main rivals. They lost every game in this tournament, but they were playing against teams in the league above them - their coaches wanted to challenge them. Mali has been playing great lately, we're really proud of her. She plays defense, and they have a great defense, and they have given up very few goals while Mali was in the game. She's the speedy one. She is taking a break and is not going to play indoor with most of the rest of her team. We're all a bit burned out on soccer at the moment.

I just dropped Andrew off at his 5:30 AM swim practice. He goes again tonight for more time trials. Mali has her last drama/improvisation workshop tonight after school. We're picking her up and driving North to the grandparent's for Thanksgiving.

Wet soccer

We are back from a cold and very wet soccer game. Luckily it was on turf, so it wasn't a mudbath. Mali played great, and her team did okay but still managed to lose 3-0. They are playing in a tougher tournament than usual - their coaches opted for the premier league tournament. It's a big transition - a lot of the dribbling they could pull off in the lower league doesn't work here, and they haven't quite got their passing down yet.
My fingers aren't working too well either. They are still stiff from cold.
We're all heading out now to end-of-soccer-season party at Laserport. She still has one more game to go, on Tuesday, but next weekend is Thanksgiving and Coach Dean will be gone, so this was the last chance.

Sunday - more soccer

Mali's soccer game today went better, but they still lost, 3-1.
Afterwards Susy took her to the mall to get her a present for Tara, and she's at her sleepover birthday party tonight. No school tomorrow.
After we dropped her off at the party, Susy, Andrew, and I went to GoGo's for dinner.
Here's Mali, Rochelle, and Tesia after their game today:

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!

Foggy Soccer

Mali's team got a practice in at Beaverton High School last night, complete with a scrimmage, scrambled with an older girl's team in the fog under the lights. Mali made her penalty kick while I watched, and her team won.
Got home to a very late pizza dinner and a showing of Veronica Mars off our latest DVD.

Andrew's last soccer game!

Southridge JV2 beat Aloha 3-0 for their last game of the season. Andrew played good. He took one shot and slipped and wiped out a defender who had to leave the game. Kyle scored a goal, which Andrew said he'd predicted at school.
Andrew is now done with sports until November 5th when swimming starts. There's a meeting for the swimmers at school today, so we'll know more tonight.

Mali FINALLY has a Halloween costume. The Little Red Riding Hood one was too small and went back to the store yesterday. Now she is a gangster, which is a nice compliment to Rachel's Federal agent. Mali now has four parties in three days, but the two on Saturday are at the same time, so we're not sure how that will work out.

Here's a photo from last month - Susy and I at the '20s costume murder mystery party at WineStyles.

Furniture garden

Our furniture is slowly popping up again on the new floor. The smell is gone, though the first night back after the re-refinishing was tough. It doesn't help that the rains have begun - squeaky floors beneath wet shoes.
At least Andrew got sunshine for most of his game yesterday, but the field was a big muddy mess and kids were slipping all over the place. They lost to Westview 3-0, with all the goals coming in the first ten minutes. They play the other Westview team Friday, then Aloha next Wednesday and the season is over. His next and last practice is Monday, so it is definitely winding down. Swimming starts November 5th.
Mali had drama workshop after school yesterday, where they did a funky take on Cinderella and she had a good excuse for not getting wet at Westview.
Today: no practice for Andrew, but Mali will be out in the muck. Susy was up at 5:00 to get to a class at 6:00 this morning.

From Medford

We've been busy! I'm in the hotel lobby at 5:00 AM in Medford, awake early, as always. Here's an update:

We got out of the house earlier than expected on Friday - it really helps when the hardwood floor guys show up an hour early! They were really nice and helped us move all the furniture, which we had cleaned out and were just starting to move ourselves.
So at 8:40 we were on the road to Crater Lake, after getting gas and stopping for food for Moose because we finished off the last of his that morning. We stopped at a rest stop where I discovered, as I tried to take a picture of Mali at her second phone booth in two days, that my camera battery is still sitting in its charger in the kitchen. I wanted to be sure I could take lots of photos this weekend. Irony.

