This week is dragging already.
Yesterday was 86 degrees. Today is 66, but still VERY pleasant. Perhaps that's why the week is dragging. I'm stuck inside, though I did travel to Seattle yesterday and was able to bask in the sun on the plane and in the taxi cabs.
Liam's nose is still snotty. We see Dr. Cuyler again in one week.
Colleen and I upgraded our bedding. We recreated what I slept in at the Foundry Inn in Athens, GA. All white bedding -- white bed skirt, white fitted sheet, white flat sheet, premium uncovered silver- and white-striped down comforter, then another flat sheet on top. So, the bare comforter is sandwiched between two flat sheets, creating a nice airy look & feel. Meier & Frank was having a tremendous sale, which was a nice surprise for us since we were determined to buy anyway. The down comforter was normally $600, but was 60% off, and the Ralph Lauren 400 thread count sheets were 40% off. We've slept in that fresh, white, fluffy, airy nest for two nights, and it's been wonderful.
I think people should spare no expense for their beds/bedding. You spend more of your life in your bed than you do in any other single spot, so make it luxurious!
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Feelin' Good
I'm feeling good (now). I'm 33, and Colleen and I had a nice night out to celebrate my birthday last night. After ingesting heavily sauced baby back ribs and a couple of overly sweet cocktails at Red Star Tavern & Smokehouse, I was not up to our post dinner dessert at Caprial's Bistro, so we came home an hour early to find that Tina, the babysitter, had had a great, easy time with Grady and Liam. The only thing she said that didn't go smoothly is that Liam wanted to cuddle before going to sleep. He usually goes right down and spends a few quiet minutes getting sleepy, but I guess he wasn't feeling as secure, so wanted some hugs while getting sleepy. Not bad!
After driving Tina down the hill to her home, I came back home and went downhill. Hello toilet, goodbye ribs and cocktails. Yuck.
My stomach this morning is feeling a bit better, but what makes me feel really good is Grady and Liam's behavior. Grady woke us up at 6:30 a.m. and I told him it was too early, and to quietly go back to bed. He usually does 20 minutes in his room, then slams open our door, 20 minutes, then slam, 20, slam, etc. Today he came quietly back in an hour and forty minutes later. Liam was still asleep. When Liam woke up 20 minutes later at 8:30, he was snot-free! The first time in many months. I think Dr. Cuyler's nose drops are working. Oh, please.
Not much more to report, except we are expected to have a sunny 81-degree day today, and the bare spots in our lawn that I prepared and seeded are starting to show growth!
Everything's going my way....
After driving Tina down the hill to her home, I came back home and went downhill. Hello toilet, goodbye ribs and cocktails. Yuck.
My stomach this morning is feeling a bit better, but what makes me feel really good is Grady and Liam's behavior. Grady woke us up at 6:30 a.m. and I told him it was too early, and to quietly go back to bed. He usually does 20 minutes in his room, then slams open our door, 20 minutes, then slam, 20, slam, etc. Today he came quietly back in an hour and forty minutes later. Liam was still asleep. When Liam woke up 20 minutes later at 8:30, he was snot-free! The first time in many months. I think Dr. Cuyler's nose drops are working. Oh, please.
Not much more to report, except we are expected to have a sunny 81-degree day today, and the bare spots in our lawn that I prepared and seeded are starting to show growth!
Everything's going my way....
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Health Update
Liam saw Dr. Cuyler this morning and he prescribed anti-inflammatory nose drops. He thinks things are so swollen up there that it's negating the antibiotics he's on. The swelling isn't allowing the infection to drain. I can't imagine the pressure Liam must feel, but he is always happy so it must feel normal to him. Poor guy. If the nose drops don't work within 10 days, he'll be sedated so they can get a cat scan of his sinuses. The next step might be operating to take out his adnoids (accessed through the mouth), but children under 3 have a 30% chance of growing the adnoids back, so Dr. Cuyler will exhaust all other treatments before that.
Grady told Colleen this morning in the car that he had to throw up. She asked if she should pull over or if he could wait until he got to school. He said he could wait, so Colleen thought he might just be telling a fib. But, two steps from the front door of the school he vomited all over the walkway. There's a bug going around schools all over Portland, and I think Grady has it. Vomiting and diarrhea. He's in good spirits , and eating well, but I'm just waiting for the next mess to clean up. Fortunately it's nice weather, so both Grady and Liam are out exploring. If they're going to throw up, do it out there please. :)
Grady told Colleen this morning in the car that he had to throw up. She asked if she should pull over or if he could wait until he got to school. He said he could wait, so Colleen thought he might just be telling a fib. But, two steps from the front door of the school he vomited all over the walkway. There's a bug going around schools all over Portland, and I think Grady has it. Vomiting and diarrhea. He's in good spirits , and eating well, but I'm just waiting for the next mess to clean up. Fortunately it's nice weather, so both Grady and Liam are out exploring. If they're going to throw up, do it out there please. :)
And the last shall be first
I hope so. Lately, I've found myself joining a long line only to have no one get behind me until I made it to the front. So, if I had waited the X minutes to join the line, it would have been non-existent.
At the Trail Blazers memorabilia stand at the Rose Garden two weeks ago.
At the Northwest ticket counter in Minneapolis this past weekend.
At a lunchtime pizza restaurant yesterday.
Doesn't three times make a trend? If so, I may just take my days slower and hope to find no lines anywhere. That gets me thinking -- when we happen upon a no-line situation, did we just avoid a long wait, or was there never a line? I suppose the optimists will tell you one thing and pessimists another.
At the Trail Blazers memorabilia stand at the Rose Garden two weeks ago.
At the Northwest ticket counter in Minneapolis this past weekend.
At a lunchtime pizza restaurant yesterday.
Doesn't three times make a trend? If so, I may just take my days slower and hope to find no lines anywhere. That gets me thinking -- when we happen upon a no-line situation, did we just avoid a long wait, or was there never a line? I suppose the optimists will tell you one thing and pessimists another.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Birthdays and Behavior
Today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mama!
I forgot to mention in my Athens post that Katy and Erik bought a house in Arlington, VA the day they left to drive to Georgia. I'm very excited for them. It was the 8th house they bid on -- the market is so crazy in Northern Virginia that buyers are offering $40K above the asking price. How they describe the house makes it sound very cool and unique. I can't wait to see it when we're there in July.
It makes me think about our first home, and how fun it was to wake up in OUR house that first morning. It's just so satisfying. Exhausting, but satisfying. Kind of like having children -- they exhaust you, but they are satisfying.
Grady had a tremendous day yesterday. He got a perfect report at school: "Grady's behavior was excellent today, and he went out of his way to be kind to his friends." We got to talking about some of his friends at school and I tested him to see if he could tell me who was a boy and who was a girl. He got all of them right, so I asked what Liam was, "He's a boy." I asked, "What am I?" "A man." I asked, "What is mom?" "She's beautiful." How's that for a pick me up for Colleen?
I rewarded his great behavior by picking up some KFC for dinner, which we was very appreciative of. When we got home, he got out of the car and told me, "I have to go potty!" I dropped everything, left Liam in his car seat and opened the door into the house for him..."Thank you!"...then opened the bathroom door for him..."Thank you!" I asked him while he was tinkling why he thanked me. "For opening the doors for me, Dad." He's such a polite young man when he wants to be. That great behavior lasted all night, through his bath, into his storytime and at bedtime.
He's developed a recent habit lately that Colleen and I enjoy. We put Grady and Liam to bed between 7:00 and 7:30, but Grady doesn't' fall asleep typically until about 8:30 or 9:00. He enjoys the down time, listening to Chopin and "reading" his books. But, the habit he's developed is coming out of his room about every 20 minutes to shout from the top of the steps, "I love you!" We tell him we love him too, but please go back to bed. In 20 minutes he comes out of the room to say, "I love you VERY MUCH!" Then, 20 minutes later, "I REALLY love you VERY MUCH!" and so on until about 9:00.
Liam still has his sinus infection, despite two full treatments of antibiotics, so I take him to Dr. James Cuyler Thursday. Dr. Cuyler is who put the tubes in Grady's ears; he's an ear/nose/throat specialist. Liam's pediatrician, Dr. Laura Bledsoe, fears he may have polyps in his sinus cavity, or, maybe even a foreign object up there. The only thing we can imagine that got up there is a piece of nerf. Liam has a bad habit of chewing anything nerf he gets his hands on. He doesn't swallow the pieces, but they do kind of get all over his face. Maybe he inhaled a piece, and his sinuses are fighting it. We'll know Thursday, hopefully.
