A busy weekend

We had a busy weekend. Friday evening, we watched Finding Forrester. On Saturday, I had multimedia duty at PVC, including an Investiture for the Pathfinders in the afternoon. After that, Joy and I watched 3 of the movies in the Love Comes Softly series: Love Comes Softly, Love's Enduring Promise, and Love's Long Journey. They were good, wholesome shows.

Yesterday, after my weekly checking for virus and spyware on our 7 computers (for 3 people!), I went over to help our friends Keri and Les with some work on their computers, too. Keri bought a new 23" monitor and a 1 TB Western Digital My Book backup drive to use in her home business. It only cost $99.99 for the drive; my first 40 mb drive cost much more than that many years ago. I helped her get them all configured. Joy was at PVC helping with a women's ministry event. She drafted John and I to come help with the cleanup last evening.

The swine flu epidemic is in the news; some schools are closed here in Oregon and SW Washington. It seems to me that the fear is being overblown, though.

Now, I'm back at work. Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo--yummy Mexican food!

May Day!

It's May Day, 2009. The weather forecast is for another nice day. This weekend, however, it is supposed to rain. Oh, well.

Joy is planning on going to a tanning salon this month to get ready for our summer vacations. I'd go, too, but I don't tan, just burn.

Yesterday, Joy and I rode our bikes along the Springwater trail again, this time for about 6 miles. It feels good to be able to ride without feeling totally out of breath.

At work, I'm hooking some perl scripts into the Big Brother monitoring software for use by one of our customers. It's the first perl that I've done in several years. I'd much rather be using python, but at least I have a job.

The last day of April

It's Thursday, April 30. The weather is supposed to be nicer today; hopefully, Joy and I can take a bike ride this evening. Of course, they are already talking about rain again for the weekend.

On Monday, I bought went to AAA to get our tickets for Magic Mountain. Tomorrow, we're planning to take John to the DMV so he can take his written test for his learners permit. That's partly so he can help drive while we're on our vacation, getting some hours in.

Yesterday, we had an off-site face-to-face meeting for the developers, support people, etc., for my product, ServAssure Enterprise. The meeting was held at McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. Some of our co-workers from Bangalore, India and State College, Pennsylvania flew in for it. Hopefully, we'll use what we talked about yesterday to make our process and our product better.

I have multimedia duty again Sabbath at PVC--substituting for someone out of town.

Just another Monday

We had a good weekend. John had three of his friends over for his birthday party on Saturday evening. I doubt that any of them got more than about one hour of sleep, between their games and movies. John was bragging that he was going to stay up all night last night, too, but he fell asleep in the car while Joy was talking with him--between words of a sentence that he was speaking!

We got our Southern California CityPass tickets at Costco yesterday. They were only $227 each; that saved us $128 for our family, enough to pay for all 4 of us to go to Magic Mountain, too. We were expecting booklets of tickets, but they are gift cards, instead. Now, we just need to pay for our gasoline, food, and a couple of Las Vegas shows, and we haven't used any credit cards. Of course, I'm sure we'll be buying some souvenirs from the various places.

Friday once again

It's another Friday; it's doughnut day at work, which is always good--or at least tasty!

Tomorrow, we have multimedia duty again. We might take a trip to the Orezon Zoo tomorrow afternoon, depending upon the weather and Joy's cake decorating tasks. Samudra, their baby elephant, just hit the 1000 pounds mark--a big baby, but very cute. In the evening, John is having some of his friends over for his birthday party. I imagine that they'll make a lot of noise, watching movies and playing video games. Maybe I'll have to stay in my room with my headphones on and listen to music or watch a DVD on my laptop!

Last evening, Joy and I went to PVC to hear a webcast by Dave Ramsey present a Town Hall for Hope. While I don't necessarily agree with everything Dave advocates, I give a hearty amen to the idea of personal responsibility. Requiring my grandkids to pay for mistakes made by greedy individuals in New York, Washington, or wherever, just doesn't seem right to me; nor does suing McDonalds because their hot coffee was actually hot and someone is stupid enough to put the coffee cup between their legs and got burned.

Another nice stretch of weather

We've enjoyed several nice days in a row. On Saturday afternoon, Joy and I rode our bikes about 9 miles on the Springwater Trail. This time, we rode east towards Gresham. The temperature was just right for riding.

On Sunday, we spent several hours organizing our garage. On Sunday evening, we took a drive up to the top of Powell Butte. Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Adams were all visible, in the sunshine.

We made our vacation reservations over the weekend. For our Vegas trip, we'll be flying Alaska Airlines to and from Las Vegas. Our hotel will be the Stratosphere. We decided to stay in Williams, Arizona for our Grand Canyon excursion. It was over $100 a night cheaper than the motels that are closer to the park. We also ordered our America the Beautiful pass, giving us admission to all of the national parks, monuments, forests, etc. During our trip, we'll be going to three national parks: Death Valley, Zion, and Grand Canyon. We'll also be going to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Just the admissions to those four parks cost almost as much as the annual pass, plus we can use it at Crater Lake, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainier, closer to home.

We're staying in three different motels in Southern California. The 1st couple of nights, we'll stay in Sylmar, about half way between Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios Hollywood. Then, we'll spend 4 nights in Anaheim, near Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. Finally, we'll spend two nights at a motel in San Diego near Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. We still need to purchase our Southern California CityPass booklets. Through AAA, we're getting very good prices on our Magic Mountain tickets.

Other than our gas, food, parking costs, and tickets to a couple of shows in Vegas, our vacations have all been paid for! We're going to buy food at grocery stores as much as we can, especially while we're in the amusement parks with their captive audience pricing.

Friday!

It's Friday--and we're supposed to have very nice weather over the weekend, a double blessing. Hopefully, we can get out and enjoy spring weather in a park or the zoo!

Last evening after our workout at the gym, Joy and I went on a movie date to the Moreland Theater in Sellwood to see Duplicity, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. It was an interesting crime caper, that kept having unexpected twists--up until the end. The theater itself is the old style, distinctive type, very different from the multiplex theaters that we usually frequent.

Over the weekend, we should be making our reservations for our southern California and Las Vegas vacations this summer.

Tax Day 2009

April 15--a day of dread for many Americans. Where does all of the money go? A visual guide to where federal tax dollars go.

Yesterday, we gave John a Savage Mark II .22 rifle for his 16th birthday. It has a 10 bullet magazine, and is bolt action. He also got Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 DVDs, some pillows, and an ornamental dragon handled knife.

The weather is supposed to be better this weekend; hopefully we can get out and enjoy it.

John's birthday--16 years old.

Today is John's 16th birthday. He's still not ready to take his drivers license test, so he won't be driving today, though. We went out last evening to celebrate, since James is working today. John selected Red Robin as his restaurant of choice. He wants a .22 rifle to use for target practice. We live in city limits, so he won't be able to shoot it unless we're out in the country somewhere. John will have some friends over on Saturday evening to play games.

Tomorrow is income tax day. Our taxes are finished and have already been efiled.

