Busy Weekend

Meaghs’ mom and sister were in town for the weekend to attend the Portland Bridal Show.  They stayed with us on Friday and Saturday night and then attended the show most of Saturday prior to a shopping spree at the Lloyd Center mall. 

They spent most of Friday shopping at Washington Square mall and both Meaghan and Mandy managed to find shoes for the wedding.  Woohoo!  I didn’t get to see much of them that night.  I’m starting a new project for my employer and working on the planning and legal stuff for that.  Then I had beers planned with Mark for after work.  I came home a couple of pints for the better!  Fortunately we were still able to share dinner and a few glasses of wine before turning in for the night.  It was nice to get the chance to catch up.  I could tell that Meaghs had a blast shopping with them both; so nice for her to get some girl time to spend checking out all of the stores!

I spent most of Saturday reading about the Apache web server and researching Ruby on Rails.  I decided to take a look at how the open source world lives.  Then on Saturday evening I joined Relentless on a very successful raid through Zul’Aman; I even got a new dagger!

All in all, a pretty cool (if busy) weekend!

Two-year anniversary

Tonight marks the two-year anniversary of Meaghan and I being together.  It was on this day two years ago that we enjoyed a lovely meal at a local French restaurant before heading to a cocktail bar for midnight bellinis.  Meaghan and I fell in love on that first date and have been together ever since.  It’s been a wonderful twenty-four months and I look forward to us spending the rest of our lives together.

To many more like this!

Moved to Skype

Meaghan and I chat with my folks over the internet about once a month. For the last year we’ve put up with the bugged and flawed experience of MSN Messenger, working around audio delay, dropped calls, and frozen video problems. This morning we switched over to Skype and what a difference!  We’ve been aware of Skype for a while.  I’ve been using it on and off since I was in college.  However, we’d stuck by the principle that if it isn’t broken then don’t fix it.  MSN Messenger finally qualified as “broken enough” to switch.

The Skype call quality is superb, the video degrades and upgrades as the connection quality comes in and out but I’d much prefer a graceful degradation to a dropped call.  Even over the wireless network, the connection quality was amazing.  I was able to give my parents a tour of our house by connecting on our laptop and just wandering around.

Good to see my folks- great to see and hear them clearly!

Feeling in a great mood

It’s Friday morning, I’m getting ready to go into the morning standup meeting for our project, and I’m in a really great mood.  My parents just got back from visiting Menorca, a beautiful little island off the southern coast of Spain.  The Warcraft patch 3.x is live and we’re less than a month away from the release of the Wrath of the Lich King.  We had a shaky start to our Zul’Aman run last night but then ended up scoring a guild first kill on both Jan’alai and Hex Lord Malacrass.  Our project at work is going very well.  We’re way ahead of schedule and QA is finding only a handful of tiny issues for us to fix.  Next week will mark the two-year anniversary our first date together, when I met the girl of my dreams and my life forever changed for the better.  I’m listening to one of my favorite albums of all time: Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack (there simply isn’t a bad song on the entire album and it still feels like cutting edge material today).  We have a busy social schedule for October and now even parts of November.  All in all, life is good.

Vacation to England – Part I

Posts from our trip to England are coming soon I promise!  I’ve been consumed by importing the posts that were corrupted during my failed upgrade to SubText 2.0 and have as such been procrastinating over starting publication of our photographs and stories from England.  I’ll get on that tonight and then more this weekend.

For now, here are a couple of photographs from Manchester airport taken after we had just landed.

Our flight had arrived a little early, so we actually beat my parents to the airport.  After twelve hours in a tin can, Meaghan was ready for a cup of coffee.  We had a little bit of fun paying for it as England have converted to Chip & Pin for payments (basically a bank card now has a small chip on it that is scanned by a device, which is then paired with your pin).  This meant that my “old sk00l” VISA card with magnetic stripe confused the hell out of the girls working at the coffee counter.  After a few minutes of head-scratching they were able to find an option in the EFT terminal that allowed me to “swipe” and then sign.

Meaghan and I were both fairly hungry after our flight and it was still early enough in the day to head over to the Ladybower Inn before we had to get back to Doncaster for the night.  I was looking forward to a pint of John Smiths and the food there was great.  Just what the doctor ordered.

More pictures to come tonight and this weekend.

Back from vacation

Meaghan and I landed at Portland International Airport yesterday afternoon, thus concluding our vacation to England.  We had a truly superb time visiting with my parents, my sister and brother in law, and of course our two nephews Ethan and Oscar.  We also saw my Grandma in Newcastle, as well as visiting a whole host of places.  I took five hundred photographs and a bunch of notes in my journal so I have plenty to blog over the next few days.  The flights weren’t too bad, there was no lost luggage, and our kitties survived very well thanks to our good friend Holly checking in on them every couple of days.  I picked up a vicious cold on the way back unfortunately, so I was full of cold on the plane home and all yesterday afternoon.  We went to bed at around 4pm last night and slept through until 4am this morning, which really helped to get over some of the jetlag.  I’m medicated up this morning and got to work at 6am to clear my email inbox and get a jump start on the week.  So far so good.  We have great memories from a wonderful trip and I look forward to writing about more of them all in detail.

England here we come – almost…

As the date for our departure approaches, Meaghan and I are going through our final checklists for preparedness.  Our passports have been renewed and checked, our luggage has been retrieved from storage, and the flight information has been checked and then double checked.  I need to call Oregon Town Car and get our driver booked. Other than that the major tasks have all been completed.

I’m still trying to decide whether or not to get a spare battery pack for my video camera.  My other option is to get a converter kit so that I can charge the existing battery pack over there.  It will probably come down to which option is cheaper, however with the extra battery pack I can make use of that over here after we return whereas the converter would only be used again on a subsequent trip overseas.

I’m really excited not only to take a vacation but also to see my family and spend a few days in England.  It will be nice to see where I grew up and relive some of those memories.  I was talking with a friend yesterday about how I didn’t originally realize the finality of my decision to move abroad when I first did it.  I have no regrets and love life here in the United States,  it’s just hard to understand when you’re making life decisions as a 21 year-old how big the repercussions of those decisions can be in the long term.  I wouldn’t trade my time here in states for anything though.  Over the last few years I’ve lived in Hawaii and Portland, enjoyed great success in the booming technology market over here and met my wonderful fiancee. Meaghan.  Life is good!

One of the things I’m really looking forward to is visiting the Lake District.  We already have a few nights reserved in Keswick courtesy of my parents.  We used to visit the area every Easter for a week or so of fresh air and hikes in the hills.  It’s a beautiful area and a part of England I really miss.

I’m packing two regular cameras, a video camera, and a brand new journal to capture as much of our vacation as possible.  I’ll update with pictures and stories as often as I can.

Live-in Handywoman

Meaghan rocks for many reasons, but not least of these is her ability to figure things out and get them done.  Capability is something I’ve come to respect and admire more and more in people and I’m so happy to be with someone who has buckets of it.  A while ago, we purchased bedside cabinets to replace the stand-in folding tables that had been sufficing up to that point.  The cabinets came in the typical flat-pack, I think from Fred-Meyer.  Usually, I would be leery of having too many people help me put this sort of stuff together because the instructions are less than clear and the whole affair can turn into a bit of a farse.  No sooner that we were home, however, Meaghan set to it and, after ripping open the boxes and arranging the various pieces into piles, began digesting the instructions and pairing the pictures in the poorly-translated booklet with the myriad items now occupying our bedroom floor.  Impressed with her enthusiasm, I left her to it and returned not thirty minutes later to find the first cabinet almost fully assembled!  Meaghan was sitting in the middle of the floor with a smile on her face, happily finishing up the second of the three drawers.

