August 2011

August 3: Happy Birthday, Dad.

    The girls started gymnastics camp on Monday.  They are trying to catch up since it's been so long since they were able to do gymnastics.  In the afternoons they've been doing other things.  They went to the Library to see a reptile guy.  Phoebe got to have a king cobra on her head.  On Tuesday, they just hung out around the house and waited for the Sears home service guy to come out and tell us what was wrong with our washing machine.  He claims too much soap damaged the sensor so we had to pay an bazillion dollars to get that replaced.  Even though he kind of knew what the problem was, he didn't bring the part out with him, so he'll have to come back when the part arrives.  I had given them the error code when I submitted the ticket.  I don't know why they don't have that in some sort of online guide of error codes.  I guess they couldn't charge a bunch of money otherwise.  Wednesday, we called Bapa in the morning to wish him a happy birthday.  The girls went out and bought some riding boots after gymnastics.  They were wearing them around with their pajamas before bed.  It was really funny and cute.  Jada brought Ellen and the tandem out to work at 5pm so we could get some training in.  We headed for the hills to simulate day 6 and the 7 devils of Cycle Oregon.  We only hit 3 climbs, but it was still good to grind it out.  We went up to Skyline.  I love riding on Skyline in the later afternoon.  Everything is sepia toned with the sun setting on the Willamette Valley that spreads out to the coast range below us as we climb the west hills.  We got in 25 miles for a pretty good workout.  It went pretty well.  I could be stronger.  I just need to get to the gym more.  There are also some things I need to figure out for the tandem, though it might be easier to bring it in to check it out if they aren't completely booked up.

August 4

    Today after gymnastics, the girls got to go bowling with friends.  Each went with a friend, and they bowled 2 games.  Jada had a bunch of free passes that she collects from the remainders that are passed out at school.  The girls' friends were 10 points higher than Ellen and Phoebe in the first game, and it was almost exactly reversed in the second game.  They got some garlic bread twists there that made their breath stink.  They thought that was fun.

August 7

    Ellen and Phoebe had their gymnastics show on Friday for their camp.  Jada said it was a good one.  I wasn't able to attend, but Jada took the video camera so I could watch it later.  They went swimming in the afternoon with one of Ellen's friends.  In the evening, Jada dropped them off over at Phoebe's godmother's house for a play date and overnight stay with her nieces.  Jada and I finally went out for our anniversary.  When I say out, I mean, she picked up some burgers from the Fresh Grill to bring home.  I met her there after work around 6pm, and then we went off to the movie theater to finally see the 7:20pm non-3D showing of the final Harry Potter movie.  We both enjoyed it, but it was a lot more crowded than we thought it would be.  It was a Friday night.  Some doofus next to me hadn't set his phone on silent, and it rang in the middle of the movie.  If you've see the movie, you know there are a lot of quiet parts to it.  There are no less than 3 requests at the start of the movie to turn off phones too.  Anyway, afterwards, we went next door to the ColdStone Ice Creamery for some small cups of ice cream.  We overheard someone ask about the strawberry-basil flavor, and if it was popular.  The girl at the counter said, "no.  It's disgusting."  When the woman who had asked tried a bite, she said it was like spaghetti with strawberries on it. 

