Wednesday, December 19, 2007

It's been busy!

Friday evening, we went out to look at Christmas lights with our friends Les & Keri. Then Sunday afternoon, we went to the Keller Auditorium to see the Nutcracker Suite.

Last evening, the PAA girls played at Hockinson High School in Brush Prarie against the Hawks. PAA played hard, but pulled up a little short and tired at the end. Tonight, they drive over to the coast to play against the Nestucca High School Bobcats. I won't be able to make that game, though. This is their last game this season.

I work tomorrow and Friday, then I'm off for the rest of the year.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The girls won!

The Cougars never trailed last night against Neah-Kah-Nie and won by almost 2-1. That was a nice turnaround from Monday's game.

We got our Christmas tree up last evening, so now we can start decorating it.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Portland Christian won last night

The PC Royals were just too good for PAA. Kim Hill had lots of blocked shots...

Today PAA is going up to Vernonia to help clean up from last week's storm. Then, tonight they host the Neah-Kah-Nie Pirates. Hopefully, they'll bounce back after last night. They have another game on Thursday hosting the Vernonia Loggers [and having a canned food drive for the Vernonia families].

Tomorrow evening, the Alegria Choir is singing at The Grotto.

Oh, by the way, PAA lost last Thursday's game at Mark Morris, too. :-(

Thursday, December 06, 2007

The PAA girls won their game on Tuesday

They were ahead substantially for the entire game with Corbett, and the second team played for half of the game.

This evening, they have an away game with the Mark Morris High School Monarchs (in Longview). We've not played them before, at least since I've been attending games. Hopefully, the Cougars will continue their good effort.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

It was a good weekend

At the Holiday Party, we won ten Regal Cinemas movie tickets and a $50 McManamins gift certificate.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert was very impressive. They had lasers, flame, fog, and snow! My favorite song was Christmas Canon Rock, but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. Afterwards, we went to Red Robin to eat with our friends John and Kelli.

Tonight, PAA plays Corbett Cardinals at home. Hopefully, they'll snap out of Saturday's loss to Salem Academy and come back strong. Go Cougars.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

The holidays are here!

On Saturday evening, my company, Serena Software, is having its Holiday Party at The Crown Ballroom in downtown Portland, so I'll get to wear a tie to make Joy happy!

On Sunday afternoon, Joy and I are going to the Rose Garden for a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. I've heard some of their songs, and their performance is supposed to be great; the videos that I've seen on youtube.com reflect that.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

A great Thanksgiving



For Thanksgiving, we went over to my Uncle Paul & Aunt Carolyn's home in Tillamook, Oregon. Unusually for November, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We went and walked a couple of miles down the beach before dinner; maybe we burned off some of the extra calories! :-)

Joy got to ride a horse, which she really enjoyed.

Yesterday was black Friday--for shopping! I actually went to Staples--and waited outside for an hour just to get in the store. I think I'll leave the shopping to Joy next year!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

It's almost Thanksgiving

Another week has passed. Next Thursday, it is Thanksgiving. We're going to Tillamook for our annual family get together at my Aunt Carolyn's; lots of food and fun! We always watch Love That Bob "Thanksgiving in Joplin" (an old black & white comedy) and White Christmas.

Monday evening was Senior Recognition for PAA. Vainiaku looked beautiful as always...

Sabbath at Pleasant Valley Church, our best friends' daughter, Bethany, is getting married. Joy is going to bake the wedding cake.

Gas prices keep creeping upward. I wonder how high they are going to reach?

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

It was a nice weekend in Portland.

A sunny November weekend in Portland, Oregon, is rather unusual. On Sunday, I took John downtown to Powell's City of Books. At first site, he thought that I'd exaggerated the size--until he got inside and needed a map. He was pretty impressed by the number of books they had. We' ve decided that we'll start going down there about once a month.

Sunday evening, Portland Adventist Elementary School had their Harvest Festival. It was fun--but noisy!

