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It was a great day yesterday
October 31, 2004 by Adam in Family
 It was a great day yesterday. We puttered around in the morning then headed to the zoo to meet up with Seraph, Robbie, and Isabell. It was occasionally a little drizzly, and it poured down rain just as we left, but it really kept the crowds down. What people were there were mostly kids dressed up in costume for the Halloween Zoo event. Sam was happy that he returned with a bag of candy and toys, keeping him entertained for the drive back.
The kids liked the various exhibits quite a bit. Emma alternated between amazed and frightened for a couple animals. When we went to feed the birds, they swarmed us and climbed on Emma's stroller. She didn't like that too much and had to be held. I took a great picture of Robbie the Bird Man, covered in colorful tropical birds.
The other animal Emma had mixed feelings about was the elephants. There was one where we could get close to and we watched it eat some hay. At first she wanted to climb into my jacket, saying "Scary." I wasn't sure I heard her right, so I asked "Scary?" She replied. "Scary. Uh-huh. Bye-bye." After a little, though, she calmed down and had fun watching the elephant pick up hay with its trunk and feed itself. When I asked Sam which part he liked, he picked the alligator, which mostly sat still in the water waiting to be fed.
The rest of the evening was fairly quiet. I drove over to Fry's and picked up a printer. Our current one is lousy at photgraphs, so hopefully this new one works a bit better. It was crazy busy, though. Ordering online and spending a few bucks for shipping makes more and more sense. The kids watched a little Shrek and went to bed later than normal. Hopefully Sam's recent bout of sleeping in will balance nicely with daylight saving's time today. In theory I woke up at 5 am, though my brain was telling me I had slept in a little.
I think we'll do a little shopping this morning, then head home. It's been a good trip, though I do miss our little abode.
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Well, we're up in Portland
October 29, 2004 by Adam in Family
Well, we're up in Portland. It was a fairly uneventful morning, except that I think I'm coming down with a cold. Lots of Advil, caffiene, and food seemed to help. Judy's entertaining the kids, Jamie's off at the store, and I'm puttering around with the computer.
I think we'll try to do OMSI or the zoo tomorrow, depending on how people are feeling. It would be nice to do a little Christmas shopping too, though I'm not sure if I'll really get the time to do that too.
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It's been a somewhat weird work week for me, ...
October 28, 2004 by Adam in Family
 It's been a somewhat weird work week for me, with all day meetings yesterday and today. Dave and Kirsten stopped by after work yesterday as well, entertaining children and having dinner with us. Emma in particular really loves those two, doing a funny little floor wiggle dance when she first saw Dave. There was also a full eclipse of the moon last night, so Sam and I stood on the balcony and discussed astronomy. Plus it was pretty cool looking.
I'll be heading off-site for all day meetings today, possibly coming home late. To be honest I'd rather hang out with my family than spend yet more time with work folks. We should be off to Portland tomorrow, which excites me greatly. Should be lots of fun.
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We all had a pleasant Sunday, somewhat uneventful
October 25, 2004 by Adam in Family
 We all had a pleasant Sunday, somewhat uneventful. I took the kids to the library and movie store in the morning, returning with various Dinotopia books and movies. We also found a paper airplane book, which resulted in a long playtime of airplane building and testing. Emma also demanded that I read her library books immediately, several times for each of them.
Jamie managed to get out of the house a couple times, once to visit my mom and another to go for a walk with her friend Victoria. Sam became a gardening maniac and we weeded, dug, and pruned for well over an hour. Hopefully I can keep up this level of enthusiasm and get a new flower bed put in for next year.
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Sam spent the night at my dad and Yayoe's hou...
October 24, 2004 by Adam in Family
 Sam spent the night at my dad and Yayoe's house, something he decided to do mostly on his own and has been strangely excited about all week. They mostly hung out at their house, playing Battleship, doing some art projects, and reading a bit. Jamie and I had an unusually quiet evening and morning. We ended up doing a fair amount of outside work. I took in all the patio furniture, cut down an offending plant, and cleaned up the tomatoes.
We're tentatively planning a Portland trip next weekend, though we'll see how it goes. It would be fun to see Seraph and Robbie's place and generally take it easy for a couple days.
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Sweet, sweet mocha Friday
October 22, 2004 by Adam in Family
Sweet, sweet mocha Friday. I'm feeling energized and ready for work, of which there seems a lot these days. Jamie and I went out to dinner last night, a rare treat. Dinner was late, but really tasty. I was worrying that the kids might be missing us, but they barely noticed our arrival. Dave and Kirsten did a great job entertaining them, one of the few people that Emma will actually let watch her without endless crying.