    We picked the girls up Saturday morning after going to the market.  They had been up past 10pm, but Ellen and Phoebe were up and at it again at 6am the next morning as usual.  Then we came home and hopped on the quad.  It was cloudy and around 60 degrees when we started.  We made a 40 mile route around Hillsboro, North Plains, and Beaverton.  The sun came out around the mid-point of our ride, but it was never too hot.  The traffic was light, and it was a pretty nice day until we started having problems with the chain after we crossed over highway 26 on Murray on the home stretch.  The chain kept getting stuck in the derailleur pulley wheels if I shifted in certain gears.  After a couple times of that happening, I stayed out of the gear combo's that definitely caused the problem.  We suspected the chain had just become stretched.  I went out to the bike shop with the girls while Jada went to visit her mom.  I picked up a new chain and some brake pads plus a new pair of shorts since they were on sale.  I didn't have time to work on everything since we had to run off to the Hillsboro Skate World for a birthday party of one of Phoebe's friends.  We all got to skate since they had rented the whole place out.  I used their free wi-fi to get some work done that I needed to do that night while the girls skated.  I just wasn't going to have time to do it at home unless I stayed up late, and I didn't want to do that.  I finished after about 45 minutes, but by then they were calling everyone over to eat their hot dogs, cotton candy, and chips.  Phoebe fell down a lot, but she got right back up and kept going.  Ellen made her way around the rink a couple times without falling, but it was more of a walk than a skate.  However, she had gotten off the wall, and they were both trying their best out in the middle of the floor.  After cake, we went home.  The girls went to bed, and I went to the garage to assess the damage.  I found the pulley wheel looked warped when it spun.  Since it was 8pm already, I called REI to see if they had any replacement wheels.  They didn't, and no other bike shop would be open again until noon on Sunday.  I took the pulley wheel off to see if I could determine the problem, and luckily, it had just slipped a little bit askew of it's underlying metal wheel.  (the pulley wheels are basically just teflon, toothed wheels that guide the chain).  I was able to push it back into alignment.  I then replaced the chain and ran it through all the gears to make sure it was ok.  Everything shifted fine in the stand, so hopefully that'll translate to the road.

    On Sunday morning, I was up first at 6:40am.  Jada came out shortly after.  The girls were sleeping in finally, but we didn't have any eggs for breakfast, so I made a run to the Safeway down the road.  We had a big breakfast at home and then headed out on the quad for our Rose Garden route.  The bike performed well today, and we made decent time, though we got caught at every red light possible on Murray Blvd.  On the way up to Sylvan, someone passed and said I earned every polka dot on my climber's jersey.  As we wound down the road to the Rose Garden from the Zoo, our rear tire went all squishy.  Luckily, I always carry a spare.  Jada was unable to locate the puncture on the other one, so we put it in the trunk for later analysis at home.  We only lost about 20 minutes on the change.  Luckily it happened at the archery range, so there was a parking area to utilize for room to make the necessary repairs.  We had a snack at the Rose Garden, chatted with some people curious about our mode of transportation, and coasted down the hill to the playground for about 10 minutes.  We had someone take our picture.  It always strikes me as odd that people would want to take a picture of people they don't even know.  I guess we're doing our part to keep Portland Weird, as the bumper stickers say.  We then started our ride up through the neighborhood on Fairview road to Skyline and made it home without further incident.  The afternoon was pretty routine with Jada taking Ellen for a visit to Gramma, and Phoebe and I going to guitar lessons.  Jada and I emptied the deck of the furniture in preparation for the deck to be removed tomorrow.

August 8

    I stayed home from work expecting the deck work to begin.  After 10am, with no one having arrived for the work, I called in and found out that the city permit still hadn't been approved.  They are claiming it's due to layoffs with the city, and the person at the place doing our deck who was supposed to be driving this for our project quit.  So, I don't know when this is going to start now.  So I stayed home in the morning while Jada took Ellen to her Saturday Academy camp for "What Ho! Olympians" based on the Percy Jackson books.  According to the syllabus, she'll get to learn Greek, archery, astronomy, architecture and fencing.  Sounds fun.  Phoebe stayed with me and pulled out her Erector set to assemble a car on her own.  I guess Santa brought her that a little too early.  Now she can do it on her own.  She has a camp this afternoon for Lego Physics.  In between things that I have to do for work, I've been taking glances at the maps that have just been posted for Cycle Oregon.  Looks like I need to make sure we're tackling some 10 to 13% grades, but there's also an 11% downhill section on the penultimate day.  That's something I'll have to try out.  Luckily, the hills around our house are between 10-15%, so maybe we'll do some hill repeats.  Ellen and I ended up doing 25 miles finishing with the climb up Grabhorn road near Jenkin's estate which is pretty steep.  We did pretty well on that part, and the rest of the ride we went fast.  It was a bit cool in the evening.  You can't really tell that it's early August here with how cool it is. 