Last night we went to eat an authentic Mexican meal at our friend Alejandro's house. Mily's flan was delicious.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Another week has gone by

Joy has been having some chest pain and she had a heart stress-test/sonogram on Monday. Thank God that it showed no problems.

We've also been having problems with our van. It looks like we're going to at least need a new starter and may also need some transmission work. Oh well, that's life, I guess...

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

PAA lost to Rainier

It was bittersweet watching Vainiaku's last high school volleyball game yesterday evening in Rainier. I've been attending her games since about 5th grade! Oh, well, basketball season is getting started, and both Vainiaku and Selita are anxious for that.

It was a very beautiful day yesterday, sunny, with the temperature in the 70s. They are forecasting some rain for later today, though.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Genealogy

I got a copy of our family tree from my Uncle Vic in New York that allowed me to extend my Grave's genealogy back to John Graves, born in England about 1605, a big jump! The document had been created by a great-aunt. Before this, on that side of my family, I could only get back to my dad's great grand-father. It was a time-consuming, but very interesting project.

The girls beat Riverdale on Thursday, V's last home volleyball game; I'll miss watching her play! They have an away game tomorrow against the Rainier Columbians.

I'm already looking forward to watching the PAA girls play basketball.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Wow--it's been a week

Time flies when you're having fun, or so they say...

The PAA Girls Varsity Volleyball team lost their match at Catlin Gabel last week. Last night, they played OES at home and the Aardvarks won--again. I sound kind of like Forrest Gump. The Cougars' last home match is tomorrow evening against the Riverdale Mavericks. Hopefully, they'll win that one.

Vainiaku and several of her PAA classmates got to participate in the Topoff 4 disaster drill yesterday. They thought it was fun.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

PAA Varsity lost to the Pirates

For both the JV and Varsity matches, the games were evenly matched, frequently reaching scores of 23-22, before a win was finally reached. PAA JV won their match 2 games to 1, but varsity lost 3 games to 1. The girls have a game this evening at Catlin Gabel against the Eagles, but I won't be able to attend due to a Love and Respect marriage seminar Joy & I are attending at Pleasant Valley Church. Tomorrow morning, the girls are heading to Walla Walla University for a tournament. Joy & I may try going up on Saturday to watch the evening games.

It was a windy, rainy day at Rockaway Beach. Big waves were crashing onto the jetty as we drove past. It reminded me of typical coastal weather for November, not October.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Another Tuesday, another volleyball game

Today, the girls play a volleyball game at Neah-Kah-Nie High School (map). Hopefully, they'll have a better game against the Pirates than last Thursday! This means another late evening, probably getting back home around 10pm.

It has been busy at work--we're trying to get our next release out the door.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Another Saturday

The girls lost their games at Warrenton. The Warriors seemed to play better as a team, with crisper passes, etc.

James & I had Multimedia duty at PVC again today. It went pretty smooth, once we figured out how to play MP4 files within EasyWorship.

We're planning on going to visit our good friends Les & Keri this evening and watch some videos.

Tomorrow, my friend John is coming over and we're going to watch several episodes of Dr. Who on our DVR.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

The week is half over

Yesterday evening, I went and helped a friend with his computers.... One of them was terminal, but I helped him with another one...

Today, Joy gets to learn how to give me an allergy shot. Neither of us is particularly looking forward to that, I assure you...

Tomorrow, the girls play an away volleyball game against Warrenton Warriors (map). I'm going to carpool with Brian (their coach), since it is so far away. Go Cougars!

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

No game today

It's Tuesday, but there isn't a volleyball game today, so it seems kind of strange.

Joy has class this evening at Marylhurst University, so she won't be home until after I'm asleep... :-(

Monday, October 01, 2007

A rainy Monday in Oregon

I survived my surgery--although it certainly wasn't enjoyable!

I had Multimedia duty at church on Sabbath--and Saturday night, so I didn't get as much rest as I should have. So, yesterday, I spent most of the day relaxing.

It was wet driving in to work this morning. There was an accident just in front of me coming out of the tunnels onto west bound Sunset Highway, but I navigated it safely.

It's back to work time!