Within another ten minutes the first cabinet was finished and I was smiling widely within myself, admiring her capability: No requests for help, no screwing things up, no getting annoyed at the first sign of problems.  It may seem like a small thing, but I really value the ability to just get on and do something.  We had arrived home a little late that evening, spending more time than we intended selecting the appropriate furniture.  Despite the speed at which the first item had been assembled, it was getting late and we decided to wait until the next evening to put together the second unit.  Meaghan, having built the first one, could show me how to help her assemble the second.  However, when I got home from work the next day, there was the second cabinet sitting next to her side of the bed, fully put together.  I was again impressed.  Not only had I borne witness to capability, but here was initiative to drive home the point.  Brilliance!

The End of 2006

So much happened in December that I felt as though I could barely keep up at times.  Meaghan and I had a wonderful month to round out the year and I’m simply not going to have enough time to blog about each event individually, so here is a summary of the highlights.

December 8th – SoftSource Christmas Party
I blogged about it here.

December 12th – Fondue
Rich (of pink sippy lid nalgene fame) hosted a fondue party at his house over lunch for the entire project team.  I’d never had fondue before and was quite looking forward to the event.  Two main fondue dishes, one containing cheese and bacon, the other a cheese and crab mix, adorned the ends of the serving table.  A batter dish occupied the center with enough room for eight fondue forks to be frying simultaneously.  A plate full of teriyaki beef and sliced chicken breast as well as a bread plate and mixed vegetable platter rounded out the sides.  Rich popped open a couple of bottles of champagne, ensured we all had a full glass and let the feasting begin.  From the moment I first dipped my bread into the cheese and bacon dip I was hooked.  This is fantastic!  I followed by trying the teriyaki beef dipped in the batter and fried.  Superb!  Much gorging commenced and soon we were all packing away a ton of the best tasting food I’d had for a while.  Cheese, beef, bacon, batter, champagne…could it get better?  Yes!  For dessert, an entire bowl of melted Belgian chocolate, a plate of strawberries, and more champagne.  I was in Stuart heaven.  Lest any ability to actual accomplish meaningful work that afternoon be allowed to creep in, Rich busted out two great bottles of port for an after-lunch sampler that was passed around the room.  Absolutely outstanding.  Thanks Rich both for a superb lunch and for making the afternoon go by that little bit faster!

December 20th – I Like Cake!
Meaghan baked a cake for all of the folks on the team here at Nike.  Sarah (also of pink sippy lid nalgene fame) managed to get a room for us to enjoy a slice of Christmas cake together before everyone disappeared for their holiday vacations.  The cake was in the shape of a Christmas tree with green icing and little yellow, blue, and red sprinkles for baubles and decorations.  It was a light sponge filling, which is my favorite.  I can’t eat too much of very rich cakes and I’d prefer to have a couple of slices of a lighter cake than two spoonfuls of something too rich.  Thanks Meaghan for taking the time to make us all a cake.

December 21st – Playing Santa
‘Twas the Thursday before Christmas and yours truly had only just finished up shopping for presents, writing Christmas letters and cards, and generally getting everything together.  This evening it was time to play Santa and make deliveries to various friends around town.  Meaghan and I managed to get almost everyone’s gifts or cards delivered by about 11pm.  The only ones left were for Trav and Jenn, who we would be seeing on Saturday for the 24 marathon, and for Meaghan’s family with whom we would be staying over the Christmas break.

December 22nd – Eating Italian with friends
One of Meaghan’s friends, Alexa, was in town for a few days and on Friday evening we were able to get together with her for dinner.  I had met Alexa at the Halloween party in October.  We got along well right away and it was nice to see her again to catch up on the news and gossip from the last two months.  Meaghan had a craving for Italian food that night and so we decided to try a place called Giovannis not too far from where we live.  We had a fairly reasonable pizza and a non-shabby bottle of merlot and after a couple of hours of talking and laughing together, we invited Alexa over to see our apartment.  We toasted in the night several times with a bottle of Malibu and a good helpling of Drambuie.  The Christmas vacation was off to a good start.

December 23rd – 24 Marathon
Jack Bauer was back in fine form for the fifth season of 24.  The marathon, hosted by Trav and Jenn, began at 8am sharp as advertised, with Meaghan and I joining shortly before the end of the first episode at about 8:35.  The end of a long week combined with the drinking and relaxation of the night before combined in us both sleeping through our alarms, waking at about 7:30.  A hasty shower, packing of snacks and drinks, and a quick drive over there put us a little behind schedule but we were soon engrossed in the adventures of CTU once again saving the world.  This show seems to only get better and better every season as they continually refine the formula.  Despite feeling like there is no way they can “bring Jack back” at the end of each season, they always find a way not only to integrate him back into his one man quest to save civilization, but also find compelling new ways for insidious criminal geniuses to attempt to execute their plans for social chaos and terrorism.  The last few hours have always been a hard push in the 24 marathon as the real-world time approaches midnight and you’ve been sitting and watching from eight o’clock in the morning.  However, this year it seemed easier than before to stay awake.  I don’t know if that’s due to some kind of TV marathon conditioning that’s kicking in from previous years of practice, or if the story was just that much more compelling this time around.  Either way, Jenn managed to finish the entire marathon this year (congrats!) and neither Meaghan nor I were as wiped as we had thought we would be when the final episode drew to a close.  We headed home shortly after the conclusion, eager to get to bed and steal as many hours of sleep as possible before our flight the following day.  We had exchanged gifts with Trav and Jenn earlier that day and they were kind enough to get Meaghan and I two really nice bottles of wine, a couple of accompanying wine glasses, a picture of Trav and I from their wedding, and a subscription to Playboy! Woohoo!  Thank you very much to both; they shall be appreciated.

Christmas Eve – Flying to Klamath Falls
It felt like a pretty early start when we were in the shower by 6am given that the 24 marathon the day before had concluded only 4 hours earlier.  Our flight didn’t board until shortly after nine o’clock but we were unsure as to how busy the airport would be given that it was Christmas Eve and wanted to be sure to leave plenty of time.  The long term parking lot at the airport was full and we were turned around to the economy lot + shuttle option.  Upon entering the red economy lot, we were presented with a sign indicating that the economy lots were also full as of the early morning of December 23rd.  Yikes!  Most people had parked their cars here while they went on their Christmas vacation and wouldn’t be returning any time soon.  Fortunately, PDX had opened up their emergency overflow economy lot (i.e. the unused field next to the regular parking lot) and we were able to find a space at the absolute outer extremeties of available parking.  We walked back to the closest shuttle pickup point and were soon on our way to the terminal.  Upon arrival at the terminal, we were pleasantly surprised to find that nearly everyone had travelled on Saturday.  There were no lines for the electronic check-in desk, the baggage check counter, or the checked baggage security inspection points.  We were able to quickly pass security and then sit and enjoy a very welcome morning coffee at the Starbucks before meandering down to our gate for boarding.  At the check-in desk we were able to change our seats to be one of the exit rows (1 and 4 on a Bombardier) which meant we could enjoy the extra legroom.  Barely an hour and a half later (only about 55 minutes in the air) we landed in Klamath Falls; much easier than driving and really the only way to go.  Greg and Jenny (Meaghan’s parents) picked us up from the airport and by noon we were settling in at their house, enjoying a nice glass of wine.  Christmas was not only off to a good start, it was positively cooking with gas!