I've been dusting off my Perl skills on a project at work. I used the language extensively several years ago, but its syntax is pretty obtuse. Oh well, at least I have a job, unlike thousands of other Oregonians. I heard on the radio this morning that Oregon's unemployment rate is over 12%--wow...

Good Friday, 2009

It's Good Friday today. The weather isn't forecast to be nearly as nice for today through Easter Sunday; in fact, it's supposed to rain. Too bad it won't be as pretty as last weekend! Oh well, at least it is the weekend.

Tomorrow, we're going to the home of our friends Les & Keri to celebrate Adriana's 1st birthday. Joy and I are honorary aunt & uncle to Adriana. Joy is going to be making a birthday cake this evening.

It is Fondue Friday this evening for the youth from PVC. We're hoping that John will connect with some of the kids there and be interested and enthusiastic about going to this regularly.

A nice April Monday

Yesterday was beautiful and sunny here in Portland. It got to almost 80 degrees. Today is supposed to be similar.

Joy and I took an eleven mile bike ride from our home down to the Springwater Trail. We were a little stiff and sore afterwards, but our LA Fitness exercising has made a dramatic improvement in us. A year ago, a bike ride of only about a mile made us pretty exhausted, and yesterday, we weren't that tired, just a little stiff from doing a different exercise.

Attached are a couple of pictures that I took yesterday with my G1 phone.

A Good Weekend

The Why? seminar that we attended was good. We learned a lot; now we just need to apply what we learned to our lives.

On Saturday evening, we went over to the home of our friends, Les & Keri. I helped Les get his new netbook computer connected to their network printer. We then watched Stardust, an enjoyable movie.

Yesterday, after our seminar, Joy & I took a walk in the sunshine along the Springwater and Butler Creek rails, talking about the seminar. We took pictures of rabbits, trilliums, ducks, and creeks.

It is supposed to get up to around 77 degrees today, a record high for this date.

Another Friday

This weekend, Joy and I are attending the Why? seminar by the Life Renewal Institute. The seminar teaches a process whereby one can recover from the wounds received in childhood which plague our thoughts, feelings and behaviors and sabotage our relationships and success.

It is supposed to be sunny and in the high 60s or low 70s this weekend. Hopefully, we'll be able to enjoy some of the sunshine after our seminar.

I saw a hummingbird feeding from cherry blossoms outside my office on Wednesday. I'm glad that spring is here.

April is a busy month: our son John's birthday, Easter, etc.

April Fools Day, 2009

There have been a lot of online pranks already today.

Wikipedia has entries like these:

• ... that in 1825, the Court of Exchequer declared all contracts by hobbits illegal and void in England?
• 1572 – Spanish general and governor Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba (pictured) lost his glasses in the town of Brielle, enabling sea beggars to gain the first foothold on what would become the Dutch Republic.
• ... that Wikipedia now has an article about everything?
  

Google has announced Gmail Autopilot by CADIE.

It was another rainy morning, here in Portland. By the way, yesterday, askmen.com had Portland listed as number 22 in the entire world of men's favorite cities!

An interesting weekend.

On Saturday morning, we left Portland in the rain, the trees in spring blossom. By the time we crossed Pike's Hill on I-5, it had changed to snow. The snow was coming down pretty hard going east on US 12, and the road was pretty covered going over the hill west of Morton. At my parent's home in Glenoma, they had a couple of inches of snow on the ground.

It snowed off and on most of Saturday afternoon. Yesterday, the sun came out and the snow melted. John was out shooting pellet guns. By the time we drove home, he was getting pretty accurate with it.

From my mom, I got a short book, The Ten Jones Kids, written by a great-great aunt, having some more genealogy of a side of my family about which I don't know very much. I found out from the book that one of my ancestors had homesteaded land where Boeing Field is now located. I'm going to type the book into Word, and from there copy it to my web site.

On the way there and back, we listened to On Her Own, a book on CD. It was a good, interesting story. We actually finished the last CD at home last evening.

It's back to work Monday. Wednesday is April Fools Day! The year is passing quickly.

Happy Birthday, Dad & Selita!

Sunday was my daughter Selita's 18th birthday. That makes me feel old!

Today is my Dad's 75th birthday. We're going up to Glenoma to visit them for the weekend and tell him 'Happy Birthday' in person. Joy is going to make him a lemon meringue pie, his favorite kind. It will be our first visit since their January flood.

It is a sunny Thursday, nice to have for Oregon in March!

Yesterday at Fry's I bought a some box set DVDs. I got Love Comes Softly Series, volumes 1 and volume 2, along with the Ultimate Flint Collection, starring James Coburn. I also got a 16gb SDHC card for Joy's Canon PowerShot SX110 IS camera, enough space to store 4000 of its 9 megapixel pictures on it.

A Wonderful Weekend!

Joy and I had a great time this weekend. Despite the forecast of rain for the entire weekend, the weather was cooperative, overall. We had some rain, but not enough to change any of our plans.

We drove over on Saturday morning, going through Albany, Corvallis, and Philomath on the way. We caressed, cuddled, and kissed in the car as we drove. We ate lunch at Sizzler in Newport. They had a good salad bar, with lots of fruit. We then bought a Subway sandwich to eat for dinner, then drove to the Grand Victorian to check in. It is a lovely, Victorian style home. Our suite was on the top floor, with a private balcony and a 2 person Jacuzzi in the bathroom overlooking the Pacific. We highly recommend that any couple wanting a very romantic and sensual trip away at the coast visit this bed & breakfast!

We filled up the large tub and soaked together with the jets going for 30 minutes or so, looking out the window at the ocean --and at each other! After drying off, we cuddled together on the large king-size bed reading stories to each other.

We then watched a DVD, How to Strip for Your Husband, Lover or Partner, teaching Joy some moves to use as my own personal stripper. While she was getting herself ready, I put Dirty Dancing on to give her some dance music to get her into the rhythm. She then practiced by herself for a few minutes, while I rested in the car, then demonstrated her routine for me on my return. Her show was fantastic, spectacular, erotic, and arousing! After her striptease, we danced naked together very briefly (it was chilly!) on the balcony in the dark with the stars above us, hearing the crash of the surf, before returning to the tub to heat us up for some awesome, great, fabulous sex.

Yesterday, we ate a great breakfast prepared to our specifications; we'd selected waffles with warm syrup or blackberry jelly, scrambled eggs, hash browns, orange juice and tea. We drove down across the Yaquina Bay Bridge to the shops near the aquarium. We bought a blown glass oil lamp at Pyromania, and then some various gifts and souvenirs in one of the other shops.

We spent a couple of hours at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, enjoying Oddwater, the sea otters, the seals and sea lions, the sea bird aviary, along with Passages of the Deep. It was fun seeing Joy touching the rays, horseshoe crabs, sharks, sea anemones, etc. She was like a little kid, all excited.

We stopped at Chinook Winds to eat, but the buffet had just closed for an hour and the smell of tobacco smoke in the air was making Joy nauseous, so we just drove back to Portland, Joy napping. Going over the pass of the coast range, it was snowing like crazy for a few minutes! A few minutes later, on the east side of the hills, it was sunny again.