Friday, September 28, 2007

I had a vasectomy

This morning, I had a vasectomy. I was nervous before and having a needle poked into my scrotum wasn't very enjoyable! But, the thought of trying to teach someone to drive when I'm 67 just doesn't appeal to me, so I went through with it. So far, the pain hasn't been too bad.

I have multimedia duty tomorrow at PVC, including coverage tomorrow evening for the Out of Thin Air net meeting. Hopefully, since I'll just be sitting, I'll be ok.

It's supposed to rain all weekend, so I'll probably get lots of rest.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Cougars won last evening

Both the JV and Varsity Cougars Volleyball teams won last night at Riverdale High School. Neither of the teams lost a game in their matches, despite some unsportsmanlike behavior from some of the Riverdale boys. The Riverdale coach finally had to tell them to stop their rudeness.

Tomorrow, they play at home against the Vernonia Loggers, another strong opponent.

Yesterday, I got my new CPAP machine, a ResMed S8 Elite. It is much smaller than my trial unit, which is nice. I'm having a problem with the humidifier, though. Hopefully that will be easy to cure.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Bagby Hot Springs!

Yesterday morning, we watched Wild Hogs on DVD--a very funny movie, by the way. Then, for the afternoon we went up to Bagby Hot Springs. The drive up along the Clackamas River was beautiful. It was a brisk day hiking the 1 1/2 miles each way through the woods, but the nice, hot water felt wonderful. There were friendly people there visiting with each other. Joy & I are already talking about going up there again soon.

Anyhow, I'm back at work on a Monday. Tomorrow, I go in to get my permanent CPAP machine. It is supposed to be much more compact than the loaner that I'm currently using. After my appointment, I come back across town to watch the PAA girls play the Riverdale Mavericks at volleyball. Go Cougars!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

A nice Saturday

Yesterday, we drove up and took the Mt. Hood Loop. It was lovely going up the gorge on I-84. We stopped at Panorama Point (near Hood River) and took several photographs, including the one I'm using as the album cover for my Mt. Hood Album. We continued up Oregon 35, stopping to see Sahalie Falls. I've been to the Sahalie Falls on the McKenzie River up from Eugene, but hadn't stopped to see the Hood River version before.

We took a side road to see Trillium Lake. Unfortunately, at the time we were there, Mt. Hood was obscured by clouds. We'll have to go back again!

Today, we're planning on driving up to Bagby Hot Springs (near Estacada).

Friday, September 21, 2007

TGIF!

Last evening, the PAA Cougar girls battled hard, but Rainier was just a little bit better. There were many good volleys and much fan enthusiasm!

I'm looking forward to a nice weekend. It is Joy & I's 2nd "meeting" anniversary. Our van just had $650 worth of repairs, so we're just going to stay at home and do some day trips to save some money.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

The girls lost on Tuesday

OES played well (as usual) on Tuesday. Our PAA Cougar girls played hard, but just didn't have enough to win against the Aardvarks. Tonight, they play the Rainier High School Columbians at home. Hopefully, they'll get back on the winning side.

Yesterday, James and I were on our way to a Multimedia meeting at Pleasant Valley, when all of a sudden, the car just died. I called Joy to come get us, then got on the phone with AAA. While I was talking with AAA, Joy just happened to try jump starting it, and amazingly, it worked. There was power for the radio, etc., so I didn't even thing about the battery. After driving home and shutting off the engine, it failed to even click, so we went out to Walmart and purchased a new battery.

This afternoon, Joy and I are going to pick up our new glasses. Maybe we'll be able to see again!

Monday, September 17, 2007

It rained yesterday

Our plans to go up to Mt. Hood didn't pan out due to the weather. The thought of going down the mountain on a sled in the rain on a winding concrete slide didn't appeal to us. Instead we went to the Family Fun Center in Wilsonville. For six hours, we played miniature golf, drove go carts, and played laser tag. I'd never tried laser tag before; it was a lot of fun.

Monday is here and it's back to work. At least I'm over my flu!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

It's Sabbath!