August 9

    I got a call from the decking folks, and the city didn't approve our deck at the dimensions we want due to the setback issues.  So now we have to figure out something new.  We setup a meeting with them for Wednesday night to talk about options.  Ellen and Phoebe both had their camps again today.  Phoebe had a better time today since she didn't sit near the boys she sat next to last time.  Instead she sat next to the one other girl in the class.  Ellen still loves her camp.  She then had soccer practice at 6:30pm.  I took my laptop and got some work done.  I have to say, it's been nice not having to do the coaching.  I've gotten some work done at each practice so far.  I also found there are several people who didn't bother to lock down their wireless routers near the park.  It was in the low 60's again during the practice.  I was getting cold. 

August 17

    I guess I've been a little busy since I last wrote.  Nana and Bapa arrived on August 12.  Jada and Phoebe picked them up at the airport before dropping Phoebe off at her camp.  Ellen also finished off her What Ho! Olympians camp.  She had a great time learning Greek, archery, and fencing.  She made a cool model of a temple, and a really good perspective drawing of the Parthenon.  Phoebe's Lego physics class was fun for her too.  She made bridges and gears.

    On Saturday the 13th, it was sprinkly in the morning.  We all went to the market to pick up our fruit.  Then we went out on the quad for a 50 mile ride.  We met Nana and Bapa at our halfway point which was the Jackson Bottoms Nature Preserve where we had a picnic lunch on the back porch.  It was cloudy and cool all day which wasn't terrible.  We made our trip pretty strongly, but again, I had issues with the shifting.  I'm going to have to figure out how to fix that.  I may have to take it to a shop for a little teaching session just this once.  I need to add this to my arsenal of things I can do on my own.  We all visited Gramma in the afternoon too.  On Saturday afternoon, we met up with the deck people again to explain our frustration and plan a new deck.  Jada really let them have it, but we got a new deck designed.  They said if they were able to get it started this week, they would, but they couldn't promise a start for 2 weeks.  That worked for us.

    On Sunday we made big breakfast, and then we drove to Silver Falls State Park to hike the trail of the 10 falls.  It was cool in the park which is situated in the foothills near Mt. Jefferson.  The route is 8.7 miles total, but Nana's knees started to go after the 9th fall (luckily she didn't have a fall of her own!)  Ellen, Phoebe, and I embarked on a rescue mission to hike the 3 miles back to the car, and come pick Jada, Nana, and Bapa up at the 10th fall, Winter Falls.  I'm sure all the people who we passed thought I was the meanest dad ever dragging 2 little girls behind me.  Ellen was definitely strong enough.  It may have been on the upper side of Phoebe's abilities, but she made it with Ellen's help.  The girls were so nice to each other all day long.  It's always very nice when they realize that they are best friends.  It gives me hope for the future.  We stopped by the Woodburn Company Stores on the way home so Bapa could find a deal on a pair of shoes that he had been trying to find-and save on the tax, as well.  Traffic was horrible as we were leaving, so we stopped at an Arby's nearby for dinner.  By the time we left, the traffic had eased up a bit.  Jada and I went out to see Harry Potter again in the evening.  I guess we're pretty boring on our dates.

    I've been able to ride my bike to work all week to provide the possibility of an extra car if needed...but mostly, I get to ride my bike to work all week.  I swapped the chain on my commuter on Monday night because shifting was getting rough.  Bapa's been doing yard work again which we love, but certainly don't require him to do.  The girls have had swim class this week as well.  I've tried to leave work early when I can.  I can't speak to everything that they've done all week so far since I've been at work.

