Week Away, Weekend Parties, Swim Meet #1

I spent most of last week up in Canada, working with BCTC, and then had a few days in Redmond. Things have been hectic, with still much work to do!

Back here in Oregon, we had a busy weekend:
Saturday morning was the first swim meet of the year, and it was here at Murray Hill. I helped run it while Susy timed, and we got it finished before 11:30 - a new record! The kids did great - and Mali was surprising with the speed and elegance she has acquired in the water after just three weeks of practice. She looked GOOD. She also won all of her events. Andrew did great too, as always. The highlight for him was easily winning the backstroke, but he would have been disqualified in a serious meet, because he somehow managed to go UNDER the lane line at the end of the race - a difficult trick while doing backstroke.
Saturday night we had a great time at Rian's house. Jason and Terri invited us over for cards while the kids had a Murder Mystery Party - a live action game of Clue. Everyone had a great time, and we got to hang out again with Jason's parents, who are back from their trip to Italy. They brought over a huge prosciutto - but not from Italy - it came from Costco.
Sunday was similarly busy. Moose and I went for a long walk in the morning, and saw butterflies everywhere. Then Susy and I went to the Tigard Farmer's Market - open Sundays until 2:00. We went for tomatoes and basil for Bruschetta, but of course it is too early for them in Oregon, so also stopped and spent $100+ at Safeway. Bought 6 basil plants, which I hurriedly planted at home in the planters out front, and then rushed to Eric's Dad's house for a party, getting there an hour late because we left late and then I got us lost taking a shortcut. Yes, I heard about it.
The party was great, we got to go down to Lake Oswego - the actual (very private) lake. A Beautiful place, easy to see why people pay so much to have access to it.

Hot Saturday!

I went running this morning at 8:00, and it was already sunny and hot outside. I made it slightly over 2 miles away, to Andrew's High School, stretched out at the rec center there and walked/jogged back.
I came home to discover Mali outside painting more of the inside of her playhouse. She's tearing into that project. And Moose is up, and fed.
I don't see anyone else getting up anytime soon.
Wait: Susy up before 11:00! Andrew may sleep well past noon - he's been tired and grouchy lately, and stayed up late last night watching the Olympic Trials.

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.

Home Again!

I just returned yesterday afternoon from a good visit with First Energy in Ohio.
This morning I drive Mali to school early so she can pick up and finish some homework she forgot yesterday.

Our schedule:
Friday (today!): 21st anniversary date - starts at the Portland Art Museum and wanders from there.
Saturday: MaliSoccerGames at 8:30 and 2:30.
Sunday: Another MaliSoccerGame at 11:30, and Susy leaves for San Diego for a conference - returning late Tuesday.
Thursday: Mali's field trip to Jackson Bottom Wetlands.
Friday (next): Last Day of School - Kids home early.

Then I go to Redmond for our User's Group meeting, coming home early Thursday morning to get on a plane to Michigan for Kathy's wedding!

Game-filled Sunday

Moose and I jogged down to the drugstore this morning to pick up pills and eggs. I didn't need the eggs: for breakfast I made us smoothies with Mango Juice, bananas, and feggs. (What we call cholesterol-free liquid eggs.) It was surprisingly yummy.
Afterwards we all played Hearts - and Susy won after Mali took all the tricks.
Then Susy, Moose and I walked down to the store to get shortening so Mali could make chocolate chip yogurt cookies. We ate most of them, and then played Scattergories, which Susy always wins so usually she won't play with us, but this time Andrew won the second game!
Now I'm taking the kids to the pool, even though it's cool and cloudy outside.
UPDATE:
We swam a bunch - the pool was warmer than the air - then we sat in the hot tub for awhile. We walked home, Susy made bulgogi (Korean Teriyaki) with rice and peas and I ate waaayyyy too much. Then we played hearts again, and Andrew won after I took 25 to lose.

The past few days:

Thursday I pulled Mali out of school to have her mole - the infamous blue nevus - removed. Unfortunately it was too inflamed to remove, so she has to wait a month or so. We did discover the German Sausage Deli, where I purchased a can of almond pie filling that combined well this morning with cottage and cream cheese to push our normally wonderful French toast into some new realm of deliciousness. Meanwhile, Andrew sleeps.

Yesterday Susy and I walked up to Alana's, and while we were up there Mali, Andrew, and Rian returned from the pool and made us a yummy bacon-filled waffle breakfast for dinner. Mali disappeared up to the school with her two amigos Rachel and Hannah, and a bunch of boys, and the rest Susy, Rian, Andrew, and I played hearts until Rian had to go home. (Guess who won!?!)

Wednesday night (without Rian) we all played poker after dinner, and we laughed so hard our sides hurt.