I got some kind of flu on Thursday. I left work early that day and spent yesterday mostly in bed. Last evening, we went to Romano's Macaroni Grill to celebrate James' admission to MHCC.

Joy and I made it to church at Pleasant Valley Church; the sermon this morning by Pastor Cory was very appropriate.

Tomorrow we're planning to go up to Mt. Hood Ski Bowl and ride the Alpine Slide to celebrate James' 19th birthday.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

PAA won last night

Both the PAA JV and Varsity Volleyball teams won last night at home against Catlin Gabel. The Eagles would rally and get close, but each time, the Cougars would pull away with a win. The girls' next game is Tuesday at Oregon Episcopal School, one of our traditional rivals--and the Aardvarks are usually very good!

I woke up this morning feeling like I got hit by a truck--diarrhea, aches, etc. I hope this isn't a sign of getting old...

James is registered at Mt. Hood Community College. We're going to go out and celebrate this evening!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

PAA Varsity Girls lost their first game

My daughters, Vainiaku and Selita, play on the PAA Cougars Varsity Volleyball team. PAA played a match against the Clatskanie Tigers last evening. The PAA JV Girls won their match 2-0, but the Varsity girls lost 3-0. Oh well, it was the first match of the season, so they should improve. They have another match today against the Catlin Gabel Eagles.

I am usually a line judge for PAA volleyball games.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

9/11--Six years later, another Tuesday

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I had the day off of work to go on a field trip to The Maize at the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island, with my youngest daughter, Selita. It was a very clear day (much like today, by the way), but I turned on the TV to watch the Weather Channel to get the forecast. They had a scrolling headline announcing that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. My first thought was that it was some kind of freak accident. I changed over to CNN to watch the coverage about the time the second tower was struck--and I immediately thought of Al Qaeda. I was glued to the TV until we had to leave for the school to start the field trip. While out on the island, a couple of fighter jets flew over, and Selita asked me if they were good planes or bad planes.

That evening, I was teaching a database class at the University of Phoenix. One of my students worked for Boeing in Gresham. He was very shook up, seeing their planes turned into guided missiles.

We lived in the flight path for Portland International Airport, and were used to seeing planes frequently out our front window. It was strange to have none in the sky for several days.

My heart still goes out to the heroic firefighters and policemen that risked--and lost--their lives to rescue others. This video still brings tears to my eyes (words).

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

A nice weekend

We're up at my parents' home in Glenoma, Washington for the weekend. We drove up Friday evening. When we got here, the stars were out, shining brightly.

Yesterday, after church, we drove up to Mt. Rainier National Park and took lots of pictures (they can be seen on my Picasa Web album).

This afternoon, we're going to a friend's wedding in Woodland, Washington, then heading back home.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

The week is half over already

It is nice to have a 4 day work week. Only 2 days done at work, but only 2 days left! I can't complain about that!

Apple has announced their new touch screen iPods... They are finally getting interesting to me, as a non-Mac person (at least lately). If my Dell Axim ever dies, I'll probably go the iPod route, assuming that it can handle contacts and calendars...

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Our labors on Labor Day

Yesterday, we did a lot of school shopping. We started out to buy a scooter for John to use to get from Portland Adventist Elementary School to the Tri-Met bus. We had to go to 7 stores before we found one at WalMart, a Razor Cruiser Scooter, that would last him for a year or so.

Then last evening, I went out with James to help him pick out a notebook for college. We ended up at OfficeMax getting an Acer Aspire 5610, with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium on it. He was wanting a bigger, better notebook, but that should do him fine to get through college.

I don't particularly care for shopping, so I was glad to get it finished.

It was raining when I woke up this morning, a change from the beautiful weather over the weekend. Oh well, they'd predicted rain yesterday!

Sunday, September 02, 2007

A nice day on Mt. Hood

Yesterday, we drove up through the Columbia Gorge to Hood River, Oregon, stopping at the Mitchell Point Overlook, which we'd not seen before. From there we went up to Lost Lake, driving through orchards loaded with pears and apples; we'll have to go up there again in a few weeks and get some fresh fruit! On the drive, Mt. Hood was in front of us, and Mt. Adams was behind us.

