#117 – Camping at home! – September 28, 2012

Friday.

Today was a nice day at work.  I had some time to listen to the Tech Support team discussing some action plans, and to work on some other lingering things.  My big thing today was trying to set myself up for a productive week next week.  Our big monthly meeting is the week after next, and we need to give the customer a new look at our data.  Not because they’re unhappy, but because we understand the current data set really well.  We’ve addressed the things it has told us to do, and it seems to me that we are missing opportunities that the raw data can show us.  So I have to spend a full day working on it to make it look right.  And I have a new guy to bring on next week, so that will eat a lot of time.

I got home, took an hour to play on the computer, and then I got busy.  Tonight we went camping.  I set up the tents and took a shortcut to get the fire going.  Briquettes and lighter fluid on a platform of wet wood, build a log house of partially burned wood from the previous fire, and put some new wood on top of that to dry out.

I slept in the little blue tent on the left.
The boys took the large red one, and the girls
snuggled in the little orange one on the right.

In half an hour, we had a beautiful fire and the tents were all set up.  The kids came out, got a stuffed animal, a sleeping bag, the roasting sticks, hot dogs, buns, and condiments.  Katrina came out, and we had a dinner around the fire.  Marshmallows followed, of course.

Katrina slept in the huge brown 2-story tent in the background. 

We stood around the fire a bit, Jakers went in on his own volition to brush his teeth, and we all settled in.  I read the news in my tent.  Jakers was singing to himself in the boys’ tent, and the girls were giggling in theirs.  I really thought they would lose patience with each other, but they didn’t.  And I love the fact that I don’t have to give any kind of thought to the neighbors.  Not even half a thought.  They are so far away, I’m sure they never hear us.  So the kids can relax out there.  It’s beautiful.

Eventually, I realized that the noise from the other tents had all stopped.  And that was it.  I went to sleep and didn’t hear a peep from them until morning.

Random bit of awesomeness: this little hole here is now
certainly a squirrel or rabbit hole.  The acorn debris is cool.
The tarp in the top of the shot was under the boys' tent.

The driveway today.  Lots of yellow showing up here.

Today's leafy pool shot.

#116 – Aria Baby Sits for Reals - September 27, 2012

Thursday.

I got home tonight just in time for Katrina to leave to see a friend at the hospital.  She just gave birth to a huge baby (over 10 lbs) via caesarian.  A friend came to pick her up, and left her 3-month old baby boy with Aria. 

This was Aria’s first time taking care of a baby.  She fell in love instantly, and hardly left him alone for a moment.  She held him, she laid him on a bed of blankets in the living room, she made faces at him, she was silly.  In 20 minutes, she was telling me what he liked, and that I should be silly with him, because he likes that.  She was adorable, my baby taking care of a baby.  She hadn’t had dinner yet, but she fed him first.  Then she didn’t know what to do with him while she ate.  I offered to hold him for a while.  So I got the little guy for 20 minutes or so.  He’s an easy baby as far as I could tell. 

I hung out with Aria.  I suppose I can put in a few more details that I omitted earlier in the week.  The first is that my mom is moving more strongly toward retirement.  It will take a bit yet, but her days of procrastinating this time are over.  I could not be more excited for her.  She and dad will both be retired, still able to get around and enjoy their golden years.  They’ll be able to stay with us and not have to worry about vacation time.  This is probably the biggest news of the week.

Fall is here in earnest – not just for temperatures, but the leaves are turning.  I have a specific rock I stand on, looking over at the pool area.  I intend to get a shot every day at about the same time to document the change.

 

I was beat – I’ve been a little ill all week, and had late nights and early mornings.  So around 7:15 it seemed late to me.  I didn’t even look at the clock.  I told the kids it was bed time.  To their credit, they brushed their teeth and got ready for bed.  They didn’t even ask what time it was.  At 7:45, I was in bed, going to sleep.  And the kids (including the baby) were asleep.  Except Aria, who stayed up.

I didn’t even hear Katrina come home.

#115 - Hot water returns, and lashing! - September 26, 2012

Wednesday.

The week has gotten better at work.  Several long-term machine problems are fixed, so I’m working through some new things.  Time really flies, and it’s very difficult to change focus on a longer-term improvement that needs to be done.  We see some of these things that need to be done, but sometimes they sit for 4 months while we’re keeping afloat.  Nothing particular to note on this, just that it happens. 

I couldn’t take a shower this morning – the cold water was on, but not the hot.  I had the cold water plumbing taken care of, but not the hot.  Not the most auspicious start to a day.  Then I got a call from Katrina about 10.  The leak had overflowed the bucket and we had water all over the floor.  She took care of it, and took the kids to Aria’s friend’s house for a birthday party.  They invited all the kids over to play.  

I left work about 4 and went home.  I finished the work on the plumbing and unloaded the washing machine. 