The past two weeks:

The Scleroderma auction was fun. The theme was humor, with a comedian (David Crowe) and everything. It was really great to see folks again: Mary, Amy & Stathis, Mike, Anna & Ashley, Dave & Susan, Grandma & Grandpa. This year we did not even bid on anything, though we bought raffle tickets, and Andrew and Mali sold them again. Ashley helped, but refused to wear the hat.
We spent the night at G&G's house, took a tour of the neighbor's house for sale, then Andrew RUSHED us home so he could get his birthday present from Rian. She nicely gave him the Disney version of Scene It?, because she always wins the regular version and she thought he'd have a chance at the Disney version. Not so much - she creamed him at it anyway. Afterwards we took Rian along to GoGo's for Andrew's birthday dinner.

Mali has started soccer practices, and Andrew is swimming twice a week for swim team. They will both do the Murray Hill team again, which starts soon after school is out. They are both counting the days (10 more to go!)

I went up to Redmond for work Thursday morning (May 22) to catch a lunch meeting. I was only slightly late after it took me four and a half hours to get there! It was a good trip, and work is again both productive and fun. I returned home late Friday night and avoided the Memorial Day weekend traffic.

Memorial Day weekend was non-stop:
Saturday we had a wonderful dinner followed by a fun poker game with Rian, Jason, and Terry at their house. Jason grilled steak, chicken, and shrimp satay, and made a trifle for dessert. Andrew was the big winner at poker, so he was happy.

Sunday we were up early and driving to get to the memorial for my Grandma Lil. I spent most of the first three years of my life at her house while my dad was in Vietnam, and much summertime there later - all of it embedded in memory as the most wondrous days of my childhood. Hers was the hug I most looked forward to.
I will have to write more later about that. The memorial was in Bremerton at my cousin Liana's house. Grandma Lil was the glue that held us all together, so there was a lot of planning of next meetings and events: Jennifer's Wedding, Olympic swimming (We all hope!) and Christmas. Also talk of Tara's turn on What Not To Wear, the televised date will be much advertised here as soon as it's determined. It was really great to see everyone. We will all miss Grandma.

We came straight home afterwards and went to a big BBQ at Deborah's house.
Memorial day we slept in, the kids went to the (now open!) pool, and then we went to Paul and Nancy's house for grilled steak and chicken.

I worked Tuesday but took the rest of the week off. I finally finished painting the kid's bathroom and put up the towel rack the kids accidentally tore down.
Work is busy but again productive and fun, and Monday I fly to Ohio to help some folks sort out some computer applications for upgrade.

Scleroderma Auction and Dinner

Today we head to Tacoma for the Scleroderma Auction/Dinner. Then we'll spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's. I gave Moose a haircut yesterday, so he's all ready for a visit, and the hot weather - It hit 100 degrees here yesterday. Then Mali and I hit Great Clips, where I told them of Mali's last unfortunate experience there, and they took very good care of her. Today Susy and Andrew will be getting haircuts before we leave for Washington, then we'll all be freshly shorn!
Mali and I are going running in ten minutes after I digest some of my breakfast. We are hoping to run the Starlight Run and we've only got 2 weeks to be ready to run 5km.

Andrew's Birthday Evening

Andrew did not go to the track meet, because none of his friends wanted to go (so we still have a ton of chocolate muffins...) Instead he met up with them at Tiana's house, and she made him a cake. It was ridiculously hot here, so no one was too interested in dinner. Mali cooked up some raviolis that she and I ate, and Susy made Andrew a Caesar salad at his request. Kind of lame for a birthday dinner, but we'll take him to GoGo's next week. Andrew LOVES his Mongolian Grill.

Andrew's Birthday! ~ ~ ~~ ><((((°>

I woke up early so I could work this morning, but I had trouble thinking past the excitement of Andrew's birthday. So I ran drove (no time for exercise this morning) to Safeway to buy all the types of sugar-free gum I could find that he might like (as he and I did for Mali), this time in a Costco box of Goldfish (crackers) his mom picked up for him yesterday. (He has already received his main gift: a new cell phone! Also his auxiliary gift: a digital camera.)
He needed his present this morning because we won't all be together until he gets home late from watching the Varsity track meet. I also retrieved his traditional birthday donut and even some chocolate and blueberry muffins as they were still hot from the oven. Susy was up early when I returned, making home-made chocolate muffins for the boy, so now there are many muffins for celebrating his birthday. He may even share. Andrew stumbled downstairs in his usual morning fog to a joyful, non-singing birthday greeting, and was happy.

I'm guessing there will be kids here this afternoon who will help him eat the muffins before I drive them to the track meet. Yesterday Andrew's friends Rian and Kyle were here until 8:00, since I let them talk me into playing a game of hearts after work. (Hey Mom: Guess who won!)
Mali had her friend Hannah over, helping her sort through her clothes - a Susy-decreed project. Hannah took payment of a couple of outfits, since she is slightly smaller than Mali.

