OreGomm

Merry Christmas (Post Robot Apocalypse) 2008!

2008-12-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from the Gomm family!

We decided that this year we would perform our favorite Post Robot Apocalypse Christmas song as our holiday greetings! Turn up your volume, press play, and start cringing!

This is a song by our family's favorite artist Jonathan Coultan. Click here for the lyrics.
You can download the mp3 of the OreGomm version of this timeless Christmas classic here.

We wish everyone a:

Merry Christmas,
Happy Hanukkah,
Killer Kwanzaa,
Super Sweet Solstice, and
Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Yesterday!

2008-11-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

My Dad's birthday was yesterday and so here are the Oregomms performing their rendition of Happy Birthday Grandpa. Only the cute Gomms were featured in the video portion but we're all singing (in other words, if you turn on the volume, you've been warned).

Due to me being technically challenged when it comes to internal usb issues on our linux machine I'm a day late. Due to the economy I'm also a dollar short but then again, aren't we all? Happy Belated Birthday Dad!

Scout Eleanormal Strikes Again

2008-11-06T11:20:00.000-08:00

Scout has long been fascinated by her own middle name. She isn't really quite sure what it is...but she's fascinated by it.

Today she asked me, "Did you guys name me Scout Ignore Gomm because I ignore people a lot?"

Of course I told her yes. Before you think I'm a really mean mom, don't worry. She was ignoring me. <3

[self portrait by Scoutie]

My Birthday Portal!

2008-10-31T09:38:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that Portal is my favorite video game of all time. Well, Thursday was my birthday, and Amanda made me the perfect portal cake:

Oh, and on the left there is the present my kids got me (with their saved allowance): 1600 MS Points to buy Portal: Still Alive.

What a great family!

Picture Day!

2008-09-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

When Random was born we looked at our brand new baby boy with his giant blue hands, gorilla shaped head and male-pattern baldness and had the following conversation: "Holy smokes." "Well, hopefully he'll have a great personality."

Not even a day had gone by, while we were still in shock at the wonder of new parenthood, when we received our first order form for professional pictures. It even had a note addressed to Mommy and Daddy from our brand new baby. "I know you want to share your joy with grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles, doctors and postmen. Please buy some pictures so that I know you love me. If you really really love me I know you'll buy the photo sweatshirt and keyring as well. -Your Baby"

So we bought the photos. They put our child on top of a frightening background, laid an even more frightening vest atop him and snapped pictures while he laid there stunned and bruised.

Here we are, 10 years and 2 kids later. Luckily, they have cutened up a bit since day 2. And, not so luckily, we still get the forms home with the same plea--you love your child and surely want to capture this moment forever. We still get the same frightening background--although now we can choose between a variety of unflattering colors. We still get the same weird scrunched up face--Scout said, "Don't worry Mommy. I smiled my biggest. Like a pirate."

And yet, I still buy them because-- Yes. I love my crazy pirate faced kids and I do want to capture every moment forever. Even the moments with the abnormal head tilt, magenta background and creepy hair slicked down by the overeager PTA volunteers.

Another one of those things to put in the category with double sided wrapping paper, heelies (you know, those wheeled shoes that cost a bajillion bucks that you bought for your kid after all the begging but that he grew out of before he got over his irrational fear of wheeled shoes--feel free to substitute skateboard, blendypens, MioPup, Moon Sand or any other thing that cost a fortune, was imperative that they have and was discarded five minutes later) and ballet classes. In twenty years it probably won't matter but for now you just do the best you can.

The activist inside of me wants to lobby against picture day as an unfair practice of preying on the guilt of parents. The capitalist inside of me wants to figure out how I can hop on this gravy train...if you love your child you would certainly take advantage of this once in a lifetime business opportunity.

And So It Begins

2008-09-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

We've had our first fundraiser flier sent home today. This is the first year that I've received 3 opportunities to disappoint my children with my lack of generosity.

I've had neighbor kids knocking at my door asking me to donate so I've gotten to rip their little hearts out and crush their hope as well. I understand that they shouldn't ask strangers since that's a dangerous situation but everyone they know sits next to them in class and went to the same Pep Rally/Fundraiser assembly that they did. Everyone I know either lives far away or has 3-4 other children with the same empty Fun Run donation sheet that I have in triplicate.

Troy is hesitant to take this one to work. It's one of those "Pledge X amount of $$ per lap and collect it later" types. He doesn't want to be hounding his co-workers for money in a couple of weeks when it turns out that Scout can run a 4 minute mile.

I'm glad that at least it's not one of those horrid brochures of junk...you know the ones...where you can buy 3 cubic inches of wrapping paper (double sided don't you worry) for 40 bucks, a box of 7 chocolates for the price of a small country or some random kitchen doo-dad with geese on it for mere dollars a day (on the 16 year payment plan).

So here's my dilemma. The kids have 25 minutes to run as many laps around the high school track as they can. I can pledge money per lap and then feed my kids a huge breakfast of greazy sausage, eggs and chocolate milk hoping for cramp-induced low lappage, I can pledge money per lap and tell them I'll give them each 50 cents to throw the race or...*sigh*...I can pledge a set amount and see the look in their eyes when they realize that they don't qualify for the Grand Prize of a Super Cool Super Soaker.

Maybe I'll get them a piece of cardboard, a sharpie and drop them off at the interstate off-ramp and see how much they can collect...Anything Helps God Bless.

What's a little dignity or integrity if you can win a Super Cool Super Soaker?

Super String Savannah

2008-09-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday Savannah's class started a discussion on science. They talked about what everyone wanted to learn throughout the year and each child picked a special topic to study in depth. Savannah ultimately ended up picking Earth as her field of exploration this year but that wasn't her first choice.

In class she raised her hand and suggested that they study String Theory. When she told us this, Troy and I looked at each other then back at Savannah and beamed with pride. hehehe. The teacher asked her to explain String Theory to the class. She told everyone that some scientists have a theory that all matter is made of tiny strings that are so small we don't have a microscope strong enough to see them. She told them that these strings were smaller than air or germs or even quarks.

As you can imagine, the fact that our 8 year old daughter can even use the word 'quarks' in a sentence is enough to keep us going for weeks but the fact that she wants her 3rd grade class to study String Theory keeps us in happy giggles. I love that a giant poster of the Standard Model of Particle Physics would fit so nicely on the wall of the kids' room next to the Littlest Pet Shop wall stickers and the Gotta Catch 'Em All pokemon pictures. WOOT!

2008-09-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

Our family has been following the progress of the Large Hadron Collider for quiet some time, so when this video came out last week, we were really excited. It's so awesomely uber-geeky that I just had to share. Enjoy! :P

First Day!

2008-09-03T08:39:00.001-07:00

Random and Savannah both started school on Tuesday. Random is in 5th grade and has the same teacher that he did last year. Savannah is in 3rd grade and has a new teacher but a lot of the same kids in her class...including her best friend Hailey. They had a great first day and looked fabulous in their new outfits.

I was nervous until they came home. I was afraid that I would have forgotten something or their new shoes would give them blisters or a million other things that wouldn't be earth shattering but would have given them a bad day.

Scout's first day is today, Wednesday. They divided the kindergarten class in half so they could have a more intimate first day session and get to know their teacher and the routines a little bit right away. She also looked fabulous and skipped down the sidewalk so eager to get going.

We met up with Hailey and Breanna Wallace so a huge troop of us went off to school over the sidewalk and through the woods. Rand walked ahead and got to school early while the girls giggled and skipped all the way there.

So today is my first day too. My first day with a few hours of no kids at home. gulp.

Summer Memories

2008-09-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

Troy and I feel like we've had a whirlwind summer. We've camped, hiked, played, traveled, visited, reunioned, explored and rocked. Now our big fear is that the kids will tramp off to school and, when asked what they did this summer, they will say they ate a lot of candy and played the Wii. So here is our summer sum-up. A brief overview of what we did in the summer of 2008 (in between bouts of eating candy and playing the Wii).

June: Camped in the rain, visited by the Tom-Gomms, Troy got a new CPAP, I got new glasses and bleached my hair white.

July: Drove to Idaho, Scout met Grandma & Grandpa Gomm for the first time, counted satellites with Tom and Kim, launched fireworks with Tyler and Anna, got 5th disease, camped at the ocean, the kids spent 2 weeks with Grandma & Grandpa Bryan, Troy and I went to Singapore.

August: Hiked with the Wallace's, Scout had her 5th birthday, I had my 33rd birthday, got back in touch with long lost high school friends, went to rock concerts, hiked around Mollala State Park, rode on a 6 car ferry, visited cousins, went to the nickel arcade, found the headquarters for Dark Horse Comics, dyed my hair purple.

Scooter McTooterson's Fifth Birthday Extravaganzaa

2008-08-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

Scout's 5. Holy guacamole. I remember looking forward to the day when our youngest would hit this mark. I love 5.

Scout is a GREAT 5 year old. She's spunky, smart and energetic. She's a daredevil, a sweetheart and a non-stop ball of goofy fun. She calls the world like she sees it, thinks about things that startle me with their weight and is a little nervous about starting kindergarten in a couple of days. We are SO glad she's in our family and were delighted to celebrate the anniversary of her earthly debut on August 8th.

Scout is a huge Totoro fan. My Neighbor Totoro is a cartoon by the animated film director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service are some of his other titles you may recognize). We tried to throw her a theme party but as anyone who has ever tried to throw a theme birthday party for a small child who isn't totally enthralled by last year's summer blockbuster (never mind that it was Rated PG-13 for illicit naked-pirate-robot violence...don't get me started), there isn't a lot of pre-made Totoro party favors out there to make it easy.

We started the day with scrambled eggs and opening the ultimate giant stuffed Totoro. Troy took all the kids swimming and Scout had a blast running from the pool to the table to get a little coloring time in.

In the afternoon we all went to Champoeg park for a PARTY! Scout had a very distinguished guest list including our neighbors the Wallaces, our friends the Hupps, Grandma, Grandpa & cousin Jerred all the way down from Puyallup, WA and even the long-lost Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Matt from Orlando, FL. Scout requested hamburgers and hotdogs so we lit up the barbecue and did a picnic Oregon-style (which just means we also had veggie patties and tofu-dogs). After we ate, the kids played around with goodie bag junk (hand pump rockets and whistle-pops were the favorite among the kids...I was just glad the whistles were edible). We opened presents, made ice cream in single-serving ziploc bags, sang Happy Birthday and tore into the Totoro cake.

The grown ups sat around chatting while the kids ran around the park until dusk came. We packed up and drove back to our apartment where we visited with the out-of-towners until we were all tired and ready for bed...too bad they still had a 3 hour drive!

Scout had a great birthday and is already planning for her next one. The rest of us are just enjoying our brand new 5 year old!

So Long Singapore

2008-08-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

Our last few days in Singapore were crammed with all the things we wanted to be sure to do before we lost our opportunity.

National Museum Of Singapore

I visited the museum by myself while Troy was at work. I felt pretty proud of myself solo-exploring the city and really enjoyed learning about the history of Singapore through a guided tour and the startling artifacts, images, film and audio recordings.

The children say a pledge everyday at the beginning of school just like my kids say the Pledge of Allegiance. The pledge of Singapore seems to sum up the resilient spirit that has inspired their survival through the long tragic journey their country has taken.

We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.

Singapore is an amazing country. They rose from a swamp decimated by war and an attempted genocide to form one of the most prosperous nations in the world in only 40 years. They have a lot of strict laws (if you bring more than the weight of a 50 cent piece of drugs into the country you will be killed) and a lot of crazy fines ($500 if you don't flush the potty) but Christians, Buddhists, Hindi and Muslims; ethnic Chinese, Thai, Malay, Indian, European, Japanese and Americans all live, work, play, worship and fight for their country side by side.

Little India

Little India wasn't the same kind of tourist trap Chinatown or the Merlion were. It was the place Indians from all over the city could come to buy local cuisine, find Hindu temples and purchase goods imported directly from India. We visited the Mustafa department store and were overwhelmed by the amount of 'stuff' crammed into the building. The aisles were one American across which meant, of course, that there was 2 way traffic.

We found an amazing Indian restaurant and have resolved ourselves to finding the ultimate Pilak Paneer recipe so we can replicate our experience. YUMMM!

Chinatown

People, people, everywhere. You couldn't walk a step without running into someone or being accosted by shop owners trying desperately to get you to buy a "fine tailor suit or sexy blouse. Very cheap. Very nice."

At first I thought Troy was so RUDE just walking by these nice people who just wanted to say hi. By the end I realized that a no-eye-contact policy was essential if you wanted to survive. It was interesting, colorful, chaotic and beautiful.

Harbor Front

In the 1960s the Singapore Tourism Board decided they needed a good hook to draw in more tourists. They hired a guy who invented the Merlion. It's a half lion, half fish monstrosity that has no basis in myth, local history or folklore. The locals see the 70 ton waterspout as a joke and refer to vomiting as "doing a Merlion." Naturally, Troy and I had to go see it. It was as grotesque and surrounded by tourists as we had hoped.

The rest of the harbor front held restaurants, museums, shops, businesses and odd statues.

Hungry Ghost Festival

August 1st marked the beginning of the 7th lunar month which in Chinese culture is the first day of the Hungry Ghost Festival. This is the time of year when ghosts from the lower realm come out for a holiday and visit the corporeal world.

People burn incense, books, money, pictures and food as an offering to these hungry ghosts. They also leave plates of food out on the sidewalk and set extra places at the table at home for the ghosts to enjoy. Public concerts will leave the front row empty for the ghosts to sit and enjoy the show.

Fireworks

In preparation for National Singapore Day on the 9th, the city put on a fireworks display every night starting on the first. We were sitting in our hotel room when we heard a bunch of explosions followed by some strange singing. We went out on our balcony and could see a barge shooting off so many fireworks that the smoke started to obscure any sign of the lights. They would take a break, sing some songs and then start it up again. It was a loud, hazy, glorious show of national spirit.

Chilicrab

Singapore is a mish-mash of cultures and doesn't have very many truly "Singaporean" things (ergo the Merlion invention). One of the exceptions is the Chilicrab. It's a Singaporean dish that everyone had their own version of. The one we tried was down at the harbor front.

I thought it tasted great. Troy thought it tasted ok. We both thought it was messy and overpriced.

Singapore Sights

2008-08-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Troy and I wandered around Singapore. We found more great signs including one with some really great medical advice (I expect you all to start taking daily doses of essence of chicken).

Regular cross walk sign...I thought it was funny to "Press for green man" as if the green man were the goal instead of permission to cross.

Upper left corner...you may need to enlarge it to see just how dedicated the Singaporeans were to celebrating Malaysia Day.

Troy says the work in progress signs in Japan had this same bowing weird looking man on them.

This was on the side of a bus station but after we saw this sign we noticed it everywhere. We even know where to buy it now. Give me your orders so I can stock up before we leave!

I stumbled upon a 3 story tall pink paisley recreation of Michaelangelo's David. I've censored it for those who are as disturbed as I am by 6 foot tall pink paisley boy bits.

Driving In Malaysia

2008-07-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

We've really enjoyed taking the subway around Singapore. It's clean, fast, cheap and for the most part, it takes us to within feet of where we want to go. When we've traveled to and from the different countries we've had to hire drivers and got to experience the commute that so many Malay and Singaporeans experience everyday.

The picture is our driver. He gave us a lot of advice on where to visit both in Malaysia and Singapore, taught us several phrases in Malay and even ended up giving Troy his number for the next time we're in town and want to go up to K.L.

They drive on the left side of the road so their cars all seemed backwards at first. It took me a while to figure out how that affects people walking around in the mall (I find myself swimming upstream in a sea of people far too often).

As we've traveled around the U.S. each state has a unique font and style to their road signs and it always strikes me as one of those things we take for granted until it's suddenly different. Thus, I took lots of sign pictures as we raced down the highway. These are all taken through the windshield at 100 kph so forgive me if they're blurry. I still find them fascinating.

News From Home

2008-07-30T18:39:00.003-07:00

Well it looks like the kids are having a blast. I was getting a little worried about them since I hadn't heard anything since Saturday. I figured either they were having so much fun that no one had time to email me OR they had torn down the house, ran everyone ragged and drove them insane with all their chatter. I should have known my mom and my sister Emily were made of tougher stuff!