Then it was time for scouts.  Tonight we learned how to lash.  And I relearned the clove hitch.  It was a really good time, my first time leading these kids.  

This boy's first square lashing was a total success.
I was proud of him and the other boys in the troop, too.

#114 – Home repairs! Yay! - September 25, 2012

Tuesday.

The washer that came with our house (odd how common this is these days – we sold our washer and dryer with the house in Oregon, and received a set here) has an agitator.  And it worked ok on the clothes, but mostly it agitated Katrina.  So she went to Sears and picked out a new one after looking on Craigslist and finding not-very-good deals for several weeks there.  We got a call from Sears yesterday that the new washer had arrived and we could pick it up.

So Katrina listed ours on Craigslist for cheap.  See, we had trouble finding one that was a reliable front-loader for a decent price.  Sometimes they would list the washer for nearly full retail price.  The page is flooded with overpriced washers.  But she wanted ours gone, so she listed it for cheap, got a call, and the people were coming to pick it up today.

In preparation, she turned off the water to the washer and unhooked the hoses.  And then she saw water leaking, freaked out, and called me.  I had a busy day at work, but I went home for lunch.  The problem came from the valve on the hot water.  When Katrina turned it off, it started leaking.  We looked at it, turned off the cold water to and from the water softener, I stopped by Williams to get some parts, but they didn’t have anything I needed.  Then I went back to work.  After work, I went to Home Depot to get what I needed, and to Sears to pick up the new washing machine. 

The mall sits on the top of a hill.  The forest surrounds it on the North
and West.  The view grabbed me because of the sun streaming through
the clouds over the next set of hills to the North.

Back at home, Katrina went to the church for a craft night, and I started to try to fix the leak.  Home Depot doesn’t stock the exact same valve, so I couldn’t buy a replacement valve stem.  So I bought some Shark Bite fittings, and tools I needed to work with copper tubing.  And the learning began. 

I took this pic on my smart phone and took it with me to Home Depot.
It helped a lot to tell me that I was dealing with 1/2" pipe.
My main problem?  The section on the bottom (with the hose
on it) is 100% fittings.  So I couldn't cut the pipe
and put on my new fittings.  Grrrrr!

In the end, I spent over $100 in fittings and tools, 4 hours of working and driving to and from the store, and I still had a leak.  But I knew what I needed to finish the job.  I hooked up a short section of the backwash hose from the pool around the valve, so it could drain to a 5 gallon bucket and I went to sleep.

#113 – A Belated Anniversary - September 24, 2012

Monday.  Nothing special at work today. 

So today I will write about the adventure that started about a year ago and led to our family being where we are today.

On Monday, September 19, 2011, I received an email.   It was addressed to me and over a hundred of my coworkers at my previous employer.  It stated, simply, that the company was looking to reduce its ranks of management and would offer a generous voluntary separation package.  Because I had been through a few layoffs, I guessed what the package might look like. 

My first reaction was to jump at it.  I did not think the company was doing what it needed to do, and I was burned out on a project I was working on.  I had some difficult coworkers whose help I needed and who openly disliked me and sabotaged my work.  It was a difficult time.  My job was secure for a while, and I had solid management support.  The company had always been good to me, and I was grateful to it for giving me a start in my career and funding my education.  But I had provided good value to the company, and it no longer wanted my input.  I was ready to provide the next level of leadership, and the company was not willing to give me the opportunity to give them that.  I was stagnant because the company had low turnover and was no longer growing.

And yet – it was 2011.  Real positive job numbers were months away, house prices were depressed (we were about 30% underwater on our home), and I had never gotten a job I interviewed for.  It was a classic risk/reward scenario, with both sides painfully obvious to me and to Katrina.

We had been talking about me leaving the company for several years.  This opportunity gave us a deadline, and a strong reason to leave.  It was time to make a decision.  I immediately turned to my best group of people to counsel on such a decision – my MBA cohort from the University of Oregon.  I sent a note asking for advice on a good career counseling place, and I had offers to help with my resume and a few leads on career counselors in a matter of hours. 

Our friends and family didn’t know any of this yet.  But the ball had started rolling.

Katrina and I discussed this anniversary, and we're both convinced it was the best possible thing to happen to us.  It has been beneficial in a million ways.  Some painful, some wonderful, but it really has been a huge growth experience so far.  

This is Christian, ready for the Ducks game: get out the gear, lay on the couch, and go to sleep.
He was out cold before kickoff.

#112 - Mission Accomplished! - September 23, 2012

Sunday.

Hm.  Upon waking, it appeared that 4 hrs of sleep was not going to help my piano playing.  I had done several loads of laundry over the evening, and pushed another one through this morning.  I played through the primary program, and was not impressed with myself.  On the one hand, “uh-oh”.  On the other, there’s the old theater hand in me saying, “A good performance requires a terrible dress rehearsal.”

