Snow!

I woke up this morning to snow on the ground. My first reaction was, "AHHH! I don't want to drive in this!" Then I calmed down and turned on the news to see what they were saying on the weather. "Snow this morning with trace to 1" accumulation below 500 feet, turning to rain this afternoon, high of 43." I again looked at the road and saw someone had driven by, it looked fine to drive on and really was more of a light dusting, maybe 1/4 inch. Plus it is supposed to warm up so I decided to go for it.

Now remember, I HATE driving in snow. Not that I can't, rather all the other idiots on the road freak me out, like the moron in the last snow we had that decided to tailgate me because I wasn't going fast enough for him and he was in a big truck so of COURSE it was like there was nothing on the road for him and he could EASILY stop as if the roads were dry.

Got in my car at 5:40am, I decided not to wait but to get out before the idiots got out. The roads were FINE! Mostly slushy and if I wanted, in some places, I'm sure I could have slid but I would have had to really slam on the brakes. Mostly it was just wet slush. Even our parking lot was just wet slush and easy for me to drive on. Whew!

So I figure if *I* can drive in this, it MUST be ok. Now I'm hoping the weathermen are right and it all pretty much melts so I can get home. haha

Feeding Ducks, Swinging, and a Nutria

Saturday was a beautiful day, I think the high was around 62! We took the opportunity to go feed the ducks and play on the swings. Riley really likes feeding the ducks, almost as much as Marci. haha I held Maddie because she keeps wanting to touch the ducks, and they don't want to be touched. She had a great time just watching all of them come close to eat.

There were also a lot of people walking their dogs and Maddie really enjoyed looking at all of them. She'd be looking at the ducks, see a dog and quickly point and squeal with excitement. Fortunately, most of the people were nice, so Maddie got to pet several of the dogs. There was even a cat that lives around there and came out to see us.

After feeding the ducks, we walked to the other end of the park/pond to play on the swings. Both Riley and Maddie love to swing. At home, Maddie will look at us, point outside and swing her hips back and forth to let us know she wants to go outside and swing. It's sooooo cute! haha Riley is funny on the swings. He wants me to push him higher and higher, then suddenly - almost in a panic - he wants me to stop because he's going too high. But then after he slows down some and isn't going as high, he'll tell me to push him harder and harder, until he hits that too high mark again. After the swings, they both played on the playset, going down the slides, climbing all over it, and really having a lot of fun. Then we walked back to the car to finish our shopping. On the way back home, both crashed, Marci and I had a rare hour or so to ourselves, it was nice! LOL

While we were at the swings, we saw a Nutria feeding in the grass. He wasn't too afraid of people, though some kids decided to run over to him which of course scared him back into the blackberries. But he came back out and I got some good photos.

It really was a fun day, we're looking forward to the weather getting better so we can do this more often.

Monster Truck videos

I don't know why they say you can take cameras but not camcorders. Most digital cameras these days can take video too. ;) I'm sure they are mainly wanting people to not make videos then make money off them. I have no desire to do that, just share the fun even we went to. :) So, I uploaded the videos I took to our YouTube account.

Chocolate Festival

Saturday we went to the Chocolate Festival at the Western Forestry Center. It was AWESOME! We all had a LOT of chocolate that was incredible wonderful. Lots of big, free samples that we all indulged in. Mmmmm..... Chocolate....

Grave Digger

On 2/9/07, Riley and I went to the Monster Truck show, his 3rd time. As always, it was a lot of fun and he really enjoyed it. I'm soooo glad we both were wearing Bose noise canceling headphones! We could still hear everything just fine, and the trucks were still loud, just not the ear-splitting, blood dripping loud.

This year they added dirt bikes doing a big jump in the air. That was pretty cool. And we saw one truck roll over while doing cookies, that's always a crowd favorite.