We're trying hard to plan for a Portland trip next weekend. Seraph and Robbie - drop me an e-mail if you're around to be visited with. This weekend is likely to be quiet. I think we'll be putting away our patio furniture for the weekend and that's about it.
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The week is slowly moving along
October 20, 2004 by Adam in Family
The week is slowly moving along. I've been braving the dreary weather on my bicycle and entertaining the kids indoors due to the rain. Last night we had "dancing in our underwear" hour in the basement, along with a vicious pillow fight between Sam and I. Emma learned how to do sommersaults last night, much to everyone's entertainment.
I've been getting into the Fall's t.v. shows. Lost is on tonight, my favorite new series. I watched the Farscape finale Sunday and Monday night, which was a great ending. Tonight I'll watch the new Battlestar Galactica series which is also looking really good. Though Buffy and Firefly may be gone, there's a host of new shows that have popped up.
Jamie and I also voted, so we're feeling good about our civic duty. Now it's just nailbiting until November 2nd. I've become a politics junkie, visiting political blogs like Daily Kos every few hours. electoral-vote.com is another one, seeming to determine my mood as the graphs go up and down. What odd times we live in.
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It's been a very wet weekend, one of those wh...
October 17, 2004 by Adam in Family
It's been a very wet weekend, one of those where we barely left the house as we'd probably get soaked to the bone just stepping out the door. We did manage a few useful things over the course of the weekend. Saturday night we went over to my dad and Yayoe's house for some good dinner. Sam and I raked the front yard in the rain. There were a few grocery trips hidden in there as well.
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It's the end of a Friday and I'm very much lo...
October 15, 2004 by Adam in Family
 It's the end of a Friday and I'm very much looking forward to the weekend.
Sam ran his Jog-A-Thon this morning, running an amazing 11 laps (nearly 3 miles). This was after he'd hurt himself this morning when he wacked his face against the foot of our bed. I haven't seen it yet, but Jamie describes it as "cool". I expect we'll have to give him an eyepatch and have him say "Aarg!" a few times to complete the image.
We're going over to my dad's for dinner tomorrow and generally puttering around the house. I'd very much like to have some quiet time to myself.
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The colds that gripped our household are slow...
October 12, 2004 by Adam in Family
The colds that gripped our household are slowly fading. Sam's cough still lingers a bit, but hopefully we'll be healthy soon enough. Jamie dropped off the kids this morning while she worked out. Emma pretty much ran the show, deciding where we were going around campus. I also showed off my new cubicle, which Sam decided was fairly cool.
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The kids and I managed to get out to Amazon p...
October 11, 2004 by Adam in Family
The kids and I managed to get out to Amazon park this morning, gearing up for the cold and having a pretty good time. Emma had a hard time taking turns with Sam riding his tricycle. After an hour or so, they started getting cranky and we headed home. Jamie and Angie went out on a walk and traded recipes, having a good time together.
The rest of the day was mostly spent in the basement playing. Sam watched Star Wars on DVD while Emma napped. We had Kirsten and Dave over for a couple hours. They did a great job watching the kids while I rested and Jamie made dinner. Dinner was an incredibly yummy tamale pie, time consuming to make but well worth it. Then it was the usual bath, bednight snack, making my lunch, and reading to Sam. Ah, what a weekend.
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It was a pretty good day yesterday, though we...
October 10, 2004 by Adam in Family
 It was a pretty good day yesterday, though we didn't do anything exciting at all. The morning was a little overwhelming, as I entertained kids nonstop until noon or so. We did have a bit of fun at snack time with them making funny faces at the camera. Even Emma was pretty good at it.
 After lunch, I slowly started getting into the swing of things. We played a made-up like Pictionary game that everyone could play. Emma was really good at recognizing pictures that Jamie would draw, even getting things like car, star, and ball without any problems. Sam got everything right except "electricity", though he came up with "electrocution" by himself. It's one of the fun games we can play as an entire family.
Jamie went off to a "Sweet 16 celebration" for the daughter of the woman who helps clean our house. She said it was really interesting, more like a wedding in the feel of things. I had the kids for the duration and managed to feed and distract them for the most part, though Emma cried for a half hour or so.
Hopefully today we can get the kids out of the house for awhile, though I'm not sure what we'll do exactly. It would be neat if I could get Sam on a hiking adventure, even with all the rain. We'll see how it goes.
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Mocha Friday, posting from my new cubicle
October 08, 2004 by Adam in Family
Mocha Friday, posting from my new cubicle. I'm still getting used to the new setup, though my family pictures and plants help ease the transition. It was a beautiful bike ride into work, the crisp air of Fall and the sun rising over the valley. I'm looking forward to this weekend, even though I don't think we have anything particularly exciting planned.
