Photos of October snow

October 31, 2011 by Greg in Sadie & Greg

While Sadie's posting the details of our fine adventure without power, I thought I might share some photos of what 12" of snow in October looks like.

H2Jo Monday

October 31, 2011 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg

Without power, heat, or water, I wasn't able to have my customary morning latte. Fortunately, Ms. Carly Bruder got us an H2Jo for our wedding. We also got to use our propane backpacking stove and kitchen equipment for the first time.

Mocha Halloween

October 31, 2011 by Adam in Family

It's Halloween, and I just finished my mocha, dressed in full pirate regalia.  Few people at work have dressed up, which is somewhat disappointing.  Our family was pretty enthusiastic, though.  Emma was a ghost.  Joanna a runaway bride.  Berry and Duncan were Moshi Monsters (video game characters).  Sam had his creeper shirt on.  We're quite the bunch.

Emma went to the coast on Friday with her mom, so Sam and I spent a lot of time together.  We walked to get haircuts on Saturday while Joanna went to a birthday party with the little kids.  Afterward, we hooked up with Josh and Matt and played Dead Island for a surprisingly long length of time.  Fighting zombies was quite funny with the rest of the boys. 

Sunday I picked up some hedge trimmers after a hearty breakfast of crepes and sausages.  It started raining quite a bit, so Sam and I played on the computer once again until the weather cleared.  I tried to get Sam outside to work, but his cold kicked in and he went inside early.  I maniacally chopped up the shrubbery and it looks quite nice.  Emma arrived, also with sniffles.  The rest of the afternoon had Joanna working on costumes, putting out spiderwebs, and pizza and Mythbusters.

This morning was a bit of a madhouse, getting kids ready for Halloween.  Sam was also claiming intense fatigue, but I hauled him off anyway.  We dropped off all four kids at their four respective schools, eventually getting to work.  Tonight we're all trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, and handing out massive amounts of candy to the wandering hordes.  Good times.

Mocha Friday

October 28, 2011 by Adam in Family

We have a new cafe at work and their mocha is pretty tasty.  Already I feel the brainpower of a dozen men flowing through my noggin.

Sam is all better, which is a big relief.  I perked up mid-morning yesterday, and by the time I returned home, he was his usual funny self.  Yesterday also marked Emma's arrival, and flu mists for all.

Joanna organized an outing to get the kids all vaccinated.  They have flu mist now, instead of shots, and it went quite well.  Emma was a little nervous, as flu vaccinations haven't been part of the annual routine, but it turned into a fun little outing, with our sitter Jenny taking everyone to the hospital.

Dinner last night was stir-fry, which turned out quite well.  Somehow we got on the topic of accents, I think because Emma sometimes talks with a British accent in her class.  Soon enough Joanna broke out her full range of accents.  I was requested to talk like a Scotsman.  Eventually all sense of propriety broke down and I was saying "word to your mother" in pirate.  It was great family fun.

We had a typical evening, and continued watching The Middle, which we increasingly identify with.  This morning we dropped off all the kids at their respective schools, and Joanna at the hospital.  I came in somewhat fashionably late, strangely excited to get down to work.

Tonight Joanna and I have a hot date planned, Emma's off to the coast with her mom, Sam and I have plans to do some work for cash, and accomplish assorted house projects.  Hopefully we can work in some play time too.

Life's good.

Sick Sam

October 26, 2011 by Adam in Family

Sam's sick again for the second day in a row.  He managed to get himself to school on Monday, but has been nauseous and throwing up since then.  On the plus side, he's been getting quite a bit of his reading done and hopefully finishes up his book today.  Occasionally he'll get his appetite back, and ate a ton of bread and sandwiches last night.  Poor guy.

I also learned by accident that Sam is somehow musically inclined.  His teacher was praising him for his singing, and has some sort of solo part in one of their songs.

Otherwise, the week has been somewhat ordinary.  Kids are going to school, work is getting done, and live goes on.  Emma's away this weekend with her mom, and Sam is here.  All the kids will be around for Halloween, which is very cool.  Joanna has been making costumes like a pro, and I put a little work into a pirate sword.