None of the trucks really went for it though, except the one that rolled over and Grave Digger. I think it's because this was the first of three days and they didn't want to hurt their trucks. We also didn't get to go down and see them up close because I didn't realize that is on Saturday and we went on Friday. :( Next year I'm going to get tickets for Saturday

Still, we both had a lot of fun, got there early, had some overpriced pizza, a soda, bought some stuff, and had great seats. Enjoy the photos!

Ben 10 and Riley is now happy

Yesterday Ben 10 Season 1 came out on DVD and Riley just HAD to have it. Got home and all he wanted to do was sit in front of the tv watching it. Made it nice for us, we just had to watch Maddie and could relax some. haha

I'm trying to keep up with posting once a week and realized it's now Wednesday and I hadn't posted yet. D'OH!

This last weekend it was really nice out, so Sunday we went to a little park and fed cracked corn to the ducks. Riley and Maddie loved it! It was so funny to watch Maddie laugh at the ducks coming up for food. Definitely a fun time and something we will be doing again and again. ...and next time I will be sure to take my camera. :)

Super Bowl Prediction - 3:55pm PST

Ok, so we are about half-way into the first quarter. It's Bears 7, Colts 6. So far, it looks like the Bears want it more. However, the Colts always start slow and come on fast in the 4th quarter, they never give up where other teams run out of steam in the 4th. So, who do I think is going to win? After the Colts just recovered a fumble on the kickoff?

The Bears.

I think they just want it more. I think the Colts have more talent, but that doesn't matter in games like this, it's who wants it more that counts the most. I say the Bears want it more. We'll see in a couple hours. The thing the Bears have to remember is to not let up until the game is over. If they can do that, then they will win. If in the 4th quarter they start to relax with a lead, they will not win.

Edit - 6:38pm, 7:49 left in the game. After the interception touchdown, I change my prediction - the Colts will win. Ya, ya, I know, easy to make a prediction this late in the game. But as I said earlier, the Colts seem to play their best in the 4th quarter when the other team is out of steam. If the Bears wanted to win it, they had to play 5 quarters, not just 4. They have run out of steam, they can't win, the Colts are just playing too strong. Game over, the Colts win.

Oh well, the Colts fooled me again like they have all season. The other team comes on strong at the beginning and it looks like the Colts don't want it bad enough and won't win. Then when the other team has run out of steam, the Colts seem to kick in their 2nd wind and take over the game, winning in the 4th quarter.

Well done, Colts, you earned the Super Bowl!

Portland Auto Show

Today we went to the Auto show. It was a great time! Riley was so funny. On our way there and even right up until I sat in the first car, Riley kept saying, "I don't WANT to sit in a car! I don't want to go to the Auto show!!!" Then I sat in the first car and he wanted to sit in it too. After that, he kept saying, "Can I sit in another car?" LOL! It was a riot!

We had a great time, about 3 hours worth. We're not looking to buy anything right now because we just paid off our cars and it's nice to not have any payments. But we do have a few that we're interested in, so we checked them out. First, the new Mustang convertible. I REALLY want a fun car to replace mine, I miss my Honda S2000 a ton and a convertible family car would be awesome. The last time we looked at the new Mustangs, it looked like they had plenty of backseat room. I got it, adjusted the drivers seat, then looked in the back. DANG! Once again, as long as the person had no legs, everything was fine. :( Oh well, that's one reason I like going to the Autoshow, it can cure me from wanting a car because I don't fit, or other reasons. So I no longer want a Mustang - well I DO, but it's not a practical family car. Sure, the kids could fit, for another 5 years max. Not what we're looking for. We MIGHT get a new car now, and then another in 5 years, but I don't want to HAVE to get a new car.

Next we looked at the Honda's. We LOVE Honda cars, they have always been great for us. They had an Element SC, which is the new Element meant to compete with the Scion's, cool, trendy, extra stuff that 20-somethings are interested in, but us 40-somethings aren't. Loved sitting in the front seat, lots of room, nice. My head hit the roof in the back seat and not a lot of room. Well, I had to sit up REALLY straight to hit the roof, but I wasn't happy with how little headroom there was. Of all the cars I was interested in replacing mine with was the Element. After today, while I'd enjoy it, I don't think it's something I would enjoy for more than a couple years. Again, a great thing about the Autoshow, I no longer MUST HAVE an Element.

