More Christmas

At David, Susan, Dalton, and Rylin's house, after much game-playing and other funstuff:

A late Christmas

The snow kept the kids in Beaverton for Christmas. I was able to snatch them Sunday night after Andrew's Lifeguard class, and drive them to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Monday morning we had our Christmas. Here they are opening the Wii from Grandma and Grandpa, with big happy faces:

Christmas Eve

Denny and Wendy hosted Christmas Eve this year, complete with a visit from Grandpa Santa. Aunt Mary and Grandma even got a turn on Santa's lap. Dalton pointed out to Santa that "Coal is a fossil, not a rock." David said it's like that 24x7 at their house.
More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/

Photo Catchup - Canby Swim Meet

Here's some photos of Andrew getting some advice from his swim coach. Andrew flubbed his start on the backstroke, so Coach Rod was giving him some pointers.

Snow!

We have snow - lots and lots of snow, from Portland to Seattle. The plan now is the kids to take the train up to Tacoma Saturday night.

Here's an interesting article about dealing with the snow in Iowa.

Mali's New Snowboard

I took Mali and her friend Lizzie to Portland's SkiFever and Snowboard Show at the Expo center. Here's the stock photo of her new snowboard. We got it and bindings and boots all for $360, which I thought was reasonable. We are both looking forward to SNOW!

Indoor Soccer 1, Dinner at the Murray Hill Cafe, and Moose visits.

Mali's indoor soccer team (the shorter half of the Xtreme) played their first game Wednesday night, quickly went down 4-0 in the first half, but then remembered how to play and held their own for a final score of 7-3. Mali played defense most of the game, but played forward for about ten minutes and almost scored, bouncing a shot off the goalie's face from about four feet away.

Thursday night I took the kids to the Murray Hill Cafe for dinner. I think Andrew was a little surprised at the kid-unfriendliness of the menu, but happily settled for a grilled salmon Caesar salad. Mali had the Caprese Panini, and I had the always delicious Summer Squash and Gruyere Ravioli.

Susy brought Moose over to the apartment this morning, and he stayed with me today, exploring the apartment, neighborhood, and a bit of Hillsdale - which is a possible neighborhood for house-hunting.

Concert

Concert at Seattle's Paramount theater tonight:
The Hush Sound - Great stuff, mostly female vocals from their keyboardist.
The Spill Canvas - Lead singer channeling Jack Black, Lead Guitarist trying out his Eddie Van Halen impersonation.
OneRepublic - 5 man band with a very energetic lead singer.

Blake Lewis (of American Idol beat-boxing fame stopped by and sang "Stop (Children, What's That Sound?") with OneRepublic, who also covered Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."

Get your War On comes home.

I love this guy David Rees: Using only clip art, He created the hilarious "Get Your War On" comic. See his latest online comics here.

Now he gives us this brilliant, yet very short, video. Click here to see the truth behind The New World Order under Obama.
And a dashiki is not a mustache.

For more Get Your War On video, click the image below.

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Go, Obama, go go Obama, go, Obama, goOOOooo

Yay.

Vote for Obama!

It's election day!

Cross country meet

Oregon State Cross Country Meet at Lane Community College in Eugene - Andrew ran for Southridge in the 6A division and had his worst time of the year. He could have blamed it on his ankle, which has been swollen for three days after tripping during practice on some uneven pavement hidden under fallen leaves, but instead said he just couldn't make his legs work any faster. He slept and ate well, so theories are that his ankle healing took energy away from him, or maybe he's getting sick.
His team did poorly - Cesar rolled an ankle and didn't finish, and the team ended up 13th out of the 14 teams that made it to State.

Mali was zombie-like at the meet, after staying up until 4:00 AM at a Halloween party. After the meet the team went for pizza and calzone at Mazzi's in Eugene. Very fun - I had a nice talk with tablemates: Coach Michael, Kat's (and Johnny's) parents, and Austin's parents and little sister.
Here's Mali (right) cheering for Andrew (far left), and below is Andrew prepping at the start amidst the foliage.

High School Musical, and Gogo's Grill

I picked up Mali and Andrew at 4:00 yesterday to go see High School Musical, Mali's choice, followed by Andrew's favorite restaurant: Gogo's Mongolian Grill. We were half an hour early for the movie to fight the crowds, but there weren't any, in spite of it being this weekend's top flick. The movie was better than I expected, I had the stupid songs going through my head through dinner.

The evening contained a game between the kids to count the number of Priuses seen, and was full of hilarious arguments over what constituted a legitimate sighting - especially clever was the probabilistic approach employed by Mali as we passed large parking lots.