Track Meet at Southridge vs. Beaverton

Andrew ran his 1500m in 4:38, beating his old best time by 8 seconds. He came in third best for Southridge, though there was a Beaverton runner or two ahead of him. It took a lot out of him, he looked a little tired for his 800m run an hour later. He ran a decent-for-him 57 second 400m as the first leg of the winning JV 4x400 team.
I brought Rian and Moose along with me, and saw Tiana and Isabelle and it was mostly a party-like atmosphere. Very fun for everyone, even through the intermittent rains.

Mali missed out on that, but seemed to have a great time at her rehearsal for The Music Man. She says they're ready, which is good since tomorrow is Opening Night! The grandparents will be here and it should be quite an event. Details tomorrow.

Aloha Relays track meet

Andrew ran for varsity at the Aloha relays today (Saturday. It's Saturday until I sleep.) He only ran one race, the medley relay, which happily for us was the first one. This worked out really well, since it started to rain (and then hailed, sleeted, and snowed on Andrew) afterwards, but the rest of us got to come home (and Andrew got to hide out under a tent). Rian came to the meet with us, and came home with us and hung out with Mali, and stayed for dinner.
Andrew ran the 400m leg and did great. The relay sequence was:
1200m
400m
800m
1600m
Southridge had the lead after the 1200m, but barely, and Andrew ran like a maniac to hold the lead almost all the way to the finish - enough to keep the inside lane for Southridge - and just before the finish someone else barely overtook him. Southridge took third overall in the medley relay, out of 15 or 16 teams from all over Oregon. Andrew's distance coach Michael timed him at 54 seconds, which is a PR and is amazing. He's very happy - and he will get another medal. Also, Southridge was in first place when we talked to him an hour ago.
He's home now - the high jump was still going on so they don't know who won the meet, but the bus brought them back to Southridge anyway.

Susy got pizza for the kids, and she and I left for the Southridge Band dinner and auction. Pablo bought us tickets, and also Alana, Deborah, Paul, and Nancy. It was fun, and some of the food was good. Pablo and Rocio won a raffle for a two night stay at a cabin on Mt. Hood, and Deborah bought the big-ticket item in the live auction, a motor-scooter! She is excited. There was a great band - the Green Garter jazz band from University of Oregon played. Matias and some of the other band kids sat in and played with them for a song near the end.

After the auction I went over to Pablo's and played Scrabble with Paul, Rocio, and Alana. Very fun - we were all a little loopy at the end, as it was very late. Now it's later, and I'm going to bed. Good night!

Hearts

After dinner we all played hearts, but only to 50 because 100 takes too long. I won in 3 hands! I took them all, Susy took 24 to hit 50 to go back to zero, and I took them all again. Then everyone went to bed. Woohoo!

Emergency Room Fun

Before you panic at the title of this post, let me inform you that the trip to the emergency room at 2:00 this morning was FOR ME, Darrin, OregonDad - and not one of the precious children or the lovely OregonMom.
I discovered, as the night wore on, that the muscle strain/cramp that I was feeling in my side and back was actually getting worse as I tried to loosen it up. I googled my symptoms and came up with appendicitis, as I was pretty confident it wasn't a tumor that suddenly sprang into my abdomen, and I've some healthy fear of appendicitis after Mali's friend Amanda lost a third of her body weight coping with the aftermath of a burst appendix.

I stumbled up to the bedroom (I was downstairs in my writhing, stretching, grunting and occasional moaning state, so as not to bother the lately sleep-deprived OregonMom) and woke Susy to tell her I was going to explode at any moment. After she wrapped her sleepy brain around that statement, and my additional 'Yes, I think so" to her query of "Should I take you to the Emergency Room?" she leapt into action, only yelling at me once when I was doing one last thing on the computer for work in case it was the last thing I was able to do for work for some long, undefined period of time.

Susy drove me to the hospital, after alerting a near-somnambulant Andrew to our departure (he exhibited his concern for me later by going about his morning rituals as if nothing unusual had occurred, the brave kid.) At the hospital, the whirlwind of uniformed people quickly concluded that it was probably a Kidney Stone, which was then confirmed by a cat scan, after the administration of an IV and some wonderful drugs. The good news: It is a small stone, only 2mm, and I should be able to pass it in the normal course of events, though also with the normal amount of the fabled pain that comes with passing a kidney stone. We, the doctor, Susy and I, discussed the upcoming event in great detail, along with the upcoming further pain-relief medication. Only then did the kind doctor bring up the less-than-good news: there are several more of the little pearls waiting in each kidney for their turn in the sunshine.

I intend to become an expert in these things over the next couple of days, particularly in the whys and hows of their creation, with particular attention paid to measures available for countering these whys and hows.