Honda has also just introduced the Civic Si Sedan, a 4-door version of their Si. It's REALLY nice! The seat went back far enough for me AND the steering wheel not only tilted BUT telescoped too! AWESOME!! I could get the seat back far enough AND the steering wheel right. It felt great and I really would enjoy driving it. Of course no one could sit behind me. I sat in the back and there was good headroom, my head didn't hit the roof at all. Overall, I liked the car a lot, and the fact that I fit and the whole family could fit was great. BUT, I must admit, I found it a tad on the cramped side and found another I fit in better. Though I must say, it was a tough choice because this would be a GREAT car to drive!!!!

The other that I really liked was the new Honda Fit, it's been sold in Europe for a long time as the Jazz. This is their little car that gets great gas mileage, 31 & 37. I sat in the front, TONS of room. But that's normal, I usually find lots of room in the drivers seat then sit in the back and hate it. After I was sure the front was enjoyable and I adjusted the seat for me, I sat in the back behind the driver. WOW!!! I couldn't believe how much room there was!! Amazing!! TONS of headroom AND legroom!!! What an amazing car!! Of course almost NO room behind the backseat for anything but some groceries, but WOW!!! This was a very cool car!! I have read and seen some reviews of this car and compared to others in its class, all the reviews have said others get better gas mileage, have better get-up-and-go (0-60 in 11 seconds for the Honda), but this is my far the most fun to drive and the most well equipped. I could certainly see that. It was a very cool car.

So we talked about trading my 2001 VW Passat (bottom of the line) in for a Fit. Honestly, I would hate the sucky performance, I want something that goes 0-60 in 3 seconds. BUT, I drive about 6 miles, 12 minutes to work every day and that's almost all of the driving I do. My car is RARELY driven compared to our Honda Pilot. So why would I need a Porsche? I miss my S2000 more than I can say, I'd KILL to have it back! But would I really enjoy it? I'd never get it over 50, and rarely would be able to drive it like it should be which would really make me thrilled to enjoy it. SO, the Fit would be a a great "fit" for me. I - sorry, I'm watching "The Family Guy" and they just did a skit with Stewy doing a dance with Gene Kelly, the one he did with Jerry Mouse, and I had a HUGE smile on my face, I LOVE Gene Kelly!!!! - anyhow, after lots of thinking, I decided to email some Honda dealers about the Fit. Turns out it is still REALLY popular and NO ONE has it in stock and even one dealership isn't taking any orders for at least 6 months (Wilsonville Honda)! So looks like if I want to get one, it'll take me 4-9 months to get the one I want. :( Oh well, that's probably a good thing, give us time to really think about it instead of buying on impulse.

Oh, and Maddie LOVED sitting in the cars too! I mean if she didn't get to sit in the drivers seat, she got mad! It was really funny. We had a lot of fun and as we were waiting for the elevator, she fell asleep on Marci. A fun and enjoyable day!

Back from Boston

It was a freaking long flight, 5 hours. But I didn't sleep much the night before I left, so I was REALLY tired on the way out there and slept nicely on the plane. I was quite surprised when I got there, no snow to be found, and it wasn't that cold!

It was a good trip, but I'm glad to get home. Oh, the flight back was awesome because I upgraded to FIRST CLASS! Had some Bailey's on the rocks, then a good salad, a very tasty hot beef teriyaki dinner (tasted like I was at a good restaurant), some warm mixed nuts, AND a fantastic ice cream sunday with hot fudge and whip cream! Oh ya, that's definitely the way to fly on a freaking long flight! Alaska also has the Digeplayer things. They are little portable video devices that hold like 8 movies, about 6 tv shows (each 30 minutes long), about 25 music videos, and a bunch of different kinds of music. In first class they are free, coach they are $10. It's money well spent and really makes the time pass much better. If you're on a long flight on Alaska and they offer these, get one, you won't be sorry!