We ate dinner at Chevys, using a gift card that I got from work for most of the bill.

The only downside of the weekend (other than the Chinook Winds issue) was that Joy's Canon SX100is camera wasn't behaving correctly. It would frequently display the message: Lens Error, Restart Camera. At first, we could turn it off and back on and it would function. But, it got to the point that it wouldn't work at all. I had my older Canon SD550 camera with me, so we still got some good pictures, but my camera doesn't have nearly as powerful of a zoom lens as does Joy's. Fortunately, her camera is still under warranty, so I'll take it in today to get repaired or replaced before our trips to California and Las Vegas this summer.

The first day of spring, 2009.

Today is the 1st day of spring. In the last couple of days, I've seen daffodils, crocus, and some trees in blossom. I'm ready for some warmer, drier, nicer weather!

Joy and I are looking forward to our excursion to Newport, on the Oregon coast. The forecast is for rain, but hopefully it won't be pouring down all weekend--and even if it is, we'll still enjoy soaking in our 2 person Jacuzzi bathtub in the Victoria Suite, looking out at the ocean. We can still do some dancing out on our private balcony, even if it's raining--we can always go back inside and warm up again.

We're going to drive down I-5 to Albany, then take US 20 through Corvallis and over the coast range, a route that I haven't taken in many years. It should be fun in our new Taurus; although it isn't a sports car, it still handles much better than our old van did.

On Sunday, we'll come home via Lincoln City. We're planning to stop at the Outlet Center and do some shopping--maybe get Joy a new swimming suit for our vacations this summer (since it is now spring, they should have summer clothes for sale!). Then, we'll go eat lunch at the Siletz Bay Buffet at Chinook Winds Casino, before heading home.

We got another car!

Yesterday, we bought a maroon 2007 Ford Taurus SE sedan with about 31000 miles on it. It will be nice to have a newer, more reliable and more comfortable vehicle for taking trips out of town. Cruise Control, yeah!

Joy and I will drive the new car this weekend when we go over to stay at The Grand Victorian bed & breakfast in Newport. On Saturday, depending on what time we actually get on the road, we may visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It will fun to relax at the beach for a couple of days.

Joy was sick :-(

We'd planned to go get a newer car, but that didn't work out. Joy got some kind of stomach flu over the weekend. Saturday night, she was up most of the night in the bathroom.

Hopefully, we'll be able to go out this evening. We need a newer vehicle for taking trips, like our one from this weekend to Newport, and our family vacation this summer to California. It will also be good to have cruise control, etc. Most likely, we'll end up with a 2007 or 2008 Ford Taurus.

We had a good time seeing Taken with our friends Les & Keri. Unfortunately, they aren't going to be able to make it to Las Vegas with us. We'll just have to take lots of pictures to share with them of Zion and the Grand Canyon.

It's Friday the 13th--again

I'm not superstitious, so I enjoy every Friday, including Friday the 13th. We're going out Sunday to buy a new car to replace our dead van. We've been getting by ok with a single vehicle, but our Subaru is rather old itself, and I wouldn't want to take a long trip to California, etc., in it. We're looking for a used car (a couple of years old). Cruise Control is a necessity, in my opinion. Driving for very long without it, my foot starts to get a cramp. Must be a sign of getting old.

Joy and I are going to see Taken tomorrow evening with Les & Keri. It will be fun having a double date again.

We're planning to make our reservations this weekend for both our California and Las Vegas trips, to lock in rates, flights, and cars. It looks like we'll be staying in the Stratosphere Hotel while we're in Vegas. We'll probably go to its Top of the World restaurant for our anniversary dinner, located in the top of the Stratosphere Tower, kind of like the Space Needle--but almost twice as as tall. We're planning to get there a little before sunset, and stay and watch the city lights come on down the strip.

We've added a day at Magic Mountain to our California vacation. Through AAA, we can get tickets for only $27 each, saving quite a bit of money. It will be fun to ride some world class roller coasters again. But, it will be a busy week.

We're kind of up in the air as far as our Grand Canyon trip. It would be nice to stay at a motel in Tusayan, Arizona (minutes from the park), but rooms there cost about $100 a night more than do rooms down in Williams (60 miles further south). So, Joy and I have to decide what's more important, time or money! :-)

Another week begins

Joy was over at Lincoln City with some ladies from our church. She had a great time, even though it rained, snowed, and hailed. Her favorite time was traveling there and back with our friend Keri. Even though Les & Keri are our best friends, we don't see them nearly as much as we'd like, so a chance for Joy to visit with Keri for several hours was fun for her. We've invited Les & Keri to meet us in Las Vegas for the end of our vacation down there this summer and go see Grand Canyon and Zion with them, along with an evening of strolling through the casinos in Las Vegas. It'd be a lot of fun to spend 4 days with them, away from home and the daily grind, enjoying nature and visiting.

I did some more vacation planning over the weekend. I'm going to try to have a mini-vacation with Joy once every month or so, even if it is just a weekend away, but at home [ship the kids off to friends' homes; they like doing that anyhow.]. A regular time, to keep us well connected with each other, laughing, dancing, kissing, teasing, pleasing, cuddling, snuggling, playing, and more together.

I went to see Taken on Saturday evening. It was the first movie that I've seen in quite a while that I'd consider purchasing on DVD. I'm looking forward to taking Joy to see it with me.

On Sunday morning, we changed to Daylight Saving Time. I wish they'd just leave the time alone! I like it staying light longer in the evening, though.

Another month is beginning

It's already March, 2009. The year is going by pretty fast.

Next weekend, Joy is going to the coast for a women's retreat with some of her girl friends. It will be strange to sleep in an empty bed again for a couple of nights!

Yesterday, Joy and I sat down and made some tentative plans for summer time vacations. In June, we're planning to go to southern California--Disneyland and California Adventure, Universal Studios, San Diego Zoo, and Sea World for a family vacation with the boys. It will be a long drive there and back, but we should have a great time at these amusement parks and zoos.

In July, for our 2nd anniversary, we're talking of going to Las Vegas for a week. Sightsee in the casinos along the strip, see the fountains, go see some of the spectacular evening shows (e.g. Sirens of TI or Fantasy at the Luxor), take Joy out dancing [not that I'm any good!], etc. We'd also likely take day trips to Death Valley and the Grand Canyon, to see some of America's scenic wonders. Neither Joy or I are big into gambling, so we might spend $20 between us in the week for that--just shove it in a slot machine and play it out--and then move on to much more interesting ways to play in this destination for adults [at least for Joy and I!].

It will be nice to get pictures from some more areas to add to our online albums. Right now, all of the photos are from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii, not that those places are anything to complain about. Hopefully, we'll be able to add Nevada, California, and Arizona to our photographic history together.

Fighting a cold

I've been fighting a nasty cold for the last few days. At least I can work from home, so it isn't using up my sick time. I have multimedia duty at PVC this weekend. Hopefully, by Saturday, I'll be over the sickness.

We may be going up to visit my folks, depending upon how my cold progresses.