    What I do know is our deck has begun.  While I was at work and the rest of the family went to the zoo and out for Indian food, they tore out the old deck, and laid the foundation for the new one. They also found that we have a bit of a moisture ant problem around the chimney, so I had an exterminator out to do some treatment.  After dinner, Jada, Nana, and Bapa went out to see a movie, and I put the girls to bed, did a touch of work, and finally tried to catch up on this journal.

August 21

    On Thursday morning, Ellen and Phoebe had their horse riding lessons at Dream Ridge Stables.  While they were there, Nana and Bapa went to Powell's.  On Friday, the girls had their horse riding lessons again, and in the afternoon, they had their swim class.  In between, Nana and Bapa went to the Washington Square Mall for a while, and they met up with Jada and the girls for lunch at Red Robin.  When I got home from work, Jada and I went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  I had never been there before.  Those of you who have, already know, but the menu is 22 pages long.  I asked if they had it available in an audio book format.  We had received a gift certificate, so we gave it a try.  The food was good, and we shared a cheesecake.  We followed our meal with a walk around the mall.  Then we went to Costco to pick up some things.  Do we know how to party or what? 

    Saturday morning, we drove out to Hood River to take the Mt. Hood Railroad excursion tour out to Parkdale and back.  We got our seats in the lower dome car.  It wasn't too crowded in our car, and it was a pleasant trip.  They serve boxed lunches on the train that you can eat in the park in Parkdale while the train stops there.  We ordered up some sandwiches not expecting much.  However, we got them a little before we arrived in Parkdale, and they were really good.  They came with chips, an apple, and a beverage.  We toured the gift shop and museum that were on the park property before we went back to the train.  Ellen was really antsy on the way back.  Since we weren't able to go to the market that morning, we stopped at a farm on the Fruit Loop outside Hood River where we picked up a box of peaches.  We also stopped back by New Seasons on the way into town to pick up some dinner.  I walked over to Powell's to pick up a new book that my good friend, Wil Wheaton* (not actually acquainted), had recommended.  By the time we got home, our new deck was completed, and we spent the evening enjoying it.  Since I had forgotten to turn on the water spigot in the back, they weren't able to clean it off, so I tried to hose it down the best I could in the fading daylight.  We moved the grill, table, and chairs back out to it.  Then I finished off the night by watching the Vuelta a Espania on DVR. 

    Sunday morning, we took Nana and Bapa out to our favorite breakfast place, the Murrayhill Cafe.  Then we spent much of the intervening time getting the house ready for the BBQ we had planned for my parents' visit.  We made a visit to Gramma, but she wasn't in the mood for company.  We got things ready for the BBQ and brought extra tables and chairs out to the new deck.  People started arriving at 3pm.  I had some brats and hotdogs cooking for the early arrivals.  Then I cooked up some salmon burgers and regular burgers.  Toward the end of the regular burgers, the grease from the brats caught fire down in the belly of the grill so I had to put that out.  The weather was not quite as hot as yesterday, and our deck has always been well shaded in the afternoon, so it was pleasant to hang out there.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.  We got the girls to bed by around 7:30pm, and we got things cleaned up by a little after 8pm.  I took a shower since I smelled of smoke and bratwurst. 

August 28

    It's been another hot and busy week.  Summer has finally found us.  We had several days this week over 80 degrees which is the first time this year.  We dropped Nana and Bapa off at the airport on Monday morning after dropping the girls at their gymnastics camp.  Nana got searched.  When I talked to her tonight, she said that they just swabbed the back of her hands.  They never said what they were looking for.  It may have been because she was carrying a tissue since it was getting a little dusty in the terminal when we were saying our farewells.  The girls had their gymnastics camp all week culminating in a performance on Friday which I had to miss again because of work.  Jada taped it though.  I need to find time to download the video to watch it.  Ellen had soccer practice Tuesday and Thursday night which I have found to be quite useful.  I get 1.5 hours of uninterrupted work time.  I don't have a network connection, but I can catch up my mails from the day without new ones coming in which is nice.  I can also read or take care of other projects.  Hopefully the weather continues to cooperate.  I don't know what I'll do when the rainy season arrives in another week or so.  The girls have also had swimming lessons on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  They'll end next week.  They had a piano lesson this week as well.  Wednesday night, Jada dropped Ellen off at work so we could go for a ride.  She was tired from Gymnastics camp and swimming, plus it was hot out, but she soldiered through.  I really don't think she'll have any trouble on Cycle Oregon.  I'm more worried about me, but we tackled the same ride up to Skyline that we had done a couple weeks ago, and it felt like it went better even though our stats were almost identical to last time.  At least we know we can crawl up any grade they throw at us.  MapMyRide.com lists that segment as a Cat 3 climb when I mapped it out there. 

