August came in a hurry and on a weekend to boot. When we last wrote, Nathan and Mandy were still in town visiting. It was going to be another warm one, and the girls had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon, so we wanted to do something fun and close by. We decided to do our usual Saturday morning ritual of visiting the Farmers Market where for some bizarre reason Toyota was having some sort of huge deal with their hybrids...which they drove up from California. So not only are they ruining their own conservation message by driving cars up from California to Oregon THAT WE ALREADY HAVE HERE LOCALLY NOT 5 BLOCKS AWAY, but they weren't even setup when the market opened! They were still trying to drive the cars into a big tent they had setup which blocked the musicians that are there every week, by the way while tons of people were there in line to buy produce. Talk about a huge black eye. All I can figure is that they over paid the Market to be present, but man, what a massive waste of resources and time. Not to mention alienating all the folks who come early and for the music. I hope they drew lots of complaints. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled post regarding our first Saturday in August. After the market, we went up to the Rose Test Garden where we all took lots of pictures. We followed that up with a wander through the Japanese Garden. It was beautiful. We were the first ones in (after the members who get in 2 hours earlier than the non-member public), and boy am I glad we were. We first went to the spot where I proposed to Jada a little over 10 years ago. The mountain wasn't visible again today - too hot and too hazy. We slowly walked through the park, sitting here and there on the benches. We watched so many people violate the rules of the park by walking off path and touching the flora trying to get the perfect picture which just wasn't going to come. We even saw a little boy run right out into the Zen rock garden. The parents didn't see him, and they didn't even punish him. There was an audible gasp from everyone there when it happened. After lunch, I took a nap, and Jada took the girls over to the party and visited Gramma. Nathan and Mandy read or napped. I got up to start making the pizza in the afternoon, and after dinner, we picked up the girls, sent them home with Nathan and Mandy, and Jada and I took advantage of their anniversary present to go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We got there too late for the showing we wanted to get to, but there was another one an hour later, so we spent some time in Powell's browsing around for nothing in particular. We liked the movie. We've enjoyed the little character pieces as the actors have gotten older. We got home super late, but we had fun.
Sunday, we drove up to Mount St. Helens. It was Mandy and Nathan's first time as well as Ellen and Phoebe's. Jada and I haven't been up there in many years ourselves so it was a good day for us all. The weather was great. Not too windy, and it was warm. It was a little hazy, but still visible in the crater. We could see the wind whipping up the pumice dust as well as some whiter steam plumes from the still growing dome. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's pictures. We got home just before dinner, so we went out to eat since the house was still hot. We ended the day with Phoebe's guitar practice. After some complaining, I let her play the electric guitar. Then after the kids went to bed, I desperately tried to catch up on laundry.
Monday, I had to go back to work, but everyone else got to go to the Zoo. In the afternoon, the girls had swimming class, and Ellen moved up another level after swimming across the pool and back. Phoebe is close, but needs to develop her confidence. Tuesday, however, I took off from work to go to the beach with everyone. The weather had started cooling, and the morning was back to normal temperatures for us in the 50's. We went for breakfast at the Murray Hill Cafe. They were 20 minutes behind on food preparation due to what they claimed to be a kitchen malfunction, but we're guessing someone was just late. We went to Seaside first with standard Oregon beach wear - shorts, t-shirt, and a fleece jacket - since it was quite cool. They were setting up for some sort of beach volleyball tournament, so the beach wasn't all that fun with the many people setting up the nets. After a brief walk down the promenade, we decided to head for Cannon Beach. We went all the way down to the Tolovana Inn where we had an almost completely unnecessary lunch at Mo's. (I say unnecessary since I was still full from breakfast.) It was starting to warm up to the upper 60's, so we followed that up with a long walk down the beach (which the girls, of course, complained about being boring) to Haystack Rock. Since it had warmed up, we let the girls take off their shoes and socks to walk in the water. Suddenly, it wasn't so boring to walk. Even Auntie Mandy took her shoes off. There were lots of jelly fish washed up on the shore, and they were in pretty good condition. I'm not sure if they die at that point, or if they are still wet, they just need to wait for the tide to come back in to revive them. After the walk, we headed for home. None of us were really all that hungry, so we had a dinner of whatever was leftover. Wednesday, I was back to work, and Jada drove everyone out to the Columbia River Gorge to see Multnomah Falls and the Vista House at Crown Point. They hiked all the way to the top of the falls (2.5 miles round trip). Nathan grilled us a nice dinner of burgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob. It was very yummy. We were even able to include more tomatoes from our private stock. Thursday morning, the girls had dentist appointments. They are doing ok, and Ellen got sealant for her teeth since she has deep grooves. The insurance covers it for kids, but not for adults since it's preventative.