A Great Valentine's weekend

I had a great weekend with my wife, Joy! On Saturday morning, we took a Portland Spirit brunch cruise. We had good food and some interesting couples to visit with. It was cloudy and rainy in the morning [and it was even snowing as we drove to the boat dock], but by the end of the cruise, the sun had come out.

Saturday evening, we went to the Olive Garden for dinner. With it being Valentine's Day, we were expecting a wait, but when we checked in, they told us it'd be around an hour and a half wait. However, we didn't actually get seated until almost 2 hours and 15 minutes had elapsed. The food and the company were very good though.

Yesterday, Joy and I went to see The International. After the movie, we drove down the the Old Spaghetti Factory by the Willamette River and ate a good dinner.

To end the weekend, we watched An Officer and a Gentleman on DVD.

Now, it's back to work Monday, but that doesn't seem so bad after a lovely weekend.

February is underway

It's already February 9. The year 2009 seems to be going by pretty fast!

We had a quiet weekend at home. We watched Uncle Buck, Old Yeller, and Savage Sam on Saturday. On Sunday, we went to eat at Sweet Tomatoes and then watched Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men.

It's coming up on Valentine's Day. It'll be a grimmer holiday for lots of people due to the layoffs and other economic issues.

Our old Ford Van has reached end-of-life. It needs a new head gasket, and that would cost more than it is worth. We'd hoped to keep it going for a few more months, but we'll need to start looking at another vehicle pretty soon.

Super Bowl Weekend

On Sunday, Super Bowl XLIII will be played in Tampa, Florida. We get together with a bunch of our friends to watch the game and have good-natured arguments about the various teams. The ladies tend to watch chick flicks in another room, while the men watch football.

I tend to cheer for the AFC team, but I've never liked the Pittsburgh Steelers, so this year, I'll be cheering for the Arizona Cardinals; go Cardinals!

I have multimedia duty at PVC for the weekend. Dr. Jiri Moskala, from the Adventist Theological Seminary will be doing a series, starting this evening and all day tomorrow. On Sunday morning, there's a funeral, so I'll be at church almost all weekend.

It's hard to believe that January 2009 is almost over already.

President Barack Obama

Though, I was at work, I had CNN.com's live feed of the inauguration running, listening and switching over periodically. President Obama's (that sounds so good) speech was good, calling on all Americans to become involved in turning around the economy. At shortly after 9:00 AM, even before the oath of office, the White House web page had already been updated to reflect the new American President.

I know that Mr. Obama won't be able to deliver on all of the sky-high expectations people have for him, I hope that we'll give him some time to work. It is great to have a President who can speak grammatically correct English.

A new phone.

It was a good weekend. On Saturday evening, we celebrated Christmas (a couple of weeks late due to snow!) with Joy's sisters and mom. We played games on the Wii and ate lots of good food.

My old Motorola phone broke on Saturday and Joy's keys weren't all working, so we went to T-Mobile yesterday. Joy got a purple Motorola flip phone. I got a G1 phone, using Google's Android operating system (based on Linux). It's kind of cool to be able open a terminal on a phone! I'm hoping to eventually put all of my music, etc. on it so I can leave my old PDA behind and carry around one less device, but we'll see.

Monty Python Marathon

I'm watching three Monty Python movies with my friend John, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life. They are good for a laugh. I got them for myself as a Christmas present as part of Monty Python's Holy Trinity.

Tomorrow, I go back to work for the first time since December 17. It will be the first 5 day work week since before Thanksgiving, so I'll have to get back into work mode.

Happy New Year 2009

It is now 2009. Each year seems to go by faster and faster.

Last evening, we rang in the new year with a bunch of friends. We ate lots, drank soda and punch and toasted the new year with sparkling cider. We played a couple of group games, Apples to Apples and Encore. I liked Encore the best. In it, each team has to come up with songs with specific words or ideas, like dancing or feelings, and sing seven words of the song.

We took it easy today, watching Must Love Dogs and some Austin Powers movies.

Merry Christmas!

We had a white Christmas here in Portland. The snow is starting to melt, but we still have several inches on the ground.

I got a digital photo frame, socks, slippers, jacket, and knives. Joy gave me some power tools, and a cool rolling tool chest to store and organize them.

We had plans to go to a party with some friends across town, but the weather has interfered with those plans, so we'll have a quiet evening at home.

John is playing some new games on the Wii. James is at work--a double shift.

Four days until Christmas!

It's been a very snowy, winter weekend. We have about 6 inches of snow outside. Unfortunately, we're now having freezing rain, so that will make driving very treacherous. I'm off work for the year, but Joy still has to get to her job. We spent the day watching Christmas movies that we had recorded on our DVR. John and Joy also finished decorating the tree. Our house looks very festive!

All of my Christmas shopping--and wrapping--is already finished. I'm more excited to see the recipients of my presents open them then to open my own presents.

It's supposed to stay cold and snowy until Christmas. We might even still have a White Christmas for a change.

A Winter Wonderland

We went to the PAA Winter Concert on Saturday afternoon, then I went to watch the PAA girls play basketball against DeLa Salle. They played well, starting the second half with a 10 point run and their opponents never could catch up after that. Go Cougars!

We had a rare snowfall here in Portland on Sunday. I worked at home yesterday. Today, there is still some snow and ice on some of the streets, so I stayed home again. Hopefully, I'll be able to drive to Beaverton tomorrow for my last workday for 2008, but they're talking about more snow and/or freezing rain, so we'll see.

On Thursday, Joy and I are going to see The Christmas Sweater with our good friends Les and Keri. Christmas is next week, so Merry Christmas!

Another long weekend off

I had another 4 day weekend. On Friday evening, Joy and I went to the Oregon Zoo to see the Zoo Lights. It was impressive, as usual. This year, they've changed many of the lights to be LEDs, making brighter, but more energy efficient displays.

On Saturday morning, we went to OMSI to watch The Polar Express on their OMNIMAX dome. It was so large that it was like being too close to a TV.

Sunday, we went out in the rain and purchased our Christmas tree, a 6 foot noble fir. After getting the tree, we went out to eat at Calamity Jane's. Naturally, we ate too much, but only drank water, so we saved some calories that way.

Sunday evening, John had his first date, for the PAA Winter Banquet, so we spent the late afternoon getting him ready and taking him to the restaurant.

After today, I only have 6 more days to work. Then I'm off until January, 2009.

December 2008 has begun

It was a nice 4 day weekend. On Thanksgiving, we went up Vernonia to Joy's sister's house. We had a relaxing meal and a good visit.

Friday, Joy and James left the house at 5:30 for Black Friday shopping. I went out at about 8 and was home by about 9:30, getting the last few items on my Christmas list. Friday afternoon, we went to see Four Christmases, a cute holiday movie.

Saturday, I had multimedia duty at church. That evening, I watched the Ducks blow out the Beavers 65 to 38 in the Civil War Game at Corvallis. Go Ducks! This was the 1st football game that I've watched in HD on our 42" Toshiba LCD TV. I'd periodically switch back to the regular definition picture and the difference was amazing.

