September 2012
September 16
I’ve gotten out of the habit of doing this every weekend, so now I’m trying to catch up again. Hopefully I can remember everything that’s happened so far this month.
The first weekend of the month was Labor Day weekend. I was oncall, so we had to waste a gorgeous 3 day weekend. Ellen was invited to spend the day at a friend’s house on Saturday, which turned into a sleepover. We took the girls to open swim on Sunday. During the week Phoebe went to the dentist to get her sealants applied and take out the appliance she had in her mouth to stop with the thumb sucking since it didn’t really work all that well. Jada also had issues. Apparently, her lower retainer had been re-glued on without first scraping the tarter off, so when they did do some scraping at the dentist appointment, it stripped off some of the glue. The night before school started she was flossing and her retainer popped off three teeth causing it to poke her in the mouth. Luckily she just had to put up with that for a day (although she didn’t sleep much either night) until she could get to her orthodontist to get a new retainer put in. She likes the new one much better. It’s a lot easier to floss. On Thursday night, September 6, Ellen’s middle school had a meet the principal night where they did an introduction to the school and answered a few questions. Afterward, Jada walked me down around the building so I could see the hall Ellen is in. On Friday night, I took Jada out to dinner at the Portland Grill in downtown Portland. It’s on the 34th floor of a building there with great views. I had gotten a gift card from work last year that we had never gotten around to using, so we had an anniversary / Jada’s birthday dinner. They decorated the table for us even. I wish I had thought to request a window table, but I’d never been there before, so I wasn’t sure how it’s laid out. We were in an elevated booth, so we could still see Mt. Hood just fine as the sun set behind us. The food was really good, and they even gave us a free dessert.
Saturday morning was the Beaverton Celebration parade. Jada was asked to march by our local state representative. She was going to decline, but Phoebe really wanted to do it, so she accepted. We rode the quad down to the parade start to drop off Phoebe and Jada, and Ellen and I rode down the route to our usual place near the Beaverton High field. I put the bike next to the fence and out of the way, but it still drew attention. I got asked why we weren’t in the parade so I had to explain how slow speeds are not ideal for that bike. We kept watching for their group, and then I saw Phoebe riding in the back of an electric vehicle throwing out candy. All I could say to Ellen was, “of course that’s where she’d be.” Ellen and I finished watching the parade, and then rode up behind it to catch up with Jada and Phoebe at the library. We rode over to Dairy Queen to have lunch and use the free ice cream coupons we had gotten at the parade. We got there early enough (beat the traffic by bike!) to avoid the big rush and line out the door. I have no recollection of what we did on Sunday.
Last week, we went out to dinner on Tuesday for Jada’s early birthday at Benihana. That was fun. Thursday night was back to school night where I got to go in and meet Phoebe’s teacher again and hear about how things are going to go for her class this year. Ellen and Phoebe sat in Jada’s classroom while she did her presentations and helped pass things out. It sounds like they were really helpful. I took them home after that. Then on Friday, Jada got to go out with her friend for dinner without the kids which she also enjoyed. I picked Ellen and Phoebe up from gymnastics and took them out to dinner before going home. This weekend, we had a pretty restful day. Jada and I played a few games of The Castle which is a 2 player version of the Carcassonne family of games. We split the games pretty evenly as we learned the rules better. The girls had to do homework and piano. We even got to hear Ellen practice her clarinet. She was having some difficulty with one of the aspects of it, so I said she could talk to Nana since she had played saxophone and might be able to provide some pointers. Ellen did call and talk to her all on her own. I was happy to see that she was taking responsibility to do that without getting upset with us about not being able to help her more. She’s already sounding pretty good. On Sunday when she played, she sounded even better. We got a short bike ride in on Sunday morning also. It was nice to get out in the beautiful weather we’re lucky to still be having. The rainy season can start anytime now, but this week is looking to be a little on the warm and sunny side again, so that’s nice. Sunday night while Jada was at her massage, the girls and I tried a new game called Tsurro. I heard about it on a YouTube show called TableTop from my good friend (not really) Wil Wheaton on the Geek and Sundry channel (warning, this is aimed at adults, so there is occasional bad language that is beeped). It’s a pretty quick game where you build paths and try to keep yourself from being sent off the board. I got out early, and the girls ended up tying by a single card that knocked them both out on the same turn. It’s an interesting game. The play is quick, and it’s easy to learn.
September 23
The week went by quickly with all the usual activities that run us ragged every week. Added to that was Ellen’s back to school night on Thursday so we could go through her schedule and spend about 15 minutes with each of her teachers. She currently starts her day with PE, then Humanities. After Humanities, there is a class called Enrichment which is after lunch. The class is part advisory, part study hall, as well as a sort of a home room type deal. After that, she goes to math. She’s currently in an on-level math class. However, according to her 5th grade scores and her 5th grade math teacher’s recommendation, she should have gone into the advanced class. Apparently one of her scores are missing and a placement test she took the first week of school wasn’t great. Her schedule may change due to a conversation with the vice principal regarding her past experience, so hopefully, it’ll all get worked out. As I keep telling her, either way it should be fine. We’re just worried because everything is just too easy for her in the current math class and the curriculum will move at a slower place. She gets about 10 minutes to work on her homework in class, and she finishes it in that time every day. Anyway, after math, she has her science class. It sounds like they’ll be doing some dissection this year. She finishes off her day in music. I have to say, after listening to her practice this weekend, she’s doing really well. The music teacher said that they’ve been working on “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, but Ellen was playing “Lightly Row” which is also a song she learned on violin.