The weekend wasn't terribly exciting. We just went to the market and grocery shopping. Then I went out for a training ride for Cycle Oregon. I did my climbing loop with Skyline and the big 15% climb up 185th into Cooper Mountain. The weather was really nice, and loads of cyclists were taking advantage. On Sunday, we all went out for a ride on Sunday morning. It was cloudy and cool. It sprinkled for a little bit but not long. We put in 41 miles in preparation for our 50 mile ride next weekend.
Monday was a new week full of fun and camps. Soccer camp started for both the girls Monday morning. Many of their friends were in the camp as well. In the afternoon, they visited Gramma followed by swimming and Ellen's first soccer practice of the season. I wasn't able to get there until an hour after it started since we didn't find out about the schedule until Sunday. I just have to move a meeting so I can get there on time next week. By the time I did get there, the girls were already scrimmaging. They have a new ball size and they get a goalie on the field with real goals. No more pylons. The weather was perfect for soccer. A large number of Phoebe's team was present as well since older siblings were practicing on the same fields that we were, so the coach of her team got some cones and balls to have a little impromptu practice. Tuesday, the clouds rolled in with some much needed sprinkles. They didn't get rained on at soccer camp, and they stayed after to have a picnic lunch with one of their friends. They visited Gram in the afternoon again to continue working on the memory books, and we were able to have a dinner together for the first time in a while during the week since I was able to leave work on time. Wednesday night just as Ellen's soccer practice was starting, it just absolutely poured rain, and it stayed warm while it was raining. That's not Oregon weather. It stopped after about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, only a couple miles away at Phoebe's practice, they didn't get any rain at all. Thursday it got a little cooler. Jada had setup a playdate for Ellen at a park in the afternoon and then headed over to Gramma's for a car show. I rode my bike to work, so I met them over at Phoebe's guitar lesson. It was dry, and then down the road, I could see a line where dry pavement suddenly became wet, and it was suddenly raining hard when I hit that place. It continued until I reached the rec center. Luckily I was able to use the locker room to change back into some of my dry work clothes there. Friday, the cool and rainy weather continued. It was also the last day of the first week of soccer camp.
On Saturday morning, we went to the market and the grocery store. Then we rode our quad to Big Truck Day at the rec center. When we pulled up, one of the organizers offered us a spot in back where there was a no show, we politely declined. We met our friends and their 2 boys there. They had a lot of trucks this year again. It seemed more than last year even and included a Lifeflight helicopter. We also ran into a lot more people that we haven't seen in a while than we had in the past. Many of our friends now have kids and are showing up at events like this. It's nice to run into people we haven't seen in a while, or ones that do see often. In the afternoon, Jada and I practiced taking apart the quad, putting it in the van, and then reversing the process to see how we could do it. It takes approximately 30 minutes from start to finish to disassemble and then another 30 minutes to re-assemble. We got it down pretty well by the time we took it apart one last time and stowed it in the van. We were preparing for the Portland Century ride the next morning. After we cleaned up from that, we visited Gramma for a little while followed by an early bed time.