The kids and I have entered into a weird ritual after work this week. They both really want to play on the computer (Emma with her Pooh and Sam with Far Cry or Sims 2). I find myself sandwiched between them, helping one or another. What's strange is that Sam has been ignoring the computer for months and Emma never really got into it until now. I suppose they really are my children.
Sadie's been e-mailing me questions about database development for her new job. It's nice to hear that she's getting herself a "real" job. Even more importantly, she seems to really like it.
 Last night Jamie made some tasty pizza for dinner. When we all sat down, she started pleading to eat in the living room and watch the Surreal Life. If you haven't seen it, it's basically about all these washed-up celebrities from ten or years ago that live together. MC Hammer and the guy from Webster, for example. In any case, we all piled into our chairs watching the train-wreck-like qualities of Cory Feldman trying to find a date for a Playboy bunny (one of the other members of the cast). Bizarre.
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Emma's still sniffly and I've been battling h...
October 05, 2004 by Adam in Family
Emma's still sniffly and I've been battling headaches myself. I did the mocha and Advil cure this morning, which seemed fairly effective.
I'm also getting ready for a cubicle move here at work. I managed to get a view of the window, though it's about twenty feet away and I'll be looking through a couple people's cubicles. Hopefully my plants will survive the transition.
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I think Emma's getting better, though it's ha...
October 04, 2004 by Adam in Family
 I think Emma's getting better, though it's hard to tell. Sleep time is pretty rough, and she's still up tonight even as it approaches ten o'clock. Hopefully they'll manage to get a full night's sleep tonight.
The day itself was fairly uneventful. I played with kids nonstop it seems. Sam spent a lot of time with the neighbor boys while Emma and I chatted with the grownups. My dad came by and I unfortunately didn't have as much time to spend with him as I would have liked.
We did accomplish a number of small house projects, not to mention throwing a dinner party for everyone last night. It just sometimes feels like I need a weekend to relax from my weekend.
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It was an exciting day yesterday, and an exci...
October 03, 2004 by Adam in Family
 It was an exciting day yesterday, and an exciting night as well. It started normally enough, a delicious breakfast served by my lovely wife. There was lots of playing with kids and an outing to get food for dinner. A bit after noon, Josh arrived to hang out with us while Dave went to the football game. He and Sam had a great time playing together. They started by building a huge pit in the sandbox, then filling it with water until the walls collapsed. This was repeated several times. Afterwards, Sam got a shower and they went into the basement to play a wacky game called Clone Bandits. After that, they started inventing their own games, most of which apparently involved throwing stuffed animals at each other.
 Around five, Seraph, Robbie, Isabell, and my mom came over for dinner. It was really nice to see them all. I had forgotten how much I missed talking to Seraph and was excited to hear about how well school was going for her. Isabell charmed Emma, though it took some doing as she's been in a pretty cranky mood. After a yummy dinner and ice cream, everyone faded away and we cleaned up and got the kids to bed as best we could.
Emma had a tough night. She was up for a long time with Jamie, then I took her for a couple hours in the middle of the night. She let me know that she wanted to play Sims 2 by saying "Kirsten", who is one of the Sims in the game. After that, it was a lot of Pooh games, looking at the moon, then finally to sleep. A few hours later she threw up and I was on assistant clean up duty with Jamie. It's now sneaking up on 8 am and everyone's still asleep.
Hopefully today will be calmer. I don't think we have anything planned other than taking it easy.
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Well, it looks like Mount St
October 01, 2004 by Adam in Family
 Well, it looks like Mount St. Helens just erupted. It looks like it's not going to be quite as bad as the one from the 80's. Fortunately Seraph and Robbie will be down in Eugene for the weekend, so hopefully they'll miss most of the excitement.
I don't remember seeing any ash in Eugene after the first eruption, but Jamie was further north at the time. There was quite a bit of ash all over everything.
Hopefully Jamie's parents aren't stuck cleaning their cars and houses over the next week or so. Could get messy.
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I somehow managed to get close to nine blissf...
October 01, 2004 by Adam in Family
 I somehow managed to get close to nine blissful hours of sleep last night. Jamie kicked me out of bed, probably due to snoring, so I spent my morning hours in the quiet guest bed. After the last few days, getting so much sleep is quite nice. I could almost skip my Friday mocha . . . not!
My bike is in better shape, with the back brakes working again. It felt nice to get that taken care of. I played with the kids quite a bit after work, with lots of sandbox time for Emma and pretending to be a stormtrooper for Sam. I'm very much looking forward to the weekend ahead of us.
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