Right now my overwhelming desire is for sleep, and as soon as I email some folks at work with news that I have not yet slept, but intend to -- and email my Canadian customers with the information they need this morning, I am going to bed.

Good night/morning/whatever/night.

From the coast

Saturday we drove out to Seaside and met up with Mali's soccer team. The team ran around trying out all the activities: football on the beach, arcade, bumper cars, bumper boats, and we all met at Fultano's pizza and arcade at 3:00.
Then we drove 2+ hours South past Lincoln City to the Catalina Cottage, where we are now.
We're two blocks from a narrow beach with pounding surf, but we think the huge waves may be a result of the 600+ small earthquakes that have happened off the coast here over the last week and a half.
I left Susy and Mali at the Lincoln City outlet mall today and brought Andrew and Rian back to the cottage. They went down to the beach:

 

And after I returned for Susy and Mali, Susy jumped at the chance to make her own glass float. Here she is inspecting it in-between blows:

 

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.

Scrabble

It has been a long time since the usual suspects got together for a game of Scrabble. Susy and I joined Paul and Nancy (where we left Mali) for awhile after Indian food. Then Alana joined us, Susy took Mali home, and we called Pablo to come over for Scrabble while Nancy watched Bruce Almighty.
Andrew had a night out watching movies at Tiana's with his usual gang (Rian, Tiana, and Eric.)

Indian Food

An Indian restaurant has just opened up where the old A&W was in our local shopping center. It's called The Curry Leaf, (Poetic, since curry is a collection of spices, not any particular plant.)
Susy and I are very excited about this, and we went there for dinner tonight and it was fantastic! The food was all good, and they had great chai, though strangely (to me) served it in a glass instead of a mug. It is different than most of the Indian restaurants around here: it has a sort of fast-food / take-out feel about it, but the tables and decor provide a comfortable urban vibe to the place. The manager was cool in his baseball hat, and as I gushed about the food and chai he very nicely brought Susy and I refills. (Okay, after I asked if they gave free refills. No, but he got them for us anyway.) I'm hoping to go back soon. It would be a nice little walking excursion for me at lunch, even if just for a glass of chai.

Sadness - We return to San Juan, then home.

They are forcing us off the boat. We like it here, and don't want to leave.
Tomorrow (actually later today, but after I sleep) we are out of our rooms by 8:00, and off the boat by 9:00. Then we head to the airport for our 12:30 flight.

Today was a pretty good day. I was up early and ran a mile on the track while we docked. Everyone was up a little later - though still early, because we had to go through immigration this morning. Then we all went to breakfast for the first time, and met some nice folks from Illinois.
We went into Charlotte Amalie to shop and hopefully find some stone turtles for Andrew to replace the ones I lost yesterday. We haggled over fake Coach purses - more expensive than in Curacao, so we weren't too excited by them. Everything (except liquor) has been more expensive than Curacao.
Susy and the kids weren't too thrilled with the town, mostly because we walked the 2.5 miles from the boat to get there. They headed back and I walked all over town and got a nice feel for the place, and found several very pleasant spots. I walked back to the boat and took a nap with the kids up on the pool deck. Susy got us for the trivia game, then we played Bingo and ALMOST won a huge amount of money - Susy did manage to win over $80. Then we went to the farewell show, and our last dinner with the Puerto Ricans.
THEN: we bought photos and had to pack up, and we leave early in the morning. So sad!

Philipsburg, St. Maarten, Dutch Antilles

Today we docked in Philipsburg St. Maarten.
I woke up early and tried out the track. It's very nice, and I managed to run two miles (WooHoo!)
The kids decided to join us in town today to search for gifts for their friends. We shopped for awhile, then ended up at a nice beach spot. Andrew found some stone turtles and T-shirts for his friends, and Mali found some odds and ends for the people on her list. I found a bunch of fake Nike shirts that were cheap and seemingly relatively well made. Susy found an Australian opal ring she liked, as we went into many, many jewelry stores.
Each store seemed to have a nice Indian guy that we met, and they were all from Bombay and knew each other. I found my watch for $40 cheaper, so I got it written on a business card so I could show it to the Indian guy from Bombay on the ship who sold it to us, so he could reduce the price still further.
The kids got some beach time and Susy camped out on a beach chair while I walked around the city some more. A waiter told Susy she had to pay $10 for the chair - instead she moved into the welcoming shelter of Bamboo Bernie's immediately behind her, and used her $10 on a frothy drink. I returned and joined her in a few more. The kids had their share too, but without the alcohol.

On the ship we had another great dinner with our friends from Puerto Rico, and the girls came by the room and took Andrew and Mali up to the Latin dance party outside at the pool so they could teach them the Merengue. I was hoping to go too, but exhaustion kicked in. The kids (apparently) made it to bed around 1:00.