Decebmer 25th – Christmas Day and Meaghan’s Birthday
Happy 24th Birthday Meaghan!  Many happy returns.  I thought I had it bad with a birthday in early January, the aftermath of Christmas only just fading away when an expectation of a new celebration is presented.  My mum thought she had it even worse with a birthday in late December, the tree not yet even taken down.  Meaghan, however, takes the cake…literally.  Being born on Christmas day (an honor shared with my friend Gary Aanetsen) she certainly has had the lion’s share of “double gifting” (the phenomena whereby a gift is given for both Christmas and birthday in one).  I made certain to delineate a gift for her birthday to turn away from the double-gift idea but to her it didn’t really seem to matter.  She was just happy to be able to celebrate both with her family and all the better to do them both on the same day.  Having been unable to celebrate either a birthday or Christmas holiday with any of my family for over seven years, I certainly understand the sentiment of being able to enjoy both at the same time.  Congratulations Meaghan, you’ve almost survived the first part of your twenties!

Christmas morning is a time that nearly everyone gets excited about and this Christmas was no exception.  Mandy (Meaghan’s sister) took it to a new level of excitement with an all-time record of anticipation in my book.  I was a little afraid she was going to spontaneously explode on Christmas Eve!  We all did superbly with gifts, everyone was exceptionally generous and it took us a few hours to finish unwrapping and appreciating the presents and prizes we all received.  I’m going to blog more about Christmas morning with pictures later this week.  For now I want to extend thanks to everyone who sent a gift, card, or Christmas wishes.

December 28th – Flying back to Portland
Klamath Falls airport has a single runway and operates only a handful of flights each day.  Why wouldn’t our flight be the one that was delayed?  After careful planning to arrive at the airport with plenty of time, we checked our baggage at the counter, again changed our seats to be in an exit row, and were informed that the plane was running a couple of hours late.  Oh well.  We said goodbye to Greg, Jenny, and Mandy (Chris was off snowboarding with his friends) and headed up to the airport lounge to wait.  It turned out to be a really nice opportunity for the two of us to spend some time together and reflect not only on Christmas, but on the year in general and the experiences we had shared over the last couple of months.  Sometimes it is fortunate to be stuck in a small airport for a couple of hours and have the chance to slow down, enjoy a glass of wine or a beer, and reflect upon the vacation, past couple of months, or year in general.  This has been a tough year for both Meaghan and I, with many changes, trials, and stressful experiences.  I feel much stronger now than I did this time last year (incalculably stronger in many ways as a few of you know) and it was great to reflect on the ways in which our lives have changed and the things we’ve been through as the year drew to a close.  I’m very much in love with Meaghan and it was great to have someone there to share in the reflection of the year’s memories both happy and sad.  The hours went by very quickly and before long we were on our way back to Portland.  The delayed flight had meant that we arrived back in Portland quite a bit later than expected.  The baggage carousel at PDX looked quite backed up, the delayed flight clearly jarring with the receiving airport’s plans.  After retrieving our checked luggage, taking the shuttle back to the boonies of the economy lot, and then driving home, it was already time for bed.  We managed to get the first loads of laundry sorted and a couple of bags unpacked before calling it a night.  I was back at work on Friday and wanted to be sure to get enough sleep to not be entirely useless in the morning.

December 29th – Thank you notes and a fridge!
To send thanks for all of the wonderful gifts we received this year, Meaghan and I made a special journey to Oblation at Bridgeport Village, one of my favorite places to shop.  Oblation have a great and often unique selection of papers and card sets that feel a lot more personal to me than the typical offerings seen in other places.  We both selected fairly simple designs for our thank you cards, both of which we felt reflected our styles.  Before heading home we decided to drive just a little further down I5 and take a quick tour around Fry’s Electronics.  Meaghan has had her eye on an Espresso maker for a couple of weeks and I will never pass up an opportunity to wander around in one of my favorite stores.  The yoga/game room in our apartment has been slowly transitioning into a yoga/Warcraft room over the last month and for a few weeks now I have had the idea in my head to put a mini-fridge up there.  This would eliminate senseless wastes of valuable WoW minutes otherwise spent trekking all the way downstairs to retrieve items such as beer, taquitos, or pizza.  Not wanting to incur such inefficiency long term, the fridge practically elected itself as an essential item that much be obtained post haste.  We found such a fridge at Fry’s during our perousal that night and drove away the proud owners of our new GE compact refrigerator.  Fry’s had an awesome deal on the unit and we walked away with it for under $160.  W00t!

December 30th – Mum’s birthday and much organizing
Saturday morning hailed in my mum’s birthday.  Happy birthday mum!  We called her up to wish her a happy birthday and I ended up talking to both of my parents for almost two hours.  After that Meaghan and I began the somewhat large task of organizing our yoga/WoW room.  This play room has become the general dumping ground for anything and everything we didn’t have the time to sort through right away.  It is actually designed as the master bedroom in our apartment if you look at the official floorplan.  It is the larger of the two upstairs bedrooms and has an attached walk in closet and bathroom as well as a great view of the Frank Estate grounds.  I originally chose it as my yoga room and play area because I figured I’d end up spending more time in there than in the bedroom and so the extra space and nicer view would be put to better use.  Prior to Meaghan moving in the attached walk-in closet was used as a storage area, stacked floor to ceiling with 17 gallon storage tubs.  Once Meaghan’s clothing was integrated with my own we needed to open up the second closet so that we could share the closet space in the bedroom.  I moved 24 storage tubs out of the closet into the yoga room ready for sorting.  Throughout December we have been sorting through these tubs, pairing down the stuff, preparing donations piles to go to Goodwill, and then repacking an ostensibly smaller number of storage tubs to put in Public Storage.  We had finally stored or donated the last of the tubs and were left with the final pile of stuff to sort covering most of the floor.  I had weeded out enough old paperwork that when shredded filled three 13 gallon trash bags.  The rest of the stuff either had a place in the room or a place in the trash and seven hours later the floor was clear!  …and there was much rejoicing.

December 31st – New Years Eve!
Having finished clearing the yoga/WoW room floor the day before, I started bright and early on Sunday by setting up our new fridge and actually organizing the room aesthetically.  After another few hours work, the results are superb!  A completely organized desk area, up to date filing cabinet, warcraft fridge, yoga gear area, and weight bench all neatly fit into their prescribed places in the room.  For the first time in a month, there is enough visible floor to make it worthwhile vacuuming.  Perhaps its finally time for Roomba.  I noticed in looking for the link while writing this entry that they have a new “Intelli-Bin” feature on the Roomba Discovery that notifies you when the internal bin needs to be emptied.  I’m very tempted.  After a day of cleaning and organizing we got ready for the New Year’s party hosted by our friends Jason and Tracy in Hillsboro.  Trav and Jenn were going to be there, as was Adam (Jason’s brother) who always causes all manner of chaos.  After the continual partying over Christmas and three days of housework, neither Meaghan nor I were up for a huge drunken party but wanted to catch up with people and find out about their Christmas vacations.  We stayed for a couple of hours and said hi to folks but we weren’t really feeling the party vibe and everyone there seemed more than a little tense so we ducked out at about eleven o’clock to bring in the new year together at home.  After a quick toast to each other, a midnight kiss, and a short phone call with my parents, we headed to bed.  I don’t remember much after my head hitting the pillow and seeing the red letters of 12:17am projected onto the ceiling by my Oregon Scientific atomic clock.  Seventeen minutes after midnight, probably the earliest I’ve been in bed on New Years for quite a while.  Right before I fell asleep I remember thinking “Yes!  Finally, it’s here: 2007.  The year is over!”.

