Yo-Yo Gomm

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

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

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

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! ^_^