My birthday is Saturday and Colleen is taking me out to dinner. We'll see if the babysitter, Tina, gets Grady's "I love you" treatment at bedtime. :)
I forgot to mention in my Athens post that Katy and Erik bought a house in Arlington, VA the day they left to drive to Georgia. I'm very excited for them. It was the 8th house they bid on -- the market is so crazy in Northern Virginia that buyers are offering $40K above the asking price. How they describe the house makes it sound very cool and unique. I can't wait to see it when we're there in July.
It makes me think about our first home, and how fun it was to wake up in OUR house that first morning. It's just so satisfying. Exhausting, but satisfying. Kind of like having children -- they exhaust you, but they are satisfying.
Grady had a tremendous day yesterday. He got a perfect report at school: "Grady's behavior was excellent today, and he went out of his way to be kind to his friends." We got to talking about some of his friends at school and I tested him to see if he could tell me who was a boy and who was a girl. He got all of them right, so I asked what Liam was, "He's a boy." I asked, "What am I?" "A man." I asked, "What is mom?" "She's beautiful." How's that for a pick me up for Colleen?
I rewarded his great behavior by picking up some KFC for dinner, which we was very appreciative of. When we got home, he got out of the car and told me, "I have to go potty!" I dropped everything, left Liam in his car seat and opened the door into the house for him..."Thank you!"...then opened the bathroom door for him..."Thank you!" I asked him while he was tinkling why he thanked me. "For opening the doors for me, Dad." He's such a polite young man when he wants to be. That great behavior lasted all night, through his bath, into his storytime and at bedtime.
He's developed a recent habit lately that Colleen and I enjoy. We put Grady and Liam to bed between 7:00 and 7:30, but Grady doesn't' fall asleep typically until about 8:30 or 9:00. He enjoys the down time, listening to Chopin and "reading" his books. But, the habit he's developed is coming out of his room about every 20 minutes to shout from the top of the steps, "I love you!" We tell him we love him too, but please go back to bed. In 20 minutes he comes out of the room to say, "I love you VERY MUCH!" Then, 20 minutes later, "I REALLY love you VERY MUCH!" and so on until about 9:00.
Liam still has his sinus infection, despite two full treatments of antibiotics, so I take him to Dr. James Cuyler Thursday. Dr. Cuyler is who put the tubes in Grady's ears; he's an ear/nose/throat specialist. Liam's pediatrician, Dr. Laura Bledsoe, fears he may have polyps in his sinus cavity, or, maybe even a foreign object up there. The only thing we can imagine that got up there is a piece of nerf. Liam has a bad habit of chewing anything nerf he gets his hands on. He doesn't swallow the pieces, but they do kind of get all over his face. Maybe he inhaled a piece, and his sinuses are fighting it. We'll know Thursday, hopefully.
My birthday is Saturday and Colleen is taking me out to dinner. We'll see if the babysitter, Tina, gets Grady's "I love you" treatment at bedtime. :)
Monday, April 19, 2004
Athens
I'm back from a great trip to Georgia to attend Brian and Kristen's wedding. Loads of fun and love flowed everywhere. I made the trip solo, leaving Colleen, Grady and Liam home, which was disappointing, but made it all much easier for this quick cross-country jaunt. Below are lots of daily details, beginning Thursday, April 15. I posted pictures from the weekend.
Thursday, April 15:
My flight left at 12:30 p.m., so I had some time alone in the house, which is a very RARE occurrence. It was nice, but a bit rushed because the artist that painted Dualities (the Hawthorne Bridge painting) emailed me the night before asking if I'd like to have this painting displayed in a show he was putting on Friday night. I really like Phil Fake, so drove the picture over to his house. I wished I could have gone to his show on Friday night. (Interesting note: Phil Fake painted Dualities and Frank Funk painted our interior walls.)
I had Northwest Airlines first class upgrade coupons, so I was hopeful I could have a luxurious trip to Atlanta. I was wait listed on my leg to Minneapolis, so when they began boarding the flight, I gave up hope and sat in my assigned 18-C seat. Several minutes later a flight attendant came and asked if I would move. "To where?" "Seat 1-A." Sweet! And, I didn't even have to surrender the upgrade coupon.
A nice lady was sitting next to me, and when she pulled out her Tablet PC, I started talking to her about it. She was well-versed in the features of the Tablet PC, so when I asked more technically-inclined questions, she asked where I worked. I explained, and then asked where she did. Microsoft. Oh well, so much for those Tablet PC sales!
When I got to Minneapolis, I checked to see if I could get in first class again. It was full, so I tried to board, but the machine rejected my 8-C seat. The agent in Portland had made some mistake when issuing me the late first class ticket and the rest of my trip was wiped from their system, including my return flight. The gate agent in Minneapolis apologized and put me in a roomy exit row, despite me hearing her get testy with another passenger who was insistent he was supposed to be in an exit row. "Sir, all exit seats are full." Five minutes later, she issued me an exit seat. Makes you wonder.
I arrived in Atlanta at 10:00 p.m. My bag was the third one to plop onto the baggage conveyor belt, and then I hopped on the Days Inn Airport West shuttle and was taken to the worst hotel I've ever stayed in. But, I only paid $45, so I didn't complain about the lumpy pillows, the dirty carpets the broken TV remote, or the slanted sink. Though, I did have to fight to get a non-smoking room even though my confirmation page clearly said I had reserved a non-smoking room. I told the registration lady that I refused to stay at this hotel if it didn't have a non-smoking room, and that I'd let the Days Inn management know about it, and then I asked for her last name -- magically a non-smoking room became available.
Friday, April 16:
I stayed up late, because I was still on Pacific Time, but at 2:00 a.m. when I decided to go to sleep, I realized the hotel was about 15 yards from I-85, and the traffic was LOUD. Amazing how many people honk their horn when driving along. I didn't fall asleep soundly until 5:00 a.m., and then woke at 9:45 a.m. Check out was 11:00, and I milked that for all it was worth. The shuttle drove me back to the airport where I picked up my compact rental car, and I was on my way to Athens.
It took two hours to drive the 70 miles, including a stop at a grocery store to buy gatorade and ear plugs. When I got into Athens, I was unsure if the directions to the hotel were accurate, because I was on the business route instead of the bypass, so I stopped at a liquor store to ask. The young guy working the counter knew exactly where the Foundry Park Inn was, and gave me detailed directions even though I was about 10 miles from it. Even down to the weird turn into the Foundry's parking lot after the third light on Thomas St.
I saw a black car parked at the registration house and a young woman going in the door. I wasn't sure it was Katy, so I gave a feeble honk-honk. She didn't turn around, so I wasn't sure. I was happy to see my whole family and Erik were in the registration office when I opened the door. They had arrived the exact same time I did! This, after 8 hours of driving to Charlotte the day before and then 3.5 hours to Athens.
We checked into our beautiful, adjoining rooms, and I looked at a great little album of pictures from my parents' New Zealand vacation from a few weeks ago. My parents, Katy, Erik and I then headed down to the brewery on the property to have lunch with Frank. While we sat, Ellen, Brian, Jean, Karen, Pat and Chris all came to join us. It was fun. The rehearsal dinner was beginning at 6:30, so after lunch, we had a few hours to kill and we spent it walking in downtown Athens. It's a cute college town full of restaurants, clothing stores, jewelry stores and University of Georgia bulldog decorations. Seemed everyone but me was shopping for Reef flip-flops, a trend Erik has started in the Beauregard family.
We walked back to the hotel and everyone napped but me. We men debated what to where -- coat, tie? We went with coat, no tie. Erik didn't wear a coat, but looked fine. The Connells are not a formal bunch, so our dress was very appropriate. The rehearsal dinner took place in the old brick structure on the Foundry Park Inn's grounds, that also houses the brewery and a couple of other shops. The room was great -- exposed brick with post & beam ceilings. Fresh Air BBQ supplied the food, and boy was it GREAT. Pulled pork, beef ribs and chicken.