All in all, an exceptionally busy month given that Meaghan and I were still organizing our place, getting her moved in, decorating for the holiday season and finishing up our Christmas shopping.  Both of us wanted to make 2007 a really fresh start, and so we have spent nearly every available hour trying to sort out every part of our lives.  This has involved going through every single box and tub of stuff we own, completely and thoroughly sorting out only the things we want to keep and then organizing them either for storage or use in our apartment.  I cannot remember a time when I more thoroughly sorted through paperwork.  Its amazing what you can accumulate over the years.

This year has certainly been about change.  Looking back to the end of 2005, I can honestly say that nearly every facet of my life has undergone some form of change over the past twelve months.  In addition, several once in a lifetime changes have occured all in the same year, some of them very happy and some of them very sad.  I won’t list out the sad changes that have occured this year.  Some of them I have written about, and those of you that know me are familiar enough with the rest.  What happened is in the past, the Christmas holiday was a wonderful closing season, and 2007 is shaping up to be a great new year and a fresh start.  Despite the turmoil, I can honestly say that I cannot remember a time in my life when I felt happier or more hopeful and excited about the future.  I have a new Nephew, Ethan, whom I cannot wait to meet in person.  I have settled into my role as a Software Architect with SoftSource Consulting and I’m genuinely enjoying my working life on a day to day basis.  I’ve changed jobs several times since first moving to the United States, and I would easily rate both my time with CyberCom in Hawaii and my time with SoftSource as the best experiences I’ve had.  Interestingly enough, both are software consulting gigs, and I wonder if perhaps that’s just my niche.  I enjoyed working on product development and I liked the feeling of working on a consistent project for both Intel and Corillian.  I also enjoyed working for the Salem Keizer School District, but there is something about consulting and moving from place to place, from project to project that makes me get really fired up and excited in a whole different way.  Finally and most importantly I met Meaghan, who has brought more happiness to my life than I could ever have imagined.  Ever since our first date we haven’t spent a moment apart and in the month or so that we have been living together our relationship has only seemed to get stronger every day.

Goodbye 2006…long live 2007!

Moving in together

Ever since our first date, Meaghan and I have barely spent a moment apart.  We would make the drive up and down the freeway between Portland and Eugene a couple of times a week to see each other on the weekend and sometimes for just a night mid-week and then spend hours talking on the phone on the nights in between.  At the start of November we decided that we wanted to live together and began making the necessary preparations.  We figured it would take about a month to get everything moved and sorted and that the Thanksgiving weekend would be a perfect time for the final move-in date.  Meaghan gave notice on her job at the school district in Eugene and we started to transport carloads of stuff each time we made the drive to see each other.  For the most part, everything went pretty smoothly.  The Thanksgiving weekend came around and only a very few things were left in Eugene.  An air mattress, two cats, a few days worth of clothes, and some essential food items and cookware.  The only wrinkle in the plan came in the fact that it took us a little longer to drive back from Klamath Falls on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  We arrived in Eugene at about 2:30pm that afternoon and still had a couple of hours work ahead of us to complete the move.  Fortunately, everything went pretty well, and we were soon on our way up to Portland, kitties and all.  Meaghan took the cats in her car, along with the last of the household items, while I loaded my Mazda up with the last of the packed boxes.  We turned in the keys to her apartment, finished up the last of the paperwork and got back on the road.  It was about 6:00pm when we started the journey up to Portland.  The only job we had left was to buy a new litter tray for the cats.  I had become somewhat enamored with the self-scooping super trays that do 95% of the work for you, partially from an ease of use perspective, but also from a fascination with the engineering.  Enter the ScoopFree Automatic Cat Litter Box.

This litter box works great!  The litter tray itself is filled with crystals that clump very quickly and give off virtually no odor.  An automatic rake scrapes the clump into a hidden compartment at the end of the tray after twenty minutes of inactivity (optical sensors know when a cat steps inside).  When it is time to change the tray, you throw away the whole cardboard tray, crystals and all, and replace with a refill tray.  The refills aren’t cheap, running just under $15 a piece, but the litter box itself works like a charm.  Peaches and Ebony are two aging cats (14 years a piece) and adapted to using the new litter tray right away.  We also got the cats a filtered water fountain so that they always have fresh, running, filtered water, and I was compelled to get them a snuggly house for under the bathroom sink.  The downstairs bathroom has become the cats room, housing litter box, the under-the-sink hideaway area, water fountain, and their food dishes.  They come and go as they please and seem quite content.

Meaghan and I have been living together now for about three weeks and everything is going wonderfully.  Most of the chaos of integrating two lives into one living space has been boxed, shuffled, sorted, tidied, and stored.  Meaghan has been great, sorting through things during the day while I’m at work.  At nights we’ve worked together to go through pretty much every single thing we own.  No box, tub, or storage shelf has been left untouched as we got everything out, put it all into piles, donated a large portion, stored another portion, and arranged the remainders into their designated spots in our new place.

Thanksgiving in Klamath Falls Part III

Friday morning came early….very early!  One Thanksgiving tradition I had previously heard of but never partaken in was that of the post-Thanksgiving sales in the wee hours of Friday morning…as in 5:00am or earlier!  Typically, 5am has two uses for me…it is either the best sign that you’ve stayed up too late playing video games and its time to turn off the computer and head to bed, or you’re getting up to make an early flight and need to get the to airport.  This was certainly a new use for the hour that shall not be named.  The shopping train  (driven by Jenny) was leaving at 4:45am to give time enough to pick up Mandy and Chris.  Meaghan and I firmly missed that deadline but were able to meet up with everyone at around 5:15am as they were just leaving Gottschalks.  We had already missed an entire sale and the sun had not yet even begun to stir.  Managing to take part in the action at WalMart, Fred Meyer, and several other doorbuster-vertising venues, we actually had a fairly good time.  There were crowds in most places but they weren’t anything like the insane socially-retarded mongrel gatherings that line the aisles nearer Christmas…these people, whilst numerous, were actually in fairly good spirits and had not yet abandoned all social grace.  Meaghan and I didn’t purchase anything of note per se, but we had a lot of fun looking at household items, continuing the quest for the perfect set of purple towels, and admiring all manner of shiny things at jewelry counters.  We returned from our adventure at around 8:30 to find that breakfast and another round of inviting mochas all ready to go.  I could get used to this!

Everyone was pretty worn out from the morning’s excursion and many declared that it was naptime.  Being generally unable to nap during the day, I sat in the kitchen, finished off my second mocha and took the chance for a good conversation with Meaghan’s parents Greg and Jenny.  I’d been hoping for an opportunity to get to know them both better without the hubbub of a larger social group.  They are both really great people and we ended up talking for several hours.  Meaghan and I took another walk around the neighborhood before getting ready for the evening of carolling.  I had requested that we run through the carols at least once before joining the Chorale.  Not only was I feeling a little rusty, but I have found that several of the American versions of the Christmas carols I grew up with have a different melody and in some cases slightly varied lyrics.  I can still sight-read music pretty well, especially for bass parts that occupy only the first, third, fifth, and sixth notes on either minims or crotchets.  However, when singing something intrinsically familiar that has only a few subtle changes it is really, really easy to make mistakes by going purely from memory and instinct instead of reading the dots.  Fortunately the selection of music was fairly easy to sight-read and, while some of the arrangements were a little obscure, we were able to pound through most of them on the first try.  I miss singing carols at Christmas because its something I used to do every year with my family, so it was really nice to get the chance to play through some of them on piano and sing the harmony parts to Meaghan singing the melody.  The chorale performance was fun, although we ducked out about thirty minutes early because it was getting quite chilly.  The crowds enjoyed listening to the the carols and I ended up having a lot of fun.  So ended another great day.

