Thanksgiving '09

For Thanksgiving this year we spent the evening with Jen's sister Annie, her boyfriend Chris, and his mom Rhonda.  We had a great meal, we brought salmon for me and made mashed potatoes, apple pie, green bean casserole, and we brought hummus and crackers.  Annie took care of the turkey, which was gigantic, and made pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, and salad.  I'm sure there was more, but that's what I can remember right now.  The kids enjoyed themselves and it was great for everyone to have a chance to hang out.

 

The next day we went to Fort Stevens for some yurt camping.  We brought along Annie's daughter Jasmine and Andrew's friend Frank.  The first night we got ourselves warm in the yurt and watched a movie.  Saturday we went swimming at the Astoria Aquatic Center and the kids played a lot of tag with glowsticks we bought them.  Sunday we went to the Peter Iresdale shipwreck and stopped by the outlet mall at Seaside.  We had a great time and the kids did a great job.

 

The yurts typically have a set of bunk beds and a futon.  The kids slept on the bunk beds and we tried the futon.  Turns out that because of the way it gets folded up it had a huge ridge down the middle that made it impossible to sleep on.  The second night we folded it into a couch and slept a lot better.

Maybell and Jack Fashion Week

Today we got little hoodies for Jack and Maybell.  You may be one of those people who think "I'd never put my dog in clothes".  If so, to you I say "Lighten up.  My dog has a pink sweater.  It's cute and hilarious."

Flight to Orlando

I'm on the plane now - headed to an Agile Conference in Orlando Florida.  I left first thing in the morning, and the trip started off, well, not so good.  When Jen was dropping me off on the tarmac some hick in a huge truck who was dropping off his mom got upset at Jen and I for taking too long to say goodbye.  Jen and the redneck got into a verbal altercation, and I thought Jen was going to take his head off. 

Turns out his mom was right behind me in the ticketing line.  It was going to be awkward.  I went ahead and acknowledged it by saying something like "well, I'm glad that didn't get out of control".

She said "I know, he was very angry with you."

Unable to resist the urge, I said "It must be wonderful to have raised a boy who knows so much about how everything in life should work".  Luckily, she was good-natured about it.

"I know!  That's exactly how he is!"  She said.

 

This morning I was teasing Jen that since I'd be flying all day (I boarded my first plane at 9:35a and will land at around 5:30p Portland time) I should just go ahead and start drinking to make the whole thing fly by.  It's the kind of teasing I do to acknowledge the fact that what we worry about when our spouse goes on business trips is that they will have fun as party animals every night while we're stuck at home.

Unfortunately, the guy on the plane next to me for my flight to Dallas had exactly this strategy.  He smelled of alcohol, presumably from the night before when he later confessed that he had gone to the "titty bar".  He had two cranberry and vodkas during the flight.  He was incredibly good looking with perfectly straight, white teeth.  This was a professional necessity since he's a dental equipment salesman.  Despite the fact that I have so little in common with a dental equipment salesman from Houston, we had a long conversation throughout the flight.  This was an example of a time during which I was a "good listener" - a term used for people who let people who like to talk talk without interrupting them.  Good listener == back conversation ender.

 

Dallas Fort Worth is huge, but I made it to my connecting flight and here I am on the plane waiting for Orlando.  This flight has been far less eventful. 

Non-Working Sundays

I've gotten into a terrible habit of working over the weekend during the last few months and I'm trying to break myself of it.  Originally I was just trying to get a jump on the week but unfortunately I started to add work into that time-slot and as time went on it just ended up being a way that I could increase the time I had available to work.  Well, no more.

The only problem is that since I decided to stop working during the weekends I feel guilty Sunday nights, when I feel like I should be panicking.  So I've decided that instead I'm going to try to get into the habit of updating the blog and keeping in touch with my friends & family.

In terms of running I'm trying something a little different now.  My friend Adam let me borrow a book called Daniels' Running Formula.  Prior to this I'd been doing training off of Hal Higdon's website, but I'd like to increase my speed and I wasn't finding that simply jumping up from Novice programs to intermediate programs was really doing anything for me.  What I really hated was the speedwork in the Higdon program.

The great thing about the Daniels book is that he talks a lot about the physiological aspects of running, such as how the body systems respond to different training and why runners do different kinds of training.  He explains some running concepts that someone like me, who came to running as an adult, wouldn't have had an opportunity to learn.

With the help of the book I've identified that the purpose of my training now should be to be to build a base of weekly mileage that will help me get my cardiovascular systems improved and avoid injury later down the line when I start doing more challenging workouts.  At the moment I'm running about 16 miles per week.  I run 5 times a week, with a long run of 4 miles on Sunday and 3 mile runs Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Sat.  I'll be doing this for the next two weeks, after which I'll increase my mileage.  I've started to suss out my plan here if you're interested.