Frank and Ellen made some moving comments, and Brian got up to hand out his groomsmen gifts (among them a Leatherman tool inscribed with the groomsmens' initials, something I did for my groomsmen back in 1998!). Brian moved me when he spoke about feeling lucky to have men in his life with whom he can share fun times and serious times, and when he and Patrick (his twin brother) hugged twice as long as he hugged his other groomsmen. I've always been curious about the close relationship twins must share. Everything Brian and Patrick do confirm for me that it must be a tremendously rewarding experience.
After the dinner, we all went down to the courtyard where a bluegrass band was playing some great music. Brian knew the lead singer, so had arranged for the musically inclined wedding guests to get up on stage and join in, and fill the band's break time with some Organic Groove Farmers, Deep Ocean Project and Cornbred music. Those are bands that some combination of Connell brothers have all been in over the years, with Cornbred still active in Portland, OR.
We enjoyed ourselves immensely. I think over the course of the evening I had 9 or 10 Bud Lights. I was feeling GREAT! :) I got to bed about midnight and about 2:00 a.m., I got up in the pitch black and stumbled into the bathroom unable to find the light switch. I had to orient myself by feeling around.
Saturday, April 17:
I had remembered to take my vitamins and some aspirin before heading to bed the night before, so I woke up feeling refreshed. My earplugs worked perfectly, and I had achieved an uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep. Everyone went out to breakfast, but I decided to stay in the room to check email and shower. My dad had discovered a weak Wi-Fi signal, so I intermittently had up to 8 mbps of internet access. Much better than the dial-up 28.8 Kbps the day before. (The theme of this paragraph is 8, don't you think?)
With a bunch of time on our hands before we were due at the church, we walked downtown again. My dad bought a shirt that matched the one he liked so much of Erik's. If he had bought the same shorts Erik did the day before, they would have been twins, right down to the Reef flip-flops they were both wearing.
Katy and Erik went back to the hotel, my mom and dad went to walk the UGA campus, and I was left to wander on my own. I chose to concentrate on the architecture of the city, and took some pictures of the church spires, ornate cupolas and impressive columns. I came upon a huge gathering of middle-eastern folks all dressed to the nines, including the little children all in suits or dresses. There was no visible force for this gathering -- no band, wedding or ceremony of any kind. They all just were laughing and chatting in a giant courtyard. Even when I climbed to the top of a parking structure to take in a view, families had laid out blankets in empty parking spots to enjoy picnic lunches. It seemed to be a very happy day for everyone; it made me happy to witness it all.
Across the street from our hotel was the Athens Welcome Center. I stopped in because it was housed in the oldest standing structure in Athens -- a house built in 1820. It was very interesting. I found out the meaning behind "good night, sleep tight." Mattresses were supported in the early to mid 1800s with a network of ropes. Every once in a while, the ropes had to be tightened with a hand tool.
Only one door from the original house remained (they built more using it as a reference), and I learned it is one of the earliest examples of the cross-and-bible style doors. It's six panels -- two small ones up top, two elongated ones in the middle, and two wide ones at the bottom. The connectors form a cross up top and an open bible at the bottom. I was happy to see the interior doors at our home in Oregon are of the same design, so I was able to illustrate it for Colleen.
We met back at the hotel and got dressed for the wedding. The Connells had arranged for a shuttle to take hotel guests to the church, reception and back to the hotel, so we met the shuttle in the parking lot around 3:00. The shuttle was new, clean and comfortable.
The wedding was a beautiful affair. Father Ryan, who taught Brian and Patrick at St. Joe's Prep in Pennsylvania, and is now teaching at Georgetown University, had traveled to perform the ceremony. It was evident he had a lot of love for Brian, and made it a warm and personal mass.
Kristen looked beautiful, with her sparkling wedding dress, and Brian was handsome in his tux. I'm always left wondering when the couple is actually married if the priest doesn't announce, "I now pronounce you husband and wife." In this wedding, it was "You may now kiss the bride." With 8 bridesmaids and groomsmen, Kristen and Brian looked well supported in their new endeavor.
We took the shuttle a few miles to the reception, passing stately fraternity and sorority houses that gave Erik and me occasion to tell each other the derogatory names our respective fraternities had for some of the sororities. Hee-hee. Turns out the reception was in a mansion nestled among of all these stately Greek houses.
The cake was in the entry hallway and all the rooms were open to us, but the activity was all in the back garden where a big tent was set up. The bar was close to the house, and the dance floor was at the far end of the tent. After auditioning many local bands, Brian and Kristen decided to hire a DJ. I guess being musicians themselves, Brian and Kristen have a very high standard for live music. The DJ played good music and was appropriately understated.
Katy, Erik and I were assigned to table #2, along with Brian's siblings and their spouses. So, Tim, Claire, Patrick, Melissa (technically a fiancee until August), Amy and Curtis. It made for a lively dinner, and we were able to egg Patrick on about his nervousness in delivering the best man speech. He took it well, and did VERY well. His theme was how he uses Brian as a reference in his life for what a relationship should be and how one should live one's life. It was very touching.
Before I knew it, it was 9:30 and the shuttle was waiting to take guests back to the Foundry Park Inn. The wedding party and most of the other wedding guests stayed a bit later, but we had run out of gas and hopped on the first shuttle.
My flight on Sunday was scheduled to leave at 6:20 a.m., so my plan was to get a few hours of sleep and take off at 3:30 for the 70 mile journey back to the Atlanta airport, hoping to arrive by 5:00 a.m., which would give me enough time to drop off the rental car and get through security. (Apologies for the run-on sentence.) Sometime in the evening I got it in my head that I'd spend an hour or so packing and talking with my family, then leaving to spend the night at the airport. And, that's what I did. I left at 10:45 p.m. and got to the car rental return at midnight. Along that drive, I stopped at a Wendys and had a delicious chicken strip meal. It satiated me for the next 18 hours, except for liquids on my flights and layover.
Sunday, April 18:
After returning my car, and being pleased that there were no excessive additional fees, I hopped on the shuttle to the terminal. I was surprised to find the entire airport, including baggage handling and ticket counters, shut down at a little past midnight. There was no way to get a boarding pass (even the self-service check-ins were shut down) to camp out at the gate. Great, I thought, where am I going to find a comfortable place to sit for the next 6.5 hours?
That's when I came upon an oasis of leather couches and chairs. Four 25-foot ficus trees anchored corners of this huge glass-domed room, around which leather-clad furniture stations were set. I found the last unoccupied love seat, spread my stuff out and dragged a chair over to use as an ottoman. It was then I realized I should have prioritized sitting close to a power outlet, because I'd be able to organize all the pictures I took and listen to music on my Tablet PC with all this wait time. I turned around, and wouldn't you know it, in the ground was embedded a two-head outlet with metal covers. It was caked with dirt and dust, and appeared to have been unused for at least a decade. I was not confident it would supply any power, but I plugged in and my Tablet PC roared back to life.
I never have enough time to sit down and really goof off on the computer. Now was my time to do it. I had 6.5 hours to kill and I decided I wouldn't try to sleep at all, saving my zzzzzs for the flights. So, I transferred all 148 pictures I took over the weekend onto my computer and went about weeding out the best 30 or so to post on my site. That, while listening to my MusicMatch Jukebox that I had loaded with 100+ of my favorite songs, ranging from G Love & Special Sauce, to Wilco, to Squeeze, to Bruce Springsteen, to Dixie Chicks to Everclear and on & on.
Before I knew it, it was 3:30 a.m. and my Jalbum-created photo page was done, and in an hour, the Northwest ticketing terminal would open. I wanted to get there first so I could upgrade to first class all the way home. Part of me debated if I should use those precious upgrade coupons, because I knew I'd be sleeping the whole way, but I decided I'd rather sleep in a big, quiet seat than risk having some noisy neighbor or big person invading my space.
For the next hour I stretched, walked around and talked to the janitor who had admired my computer on one of his sweeping/mopping passes and asked some questions about the Tablet PC and how I was creating the web site. We, literally, were the only awake people in this sea of 100+ weary travelers draped across chairs and couches.
I made my way to the ticketing terminal to find three people in front of me, and a board saying the open hours were 4:42 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. 4:42? C'mon. At 4:40, there was there was still no sign of life, but as God as my witness, at exactly 4:42, two agents burst through the back room and began their day. The man in front of me was of Eastern European descent and got really fed up with the agent for not being able to find his reservation and telling him he'd have to buy the ticket for $994. He stormed off and I heard the agents berating & laughing at him because he had been so angry he didn't hear the agent tell him they had finally found his reservation. More than likely, he didn't understand them. Unlike that poor soul, I had no trouble, and, in fact, was upgraded to first class the whole way through Portland.