On Saturday morning, we went to Fred Meyer after the market like normal. We were just finishing up, and Jada went down to the electronics area to find something and happened upon a group of people sitting on the floor in a line waiting for Jordyn Wieber to show up at 12:30pm. Jada asked if we should stick around so the girls could meet an Olympic gymnast (she was on this year’s gold medal team). I said no since it was still 3 hours away, and we know how the girls get. Jada overruled me, and she and Phoebe went to sit down while Ellen and I went home to put the groceries away and pick up some things to occupy their time. There was a kids’ movie showing on the huge screen in the electronics section that kept the kids occupied. I wandered around for a while. Jada was able to go find some Corn Flakes boxes with the team on the front and a magazine to sign. Jordyn showed up just after noon, and the girls went up and got their boxes signed while I took pictures. She looked tired. They’re on their tour, and apparently they were in Portland this weekend. I had remembered hearing about it a while ago, but Jada hadn’t. Oh well. We were home finally before 1pm. I went out to ride my bike on my own for a change while the girls did their chores. I spent 3 hours out in the lovely fall sunny day riding 30 miles. We went out for dinner when I got home, and then followed that with a game of Carcassonne which Phoebe won this time, albeit a bit controversially.
Sunday we rode our quad down to Portland’s Willamette Park on the river for a walk benefitting Parkinson’s Disease research. We had been asked to join a team of a friend, so we decided we would ride down to take full benefit of the day. It only took us 55 minutes to ride down there. Corbett is crazy steep. The ride down was almost as difficult as the ride back up. The walk itself was along a trail that runs along the river. It was pleasant, but packed with people doing the walk. There were 1200 participants in all. There were several vendors selling food as well, so we had a Papa Murphy’s pizza slice and a couple Voodoo Donuts. We finished the walk just before 3pm, and we had to head home so we’d make it by dinner. As I said, Corbett is crazy steep, but the Pearsons don’t walk the bike, and we practically crawled our way up those climbs. I don’t know what the percentage rise on them were, but it was somewhere above 14% because it was steeper than our hill which I know is around 14%. We made it up the climb, and the rest was pretty smooth sailing. I worked on laundry, Jada finished dinner, the girls took showers and completed homework and enjoyed some reading time.
September 25
On Monday, Jada decided it’d be nice to ride to school with the girls at least once during the ride to work month that is September here in Oregon. I decided to leave late and ride with them to help birddog Phoebe on her way since it was her first time riding on the open streets. She did pretty well with just one hiccup at a stop sign where she didn’t get her pedals quite right and had to run across the street. Ellen did just fine all the way from what I could tell. She and Jada were way ahead. I headed off for work after dropping them off at the school, and I made just in time for my first meeting. Jada rode home again a little later to drive back since they had another appointment after school to get to as well where it’s not so bicycle friendly.
Today, I woke up feeling like I had never slept all night. I got Ellen to her piano lesson at 6:45am and drove on to work. I was sick to my stomach and must have been staring at my monitor for a while before realizing it. I just didn’t feel well, so by 8am, I was driving back home. I got there as Ellen was getting ready to go up to the bus stop (she takes the bus once a week. It gives her a chance to get to meet other kids from the neighborhood). I fell asleep on the couch and didn’t move until Jada got back from the gym. Then I went to bed and didn’t come out until 12:30pm. I tried not to nap in the afternoon so I could hopefully sleep tonight. Feeling a little better, but I still feel a bit drained.
September 30
The week went by pretty quickly. We rode with the girls to school on Monday and Wednesday this week. It was Phoebe’s first time, but she did ok. Jada rode back home and drove back to the pick everyone up at the end of the day. I was sick with flu-like symptoms on Tuesday. I had dropped Ellen off at her piano, and I went in to work by 7:15am. However, I had been sitting there for almost 30 minutes when I realized it was almost 8am, and I wasn’t really feeling well at all. I went home and went to bed until 12:30pm. I just spent the afternoon watching Netflix music documentaries on Rush, Pink Floyd, and Steely Dan. I have a new plan for recovery from illness. I completely shut down. I let myself sleep all morning, and then in the afternoon, I just lounge around not doing anything that could be construed as work. Although on Wednesday, I did help ride the kids to school again, but boy did that wear me out, and it just went to show that I wasn’t quite ready to go back to work yet. I was back at work on Thursday. It was exhausting, but I made it. Ellen started getting a cold toward the end of the week, so she’s been running through Kleenex boxes by the day.
On Saturday, we hosted an open house for our friend Pete so that his friends could all come to him instead of the other way around. That took up most of our day, but we had perfect fall weather for hanging out on the deck. On Sunday, we rode the quad with our tandeming friends to the South Store in Groner for breakfast at 9am. We were the first in line. The food was great. It was so nice outside, we continued along through the valley to Rood Bridge Park and then back home. It was a lovely 32 mile ride in perfect fall weather. We were back home by noon. After we made a trip to the Columbia Employee Store, I walked up to a school near our house so Phoebe could work on some basketball skills in case she’s able to play this fall. Jada had her massage in the evening, and that pretty much brings our month to an end already.
Journal Entry: September 30, 2012