New Cookbook

October 25, 2011 by Seraph in Cortez

Well, it's been almost 2 months without eating meat (just me - not Robbie and Isabell), and I finally went out and bought a new cookbook.  I've been doing well adapting our usual dinner recipes, but it was time for some new inspiration. 

I picked up the Moosewood Cookbook (it was actually afordable), but I'm wondering if any of you guys have other suggested cookbooks, websites, or favorite vegetarian recipes.  (Please remember that "gormet" grocery stores are few and far between!)

Hugs to all!

I Ran

October 25, 2011 by Adam in Family

It's Monday night and my legs are still sore from running in the Race for the Cure on Sunday.  Everyone is still a little sick, and Berry is working on being grumpy in a variety of ways, but the weekend was generally pleasant.

Emma was sick Friday and Sam had no school, so it was Sam, Emma, and I hanging out all day.  Emma mostly stayed in her room in the morning, and Sam caught up on homework from the time he was sick. Eventually Emma perked up and we played some Munchkin.  Amazingly, we all won at the same time after carefully coordinating with each other.  Sam's famous moment was using his Ranger card to tame Cthulu and use him as his steed.

Eventually Sam went to his mom's and we had a quiet evening with the younger kids.  I did a quick library run in the morning, and then we all went to a farm to pick up pumpkins and goodies.  Berry was sick and cranky, so I carried her around.  We returned home to carve pumpkins and hang out.  I wasn't feeling very good, so I took it easy.

I woke up crazy early for the race, waking up kids and Joanna, and getting us out the door in the dark.  Everyone put on their t-shirts and converged at the racing line.  It was quite the festive atmosphere and the outfits were outrageous, with boob jokes everywhere.  Eventually the race started and 23 minutes later I was being cheered on by Berry, Duncan, Emma, and Joanna.

We didn't want to wait for the actual walk, so we took the kids and ran a couple miles, crossing the finish line through a corridor of cheerleaders.  Everyone satisfied, we then went out for breakfast at the Glenwood.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Sam did chores.  Emma helped me out in the shop.  I sanded and refinished Joanna's old bread box.  Emma made a music instrument out of weird parts.  The day wrapped up with pizza and Mythbusters.  All is well.

Food for Lane County

October 20, 2011 by Adam in Family

Joanna and I went out to Food for Lane County last night for our hot date night.  We were volunteering with a marketing group that Joanna is a member of, taking food donated by restaurants and getting it ready to go out to assorted hungry people.

It was pretty cool, and the warehouse was massive.  We decided it was a great place to go during a zombie apocalypse.  I also got to use a hydraulic palette mover, which was surprisingly fun.

All four kids are in school today after being sick off and on all week.  Yesterday I worked from home and got a surprising amount done.  Duncan and Emma were crashed out in bed, watching Netflix and being pitiful.

Berry's Half Birthday

October 19, 2011 by Adam in Family

Berry is four and a half today.  Joanna made the biggest cupcake in the world, half chocolate cake and half strawberry cake.  Berry just ate the icing.

Everyone is Sick

October 18, 2011 by Adam in Family

All four kids are sick today. Joanna and I were up off and on last night, tending to Berry and Duncan. I woke up Sam to check on him, and all he wanted was painkillers before going back to bed. Joanna volunteered to stay home with everyone this morning, and I'll probably sneak home from work early to help out.

Three Day Weekend

October 17, 2011 by Adam in Family

It's been a bit of a nutty weekend, as both Duncan and Sam were sick today.  I think both are on the mend after sleeping in for 14 or so hours.  We'll see who's next.

I managed a few house projects, mostly of the practical types like laundry and library trips.  I picked up Sam late morning while still in my PJs and we hung about for most of the day.  The highlight was picking up pizza at Mezza Luna for pizza and Mythbusters.  Everyone loved it, except for Emma, strangely enough.