As I made my way to the gate, I saw the Eastern European man in the adjacent hallway crouching on the floor with his laptop, evidently trying to find his reservation saved on his computer. He looked frantic and distraught. I tapped him on the shoulder, and told him the agents had found his reservation. His face relaxed and his shoulders drooped as he exhaled. With a very heavy accent he thanked me and then he thanked me again. I smiled and told it was my pleasure.
I felt good that I helped this guy, and I hope if Colleen and I encounter anything like that when we're in Europe this summer, someone looks out for us too.
The flight was on time, and I was in seat 1-A. I gulped down some OJ and water before we took off. Except for the lead flight attendant coughing up a lung in the galley every time she got out of sight, it was a pleasant flight 2 hour and 20 minute flight. I slept for about 1.5 hours. The connection in Minneapolis was on time and, I slept in seat 3-A for 3 hours of the 3 hour and 55 minute flight.
I landed in Portland at 11:00 a.m. and was home at noon. I shouted "Hello!" when I got in the door, and I heard Grady gasp and scream with joy. But, it wasn't "Dad!" he was screaming, it was "Present! My present!" He ran right past me to my suitcase. Oh well. He loved the Wendy (from Bob the Builder) Pez dispenser, and the kiwi Christmas ornaments Grandma and Grandpa brought back from New Zealand.
Liam was down for a nap, after having thrown up a couple of hours before, and Grady went down for his nap after the initial excitement of me coming home, er, getting his presents. :) Colleen went down for a nap too, so I once again found myself alone. I retrieved 3 days worth of mail stuffed into our tiny mailbox, sorted through that, checked news on MSNBC.com and finally couldn't stay up any longer and crashed on the leather coach for an hour. Coltrane enjoyed cuddling with me during the nap.
Coltrane had been in the dog house all day long for having bared his teeth to Colleen when she disciplined him earlier for stealing a baked potato off the counter. He's getting bad at accepting punishment. Colleen is worried we'll need to give him away. So, with that on my mind, I gave him some extra love and he enjoyed it immensely.
One of two things needs to happen to curb that snarling behavior of Coltrane. Either he needs to stop doing bad things (not likely to happen) or we need to change our way of discipling him. We can't do it in scary physical ways, because he just doesn't react well to that. He's a very sensitive soul, so I think strong voices should be the way. The problem with that is we try to banish him to his crate after he's done something like that, but he corners himself in the laundry room or pantry, and when you reach for him, he bares his teeth. I've tested him while he's baring his teeth by smacking his face and keeping my hand right there to bite on and he does take a hold of it, but doesn't bite down. In fact, after realizing what he's almost just done makes him VERY nervous and I think is punishment enough. Anyway, it worries Colleen more than me, and I hope there's no ultimatum handed down to get rid of Coltrane, because I don't think it's necessary.
18 hours after the Wendys chicken strip meal during my ride from Athens to Atlanta, we sat down and had a roasted chicken, stuffing and French bread meal. It was delicious. I topped that off with chocolate chip ice-cream later in the night, while watching Alias and The Practice, our two favorite shows. I didn't fall asleep until midnight, and am feeling really fatigued today (Monday, April 19).
Thanks for reading this far.
Thursday, April 15:
My flight left at 12:30 p.m., so I had some time alone in the house, which is a very RARE occurrence. It was nice, but a bit rushed because the artist that painted Dualities (the Hawthorne Bridge painting) emailed me the night before asking if I'd like to have this painting displayed in a show he was putting on Friday night. I really like Phil Fake, so drove the picture over to his house. I wished I could have gone to his show on Friday night. (Interesting note: Phil Fake painted Dualities and Frank Funk painted our interior walls.)
I had Northwest Airlines first class upgrade coupons, so I was hopeful I could have a luxurious trip to Atlanta. I was wait listed on my leg to Minneapolis, so when they began boarding the flight, I gave up hope and sat in my assigned 18-C seat. Several minutes later a flight attendant came and asked if I would move. "To where?" "Seat 1-A." Sweet! And, I didn't even have to surrender the upgrade coupon.
A nice lady was sitting next to me, and when she pulled out her Tablet PC, I started talking to her about it. She was well-versed in the features of the Tablet PC, so when I asked more technically-inclined questions, she asked where I worked. I explained, and then asked where she did. Microsoft. Oh well, so much for those Tablet PC sales!
When I got to Minneapolis, I checked to see if I could get in first class again. It was full, so I tried to board, but the machine rejected my 8-C seat. The agent in Portland had made some mistake when issuing me the late first class ticket and the rest of my trip was wiped from their system, including my return flight. The gate agent in Minneapolis apologized and put me in a roomy exit row, despite me hearing her get testy with another passenger who was insistent he was supposed to be in an exit row. "Sir, all exit seats are full." Five minutes later, she issued me an exit seat. Makes you wonder.
I arrived in Atlanta at 10:00 p.m. My bag was the third one to plop onto the baggage conveyor belt, and then I hopped on the Days Inn Airport West shuttle and was taken to the worst hotel I've ever stayed in. But, I only paid $45, so I didn't complain about the lumpy pillows, the dirty carpets the broken TV remote, or the slanted sink. Though, I did have to fight to get a non-smoking room even though my confirmation page clearly said I had reserved a non-smoking room. I told the registration lady that I refused to stay at this hotel if it didn't have a non-smoking room, and that I'd let the Days Inn management know about it, and then I asked for her last name -- magically a non-smoking room became available.
Friday, April 16:
I stayed up late, because I was still on Pacific Time, but at 2:00 a.m. when I decided to go to sleep, I realized the hotel was about 15 yards from I-85, and the traffic was LOUD. Amazing how many people honk their horn when driving along. I didn't fall asleep soundly until 5:00 a.m., and then woke at 9:45 a.m. Check out was 11:00, and I milked that for all it was worth. The shuttle drove me back to the airport where I picked up my compact rental car, and I was on my way to Athens.
It took two hours to drive the 70 miles, including a stop at a grocery store to buy gatorade and ear plugs. When I got into Athens, I was unsure if the directions to the hotel were accurate, because I was on the business route instead of the bypass, so I stopped at a liquor store to ask. The young guy working the counter knew exactly where the Foundry Park Inn was, and gave me detailed directions even though I was about 10 miles from it. Even down to the weird turn into the Foundry's parking lot after the third light on Thomas St.
I saw a black car parked at the registration house and a young woman going in the door. I wasn't sure it was Katy, so I gave a feeble honk-honk. She didn't turn around, so I wasn't sure. I was happy to see my whole family and Erik were in the registration office when I opened the door. They had arrived the exact same time I did! This, after 8 hours of driving to Charlotte the day before and then 3.5 hours to Athens.
We checked into our beautiful, adjoining rooms, and I looked at a great little album of pictures from my parents' New Zealand vacation from a few weeks ago. My parents, Katy, Erik and I then headed down to the brewery on the property to have lunch with Frank. While we sat, Ellen, Brian, Jean, Karen, Pat and Chris all came to join us. It was fun. The rehearsal dinner was beginning at 6:30, so after lunch, we had a few hours to kill and we spent it walking in downtown Athens. It's a cute college town full of restaurants, clothing stores, jewelry stores and University of Georgia bulldog decorations. Seemed everyone but me was shopping for Reef flip-flops, a trend Erik has started in the Beauregard family.
We walked back to the hotel and everyone napped but me. We men debated what to where -- coat, tie? We went with coat, no tie. Erik didn't wear a coat, but looked fine. The Connells are not a formal bunch, so our dress was very appropriate. The rehearsal dinner took place in the old brick structure on the Foundry Park Inn's grounds, that also houses the brewery and a couple of other shops. The room was great -- exposed brick with post & beam ceilings. Fresh Air BBQ supplied the food, and boy was it GREAT. Pulled pork, beef ribs and chicken.