We were up early, and, of course, the girls were slow to rise for once. We headed downtown for the start. We arrived and parked on the street which added a degree of difficulty to the day since Portland is now no longer free to park on Sunday's after 1pm. We figured if we got on the road by 8am, we should be able to get back to the van in time to feed the meter. We got the bike assembled and after answering questions about the quad, we were on our way by 7:30am. The first rest stop wasn't until almost 20 miles along the Springwater Corridor due to some detours. That rest stop was the worst of the day because there were only 3 bathrooms, one of which was out of TP, and they were close to running out of bread. But other than that, we had a good day. It was cool and cloudy all morning until around 11am when the sun started coming out. We got the usual questions that you would expect from people riding by when they see a tandem or a longer. "That's really cool", "They're not pedaling", "Who's doing the work?", "Can I get a ride?", "We should have brought our kids". Not a lot of people rode by to talk to us, but I answered questions at the rest stops. The finish line dinner was a catered event on the Quad of Portland State University right down town on the park blocks in Portland. After 55 miles (Phoebe's personal best), we pulled in about 15 minutes after 1pm, but we didn't have a parking ticket. I fed the meter and went back to get in line for food. We got home late in the afternoon, and we didn't really do too much more.
The week was back to the usual with soccer camps in the morning, swimming in the afternoon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with soccer practice on Monday and Wednesday evenings. The head coach was out this week, so I took over planning duties along with one of the other assistant coaches. It seemed to go pretty well. Wednesday's practice was during our second (and mercifully much shorter) heat wave where we hit 99 degrees. We had a very low key practice with lots of water breaks. Jada arranged some playdates on Friday for the girls and some of their friends who were also attending soccer camp.
Saturday the 22nd, we were hosting a dinner party for Gramma at our house, so we spent the morning cleaning and doing yard work. The party went really well. Gram seemed to have a nice time, at least she smiled and chatted the whole time. The weather was perfect, so we were all able to sit out on the deck. I can't believe we were able to fit 12 people seated on the deck. We set out the kids' picnic table at the bottom of the stairs. They ate really quickly and then spent the time running around playing or hanging out in the play room. After everyone left, I cleaned out the cupboard above the refrigerator. I actually recycled 6 water bottles from the past. I still have 9 left that I saved - a few from the Cycle Oregon Weekends that we've done, one from my first century ride in Michigan, and a couple from the LiveStrong challenges that I like the size of. Sunday, we went on a little bike ride...not any easier, but half of what we did last weekend. We did our Washington Park Rose Garden ride again. It was mostly cloudy and cool, but when the sun was out it was perfect. We stopped at the playground up near the Rose Garden for a while so the girls could play. We must be getting stronger because we improved our average speed for the overall trip back into double digits which is pretty good considering all the climbing that we have to do. The girls do love that route, though.
The week was going fairly well other than Flower has broken 2 slats of our wood blinds. Ellen was going to Nature Camp through the park district, and Phoebe was back at her day care for the last 2 weeks before school starts. Jada started assessments for Kindergarten, so both girls needed a place to be. The weather got a little hot this week again, but only into the 90's this time. We had soccer practices that we attended, and I had to run Monday's practice along with one of the other assistant coaches. Wednesday we had our head coach back from vacation, and we also had almost our full team together for the first time. Thursday evening was supposed to be Phoebe's last guitar lesson, but it was cancelled for some reason. Luckily, Jada happened to be driving down the same road I was riding home on, so she was able to let me know not to ride over to class. Instead we turned in our registration for the metric century we're planning to do this weekend. Back to the kitties...We had decided that we were going to take Flower back to the Humane Society early in the week, but we hadn't had time until Friday. We were hoping we could find her a home with someone as an outdoor cat, but no one we knew was in need. Early Friday morning, we awoke to a cat fight in our own house. For whatever reason, both cats were in full fighting mode. It woke up the whole house. We got them separated with the water bottle, and we eventually split them up physically be putting them both in their cat boxes to calm down. We're not sure what happened that morning, but whatever it was, they were really worked up. So much so that whenever they even saw each other, they were growling. Jada printed out the paper work and filled it out to try to take Flower back. They said they need an appointment, but we're hoping we could get her in the same day because this new development just wouldn't do. It was a long day for all of us since we'd all been awake since 4am.