Saturday involved shopping, another walk around the neighborhood and a general relaxation from the busy days that preceded it.  Jenny had bought tickets for a local theatre performance that evening and Mandy had invited us all over for dinner beforehand.  Meaghan and I spent the afternoon looking at photo albums and trading stories from our youth.  It was nice to just sit around for a day.  Mandy did a fantastic job of entertaining (her first hosted party) and served a great dinner of a roast, vegetables, potatoes, and applesauce side, followed by a chocolate mousse dessert.  Accompanied by a Cabernet, candlelight, and a jovial atmosphere, it was yet another great evening dinner in a line that followed the theme of “I could get used to this.”  The play, Apocalyptic Butterflies, was in a small theatre and told the story of a couple who needed to learn appreciation for each other and see the love they had despite the woes of their current situation.  It was a story about not taking people for granted and seeing truly how much they bring to you.  Fairly well acted (although the lead sometimes lost his meter), it was a great way to end the weekend.  It has been a while since I had seen a local performance and it reminded me that Meaghan and I should make more time for this sort of thing.  We were all pretty worn out from the excitement, dining, and partying of the weekend and it wasn’t long before everyone headed to bed.

Sunday!  The journey home.  It snowed only two days in November this year.  The first day was during our journey down on Wednesday.  The second was in preparation for our journey back.  We awoke to see thick snowflakes both falling and settling on the road outside our window on Sunday morning.  Meaghan arose to the sound of Stu uttering “Buggerin ‘ell, of all the days to snow again!”  We were still in great spirits and were laughing about it as much as we were mad.  Nonetheless….come on….both days?!?  After a brief but very welcome breakfast, we hit the road shortly after 10:00am.  It was light enough outside to make the road a lot more visible than on the way down and we still had a fair amount of work to do in Eugene.  Meaghan and I had decided that we wanted to move in together in early November and had planned to make the final trip and move on the way back from Thanksgiving.  That meant that the stop in Eugene would be more than a pedestrian appearance to say hi to the kitties.  The kitties were coming with us along with the last of her stuff!  More about the move later.  For now, let me share two photographs of the return journey.  The first is a view from inside the car as we were driving up route 97 (roughly here), ostensibly the easier of the two parts of our journey as it was primarily flat.  Fortunately, the snow was fairly well packed and we didn’t need to put the chains back on.  The only tricky parts came because we were driving in the tracks melted by the big trucks that lined the highway.  Every so often we would find a popular point for the trucks to pull off and take a break or check their tires.  This left large snow berms in the road that we had to push our way over.  Inevitably the car would end up drifting and sliding to the right and the tires wanted to follow the tracks left by the exiting trucks.  Fortunately, once we reached route 58 (the pass over the mountains; ~5,000ft) the weather improved significantly and we even saw some sun.  ODOT had done a fairly good job of dropping dirt and sand on the road too, which mean that a lot of the snow had melted off.  The second photo was taken while we were driving across the pass (roughly here), looking back down the road we had just driven.

A great Thanksgiving drew to a close and we entered Eugene around 2:30pm, ready to begin the final parts of the move-out process.  More about that later.  For now, enjoy this evidence that it does indeed snow in Oregon.  I sure missed having my Jeep on that trip!

Thanksgiving in Klamath Falls Part II: Thursday

After the excitement of the journey down from Portland, we were both pretty frazzled.  We had barely had the chance to get our bags through the door and meet the dogs (Sophie and Libby- pictured below) before having cheese, biscuits, and a glass of wine presented alongside a warm comfortable seat and a chance to relax.  It was exactly what we needed and was the nicest way to begin the weekend.  Meaghan’s parents were extremely welcoming and very soon the thoughts of the journey were replaced with excitement of the weekend to come.  We were, however, quite tired and so after brief introductions and a short but pleasant conversation, Meaghan and I headed to bed to get a good night’s sleep.

Here are Sophie and Libby respectively, showing that we had indeed arrived late and that it was certainly time for bed:

The following morning we arose to the sweet smell of freshly brewed mochas filling the air.  Greg (Meaghan’s dad) had already prepared a small breakfast as well as two large mugs of chocolately coffee goodness.  Sweet!  No sooner has the morning coffee and biscuits been consumed than we noticed that preparations were already well underway for the day ahead.  The dinner table was set, bustling was aplenty, and all manner of dishes were entering and leaving ovens.  Meaghan and I decided the best place for us to be was out of the way on a walk around the neighborhood.  Fortunately the weather had improved significantly now that we were no longer on the road, which made for a nice Thursday morning stroll.  There was still some snow on the ground and the wind was cold, but it presented a delightfully relaxing prelude to the day ahead.

We returned to find that people would soon be arriving so we disappeared to get changed into our dinner outfits and then found places where we could help out with last minute preparations.  Mandy (Meaghan’s sister) lit the candles, Meaghan arranged chocolate liqours, while I assisted with beer consumption by drinking and removing some of the excess bottles that were just cluttering the drinks tray. :)  Soon, it was starting to look like we were ready for a Thanksgiving dinner.

Meaghan and her family participate with the Klamath Chorale in an annual recital of Christmas carols on the eve of the day after Thanksgiving and had kindly extended to me an invitation to join them.  All of the people on the guest list were also part of the performance and soon the room was filled with partial recitals of favorite carols from the coming medley.  Conversations were both plentiful and enjoyable and I was soon feeling like a part of the group; although I realized I needed to brush up on my carolling a little.

Here, Chris (Mandy’s husband, Meaghan’s brother in law) was talking to Charles (caroller and local theatre seat sponsor) about the medical imaging course he is attending at the Oregon Institute of Technology.  Meanwhile, Greg was applying the finishing touches to the turkey.  Jenny (Meaghan’s mom) displayed an adeptness for camera avoidance and I realized upon review that she had managed to appear in none of my pictures.  I shall have to correct this at Christmas.

Soon we all sat down and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.  The turkey was superb and was served with a variety of fantastic sides and treats.  I overate and indulged myself to my heart’s content and after a couple of hours of dining bliss felt completely satisfied and happy.  Everyone was very warm and welcoming and I was feeling like a part of the group and not at all like I was just “Meaghan’s boyfriend”.  It was really nice to get the chance to meet everyone and to feel so included in everything that was happening.

Having eaten and partied on all manner of turkey, stuffing, desserts, wines, and chocolates, everyone was soon falling into the familiar post-Thanksgiving food coma and soon enough the evening wound to a close.  After most people had left, Meaghan and I sat and talked with Mandy, Chris, Greg, and Jenny before deciding to call it a night ourselves.  A very successful Thursday was had by all!  I’ll post more about Friday and some pictures from the journey home in a later post.