Frank and Ellen made some moving comments, and Brian got up to hand out his groomsmen gifts (among them a Leatherman tool inscribed with the groomsmens' initials, something I did for my groomsmen back in 1998!). Brian moved me when he spoke about feeling lucky to have men in his life with whom he can share fun times and serious times, and when he and Patrick (his twin brother) hugged twice as long as he hugged his other groomsmen. I've always been curious about the close relationship twins must share. Everything Brian and Patrick do confirm for me that it must be a tremendously rewarding experience.
After the dinner, we all went down to the courtyard where a bluegrass band was playing some great music. Brian knew the lead singer, so had arranged for the musically inclined wedding guests to get up on stage and join in, and fill the band's break time with some Organic Groove Farmers, Deep Ocean Project and Cornbred music. Those are bands that some combination of Connell brothers have all been in over the years, with Cornbred still active in Portland, OR.
We enjoyed ourselves immensely. I think over the course of the evening I had 9 or 10 Bud Lights. I was feeling GREAT! :) I got to bed about midnight and about 2:00 a.m., I got up in the pitch black and stumbled into the bathroom unable to find the light switch. I had to orient myself by feeling around.
Saturday, April 17:
I had remembered to take my vitamins and some aspirin before heading to bed the night before, so I woke up feeling refreshed. My earplugs worked perfectly, and I had achieved an uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep. Everyone went out to breakfast, but I decided to stay in the room to check email and shower. My dad had discovered a weak Wi-Fi signal, so I intermittently had up to 8 mbps of internet access. Much better than the dial-up 28.8 Kbps the day before. (The theme of this paragraph is 8, don't you think?)
With a bunch of time on our hands before we were due at the church, we walked downtown again. My dad bought a shirt that matched the one he liked so much of Erik's. If he had bought the same shorts Erik did the day before, they would have been twins, right down to the Reef flip-flops they were both wearing.
Katy and Erik went back to the hotel, my mom and dad went to walk the UGA campus, and I was left to wander on my own. I chose to concentrate on the architecture of the city, and took some pictures of the church spires, ornate cupolas and impressive columns. I came upon a huge gathering of middle-eastern folks all dressed to the nines, including the little children all in suits or dresses. There was no visible force for this gathering -- no band, wedding or ceremony of any kind. They all just were laughing and chatting in a giant courtyard. Even when I climbed to the top of a parking structure to take in a view, families had laid out blankets in empty parking spots to enjoy picnic lunches. It seemed to be a very happy day for everyone; it made me happy to witness it all.
Across the street from our hotel was the Athens Welcome Center. I stopped in because it was housed in the oldest standing structure in Athens -- a house built in 1820. It was very interesting. I found out the meaning behind "good night, sleep tight." Mattresses were supported in the early to mid 1800s with a network of ropes. Every once in a while, the ropes had to be tightened with a hand tool.
Only one door from the original house remained (they built more using it as a reference), and I learned it is one of the earliest examples of the cross-and-bible style doors. It's six panels -- two small ones up top, two elongated ones in the middle, and two wide ones at the bottom. The connectors form a cross up top and an open bible at the bottom. I was happy to see the interior doors at our home in Oregon are of the same design, so I was able to illustrate it for Colleen.
We met back at the hotel and got dressed for the wedding. The Connells had arranged for a shuttle to take hotel guests to the church, reception and back to the hotel, so we met the shuttle in the parking lot around 3:00. The shuttle was new, clean and comfortable.
The wedding was a beautiful affair. Father Ryan, who taught Brian and Patrick at St. Joe's Prep in Pennsylvania, and is now teaching at Georgetown University, had traveled to perform the ceremony. It was evident he had a lot of love for Brian, and made it a warm and personal mass.
Kristen looked beautiful, with her sparkling wedding dress, and Brian was handsome in his tux. I'm always left wondering when the couple is actually married if the priest doesn't announce, "I now pronounce you husband and wife." In this wedding, it was "You may now kiss the bride." With 8 bridesmaids and groomsmen, Kristen and Brian looked well supported in their new endeavor.
We took the shuttle a few miles to the reception, passing stately fraternity and sorority houses that gave Erik and me occasion to tell each other the derogatory names our respective fraternities had for some of the sororities. Hee-hee. Turns out the reception was in a mansion nestled among of all these stately Greek houses.
The cake was in the entry hallway and all the rooms were open to us, but the activity was all in the back garden where a big tent was set up. The bar was close to the house, and the dance floor was at the far end of the tent. After auditioning many local bands, Brian and Kristen decided to hire a DJ. I guess being musicians themselves, Brian and Kristen have a very high standard for live music. The DJ played good music and was appropriately understated.
Katy, Erik and I were assigned to table #2, along with Brian's siblings and their spouses. So, Tim, Claire, Patrick, Melissa (technically a fiancee until August), Amy and Curtis. It made for a lively dinner, and we were able to egg Patrick on about his nervousness in delivering the best man speech. He took it well, and did VERY well. His theme was how he uses Brian as a reference in his life for what a relationship should be and how one should live one's life. It was very touching.
Before I knew it, it was 9:30 and the shuttle was waiting to take guests back to the Foundry Park Inn. The wedding party and most of the other wedding guests stayed a bit later, but we had run out of gas and hopped on the first shuttle.
My flight on Sunday was scheduled to leave at 6:20 a.m., so my plan was to get a few hours of sleep and take off at 3:30 for the 70 mile journey back to the Atlanta airport, hoping to arrive by 5:00 a.m., which would give me enough time to drop off the rental car and get through security. (Apologies for the run-on sentence.) Sometime in the evening I got it in my head that I'd spend an hour or so packing and talking with my family, then leaving to spend the night at the airport. And, that's what I did. I left at 10:45 p.m. and got to the car rental return at midnight. Along that drive, I stopped at a Wendys and had a delicious chicken strip meal. It satiated me for the next 18 hours, except for liquids on my flights and layover.
Sunday, April 18:
After returning my car, and being pleased that there were no excessive additional fees, I hopped on the shuttle to the terminal. I was surprised to find the entire airport, including baggage handling and ticket counters, shut down at a little past midnight. There was no way to get a boarding pass (even the self-service check-ins were shut down) to camp out at the gate. Great, I thought, where am I going to find a comfortable place to sit for the next 6.5 hours?
That's when I came upon an oasis of leather couches and chairs. Four 25-foot ficus trees anchored corners of this huge glass-domed room, around which leather-clad furniture stations were set. I found the last unoccupied love seat, spread my stuff out and dragged a chair over to use as an ottoman. It was then I realized I should have prioritized sitting close to a power outlet, because I'd be able to organize all the pictures I took and listen to music on my Tablet PC with all this wait time. I turned around, and wouldn't you know it, in the ground was embedded a two-head outlet with metal covers. It was caked with dirt and dust, and appeared to have been unused for at least a decade. I was not confident it would supply any power, but I plugged in and my Tablet PC roared back to life.
I never have enough time to sit down and really goof off on the computer. Now was my time to do it. I had 6.5 hours to kill and I decided I wouldn't try to sleep at all, saving my zzzzzs for the flights. So, I transferred all 148 pictures I took over the weekend onto my computer and went about weeding out the best 30 or so to post on my site. That, while listening to my MusicMatch Jukebox that I had loaded with 100+ of my favorite songs, ranging from G Love & Special Sauce, to Wilco, to Squeeze, to Bruce Springsteen, to Dixie Chicks to Everclear and on & on.
Before I knew it, it was 3:30 a.m. and my Jalbum-created photo page was done, and in an hour, the Northwest ticketing terminal would open. I wanted to get there first so I could upgrade to first class all the way home. Part of me debated if I should use those precious upgrade coupons, because I knew I'd be sleeping the whole way, but I decided I'd rather sleep in a big, quiet seat than risk having some noisy neighbor or big person invading my space.
For the next hour I stretched, walked around and talked to the janitor who had admired my computer on one of his sweeping/mopping passes and asked some questions about the Tablet PC and how I was creating the web site. We, literally, were the only awake people in this sea of 100+ weary travelers draped across chairs and couches.
I made my way to the ticketing terminal to find three people in front of me, and a board saying the open hours were 4:42 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. 4:42? C'mon. At 4:40, there was there was still no sign of life, but as God as my witness, at exactly 4:42, two agents burst through the back room and began their day. The man in front of me was of Eastern European descent and got really fed up with the agent for not being able to find his reservation and telling him he'd have to buy the ticket for $994. He stormed off and I heard the agents berating & laughing at him because he had been so angry he didn't hear the agent tell him they had finally found his reservation. More than likely, he didn't understand them. Unlike that poor soul, I had no trouble, and, in fact, was upgraded to first class the whole way through Portland.