Yesterday, I went to help put up Christmas decorations at church and then we put up our outside decorations at home. Our house looks very festive now.

Last evening, I went with my friends Les and John to see the latest James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. We were all disappointed in the movie. There was lots of action, but little plot. It's like they are trying to convert James Bond into Jason Bourne, but without the plot that Bourne brings along with it.

I have only 14 more days to work this year. Then I have vacation and holidays, coming back to work on January 5, 2009.

Thanksgiving Week

It will be a short work week. For Thanksgiving, instead of our usual trip to visit with my Aunt & Uncle in Tillamook, we're going to Vernonia to visit Joy's sister Tammy and her family.

We'll come home on Thursday evening, so that Joy can get up to go Black Friday shopping. I don't envy her that! I don't deal well with crowds. I've done most of my Christmas shopping already just to avoid facing the mad rush of people.

Another big bank bailout happened, for Citigroup. I'm sure glad that I'm not going to be the president and have to figure out where the money for all of this is going to come from. Just the thought reminds me of the Onion announcement about Obama's election.

This weekend is the annual Civil War game between the University of Oregon and Oregon State. I'll be pulling for Oregon, obviously--go Ducks! The Beavers going to the Rose Bowl would be a good consolation prize if the Ducks were to lose on Saturday.

A very nice November weekend.

On Saturday, we just stayed home and relaxed, watching some DVD movies, The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, Deep Impact, and in honor of Thanksgiving coming soon, we watched Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

Yesterday, Joy and I went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert at the Rose Garden with our friends Les and Keri. We had much better seats than last years, so we were even closer to the action. They had more fire and flame displays, along with more lasers, including purple ones. It was a great performance. Afterwords, we went to eat dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory by the Willamette River. It ended up being a late night, at least for me, but was lots of fun.

President-elect Barack Obama

Yeah! It was such a relief last evening to see the networks calling Pennsylvania and then Ohio for Senator Barack Obama. At that point, I felt confident that 2000 and 2004 weren't going to be repeated, that the Democrats would get back to the White House.

John McCain's concession speech was gracious and moving, but I was a little disappointed when his audience booed when Senator McCain mentioned Obama's name. The contrast in Chicago when Obama mentioned McCain was telling; this very large, very partisan crowd cheered for their defeated opponent. This seemed to me to be one of the big differences between the candidates. McCain was trying to scare voters away from Obama, while Obama was filling people with hope.

My oldest daughter voted yesterday for the 1st time. She was so excited to be able to a part of history being made, with her first election actually helping to pick our next president. Hopefully, this enthusiasm will stay with her and the other new voters and they won't get disenchanted with America's political process.

Election Day is Tomorrow

It's Monday, November 3, 2008. Tomorrow, America will choose its President, many senators, and all congressman, along with a host of ballot initiatives and local races. I'll be glad to have the mud-slinging out of the way, at least for a few months; I wish that politicians would realize that these type of ads just turn of the voters, but every election, another crop of nastiness erupts. I'm also very disappointed about the blatent lies that supposed Christians are telling by forwarding email messages full of obviously false "facts" about another Christian, Obama.

This campaign has been way too long; the next one will probably be even longer! I expect that Sarah Palin will begin running for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination a few days from now.

I just hope that all Americans will unite behind the new president, Obama or McCain, at least for a few months. We've been divided as a nation for way too many years.

I have to admit that I'll miss reading all of the political blogs, though.

There's already Christmas music available on a couple of our Comcast music channels, and next Sunday, we're going to hear the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with our friends Les & Keri.

A lovely October weekend

We went up to my parents' house in Glenoma, Washington for the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, we took a drive up to see the new Jackson Visitor Center at Mount Rainier National Park. The fall colors, yellow, orange, and red contrasted nicely with the dark evergreen trees. Approaching the park, we ran into clouds and fog, but just before arriving at Paradise, we got above the clouds into sunshine, and blue sky, with the grandeur of Mt. Rainier looming above us.

We picked some pears and kiwis to have fresh fruit to eat.

Friday will be Halloween, probably my least favorite holiday of the year. Celebrating witches, ghosts, etc., just bothers me as a Christian. We'll just stay home with the outside lights turned off.

One week from tomorrow is election day. I'm so tired of the negative attack ads, so I'll be glad for it to end, though I know that I'll be glued to the TV on November 4, with my laptop active, watching the election returns. Hopefully, President Obama will be a refreshing change from the current occupant of the White House, but he'll have his hands full with the economy, wars, and foreign crises. I don't know why anyone would want the job!

October is half over.

We spent yesterday organizing our garage. We bought some shelves at Costco allowing us to more easily store and stack boxes. We moved some boxes out of our house into the garage and they are still more easily accessible.

Tomorrow is my daughter Selita's last high school volleyball game. Their season hasn't be that good, but they did tie for first in a tournament at Walla Walla University.

Next weekend, we're going up to visit my parents in Glenoma, Washington.

Two weeks from tomorrow is the election. The mudslinging going on is appalling. I'll be glad to have it over with, at least for a couple of years.

Another week is almost over

It's Friday, October 10. Stock prices on Wall Street continue to drop. Our friend Les was laid off from his job on Tuesday. I'm glad that I'm not real close to retirement; at the rate things are going, I'll have to wait until I'm 80!

I find it hard to believe that there are still one in four Americans who approve of the abysmal job that Bush is doing as President. Only a little over three more weeks and we'll have a new President-elect. Either of the major party candidates will be a big improvement over Bush, but I'm hoping that the polls are accurate and that Barack Obama will be our next president.

Tonight and tomorrow, Joy is attending a Women of Faith conference at the Rose Garden with some of her lady friends. James and I have multimedia duty tomorrow at Pleasant Valley Church.

On Sunday, we're going to do some more organizing of our garage.

October is here

Last weekend, we went over to Pacific City on the beach to see my brother and sister-in-law, visiting from Tennessee. The weather was absolutely marvelous, with not a cloud in the sky. We were staying in house directly on the beach, taking a long walk on Saturday afternoon and having a fire on the beach.

This weekend, the weather is much different. It has been cloudy, windy and rainy, so far. Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer--hopefully. Joy and I are planning on going up to Bagby Hot Springs to soak in the hot water. That'll be our second hot water soak; last evening, we went to Portland Tub and Tan and spent an hour in a romantic pool of water.

Only one more month until the election. I can't wait until it's over with; I'm tired of all of the mud slinging that's going on. I feel sorry for whoever wins. Bush is leaving his successor a terrible situation, what with Iraq, the financial situation, etc. I'm still upset that I am having to help pay for the bad business decisions of multi-millionaires on Wall Street. I am glad that my congressman, Earl Blumenauer, and one of Oregon's senators, Ron Wyden, were brave enough to face their party leaders and the president and vote against the package. Already, today, I'm hearing rumors of more bailouts to follow. My children and grandchildren are going to have to pay for this bailout and the war in Iraq, and that's just plain wrong!