The weather warmed up enough the other day that Riley was able to ride his bike around the block, he enjoyed that a lot. He and I are also having fun playing a PS2 game, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. It's a two player game and he's actually quite good at it!

We were talking about things coming this year and realized Riley will be heading to kindergarten this fall. Kindergarten. wow. Riley will be five in May and Maddie two in June. How time files...

Snow Today!

Well, I decided to work from home today, too many idiots on the road for me. We got 3-4 inches and Riley had a great time playing outside. Maddie had fun too, it was her first time seeing snow.

Tomorrow I leave for Boston. I'm a little worried about getting to the airport, but I've booked a shuttle so I should be fine. Just have to leave at 3:30am, YUCK! I just uploaded a short 35 second video I took with my new digital camera (Sony H2). Click on the photo above to view the rest.

Feeling better & Snow...

So last week I slammed myself into the concrete. Here it is a week later and I'm feeling pretty good! Pretty much everything is much better, my knee is a tiny bit sore, my right elbow is almost completely better, my face never got any bruising (which surprised me since I hit really hard), but my back is still quite sore. Obviously that's where I did the most damage, I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle or something. I just need to take it easy, which isn't easy with two little kids around. haha

Today we have a snow storm here in Portland. I know many other parts of the country laugh at us for getting 1-2 inches and having problems driving. We just don't get a lot of snow here so people don't know how to drive in it. And we have a LOT of hills here, you can easily go from 300 feet to 1000 feet in a matter of a few miles. So what looks good where you are is really bad trying to go over the hills. These are days I'm glad to be working in IT where I can work from home!

Riley went outside once in just his sweats (no shoes or socks), ran back in because it's freezing cold, then quickly put his boots and jacket on and announced, "I'm ready!" He really wants to go out and make a snow angel, it'll be a fun day for him. I'll get some photos posted to our Flickr later today.

Which is harder, concrete or my body?

First, I have to say I thought this blog thing would be a cool way to keep people up with what's going on with us. I still that, however for it to work, I kinda need to actually write stuff here. D'OH! Last year from Sept on got crazy busy in every way possible. I took a week off from work between Christmas and New Years and that really re-energized me. I feel refreshed and ready to go! So this year one of my New Years resolutions is to blog at least once a week. SO, to start it off, here's hopefully a good laugh for everyone from this last weekend. I know I'm laughing about it. :)


We get our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving and take it down the weekend after New Years. This year we had a fantastic tree, it was still taking water even the day before we took it down!

So this last weekend my wife was at the beach with her mom and I was home with the kids, they were actually very good and we had a great time. Sunday morning at 8:45am I remembered the Christmas tree had to be at the curb by 9am for the boy scouts to pick it up. I quickly took all of the ornaments off the tree, the lights, and shoved it out the door top first (I know that was the wrong way to push it out, I can only say I'd been up for about 15 minutes so wasn't thinking clearly, which probably explains the rest of this story, that or I'm just stupid which is always a possibility). Of course it got stuck, I took off the tree stand and pushed it out the rest of the way.

It went out fine, but then started to fall to the right. I didn't want it to fall on a plant so I was trying to guide it. As it was falling faster than I could guide, I went to move my right foot to catch myself, but I caught it on my pajama pant leg and proceeded to fall over off a two foot step onto the hard concrete in front of our house (and ours has those little rocks coming out, not the smooth kind).

Hit my left shoulder, left side of my head (my cheekbone and head), my right knee a little on the inside, my right hand to catch myself, and after I was down my feet finally came down too. I laid there thinking, "Oh great, my wife is at the beach and I've done something stupid and probably broken something." Took a quick inventory and nothing felt broke so I started to get up. My left side hurt (upper back and upper front on my chest) and my right knee, I couldn't put pressure on it to stand up or use my left hand, which is of course how I always get up so had to change position to stand up.