As I made my way to the gate, I saw the Eastern European man in the adjacent hallway crouching on the floor with his laptop, evidently trying to find his reservation saved on his computer. He looked frantic and distraught. I tapped him on the shoulder, and told him the agents had found his reservation. His face relaxed and his shoulders drooped as he exhaled. With a very heavy accent he thanked me and then he thanked me again. I smiled and told it was my pleasure.
I felt good that I helped this guy, and I hope if Colleen and I encounter anything like that when we're in Europe this summer, someone looks out for us too.
The flight was on time, and I was in seat 1-A. I gulped down some OJ and water before we took off. Except for the lead flight attendant coughing up a lung in the galley every time she got out of sight, it was a pleasant flight 2 hour and 20 minute flight. I slept for about 1.5 hours. The connection in Minneapolis was on time and, I slept in seat 3-A for 3 hours of the 3 hour and 55 minute flight.
I landed in Portland at 11:00 a.m. and was home at noon. I shouted "Hello!" when I got in the door, and I heard Grady gasp and scream with joy. But, it wasn't "Dad!" he was screaming, it was "Present! My present!" He ran right past me to my suitcase. Oh well. He loved the Wendy (from Bob the Builder) Pez dispenser, and the kiwi Christmas ornaments Grandma and Grandpa brought back from New Zealand.
Liam was down for a nap, after having thrown up a couple of hours before, and Grady went down for his nap after the initial excitement of me coming home, er, getting his presents. :) Colleen went down for a nap too, so I once again found myself alone. I retrieved 3 days worth of mail stuffed into our tiny mailbox, sorted through that, checked news on MSNBC.com and finally couldn't stay up any longer and crashed on the leather coach for an hour. Coltrane enjoyed cuddling with me during the nap.
Coltrane had been in the dog house all day long for having bared his teeth to Colleen when she disciplined him earlier for stealing a baked potato off the counter. He's getting bad at accepting punishment. Colleen is worried we'll need to give him away. So, with that on my mind, I gave him some extra love and he enjoyed it immensely.
One of two things needs to happen to curb that snarling behavior of Coltrane. Either he needs to stop doing bad things (not likely to happen) or we need to change our way of discipling him. We can't do it in scary physical ways, because he just doesn't react well to that. He's a very sensitive soul, so I think strong voices should be the way. The problem with that is we try to banish him to his crate after he's done something like that, but he corners himself in the laundry room or pantry, and when you reach for him, he bares his teeth. I've tested him while he's baring his teeth by smacking his face and keeping my hand right there to bite on and he does take a hold of it, but doesn't bite down. In fact, after realizing what he's almost just done makes him VERY nervous and I think is punishment enough. Anyway, it worries Colleen more than me, and I hope there's no ultimatum handed down to get rid of Coltrane, because I don't think it's necessary.
18 hours after the Wendys chicken strip meal during my ride from Athens to Atlanta, we sat down and had a roasted chicken, stuffing and French bread meal. It was delicious. I topped that off with chocolate chip ice-cream later in the night, while watching Alias and The Practice, our two favorite shows. I didn't fall asleep until midnight, and am feeling really fatigued today (Monday, April 19).
Thanks for reading this far.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Introspection
I went to the dentist this morning and got a great report. The dentist asked the technician, "Wouldn't you love to have teeth like his?" She replied, "You know it. Big, strong and healthy." I wonder if that is rehearsed. :)
Our dentist is very progressive and gets all the latest/newest equipment. It had been 7 years since my full mouth was x-rayed, so I was hooked into a digital x-ray machine that takes 20 consecutive x-rays but only exposes you to the equivalent of one o-ring x-ray (the typical kind where you have to clench plates in your teeth and the "gun" is touching your cheek). The new machine automatically swung around my head as I stood still. 2 minutes later, I saw on their computer a view of all my teeth and roots, and even my nose cavities and sinuses.
My nose is a bit peculiar Dr. Wendling noticed. My right passageway is much smaller than my left, and twists back, whereas my left passageway is straight and wide. I have unusually large sinuses and Dr. Wendling was impressed that they were totally devoid of everything. Completely clean. I'd love to have Colleen or Liam hooked up to that to see what is in their sinuses.
I leave for Athens, GA tomorrow afternoon. I'm really looking forward to Brian & Kristen's wedding, and seeing my family and Erik. Curtis Waterbury promised to stay up with me Saturday night after the wedding, since my flight out of Atlanta (90 minutes from Athens) leaves Sunday at 6:25 a.m. But, I have to drive myself, so not sure how easy it will be to stay up all night without sipping loads of cocktails. We'll see. The benefit of that early flight was, 1) money, and 2) it gets me home at 10:00 a.m. PDT.
LOTS to do here at work before I leave for GA. I'll next post to Hearsay Sunday or Monday.
Oh, I've noticed no one has posted any comments. Is anyone reading these? Perhaps this is a personal journal.
Our dentist is very progressive and gets all the latest/newest equipment. It had been 7 years since my full mouth was x-rayed, so I was hooked into a digital x-ray machine that takes 20 consecutive x-rays but only exposes you to the equivalent of one o-ring x-ray (the typical kind where you have to clench plates in your teeth and the "gun" is touching your cheek). The new machine automatically swung around my head as I stood still. 2 minutes later, I saw on their computer a view of all my teeth and roots, and even my nose cavities and sinuses.
My nose is a bit peculiar Dr. Wendling noticed. My right passageway is much smaller than my left, and twists back, whereas my left passageway is straight and wide. I have unusually large sinuses and Dr. Wendling was impressed that they were totally devoid of everything. Completely clean. I'd love to have Colleen or Liam hooked up to that to see what is in their sinuses.
I leave for Athens, GA tomorrow afternoon. I'm really looking forward to Brian & Kristen's wedding, and seeing my family and Erik. Curtis Waterbury promised to stay up with me Saturday night after the wedding, since my flight out of Atlanta (90 minutes from Athens) leaves Sunday at 6:25 a.m. But, I have to drive myself, so not sure how easy it will be to stay up all night without sipping loads of cocktails. We'll see. The benefit of that early flight was, 1) money, and 2) it gets me home at 10:00 a.m. PDT.
LOTS to do here at work before I leave for GA. I'll next post to Hearsay Sunday or Monday.
Oh, I've noticed no one has posted any comments. Is anyone reading these? Perhaps this is a personal journal.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Sweet Ribbits
Our neighbor, Bob, installed a beautiful water feature in his front yard last fall and this spring several frogs have made it their home. Water features are prevalent in our neighborhood, so we've been serenaded in warm months by these frogs for the past couple of years, but it was always a pleasant, distant sound. Bob's frogs are champion croakers and are directly across the street from our open bedroom window!
One of the frogs goes ALL night until sunrise. My alarm is set for 5:30, but that guy has had me awake at 5:00 the last two mornings.
Soon, the swallows will return, which will add another early morning alarm. Last spring and summer, we were awoken at the crack of dawn each morning with a high-pitched "sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet." I could have fallen back to sleep if that sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet was a constant decibel, but if you've seen swallows, you know they love to swoop and fly. That resulted in a sweet-sweet-SWEET-SWEET, SWeet-Sweet-sweet-sweet, sweEET-SWEET-SWEET-SWeet. Ugh.
Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary in our Highland Loop home. We like being there, but don't LOVE it. We wish we had spent more time looking in Lake Oswego. We work there, have Grady and Liam in school there, spend a lot of down time there, and the school district there is the best in Oregon. We don't have any plans to move, however.
One of the frogs goes ALL night until sunrise. My alarm is set for 5:30, but that guy has had me awake at 5:00 the last two mornings.
Soon, the swallows will return, which will add another early morning alarm. Last spring and summer, we were awoken at the crack of dawn each morning with a high-pitched "sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet." I could have fallen back to sleep if that sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet was a constant decibel, but if you've seen swallows, you know they love to swoop and fly. That resulted in a sweet-sweet-SWEET-SWEET, SWeet-Sweet-sweet-sweet, sweEET-SWEET-SWEET-SWeet. Ugh.
Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary in our Highland Loop home. We like being there, but don't LOVE it. We wish we had spent more time looking in Lake Oswego. We work there, have Grady and Liam in school there, spend a lot of down time there, and the school district there is the best in Oregon. We don't have any plans to move, however.
Monday, April 12, 2004
Summer yet?
Easter day was great. Grady woke up about 6:30, looked out his window, saw eggs and came streaking into our room to shout, "The Easter Bunny came, the Easter Bunny came!" We managed to get him to go back to his room for about another 20 minutes before he couldn't contain his excitement any longer.
Grandma Grady had sent bags of Easter-related gifts and they were a hit with Grady and Liam. After the egg-hunt outside, we got ready for church. Liam was awful. He spent about 10 minutes in the 80 minute long mass, and the rest of the time outside running on the lawn. We're not looking forward to our cross country plane travel this summer with Liam. He just hates being confined. At mass, Grady was squirmy, but quiet.
It was 80 degrees all day long, from about 9:00 to 6:00. Grady and Liam enjoyed the pool again, and even had three neighbor girls over. Victoria, who turns five in May, had fun with Grady in the pool, but the older girls (one is Victoria's sister, Daysha who is 12, and the other is Kayley, probably 12 too) just chatted and ate Cool Pops. We enjoyed having them over, and we put down a couple of lemon drops in the hot sun.
Easter dinner was great. Honey-baked ham, potato boats, green beans and crusty french bread.
I posted new pictures.
Enough procrastination. I've got to get back to work. Not terribly enjoyable these days. I much prefer the doing rather than the planning.
Grandma Grady had sent bags of Easter-related gifts and they were a hit with Grady and Liam. After the egg-hunt outside, we got ready for church. Liam was awful. He spent about 10 minutes in the 80 minute long mass, and the rest of the time outside running on the lawn. We're not looking forward to our cross country plane travel this summer with Liam. He just hates being confined. At mass, Grady was squirmy, but quiet.
It was 80 degrees all day long, from about 9:00 to 6:00. Grady and Liam enjoyed the pool again, and even had three neighbor girls over. Victoria, who turns five in May, had fun with Grady in the pool, but the older girls (one is Victoria's sister, Daysha who is 12, and the other is Kayley, probably 12 too) just chatted and ate Cool Pops. We enjoyed having them over, and we put down a couple of lemon drops in the hot sun.
Easter dinner was great. Honey-baked ham, potato boats, green beans and crusty french bread.
I posted new pictures.
Enough procrastination. I've got to get back to work. Not terribly enjoyable these days. I much prefer the doing rather than the planning.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Sunny Days
We're experiencing what the weather man promised. Record breaking temperatures. Today hit 81 degrees in Newport (a coast town) where the previous record for April 10 was 69 degrees back in 1971. Here in Portland, we hit 80 and will do so again tomorrow. We even broke out Grady's pool and he and Liam had a grand time after their naps playing with the water.
Pam Edstrom's house was a great time. Grady was enthralled again by the Easter bunny, and Liam was his normal fearless self.
I have pictures and will post them shortly.
The eggs are hidden in the backyard waiting to be found by Grady and Liam tomorrow morning. We're going to give our local Christ the King church another chance tomorrow. We've been going about 15 miles out of our way to St. Ignatius. We figure Easter will be reason for Christ the King to show off their best, and it would be much easier for us if that was our parish, as it's only 3 miles from our front door.
Ann Grady gave me Dan Brown's Angels & Demons and I wasn't too thrilled with it for the first 75 or 100 pages, but now that I'm 300 pages in, I can't put it down. I've always enjoyed talking about books with her and I'm glad she turned me on to (and gave me) this one.
Pam Edstrom's house was a great time. Grady was enthralled again by the Easter bunny, and Liam was his normal fearless self.
I have pictures and will post them shortly.
The eggs are hidden in the backyard waiting to be found by Grady and Liam tomorrow morning. We're going to give our local Christ the King church another chance tomorrow. We've been going about 15 miles out of our way to St. Ignatius. We figure Easter will be reason for Christ the King to show off their best, and it would be much easier for us if that was our parish, as it's only 3 miles from our front door.
Ann Grady gave me Dan Brown's Angels & Demons and I wasn't too thrilled with it for the first 75 or 100 pages, but now that I'm 300 pages in, I can't put it down. I've always enjoyed talking about books with her and I'm glad she turned me on to (and gave me) this one.
Friday, April 9, 2004
Fuhshizzle
Besides me keeping Grady and Liam company outside, there was also the Volume 10 rap music coming from our back door neighbor's window. The grandson of this nice couple seems to be a high school drop out and spends his days listening to very explicit songs. On nice days when Liam and Grady are out, I'd rather not have them hear "motherfucker, bitch, nigger, ho" every 10 seconds. I tried to get the young man's attention between songs, but to no avail. We three took a walk around the block to knock on the door, but to no avail. I looked up their phone number and left a long, cordial message, addressing my complaints to the grandparents. Finally, I guess the CD ended, because there was at least 10 seconds of silence. I managed to get the young man's attention and explained what the problem was. He apologized, turned down the music and closed his window. A good result.
Now, we just have to see if he learned anything by it. I have a feeling we'll have to repeat this sometime soon. On the phone message I suggested using headphones. Half of me wants to go purchase them myself and leave them on his doorstep. Colleen won't have any of that! :)
Now, we just have to see if he learned anything by it. I have a feeling we'll have to repeat this sometime soon. On the phone message I suggested using headphones. Half of me wants to go purchase them myself and leave them on his doorstep. Colleen won't have any of that! :)
Nada
Not much to report. Stressful work day yesterday, with much to do in the next week before I leave for Brian and Kristen's wedding in Athens, GA.
Colleen and I are almost through the 4th season of The Sopranos (on DVD). I'm losing interest, particularly in his sessions with Dr. Melfi (sp?).
Portland is supposed to have it's warmest Easter ever. Sunday might hit 80 degrees. Saturday will be in the high 70s when we're at Pam Edstrom's. Last year was a great time.
Well, off to keep Grady and Liam company outside.
Colleen and I are almost through the 4th season of The Sopranos (on DVD). I'm losing interest, particularly in his sessions with Dr. Melfi (sp?).
Portland is supposed to have it's warmest Easter ever. Sunday might hit 80 degrees. Saturday will be in the high 70s when we're at Pam Edstrom's. Last year was a great time.
Well, off to keep Grady and Liam company outside.
Thursday, April 8, 2004
Blazin'
Last night I took Grady to see the Portland Trailblazers pull out a much-needed win against the Golden State Warriors. It was fun and Grady was very well behaved. He quickly got the gist of the game, cheering for every Blazer basket and shouting "DEFENSE!" when the Warriors had the ball. He was intensely interested for three full quarters, then at about 9:00 p.m., he asked if we could go home.
We left but saw a big line at the merchandise stand, so we investigated. Everything was 50% off, so Grady and Liam now have authentic Trailblazer jerseys. Both are #3, Damon Stoudamire. Grady insisted on wearing his jersey to bed and also over his school uniform today. The teacher in charge of the breakfast room today gave him a really good time about it.
I was supposed to go to the game with a friend, but he, sadly, rushed home to Montana to be with his mother who was, this Tuesday, unexpectedly given just a couple of days to live. It really shook Colleen and me to hear this as we've enjoyed nice times with our friend's mother and father during a couple of holiday get togethers.
I listened to about 20 minutes Condi Rice's testimony this morning on NPR and thought she did really well. Though, I think the Bush administration has erred in not being more open in saying, "Look, the world changed on 9/11. We didn't, nor did previous administrations, believe there was reason to make homeland security our top priority before 9/11. Clearly we were wrong, and we're in a different environment today. Let us spend our time on present and future actions to prevent further catastrophes." The administration just can't seem to admit any fallibility. It would benefit them here.
I got a new digital camera earlier this week. Olympus Camedia C-50. It's a 5 mega-pixel, 12X zoom camera. That is up from our older Fuji FinePix 1400's 1.3 mega-pixel, 3X zoom. The Olympus is a lot more complex than the Fuji, so I'm trying to master all its different modes. I managed to take some good shots on Tuesday that I will post soon.
We left but saw a big line at the merchandise stand, so we investigated. Everything was 50% off, so Grady and Liam now have authentic Trailblazer jerseys. Both are #3, Damon Stoudamire. Grady insisted on wearing his jersey to bed and also over his school uniform today. The teacher in charge of the breakfast room today gave him a really good time about it.