I'm up in Redmond, Washington

I'm in Redmond at the Redmond Marriott Town Center hotel for the Pacific Northwest Software Symposium. Yesterday's sessions were interesting. I learned much more about SOA and the Java Messaging Service (JMS). The speaker for my sessions was Mark Richards. The keynote speaker last night was Jared Richardson (Jared's blog). Jared's speech on Career 2.0 was humorous, but good. I'm going to have to follow some of his suggestions. I already do "sanity hacking", using PHP/MySQL/Python/etc. at home to keep up my skill set, and learn new skills, beyond the Java that I use at work. Today, I'm planning on attending seminars about the Google Web Toolkit taught by David Geary, and Java Regular Expressions by Neal Ford.

This afternoon, Joy is coming up here with our friends Les & Keri to go see The Phantom of the Opera at The Paramount Theatre. We're planning on going out to eat before hand, and it gives Joy an excuse to dress me up in a suit and tie. Oh, well, when Joy's happy, I'm happy!

A new baby elephant

On Saturday, we went to Oregon Zoo to see Samudra, the baby elephant that was born on August 23. He was sleeping when we were there, but still cute. They have a new frog exhibit, which Joy liked, being the frog lover that she is.

On Saturday night, our son John was at a friend's house. He was planning on taking a fishing trip with them yesterday; however, he was out playing tag in the woods in the dark Saturday night and collided with a tree, ending up with a broken nose.

Yesterday, we had a 50th birthday party for our friend Les. He was totally surprised. Joy made him a birthday cake with a golf theme.

Next weekend, we're going to see The Phantom of the Opera with Les & Keri at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. It should be a fun time.

September is here--August is gone

It was a quiet Labor Day weekend at home. We worked on organizing the garage, relaxed, and watched movies.

Friday evening, we watched Doctor Zhivago. It's been many years since I've seen it, so it was somewhat different than I remembered.

On Sunday evening, we went to Mt. Hood Theatre with our friends Les and Keri to watch a double feature, Hancock and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Both were fun, if not exactly Oscar contenders.

Yesterday afternoon, we watched Airplane and The Italian Job on DVD. We've gotten several of these older movies recently at bargain prices.

I'm glad that Hurricane Gustav has turned out to be less destructive than it could have been, but I still feel sorry for people that have lost their home and possessions due to it. After Katrina, I'd have been moving to higher ground, myself!

We've been keeping up pretty good in our diet and workout regimen, going to the gym almost every day, even if just for the swimming pool and sauna.

We've joined a fitness club

Yesterday, in an attempt for Joy and I to get in better shape, we joined the new LA Fitness club down the street from our house. It's only been open a little over a week. It has racquetball, swimming pool, weights, cardio equipment, a basketball court, classes, a hot tub, saunas, you name it. We plan to go there at least three times a week, so that we can get trimmer and healthier; since Joy won't be getting off work until about 5 in the afternoon, I may stop on my way home to exercise sometimes. Joy's first day at her new job was tiring for her, so we went and swam a couple of laps and soaked in the hot tub last evening.

On Wednesday, our youngest son, John began his freshman year at Portland Adventist Academy. We just hope that he really applies himself.

James and I have multimedia duty tomorrow at PVC.

Another hot stretch in Portland

For the last week (until this morning, actually), it has been pretty hot for Portland. Thursday through Saturday all got to 103 degrees Fahrenheit here. Yesterday it was about 90. Finally, today is much cooler, only in the 70s. On Saturday we went over to the coast to beat the heat. It was foggy and drizzly right at the beach, but that felt good after the hot temperatures here. The worst part was the traffic. It seemed like everyone from the valley had gone over the coast range to join us in escaping the heat!

Joy just got the news about a new job that she is going to be starting this Thursday. Her previous job at PAES ended due to insufficient children in her classroom. At Mt. Tabor, she'll be getting more hours plus benefits, a double blessing. Also, her primary job will be watching babies, her favorite age group.

We've been paying attention to Michael Phelps record run of gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Pretty awesome. I can't even imagine eating 12000 calories a day! He doesn't look like he has an ounce of fat on his body. Maybe I need to start swimming.

Yesterday, I had a Dr. Who marathon with my friend John. I record several episodes on my DVR and then we watch them together a couple of times a year. The last few shows were some of the best that I've ever watched.

August already

Wow, it's already August 7. Time is sure flying.

John, our youngest son, is down in California, visiting with his cousin Justin. While he's there, they will go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. He'll get to ride some real roller coasters! He'll fly back by himself on Southwest Airlines, another new experience for him.

This weekend, we're planning to go the Oregon Zoo and enjoy seeing the animals.

We're all sore...

We had another busy weekend. On Saturday, we got together with Joy's family. Joy's Uncle Rod, who she hadn't seen since she was a little girl, was there visiting from Montana. Her sister Julie was up from California, and with her sisters from Vernonia and Vancouver, along with their kids, it was a full, loud, and lively meeting. Saturday evening, we went up to Vancouver so that I could work on Janie's computer. I installed a router and got everything working, while we watched My Mom's New Boyfriend.

Yesterday, we finished emptying our storage unit. That's why we're sore! We're still unpacking and organizing the boxes, but it is nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully, we won't need to move again for a long time!

A nice, but busy weekend

On Saturday, we went to Camp Meeting at the Gladstone Park Conference Center. It was a nice day, warm, but not hot. We ate lunch with our good friends Les & Keri and their children and grand children. We listened to inspirational music and good talks by Robert Quintana, the pastor of the Frederick, Maryland SDA Church. After the evening meeting, True!mprov had a performance that had everyone laughing hard.

Yesterday, we emptied most of our storage unit. We did enough that we should be completely out in a single U-Haul truck load next Sunday.

Another Friday

It's been a short work week, after our mini-vacation last week. We're still unpacking boxes from our storage unit.

Tomorrow, we're going to the 2008 Oregon Camp Meeting at Gladstone to be with our friends and enjoy music and fellowship.

We're in the process of getting a kitten for the family.

A great mini-vacation

On Friday, Joy and I drove up to Anacortes, Washington to celebrate our first anniversary. After checking into our motel, the Cap Sante Inn, we went down to see Deception Pass. It was very picturesque, with the blue water and sky contrasting with the green of the trees and grass.

On Saturday morning, we boarded the Washington State Ferries MV Chelan, taking us from Anacortes through the beautiful San Juan Islands to Syndey, British Columbia. We took a shuttle to Butchart Gardens. We spent several hours wondering through the grounds, taking hundreds of pictures of the flowers, trees, and scenery. We took a double decker bus back to Sydney and did some shopping for an hour before going back to the ferry terminal. We took the evening ferry back to Anacortes stopping at Friday Harbor along the way. As we travelled, Mt. Baker glowed with the evening sun.

Sunday, we went up to North Cascades National Park, a two hour drive. Awesome mountains, forests, lakes, rivers and gorges surrounded us. For dinner, we went to the Swinomish Northern Lights Casino.

Yesterday, we drove back home, going up to Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument along the way. We were tired, but happy when we got home.