Got up, checked everything again, all felt ok, nothing broken or out of place, so I finished taking the tree to the curb.

When I got back in the house, I looked at my knee and it had a HUGE welt on it! My left should only has a few little marks and they look normal, and very little bruising. My right hand has three cuts which are healing fine. I went into the bathroom to checkout my head and was shocked to find NOTHING! I mean there wasn't any sign I'd tried to shove my head through the concrete! Very weird, but I've always known I'm thick headed. hehe

When my wife got home, I asked her to check my back as it was still sore and hard to lift my left arm. (Did I tell you she's a licensed massage therapist?) She said it felt like I pulled a muscle or really strained it. By the end of the day my knee was feeling better, my back was ok, but now my right elbow was acting up, really sore. I think when my right hand came down I kinda jammed it or something. This morning my knee feels great, just some cuts and it's still tender where I hit it, my hand is fine, my back is sore but better, my head still feels fine with no signs of anything, and my elbow was feeling better, though today I've been leaning on it too much and it's hurting again. I did think I might have gotten a concussion from that, so I looked it up online and had none of the symptoms.

I'm quite shocked that I came out of it feeling pretty much just fine, just a few scratches and bruises. So now I can laugh about it cause I'm sure I looked really stupid, I certainly felt stupid.

But I did get the tree out in time and they did take it! WOOHOO!! And that's what really matters as I didn't want to have to deal with it. hahaha

Stomach Flu - MAJOR YUCK!!

So first Thursday night Riley gets sick with this, is out of it Friday but better Saturday. Sunday night late Marci gets it, is out Monday, better Tuesday. Which is good because Tuesday Rich got it and was out Wednesday, better Thursday. Oh, and in there Maddie caught it a little, but not as bad as we had it. Whew!

Man, this thing was nasty! Rich normally doesn't throw up unless his body makes him, he will actually lay on the floor in various positions waiting for hours until he doesn't have the throw up where Marci will throw up much more quickly and feel better more quickly too. This time within two hours, Rich HAD to throw up, he didn't have a choice!

It appears to have been a 24-hour thing, though it took another two days to feel back to normal. We sure hope no one else has gotten this!

Washing moss off a roof

Today we went over to Rich's parents. They have a really big oak tree right next to their house that has caused a lot of moss to grow on the roof as well as drop a lot of little twigs, leaves, and other stuff on the roof.

Rich got up there with the hose and sprayed off all the moss and stuff. Well, most of the moss, there was still a tiny bit left, couldn't get it all with just the hose. That took about an hour. Rich was a little worried about getting up on the roof, one of those age things where it was no big deal when he was 18 but feeling a little more mortal at 43. He used to do it all the time and in high school, he and some friends re-roofed the house. Once he got up there he remembered how easy it was to climb around on the roof and had no problems. Whew!

Marci was inside with the kids and Rich's Mom playing, getting lunch/dinner ready, and doing other stuff. It was a nice break in the day and everyone had fun, especially the kids.

We also went shopping today for some pants for Marci. While at Kohls, we found a king size bed set - comforter, sheets, pillow cases, etc - that was on sale; 80% off!! It was originally $159, and we bought it for $29!!! Couldn't pass that up. One of the downsides of having a nice big king sized bed (actually California king size) is bedding costs a lot. This was a very nice find! Kohls is our new fav store. :)

It's 8:46pm, Maddie is asleep and Riley is getting there. Rich has some work to do at 9:30pm and Marci is watching tv while eating popcorn. It was a good day all-around!

Fun Labor Day Weekend

We had a great 3 days! Saturday we went to the state fair. Spent about 4-5 hours walking around, letting Riley play some games (he beat Mommy at one and won a prize). It was hot, but lots of fun. Sunday and Monday were nice days at home, doing some work in and around the house. All in all, it was very nice and we wish it could have continued several more days. :)

Last night when we got home from shopping, we let the dogs in. Marci then put a bunch of dog cookies out so Maddie could give them to the dogs. We'd tell her, "Give one to Frankie," and she'd go get one then give it to Frankie - she DOES know which dog is which. It's soooo cute to watch!