I was supposed to go to the game with a friend, but he, sadly, rushed home to Montana to be with his mother who was, this Tuesday, unexpectedly given just a couple of days to live. It really shook Colleen and me to hear this as we've enjoyed nice times with our friend's mother and father during a couple of holiday get togethers.
I listened to about 20 minutes Condi Rice's testimony this morning on NPR and thought she did really well. Though, I think the Bush administration has erred in not being more open in saying, "Look, the world changed on 9/11. We didn't, nor did previous administrations, believe there was reason to make homeland security our top priority before 9/11. Clearly we were wrong, and we're in a different environment today. Let us spend our time on present and future actions to prevent further catastrophes." The administration just can't seem to admit any fallibility. It would benefit them here.
I got a new digital camera earlier this week. Olympus Camedia C-50. It's a 5 mega-pixel, 12X zoom camera. That is up from our older Fuji FinePix 1400's 1.3 mega-pixel, 3X zoom. The Olympus is a lot more complex than the Fuji, so I'm trying to master all its different modes. I managed to take some good shots on Tuesday that I will post soon.
Tuesday, April 6, 2004
Sporting news
Grady is going to have a fantastic time with Tyler at the beach this year. After watching part of a little league game in the park on Saturday, Grady has been non stop talking about the game. He loved watching the catcher and so mimics perfectly the catcher's stance, and even holds his throwing hand properly behind his right ankle. I've been pitching him a plastic golf ball and he doesn't have the hang of actually catching it yet.
I was a catcher when I played, so I'm going to have fun giving him my old catcher's mitt and coaching him on the finer points of that position. I always took pride in being a catcher -- I was instrumental in deciding what pitch should be thrown, the pace of the game, alerting everyone to the hitter's strengths and making sure runners weren't too aggressive on the base paths. I enjoyed most when Brian Cameron pitched. He always agreed with my suggestions, and he had a killer curve ball. There was a particularly fast opposing player in my little league days who previous to playing our team hadn't been thrown out stealing second base. I'll always remember the look on his face walking back to the dug out after I had made the perfect throw to the bag. Of course, being a catcher has downsides too. You have to constantly strategize when to take off or put on your pads & guards when you're close to being on deck, because there are so many buckles to adjust each time you take the pads off. Often I'd be in full gear -- chest protector and shin guards -- swinging the bat in the on-deck circle if there were two outs. I'm sure that didn't instill much confidence in the batter. Other downsides are it's hard on the knees to always be crouching, and wearing a cup isn't the most pleasant thing in the world.
We watched the first half of the NCAA Basketball championship with Grady last night and he was interested for only about 10 minutes, then it was on to pretending to play baseball and football. He was so worked up, he got hot and took off his shirt. What I liked best was that he'd make an appropriate comment about every pitch I threw him. When I'd hit his toy glove, he's shout in a deep voice, "Good job Dad! You get two more!," or "I'm going to give you a hug!" He kept telling Liam to "get off the field it's too dirty for your socks!" when he'd wander into our throwing line. Grady also has a very accurate arm when he tosses the ball back from a crouching position. I think he's going to be a very good baseball catcher some day.
I added a comment section to Hearsay. So, remark at will.
I was a catcher when I played, so I'm going to have fun giving him my old catcher's mitt and coaching him on the finer points of that position. I always took pride in being a catcher -- I was instrumental in deciding what pitch should be thrown, the pace of the game, alerting everyone to the hitter's strengths and making sure runners weren't too aggressive on the base paths. I enjoyed most when Brian Cameron pitched. He always agreed with my suggestions, and he had a killer curve ball. There was a particularly fast opposing player in my little league days who previous to playing our team hadn't been thrown out stealing second base. I'll always remember the look on his face walking back to the dug out after I had made the perfect throw to the bag. Of course, being a catcher has downsides too. You have to constantly strategize when to take off or put on your pads & guards when you're close to being on deck, because there are so many buckles to adjust each time you take the pads off. Often I'd be in full gear -- chest protector and shin guards -- swinging the bat in the on-deck circle if there were two outs. I'm sure that didn't instill much confidence in the batter. Other downsides are it's hard on the knees to always be crouching, and wearing a cup isn't the most pleasant thing in the world.
We watched the first half of the NCAA Basketball championship with Grady last night and he was interested for only about 10 minutes, then it was on to pretending to play baseball and football. He was so worked up, he got hot and took off his shirt. What I liked best was that he'd make an appropriate comment about every pitch I threw him. When I'd hit his toy glove, he's shout in a deep voice, "Good job Dad! You get two more!," or "I'm going to give you a hug!" He kept telling Liam to "get off the field it's too dirty for your socks!" when he'd wander into our throwing line. Grady also has a very accurate arm when he tosses the ball back from a crouching position. I think he's going to be a very good baseball catcher some day.
I added a comment section to Hearsay. So, remark at will.
Monday, April 5, 2004
Deceased Bovine & Stiff Forearms
When I turned on my car radio this morning at 6:30, I heard traffic was backed up on the last stretch of my commute because a cow had been killed by a car 30 minutes before. Well, I'm a fan of gore, so I drove extra fast so I could have a chance at seeing the cow.
About 20 minutes later, I ran into the traffic and saw in the distance work trucks lined up in the left hand emergency lane -- an emergency response vehicle, a dump truck and a flatbed truck carrying a backhoe. Could all this be for a cow? I moved into the left lane to investigate. It was a rare moment of rubber necking for me who curses drivers for slowing down to look at anomalies on the highway. My "reward" for this was seeing a brown cow with a long tail lying on its right side. Its legs were pretty much in tact, but its torso and head were mangled. I looked like a quick death, thankfully.
I heard later that drivers called the police at 10:00 last night to report a cow that was close to the highway, but thorough searching netted nothing. At 6:00 a.m. a truck struck the cow first, then two cars made contact. I haven't heard if any people were injured.
In lighter news...
I borrowed an industrial power washer from my great neighbor, Bob, yesterday. I had great fun with it, washing all the pebbled concrete on our front walk, driveway and back patios. The difference is night and day. All the plastic is shining now too -- Grady & Liam's playhouse, the adirondack chairs, doormats, the cooler. Colleen and Grady tested it out too. We had lots of fun, but my four hours of holding that powerful wand left my forearms and back a bit tight today.
The lines I made with the power washer on the concrete were mesmerizing.
Grady laid down in the muddy water and I had to power wash his pants (from the safe distance of about five feet) and he loved it.
Grady kept putting a plastic easter egg in the path of the water, so I gave him a good time by stopping the stream, putting half an egg on the tip, then turning the water back on. The plastic egg flew about 60 feet in the air, and had a nickel sized hole in the top.
About 20 minutes later, I ran into the traffic and saw in the distance work trucks lined up in the left hand emergency lane -- an emergency response vehicle, a dump truck and a flatbed truck carrying a backhoe. Could all this be for a cow? I moved into the left lane to investigate. It was a rare moment of rubber necking for me who curses drivers for slowing down to look at anomalies on the highway. My "reward" for this was seeing a brown cow with a long tail lying on its right side. Its legs were pretty much in tact, but its torso and head were mangled. I looked like a quick death, thankfully.
I heard later that drivers called the police at 10:00 last night to report a cow that was close to the highway, but thorough searching netted nothing. At 6:00 a.m. a truck struck the cow first, then two cars made contact. I haven't heard if any people were injured.
In lighter news...
I borrowed an industrial power washer from my great neighbor, Bob, yesterday. I had great fun with it, washing all the pebbled concrete on our front walk, driveway and back patios. The difference is night and day. All the plastic is shining now too -- Grady & Liam's playhouse, the adirondack chairs, doormats, the cooler. Colleen and Grady tested it out too. We had lots of fun, but my four hours of holding that powerful wand left my forearms and back a bit tight today.
The lines I made with the power washer on the concrete were mesmerizing.
Grady laid down in the muddy water and I had to power wash his pants (from the safe distance of about five feet) and he loved it.
Grady kept putting a plastic easter egg in the path of the water, so I gave him a good time by stopping the stream, putting half an egg on the tip, then turning the water back on. The plastic egg flew about 60 feet in the air, and had a nickel sized hole in the top.
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