My mom took them to Toys R Us and Michael's to pick up some activities for them to do. What a great Grandma. On her blog she mentioned not wanting them to be able to sum up their entire visit by saying they "watched tv and played on the trampoline." I have the same feelings about their summer vacation while we're at home. I dread getting their "summer journal" paper back with a little stamped smiley face on it proving that the teacher knows as well as I do that it was a good day if we all got dressed...let alone brushed our hair.

I actually laughed out loud when I saw that Scout had picked a Chuck E Cheese's Birthday Party Picnic set. Her birthday is on the 8th of August and she's been doing nothing but planning her party since Rand's was over back in May. If that set had a mini skee ball set I think I would have picked that too...I just can't get enough skee ball in my life.

As I looked as these pictures I realized that I know my kids pretty well. If left to their own devices (and given a wad of cash) I knew that Scout would have inevitably chosen something that had to do with birthdays, Random would have gravitated toward legos and Savannah would have gone totally native (she's the one I keep taking pictures of crazy Malay bugs for).

I'm so happy to see their smiling faces and I'll be glad to be reunited soon. It'll be great to get back to Oregon with all the familiar sights, smells, foods but most of all to give those cute kids some long awaited hugs.

Malaysia

2008-07-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

Troy works with a company in Senai, Malaysia and so on Sunday evening we took a hotel shuttle to our new hotel: The Sofitel Palm Resort Golf & Country Club. The hotel is full of character and surrounded by amazing life...plant, animal and insect.

I've never knew palm trees could be so diverse. I feel like a horticultural noob as I keep looking up trying to find the coconuts. The trees to the left are directly outside of our hotel room. On the way to the hotel we passed fields of palm tree farms. The area here is known for their palm oils.

The hallways all have wall sconces that not only light the way but also heat up and provide a warm and bug filled nest for geckos to hunt in at night. Almost every wall sconce has a gecko or two hiding inside.

Troy goes off to work during the day so I'm at the hotel free to lounge by the pool, go to the spa, play pool, bowl, commit archery, snooker, racquetball, ping pong or golf. They have bicycles to rent, boardgames, squash courts, fitness rooms and an entire room dedicated to Majong. Of course it's 70,000 bajillion degrees with 493% humidity outside and I've yet to wrangle up enough people to put together a decent squash team. I also think everyone in the hotel is here on business so the fall-over-themselves-with-politeness-staff who won't make eye contact with me, let alone pick up a ping pong paddle and hit something at me, are the only people around during the day.

I've gone on lots of walks around the grounds and tried to enjoy the beauty of such a diverse ecology. My favorite view is seeing the roofs of the hotel rising out of the jungle.

Every path I've taken has been paved differently. I wonder what the story is with that. Did they run out of stones? Is it art? It's definitely interesting and adds to the tactile beauty of my daily jaunts.

The paths through the grass have railroad ties embedded in them so the earth doesn't slide away in the rain. There are deep canals crisscrossing the property. The freeway overpasses have signs indicating which side of the road has rain shelters for motorcyclists. So much evidence of a dramatic rainy season.

The inky green pools have thousands of coy living in them. They're difficult to see through the murky water but they'll suddenly begin jumping and the water comes alive. I have to admit, that's a little creepy.

Here are some more of the pictures that I took on my trip around the resort:

Paths:

Plants:

Random things that struck my fancy:

Singapore: Cultural Differences

2008-07-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

English is one of the official languages of Singapore. The children go to a school that teaches in both their parent's language and English so most people are bi or tri-lingual. We learned that some words are used differently there than they are in America however. Here are some of the finds that made us giggle:

Singapore: Our Hotel

2008-07-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

In Singapore we stayed at the Swissotel on Stamford Road.

The location couldn't have been better. We were just steps away from the subway so we had great access to the whole city for just a few cents.

We were on the 56th floor of the hotel so the view was fabulous. We could see the famed Merlion, the Esplanade (theaters that look like bug eyes), the Parlament buildings, the National Museum of Singapore, part of Sentosa Island and tons of sky scrapers, apartment buildings and churches.

We were so high up in the hotel and the elevator traveled so fast that our ears popped as we rode up to our floor.

We could see our hotel from far all over the city and actually took this picture from over 2 kilometers away.

Here are some pictures we took from our hotel balcony.

Customs in Singapore

2008-07-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

When I arrived in Singapore the first thing I did was to choose a line to stand in while I waited to go through customs. I picked what looked like a small line behind a group of about 8 short, well dressed young men. I was at least a head taller than most of them. Their bright pastel colored button up shirts contrasted pleasantly with their dark skin. They looked like they were getting back from an insurance salesman convention and had coordinated their outfits for the trip. I immediately thought of what Scout would have said were she with me... "Hello tiny men. Why are you so tiny?"

After 5 minutes with the customs officer the first man was sent back. I watched him pass his friends whispering what had happened, the looks of worry reflected in all their faces, and join a line of about 20 short insurance salesmen waiting to enter an unmarked door. They were being watched over and yelled at ("Form 1 line! Stay in line!") by two taller, fairer men in uniforms standing on a platform so that they towered over the men in line.

I quickly realized that as far as quickly moving lines go, I had chosen poorly. Each of the men took at least 5 minutes and I watched as people with US, European, Japanese and Singapore passports flew through the lines next to me. After about 3 of the men had been sent back to the mysterious angry line, one was finally let through. He looked back at his friends and lifted a piece of paper, showing it to them surreptitiously. They all began to frantically dig through their backpacks and satchels to find the magical paper that would let them through. After that only one was sent back to the line that had now reached the end of the room and was wrapping back on itself.

It turns out this was a group of Malaysians and unfortunately Singapore is as suspicious of its neighbors as we are of ours. In their political landscape I'm sure it all makes sense just as we've convinced ourselves that how we treat Mexicans makes sense. It's definitely made me reconsider some things though.

When I got to the customs officer I handed him my passport and disembarkment form. He stamped it, scanned it and I was on my way. Having a United States passport was like having the golden ticket. No questions asked, no strip searching or strange lines to stand in at the back of the hall. I was all ready to explain why I was in Singapore, declare my leftover granola bars or demand to see the consul but I didn't have to say a word. I'm glad to be an American and have the opportunity to travel. I hope I live to see the day that everyone has the same rights.

World Travelers

2008-07-25T01:38:00.000-07:00

Troy has been in Singapore for the last week working on Xerox's latest supa-sweet solid ink printer. On Tuesday I dropped the kids off with family in Washington and right now I'm blogging from the Tokyo Narito airport. Crazy.

I got a picture of the kids having a great time with my sister. They look happy and I really hope that right now they're sleeping (it's 1:41 am in Puyallup right now).

I miss them but I'm sure they're going to have a really great time playing with cousins and their grandparents.

The first leg of my flight was 10 1/2 hours and now my neck is killing me. I'm hoping that I'm on the other side of the plane for the Japan to Singapore jump so I can even out this kink!

So what do you think about during a 10 1/2 hour flight? I'll tell you. You worry about whether or not you flushed up or down when you went number 1 back at good ol' PDX.

Hehehe, anyway, there's a flurry at the gate so I think I better pack up. Wish me luck!

Coastal Camping

2008-07-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

We've had a really busy summer. Between house guests, road trips and projects, we've been on the go almost the whole time. When we got back from visiting Boise and realized we only had one weekend before Troy would head out to Singapore for work, we decided that we needed some quality family time before he left.

We got online and reserved a camping spot at a KOA in Newport, dug through the storage unit to try to find some gear, crammed the Focus till it nearly burst and took off Friday morning. We took the longer route so we could enjoy the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway. Instead of using the portable dvd player to zombie the kids we listened to a radio drama so we could all look out the windows and appreciate the gorgeous scenery.

It was about this time that things started to go a little crazy. I had been struggling with that mysterious joint pain for a few days and by the time we reached Lincoln City for a pit stop I couldn't so much walk as I could waddle...picture walking without moving any joints including all the tiny joints in your feet. Now that I'm no longer in excruciating pain I can totally see the humor in the situation. I was wandering around this tiny bargain grocery store (where the discards of real grocery stores go to die) trying my best not to be a whiner and find the mini-marshmellows I needed for the banana boats I had planned. I was dottering along on my quest while Troy and the kids ran around getting snacks from all around the store. I think they did 7 laps before I got to the other side of the store. I felt like the old lady in her house coat trying to remember where she put her glasses. "Where are the marshmellows?" "OK honey it's time for you to sit back down." "But I need the marshmellows." "Kids, take your mother to the car, she's lost her mind again and she's walking like a penguin that had a flipperectomy." "But the marshmellows..." Of course in the bargain grocery store all there actually was by way of marshmellow were the pink and green tree shaped ones left over from Christmas.

We also noticed that Lincoln City isn't the Kite Capital of the World for nothing. The wind was refreshing and invigorating in the bright summer sun, but also should have been a little bit of a clue as to what the weather was going to be like a few miles down the road at our campsite.

Our campsite was called the Waldport/Newport KOA and is between two tiny resort towns that exist solely to make and sell Salt Water Taffy to tourists. We had printed out our google maps directions and followed them to the letter. Of course once we got to the alleged location we were in the middle of a row of weathered vacation homes with BMWs in the driveways and glorious ocean views...not exactly your typical KOA. Google maps had failed us! We booted up our computer with its trusty GPS and finally found our campground.

We got out of the car, checked out our tiny campsite and nearly froze our buns right off. The wind was whipping so fiercely that we were chilled to the bone. At this point I turned to Troy and asked if, when he was checking out the weather and it said the highs would be 95-100 and lows in the mid 50s, was he actually checking the weather for where we would be or for where he was at the time (sitting on the couch in Wilsonville). He said something like, "ummm heh heh." So we loaded up the kids and drove back to Newport to find some jackets.

An hour later, ten degrees colder but a few layers warmer, we made it back to the campsite. I started setting up the tent while Troy and Scout went off to buy firewood. Rand, Savannah and I had part of one tent partially emptied out of its bag by the time he got back (I couldn't close my fingers tightly enough to grip...I'm really not THAT bad at setting up tents :-P). Troy took over the tents while I started the fire.

I don't know about your experiences with campground firewood but we've always noticed that it's dry and eager to light with only the slightest coaxing. Not so with the Fancy Campwood from the Waldport/Newport KOA. It's the new-fangled slow-burning soggy wood that all the kids are raving about this season. It took forever to get it dried out enough to burn and then even longer to get it down to coals so we could cook the foil dinners we had brought. The foil dinners ended up being the best thing I've ever eaten from a campfire though so it was worth the wait.

The night was cold and I kept worrying that the kids were freezing in their little tent. They did all right and Random even took Scout to the bathroom in the middle of the night. What a good kid.

Breakfast was an egg/potato/sausage foil concoction that I found the recipe for online. Troy was pretty anti-fire in the morning though so I poured it into a frying pan and cooked it on the propane stove. That worked out great, tasted good and gave us lots of greazy fuel for a fun day at the beach.

We followed the signs in the campground to the "trail" to the beach. We found the trail...it was actually a sand cliff that you just sort of banzai down. Tough to do when you can't bend your knees but I made it! The kids found some shells, dead crabs and lots of smelly seaweed. The water was exceptionally cold and the beach was rocky so we decided to drive up the coast and find another beach that wasn't so smelly. Getting back up the "trail" was a feat and by the time we got up all of our thighs were burning and we were pretty sweaty. Gratefully, the wind was still a bajillion knots so we dried off quickly.

We went up the coast and pulled off when we saw some awesome rock outcroppings. We climbed around on those for a while and got back in the car.

Arctic Circle for lunch (Yay for Lime Rickies!) and then off to the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. First of all, I think that's a hilarious name. It should go in our scrapbook right next to pictures of Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp. It seems like some eager beavers should take a breath and let people add their own adjectives but you know, whatever.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse on the Oregon coast and we climbed all the way to the top. The last time I climbed a tower on Oregon's coast it was the Astoria Column. I was 16 and had an undiagnosed case of mono so at least we stuck to the tradition of mysterious illnesses and tall buildings near highway 101.

Next we were off to the tidal pools which were great but we all suffered from a little Lime Ricky revenge and had to hustle back up up up up and up the trail to get to the bathroom...and FAST. We all made it but it was touch and go there for a while for poor Scoutie.

We got back to camp exhausted and found that our tents were nearly on their side being blustered at by that unrelenting wind. Our tent stakes were not up to the task of the cement-like soil of the campsite. We bought the camp store out of stakes and were able to get the tent secured and make dinner.

That night was much warmer so everyone was very comfortable. There was free wifi access (I know...what has camping come to?) at the KOA so Troy and I got online and bought some t-shirts. That was probably my favorite part. Laying on a nice full air mattress and laughing at how geeky I am to have just ordered a Bassoon Hero t-shirt.

The next morning we made pancakes, cleaned up, broke camp and headed home. It was a great camp and I'm glad we didn't let our crazy summer, my crazy broken body or our crazy-small car stand in the way of the memories we made.

Here are more pics from our trip:

Gomm Reunion 2008: Boise Edition

2008-07-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of what went down at the reunion.

Tyler's daughter Angie came up with a genius relay race. We had to dress up and do a funky walk to the fence then turn around and run back. Gomms are good sports and crazy dressers.

Playing with cousins:

We got to go swimming at Tom & Kim's pool and at Tyler & Ann's pool. Sunburns for all!

We ate a lot. Troy and I made fresh squeezed lemonade which was super-duper if I do say so myself.

But mostly we just sat around:

Thanks to Tyler and his fancy camera work and to the Boise Gommses for letting us invade. We had a lot of fun.

Fifth Disease

2008-07-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago the kids and I went up to visit my family. In the evening the adults were sitting around chatting when out of nowhere Scout ran downstairs clutching her head and crying that she had a headache. I picked her up...she was on fire...and held her while my sister ran into the kitchen to get her some tylenol. Before Emily got back, less than a minute later, Scout had fallen asleep in my arms.

A while later she woke up and threw up. She and I had a fitful night's sleep and ended up watching The Wonder Pets at 3am until she finally fell into a deep sleep around 7. She was crabby and sleepy the rest of the day with a little bit of a clear runny nose but by the time we got back home she was perky and just fine. I figured it was the flu.

About a week later we were visiting Troy's family when out of nowhere I felt like I was hit by a bus. I had a runny nose that I attributed to my allergies...to Idaho, not to Troy's family. My fever was 103.8 and so I laid down, took all the meds I could think of and got it under control. After a couple days of fighting the fever it finally went away, the runny nose cleared up and I was fine.

The day after I got that mysterious fever Scout produced another mysterious symptom of her own. She had a rash on both arms that was just red...not raised. We assumed she also had my allergies...to Idaho, not to Troy's family. It didn't look like hives and it was a little odd that Savannah hadn't reacted since she's our human litmus for allergens and hives-up at the drop of a hat. We all had sunburns at this point but this was definitely not part of the sunburn.

About 5 days ago I woke up with arthritis....or at least I thought I had. My fingers were swollen and painful, my knees screamed in agony when I went up or down the stairs or heaven forbid I squatted for a moment. My feet were swollen and itchy and I thought I saw a faint rash on my legs...but I convinced myself it was a trick of the light.

My shoulders, my elbows, my back...oh my back. Everything was so stiff and hurt so badly. I was certain I had some terrifying but undiagnosable disease that would do me in. Or maybe some weird case of athelete's foot that infected my joints....AAHHH! Turns out I just had a common childhood illness that I had somehow bypassed.

Fifth disease is common in children between the ages of 5 and 15. When kids get it often they don't even notice. It starts with a fever and flu like symptoms, a few days later you develop a lacey non-raised rash and in adults or older teens the rash can be accompanied by joint pain and arthritic symptoms. 40-60% of adults worldwide have already had it.

Our sunburns and Scout and my naturally rosy cheeks probably helped to mask the appearance of the rash and the excitement from all of our world travels distracted me from making the connection.

So suddenly I went from thinking I was dying to realizing that I just have a fun temporary all-over pain thing. It has given me an appreciation for people who live with chronic pain. I whined so much in just 4 days that I even annoyed myself. I think I crossed a line when Troy offered to hold my fudgesicle for me because it hurt to hold it myself!

It was difficult to find information about this so I thought I'd post it so at least my friends and family could know what's going on if I inadvertently infected you! (P.S. Sorry!!)

