October 2
On Saturday, Ellen had a soccer game. The rain stayed away during the game. The girls played hard. Ellen had an almost goal, but it didn’t make it past the keeper. Jada brought another old friend whom we hadn’t seen in several years to the game, and she spent the day with her. I worked on the quad. I managed to accomplish the replacement of the rear shift cable, and actually have the bike shifting relatively well. I think it could be improved, and I’m wondering if I made the cable housing or cable a little too long using the originals to measure. However, I learned a lot about how things work, and I’m making progress. I wasn’t able to finish my second project to replace the drum brake cable which would require me to re-tape my handle bar on the left side ,but that’s not as critical since it’s mostly just the housing that’s worn out. We went out for dinner at Red Robin. I had their Oktoberfest burger that’s special for the month. It was better than I thought it might be, and I thought it might be pretty good.
Sunday we were hoping to go for a bike ride, but the weather was threatening rain, and it was a little cool and wet out. We ended up going out to breakfast at the Murrayhill Café. We found out our favorite waitress isn’t there anymore. We also noticed that all of the usual people who used to be there in the morning (just 2 weeks ago when we were there last) were also gone. We were concerned there was some sort of major shift in management, but the food was still good. We spent the morning just hanging around. I finally posted some pictures to the web for the last 3 months while Ellen cross-stitched, Phoebe played with Lego’s (she built a concert stage with audience and large screen TV’s), and Jada helped Ellen. I also got laundry done. We visited Gramma, and Phoebe and I went to guitar lessons. While we were out, Ellen and Jada read and worked on cross-stitch.
October 9
It’s been a rainy start to October. I stayed home on Monday to meet up with the Alpha Ecological guys to do the spraying and check our mouse traps. I was able to ride to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday though. It rained hard on Wednesday on the way home. I got quite soaked.
Ellen had violin on Tuesday. Apparently, they haven’t quite gotten to the point where they can start playing yet. There are some younger kids in the class that don’t pay attention, so it’s distracting the teacher from moving things along. Maybe next week, they’ll start plucking out some tunes. Phoebe has her gymnastics class on Wednesdays, and she still seems to be enjoying that. We thought we might get a break in the rain for Ellen’s soccer practice on Thursday, but it rained for the first half of it. I had brought my laptop to work, so I just stayed in the car with the wireless hotspot I borrowed from work on the dashboard. They finished up just before 7pm. Friday was mostly misty instead of raining. I got a new graphics card to try to get my system to work with my widescreen monitor, but I couldn’t get the card to be recognized by the system. I think I mistakenly chose the PCI card instead of an AGP card, so I’m going to hope Dell will let me exchange it. I already filed a return claim, but it’s the weekend. Hopefully I’ll have good news by Monday.
Saturday morning, we went out for a brief 17 mile bike ride. It was sunny when we left the house, but as soon as we crossed the urban growth boundary it got really foggy until we returned to town. However, we did find that the shifting cable I replaced did work for the most part. There’s some sloppiness in shifting to the higher gears so I need to work on that a bit, but overall, it worked out. Ellen’s soccer game was at noon, and the weather cooperated for that as well with temps in the 60’s and some sun. The girls played hard, and Ellen worked hard for the ball in the second half. In the afternoon, we drove out to visit some friends we haven’t seen in a while. We had a fun evening chatting while the girls played some games on a Kinect system (that’s the motion capture video game) including bowling, soccer, and the dance games. We had fun making fun of the dance move names. Jada did really well, and both girls enjoyed playing too. We got home really late.
We all slept in Sunday morning, but that didn’t help the girls’ moods any. We got some errands done after breakfast, but we didn’t do much else in the afternoon. The girls worked on their piano notebooks and chores while I finished the laundry. Phoebe and I went to guitar in the afternoon while Jada made dinner.
October 15
Friday was an in-service day for the school district, so the girls were enrolled in a camp. They got to go to a pumpkin farm on Sauvie Island. They navigated a corn maze and brought home a pumpkin and an ear of Indian corn. In the afternoon, the girls started making calls to drum up support for their school’s Fun Run which is their only fund raiser for the year to raise money for field trips, programs, and playground equipment. Between calls, Jada got news that a friend of her mom, who was like an aunt to her had passed away last weekend, and the wake was the next day(today!) Jada was supposed to go to a party with some of her friends for a girls’ night. She was feeling pretty miserable by this point with the news and a migraine all day, so she decided to stay home. We stayed up watching “How I Met your Mother” on DVD.