Thanksgiving in Klamath Falls Part I: The Journey Down

We spent Thanksgiving in Klamath Falls visiting Meaghan’s family.  My journey began on Wednesday November 22nd (I know…a timely post this is!) at around 12:15pm.  Leaving work early to beat the Thanksgiving traffic (ha!) I began the trip down I5 towards Eugene to meet Meaghan after work.  Thinking we’d be able to hit the road across the pass and be on our way to Southern Oregon by early afternoon, the impending bad weather scheduled for that evening was of little concern.  After sitting in traffic on I5 pretty much all the way down to Salem, I was an hour and a half into my journey with barely forty miles done of the hundred and ten needed just to get to Eugene.  At around 2:00pm, I called Meaghan to let her know I might be running a tad late as, even though the traffic had thinned, I was only just passing Albany.  Fortunately, a few minutes later, an idiot from the hard shoulder decided to add some excitement to my day by pulling straight into the right-hand lane and then straight in front of me in the faster of the two lanes while I was doing 65mph.  I managed to slow to just above the 20mph he was doing when I bumped the back of his car!.  I had slammed on the brakes so urgently that my ABS kicked in and I ended up chugging along in 5th at 20mph with four diagnostic lights on the dashboard.  I carefully edged off to the hard shoulder, slowed to a stop and took a moment to breathe.  The manual indicated that I should turn off the engine, get out and check everything was OK (it was – a slight ding in the license plate) and then turn the car back on.  Sure enough, the diagnostic lights flared for a second and were gone.  Fucking stupid idiot asshole goddamn piece of shit other drivers!.  Hulk mad!.  OK, I’m done.  That’s pretty much how it sounded at the time too.

I finally pulled into Eugene at around 3:30.  After a short stop at Meaghan’s apartment to collect the last few things we needed, we were on the road again and headed towards the pass on route 58.  From about the point we left Eugene the weather was just ugly.  It was raining and the wind seemed to want to shift every time we turned such that it always pointed directly into the windshield.  Horizontal rain on already waterlogged roads with trucks flying by at twenty over the speed-limit because they want to get home for Thanksgiving and are too tired to pay attention- AWESOME!  We were making fairly reasonable progress and started the climb up towards the ski resort in that area at around 4:30pm.  Just in time, it began to snow!.  Yay, snow!.  *head sags*.  Fortunately, earlier that day Travis had written to me:
[quoted text]:
“If you don’t have tire chains or studs on your car, stop at the store and get some locally before you head down.  You can’t get through to K-Falls without them (they’re stopping people on the road and turning them around).  Saw it on the news this morning.  The snow/ice is ridiculous.  Drive safe, and if you have any doubts or if the snow is coming down too hard, please just turn around.  I’d hate to see you on the news having to be pulled out of your car by the Jaws of Life or some crap.”

A uniquely worded sentiment as always, but very appreciated because I had actually stopped to buy chains on my way down to Eugene after hearing from him about the weather report.  Thanks Travis!  We were little more than 2,000ft up when suddenly my tachometer informed me that stocks in grip (SYM: GRIP) were plummeting and a portfolio change would be advisable.  My tires followed the market trend shortly thereafter and started selling shares in grip at an alarming rate.  Not wanting to get caught as the last remaining shareholder, I pulled off to the side of the road to apply the newly purchased chains.  Riiiiggghhhtt!  The instructions seemed simple enough.  The illustrated example showed Grandma lifting the car with one hand whilst deftly applying the chains with the other.  I stood there with several pieces of interesting if oversized tire jewelry in my hand with a look in my eyes like a cow staring down an oncoming train.  I’ve never put chains on a car before, it was dark, the cold I’d been cultivating for two days was in full force now, and I was starting to feel a little out of my comfort zone.  Meaghan was an absolute lifesaver.  She grabbed the masses of twisted metal from my hands and with a quick glance at the instructions began weaving them around the front wheels like a pro.  I was able to lend a helping hand with the pulling and grunting parts towards the end of the process where various snaps needed to be pulled tight, but I couldn’t thank her enough for knowing what the hell she was doing.  Ten minutes later and a lot colder, we were on our way again at the world-ending speed of 25mph.  It was now 5:45pm, we had over a hundred miles to go and we were barrelling along at a thundering 25mph.  We should be there by morning!  With chains on the tires, it was much easier to hold the road though and we actually started to make quite a bit of progress.  Once over the top of the pass the snow seemed quite a bit lighter and the rest of the trip would be either downhill or mostly level.  We once again pulled off to the side of the road, this time to remove the chains and stuff them back into the Les Schwab bag.  Fingers now quite cold!

By 6:30pm we joined route 97 and although the weather was giving little to no respite, it was nice to know that we were on the last leg of the journey.  With a brief stop in Chemult (yes, we were in the middle of nowhere) for a toilet break and a chance to scrape ice from the windshield and stretch the legs, we were ready for the last hour of driving.  It was 7:15pm (about seven hours after I’d originally left Portland) and as we were pulling out of the gas station we watched the town’s tow truck pull out and head off down the road in the direction we had just come from.  I can only imagine it was quite the busy night for them.

Meaghan had called her folks from Chemult to let them know where we were and inform them of our new estimated arrival time.  Her dad let us know that the weather in Klamath Falls was pretty light with no snow, just a little light rain.  Hah!.  As we passed the “Welcome to Klamath Falls” sign at the city limits, we were greeted by a half inch of settled snow and ice with a fairly heavy rate of snowfall and freezing rain.  With wipers going full blast and the front and rear heaters on maximum, we ground our way through the last few roads and pulled into the driveway of Meaghan’s parent’s house.  Phew.  All in all, it wasn’t an unenjoyable journey, it was just longer and more full of excitement that I’m used to.  It was nice to have the company with me on the drive…and the way those chains went on was extracurriculariffic!.  I’ll post more about Thanksgiving as well as some photos soon.

More baby pictures!

Thanks to my dad for sending me some more pictures of Ethan from his first couple of days.  My mum and dad (now Grandma and Grandad – yay!) were there with Ellie and Peter.  I’m glad for the pictures because they let me feel a little more connected with everything despite the fact that I’m on the other side of the world.  I wish I could be there to say hi and even looked into returning to England at Christmas, but with everything happening over here and the exorbitant cost of flying to England, that journey will have to wait until some time next year.  Fortunately, we are planning a webcam chat session with Ellie, Peter, and Ethan in the next couple of weeks.

For now, here are some more pictures.  The first is of Peter (the proud Father) holding his new baby boy while my mum throws pearls of advice from the sideline (with “wagging-finger” feature).  The second is of my dad being scrutinized.  Why is it I think of this t-shirt when I look into those eyes?

The next couple are of Peter holding his son in his lap, and then of Ethan showing the same fondness for cameras that his dad does.

Finally, the all important shots of the baby actually sleeping and of his soon to be much snuggled and drooled-on teddies.

Welcome Ethan!

Last Friday, Meaghan and I were standing in line at Taco Del Mar, absent-mindedly ordering a super burrito combo meal and a couple of tacos when my phone started to ring.  Looking down at the number I was about to ignore, I saw the call was from my brother in law Peter.  As many of you know, Ellie and Peter announced that they were expecting their first child earlier this year.  Then a couple of weeks ago, I learned that they were very close as my sister’s food cravings had transitioned to smuggling Dominos Pizza into her hospital ward.  Answering the phone with anticipation, I said “Hi Peter, how are you?” in my very best “I can’t possibly guess what your news is” tone of voice.  Despite my monster intuition, hearing my (extremely tired sounding) sister announce that Ethan John Douglas Jarrett was born earlier that morning made me jump with joy inside.  I hugged Meaghan, indicated that black beans would be fine on my burrito and then congratulated my sister on being a mum.