The research I've found says the painful stage can last for a couple of weeks. Here's to milking it for all it's worth!

UPDATE: As of Tuesday afternoon Random is now covered in a lovely lacey rash. 3 Gomms down...2 to go!

Survey Says!

2008-07-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

In April I posted a request for all the lovely ladies I know to fill out a survey (Calling All Women). I was reminded in a comment that I hadn't posted the results so here they are:

Survey Results

It was interesting to me to realize how universal certain struggles are like maintaining energy throughout the day, keeping the house clean, getting the kids to eat vegetables. The question that really got me thinking was number 7. By noon, I feel best if I've a. exercised; b. showered and dressed; c. run my errands; or d. cleaned my house/done laundry.

Around the time of the survey I also read a provocative blog entry by a friend of mine about What Good Looks Like. Everyone at her work received a poster that showed What Good Looked Like for them. It was intended to help define what success meant in each position. She carried it over to being a mom and really got me thinking about What Good Looks Like in my life.

I've come to realize that success must be defined on an individual level (I couldn't care less that it's noon and I haven't run my errands) but we all have the same general targets so it's nice to know we're not alone!

Politics...Avert Your EYES!

2008-06-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine broached the subject of politics on her blog. She brought up a good point. Jack Ryan really WOULD make a good president. However, since he seems less interested in a career of civil service and more interested in being a fictional character it seems like I've got to move onto people NOT portrayed on the silver screen by Harrison Ford. Yes. This means no writing in Han Solo, Indiana Jones or Rick Deckard for me....BOO.

So now how do I choose whom to vote for? Do I rely on the biased media to determine which sound bites I will believe? Do I scrounge through hours of footage on YouTube and vote for the guy with the funniest parody? Do I flip a coin, research the issues, watch the debates, believe the hysterical left, believe the hysterical right, give up and vote for Ralph Nader? No. I turn to where I always turn at critical moments such as this. To my children.

Random let Troy know last night that were he 18 and not a felon, he would vote for Obama. "Why is that?" Troy asks. "Obama will abolish homework." is the reply. "What about John McCain?" Troy asks. "King Bob likes warring." Random replies.

You may wonder why Random thinks John McCain's name is King Bob. You may also wonder why Random thinks Obama will outlaw homework. Excellent questions.

All I know is that the politicians' recent campaign to "engage the youth" in "the process" may have overshot its target. That, and I'm totally writing in Bill Adama for President.

Gomm Boys Rock

2008-06-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

Troy and I got Rock Band. It's a video game kind of like Guitar Hero but with drums and a microphone as well as a guitar. Troy and I started our own band...The Pickl3 Ch1ps. You've probably heard of us.

We're pretty good.

We Rock.

Or at least we thought we did.

Then Tim and Gideon (Troy's brother Tom's sons) blew into town, teamed up with Rand (who is startlingly good...like seriously...where did that sense of rhythm come from) and completely put us to SHAME.

The Gomm Boys pwn The Pickl3 Ch1ps for now but we want to officially challenge them to a Battle of The Bands during our reunion in July. There's no where to run boys. We're coming for you.

Here are some pictures of the boys rocking out one last time. They're performing Wanted Dead of Alive formerly performed by Bon Jovi...although I daresay Jon would run away if he had to follow The Gomm Boys.

Husband Quiz

2008-06-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

Christy my...I think the technical term is niece-in-law...tagged me with this. I'm sure a psychiatrist could figure out all kinds of things from my responses but in my defense I would like to add that I have smaller ears, I eat more chips and if we were stranded on a desert island we both would rather have a good book than a life raft.

1. What is his name? Troy
2. Who eats more? Depends on what the food is.
3. Who said I love you first? He did.
4. Who is taller? Troy
5. Who is smarter? We're pretty evenly matched although in general I handle biology, history and the arts while he covers physics, math and computer questions.
6. Who is more sensitive? Me.
7.Who does the laundry? Me. Troy is banned from it.
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me...if by right you mean correct. We switch sides.
9. Who pays the bills? Me.
10. Who cooks more? Me. Especially after The Great A-1 Incident of 1999
11. What meals do you cook together? Curry and Sushi
12. Who is more stubborn? ehhh...I don't know
13. Who is the first to admit they're wrong? we're never wrong.
14. Who has more siblings? Troy (he has 8 I only have 4)
15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? We have an us-vs-them policy with the world in general so whomever is around when the pants needs to be worn wears them.
16. What do you like to do together? Everything, anything
17. Who eats more sweets? He eats more gummy/jelly bean type stuff, I eat more chocolate
18. Guilty pleasures? Yes.
19. How did you meet? At church. I was the Relief Society President and he was Fresh Blood. It was my duty to introduce myself and then every other single girl in the ward as they filed out of sacrament meeting.
20. Who asked who out first? He did although we'll be forever indebted to Steve who encouraged him to ask.
21. Who kissed who first? um...I kissed him. muhahaha
22. Who proposed? he did.
23. His best features? His eyes...stormy gray/blue with those long dark lashes...*sigh*
24. What is his greatest quality? His willingness to do the scary hard thing if it's best for our family...he's brave.
25. Tag? If you haven't blogged in the last week you're tagged. Come on people, I need something to read!

Oregon Camping

2008-05-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

Troy's brother Tom came into town over the Memorial Day weekend with his wife Kim and their 4 kids (Tim, Malorie, Gideon and Emily). Tom had decided to camp while he was here so on Saturday night we all piled in two cars and drove out to Mount Hood National Park.

We set up enough tents that the neighbors probably thought we were starting a colony. Tom and Kim had this great screen room that we set up in the middle of the camp where we could sit bug free and eat a dinner of fried chicken, chips and multiple varieties of licorice.

Then it started to rain.

We watched as the water pooled into a lovely spring lake around the base of our tent, shifted further and further toward the middle of the screen as the water came in the sides and listed all the things we were grateful for in between lightning and thunder strikes. Among the blessings were: 'at least we're in a forest,' 'it sure is pretty out here' and 'can we go home now.'

Troy and I...expert campers obviously...forgot any sort of tarp or sleeping pad and when we moved our tent out of Lake Hood we weren't very careful about placement. We used a bunch of black plastic garbage bags as a barrier between the wet ground and our sleeping bag. Good thinking until it became clear that not only were we on a slope but we were on a rocky slope so steep not even the mountain goats would consider sleeping there. We slipped and slid down the hill all night to wake up a few minutes later and try to inch-worm our way back up. I had a "shoulder rock" (you know, the rock that pierces your shoulder when you lay on your side) that I used as a guide to know if we were back to the right place. We had zipped our bags together (how romantic) so when the couples inch-worm competition is on at the summer olympics, we're headed to Beijing. Yes. We were THAT good...or at least we were by 6am when we gave up.

The kids had a GREAT time. Malorie let Scout sleep in her tent and Scout has been talking about it ever since. Tim and Malorie were both really good sports and kept a close eye on the kids while they roamed, and by roamed I mean slid down, the muddy hill that towered over our camp. We brought two full changes of clothes and had used them both up by 10 am with all the mud. It was cold, it was slimey but I think the kids would be there still if it weren't for Troy and I being such pansies.

We made great memories that will be with us for a long time. I can imagine us all gathering around in twenty years talking about the Great Rain Camp of aught 8.

This camp needs a top 20 bottom 10 list.

Top 20:

1. Stealing Ketchup Packets and sharing them with the neighbors
2. Licorice straws too short for the bottles
3. giggling girls
4. that wasn't my blue bra
5. Tim and Rand being offended by the bad word wall
6. Watching Rand freak out about the book in the rain
7. Chips at every meal
8. Playing Gloom in the dark
9. Laughing so hard that we almost had to go use those portapotties
10. Laughing more when we listed 'constipation' as one of our blessings
11. When Kim sent Malorie to give the orphan neighbor boy a cinnamon roll
12. When the parents of the orphan boy finally woke up and when they got out of their tiny pup tent a giant dog came out too.
13. Setting the kids' tent right-side-up again after the whole thing rolled onto the door during the night
14. Mint 3 Musketeers
15. The off-switch of Random's Prince Caspian sword
16. Savannah walking around in muddy socks and flip flops.
17. That happy look on the kids' faces while they were following their cousins up and down the mountain
18. Extra changes of clothes
19. Garbage bags
20. Tom's relentless spirit that actually got us to go camping

Bottom 10:

1. Mountain lions
2. Portapotties that haven't been emptied since 1908
3. rolling up wet tents
4. Fireworks at 2 am
5. whose blue bra was that?
6. Rain
7. hypothermia
8. getting the kids to go to sleep when all they want to do is giggle
9. broken glass on the ground
10. uneven campsites with a stream running through it

Random's Birthday Bash!

2008-05-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Random turned 10 on May 2nd but we just had his birthday party on Friday. He's a Legend of Zelda freak (video game first released in 1986 but frequently sequeled. Most recently reincarnated as The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS in 2007) so we thought we'd center his party on that theme.

For the invitations I printed up these covers, made game inserts that restated all the information (time, place, rsvp etc) and put together an official party soundtrack (music from all the past Zelda games in orchestral form, techno remix and original midi glory). There was a big stir when Rand showed up at school with a big pile of Wii games and started handing them out. The case is modeled after the most recent Zelda game for the Wii...Twilight Princess.

Troy and I (also big Zelda fans) reviewed what we knew about Link (the hero) and modeled the party games after a Hero of Hyrule Training Session. We shot nerf arrows through targets (thanks to my Dad for holding them...and taking more than a few arrows to various body regions), threw boomerangs to see how far they could go (marking spots with pieces of the triforce with the boys names on them), used slingshots to take out the gold skulltulas (taped to balloons of different heights), fought deku babas with swords (blue & purple balloons of different heights with chompy mouths taped onto them...thanks to my mom for jumping in and blowing up more when they started popping) and broke pots (carried waterballoons over our heads and popped them on the ground).

We gave the kids rupees based on how well they did at the games and then they were able to buy prizes at the Hyrule Market (boxes of dollar store junk on the middle table). They were all excited to have their chance to buy but I realized I should have gotten more squirt guns and potty putty (you don't want to know).

We ate hoagies & chips, drank soda and ate cake (Hylian Shield shaped...that's the shield Link uses). We opened presents and then let the kids run around, replay whatever games they wanted to (bow & arrow was the biggest hit) and play with their prizes.

We hit a few snags along the way (100 degree weather, extra friends, razor sharp unmowed grass that kept popping the balloons, my inability to yell louder than 14 8-10 year olds) but with all the hard work from my mom & dad (thank heavens they were there!), Savannah & Scout (I owe them an ice cream cone!), Shannon & Wyatt's Moms (I can't remember their names but they were GREAT!), and the back breaking labor of Troy I think the kids all had a good time.

6 Quirks: Tag

2008-05-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

Amanda's Top 6 Quirks (of which she is self-aware and willing to share--I acknowledge there are some that I don't know I do and others that are just too embarrassing to admit to):

Quirk 1: I fume with the fire of righteous rage when I'm at the check out of the grocery store and the checker doesn't scan the item closest to her or him but instead reaches over items as if to avoid making the conveyor belt move. I've tried my best to get them to stop doing it. I've arranged items by type (produce, frozen, boxes, etc), by size, by color, aroma, function, alphabetically, by place of origin, food group, dietary fiber, expiration date. It doesn't matter. They reach over things..often making bags too heavy and ridiculous to be part of any rational plan...just to keep the belt from moving! GRRRR! I hope you all notice this now too so we can stop the madness! WE'RE ONTO YOU CHECKERS!

Quirk 2: I never use lol. EVAR. I will rotfl, *giggle*, haha, hehe, and even, on rare occassion, lawl. I just can't bring myself to type lol without flashbacks to 1994.

Quirk 3: Folding Towels. I think everybody has their folding towels quirk. I fold mine the way I do because of the size of towel cupboard we had in the "mushroom apartment." Troy thinks it's weird but now I can't stop.

Quirk 4: I hate feet. Mine most of all. Keep those knobbly things away from me. I paint my toes and wear toe rings so that they look less like feet. It doesn't really work but at least then people are looking at the pretty colors instead of my toes.

Quirk 5: I LOVE peeling off those clear plastic protective sheets off of things...like the displays on new electronics. Troy saves them for me and will bring one out on a particularly bad day just to cheer me up.

Quirk 6: I'm very very very bad at phone talking. It's like I have a disorder. I ramble and get flustered and I certainly can't multi-task. I avoid it as much as possible. Troy has begun trying to talk to me while I'm on the phone because he likes to laugh when I just stop talking and stare at him with a deer-in-the-headlights look of someone whose processor has overloaded and had to reboot.

Troy's Top 6 Quirks:

Quirk 1: Troy doesn't respond to tags, forwarded email, bulk email or chain letters. So I (Amanda) get to fill this out for him! hehehehe WOOT!

Quirk 2: When he washes his hands he has to get his wrists wet or it doesn't count as a thorough washing.

(I'm running my ideas by him and he keeps saying "that's not a quirk" hahahaha...he's so quirky)

Quirk 3: He keeps his index and middle finger nails of his right hands a tiny bit longer than his other nails (a tiny tiny tiny bit...they're not at all long) so it will sound better when plays his guitar.

Quirk 4: No one should ever ever wear socks to bed. He imposes this rule on the entire family...we still haven't figured out what that's all about.

Quirk 5: He reads 3-4 books at a time. Talk about multi-tasking. I don't know how he keeps the stories straight.

Quirk 6: He reuses his sandwich bags (as long as they aren't icky). This is a habit from when he was growing up and reinforced by his eco-friendly nature.

If you read this, you're tagged. Don't think I won't know...and don't think for a second you aren't as quirky as we are. If you need help here it is...Quirk 1: You read the Gomm's blog.

Rounded Up!

2008-05-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Scout went to Kindergarten Round Up this morning. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

We walked in the door of the school. We had been there hundreds of times before but until now Scout had been the tag-along, the little sister, the "Aww look it's Scoutie." A line formed to the left. It was obvious by the short well dressed hyper-excited folks holding the hand of the nervous slightly disheveled tall folks that this was the line for us.

We checked in. Scout got a name tag with a purple dot. I got a red folder with information about buses and school supplies and learning processes. Down the hall a few feet and I went right while Scout went left. Holding the hand of Lindsey whom she met in line less than a minute ago and now best friend, she looked up at me, very quiet. "I'll see you soon." I smiled, she gripped Lindsey's hand a little tighter and followed Aaron--5th grader, elementary school expert and KindergartenWrangler to the purple room.

Moms and Dads stood in a line waiting to state the name, sign the form, promise to bring the shot records, fill out the allergy protocol and be Wrangled ourselves into the cafeteria for our orientation. In line there were smiles and looking away while we sighed, wiping away a tear for the baby we just sent down the hall with Aaron and Lindsey. "It gets easier" say the veteran moms. "I hope so," say the ones who just sent their oldest into the world with a hand-squeeze and an encouraging look. I'm not sure I believe that, but it's a comfort to think somehow we'll pull ourselves together by the time we fling number 3 down the hall with a wink and a nudge.... I don't know. I still blinked pretty quick and tried to think about anything other than Scoutie, alone, brave.

We heard the education coordinator cheer for the curriculum. Watched the video put together by the kindergarten team about social interactions, sorting, charting, reading, playing. Listened to the counselor explain speech therapy, behavior plans, character development, counseling, feel-free-to-come-by-anytime. Identified with the parent volunteer, nervous, telling us of the joys of PTA, Site Council, Raffles, Meetings, helping where we can...please please, we need you. The transportation coordinator, the ELL counselor, the Speech counselor, the coordinators, assistant psychiatrists, nurses, secretaries, 5th graders who had enjoyed their experience, all the people who would take my little Scout and help her find her way. Veterans who would catch my rookie mistakes, turn Scouts ththth's into Sss's, check her for lice, make sure she's immune to the Hepatitis ABCs, get to school and home again healthy and happy.

Then we were released. Full of information but eager to get down the hall to the purple room and our brave little adventurers. We were orderly, calm. No running in the halls, shoving, pushing, elbowing. Just orderly, walking, faster toward the end. "Is this the purple room..." and there she is. She's just finished tidying up her place. Petals glued onto an enormous sunflower. Her first kindergarten craft. Another first to add to the box of childhood artifacts ("See, you were happy, and you glued things onto paper. I was a good mother. Here's 50 bucks for your therapy co-pay.").