Returned to my empty apartment and pieced together more furniture. It is approaching completion - I still need beds for the kids, lamps, and endtables. Yet to be picked up are a loveseat (from Dave and Susan), and a TV (from Dad and Mom). Tuesday I head back up to Washington - I've a class to take for work starting Wednesday.

Mali Sick, Andrew Returns from XC Camp

About 1:00 AM Friday, Mali started throwing up. The initial suspect was food poisening, since she and Susy had eaten out with Rian and her mom, and the chicken seemed suspect. But at her soccer game today we learned one of the coaches had the same thing, and that it's going around, so now it looks like a virus of some kind.
Mali woke up tired and not yet fully recovered, so today just went to watch today's soccer game. Her team scored two goals to tie it up, and assure themselves of a berth somewhere other than the bottom of the premier league. We will know where tomorrow.

I picked Andrew up from his Cross Country camp with the Southridge team at Mazuma lodge on Mt. Hood Friday. He is a little tired of running after going 60 miles in 5 days, all of it on steep mountain trails. He's got a nasty blister, but is going to try a slow run tomorrow with Rian, who is getting ready for Water Polo. Practices for all Fall sports start Monday.

Andrew is at Obama headquarters, probably calling people. He's there 3:00 - 8:00 PM every day. Mali is upstairs watching the Olympics.

Obamania

Andrew, Mali, and Rian have been volunteering for the Obama campaign. So far they've worked at a voter registration booth at a Hillsboro street fair, and Andrew worked a phone bank one evening. He is thrilled his time there counts as service-learning hours for high school. He's hoping to get 200 hours in before he graduates.

Mali is hoping to follow Andrew and Rian's lead and start working at Garlic Jim's with them. The new one Rian's parent's bought is a lot closer - though still not the one that delivers to us here.

Andrew worked on his driving Saturday - driving me all the way to Rian's house. At just over walking speed it took all of 5 minutes. We all joined him there later for a very fun night of cards and pizza.

Swim Meet 3

Mali is awesome! She won every event she was in, including the IM relay where she swam both the backstroke and freestyle. Andrew had a bad meet - for him - coming in second to Eric in the 200yd IM. He had a lot of fun anyway - it was a fun meet. At the end we had a boys vs. girls dogpaddle relay race. We disqualified the boys for doing something that looked a lot more like breaststroke than dogpaddle.

Swim Meet

Today's meet was at Sunset Athletic Club, where they have built nice new buildings around their pool. It was a lot of fun - talking with Eric's dad Michael and seeing the other folks we know - Eric's mom Joan and DougOfDougAndErin. The kids got to dive to start their races (they have to start in the water at our pool). There was a mixture of success for us there - Photos coming soon. Mali is turning into an amazing swimmer! She swam the first and last legs of her freestyle relay, and her team won!
Afterwards we went to Deborah's cookie store, the kids got sandwiches at Subway first, while Susy and I bought her a bicycle at Sunset Cycles, in preparation for our bicycle/winery trip August 24th. At the cookie store, Mali devaoured a huge cookie ice-cream sandwich. Andrew and Rian ordered banana splits, which I helped them with. Then we waited around for 10 minutes so I could get a macaroon. I love them, and they are amazing, fresh out of the oven.

We got home, and after Andrew changed I drove him and Rian to the MAX train station so they could go to Clackamas and meet Rian's parents at the Garlic Jim's pizza place they just bought. Andrew worked for several hours putting fliers on doors. He goes back tomorrow to learn how to make pizza, and also to get paid! He's excited about both.

Hi.

Wednesday was full of work for me. Children played, once swim team practice was over.
Rian came over for awhile and played Scrabble and Clue with Andrew and Mali.
After dinner Susy and I played Andrew and Mali a game of Clue, then Scrabble. (Guess who won!?! Right! It was me!!! Both games!!! WooHoo.)
Mali still refuses to play Hearts, which is Andrew's first choice every night.

Tuesday Practices

Andrew went to swim team practice at 9:00, then I took him directly to cross-country practice, which started at 10:30. He walked home by 12:30, but was very, very grumpy, and wouldn't say why. It could be that his first running experience of the summer was more difficult than he anticipated.
Mali's soccer friend Tesia spent the night, and went with Mali to swim practice and hung out in the upper pool.
Mali will be spending August 8 - 10th with Tesia because of the big soccer qualifying tournament, and will miss Jennifer and Dave's wedding up at the Olympic Park Institute. August 3rd Susy and Mali will be taking the train up to Tacoma and catching a ride up to Jennifer's wedding shower.

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.