Sunday morning I took Sam and Emma hiking, while the rest of the family went to church.  Emma found all manner of interesting nature things to put in sample vials, and Sam talked about video game design the entire time.  We all returned home for lunch, and everyone but Sam went out to get fabric for Halloween costumes.

It ended up being quite the adventure, as everyone else in the world had the same idea.  I took the little kids to the dollar store, and we returned to show off our treasures.  After about an hour, we finally got the fabric cut and were out the door.

I tried hard to be lazy for the rest of the day, and somewhat succeeded.  I put in some work on the new game, trying to implement "object carrying" code.  The box I picked up kept vanishing or going through the floor, to my great disappointment.

The sky is falling (just kidding)

October 17, 2011 by Seraph in Cortez

There was a 3.8 earthquake this morning.  The epicenter was somewhere between Sante Fe and Espanola.  After years of small quakes in OR - that I never felt - it was weird to actually feel/hear one.  I didn't realize how load they were!  It sounded like a big truck went rumbling down our road.  Other than a small growl from the dog (so much for animal insticts) there wasn't much to it.

Belated Mocha Friday

October 15, 2011 by Adam in Family

Okay, it's actually Saturday morning.  Duncan and I are puttering on our respective computers and Berry and Joanna are fast asleep.  In a couple hours Emma will magically arrive, and I'm picking up Sam soon after.

It's been a pleasant, relatively uneventful week.  Sam ended up with a pulled muscle in his gym class and hobbled around for a couple days, but made it to his next class and has been fine since then.  I had a couple time where I got up in the middle of the night to change wet beds.  Last night I managed to sleep until 5:30 a.m. before being woken up by anyone.

I took Friday off work, as all the kids were out of school.  I fed pancakes and waffles to everyone, and then Emma strangely wanted to go to my work.  There was a quick stop for a mocha and hot chocolate, and then we were on our way.  We stayed there a surprising length of time, playing in my cubicle and visiting with people.  Eventually we returned for lunch and Emma went to play with Berry, Duncan, and Jenny in the basement.

Sam and I went to work in the garage, filling the minivan with scrap metal and items to donate.  I think he secretly liked flinging chairs and grills into the giant bins.  We returned to tidy up and I can now walk around the garage for the first time in months.

I took the kids to Jamie's in the afternoon, and Jessica arrived to take Berry and Duncan to the farm.  Joanna and I chatted for awhile in the rare silence, and then got gussied up for a dinner out.  We hit the Verizon store, looking at new cell phones, and then ate dinner at PF Changs.

All-in-all, life is good.  I'm excited for a weekend of hanging out with kids and assorted house projects.

One of those days...

October 14, 2011 by Seraph in Cortez

It's been one of those days - yuck!  It was good for about 30 seconds, and then I actually had to get up.  We planned to go camping this weekend, but that's off now, as we're faced with another plumbing fiasco.  Sigh... I'm going to look at seed catalogues!

Project RPG

October 12, 2011 by Adam in Sam

Sam and I have been working on a new game.  There's not much too it, but it's fairly professional looking.  You can see more here.

Crazy!

October 11, 2011 by Seraph in Cortez

It feels a little crazy that 14 years ago Robbie and I got married.  We met 16 years ago in September!  This morning we were talking about how strange time is.  In some ways the years have flown by, and in other ways a few years ago can feel like a lifetime!

We're keeping things pretty small this year, due to a lot of unexpected expenses the last month or so, but we will have some great wine (always good to have friends who own a winery)!

Hate him, hate him, wouldn't want to date him...

October 11, 2011 by Sue in Wielesek

As a result of having a language loving family and four funny kids, I have sayings from the late 1800's (Susie, you're moving so fast you could play marbles on your skirts) to slang from the present. The title of this must have come from the 80's or 90's.

Anyhow, this law suit with my business partner drags on. At this point, it's gone on longer than my three gestation periods combined. Seraph brought me some "Attorney Be Stupid" incense powder from the House of Voodoo in New Orleans. I would like to have volunteers to make a midnight raid  with meand sprinkle it outside the attorney's office just before trial. Joanna, makes me miss your Mom. She'd do it!