She's so happy to see me. But not because she was afraid. Not because she missed me. She wants to show me everything. Here's the flower I made, the book I read, the teacher, my new friend...I don't remember her name. Come here Mommy let's plant this seed. I'll show you how.

We left the building, stopping by to say hi to big brother and big sister...old hands on the elementary school scene. We carried home the giant flower, the red folder, the plastic cup with soggy dirt and a pea.

We're all rounded up...all set to begin. My Scoutie is cleared for take off.

Can we go again tomorrow? No, not tomorrow. Mommy's not ready.

Happy Limerick Day!

2008-05-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

You guessed it. It's another made-up-holiday-day. This one is supposed to be a celebration of the writer Edward Lear. Here are a couple of limericks that I found around.

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical,
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
-Author: Unknown

Last night I stayed up quite late
To watch the entire Debate
There was no war of words
They behaved like two nerds
Who were out on an awkward first date
-modified from jimerick.com after the last Hillary/Obama debate

Your units are wrong! cried the teacher.
Your church weighs six joules — what a feature!
And the people inside
Are four hours wide,
And eight gauss away from the preacher!
-Physics Limericks posted by David Morin (Harvard Physics Department)

Sprouting Sprouts

2008-05-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

I sprouted some Mung Beans. It was way more exciting than it should have been but I loved seeing them soften and split open and grow. It only two days to go from these tiny hard little green things to these slightly larger softer green and white things. Ahh the miracle of life.

They taste kinda like fresh sweet peas. We all think they're a delicious snack and apparently they're nutritious. I guess the sprouts have vitamin C which...weirdly enough...isn't in the bean itself. It's like magic. Water+Mung≥Orange. Luckily, they're also low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Show me another vegetable that can say THAT...oh...wait...nvm.

I read another helpful hint on the internet about mung beans. It's too funny...I'll just quote it directly. This is from Great-Workout .com

The nutritional value of mung beans makes them ideal for:
Weight loss
Maintaining optimum health

Don't include too many mung beans in your diet if you're interested in:
Weight gain

I don't know about anybody else but when I'm really focused on weight gain I tend not to include any fresh fruits or vegetables whatsoever. I guess when it comes time for the holidays mung beans are going to have to clear out for the stuffing, pie and home-baked goodies of the truly dedicated weight gainer.

Till then, I think I'll try growing something else...maybe lentils. It was easier than I thought and fast enough that the kids even kept interest.

Whoopsuh

2008-05-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

What's worse than finding a sticker on the orange pepper in your curry?

Finding half a sticker on the orange pepper in your curry.

*Ba-dum-Ching*

For Posterity: Bubbles and Showers

2008-05-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

I've decided that there are a couple of things I need to make sure are recorded...you know...for posterity...and lots of laughs/blackmail fodder once the kids are parents.

I suspect this will be a recurring topic. :-)

Scout: When will we be able to blow bubbles inside the house?
Amanda: Umm...Hmm...Never.
Scout: When I'm a grown up and I have my own house my kids can blow bubbles inside all the time.

Random: I'm never going to make my kids take showers on their birthday.

Rawberry Shortcake

2008-05-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

OK so the rice I had been soaking for the next raw recipe I wanted to make ended up smelling like fermented wood. We opted to put that particular dish on hold while we learned how to soak rice without also creating an intoxicating beverage. :-D

I had all the ingredients for a dish that was supposed to be the Raw-ists version of Strawberry Shortcake. The kids loved it and it definitely satisfied that craving I get every once in a while to have something so sweet it sends me into a sugar coma.

Raw Food: hehehehe

2008-05-03T20:32:00.001-07:00

I made raw "Spring Rolls" which was a hilarious thing to name this particular pile of vegetables. Apparently you're supposed to "tie" them with carrots. I was at that part of the recipe when I began laughing hysterically and Troy ran in to see if I had finally 'snapped.' Turned out I was just having a good old time making a huge old mess and some really pretty...and not THAT bad tasting... food. By the way, carrots don't make good twine...if you were wondering.

Later that night we were lying in bed talking about the day and I told Troy that if we decided to go "Raw" I would definitely have that recipe in our repertoire. He said he agreed but that he would phrase it more like this: If someone put a gun to my head and forced us to go "Raw" or die, I'd probably eat that recipe again.

Next up: Raw Asian Rice. It's been soaking for 48 hours and smells like dirt. This is really fun! hehehe

He's TEN!

2008-05-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Random finally hit double digits. Much to our chagrin. It gets harder and harder to convince ourselves we're still 22 when he keeps getting older!

Random had a spectacular day. He requested scrambled eggs, sausage, muffins and chocolate milk for breakfast. We brought donuts and rootbeer to his classroom for a special treat. Troy kidnapped him and took him to lunch at Chili's and then out to see Nim's Island. They went over to the Lego Store, picked up their first Lego Mindstorm's kit and wandered for a little bit around Oregon Scientific before coming home.

We went to the store and had a hotly contested scavenger hunt/race to pick up the last few items for our picnic dinner. We drove out to Champoeg park for some flame-broiled burgers, potato salad and a few presents. While we were there we were harassed by a couple of squirrels and had a lot of fun chasing them off. Random got a nerf gun, a scooter and of course, a helmet. Champoeg was the perfect place for skooter-izing with its paved pathways and huge empty parking lots. After dinner and clean-up we went back home for the last few presents and Triforce cake (that's from The Legend of Zelda for you video game noobs). Troy and Random spent a little time building a basic robot with their Mindstorm kit and Random got to play a little of his new Pokemon DS game before bed.

When we were out at the park Random took the camera around and shot a lot of really great pictures. The images in the slideshow (without him in it) are mostly his work. Troy and I were impressed with his natural sense of composition.

Raw Food: What Have I Gotten Myself Into

2008-05-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Every week on Monday I sit down at the computer and try to figure out the week's menu. I'm in charge of the nutritional health of my family and I was struck first by my own ignorance and then by this wave of frustration that there were other people out there who would have been better at feeding my own family. In 2008 I decided I would begin a serious study of nutrition and figure out what the fuss is all about.

January 1st I went to the FDA's website and learned about the current recommendations by the government agency that was clever enough to completely screw up the food guide pyramid (see picture...totally unhelpfully striped right? grr). I chose to tackle the green stripe first. I knew for sure that we weren't eating enough vegetables so starting there seemed logical. It was quite eye-opening and affirmed my decision to take things slowly and only try to wrap my head around one thing each week.

So I now understand and have implemented the guidelines set forth by the United States Government on what I and my family should eat. I have my own fancy excel sheet to tally up all of our individual requirements. I'm still experimenting with new dinner recipes and trying to find more healthy sources for whole grains but I'm no longer overwhelmed by the idea of the vegetable group being divided into 5 distinct categories of its own.

Moving beyond the safe stripey slope of the food guide pyramid has been the completely fun part. Troy came up with the idea for our next experiment: Lycopene. We had a truly tomato-licious week trying to fit in 10 servings of the vegetable...no, fruit...no, vegetable, into our dinners. We decided a life of nothing but tomato based family dinners was not a life we wanted to lead...even if it gave us a 45% better chance at being cancer free. We found a new source for organic vine ripened cherry tomatoes that fit into our budget and voila, tomatoes shifted to a lunchtime responsibility and we're down to only one tomatoey dinner per week (and yes, I know processed tomatoes have more lycopene but Troy's vitamins will have to fill in that gap :-P). Thank heavens since it turns out that tomatoes are Scout's arch-enemy.

We've been working on vegetarian meals next and that's really helped with fitting beans into our life. Our favorite recipe is Black Bean and Salsa Soup...so yummy and so easy. This week taught me that there's a unique balance that each family has to find. Food must be healthy, appealing and financially appropriate all at once. We're still experimenting to build our Vegetarian Portfolio.

Next came eating locally which we're still trying out. May is the month that the local farmer's markets really get going so I'm excited to continue this journey. I never would have known the horror of a bad rhubarb recipe if it weren't for this. ^_^

The kids have really learned to trust me through all these weird experiments. If it's edible but not so good, we all try it. If it's too disgusting to describe without using the word "mucus" and even I can't handle it we grab the leftovers out of the fridge and chalk it up to experience.

This week is a really crazy idea. I first heard about Raw Foods a week and a half ago and suddenly it's everywhere I look. I figured, why not find out what that's all about? It's the biggest task I've undertaken so far. I'll need more than one week to figure this sucker out...not to mention grow my own oat sprouts and whatnot. We're having our first raw meal tonight so I'll keep you posted. I'm reading the book The Complete Book of Raw Food by Lori Baird and found a really interesting series on Steve Pavlina's blog.

In some of the literature I've been reading it was suggested that the benefits of raw eating can be seen from eating 50% raw. I think we're going to aim for that particular threshold as a family. I don't know if I can convince Troy that dehydrated groats and seaweed covered in a little tahini is a sustainable lifestyle. hehe

So what's next? I don't know...but I'm excited to find out. Wish us luck and let me know what you think we should try!

Calling All Women

2008-04-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has been asked to speak on family health at the American Mother's convention in May of this year. She's a great lady with a lot of good ideas to share but she's looking to expand her knowledge base with real data from real women.

She invited a bunch of women over to her house last week and asked us some questions that sparked a lot of conversation. We talked about our idea of success as a wife and mother, our secret desires and our challenges. It was great to realize that we all have challenges and they're all different but ultimately, we'd all really like a nap.

She's posted many of these questions online to gather more data from as many women as possible. If you have a moment, and you're a woman, please go complete her survey. I'll post the results that she compiles and I'm hoping to convince her to give me a copy of her speech as well.

American Mothers Health and Nutrition Survey

If you're a man, please pass on this link to the woman in your life that influences your health and nutrition the most. Thanks!

Yo-Yo Gomm Strikes Back

2008-04-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

After Random's Fall Concert he was promoted to advanced strings. We were so proud! His rehearsal schedule was switched from Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:15 to Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:15. You can see how that would be quite an adjustment to our lives. :-P

He has been practicing regularly and seems to enjoy his 'jam sessions'. One of these days we might get him to practice his assignments but for now watching him having so much fun and explore the joy of musical expression is good enough for me.

His Spring Concert was last night at 7:30. All of the elementary students and beginning strings from the middle schools for the entire district played together. It was an army of string players and was given even more bulk with the teachers playing piano, drum set and guitar. It really was a phenomenal sight and an even more phenomenal sound. You haven't lived until you've heard 100 beginning string players wail out Twinkle Variations with drum set accompaniment.

They also performed a version of Beethoven's Ode To Joy. I've heard this tune plenty of times voiced in many different ways. This is the one that makes me smile the biggest. Not only is Random sawing away in the front row with great feeling and gusto, it's got a rockin' drum beat! Beethoven and high-hat...does it get any better?

We had to get home and get our kids to bed so we were unable to see the rest of the groups play but next time we'll try to plan better so Random can stay and hear the older kids. There was a huge improvement between Fall and Spring and I'm sure the High Schools would have been inspirational for him.

In lieu of hearing the high schools perform, Troy loaded up our computer with buckets of Yo-Yo Ma and we've been rocking out to his tangos all day. The cello is really a gorgeous instrument...too bad it doesn't have a double reed. hehe

Silver Falls

2008-04-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hike: South Falls
Date: April 26, 2008
Distance: .7 miles
Elevation: 177 ft

This hike is part of the Trail of Ten Falls that we want to eventually complete. This leg of the Ten Falls trail is a very easy hike but still really spectacular. The short little trail has 3 separate waterfalls on it, amazing geological features and we even got to walk behind South Falls.

Troy and I spontaneously (that's the word we use when we want to give our lack of foresight and planning a positive spin) decided to head out there this weekend but weren't necessarily planning on hiking at all. We wanted to see what the park was all about and find out more about the Ten Falls trail. We stopped at one of the ranger posts to grab a brochure and just couldn't go back home without wandering around in the park. It was perfect weather and the park was too pristine to leave so soon.

Our first stop was the lodge (it was an hour drive and we all had to go potty). The stalls in the women's room had two toilets in it which made Savannah, Scout and I giggle (which is why I took a picture...see the slideshow below).

We hiked around the loop, took tons of pictures and then stopped to eat our granola bars at a picnic table at the top of the falls. The kids chased "butterflies" (moths, flies, bees, whatever) and played with the fallen sticks scattered around while Troy and I marveled at the beauty and plotted our return trip.

We all loved it although we also wished we had brought charcoal and some hotdogs for a picnic dinner. The stale granola bars and warm temperature water was a little dissatisfying compared to the aroma of cooking burgers and s'mores. To make up for it we stopped at a tiny family operated burger joint in one of the tiny towns we passed to get back home.

Multnomah Falls

2008-04-29T14:53:00.001-07:00

Hike: Multnomah Falls
Date: March 23, 2008
Distance: 2.4 miles (1.2 one way)
Elevation gain: 600 feet

Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States and is just up the road in the Columbia Gorge. For our first "real" hike of 2008 we thought we'd give it a try.

It was a gorgeous Easter Saturday but when we got out of the car and walked to the lodge and into the shadow of Larch Mountain we were a little concerned...it was COLD. We thought we'd start by walking the .2 miles up to the bridge that spans the river and leads to the trail. It was even COLDER as we were pelted with all the tiny droplets of spray from the falls. The kids were still excited though so Troy and I thought we'd give it a little longer before we headed back to the warmth of the car.

Once we got over the bridge and around the bend in the trail we warmed right up. That had a little to do with the lack of wetness, a little to do with the occasional sun burst through the trees and a whole lot to do with the switchbacks. We definitely learned that 600 feet in 1 mile isn't your average stroll through the park...especially for short little 4 year old legs.

The top of the falls had a lookout that extended over the falls and gave us a great view. We were all pretty impressed with ourselves when we saw how high we had climbed.

The way back was a lot faster but a little more nerve wracking with the kids and their apparent disregard for the CLIFF that they were careening so close to. I spent the whole way down saying "Don't run. Get away from the edge. Don't run." and Troy spent the whole way down saying "Breathe Amanda. Calm down Amanda. That vein in your forehead is gonna pop Amanda."

My personal favorite moment was after we were down and heading back to the car. The path leads under a train trestle and we happened to be going under at the same time a train was going over. The trestle was low enough that Troy and I could have reached up and touched the track. I've never been so close to the bottom of a moving train before. It was really scary and really really LOUD! Thinking back on it, it would have been smarter for us to wait for it to pass but it was just one of those things that you just gotta do.

2008-04-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well, for some reason, I've read a TON of books in the last few weeks, here are my reviews.

^___^

Sabriel
I really enjoyed this book. It's mostly a fantasy novel, and I believe it's a young adult book. Sabriel is a coming of age novel about a young girl who’s just completing the equivalent of high school. Oh, she's also a necromancer.

The magic system in it is unique, but not really well described (it doesn’t lay out all the rules like you find in some fantasy novels), but that doesn’t prevent it from being intriguing. Garth Nix pulls you into the story right away and does a fairly good job creating a few memorable characters that you really care about. He also creates some vivid imagery that I won’t soon forget (Abhorsen’s house, the paperwing flight). The book has some memorable lines that are reinforced by the themes of the story (“Everyone and everything has a time to die” and “Does the walker choose the path or the path the walker”).

I highly recommend this book. I found out that there are two sequels to this book (“Lirael” and “Abhorsen”) which are on my To Read list.

Darwin's Radio
This is the first book by Greg Bear that I’ve read, and I really enjoyed it. Darwin’s Radio is a contemporary novel set maybe a few years in the future. It follows the discovery of a family of Neanderthal mummies, the discovery of mass graves in The Republic of Georgia, and the outbreak of a disease targeting only pregnant women (don’t worry, I haven’t given you any spoilers!).

I found the book to be well written in that it not only had believable and interesting characters, but also intriguing scientific contemplations. The book deals with theme of evolution (I was reading Spin when I started this book, so the evolution ideas were doubly interesting) as well as how the public reacts to a disease outbreak. I have no idea how authentic the biology presented in the book is, but it did make me check the wikipedia entry on several ideas (like endogenous retroviruses), so that’s got to be a good thing!

I’d recommend this book if you’re in the mood for some present day speculative science (light on the speculative, heavy on the science). I just found out that this book has a sequel, Darwin’s Children. I’ll add that to my To Read list too!