Riley got TWO Halloween costumes, The Thing from the Fantastic 4 and a Mutant Ninja Turtle - they were both closeouts so cost us less than one new one. He's not sure which one he wants to be, but had fun wearing them both.

Now back to work for both of us, back to Pre-school for Riley, and for Maddie, well, just another day as usual. haha

This last weekend, 8/26 - 8/27, we went to the beach - Neskowin to be exact. My Mom's sister owns a condo there that anyone in the family can use. So we went with my parents.

It was in the 90's Sat and Sun here in Portland, but around the 80's and partly foggy at the beach. We had a GREAT time! It was Maddie's first time to the beach and she loved it! Riley also had a blast. Both Riley and I had fun digging in the sand.

For those who don't know the area, there's a river that runs right by the condo to the ocean, and it is VERY shallow, you can easily walk across it. That's where Riley and I built a little sand fortress. First we built a sand barrier out into the river, then bailed the water out of the area we dammed off, then dug a big hole in the middle. It was silly yet fun. As soon as we left a couple other kids who were watching us jumped on it and started to play. LOL!

Riley slept really well, but Maddie was restless and woke up with a cold. :( Poor girl! Sunday it was very foggy and you couldn't see the ocean from our condo. It took us a little over 2 hours to get home and Maddie slept the whole way, which was good, she needed it. Riley crashed the last 30-40 minutes.

A great weekend for everyone, I think Mom and Dad had fun too! We're all sore and looking forward to a good night of sleep - if I can get Riley to sleep that is. LOL!!!

Here are the photos I took:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richtpt/sets/72157594254236392/

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Riley & Maddie update

It's been awhile so thought I'd tell a few things that happened today.

We took the training wheels off Riley's bike and Rich worked with him. He was a little scared, but tried it and did pretty good, though Rich hung on to him 99.9% of the time (he let go for a second or less now and then). Riley agreed he wants to practice this every night so he can learn to ride by himself. He has really good balance so it shouldn't take too long.

Maddie can't talk yet, but she knows what we are saying. We've noticed this a lot and here's a great example. Rich picked her up this evening and sat down with her. She was screaming and squirming like crazy, didn't want to sit with him. He said, "Maddie, I just want to take your shoes and socks off." She stopped struggling, layed back and put her feet up! It was so cute!

It's been a busy summer, lots going on, not much time to think, but fun. We've been to the Zoo several times, that membership has easily paid for itself! We can't believe it's almost September - ARGH! Where did the summer go? Good thing Oregon has a nice summer through Sept and part of Oct.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Old Billy's Brass Band Videos on YouTube.com

I found and uploaded some video from my old band, Billy's Brass Band, to
YouTube.com:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=richtpt

The quality isn't great because the software I used many years ago wasn't that good. If I ever

get time I'll recapture them again and repost better versions. But for now this
is fun. :)

Rich

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HOT!!

It got up to 104 today!  Our house was only 85, which was nice compared to outside, but still hot.  Fortunately we have a window AC unit in our bedroom, so that room is nice and cool.  Marci went out with some friends and I took the kids over to my parents, they have AC in their house.  We had a good two hours, then came home.  Both of them fell asleep on the way - whew!  I was able to get them from the car to bed without them waking up, so now I'm just waiting for either Marci to come home or me to fall asleep. 

Tomorrow they are saying if the clouds stay then it'll be 97, but if they break up, it'll be another 104.  97 is still plenty hot.  That's a bummer because we wanted to go to a Sausage Festival at Raccoon Lodge - but no way we'll be sitting outside in that kind of heat.  Hopefully it'll cool down by Saturday next week for the brewfest.

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Maddie's 1st Birthday

I FINALLY got around to posting the photos from her first birthday! There are some good ones of her with her cake all over her face. It was a great day, lots of fun, and she enjoyed the cake a lot. Enjoy the photos!