A Long Weekend Off

It was nice to have a three day weekend off. Friday, we went to Sellwood Park with a bunch of friends from our church. After getting home, John lit off fireworks in celebration of July 4. On Saturday we had a potluck lunch with the same group of friends. The weather was on the cool side, but still very enjoyable.

Yesterday, we moved several van loads of boxes from our storage unit into our house. We plan to move most of our boxes that way and then we should have a pretty simple move of the big items; probably a single truck load.

This is a short work week again--Yeah! Joy and I are going up to Anacortes and Victoria to celebrate our 1st anniversary July 11 - July 14.

Last day of June

It is hard to believe that 2008 is half way over already! Time seems to be flying.

It was a very hot weekend for Portland. On Saturday, it got to 100 degrees here, which is much higher than our normal summer temperatures of the 80s. The forecast is for it to be more moderate through the next week. On Saturday evening, we watched The Other Boleyn Girl with our friends Les & Keri. It was an interesting, but not very historically accurate movie. Last night we watched Fools Gold, a cute movie.

Joy and I attended a credit repair seminar over the weekend by Jim Longacre, the creator of the recreditpair Credit Education Software. We're going to use the methods that we learned to improve our credit rating and hopefully be able to get a newer vehicle to replace our old Ford van and its 14 mpg.

This is a short work week, since Friday is July 4th.

A nice weekend in Oregon.

James and I had Multimedia Duty Sabbath morning at PVC. There was a strawberry shortcake feed between 1st and 2nd services--Yummy! For the afternoon, we joined some friends from church in a picnic at Sellwood Park. It was comfortable under the trees, eating, visiting, and watching some baseball being played.

Yesterday, we did more unpacking, getting the kitchen, the office, and the living room into better shape. In the evening, we watched a couple of DVD movies on our new 42" Toshiba LCD TV; even without Blu-ray, the quality of picture is dramatically better. Jumper was exciting, but required a total suspension of disbelief, at least for me; of course, many movies have that effect to me. The Bucket List was a good, wholesome film that made me value life and relationships. Of the two, The Bucket List is the only one that I'd consider buying.

Finished with the move

We're all moved out of our apartment into our house. There are still lots of boxes to unpack, but it is nice to have the extra space to live in.

Yesterday morning, I watched Tiger Woods win the 2008 US Open playoff. Both players did well, but I've been a Tiger Woods fan since his first Master's victory, back in 1997.

Today, I participated in the Firefox 3 Download Day, trying to set a record for the most downloads in a 24 hour period. I've been using Firefox as my primary browser for years. The extra speed from version 3 is appreciated.

Father's Day Weekend

It's going to a busy, and not too fun, Father's Day. We're moving on Sunday into a rental house. It will be nice to have lots more room, but moving is on my top 10 worst list.

The last weekend has been busy with graduations. On Thursday, John graduated from 8th grade at PAES on Sunday, Vainiaku graduated from 12th grade at PAA. Now, John is a freshman at PAA, while Selita is a senior there.

Gas prices keep shooting up. At one of the stations that I drive past on the way to work, a gallon of gas went up 5 cents in the nine hours that I was at work. I know that I'm driving a lot less now than I had in the past!

June is starting

It's going to a busy week. Thursday is both Joy's birthday and John's graduation day from Portland Adventist Elementary School. After John graduates, his 8th grade class is having two parties, lasting all night long! Because of all of this activity, we'll probably celebrate Joy's birthday on Friday.

On Sunday, Vainiaku will be graduating from Portland Adventist Academy. Knowing that I have a daughter going to college in the fall makes me feel old!

In between all of these items, we're also packing, getting ready to move into a rental house. It will only be about a mile from our apartment, so that part won't be too bad. It will be nice to have twice as much space to live in, along with a garage, so we won't have to keep our rented storage unit.

Obama for President

On Sunday, I went down by the Willamette River in Portland to hear Barack Obama speak. He is a very charismatic speaker, getting the crowd of 75,000 very fired up. I hope that he'll be the Democratic nominee and the next President of the United States.

It was a very sunny day, and I got a little burned, but it was worth it. I got to shake hands with Steve Novick; I voted for him for the Oregon US Senate race, based upon reading his interview at slashdot.org.

A busy couple of weeks

Between softball games, birthdays, etc., it's been a while since I've posted here.

Vainiaku and Selita have been playing PAA softball. They've won about half of their games. Their last games of the season--and V's last games as a high school student will be this afternoon at home against Corbett.

This last weekend, we had a surprise 40th birthday party for my sister-in-law, Tammy.

I'm in the process of setting up a used Compaq EVO D510 2GHZ computer that I got from ebay for only $41. I've installed the Ubuntu Hardy Heron on it. It will be used as a web server/proxy server/etc.

I've also added a new Linksys WRT54G-TM router with Tomato firmware as my primary router, with my older WRT54G connected to it using WDS to increase wifi coverage.

We found out this weekend that we have to move out of our apartment at the end of May. We'd planned to move this summer anyhow, but the timing is inconvenient, what with 8th grade and high school graduations, birthdays, etc. Oh, well, these things happen.

A very nice weekend

On Friday, I setup a used LinkSys WRT54g router using Tomato Firmware. This gives my router much functionality that isn't included in the stock LinkSys firmware, including SNMP and remote syslog, so that I can more readily monitor what is going across the wire. I got the router for only $30 at Stuff, which has pretty good used equipment.

It was a very nice weekend in Portland; it was actually hot out! On Saturday, we went to the Oregon Zoo. It was crowded, but we have an annual membership, so we got in easily, not having to wait in a very long line to pay for admission. The warm weather seemed to make even the animals lethargic.

Yesterday was our son John's 15th birthday. We ate out at Red Robin, and gave John an 8gb iPod nano for his present.

April has started

TGIF!

We've had very nice weather for most of this week. It has been clear and cold in the morning, but sunny and in the 60s during the afternoon. Today is cloudy and rainy, but I guess we'll survive.

The PAA girls had a softball game last evening that they won by 11 runs. Go Cougars!

I've been busy at work learning about Nagios, Big Brother, and Hobbit, all suites that can be used to monitor system performance, uptime, etc.

March is at its end.

It was a nice weekend. On Saturday evening, we went up to Vancouver to work on Joy's sister's computer. She had a printer that she'd gotten for free that needed hooked up. They have Qwest DSL, but the HP driver package was almost 350 mb and with their slow DSL, it would have taken about 4 hours to download, so I actually drove back home, downloaded it via our cable modem and back to Vancouver in about 1 hour.

Yesterday, Joy made homemade cinnamon rolls--Yummy! :-)

Today, it's back to work Monday.

More songs to listen to.

I just upgraded my Dell Axim PDA to have an 8 gb CompactFlash memory card, double the size of my earlier 4 gb version. Now I can have all of my songs from my notebook always with me and I still have lots of free space to grow into. [Fry's had a very good price on the card!] My old card is going to be put in Joy's PDA.

It was a nice, relaxing Easter weekend. March is rapidly coming to an end.

Another week is finished--March is half over

Time is still flying pretty fast. March is to the mid point. Next thing you know it'll be summer again!