This is the only picture I have of my new nephew right now, but I am assured that more are on the way as the chaos of caring for a new infant subsides.  Congratulations to Ellie and Peter for their first-born son, and congratulations to my mum and dad on becoming grandparents!  John Douglas was the name of my mum’s father, whom we lost earlier this year, and its great to see his name live on in my new nephew.  Now I just have to figure out when I can next cross the pond to see my new family member. :)  Better start looking into sorting out that passport!  Until then: Welcome Ethan! I’m glad you made it here safely.

Get the door…

I’m only a couple of weeks away from being an uncle and getting pretty excited about it.  When I received a phone call from my mum a few days ago indicating that my sister had been in hospital under supervision, I naturally became concerned.  My mum reassured me that nothing was wrong but, knowing a mother’s instinct to protect from bad news, I naturally remained a little on edge.  Later in the same conversation my mum began to tell me about a phone call they received on the way to the hospital that night.  Apparently my sister has called and requested that my parents “pick something up” for her on their way over.  Naturally, my mother and father assumed this meant a toothbrush, mp3 player, or fluffy toy to cuddle while she rested.  Nope!  In typically Ellie fashion she was requesting none other than the #1 doctor recommended Dominos Pizza!  LOL- good to know that she’s OK and still acting like her usual self.  ”Dominos?  Sure.  You want a couple of beers with that?  Bonbons perhaps?”  I love my sister.  Ellie: You rock!

More vacation pictures – Silver Falls

Here are some pictures from the vacation I had with my folks this summer during a visit to Silver Falls.

Family Vacation – Seattle

In classic tradition, I was packing for my vacation to Seattle about ten minutes before actually getting in the car to leave.  But how much stuff do you really need for a three day vacation anyway?  I settled on just enough underwear, a t-shirt, a spare pair of shorts and my CamelBak.  Ready to go!  I’ve ridden on the Amtrak Cascades twice now, the last time being when we visited Seattle with Trav and Jenn, and both experiences have been extremely enjoyable.  The prospect of driving up to Seattle and then dealing with a car while up there is not appealing to me.  Riding the train means that there is no congestion, a predictable start and end time to the journey, and no need to find an expensive parking space in downtown Seattle once I arrive.  The journey provides some nice scenery to enjoy and there is just something cool about taking the train.

We arrived in Seattle at noon, took a taxi to the Best Western Loyal Inn to drop off our luggage, and then headed over to the Pike Place market.  Sunday at noon really is the best time to see the open market.  All of the vendors are out in full force, the streets are packed, and the atmosphere is tremendous.  We worked our way down the myriad floors of stalls and stores, ending on the Waterfront by Pier 69.  Taking our time, we then wandered along the waterfront, passing the Aquarium, stopping to look out over the water, touring the various stores.  After a quick stop at Ye Old Curiosity Shop and the pirate store, my Dad bought us tickets for a cruise tour on a ferry on the Puget Sound.  It was a good tour of the entire waterfront, the nearest islands, and the myriad docks and piers.  Best of all, it was a nice break from walking around.  Peter and I found the bar and stood chatting with my Dad while we looked out over the city.  It was a nice and relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

On Monday morning, my parents and I took the Monorail downtown for some tourist window shopping, while Ellie and Peter took sometime to do their own thing.  We wandered around the 5th and Pine area, looking in all of the fancy shop windows and then headed towards the pioneer square, ending up in the fantastic Magic Mouse Toys.  We tried to get tickets for the Undercity Tour but had just missed the 11:00am group and wouldn’t have time to meet with Ellie and Peter if we waited for the next one.  Instead we walked back along the waterfront towards the Pier 69 area, and eventually back up Pine street to the Monorail station once more.  We met up with Ellie and Peter at the Space Needle just after noon.  As an off-topic note, my Dad permanently plays a game of never giving a “normal” pose for a photograph.  This is evidenced below. :)

After the Space Needle, we continued our tour of the Emerald city by purchasing tickets for two of my favorite attractions; the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum.  Similar to OMSI, I find that there is so much to see and do in both EMP and SFM that there is simply not enough time in one visit to absorb it all.  After spending our time and more than getting our money’s worth from guitar sculptures, Jimi Hendrix outfits, Star Trek phasers, and Red Dwarf props, we returned to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  Whilst exploring the city that morning, Ellie and Peter happened upon a restaurant that they wished to try named the Ipanema Brazilian Grill.  Although other suggestions originally took precedence, they were quickly excluded from the list of choices when found to be closed.  Apparently, Monday night is some sort of fasting festival in Seattle as many of the restaurants had Tuesday-Sunday service.  Odd, and as yet unexplained!  However, this worked to our favor as the Brazilian Grill was superb.  For the night of our visit they offered only their Rodizio service, which was a fixed price and all you can eat.  What this amounted to was an all you can eat salad appetizer from a very plentiful and varied salad bar and then serving after serving of fantastic grilled meats and seafood sliced right at your table.  Our server issued us with a stop/go token (green on one side, red on the other) that should be turned green side up whenever the carnivores in your party are ready to go.  Several other servers patrol the floor wielding large limbs of very finely cooked meats from peppered steak to filet mignon to garlic pork, sausages, spicy chicken, … and a couple of fishy/seafood types of offerings for people who like that stuff.  I can’t remember the last time I pounded through sooooo much meat.  It was fantastic!  Washed down with an appropriate number of Black Butte Porters, this was shaping up to be a night!  The restaurant, for those of you who now cannot visit Seattle without having to try it, is located directly across from the Seattle Art Museum on 1st.  Just look for Hammering SAM, also pictured below, and you’ll see the sign for Ipanema right across the street.  Ellie and Peter – I salute you on a great find!

Our last morning rolled around and it was time for us to try the “Ride the Ducks” tour of Seattle.  We had seen these amphibious creations driving around the city during our stay, piquing our interest sufficiently for us to purchase tickets and find out first-hand what it was all about.  Essentially, our tour guide took us on an all-points tour of the city on land, followed by a tour on the water to see additional landmarks.  Throughout the tour he shared a variety of interesting, and not so interesting, information all while donning a variety of themed hats and interspersing with bits of tour guide humor.  His voice quickly became forgettable, but the tour was great and included a number of locations we hadn’t been able to reach on our vist.  It was a little cold though.  For anyone considering taking the “Ride the Ducks” tour, I would certainly advise a nice thick jacket and some form of headgear.  Something like this should probably suffice.  We spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around downtown Seattle.  I bought a copy of Bel Canto from Borders for the return journey on the train, but ended up sleeping most of the way home.  However, the book I can highly recommend to anyone looking for a two-day to read.  So ended our brief stay in Seattle.  We sure packed a lot in, and had a heck of a lot of fun.

NOTE: One thing I noticed when looking through my photos from this trip was that Peter is incredibly good at avoiding appearing in any of them.  I’ll have to see if anyone else managed to catch him off guard.

Family Vacation – First Weekend

After a much needed night’s sleep following the excitement of Thursday’s airport fun, we were all ready to start a vacation.  There were a couple of little things we needed to take care of and decided to get those out of the way first so that we could spend the rest of our time just having fun. We needed to get my Dad listed as a driver on the rental car, pick up our actual train tickets for our visit to Seattle, and visit a mall to purchase “we’ve been to the U.S.” gifts for people back in England.  We parked by the Union Station, fortunately located only a few blocks from the downtown branch of Dollar Rent A Car, got my Dad’s name added to the minivan, picked up our tickets from the station, and then headed off to Lloyd’s Center.  Shopping and mall trauling ensued, resulting in gift purchases, lunch at the food court, and speculation once more that electronics are far cheaper in the U.S. than in England.