Quantico
This one was my second Greg Bear book, and I’ll say it was OK. This is also a contemporary novel set a few years in the future. The book follows several FBI agents as an anthrax-related terrorist plot unfolds. Greg Bear does a fair share of ruminating on the ways society has changed since 9/11. He posits that we can never return to the pre-9/11 state of quasi-innocence and asks the reader to decide if humanity would be better off forgetting that it ever happened. It’s a decent story with ok character development. There wasn’t a lot of story to it, though, and I often wanted to just skip to the end.

If you are really in to police stories or want some terrorism-related food for thought, then definitely try this book. Otherwise, I’d skip it.

The Last Colony
This is the third book in the Old Man’s War series (by John Scalzi). This book, again, is a very different kind of book than the previous two. It follows the story of a group of colonists settling a new planet. It sounds a little mundane (and I almost lost interest in the first couple of chapters), but it turns out to be very satisfying. There are ample twists and turns, and the author ends up taking his ultra-violent Old Man’s War universe in a direction that I found very satisfying.

If you liked the first two in this series, then you MUST read this book. Scalzi says in the afterward that this is his last book in the series, however, a fourth book is coming out this year and I can’t wait!

Axis
Axis is the sequel to Spin (by Robert Charles Wilson), which I couldn’t say enough good things about. I wasn’t sure how Spin could have a sequel, but there were enough unanswered questions from Spin, that I was excited to read Axis. The thing that made Spin really stand out to me was the combination of superb character drama with a great “big science” science fiction story. Axis has a lot of both the character drama and the “big science,” but Wilson doesn’t do either quite as well as he did in Spin. Axis felt like less of a complete story than Spin did, mainly because it covers a much smaller chunk of the characters’ lives, and doesn’t go nearly into the same depth. Also, Axis doesn’t really move the Spin universe forward, you end sort of where you began, albeit with a slightly better understanding of their world.

That said, it’s still a good book and it’s very well paced -- giving you a little more substance in every chapter. If you liked Spin, you should probably read Axis too.

Artemis Fowl
I read the first chapter of Artemis Fowl about 3 years ago, but I didn’t continue. This time I read it all the way through and I’m really glad I did! This is definitely a young adult book, but there are a few non-critical references some kids might not get. Without spoiling the book, Artemis Fowl is a super-intelligent 12-year old criminal mastermind who tries to discover the secrets of fairies to get his hands on their gold. One of the reasons I liked this book so much is that for most of the book you’re not quite sure who you should be rooting for! There are definitely two sides in conflict, but both of them have antagonist and protagonist facets to them. That uncertainty keeps you guessing until the end, and frankly, I wasn’t sure how I wanted it to turn out until I’d finished.

This was a quick read but very enjoyable, and I highly recommend it.

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
The Arctic Incident takes place 1 year after the first book, with a 13-year old Artemis Fowl. This story (as hinted in at the end of the first book) involves Artemis being forced to work with the LEP. As such, it feels a little different than the first book. There’s a clearer antagonist and the plot is a little more complicated than the first book (it’s still not that complicated for you adult smarty-pantses!). The story is quick-paced and fun and gives all of the main characters some development. I recommend this one as well.

Lord of the Isles
Oh my. Lord of the Isles by David Drake.
OK, it’s my policy to give a book 100 pages. If it can’t hook me in 100 pages then it’s not for me. After dragging myself through 70 pages of this little gem, I gave up. This is just a poorly written book. David Drake may have some fabulous ideas for a neat-o magic system and Earthsea-like world, but he’s a bad writer.

One thing that really bothered me was his use of highly obscure jargon – all the time! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty geeky. I’ve read my share of fantasy novels, DMed my share of D&D games, and gotten addicted to MMORPGs, so I know my way around a fair bit of medieval lingo. Well, apparently David Drake believes that you need to be institutionalizably (yes I said it!) into old world ship building or medieval dress making if you want to ride his ride. Well, sorry, I don’t know what a ship’s cordage or your boat’s thwart are, and I’m OK with that.

The other big problem is Drake’s awkward prose. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I kept having to re-read several sentences every paragraph to figure out what he was trying to say! I may make Amanda read a chapter or two to see if she can figure out what the problem is. Lastly, the fight scenes were boring, but at least they were long. This is going to come as a surprise, but I recommend running away from this book!

Recommend me some more books!
If you're reading anything good let me know!

Scout Ella-Normal Gomm

2008-04-25T10:53:00.001-07:00

Jammies, gloves, popsicle, apple slices, chocolate frosting. Ahh to be 4 again.

Happy Anniversary

2008-04-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

Yep. That's right. It's the big One-One for us this year. I (Amanda) thought in honor of this spectacular occasion and a nod to our friends who were there at the beginning, I'd make a Top 20/Bottom 10 list for the last 11 years.

Top 20:

-Port Townsend
-Watching the 6 am showing of Return of the Jedi at the theater on the first day it came out
-Inside Jokes (the baby dropped the flour, I'm a Seahorse, at least they're not having a rhumba party)
-When Rand was born and he looked like some kind of big handed blue alien but we loved him anyway
-When Savannah was born and we both almost died...but we didn't!
-Minnesota: Great Mall of America shopping every weekend, Tornadoes, Pudding Fingerpaints, Dora The Explorer World Premier
-Shinders (where it all started)
-Camping out for Halo 2
-Staying up too late talking whenever family came to visit
-That first magical Michigan summer--fireflies and barbecues
-Carrying sleeping kids to the car at 2 am after games at the Leningtons
-Virginia: The Great Dismal Swamp, the beach, Kittyhawk, the pool
-All the pee on the doctor when Scout was born (let's not speak of WHOSE pee that was)
-Game Conventions with the Claesons
-Road Trips to visit Tom & Kim in Virginia ("Shhhh...They're saying their names") and Florida (8 months pregnant in July)
-Canada: car fires, Wasaga Beach, Jack Johnson, Canada Day, Toronto, Zellers, Deep Fried Pickles, eh
-Thanksgivings with the Twitchells
-Kathryn's visits (Did Somebody Say McDonalds? Nooooo.)
-Quitting: Dofus, Ford, daycare
-Driving around Oregon and realizing we actually get to live in this paradise

Bottom 10:

-Monopoly
-The Mushroom Apartment
-The poop stripe on the floor under Random's baby swing
-When What's-Her-Name (you know, the lesbian runway model) showed up at our house in handcuffs, escorted by a cop
-Depression
-The Idaho Bank Incident (aka that time we had to dig around in the couch for change to buy bread)
-Kidney Stones
-Back pain
-Screaming in the night
-Putting the house back on the market

I don't know if these are the real top moments but they're the ones that came to mind this morning as I looked back over the last best 11 years of my life. Thanks Troy. Whaddya say to another 11?

Here Mommy

2008-04-23T14:16:00.001-07:00

Things I was handed today...

A marble
A sticker from an apple
An old bandaid
The soda can I had left in the kitchen on purpose
Dirty socks ("Will you please pick up your dirty socks." "Sure. Here Mommy")
A dime
The vacuum (heaven forbid I not be touching it at all times)
my lunch
An m&m
A barrette

I took a parenting quiz recently to determine my parenting style. The first question was "How do you want your children to describe you?" I want them to see me as fair, loving and fun. Second question, "How would they ACTUALLY describe you?" I think the answer to this one is clear..."Mommy is silly, she has a lot of pockets and she likes holding things. Oh...and Mommy, here's a pen cap."

Green Eating: The Rhubarb Story

2008-04-23T11:52:00.001-07:00

Attempt number one at Greener Eating by using local produce was successful. I made Rhubarb Bread I from the Allrecipes website with a few alterations (I added 1/3 c applesauce for half of the oil, used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 regular flour and used only 1 c of brown sugar).

It tasted really good and the whole family ate it up. Scout did pick out the "squishy pink stuff"...so much for getting Scout on board with local eating.

I'm still on the lookout for a non-dessert rhubarb recipe but I can't bring myself to make rhubarb soup. We'll see if I can get Troy to eat pork chops with rhubarb chutney...that should be a fun challenge!

Rhubarb Bread I

INGREDIENTS

1 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a small bowl, stir together milk, lemon juice and vanilla; let stand for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, oil and egg. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda, stir into sugar mixture alternately with the milk mixture just until combined. Fold in rhubarb and nuts. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. Sprinkle this mixture over the unbaked loaves.
Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.

Deal or No Deal?

2008-04-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

No Deal.

The buyers of our lovely Michigan home (going cheap, call me!) have pulled out.

The house is back on the market, and we are back to where we started. Hoping for showings, praying that the Michigan housing market pulls out of the biggest slump since they started keeping records during the depression (true story), and trying to find a way to keep the lawn green and mowed throughout the summer.

The good news? We get our stuff back. We've been living college-chic while we've been in Oregon so far: borrowing mis-matched furniture and kitchen gear from family, supplementing with what we can find at the dollar store. Now we'll be living the high life. Our own mis-matched furniture and dollar store kitchen gear will be arriving here next week. WOOOO!

Gomms Go Green: An Update

2008-04-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

I found a list of "easy" ways to reduce your family's impact on the environment. One of the first things they recommend is to eat locally.

Great idea right? It reduces the travel time, and therefore the carbon footprint, of the ingredients in your meals and it supports the local economy. Oregon is notoriously organic (psycho-hippy might be more accurate) so not only will the food will be fresher, it is likely to be more healthy or at least not so be-chemicaled.

I found a website for finding your locally grown/raised foods:

http://www.nrdc.org/health/foodmiles/default.asp

So I entered my information. So excited to find out what I can buy here or what new exciting things I will find to incorporate into our meals!

Where do I live? Oregon.

What season is it? Late April.

What amazing new locally grown foods will we get to eat for the next few weeks? Rhubarb.

Rhubarb.

What?!

OK so for the next 2 weeks I will be trying my darndest to figure out a recipe that meets the following criteria:

My family will eat it
It contains rhubarb as a major ingredient
It isn't pie (not that I don't like pie but finding new sweet treats that are environmentally friendly isn't really the point)

Anybody got any ideas? I mean really...Rhubarb???

Kids Books

2008-04-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

I asked for everyone's suggestions on children's books a couple of weeks ago. I've had some people ask what others had suggested, which ones we really liked and what else we had found. Here's what I checked out last week and how we felt about them:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
Verdict: Must Read
This one's a classic. The kids loved reading the last page along with me (children, children, what do YOU see?). We also made our own "What Do You See" book using a collaborative book I got at the library. If you haven't read this book...HI! welcome to 1992...now go to the library! Jeez.

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Verdict: Relatable
When I first saw this book I thought it looked too old to be interesting. I know, age discrimination. I'm a bigot. But, you know, the colors looked a little 70s and I thought it would be boring. The story isn't exactly a edge-of-your-seat thriller but it's NOT boring. The girls followed the story and identified with the little boy who planted, watered and weeded the carrot seed but was told at every turn that it wasn't going to grow. When the carrot finally popped up, the girls were overjoyed. They were a little confused since I think they thought carrots grew on trees like apples but once they saw him carrying the carrot around in a wheelbarrow they cheered and wanted to read it again and again.

If you take a Mouse to School by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Verdict: Been There, Read That
It's another "If you _____ a Mouse a _____" book and follows the same circular formula that originated in "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie." The illustrations are fun and the kids love it. It's not too long and although it's not going to make my top 5 all time favorites, if you've got If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (Take Him To The Movies, Give Him A Pancake, Buy Him A McDonald's Franchise etc) memorized because your child can't get enough of those wacky antics, you might try this one. It will be a refreshing change of venue for you but has all the elements that made the first ones such a hit.

Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae
Verdict: Elephing
This one described jungle animals giving one page of cute illustrations and one stanza for each of the classic animals of the jungle. One problem with it was that it changed meters occasionally making reading it aloud a little weird. It only changed meter when it changed stanza though, and it came with a "read along" cd so it wasn't the end of the world. A few things in the book made me laugh though. The elephant wanders "through the jungle Just elephing around" Elephing. ha. If the chimpanzees can't find any food they "munch each other's fleas" the boa constrictor knows that it's not very friendly to squash his prey but, hey, it's tastier and the crocodile loves to come to the river for a little animal watching but thinks its so great that he can't help eating a few of them. The end has some scary moments when it describes the leopard and tigers prowling the night and making you "tremble with fear." Good for jungle themes but flip to the end first and make sure it's not something that would frighten your readers.

Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace
Verdict: Amanda Pick
Of this group, this is my pick for best all around. The story is timeless and timely (Little Pea doesn't like to eat dinner...he just CAN'T STAND all that candy). The pictures are very simple but really expressive (the faces he makes as he eats could be caricatures of my kids eating their veggies). If you've got kids in your life in any capacity, you should check this one out and read it together. Next time you're serving a meal and meeting some resistance, bring up Little Pea and how he ate his candy even though he didn't like it...Pleh.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
Verdict: Kid Pick
This one would be the pick for best all around by the kids. They talked about this book days later and were so upset when I took it back to the library. Luckily, the pigeon has more adventures that we will be checking out. It's a short, simple book (I was surprised when it ended) but has some opportunity for great thespian moments while you read this one aloud. The girls jumped, covered their ears and then wouldn't stop giggling after I yelled "LET ME DRIVE THE BUSSSSSS!" at the top of my lungs.

Thanks for all the suggestions and keep 'em coming. I only have a few more left on my list and those just came into the library. I definitely need more good ideas!

Say Cheese!

2008-04-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine here in Oregon is starting her own photography business and putting together her portfolio. She asked if she could use my kids as models and pay us in pictures. I said I'd have to check with their agents but it should be ok.

The kids had a blast at the photoshoot. They found their inner Fashion Model and hammed it up in the way only Rand, Savannah & Scout can.

Mandy (the photographer) was great with the kids, let them be goofy and silly and just shot and shot for a couple of hours. She experimented with different lighting and backgrounds and funky poses and ended up capturing some truly precious and quintessentially Gomm-Kid Moments. Afterwards she digitally altered some of the pictures for some unique effects and sent us a HUGE file full of startling and sweet photos.

I love Mandy's photography style. You can see her other great pics including lots of architecture and still life shots from her urban exploring as well as other people she's captured here at her blog.

Here are some of my favorites:

I didn't realize Video Games were that...religious?

2008-04-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

So we picked up a video game on Saturday for the kids to play while we did the taxes. Rand finished his homework today like the good boy he is and was anxious to invite a friend over to play. I overheard him choosing his "team" and I could have sworn he chose to play the Mennonite team. Well it turns out that he had said MetaKnight. I've got to say I was a little disappointed. Donkey Kong versus the Mennonite just gave me the giggles.

It got me to thinking...what would a religious brawl video game look like. And what would it be called? Bible Brawl...Super Smash Pulpit...Pew Pound 2008. What about the "moves" you can unlock? The Bible Belt...Transmogrification...Jihad Jump.

And then I was struck by lightening.

What's Your Favorite Children's Book?

2008-03-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

Wednesday is International Children's Book Day. Troy keeps telling me that I'm falling for too many of these fake holidays but this one seems like it's been going on for long enough to be legitimate (started in 1967). Plus, this one's kinda like "Brush Your Teeth Day" or "Feed Your Children Day" or "Amanda's Birthday"...we really should be celebrating it everyday anyway.

Every year it's celebrated on or around Hans Christian Anderson's birthday which is April 2nd. The International Board on Books for Young people assigns a host country to choose a theme and create a poster with an image created by a local illustrator and a message to young readers by a local author. This year's country is Thailand and the theme is: Books enlighten; knowledge delights.

So, there are a bajillion zillion books out there aimed at our kiddos, which means there are at least 17 zillion that are just plain terrible. You know...the ones with 200 words per page with terrible illustrations, a meandering story line and lots of unlabeled quotes so when you do the voices they get all confused and with big page numbers so the kids know when you "creatively fast-forward." I think I've read most of those.

I'd like to get input from all the smart people I know out there. What are the best books (picture books or chapter books...whatever) for children?

My favorite picture books are:

Bark, George! by Jules Feiffer

and Tuesday by David Weisner

Amanda Reads Books?