As a quick update, we weren't able to do anything with Flower. They require an appointment, and they didn't have any openings for 4 months due to the large volume of kittens that come in this time of year. I guess it's when the litters typically arrive. So, we still have Flower and Scarlett and an uneasy peace at times. We started putting them in their carriers while we're out of the house so they don't attack each other. On Friday, Jada and I both called around to see if there was anything we can do. We don't want to give Flower up to a shelter where she would be destroyed after a couple days, but we can't go into the school year like this. We can't get anything done because we have to follow them around all the time with the spray bottle to make sure they don't hurt each other. We've called the behavior hotlines, but, of course, they aren't in on the weekends, and they said in the message that it could be up to 72 hours before we get a call back. I've talked to a few people at work with no luck, and Jada has also tried a few people. We'll see.
On Saturday morning, we had a 100k bike ride for the Tualatin Hills Park Foundation. It started at one of the Tualatin Hills Parks and Rec centers, and we rode out to the Stub Stewart State Park half of which was on the Banks-Vernonia rail trail. The weather wasn't great, but it could have been worse. It was cloudy most of the day with sun breaks and scattered showers. I rode the bike by myself to the start line at 6am. It handled ok with just me after I adjusted to it. I didn't want to spend the time taking it apart if I didn't have to. Everyone else drove in the van just in case we got to the finish line and decided to take it apart. The turn around point was the State Park, and it had a long climb that ended in a nasty 1 mile climb up to the rest stop. We got applause as we rolled in. We saw one of our Oregon State representatives, Representative Tobias Read, on the ride. He actually saw us, and chatted with Jada for a while before the climb. We got into a group just before the town of Banks. They rode away from us on the first hill out of town though. We had a good ride with only a little bit of complaining from the kids, but they sure liked the welcome we got riding into the rest stops and the finish line. We also were able to pass 9 people out of the 180 that participated. We had a lunch at the finish line of Qdoba Mexican food and free ice cream. It had started raining half way through lunch, but we were ok for the time being under the tent where several tables were setup. It was still raining when we left, but I decided to ride home anyway. Ellen decided to ride home with me, and she did really well. It made me look forward to taking her on Cycle Oregon with me in a couple years. Phoebe wanted to as well, but I don't think that would have ended well without Jada back to keep an eye on them, and I think she only wanted to ride because Ellen was riding. So in the end, Jada and Phoebe got 66.67 miles, Ellen got 72.6 miles, and I ended up with 78.2 miles. Both the girls had their personal bests. After we got home, we let the kittens interact some more. There were a few hisses and growls, but they started to be a little better around each other. By the end of the day, they were back to no attacks at all. Flower wanted to start playing again, but Scarlet was still sore about the whole thing. We let them roam out together over night with no further arguments.
Sunday morning, the cats were back to their normal selves. They were back to play fighting and running around the house. The Oregon Humane Society behavior hotline people called back around 11am, and we talked about what had been going on. They couldn't give me an answer to the issue, but recommended some things if it kept occurring. In the morning, we mostly ran errands. We did our grocery shopping this morning, and I had to run to Performance to pick up some new shorts to replace the shorts I've had since I moved here. I also bought Ellen a new, slightly bigger Camelback with pockets so she can carry some of her own things. Plus it'll be handy for Jada to keep the camera in. That caused a bit of a cry from Phoebe because I didn't get her a new one. Ellen's was one of the first model of kids sized packs, so it was a little short on features. It was a lot like my first Camelback - functional, but it didn't have the comfy straps and padding that the current models have. Phoebe's was of this batch with the much nicer padding. After lunch, we took the girls over to the school to ride around on the play ground. They wanted to ride on the trails, but by the time they finished arguing with us about making their beds, we were out of time. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for school clothes for Jada, and replacing some of the girls' base layers at REI's clearance sale.
Monday we had Ellen's nature park camp and Phoebe was back at day care. Monday night was soccer practice, and I replaced the chain on my commuter. I think every 6 months is probably just a little too long, but we'll see. The kitties are still doing fine. We have no idea what was going on there, but hopefully it was just a phase.
Journal entry: September 1, 2009