As far as Halloween goes the kids were both with their other parents this weekend so yesterday Jen and I headed down to the beach to have a date night.  We brought our new/old little dog Jack along with us and he was absolutely adorable on the beach - so cute.

We decided to spoil the dogs and picked up a bounty for them at Petco on the way home.  I am now officially the kind of person who has a dog that needs a coat.  And I don't care at all.

Wedding Playlist

One of the details I could really get excited about during Wedding planning was the playlist for the reception.  We didn't hire a DJ - I wanted each song to be selected by hand and for the order to be carefully planned exactly to my specifications.  For the reception itself I rented a PA system and hooked up a laptop to the console.  My brother Dan ran the PA during the event and did an awesome job - we didn't have even one squeal and the music sounded great for the whole time.

As with all things, the reality of the "dancing" part of the reception wasn't quite what I envisioned.  My friends are a little more reserved and didn't all participate to the extent I thought they would.  For the first few songs it was pretty much Jen and I plus a lot of kids.  Also, the playlist is kind of long and we didn't quite get through the whole thing.  Overall, I'm really proud of this playlist and its importance to us and our relationship.

Here's the playlist:

Song #	Song Title	Artist	Purpose
1	Sweet Darlin'	She & Him	Perfect first song - fun and makes me feel like I do w/ Jen.
2	Say Hey (I Love You)	Michael Franti & Spearhead	Fun new song that's about love and great to dance to.
3	La La Love You	The Pixies	Jen's request - a favorite love song
4	In Case We Die	Architecture in Helsinki	Fun up-tempo dance song
5	Lloyd I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken	Camera Obscura	Nostalgic dance song
6	U-Mass	The Pixies	Get it rockin'
7	My Doorbell	The White Stripes	Keep it rockin'
8	I Feel It All	Feist	Easy to dance to, slowing things down
9	Love and Some Verses	Iron & Wine	Slow dance and extremely romantic
10	Sweetie	Josh Rouse	Jen and I used to listen to this song all the time.  Has the lyric "We'll sleep on rooftops/We'll ride on Bicycles/Honey, we'll get married/Don't you want to sweetie?"  Seems perfect for us.
11	Oregon Girl	Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin	I always tell Jen this is my song about her
12	Never Had Nobody Like You	M. Ward	Love song from M. Ward
13	Idioteque	Radiohead	At least one Radiohead song
14	Expectations	Belle & Sebastian	For a year I had this as the wake-up music on my alarm.  We used to wake up to it every day.
15	Sweet Sweetheart Killer	Say Hi To Your Mom	Fun dance song
16	1020 AM	Spoon	When we were very first together Jen and I used to stay up late listening to this song.
17	I'm the Man Who Loves You	Wilco	A song from me to Jen.
18	O' Valencia	The Decemberists	A favorite of the kids'
19	Absolutely Cuckoo	The Magnetic Tapes	Funny song - give people a break from dancing
20	LTWTMS	The Trouble with Sweeney	Groovy 70's sounding rock song
21	Mr. Tough	Yo La Tengo	Fun silly song to dance to
22	Simple X	Andrew Bird	This song makes me want to move every time I hear it.
23	Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye	AMFM	Slow-dance song, cover of a Leonard Cohen song.
24	No One's Gonna Love You	Band Of Horses	Slow song, one of Jen's favorites
25	1234	Feist	Pick things up a bit
26	Letter to Memphis	The Pixies	Rocking Pixies song, very romantic
27	Big Time Sensuality	Bjork	Sexy dance song
28	All My Friends	LCD Soundsystem	Up-tempo dance song for all my friends at the wedding
29	Chinese Translation	M. Ward	A little buddhist wisdom from one of my favorite artists
30	She's Losing It	Belle & Sebastian	Another favorite of Jen and mine from the past
31	The Navajo Know	The Pixies	One of my favorite Pixies songs
32	Eyes on the Prize	M. Ward	Great romantic love song for Jen.
33	Here Comes Your Man	The Pixies	Jen's song for me (her "Oregon Girl")

Eat your heart, everyone else - I'm on vacation

I'm writing from the house we've rented on Devil's Lake in Lincoln City.