    Saturday morning, we loaded up the quad on the car, and drove over to Papa's Pizza in Beaverton at 6:30am for the start of the Beaverton, Banks, and Beyond bicycle ride.  We chose the middle option that goes to Stub Stewart State Park and back for a 62 mile total.  When Jada signed up for it, she found that our picture from the first year of the ride was there.  It was a good ride.  On the converted rail trail, we rode through a canopy of trees which kept it nice and cool as we made the long gradual climb up to the snack stop and turnaround point.  The ride back down was just reward for the climb.  We didn't have to pedal for about 8 miles plus we had a tailwind.  We stopped at the rest stop in Banks to try some Emerald City Smoothies and Betty Lou snacks.  Both were quite good.  Then it was pushing through the valley back to the finish line at Papa's Pizza.  It was quite hot as we battled along the valley floor with a crosswind.  Crosswinds are harder on us than headwinds just because we have more surface area from the side.  When we got back to Papa's Pizza, they had sub sandwiches waiting for us (why not pizza?  I have no idea).  They were pretty tasty.  Once home, I watched my Vuelta coverage, and I kept falling asleep.  We went out to dinner at PF Chang's since Jada had gotten a gift certificate from there at some point followed by a trip to REI so Jada could pick up some clothes, the girls could get new shoes, and I could pick up any last minute things for Cycle Oregon.  At least I'm not desperately trying to replace my tent this time. 

    Sunday, we ended up doing a whole lot of nothing.  We got our grocery shopping done as well as our laundry, but that was about it.  Phoebe and I had guitar class in the afternoon, and Jada went to visit Gramma. 

August 29

    I'm  working from home today.  Jada has all day teachers meetings at the Nike campus.  They've stipulated that  you can't wear other vendor sport clothing to the campus.  I'm thinking, they don't realize these are teachers, and they wear whatever they can afford.  If it's not Nike, so be it.  The girls will pretty much get a whole day of doing whatever they want as long as it is quiet while I'm in meetings.

August 31

    Today was a beautiful fall day...too bad it's still summer.  I wore leg and arm warmers plus a vest to work this morning.  It was like this yesterday too except the sun never came out yesterday.  Jada's been working in her classroom.  She's projecting 26-28 kids in her kindy class this year.  The girls have been going to school with her every day and helping out around the school.  It sounds like they've been helping out in other classrooms as well when they're not reading.  Today was Ellen and Phoebe's penultimate swimming class where they did their evaluations.  Ellen said they'll find out their results on Friday.  She thought she did well on the crawl and backstroke.  Ellen and I did another training ride tonight thanks to my wonderful wife being willing to drag everyone all the way across town in end of day traffic to drop off the tandem and Ellen, and then fight the traffic back home again to make dinner while we ride.  I had mapped out a flat route across the valley to the west, but Ellen wanted to do our usual route up to Skyline.  Who am I to argue.  I've raised a climber.  I think we were a little stronger tonight, but our average speed matched last week's ride.  Oh, well.  It's another 25 miles in our legs.  Looking at the stats, Ellen has around 650 miles in her legs so far this year, and I've got about 2100 miles.  I think we've got a good base for the ride, but we haven't had any really good long rides lately.  Maybe we can do another in the 60 range this long weekend as our last weekend before CO.

Journal Entry: August 31, 2011