Crater Lake was/is beautiful, of course. We were very lucky as it was 60 degrees or so and there was a couple of inches of snow covering everything but the road, making everything exceptionally beautiful. We threw lots of snowballs, and took lots of pictures with my sad little cell phone camera. We stopped by the lodge to check it out - and of course they had openings because of cancellations because of the snow, but we were stuck with our reservations at the Union Creek Resort.
We made it there in time for a fun dinner at Beckie's Cafe. The cabins are very nice - it is an old, well-maintained CCC logging camp. No TV, which was fine. We played hearts, and we all laughed like crazy - I had tears in my eyes. EVERYBODY went back to zero except Andrew, who'd been ahead the hole game but ended up losing. It was the longest game of hearts I've ever played.

For Breakfast, Mali and I made S'Mores in the oven, a trick we learned camping with everyone at the coast. We experimented and made some banana ones too, which turned out surprisingly yummy, but of course very messy. We got a late start heading towards the Oregon Caves, but we had time to stop at Wal-Mart and buy me a new camera - the pocket-sized one I wanted for my birthday. Stopping was good, because we also got an important correction to our directions to the caves.
The Oregon Caves are incredible. The outside mountain was wonderfully green and mossy, and the inside was quite an experience. Even the cynical teenager in our group was impressed with the cave itself. Our tour guide - Suzan - was fun. There is a big CCC lodge there that is even better than the lodge at Crater lake. They had available rooms too, but we left to meet the soccer team at the Marriot Courtyard in Medford.
Mali was in the pool with her teammates before we had half the stuff in the room, since we ran Moose around outside for awhile. We left him in the car for a couple hours while we had dinner, and then snuck him in with us for the evening.
Dinner was take-out from Kalaidescope Pizza, which Susy, Dan and I picked up for the whole team, and we ate and drank beer and wine in the lobby until 10:00.

Maliday Schmaliday

Mali's maliday is turning into a bad holiday - yesterday we got another estimate for putting in hardwood floors, and it was good from a guy who's work we've seen, so we're having it done - This weekend - while we're gone to Crater Lake and Medford. So we have to get everything out of the downstairs today. Mali's plan was not to spend her extra time off cleaning and moving things.

Yesterday was extraordinarily hectic. We discovered Andrew's game didn't start until 5:45 instead of 4:30 like always, so our evening got all squished up. Andrew played great, and they tied 1-1 at Sunset High School (at sunset!). They went down by a goal right away, ferociously fought back to tie it at 1-1 in the first half, then got clobbered the second half but managed to hold on to the tie.
We rushed from the game to Mali's teacher conference at 7:30. Dinner was reheated pizza at 8:30. Happy Chompo to me.

Mali's conference went great: Her science/social studies teacher has Mali all figured out, and so Mali should be poised for greatness this year. And Mali talked to her large scary math teacher and sorted out her missing assignments. So the rest of her weekend is free and clear, except for the cleaning and moving part.

Susy took this great photo of the game at halftime. All my photos turned out blurry - it may have been too dark to capture all the motion going on.

Moose as Fruit

Moose found the wrong end of a Washington Apple sticker. He looks very noble, almost.


Mali won her soccer game 1-0. It was boring - the other team all sat back in their goal blocking shots. At least the weather held out - it was cool, but no rain.
Afterwards Susy and I took Mali to the Greek Festival downtown. The idea was to meet up with Rachel and her family, but they left just before we got there. And then the rains came, but it was mostly under tents so we were fine. Mali got to try gyros, baklava, and Loukoumades.
Andrew is still injured, so is not playing in his game tonight. He's walking around okay, as long as he's in shoes. Reportedly he ditched the crutches about two minutes into homecoming. He had a good time - lots of pretty girls in fancy dresses. The only complaint, from both Andrew and Matias: really bad music.