2008-03-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got a library card and decided that I should start reading from the huge list of recommendations I've gotten from people. I looked around our little branch looking forward to starting a good book that night and all (and I mean ALL) the books anyone had recommended to me were gone. Book 2 or 3 of David Weber's March series was in...The Lions of Al-Rassan but no Tigana to be found. No Tom Robbins, no Ursula K LeGuin and I couldn't remember Sarah Monette's name.

I ended up putting a bunch of books on hold but in the meantime I needed something to read right away. So what do you do in a tiny tiny library when you want to read something new, something good and you can't find any of the books your friends & family recommend?

I thought about asking a librarian but I couldn't find any that weren't being hassled to death at the check out area. I thought about looking up recommendations online but I don't have any favorite websites for that kind of thing.

Here's what I did. I wandered up and down for a while trying to figure out what I was looking for--and how to judge a book by its cover. I wanted something short (I had a bunch of books on hold, this was just to tide me over), something contemporary (just my mood), something without a slutty heroine (so no squirrelly pink titles and no Fabio on the front) and something without 800 pages of fight scenes that seemed to be written with a pen in one hand and a d20 in the other (so fantasy was risky). Having decided that, I started in the general fiction section (past the SciFi, past the Mystery, Horror & Romance) and just picked something on the first shelf of the A Authors that seemed to fit the criteria.

I found The Translator by Leila Aboulela. I don't think my choosing methods are very refined or effective so I was pleasantly surprised to have really enjoyed it. It was quiet and lonely, tragic and contemplative but in the end it was a satisfying subtle story about religion, love and family.

The writing style was very distinct and when I began the book I wasn't sure if I was absorbing all the information. The metaphors were rich and placed so subtly I felt like every sentence was so much more than I was seeing. After a couple of chapters I became accustomed to the flow of the writing and realized that the dense imagery and the quick shifts between memory and the present added to this idea of feeling solitary and quiet in a loud and crowded, fast-moving world.

The story was about a Sudanese widow who works as a translator for a university in Scotland. How she deals with the death of her husband, her young child, her place as a Muslim in Western Culture, her relationship with her colleagues, her Mother-in-law and family back in Sudan is all explained in this quiet, thoughtful manner that makes you feel as though you've gotten some secret insight into a very private woman's darkest and most sincere thoughts.

Her life experiences have very little to do with my own but reading this book allowed me to understand that we all feel the same things-- inadequacy, sorrow, fear, joy, love, faith and doubt.

If you're looking for a quiet book and a quick but satisfying read, I completely recommend this book. It's a chick-flick as far as books go and a little more challenging than the brain-candy I've been reading lately though so make sure you're not in a Tom Clancy place when you start it!

So tell me, when you go to the library and can't find this book on the shelf, how will you pick?

Walkin' Boots & Swimmin' Goggles

2008-03-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

I love it when Troy gets home and we get to sit around and discuss books or movies or music. It reminds me that I'm an intelligent adult with intelligent-adult-ish thoughts. The rest of the day is more like this:

It may not be intellectually stimulating but it makes for a pretty hilarious day.

Troy's Book Reviews Redux

2008-03-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

I just finished a few more books, so it's time for another book review session! Before I start though, I need to tell you that I despise spoilers - that's why I don't really get into the details of the plots in any of my reviews.

This time I'm going to go from worst to best, here goes:

Watchmen by Alan Moore, illustrated by Dave Gibbons

Yes, this is a graphic novel (no, it's not a comic book, there's definitely nothing comic about this book). I picked this book because it had been a long time since I'd read a graphic novel, and this is the only graphic novel to win a Hugo Award. It's also on Time Magazine's list of "the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present" and is apparently the only graphic novel on that list too. So it's got to be good, right? WRONG!

For me, the most important part of a graphic novel is the artwork, followed closely by the story. This failed on both counts. The individual chapters were published in the mid-80s and it shows. It's very "4-color" (realistically inked, but with poor color depth and pronounced halftones) and that style doesn't appeal to me at all. Also, there's some nudity - not a lot, but it was never necessary to really tell the story, it seemed like a cheap trick to make the book seem avant-garde. Also, there was gore (I'm not a fan) - not a lot, though, and it was mainly story driven.

But what about the story?! Wow, Alan Moore really had something to get off his chest about the fundamentally flawed nature of society and human character, and he's really heavy-handed with it in the plot. The story is set in an alternate history 1980s where there are masked heroes, but very little in the way of super powers. It covers the stories of two generations of heroes - along with all their character flaws, relationships, etc. To give the author some credit, the characters are very well developed. Also, this was written during the cold war when planetary destruction by nuclear war was on everyone's minds, so I guess it makes sense to have that play a big role in the plot and the tone.

The book uses 2 big gimmicks to really lay the metaphors on thick. The first is the large section of text at the end of each chapter. These are usually in the form of book excerpts or news articles (set in the story's world), uncovering a little more about each character. These are generally WAY too long and don't reward you with enough insight to make slogging through the text feel worthwhile. The second gimmick is the use of excerpts from a comic book that one of the characters is reading - a comic within a comic. It's an interesting idea and kind of neat at first, but again, the metaphor was laid on way too thickly and it got old right away.

So would I recommend this book? No, not really. If you're really down on society and want a gory, and darkly preachy graphic novel, you may want to try it. No, even then, I'd recommend a nice compilation of The Darkness over this. That said, critics have really gone head-over-heels for this book and there's apparently going to be a Watchmen movie in 2009, so what do I know?

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

This book is a sequel to Old Man's War, which I recommended in my last book review post. I really liked the tone and narrator perspective of Old Man's War and I was hoping for more of the same. The Ghost Brigades didn't have the same perspective, nor was it even the same kind of book - but in the end, it didn't let me down.

The story is told in the third person and is a much more detailed story with more dialog driving the plot than in Old Man's War. Because of that, I had a hard time getting through the first couple of chapters, but eventually it did launch into a similar sort of "life story" tale that made Old Man's War so good, and I had trouble putting it down. I liked the character development and the theme of what it means to be a traitor. Again, this is a military book so it's violent and cussy; be warned. I definitely recommend it if you liked Old Man's War. I've started on the third book in the series, The Last Colony, and it still hasn't grabbed me. Hopefully that one will be on my next review post.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

This is what I call a "big science" science fiction book - where there's some really-large scale advanced technology (think Larry Niven or Ben Bova), but it's not about the big science. It's pretty much a contemporary novel set a few years in the future. It's mainly a series of first person flashbacks that tell the story of Tyler Dupree - his childhood years, and his relationship with two friends (brother and sister) who live in the Big House. Again, the book isn't about the science fiction, it's about the relationships and about growing up. It’s also an interesting tale about how people react to the end of the world.

When I first started reading the book, I was really annoyed with the author's style. It seemed like he wrote things awkwardly (like pausing a sentence in the middle, referring to something else, and then continuing). I don't know if the writing got better as the book went on, or if I just got used to it, but as I fell into the story the writing seemed much better. There are several really good one-liners and sound bites that I've thought about several times since I finished - which I can't tell you because of my obsession with not spoiling a story!

There are a lot of great metaphors (they're subtle, thank you!!) and thought-provoking situations and plot developments. This is one of those books that I'll be thinking back on for a long while.

This is a great stand-alone novel, but I just found out that there's a sort-of-sequel called "Axis" (I guess it’s set in the same world) which I'll definitely try. Needless to say, I definitely recommend this for a good scifi read and for a thought provoking story about growing up as well as an interesting end of the world drama. I told Amanda that she has to read this one so we can "book club" it (yes, book club is a verb).

So those are my three reviews. I'm planning on keeping up the book review posts, at least for a while. Here's what I'm currently reading:

The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
Farthing by Jo Walton
PIC Robotics by John Iovine - but that doesn't really count!

What's That Green Stuff On My Shirt

2008-03-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

Walking into the store last night Troy told me I had a big swath of mud on the back of my coat.

Last week I walked to school with "WOW! You're a STAR!" stickers stuck on my sleeves.

After lunch the other day, while walking around town, I scratched an itchy spot on my arm to realize it was a ramen noodle.

Today I looked down and saw a big green something on my shirt.

These are the ones I've noticed. What have I been walking around in that I didn't?

And, more importantly, who will I blame it all on when the kids are older?

Dodge and Weave...FAIL

2008-03-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

I was tagged again. But by a different tagger and a different game. Here are the rules for this one:

1) Take a picture of your bag

2) Show a picture of ALL the contents in your bag and name them. (NO CLEANING OUT FIRST)

3) "Bag Tag" 5 to 10 people

4) Make sure to leave a comment on their blog so they know THEY'VE BEEN TAGGED.

So here it is:

Wallet
Expired Boy Scout Membership card
Random's new non-lead-paint-containing Progress bead holder thingy
a library card from Michigan
Sucrets
lip junk
Tide Pen
Measuring tape
AAA battery
fingernail clippers
canadian coins
a twisty tie
A fake crystal
prayer assignment for sacrament meeting
earrings
tictacs
a 15 puzzle thingy
a box cutter
and a pen.

So what does that say about me? I'm thinking it says: "I wish I was "always prepared" but all I'm really ready for is a knife fight with a slobby guy suffering from bad breath, chapped lips and hangnails."

Pinewood Derby - Resistance is FUTILE!

2008-03-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, Pinewood Derby. What an intense, agonizing roller coaster of excitement, despair, and 2nd degree burns.

Last year, Random had a very cool Lego Brick car. It was very authentic-looking and very slow. This year Random's goal was to have a car that didn't finish last in every race! Physics time! I sat down with Random, and we talked about what could make the car accelerate, what would make it slow down, and what would keep it going. We picked where the center of gravity should go, and how to get it there - we also picked the best spot for the wheels. Last, Random listed out everything we needed to do to finish the car:

So, we worked hard on a car, only to discover at the last minute that it had been ASSIMILATED!!!!

Random's been watching a lot of Star Trek: Voyager lately, and he decided that his Pinewood Derby car needed to be a Borg cube. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but ALL of our tools are in Michigan! How do you build a Borg Cube wooden car with only a drill and plastic picnic cutlery?!

Xerox to the rescue! My job is tight! ... off the hook! ... "money!" (as the cool kids are apparently saying now). We have an amazing prototype shop and the engineers can use it for personal projects. So I took the Pinewood Derby kit to work on Saturday, and carved it up on a 3-axis mill. I cut it to shape, drilled new axle holes, bored out some pockets for weights and electronics, cut up some scrap sheet steel for weights, and cut a scrap circuit board to fit on top.

Here's all the bits:

We all decided that any Borg Cube worth its salt needs a creepy green glow. So I sat down with the kids and we talked about circuits, batteries, parallel vs. series, etc. Random and Savannah drew up a circuit diagram and I soldered together some thin batteries, a high-intensity green LED, and a switch to give the car "Sweetest Ground Effects." We assembled everything and glued it together with some major adhesive.

We ground all the axles and wheels (to reduce friction), and Amanda glued them in. Amanda and Random did some great painting and dry-brushing and we had our intimidating Borg Cube!

So it looks good, but can it race? Here's the first race of the evening:

So Random won nearly all of his races and he had a great time!

One more Pinewood Derby down. I wonder what we'll do for next year?!

The Gomms Go Green

2008-03-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

I've decided global warming is a bad idea and we should stop it immediately. We've taken drastic measures to go green. Here is a glimpse into our journey.

Step One: made the background of our website green.

Step Two: wrote a smug self-congratulatory Al-Gore-at-the-Academy-Awards-style blog post

Step Three: bought a couple of those green reusable bags from WinCo

Step Four: left said bags at home when I next went shopping but DIDN'T waste all the gas to go back home and get them.

Step Five: thought about teaching the kids the mantra of my grandpa "If it's yellow stay mellow. If it's brown flush it down" and decided I'd rather pay some guy a couple bucks to sprinkle plankton in the Pacific Ocean to offset the excess toilet water.

Step Six: felt superior remembering using cloth diapers on Random.

Step Seven: Read this (thanks Ellisa) and then felt superior remembering using disposable diapers on Savannah & Scout.

Step Eight: pulled out the dryer, removed the back and cleaned out the vent with the vacuum. No really...that's a good one.

Step Nine: Troy started walking to work...that's a good one too....and I'd really like to take credit for it but pretty much I'm just the cheer squad. Goooo Troy!

Step Ten: started bandying about phrases such as "carbon footprint" and "local provenance"

I hope this has helped you catch the vision of environmental consciousness.

In all seriousness...have any of you found ways to be more environmentally friendly without breaking the budget or recycling your kids in for a "greener" model?

Happy St Patrick's Day!

2008-03-17T12:54:00.001-07:00

Growing up in the Bryan family meant several things. It meant you had the ward's funniest guy as a dad (yep I still remember him MC'ing the talent show as Grover) and the ward's most together lady as a mom (only one I know who can throw together a luncheon complete with entertainment in under 15 minutes). It meant lazy summer days with Grammie making tuna sandwiches (with onions and celery...no one made better tuna sandwiches) and getting all the gum we wanted out of the Gum Drawer (who has a gum drawer?). It meant the lazy summer days ended when Grandpa got home and we went out to pick raspberries (we ate more than we picked...until we realized that we'd be eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner by the end of the summer). It meant raking leaves at Grandma's house and trying to do that Charlie Brown thing in the piles (until we were so covered in those invisible splinters that we gave up) and then we went in to watch Three's Company and eat peanuts till the wee hours with Grandma. It meant not telling Grandpa we got hurt because he was so protective he'd go throw away whatever it was that hurt us and grouch about it the whole time.

But it also meant that on St Patrick's Day we would sit around and wonder if we really were Irish. Ultimately, it turns out we DO have Irish ancestry but with a surname like Bryan we had claimed it the whole time anyway!

My Grandma would invite us down for Corned Beef and Cabbage she had cooked in the pressure cooker...low and slow till it was tender and soft. Then we'd all remember how grateful we were for our Irish ancestors and to only have to eat cooked cabbage once a year.

My sister Sarah still insists on making Corned Beef and Cabbage. She also insists that people who come to her house on St Patrick's Day eat it too. I suggest doing your visiting teaching TOMORROW people!

I've forsaken the time honored tradition of squishy skunky overcooked cabbage and rubbery stringy pressure cooked corned beef for the new time honored tradition of just dying everything I can get my hands on green. I should mention here that Savannah throws up if she eats too much food coloring. So as we are eating the green oatmeal, ramen noodles and rice today, possibly retching into the toilet as our bodies reject the over-saturation, I'm still grateful for our Irish ancestors, for St Patrick who brought Christianity to Ireland, but most importantly, for growing up as a Bryan.

Bad Ideas

2008-03-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took the 3 little girls I watch to Target to pick up some things for Troy. While we were there I found these egg shaped bubbles in a 3-pack for a buck. Not the greatest deal on bubbles ever but they were pink and there were 3. It just seemed like destiny.

When we got them home and opened them up I realized a number of things. First, they had perfectly round bottoms. I thought that would be ok since there was a handy string the girls could wear around their necks while they blew the bubbles. Great.

Not great. The strings were attached to the bubble-wand-lids and the strings were only big enough to go around their wrist. But that's ok because they could hold the bubbles in one hand and the wand (securely tethered to their wrist) in the other. Great.

Not great. The bubble-wands broke off of the lids and settled at the bottom of the bubble bottles. Their teeeeny tiny openings that made them so cute and appealing to the little girls proved to be an evil plot by chinese manufacturers to overthrow the capitalist tyrants with stickiness and crying 4 year olds.

So it got me to thinking. I've had some bad ideas in my time. I've seen plenty of bad ideas that I managed to avoid. It's time to make a list, laugh a little, and start the healing.

Bad Ideas:

-That time I left the 3 year old Rand alone with the peanut butter

-Carpeted Dining Rooms

-Epiladies

-5 minute long pop-diva ring tones

-That time we pressured Savannah into admitting she put the Rescue Hero down the toilet, ripped the toilet out, flipped it over and found out it was just a giant poo

-non-water-proof bibs

-"noisy toys" with no off switch

-That time they had the cub scouts take off their shoes, turned off all the lights in the gym and told them to play tag

-Chicago Math

-Single ply kleenex

-The Chutes (I could get on board with a game called Ladders)

-"Michigan Lefts"

So that's what I had on my mind this morning. I'm sure there are more bad ideas out there. Add to my list and while you're shaking your head at the idiocy of it all, check out this video.

Tagged? RATS!