We had a lovely 3 mile hike around the beautiful lake, seeing Mt. Hood across the peaceful water, snacking on wild blue berries.

We drove back over Lolo Pass to Sandy, where we ate dinner at Calamity Jane's Hamburger Parlour Restaurant. James ordered a 2/3 pound burger and he claims that he could have eaten their 1 pounder, but he was groaning when he finished his! The rest of us were full after eating their 1/3 pound sandwiches. John couldn't finish his chocolate milk shake.

For pictures from yesterday, see my Columbia Gorge, Lost Lake, and Mt. Hood albums on Picasa Web.

This afternoon, we're going up to Vernonia to visit Joy's sister, Tammy, and her family.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

It's Sabbath

It was a long week, somehow. I'm glad that the weekend is starting. I've been adding more entries to my biography. Everything I think of make me think of something else.

I woke up early this morning to see a meteor shower, but didn't see a one....

We're probably going up to Lost Lake today and maybe Mt. Hood Ski Bowl to ride the alpine slide.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

The week is almost over!

It is Thursday evening. I'm still tired; I think it's because of the lunar eclipse the other night.... I'm not as young as I used to be :-) I'm looking forward to having a 3 day weekend off--for Labor Day.

I've been working on fleshing out my biography. I keep coming up with new items to remember. My brother Jimmy sent me his contributions.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Childhood memories

Seeing the eclipse made me remember the 1st eclipse that I saw (or at least remember seeing). That got me started in thinking about my past--childhood, teen years, college, etc.

I've started writing out my memories, schools, etc. so that this information will be documented. I just wish that I had this kind of information from my grandparents to put into my Family Tree Maker genealogy database. I'm going to try getting this kind of information from my parents, aunts, and uncles, so at least the next generation will have this available, too.

I've been using Google Docs & Spreadsheets to enter this information. It is nice to be able to work on this anywhere that has web access available. I am also tying the cities and schools into Google Maps to show where they are located. I'm going to investigate getting some of my old slides scanned into digital photographs so that I can add these, too.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

A total lunar eclipse

We got up at about 2:30 to see the lunar eclipse. I got out my Meade 4.5" Newtonian Reflector Telescope and we looked at the moon through it.

Of course, now, I'm tired and need a nap.

Monday, August 27, 2007

A busy Sunday

We spent most of the day cleaning up our kitchen. We finally got to unpack our new Cutco knives and put away the contents of the boxes that we moved from my apartment. Last evening, we went to the Regal Division Street theater, the one where James works, to watch Rush Hour 3. It was a good, funny way to end a busy day. Jackie Chan does such a good job in these films.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

A trip to the coast

Yesterday we took a drive to the Oregon coast near Tillamook. We went along the Three Capes Scenic Drive. It wasn't Hawai'i, but it was still beautiful.


Posted by Picasa

Friday, August 24, 2007

A new bed

Joy and I got our new Select Comfort Sleep Number 5000 bed on Wednesday. It was a little complicated to get set up, partly because one set of the instructions was wrong. It is very nice to have individual controls for hardness. Joy likes a very soft mattress, while I prefer a firmer one, so this way we can both be happy.

Vainiaku, a senior, and Selita, a junior, started school at Portland Adventist Academy yesterday. John starts 8th grade at Portland Adventist Elementary School on Monday. James will be starting his freshman year at Mt. Hood Community College in September.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Installing Squid

I spent last evening installing Squid, an open-source caching proxy for the Web. I am attempting to filter out porn, spyware, warez, etc., from my son's computer. I think I finally have it working, after downloading a blacklist from SquidGuard. I couldn't get SquidGuard to compile under Win2K/Cygwin, so I wrote a quick and dirty perl script to convert the blacklist urls and domains into regular expressions.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

It's been a long time

Since my last post, a lot has happened.

On July 14, 2007, I got married to Joy Halleson. We went to Hawai'i for our honeymoon!

I'll try doing better at keeping up with this.