Thanks, Seraph, for your support.  And this update is really an apology for being so out of touch for so long.

Plus, I had to evict my new farm tenants (not Sarah and Nate, of course). It was funny - they really were grifters. I checked her FB page - religious affiliation displayed proudly, of course. FB needs new categories. Fake Christians and Honest Christians. The latter category seems to be getting smaller and smaller. I need to go home to Normalville and go to the good old Normalville Methodist Church for awhile. My faith in God is fine, it's my faith in people who say they believe in God that's a bit weak these days.

My first not terrible apple pie

October 11, 2011 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg

I made my first successful apple pie yesterday, which was just as good for breakfast this morning:

Work is going really well. I launched a few big surveys last week, and am enjoying the small lull in furious calls, emails, and editing that precede emailing thousands of people all at once. 

I want to give a shout out to a phenomenal reader from back in the adamandjamie days. She is my heroine for following the radical intellectual dream and is still rocking the face off critical studies at Berkeley. Way to be, Jacqui. 

Mostly Relaxing Weekend

October 10, 2011 by Adam in Family

I woke up early today, made my lunch and did the dishes.  Later I made pancakes and bacon for everyone, and then we began taking everyone to school.  I carried Berry to the bus, as we were a little late, and made Joanna stay in the car while Duncan, Emma, and I went to the playground.  Joanna's foot has been bugging her since a visit to the podatrist.  To top it off, she's phoneless after it mysteriously broke while in the care of children.  A new one arrives tomorrow, but I think she's suffering withdrawl symptoms.

Friday night we tried to go swimming, but it was closed and we went to the library instead.  Live jazz was playing away, and we stopped by the cafe for goodies.  It made for a fun date night with kids.

Saturday was a little rough.  Joanna wasn't feeling good and kids were a bit grumpy.  I wanted to take Emma swimming so she could show off her skills from her swimming class.  Unfortunately things fell apart and I ended up taking Berry to my mom's house, who thankfully took her in.  Emma and I went swimming at Sheldon Pool and had a great time.  We later returned to scoop up Berry.  She and my mom had assembled flowers for everyone, which was wonderful.

The afternoon was pretty low-key.  We watched Glee. Duncan had a play date.  Emma and I went shopping. 

On Sunday Sam returned and we dived into house projects.  Sam and I worked in the bathroom, he scraping off the sealant from around the tub, while I replaced the wax seal on the toilet.  It was annoying work, but we got it done and things look much nicer.

In the afternoon he and I worked on our game, dubbed "project RPG".  Currently we have an area you can walk around in, complete with a sky, water, and a menu that let's you exit the game.  Not much yet, but it's reasonably pretty.

Emma and I ran to get her a new fish, as her guppy, Strawberry, died.  The new Betta is quite blue and pretty.  We swung by Provisions to pick up pizza for a Mythbusters-fueled evening.  Good times.

Happy Birthday Mom!

October 09, 2011 by Robbie in Cortez

I'm the In-the-dog-house-son!  Happy belated birthday mom! With my hectic work schedule and busy weekend, I forgot to call my mom for her birthday. GUILT, GUILT, GUILT!!!  Though I forgot to call, you are always on my mind, I hope you had a good birthday! Love you!

Mocha Friday

October 07, 2011 by Adam in Family

My boss returned from a conference, returning with so much swag.  I have t-shirts, flying monkeys, balls that make weird noises, and a frisbee - all slathered with assorted corporate logos.  The kids will love it.

Yesterday was a wacky day, leaving work and picking up Berry and Duncan from school, as our sitter Jen was still sick.  Emma got dropped off and she went with me to the dentist, greatly amusing everyone with her funny banter.  We returned home and threw dinner together.  Sam chose to work some more, cleaning the second couch in the basement.  I'll miss him tomorrow, and may do some gaming or Skyping together.  We're working on an adventure game together, and have some design issues to discuss.