We've been vacationing  after the wedding before our big honeymoon trip with my brother Dan, his wife Kacie, and their children Bethany(10), Brynlee (3), and Kaitlynn (2), who are all adorable. Yesterday I went on a long canoe ride around Devil's Lake with Dan, Brynlee, Andrew, and Katie while Kacie, Jen, Brianna and Bethany went for a horse ride on the beach in Pacific City.  I'll write more about the horse ride later when I get the pictures - lots to tell.  During the canoe trip we found an awesome playground on Devil's Lake where the kids could play.  It has a really cool wooden structure with all kinds of nooks, crannies, tires, and so on for the kids to run around and have fun on.  The little girls loved it.

Fun stats from the trip:

30	Times (so far) Andrew has played "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers on his guitar, which my brother Dan just taught him
7	Miles we paddled around Devil's Lake yesterday
2 (about to be 3)	Views of the movie "Coraline" during the trip
3	Meals consisting of left-over wedding food (I'm still loving Salmon, beans, corn on the cob, and cornbread)
4	Times Andrew has asked me whether or not we can rent a Jet Ski
4	Times I told Andrew no
9:30	Average time I've been waking up in the morning
At least 5	pounds gained so far on my part
2	Guitars brought along on the trip
3	Times we had to stop on the way here to fix the canoe from slipping around on the roof of our car (we finally resolved the root cause thanks to Dan)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10	The numbers I can say with Katie to get her to give me a kiss
1	renewed birth control prescription - no coincidence

Brianna's Birthday Party

This year we had an at-home birthday party, complete with sleep over.  Brianna had a great time and we had lots of friends over.  On the list of events we had:

 

Three ships and a mermaid:

 

A cake walk:

A pinata:

 

Presents, and of course, the cake.

And here's a great pic of the kids all watching a movie at the end of the night.

Canvassing for Portland School Board

Today I donated some time in the afternoon to canvass for Scott Bailey, who is running for Portland Public School board, in the Westmoreland area of SE Portland.  This was in relation to the work I've been doing for Stand for Children.  I was actually on the committee that interviewed and then subsequently endorsed Scott.  It's been a pretty cool experience just to see this whole side of the process occur from beginning to end.
Canvassing is an inherently difficult task.  First off, almost everybody whose door you knock on thinks you're trying to sell them something.  It's amazing how many folks are closed off to what I was talking about before I ever opened my mouth. I know that I've been the same way in my life and I know there's some sort of karma at work there, although to my credit I remember being very excited when the last canvasser for Obama came to my door and the guy being a little taken aback by our enthusiasm.
It's been years since I've gone door to door for any candidate, and I was reminded that if nothing else an afternoon spent canvassing will reveal some pretty interesting stories. For example, some of the interesting stories from today:

• Elderly gentlemen who answered the door in his bath robe and boxer shorts.  There was gape-age.  I averted my eyes as I offered a flyer.
• After I got through my spiel a gentlemen in his forties asks me if I noticed the "No Solicitors" sign by his front door.  The following exchange occurs -

Homeowner: "See here?  It says no solicitors."
Me: "Well, I'm not selling anything.  I just want to share some information about the school board election."
Homeowner: "I am apolitical."
Me: "It's a non-partisan election"
Homeowner: "Get off my porch, jackass".
Door shuts.
Me (to self): "I'm going to mark you as hostile." (in a TAKE THAT manner)

• Lady starts shaking her head back and forth almost as soon as I start speaking.  She interrupts me to say "No."  I just barely got in "I'm here about the school board election" as she shut the door.

This is definitely the kind of thing that I see as a challenge for myself - way outside of my comfort zone - but I'm glad I did it.  I don't know if I could ever run for an office knowing how many doors I'd have to knock on in order to do so, but I'm proud of myself for getting out there to do it.
Oh, and also... if you live in Portland, vote for Scott Bailey for Portland School Board.  (Along with Martin Gonzalez and Trudy Sargent).

Andrew's Fencing Classes

 

Andrew has been taking fencing lessons for almost a year now.  He's now taking classes twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays and he's gotten quite into it.  He goes to the Studio of American Fencing with his friend Frank, and it seems to be a sport he can really get into.  No surprise - it involves swords! 

Wii Fit

We finally bought a Wii fit.  More accurately we finally saw fit to expend the enormous amount of energy and resourcefulness needed to locate a Wii fit to buy.  After calling 4 Best Buys and 5 Targets I finally located a Wii Fit at the mall.  Nothing taps into my American consumerism more directly than scarcity.    I realized as I worked through this process that there are truly very few instances in my life when I want to buy something and can't go do so almost at will.

The kids love the game(s), which I'm really glad about.  I wasn't really sure that they would be into a game that is pretty much based on exercise but luckily they are.  If nothing else, Andrew and I keep going back and forth on who can set the highest score on the balance games. 

And nothing is quite as funny as watching someone else play a game on Wii fit.