Saturday morning, the girls did a run through on their ensemble pieces since their competition is today. Ellen and Phoebe’s duet together went well. They didn’t elbow each other off the bench or anything, so that was good. Their duets with their other classmates also went ok, though Ellen was very disappointed with her performance. I had never heard either of their other duets with their second parts so I’m not sure what mistakes Ellen made that got her upset. They did have a false start, but I don’t think that was what got it. She always tends to judge herself harshly, though. Her teacher talked to her afterwards to help her understand it was ok. We found out later in the evening that Ellen and Phoebe were selected for the State recital for their piece, and Phoebe and her other partner were also selected. Sadly, the weekend that they are to have the recital, we’ll be unable to attend due to prior plans so they won’t get their medallions. I’m not sure why they don’t still get medallions if they can’t make it, but them’s the breaks, I guess. We are very proud of them. We spent the evening driving to The Dalles for the funeral open house. It was good that we arrived at the end, since there were fewer people left and Jada knew most of them. They were like family, and it showed. We got home super late. Both of the girls fell asleep in the car on the drive home, and they went straight to bed once there.
October 16
Since we didn’t get anything done yesterday, we did grocery shopping and errands all morning. We were thinking of going for a bike ride first thing in the morning, but it was only 46 degrees, so we figured we’d wait until later in the afternoon. We stopped at REI to take advantage of the last day of their fall sale. I bought some ski pants and a new winter jacket since my old ones are more than 10 years old, and they don’t do much against moisture anymore. Jada picked up some shoes, and the girls got some new fleece jackets. One of Ellen’s friends from school had organized a mother-daughter luncheon at noon. So while Jada and Ellen went to that, Phoebe and I did some other errands. Once back at home, I continued to work on laundry and cleanup around the house. Phoebe and I played some basketball outside until Ellen and Jada got home. Then we hopped on the bike and took off. We stopped at the orchard for some apples first. Then on the way back around, we stopped to visit Gramma for a couple minutes to say hi.
October 22
This week, we found out that Phoebe won another coloring contest at New Season’s Market. This time she got first place. I must admit that the one she did this time was pretty good. This week was full of the usual stuff with tutoring, gymnastics, violin, and soccer. I got to ride my bike to work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The weather was mostly dry this week, so that was nice. Friday, I volunteered for the Fun Run at the girls’ school, so I wasn’t at work in the morning. The girls both ran hard for their laps. They had lots of volunteers, so I mostly just cheered and high fived the kids as they made their laps. Jada spent the morning being the unofficial photographer for the Fun Run. I did counting on the last one, and then Jada and I went out for lunch before she started her kindergarten day, and I went back home to dial into some meetings. After school, the girls who did the documentary filming on the Oregon Trail last year came over to watch their footage and make notes for what they wanted to use for their project.
October 23
Saturday was crazy busy. Ellen’s soccer game was at 9am, so we got out early to go grocery shopping. The weather held out for Ellen’s game, and her (and several of the girls’) teacher came to the game to watch. They got a group picture with him afterwards. After the game, Phoebe and I ran some errands. I had to get some kitty litter, so while we were in the area anyway, I just stopped by Guitar Center to pick up some FastFret to clean my guitar strings. I also picked up a new guitar case for my electric since my old one ripped out all the way down one side. Phoebe made the comment that there weren’t any girls in the store which I acknowledged to be the case pretty much any time you go into a music store unfortunately. Then we stopped by the Bungalow Bread Co. to pick up my sandwich bread for the week. In the afternoon was the soccer party over at a parent’s house. The kids carved pumpkins and got their awards. Ellen was chosen as Miss 110% by her teammates for always working extra hard even though she wasn’t able to be at half of the games. In the evening we had some friends over for dinner. I made pizza. It was the first time I made it in the new oven, so I probably needed to cook it a little longer. It still tasted ok, but it just hadn’t risen as much as I’d like. Plus it was cool in the house while I was making the dough, so the water didn’t stay as warm during the mixing process. What’d be a good idea is to have a heated counter top for making dough. It’d be a little cost prohibitive, but still a good idea. Jada and I watched Megamind after the girls went to bed. It had some funny bits in it. I’m not sure how funny it’d actually be to kids who have never seen all the actual superhero movies that all these types of spoofs were made from.
Sunday morning, we all slept in and went out to breakfast at a newer place nearby called Biscuits, not to be confused with the fictional restaurant from Glee called “Breadsticks”. It was pretty good. I had a breakfast burrito with a side of biscuits, Jada had some oatmeal, and the girls each had scrambled eggs, plus we all had the biscuits. Yum! We visited Gramm before lunch. In the afternoon I finally replaced the last cable on the quad that I needed to replace. I tried to wipe the mud off the frame from our last rainy ride, but it was caked on pretty good. I’ll probably need to get a bucket and soap to get it off. Then it was time for guitar practice followed by dinner and a massage. Pete came over a little after 10pm to spend the night. He was just in town for a couple days to take care of some errands here in Portland.