2008-03-12T16:37:00.001-07:00

Well this thing is going around and while normally I would deftly avoid it by hitting the "delete" button on my fancy gmail interface, I haven't figured out how to delete other people's blog posts yet and besides, there was no jinx involved for NOT doing it or warm feeling of well being promised if I did...therefore I must!

1) What I was doing 10 years ago

1998: Troy and I were living in the "mushroom apartment" that was probably earning its name by growing mushrooms in the carpet about this time of year, and I was about 8 months pregnant with Random. I spent my days running away from preying mantises (manti? mantis?), reading prenatal books and worrying about all the lead in the pipes.

2) 5 things on my list to do today

-Make Dinner (we're having curry YUM)
-Send an email to Jimmy King, Magician
-Fish the frisbee off the roof (or convince the kids the wind will do it)
-Fold all that laundry I washed today
-Exercise

3) Things I would do if I was suddenly a billionaire

-Buy a house & hire somebody else to do all the decorating & landscaping
-Travel to Asia & Europe
-Give a llama to a needy family

4) 3 of my bad habits

-I put inside jokes about llamas on our family's blog
-I drink too much soda
-I stay up too late

5) Places I have lived

Seattle, St Louis, Bonney Lake, Puyallup, Provo, Idaho Falls, Eden Prairie (suburb of Minneapolis/St Paul), Canton (Michigan), Chesapeake (Virginia), Burlington (suburb of Toronto, Ontario), Wilsonville (just south of Portland)

6) Things most people don't know about me:

I have an irrational and completely overwhelming fear of moths.

Now I have to tag somebody...oh man, how do I choose? Who will actually do it? Who actually reads this blog? Seriously, do people who remember 1998 read blogs?

Julie, you're it...hope you're enjoying your vacation :-P

Troy's Search for Books

2008-03-08T11:32:00.000-08:00

And now for a break from all the House Selling posts...

Way back in one of our first posts, I mentioned that I was reading the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. These are pretty good. They're basically gritty modern detective stories, set in Chicago with a LOT of supernatural elements thrown in. I definitely recommend the Dresden Files.

When I finished those books, I realized that I was fresh out of good Scifi / Fantasy.

The first thing I did was go to Powell's Books in downtown Portland. This is an AMAZING bookstore - the largest I've ever been in. It sells new and used books, and has a lot of character. It also has author recommendations mixed in with the books.

Based on the recommendations for Scifi, I bought The Algebraist by Ian M. Banks. To be fair, I didn't really give this book a chance. I was in the mood for something a little more action-oriented, and this was a little slower with a lot of politics. I seemed like a well-thought-out and interesting setting. I only read a couple hundred pages when I gave up on it, but I think I'll come back to it at some point. I would recommend this if you're looking for a highly political, very far future space opera (think the Dune series).

So that was sort of a bust. I tried some books recommended by friends, but I didn't find anything interesting (fantasy romance novels are just not for me). By a stroke of luck, I found out that tor.com is launching a new eBook download service, and to help promote it they're giving away free eBooks - one a week for 12 weeks. (They're still doing it, so go sign up right away!).

The first eBook was Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (I guess it's actually called "The Final Empire, book 1 of the Mistborn series," but whatever...). Let me just say, WOW! I printed out the first two chapters of the book and read them on my walk home from work. As soon as I got home I opened up the ebook on the computer and kept reading. I couldn't get enough of it and devoured it very quickly. It's been a long time since I read a fantasy novel this good. He throws out all the old ideas of fantasy (you won't find any dwarves or elves or anything else Tolkein-esque or any Dungeons & Dragons rip-offs). The characters are believable and you care about them right away. The magic is original, and the politics aren't too overpowering or convoluted. The whole story is very satisfying. I can't recommend this book (or this author) highly enough!! If you like fantasy even a little bit, go buy this book right away!

I finished Mistborn while we were on vacation, and we went to a book store so I could buy the sequel. Unfortunately, they only have it in hardback and I can't bring myself to pay $30 for a book. Instead, I bought Brandon Sanderson's stand-alone novel Elantris. Again, WOW! I read a chapter or two while we were on vacation, but when we got back, I sat down and read this book straight through in one day. Again, this is an original, understandable, and believable setting. The characters are well-developed and endearing. The magic is interesting and original, and the book is a stand-alone novel, so you don't have to commit to some 8000 page series. I strongly recommend this as well. Amanda is currently addicted to it and has been reading it whenever she gets a spare second (which isn't often for a mom of her caliber!).

The most recent book on Tor's free ebook list, is The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. I'd already read this one back when I was at Ford (during the Inferno days as it were). I really enjoyed this one. It has a very subtle magic system with some interesting religious undertones. The story is well paced, and this book makes for a very nice slow, savory read. This is a trilogy, and the third book just came out. I recommend this one.

Well, this list sounds like all fantasy, but I didn't give up on Scifi! The second ebook from Tor was Old Man's War by John Scalzi. This was just the science fiction novel I was looking for. It's only about 300 pages, so it's a fairly quick read, but I had a VERY hard time putting it down. Without giving too much away, it's a military novel with a good deal of action. It's told from the perspective of a 75-year old man, and has a lot of interesting twists and turns. It feels a lot like Heinlein (think Starship Troopers), but be warned that it's REALLY cussy! There are plenty of F-bombs, but I thought it was fairly appropriate for the genre. I'd definitely recommend this one if you like scifi.

So that's it for what I've been reading this month. I'm currently reading the second Mistborn book, The Well of Ascension, and totally loving it.

If you have any recommendations for good Scifi or Fantasy, definitely post a comment!

----- Update -----
I actually read all day and finished The Well of Ascension tonight. It was great but ended with a major cliffhanger. The sequel, "The Hero of Ages" won't be out until this October! What will I read until then?!!! Also, one more note about Brandon Sanderson: Robert Jordan, the author of The Wheel of Time series, died recently. Brandon met with him and went over all of his notes beforehand and he'll be writing the final book of the series, A Memory of Light.

PRAY HARDER...QUICK!!!

2008-03-06T13:03:00.001-08:00

I just got an email from our awesome Michigan neighbor Julie. Julie's crack team of neighborhood watchers (her kids: Spencer & Jessica) caught our Postman in the act of knocking over our mailbox...2 days before the inspection!

It was really shocking but the Realtor said it shouldn't be a problem. He'll give the heads up to the buyers and let them know we'll fix it when the ground thaws...I wonder if it'll thaw before the closing date.

Maybe this is a good sign...if everything that can go wrong does BEFORE Friday maybe Friday will go off without a hitch.

Thanks for keeping such a good eye on our home Dyal family.

Valiant

2008-03-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Rand came running back home in tears. He had been playing with friends outside after school and I thought he had been hurt. I met him on the stairs and he broke out in loud sobs as he hugged me. "My feelings are hurt," was all he said.

I took him inside and we sat in my bedroom for a few minutes to talk about what happened. The thing that was the most painful for me to hear were his first words. "It was Tyler and Kyle," was all he said but the look of betrayal on his face was clear. These two boys are his buddies, his pals, his chums. They're the boys he plays with at home when he's not forced to play with kids in his own class, his sisters or someone else I've brought over. His voice was strained and he sounded like even he couldn't believe that those two had done whatever it was to him.

I asked what they did and his tears renewed. After a few moments he was calm enough to talk and told me the story.

Our family has really clear media guidelines. Random isn't allowed to watch PG-13 movies (or Rated R movies), the shows he watches on TV have to be seen by Troy or I and approved and he isn't allowed to play Rated T or M video games. He's said before that he's the only kid ALIVE (yes he can be dramatic) that doesn't think South Park, Family Guy and the Simpsons aren't meant for kids. His friends know about these rules mostly because they've invited him over for some PG-13 fun and Rand has told them he won't participate.

So Random was out playing with Kyle and Tyler. They play rowdy boy games all the time. Most of the time it's a mix between Star Wars and "War." Yesterday they were playing as usual and Kyle invited Rand over to play a Rated M video game. Random told him no and they started to tease him. They called him names and didn't relent until he finally left in tears.

It would have been so easy...and so much easier...if he had just gone over to Kyle's house and played the game but he didn't. I was so impressed with his determination to obey and how unyielding he was in the face of some pretty aggressive peer pressure.

Not everyone shares our standards for media and that's fine. I think everyone understands the principle of drawing a line in the sand. That's what we've done with our family. We've simply said, here is where we will not go. We talk about it as a family a lot and use this as a metaphor for teaching our children to have integrity and make firm moral decisions in all areas of life.

In our church, the youngest children's classes are named CTR and then have a number corresponding to the childrens' ages. The CTR stands for 'Choose The Right' and here they learn basic principles of faith, who Jesus Christ is and God's plan for us. After they have been baptized, the names of the classes change. Now instead of being a "CTR" they are called Valiant. Valiant is a word I associate with warriors and people much older than Rand. People who stand against mighty trials and come off conqueror despite overwhelming discouragement.

For a 9 year old, or even a 39 year old, what can be more discouraging than standing before people you respect and have them point and laugh at you for your beliefs? Imagine trying to explain, then trying to change the subject, then just trying to get away all while the taunts and the jeers are getting louder and more bold.

I associate the word Valiant with warriors. Now I associate it with Random. I know as he gets older, the battles will get more intense and his enemies more subtle but after yesterday, I'm confident that he'll be ok.

Our House

2008-03-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

Some of you may have read the email plea we sent out earlier today. If you missed it or I missed your email address, here it is:

Well after nearly a year on the market we've gotten an offer on our home. We're happy about it but we're also so nervous we want to poo our pants. Our inspection is this Friday (March 7th) at 9 am EST and we are hereby requesting all of our friends and family to send us any prayers, hopes, ritualistic sacrifices, rain dances, email scams for luck (just the luck--keep the email :-P), crossed fingers and first-star-wishes that the inspection will go well and they'll still want our house...without a bunch of conditions.

If you wanted to see what our house looked like when we put it on the market, here is our listing with a virtual tour and everything.

Thanks for all the congratulations and well wishes we've received so far!

By the way, for all those of you who offered to record your ritualistic dances and send them to me, I'll make sure to post them on the blog for everyone to see! I'll be sure to put a XXX rating on them to warn everyone if they're too authentic (ie. nude).

Amanda's Day Job

2008-03-03T14:18:00.000-08:00

In December I had a woman at church ask me if I ever babysat...like all day long day-care-esque babysat. I told her I had before but wasn't doing that at the moment. It turns out she was going back to work and needed a babysitter for her 4 year old daughter all day and for her 7 year old son after school. I volunteered and pretty soon I was getting all kinds of calls about watching various and sundry children.

I keep a daily blog for the kids since it gives me a sense of accountability and also some sort of proof to the world that what I'm doing is hard work. It's a private blog since I wanted to protect us all from scary people that would want to steal the cute kids or something but it's been a lot of fun to keep that up to date.

I had someone accuse me (you know who you are) of not keeping our blog very updated so I thought I'd share what we did today at our house:

When It Rains, It Pours, and pours and then leaks all over the floor

Well we got back into town from our GREAT vacation Saturday morning but driving all night long twice within a week was more than my immune system could handle! I came down with a pretty major cold Saturday night and by Sunday morning I felt like poo. This morning I woke up early so I could hopefully have the medicine working by the time all the kids arrived and I think my plan worked. The headache's gone, my nose isn't running THAT much and my throat no longer feels like someone's raking it with hot pokers.

The girls have done really well this morning. They played and played for a couple of hours and I had to call them in for a snack. They've colored and lego'd and pixtered to their heart's delight.

I took advantage of their preoccupation to throw some laundry in the washer. I even threw in Scout's life jacket for a hot rinse. Of course that was a terrible idea. It floated on the top and made the washer overflow. I knew it was risky but I figured it was worth it to have a non-mildewy life jacket.

I was moving all the luggage out of the hall and trying to mop up the mess when the girls all piled out of the room. Why did you move the bags? Why are you cleaning the floor? Why are there all these bags? Why is there water on the floor? Why did you make the washer put water on the floor? Why did you put the bags in the water?

I'm constantly amazed at how disrupted these little ones get by just a little variation in life. All 3 girls will remind me if we miss a song or a do something out of order at circle time. My hope is that with our schedule they will feel comfortable knowing what happens next. That they'll have enough stability in their little lives that when it rains, and pours, and leaks all over the floor, they'll be able to deal with it better than me!

Phoenix

2008-03-03T09:58:00.001-08:00

We just got back from a FANTASTIC vacation in Phoenix Arizona. We drove down there last week to visit with our friends the Leningtons. We had a great time sitting around the pool playing games while the kids got sunburned. The weather was awesome...between 70 and 80 the whole time.

The drive took 24 hours on the way down since we hit a major blizzard going through the pass near Mount Shasta. We were completely annoyed that we were welcomed into California by snow. California is supposed to be warm! The drive back took only 21 hours although Troy and I both realized that we're not young enough to do 2 overnighters within a week. I've got a cold and Troy insists that he was run over by a truck at least 3 times.

We found a game store down there and bought Puerto Rico, saw Spiderwick Chronicles with the kids, went to a book store, and went out to eat with Matt's sister and her family who lived in the area. Other than that, we literally just sat around, talked, laughed and played. My kind of vacation!

The kids really enjoyed their time too. We only get to see the Lenington's every couple of years but every time the kids re-meet each other and have a blast. Scout was doted on by their oldest daughter Jessi and loved every minute of it. Savannah and Rachel held hands and skipped around in their own world. Random and Jimmy played video games as much as they could and then would go outside to show each other their "karate moves."

I think next time we're going to try to convince the Lenington's to come up to Oregon. I'm already planning our trip to Powell's, the ocean, Mount Hood...but mostly just sitting around and playing more games!!

Savannah turned 8!

2008-02-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

We asked her not to, warned her that it would only make us seem older, but she did it anyway. Savannah turned 8! We had a fun family party on her birthday with presents and her favorite dinner...rolls and fried ham. YUMMM.

She had a tea party with her friends on the following Saturday. They dressed up like princesses, painted their own tea cups and played a life sized version of Pretty Pretty Princess. Everybody had a smashing time and went home with their own personalized tea cup.

Later that evening Grandma, Grandpa, Emily, Jerred and Brooklyn came down and we all headed out to the Lake Oswego Stake Center. Savannah was baptized and we are all very proud of her decision. She has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and has already shown how stalwart she is and chooses the right most of the time.

Grandma and Emily surprised Savannah with a brand new beautiful custom-made white dress that Grandma sewed in one day, shoes and accessories. She looked like like an angel. The next day in church she was called up to the front. We had gotten to church late so we sat in the back. Our ward is really big so we actually have 3 overflows and we were technically in the gym. She walked past the entire ward...it took over a minute to get up there. In the hallways people stopped me again and again to tell me how angellic she looked.

We had a family birthday party for her after we were home from the baptism (and everyone was out of their fancy clothes). We had a blue dragon cake and Grandma and Grandpa took us out to Red Robin.

Cakez

2008-01-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

I've had cake conversations lately and I thought I'd dig around on the computer and see if I had any cake pictures. Turns out I did and when I remembered all the work that went into them I decided I should post them. I couldn't find all the pictures and I'm sure some of them are sitting in our storage unit in Michigan on a medium we used back in ancient times called "film."

I'm not a pro at the whole cake scene but it didn't seem like Rocket Surgery to me and I decided that it was something I could figure out. I still can't do what they do in the shops but as long as I avoid rectangles and any attempt at "smoothness" I think I'm ok. HA!

Cakes were really important to the formation of the Gomms. I made a cake for Troy's birthday when we were dating and I think that was the thing that clinched the deal :-P So here are the pictures of the cakes I could find.

The butterfly cake is from Scout's first birthday. The woven part is fondant, the rest was me playing around with different sized tips on a frosting squisher thing I had just gotten. That cake was a pain in the bum.

The soccer balls were from Kevin and Natalie's (my sister Sarah's twins) 5th birthday. I had gotten a new ball shaped cake pan but it didn't seem like enough cake so I made the cone too...mmm cake.

The Care Bear cake was from Savannah's 5th birthday. It's not that great except that it's tiny (about 6 inches) and I made one for all the kids at the party to go along with the Build-A-Bear workshop trip.