Tonight we're going to try to go to the newly opened Tamarak pool.  Tomorrow will likely be a mix of yard work, shopping, and library trips.  We'll do pizza and Mythbusters on Sunday.  All is well.

Wednesday Already

October 06, 2011 by Adam in Family

Sam's working away in the basement, cleaning couches in exchange for cash.  He's paying off a debt to his mom, and then working to get a new video game.  This last weekend it was cleaning the cars, something I greatly appreciate.

We had three go-lives this week, including our internal home page this morning.  There were a couple bugs, but generally people seemed quite positive.  I was burned out by the end of the day, so I headed home 30 minutes early to fight zombies with Sam and Matt.

Last night Joanna and I went to a fundraiser dinner for the 4J school system.  It was neat in some ways, though it did make me realize that I'm merely breaking even these days.

Tonight was pretty uneventful.  Homework with kids, throwing dinner together out of bits and pieces, and we'll likely watch some shows before bedtime.  I called Emma, who was enthusiastic and quickly returned to her Glee watching.  It'll be nice to see her tomorrow.

News

October 06, 2011 by Seraph in Cortez

With all the news in the world today, I feel particularly sad about the death of Steve Jobs.

Work, work, work

October 04, 2011 by Adam in Family

I completely spaced updating yesterday.  The morning began with two go-lives at work, and the pace has been pretty intense since then.  I had my flu shot yesterday, feel a little cruddy today, and ended up taking a mocha for medicinal purposes.  Needless to say, I've perked up considerably.

Last Friday Joanna and I went out to dinner in Springfield and an art exhibit.  I don't spend a lot of time on that side of the Eugene-Springfield-Glenwood greater metropolitan area, so it was a bit of an adventure.  We returned early to tuck kids into bed.

Saturday morning Joanna took Duncan to a play date with his "girlfriend."  Emma, Berry, and I went to the library and then off to the pet store to get fish.  We met up with Joanna next door at Ross, greatly amusing Berry by sneaking through the aisles until we snuck up to Joanna.  Emma bought a couple guppies with her own money and I got some plants out of a touch of enthusiasm myself.

The afternoon was fairly low-key. Jamie picked up Emma to watch Dolphin's Tale and I had a little downtime.

Sunday morning I picked up Sam while Joanna cooked up a massive breakfast of crepes, waffles, sausages, and eggs.  It was absolutely delicious.  Joanna and the little kids then went off to a new church, which they seemed to enjoy.  Emma watched her Spiderwick Chronicles movie, and Sam and I played videogames together, all of which was quite pleasant. Later, Emma read her Spiderwick Chronicles book and made fairy houses while Joanna and I gardened.  It felt good to tidy up.

Sam decided he needed to get some work done in order to earn money for an upcoming game.  I had him vacuum and clean cars, which was great.  Last night he cleaned carpets, and tonight his plan is to clean couches in the basement.  If he's still up for it, I hope to get him cleaning the basement and doing some plumbing.  That boy will be useful yet.

We had everyone over for dinner Sunday night, and Joanna whipped up sushi for all.  There was a bit of cleaning, but otherwise we tried to take it somewhat easy.

Life is busy, but generally enjoyable.  Tonight Joanna's taking me on an adventure to an education fundraiser.  I get to sit at the principal's table.  Hopefully I don't get in trouble.

quiting basketball

October 02, 2011 by Isa in Isa

it has been a long time since i have written and just to update you I have quit basketball because it was really reallyhot in the gym and i kept on getting bad headaches so yeah.

Stinkin' Birthday

October 02, 2011 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg

Greg and I went to the (Stinkin') Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival and ate out at a fancy farm to table joint for his birthday. The Garlic Festival was just like festivals in Eugene (great food, local crafts, and torrential rain), but it was fun to see the silk rope trapeze act billowed by the wind. At Tabella's, our waitress switched Greg's order and atoned by giving us an evening of free wine, for which we are still nursing hangovers. It was pretty great. Getting excited about this season's apples and pears- I made my first apple pie last week and am going to can brandied pears this afternoon.  

Update:brandied pears (and brandied pear cake) a success.