October 25 (Happy Birthday, Allen!)
On Monday night, the girls played their “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” together with guitar and violin. I had to change Phoebe’s into the key of A to match Ellen’s violin music so they could play together. Then I plucked out “Ode to Joy” for her too. On Tuesday, they didn’t get a chance to use bows still. Hopefully next week.
October 27
We’ve had some really nice fall weather this week. It’s been in the upper 30’s in the mornings and upper 50’s in the afternoon with clear skies and sun. The leaves are starting to change into brilliant colors. I was able to ride my bike into work Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I volunteered at school for passport day. Both of the girls got all the countries plus the extra parts. Thursday was the big parent-teacher conference day for the district. Jada had 12.5 hours of conferences lined up for the day including the ones for our girls. I stayed home so I could take care of the kids and attend. We arranged for piano lessons to move up to 9:15 so I could attend my first meeting of the day, drop the girls off at piano, drive over to the conferences, and back to pick the girls up to be home in time for my 11am meeting. I almost made it too. Just 10 minutes late. We didn’t hear too much surprising at the conferences. The girls are both well behaved and responsible in their classrooms so far. They do excellent work, and they work hard. We’re very proud of their efforts so far. Phoebe apparently also got to participate in an assembly at school this week. Her teacher was asked by the presenters to recommend a student who wouldn’t mind getting up in front of the whole school to lead the “count down” during costume changes. Several people have told us that she did a great job. The new principal even mentioned that at the end of it all, Phoebe looked as though she knew she’d done a great job.
October 29
The girls didn’t have school on Friday. Instead, they went with Jada to do some errands, get hairs cut (all of them…more on in a moment), and they spent some time at the My Masterpiece Art studio with Ellen’s Godmother and one of her sons. Ellen got her hair cut to about shoulder length again. Phoebe just got a trim. Friday night, we went down to Portland with one of Ellen’s friends to see the new Warren Miller movie, “…like there’s no tomorrow”. We had dinner at Rock Bottom first, and then drove through the Occupy Wall Street: Portland edition camp on Main Street on the way to the Schnitzer Auditorium. We sat in the dress circle which ended up being ok since we were in the balcony where the seats are a little higher behind each row so the kids could see. They had fun. It’s the kind of experience that is best had in person than through one of the video’s which we watched with them at Pete’s ski cabin last year. We got home around 9:30pm, and we all went to bed.
The girls were up at 6am on Saturday morning as usual. Ellen had a soccer game at 9am way out in Hillsboro, so we had to leave the house at 8am. The sun was up, and the skies were clear as we came over Sexton Mountain. However, the lowlands were covered in fog, and it was in the mid-forties for temperature. We could barely see the action on the field as Ellen scored her goal in the first half. It looked like she hadn’t quite gotten well behind the ball on the kick from where we stood, but with the grass and ball wet, it slipped through the keeper’s hands and across the goal line. We ran some errands after the game until lunch. In the afternoon, I worked in the garage cleaning up the quad and prepping it for winter. Ellen got a new desk for her room that our friend Gretchen Wright painted to match the décor of her room. Ellen had a math test to take followed by taco night at our friend’s house. The girls got to carve another set of pumpkins. It’s the most pumpkins we’ve ever had on our front porch. We got home after 7, but we still went to another Halloween party for about an hour and a half. Jada and I didn’t dress up, but the girls did. Ellen was Cleopatra, and Phoebe was Laura Ingalls Wilder. We got home super late again.
October 30
Ellen slept longer than Jada this morning. Phoebe was up at 6am again. I had gone to the gym, so it was ok for her to be up. I had things to get started on anyway. We had our big breakfast and did some errands. I dropped off my commuter bike at the shop for an overhaul, and we had an interesting visit to Gramma’s. Phoebe, Ellen, and I all went to guitar so Jada could go back to visit with her mom and take care of some things before heading down for her massage. Ellen worked on cleaning out space under her loft bed for her new desk. I got the girls to bed on time.
October 31 – Happy Halloween
Can you believe it’s the end of another month? It rained mid-day, but it was dry and in the upper ‘40’s for trick or treating. At least we didn’t have a bunch of snow like in the Northeast. After I got home, the girls were called to head out to trick or treat with some school friends. Jada went over with them while I stayed home to man the door at our house. Plus I had a bunch of work to get done for various projects. They had fun while they were out, but apparently Phoebe tripped and fell giving her arm a nice scratch in the process.
Next month is going to be another busy month as they just continue to increase to the end of the year.
Journal entry: October 31, 2011