The castle cake is already on our blog in the post about Scout's birthday but I figure if you're bored enough to read our blog you won't mind seeing a cake twice. For this one I made almost 300 tiny tiny fondant flowers and enlisted the help of my mom and dad.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

Happy 2008!

Happy Chinese Year of the Rat!
Happy European Year of Intercultural Dialogue!
Happy Australian Year of the Scout!
Happy International Year of Planet Earth!
Happy International Year of the Potato 2008! (w00t! go Idaho!)

And most importantly:
Happy International Year of Sanitation!

This year we can look forward to:

January 30th - We have a 1 in 25 chance of asteroid 2007 WD5 crashing into Mars! Yikes!
February 7 - There'll be a partial Solar eclipse over eastern Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand. Book your hotels early, it's is also Chinese New Year!
February 14 - The Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled for mission STS-123 to add the first section of the Japanese Kibo module to the International Space Station. What better what to say Happy Valentines day?!
February 21 - There will be a total lunar eclipse in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Western Asia. Enjoy that "Blood Moon," it's fat free!
March 2 - It's the 2008 Russian presidential election! Sorry, Kasparov was already dismissed - darn governmental obstructions.
April 1 - National Take Your Plants to Work Day! YES! I got my April Fool's joke in already!
May - The Large Hadron Collider is scheduled to begin operation, it will be the world's largest particle physics laboratory. Here's hoping for a Higg's Boson for my birthday! (I'm actually really excited about this one)
May 25 - NASA's Phoenix Lander will land on Mars! It's the first of the Mars Scout missions. Discovering the history of ice has never seemed so exciting.
June 14 - Expo 2008 opens in Zaragoza, Spain. I just can't get excited about this one.
August 8-August 24 - The 2008 Summer Olympics will be in Beijing, China. Is it me or does "Dancing Beijing" look like he's flailing more than dancing?
November 4th - The US Presidential Election. Wow, this one'll be a doozy!

Oh, also 2008 is the year you need to pick up a digital TV since all US TV broadcasts will be digital starting February 2009. You know you've been waiting for a solid excuse to pick up a digital TV!

Lots to look forward to! Happy 2008!

- Troy

Christmas at the Gomms'

2008-01-01T13:27:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas!

This year we're living the college lifestyle -- we're in a small 2-bedroom apartment furnished in an eclectic hand-me-down style (we call it vagrant-chic). Due to the lack of floor space, we decided to go with 2D decorating! The whole family had a lot of fun coloring and cutting out the Christmas tree as well as decorating it.

Savannah and Scout sculpted the star out of salt dough and painted it gold.

Since Santa needed a way to deliver presents, we had to make a fireplace too:Amanda hooked up a couple of strings of flashing lights to make the fire look ever so cozy.

We had a lot of fun during the vacation. We made lots of candy (fudge, caramels, divinity, and lots of cookies). I totally recommend this caramel recipe if you need a reason to gain a few delicious pounds.

We also tried making snowmen out of marshmallows, melted almond bark, and cocktail stirrers. They ended up looking nice but tasting a little too almond barky.

Now that we're in Oregon we've made a new tradition of having a Christmas hike! It rained during most of the week of Christmas, so we finally just went and hiked in the rain. It was a lot of fun! We went to Hebb Memorial Park (pretty close to where we live). Part of the park was flooded, but we were the only ones there and had a BLAST hiking through the woods! Yay Oregon!

One last thing, my brother David sent us a really cool stained glass snowflake for Christmas! He has his own stained glass studio here.

We put it up in the window and I think it brought us some luck - it snowed for a few hours on Christmas (our first snow of the year)!

Yo-Yo Gomm

2007-12-18T07:46:00.000-08:00

Random has been playing the cello now for 3 months. He has rehearsals every Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 7:20 which is quite early for all of us. He practices regularly and loves to whip out his cello for all the people who come to visit.

Last week we finally got to see him perform! As you can see from this picture he's the Principal Cellist of the Boeckman Creek Primary School Beginning Orchestra. WOOHOO!

The concert was combined with the Middle School and High school orchestras. The Middle School sounded a lot like the elementary school but without the muting power of parental pride. The High School was pretty impressive although Troy and I were confronted with our age when the boy we thought was some polite and helpful student when we saw him in the hallway turned out to be the director.

Random did really great and Troy and I gained a new appreciation for our parents who sat through years and years and years...and years of these fine performances. All I can say is, Mom, Dad, thank you and I'm sorry. :)

Sleeping Beauty

2007-12-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

Those of you that know Scout know she never stops. Sleep only comes when she's used up all that energy that she normally focuses on talking, dancing, talking, skipping, talking, running...oh and did I mention...talking. Last night I went in to check on her after she had been quiet for long enough that the only explanation was that she was unconscious. Here's what I found:

When Random asked Scout why she put on the crown she said very matter-of-factly, "Because I was a Princess" and off she danced.

I thought I should explain that we do have pillow cases for TheScout but she prefers the feel of the pillow itself and takes them off whenever we try to put them on. Also, I have no idea what that pen is doing there but I'm thinking it has something to do with the writing on the pillow and yes, I'm going right now to confiscate it.

Halloween 2007

2007-12-14T11:29:00.000-08:00

Now that it's December I think it's finally time to take the lid off of the closely guarded Gomm Halloween photos!

This was our first Halloween in Oregon and it was great! Last year (in Michigan) we had to all wear thick coats and drive around trick-or-treating in a nice warm car. The temperature here was GREAT and there were plenty of autumn leaves swirling around to make it very spooky.

Scout dressed as a fairy princess, Savannah was an über-goth vampire, and Random was Link. The fabulous Link costume was tailored by Grandma Bryan!

I wore my warmest shirt which doubled as my costume. In case you're curious I'm a Totoro from Tonari no Totoro - a great Japanese movie. (By the way, I highly recommend all films by Hayao Miyazaki).

At the first door, Scout came running back to Amanda with wide eyes saying, "Mommy! They gave us CANDY!!" The kids all had a lot of fun and scored about 13 tons of candy. By the end of the evening, Scout was so tired she couldn't hold her bucket anymore. All the sugar lasted them until mid-November.

Happy Halloween!

Trip to Chinatown - Singapore Style

2007-10-08T04:07:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I took a trip to Singapore's Chinatown. This was also my first Singapore subway trip, so I looked up the route and hit the subway (called the MRT here). Luckily there's an entrance to the MRT across from my hotel:

The Singapore MRT handles tickets different from other subways I've used. Here they have a vending machine that issues you a temporary card credited with the amount you put in plus a deposit. Here's the machine:

and here's the ticket:

The ticket has an RFID in it to buzz you through the gates, then you return it at your destination to get your deposit back.

A couple of stops and a line transfer later, I emerged in Chinatown - and I really mean emerged. The escalator from the MRT comes right out into the middle of hundreds of little shops. Here's what you see when you first come out:

One thing this picture doesn't communicate is how hot it was. Not only was the air sticky and thick with the near 100% humidity, but the sky was clear, allowing the sun to stoke the air into a furnace.... it was really really hot :P

Oh, and here's a vid:

Once you get into the shops a bit (where those yellow and red umbrellas are in the picture), the shops get very crowded. It's elbow to elbow from one shop overlapping the next, and little space from one side of the street to the other. It may sound terrible, but it was fun - you could really lose yourself in the crowd and just take it in.

I spent quite a bit of time browsing the shops, and I bought a few things for the family. For Amanda, I bought a jade ring and a tiger eye quartz bracelet because they're the color of her eyes! ^_^

Singapore Tidbits: Part 2

2007-10-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

While in Singapore, I heard this song. It's a Mongolian Folk style song called "My Three Treasures". It was written by a Mongolian guy in China. He saw how a lot of Mongolians were moving to the large cities in China and the next generation was losing their mother tongue. He wrote this song so that Mongolian kids growing up in the cities would at least know some of their ancestral language through the words to a Mongolian song. The song is about Mother, Father, and Child (the three treasures). The song was extremely popular and stayed at the top of the Mandarin pop charts for over a month. I also saw a show about the little girl singer in the song on the Discovery Channel Asia (the show was called "Mongolian Idol").

Next tidbit. I've been buying a lot of baked goods at a Japanese bakery across the street from my hotel (most of my meals have been from there. oops! ^____^). Here's a picture of my sweet sweet candy:On the left is a curry donut - donut dough with chicken curry inside, fried like a donut. On the bottom is a chocolate and custard bun. On one side it has a vanilla custard inside, on the other side it has a chocolate paste. On the right is a soy bean & cheese roll. Soft bread, soy beans inside, toasted cheese on top. Yuhm Yuhm Yuhm!

Singapore Shrine Hunt

2007-10-06T22:39:00.001-07:00

Since it's Sunday today, I figured it would be appropriate to go on a shrine hunt.

I looked up the closest subway station by the shrine and just took off. When I got off at the station (Raffel station I think), I found a couple of vague locality maps that showed the shrine just off of Church Street, but not how to get to Church Street. So I walked in the general area and stopped and asked people for directions.

I did end up finding it and it was pretty interesting. The whole area smelled strongly of incense. The shine was a very old walled structure, right next to high-rise buildings. The contrast was pretty neat.

I had my little camera and snapped some photos, but I also tried to grab some video. Here's my first attempt at adding video to this blog:

Here's an attempt to add some video of the hunt:

Video #2:

Video #3:

Here are some photos of the shrine. From the outside:

On the inside. The spiral things are incense sticks. There were probably 30 or so of them hanging all around and all of them were lit. Check our the details on that roof!

Video #4:

Video #5:

Well, that was my quest for the shrine! I hope you liked it, I did ^^

Singapore Tidbits

2007-10-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple random tidbits:

The paper money in Singapore comes in different sizes for the denominations. I don't think I've seen that before. Here's a pic:
Amanda and I have a friend who goes by "Milo" online, so I had to pick up these:

There are just tons and tons of trees everywhere in Singapore, more so than any other large city I've been in. Some of the trees are really striking. I asked some local people about them, and apparently one of the old Prime Ministers had them brought in from overseas. I was told that when they're kids, Singaporeans learn all the names of the trees in the city. I think this one is called "flame of the forest" (maybe, my Singaporean colleagues were a little fuzzy on that ^__^ ). Here's a pic!

My Malaysian Excursion

2007-10-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

One of the suppliers I'm visiting is in Senai Malaysia, so on Friday the 5th, I had my first trip there. One of the Xerox people who lives in Singapore came and picked me up and drove me, and let me say, PHEW!

Singapore is really big, metropolitan, and clean - it's like the nice downtown area of most large cities, except it covers the entire country (Singapore is the city, the country, and the island). The down side of that is that traffic is crazy. Now, I've lived and driven in large cities before (Detroit, Toronto, Fargo, Portland, Seattle, etc.), so I'm not a total n00b, but here, not only are there a lot of cars, but they also seem to ignore lane markings on the road. So, I say PHEW! I'm glad I didn't have to drive myself around.

The other part of my PHEW! is that Customs at the border between Singapore and Malaysia is a lot more rigorous than the US/Canada border. You have paperwork to give them along with your passport on both the Singapore and the Malaysia side. Coming back is the same: paperwork and passport. Thankfully I was with these guys who do this at least once a week, so they had all the paperwork for me to fill out, and they knew all the right lanes to be in. (I said, "PHEW!", right?)

I'll be going through again on Monday and Tuesday, but here's my passport now, stamp-o-icious:

Malaysia is very different from Singapore. The climate is the same, but that's about it. First, the official language there is Malay (Singapore's is English) so all the signs are in Malay - but in roman characters. That means that when you see a sign out of the corner of your eye, you think you should be able to read it, but when you try to sound it out, it just doesn't work out.

Another big difference is that since there is more land in Malaysia, it's not all urbanized. So there are big stretches of palm farms (for the palm seed oil - very cool), small towns, and such. The city I visited was Senai - about an hour and a half drive from my hotel in Singapore. It's got a TON of huge industrial manufacturing sites for large companies whose names you'd recognize (Mitsubishi, Hitachi, etc.).

The non-industrial areas seemed really rural - yet crowded, and not as well kept up (at least on the outside) as Singapore. I say that it seemed not well kept up, but when we went in to one of these little places for lunch, it was very nice.

The people at the site I visited were very nice and accommodating. There was a big sign on their plasma TV that said "XEROX VIP:" with my name on it. It is a massive facility with a ton (literally many thousands of tons) of injection molding equipment, plus a very capable tooling shop. But from here I'll have to leave out the supa-secret, uber-proprietary details of the visit, but I will say that these guys are VERY competent and really great to work with.

While I was at lunch I had a crazy drink called Chendol. It was really funky. It was coconut milk, red beans, brown sugar water slush, and minty green gummy wormy things. It was really sweet (kick you in the teeth sweet) with Lovecraftian textures. Pretty good though.

Off to Singapore

2007-10-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

I'm off to Singapore!

A couple of suppliers for parts I'm designing at Xerox are in Singapore and Malaysia. So from October 2nd through October 12th, I'll be staying in Singapore!

I flew out on Tuesday October 2nd (Happy Birthday Tom!). Amanda was super sweet and bought me a ton of magazines, some video games, etc. for the grueling flight. I flew from Portland to Narita (Japan) and then to Singapore. I ended up getting really sucked in to the book I started and ended up reading it cover to cover in one sitting. It's Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Book 1 of The Dresden Files). It was really good, I highly recommend it.

There's a picture of me holding the finished book on the air plane. If you look closely, you can see the crazy amount of leg room available on international business class. ^__^

It was an 11 hour flight to Japan, and even with too much leg room, it gets REALLY old. I tried to break it up by looking for Dutch Harbor as we flew over the Bearing Strait.

Also, I played a lot of Final Fantasy III for the DS. If you have a DS and liked the old FF games on the original NES, then you should definitely go pick this up.

I stopped in Japan for an hour and a half. I haven't been there in 12 years, so it was pretty nostalgic.

By the time the flight left to Singapore from Narita, I was really feeling the jet lag. I slept pretty much the whole way (about 7.5 hours).

I was worried about Singapore Customs, because of all their VERY strict import laws. But it was a snap. Two checkpoints, very little hassle.

The cab ride to the hotel was a little nuts. The driver apparently views the lane markings on the streets as rules of thumb - he was weaving all over the place while using both hands to describe to me the difference between flat and round noodles. Interesting conversation though.

So, now I'm here in the Marriott on Orchard Road. Here's my hotel (yep, the tall one with the roof of destiny):

Here's a view out of my window (this was pretty early in the morning):

Orchard Road is apparently the main shopping district. There's just tons and tons of shops. I walked around for a bit this morning - I'm trying to not sleep during the day to get over the jet lag quickly. It's hot and humid enough to feel exotic, and has that not unpleasant smell that reminds me of Japan (I think it's a combination of the humidity, the concrete, bamboo, and the cigarettes).

Tomorrow I'll visit Malaysia. Wish me luck!

Scout's 4th Birthday

2007-09-13T16:06:00.001-07:00

August 8, 2007 Scout turned 4 years old! We celebrated in our little apartment in Oregon on Wednesday and that weekend drove up to Washington to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bryan and have a barbecue.

Mom (Diane, Grandma, Illustrious Goddess of Puyallup) and I (Amanda) worked long and got really really sticky making the cake (yep that Fairy-Tale Castle is the cake). We had Balloons (pink), table cloths (pink), streamers (pink), plates (pink) and a My Little Pony Pinata (duh...PINK). Princess Scout was in heaven!

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa; Opah and Gigi; Emily, Shannon, Jerred and Brooklyn; Margaret (still pregnant... welcome baby Xander!) and Mike; Random and Savannah for coming, eating, bringing presents but most of all laughing and talking. The Gomms had a great time!

Our Trip to the Pacific Ocean

2007-09-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Gomms Go Pacific

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Saturday morning Troy and I decided we probably ought to get out the ocean before it got too late in the year and the weather went south for the winter. It turned out to be a lot of fun and pretty memorable for our family.

The water was FREEZING cold but we had fun running from the waves, flying kites and finding smelly things on the beach.

One thing we realized as we plunged our feet into the water...aside from what an ice cream headache in your toes feels like...is that Random and Savannah are now Coast-to-Coast travelers!

Next time we'll try to remember our thermal wet suits and hot cocoa ^^

First Post on our new Blog :P

2007-09-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

OK, here's our first test post on the startlingly bereft OreGomm!

Here's us testing a picture post >.> noobs!