That evening I had planned to take everyone out to the Farm Cafe for dinner.  If you haven’t been to the Farm then I can highly recommend it for an affordably exquisite place to eat.  Unfortunately, we arrived just before eight o’clock and it’s affordability and quality played against us as the estimated wait time was a little over an hour and the patio and bar were already full.  I quickly made reservations at Le Bouchon for nine, which was still an hour away but meant that we weren’t just standing around outside on the street.  Instead we visited the Rogue Ale’s Brewery on 13th and Glisan for a couple of drinks, which is right across the street from the restaurant.  The authentic French atmosphere and delicious cuisine were a big hit with everyone.  We were finally able to raise our glasses in “cheers” and enjoy being together as a family without any other distractions or commitments for the first time in six years.  So ended a great Friday and the start of what promised to be a wonderful vacation.

Ellie & Peter

On Saturday we went to OMSI.  Peter had never been, but had heard many stories and was very keen to visit.  I have seen OMSI three times now and still always find plenty of new stuff to see.  There is such a density of information and exhibits on display that it is difficult to take it all in, even with a full day available.  In addition to the floor exhibits, we saw “Greece” at the OmniMax, got tickets for the U.S.S. Blueback, and also for the Planetarium show.  As Ellie put it “If we’re here, let’s do it all!” The “Greece” movie wasn’t the best of the iMax-style movies I’ve seen but still presented stunning visuals and contained many “cool factor” shots of Athens.  I never get tired of seeing the submarine and had a much better tour guide than last time, which makes such an incredible difference.  At the Planetarium we saw their “Journey into the Universe” show, which was the best of the three Plantetarium shows I’ve seen by far.  We interspersed the shows with tours of the various room exhibits and actually managed to pack an incredible amount into one day.  By late afternoon the temperature was really rising though and, having been there for over six hours by then, we decided to call it a day.  To cool off, we headed back to the hotel for a swim.  Later that evening, I introduced everyone to Apples to Apples, ordered in a couple of pizzas from Papa Johns and we spent the night laughing, joking, and catching up with each other.  There are times I miss my family and then there are times that I think the distance is what helps to keep our relationship so strong…this was certainly one of those nights where I wish they lived closer so that we could hang out together and play games more often.

Family Vacation – Arrivals and Delays

Our adventure began on Thursday August 10th.  The airlines were making the headlines that day because police in England had just arrested 21 people in connection with a terrorist plot to detonate explosives on board several aircraft bound for the United States.  The plot apparently involved mixing otherwise innocuous liquids and gels to form an explosive compound that could then be detonated with a small electronic device such as a cell phone, iPod, or keyless entry key fob.  The U.S. authorities responded by banning all liquids and gels from being carried on-board.  However, passengers departing the United Kingdom were required to check all of their hand luggage and take only a small Ziploc bag of valuables with them on-board.  This also happened to be the same day my family were departing England for their vacation to Oregon.  In fact, I got a phone call from my sister at about 1:15am on Thursday saying that they had seen the news just as they were leaving their house, and that although they were currently on the way to the airport they didn’t know if they would be delayed or even if they would be able to fly.  Ugh!

My parents flight was scheduled to arrive at 7:15pm while my sister and brother in law were expected to touch down at 8:05pm.  We rented a minivan for the duration of their stay to make travelling as a group more comfortable.  I wanted to take care of the paperwork and park it in the short-term lot before they arrived, so I planned on being at the airport by 6:30pm.  Fortunately, Tiffany was kind enough to give me a ride, which saved me the cost of a taxi.  However, the first complication of the night arose shortly after arriving when I tried to collect said rental car.  ”Stuart Thompson” were the only words I’d issued to the grunting clerk before receiving the eloquently crafted “deposit’s $1,100, you got your credit card?” (unnecessary apostrophe added to reflect unparsable grammar).  Apparently it is now “standard” to charge a deposit of 120% of the rental cost on all rentals over 5 days, thus explaining the rather large “deposit” being requested.  After swallowing hard, I presented my US Bank VISA card to the Enterprise representative only to have it thrust right back at me.  ”Won’t work.”, the representative grunted, apparently annoyed at himself for once again failing to create an actual sentence.  Predicting my reaction based upon the puzzled look on my face, he added “see we don’t take credit cards that are linked to a checking account.”  ”Errr, well that’s all I have with me.” I replied, my mind now racing with the realization that I was stuck at the airport without a car.  It turns out that if I was paying over the phone then the card would be accepted without a problem.  The same would be true if I was paying via their web site or if I was simply reading the number to the representative while standing on a cell phone just out of view of the counter.  However, if they actually see the card and determine that it’s linked to a checking account, then they won’t even run it.  Can you spell D..U..M..B?  The extremely helpful representative certainly could after I’d provided my “customer feedback” a couple of times using appropriately agitated gesticulations.  They wouldn’t even let me pay for the rental up front.  Thoroughly pissed off I walked over to the next company in the line of rental booths, which turned out to be Dollar Rent A Car.  Lo and behold, they take my debit card without issue and hand me the keys.

Note to self: NEVER, EVER, EVER use Enterprise Rental Cars again.  Make your time more productive and enjoyable by filing off your eyebrows with venom-coated sandpaper.
(Friends don’t let friends use stupid, uncooperative companies.)

Having now parked the Ford Freestar rented from the much more helpful Dollar Rent A Car in short-term parking, I made it into the terminal at 7:00pm, just in time to see that the 7:15pm flight had been delayed by two hours.  Sigh.  I hadn’t heard from my parents all day, so I didn’t know if they had managed to make their flight with all of the disruptions from the heightened security.  I did the only thing that I could.  I found a nice looking restaurant, ordered a basket of Buffalo Wings, a pint of Hefeweizen, and turned on the SlingBox player on my phone to watch some MTV.  Fortunately I heard from my sister that while they had missed their original flight, they were about to board a flight arriving at 11:37pm.  At least I knew one set of relatives was arriving that night.  A few hours later, I was standing at the arrival gate hoping that my parents had managed to make their original flight.  A few minutes later I spotted them looking bedraggled and a little worn at the edges, but at least they were here.  Check – one set here, one more confirmed on the way.  We headed down to baggage claim to find out that while they had made the flight, there luggage had not.  Sigh.  Well, we had reason to be in the airport for a while yet anyway, so I took my folks to my little restaurant.  I introduced them to the wait staff there who had come to know me pretty well and ordered another bucket o’ chicken.  After one more delay to 12:15am, Ellie and Peter finally walked through the same arrival gate my folks had trodden only a few hours earlier.  Finally we were all together.  By the time we loaded their luggage into the minivan, I’d been in the airport for seven hours.  Don’t get me wrong, PDX is a really great airport, but I wasn’t sorry to finally get out of there and drop my parents off at their hotel.

Uncle Stu

I’ve been keeping quiet for a few on some big news, but recently got the OK to share it publicly. I’m going to be an uncle before the end of the year….that rocks!  I’m totally psyched about it and want to extend my warmest congratulations and blessings to Ellie and Peter.  She’s already three months along, and had her first scan just a few days ago.  Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I was able to see the pictures within a few hours, despite being several thousand miles away.  I can’t wait to see my family when they visit in August.  My sister will be six months along at that point, which is about the upper threshold of where they are still happy to have you fly, and it will be great to get the chance to see her and congratulate her and Peter in person.

Until then…

Congratulations Ellie and Peter. That’s awesome!