Last evening, we went to Pleasant Valley Church to get pictures taken by Olan Mills for the church directory. Joy had us wear suits and ties; oh well, it only happens occasionally. I'm glad that I don't have to wear a tie to work. I don't think I could stand that.

Get ready to Spring Forward

Reading about the snow that is still hitting the midwest, makes me glad that we live in Oregon. The crocuses and daffodils are already starting to blossom and I saw some trees in bloom, too. Tonight, we push the clock ahead an hour. I wish that the government would just leave DST in place all year long! This evening, Joy and I are going to Pleasant Valley Church for a fund raising dinner in support of the youth outreach program, Pipeline.

I finished my first full work of week at ARRIS in Beaverton. I'm hearing lots of new terms and acronyms that I need to learn.

I finished my first day at ARRIS

I'm home from my first day at ARRIS in Beaverton. It is nice to be working again--and my benefits begin tomorrow, so that's good news, too, especially with having a family that needs medical coverage.

I ate lunch today at the Old Spaghetti Factory with some of my friends who are also Serena Alumnis. Most of us already have new jobs in the pipe, so our layoff hasn't had too much of a long term negative effect.

James and I have multimedia duty at Pleasant Valley Church tomorrow.

I got a job!

I'll be starting on February 29 at Arris in Beaverton. I'll get to relax some this week. Looking for work, interviewing, etc., are very stressful, at least to me.

The PAA girls are over at Burns playing basketball tonight against the Hilanders. Go Cougars! The winners tonight move on to the state tournament.

PAA Girls won last night versus OES.

In their first playoff game, against Oregon Episcopal School, PAA won by 5 points in a hard fought basketball game. Hopefully, they'll continue the winning ways against Warrenton. Go Cougars.

I've had several phone interviews and some follow up interviews, but so far, no offers. I know that God will take care of me and my family.

Another week is done

On Tuesday, I had an interview with a company in downtown Portland. I think that it went well, but I'm always afraid to get my hopes up too high.

Thursday evening, I went over to Oregon Episcopal School to watch the PAA girls play. It was a good game, with PAA coming out on top. Tonight, PAA plays at home against Warrenton. If the Cougars win, they'll be in second place in their league.

Last night was the first meeting of Revelation Speaks Hope at the Oregon Convention Center. It was a good meeting with a good turnout.

Tomorrow, we're going over to a friend's house to watch the Super Bowl--at least the guys, anyhow. The girls are going to be watch chick flicks! I don't have a strong favorite between the Patriots and the Giants, but I'll probably cheer for New England, since they are the AFC team.

Another layoff :-(

Last Tuesday, my job at Serena Software, along with those of all of the co-workers in my development group [plus our neighbors in the happy pod], was offshored to India. It was a total surprise--and a very unpleasant one. On Friday, I had a phone interview with a company in downtown Portland. It seemed to go well, but it is always hard to tell. Oh, well, God will take care of us.

On Friday, Joy and I drove up to Multnomah Falls to see them with the ice around. It was very pretty--but cold.

A great basketball game!

Last evening, the PAA Cougar girls played a close, hard-fought game with the Catlin Gabel Eagles. It was back and forth the whole game. PAA trailed by one point with 6 seconds to go and we had the ball. My daughter was called for traveling, giving the Eagles the ball. Luckily for us, they threw the ball out-of-bounds, giving us one more chance. My daughter, Vainiaku, was under the basket with the ball, shooting and making the shot, as the buzzer rang to end the game with a win. Go Cougars!

Our good friends Les & Keri came to watch the game. They are new, proud grandparents!

Today, our son John is going up with his classmates from Portland Adventist Elementary School to Mt. Hood Meadows for a day of skiing. It should be a very nice up there. There is no new snow, but they have over 11 feet of snow at the base, so there shouldn't be any rocks showing!

A good weekend

Ron Halverson had the sermon on Sabbath, January . His topic was preparing, via prayer, for the upcoming Shawn Boonstra evangelistic series, Revelation Speaks Peace, to be held here in Portland at the Oregon Convention Center. On Sabbath afternoon, he had a follow-up meeting at the Ambridge Event Center to help us learn to be Prayer Warriors.

An up and down week

The last week has been full of ups and downs. Last Thursday, a car that I owned several years ago came back to haunt my finances. I managed to get a loan against my 401k to be able to make ends meet, but it was still a traumatic experience. I've been riding TriMet to save some money. It takes much longer to get to and from work, though.

The PAA girls lost badly against Clatskanie last Thursday. The Tigers played man-to-man defense and the Cougars didn't cope too well. On Saturday evening, the Cougar hosted the Rainier Columbians. They led for a while, but at the end of the game, the Columbians out played us. Last evening, PAA hosted the Oregon Episcopal School Aardvarks. The game was very close through the first 3 quarters; in fact, it was tied up at the half. The Cougars broke the game open in the 4th quarter with some very good passing and inside scoring by Hannah King, and ended up winning by about 10 points. OES had a girl who scored 6 three pointers. Tomorrow evening, the Cougars are playing at Warrenton High School against the Warriors. I won't be able to attend this game, but hopefully, we will win again. On Saturday evening, PAA is playing at Riverdale High School against the Mavericks. I'm sure the girls will be tired after all of these games.

The video card on my HP Pavilion dv9330us notebook died on Christmas day. After talking with tech support and trying their suggestions, it was sent out to get repaired on January 2. HP was very prompt in getting it fixed. I had it delivered back on Monday, January 7. They had to replace the mainboard. It is working fine, now. While it was down, I was using an old Dell PIII/550 [running Windows 2000]. That computer was top of the line and very fast 10 years ago, but now it seems as slow as molasses. I'm glad to have my notebook back!

Happy New Year--2008!

I had a long stretch off over the holidays, but never got around to updating my blog.

For Christmas, our family got a Nintendo Wii. It came bundled with Wii Sports, and we also purchased Wii Play with an extra remote. John got The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii. We plan to buy Wii Fit when it is available here in the US. It is a lot of fun to play the sports games. Boxing, tennis, and baseball all make you work. After a round of boxing, I'm really sweating.

On Christmas, we drove up to Joy's sister's house in Vernonia. We could still see the high water mark on the houses from last months floods. We had a White Christmas for the first time in many years. It was lovely driving through the Coast Range with snowflakes falling and seeing the snow accumulating on the fir boughs!

Last weekend, we drove up to my parent's home in Glenoma, Washington. We had a lot of snow there, too. My folks are members of an RV club that has a swimming pool, sauna, and hot tub. It was neat to be swimming in a warm pool while looking out the window at the snow falling. I actually made a snow angel while just wearing my swimming suit! Brrrrrr!!!

New Years Eve, we celebrated with our good friends Les & Keri. We watched a couple of movies (I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and Live Free or Die Hard), played with the Wii, and danced, before raising our goblets of Martinelli's sparkling cider.

Tonight, PAA will be playing the Clatskanie Tigers in basketball. Hopefully, the Cougars will start the year with a win.

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.

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.

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. :-(

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.

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.