 

The kids were ready early.  Early enough that Aria was sitting on the couch, asking why I got them up so early.  It is exactly so that we are sitting on the couch wondering why we are up so early as opposed to running around trying to figure things out.  I can’t wait for Jan, and the later church schedule.  The early church schedule is nice for planning the day – you get up, get out, come home, eat lunch and you can relax.  The late church schedule is much better for late Saturday nights, or being a little unprepared for Sunday.

Anyway, the kids did a great job.  

In an effort to swell the number of kids, this ward has all kids who turned 12 this year stay in the program.  So Aria should have been up there.  But the ward didn’t recognize that.  Since Aria was 12 when we moved here, she has been in the Sunday school class for 12 years-olds, and Young Women’s.  The same thing happened to me when we moved to Canby.  I was in the wrong primary class for a year or 2 before anybody moved me.  Libby read her part on her own, which was exciting.  Christian’s talk went well, although he knew it well enough that he sped through it a bit.  And Jakers was cute.  Of course.

I played only the right hand for each song.  I had planned on doing left hand as well for a couple of them, but I wasn’t good enough at the end, and decided to go with what was comfortable.  And in many cases (The Wise Man and the Foolish man as well as Nephi’s Courage) I just made sure to get the melody plunked out.  Even the right hand harmony was too much.  I made many mistakes, but it was still my best-ever run of those songs.  And I wasn’t nervous, which was a first.  It worked well, and I suppose I won’t be fired any time soon.

Choir was a little odd, because our accompanist was out.  We worked on a song I inherited from the previous choir director, read a new piece from an old song book (1900) that I bought in Spokane last year, and sang through Some Children See Him.  It was nice.  A sister in the ward helped out on parts as much as she could at the piano, and that was great. 

We relaxed at home – leftovers for lunch, the adults napped while the kids played.  Katrina made tuna melts for dinner, and she and I and Libby talked with my mom for a long time.  It was Sunday as Sunday should be. 

I worked on blogs in the evening, and went to bed at 9.  

Libby, talking with Nana on the phone.

#106 - Rosh Hashanah - September 17, 2012

Monday.  This entry is out of order.

The kids were off school again today.  It was their first Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah.  I am slightly embarrassed to still not know what it’s about, but I’ll get it eventually.  Aria has made some good friends, it seems.  The kids were all invited to her friend’s brother’s birthday party.  Sounds weird, but that’s the gig.  Turns out that Aria’s friend has siblings almost exactly the same ages as our kids, and dad is much like me.  They’re a theater-geek family, he has an electric drum set he plays, and the parents do theater.  So he called to invite the kids to the house on the next Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur.  I am equally clueless about this one.

Aria brought up an interesting issue recently.  She came home from school Christmas music for choir.  She commented that not everyone is Christian, and this was a very Christian piece.  And I’m hopeful that this school district has a grown-up look at religious tolerance.  Because you can do things with your music program to remove much religion from it, as most music programs in Oregon have done and continue to do.  Here, I think it’s a more all-comers policy.  You may be Jewish or Muslim or Atheist.  But the piece of music is good, so we’ll sing it anyway.  And when we bring out a Jewish piece or something else, the Christians will sing it, too.  We can agree that participating in a moral life is a good thing, respect each other’s different ways of living that moral life, and come together sometimes.  In our private lives we can do things very differently, and in our public lives we meld.

 

I love this kind of cultural difference.  Looking back at our culture in Oregon, we talked a lot about tolerance and acceptance.  But the way tolerance and acceptance is shoved down the throats of unwilling citizens is different than here.  Maybe that’s a difference in the citizenry – the birthplace of FDR is a “red” county, but our property taxes are 3 times property tax in Oregon.  And the schools are massively better, the parks are better, and there are a million things to do for free or close to it.  The people here will vote “yes” on a school levy, and vote for Mitt Romney.  There’s a lot of grumbling about government, but few people are up in arms about it.

In contrast, it makes me think that liberal culture out West (that’s where you guys are, you know, “out” West) is still in its infancy.  

Kids at the bake sale fundraiser with the kid-specific cupcakes.
These were sold for $0.25 each, no auction required.  Everybody got one.

#107 - Financial Adjustments - September 18, 2012

Tuesday. (this post is out of order)

My music arrived today.  I ordered “Some Children See Him” for the ward choir about a week ago, and it arrived.  It’s not the arrangement I wanted, but it will work.  I’ll need to add/rearrange a section at the end to improve it (it goes unison on the melody with simple piano accompaniment, and I’d rather it be a capella and very harmonic).  I have the same kind of thing to do for “A Baby So Small”.  It’s a wonderful song until the last page, which is just musical filler.  So we’ll end it earlier. 

We’re starting to get a handle on our finances here, which are more different than I had expected.  We knew we’d have a food cost increase.  Mostly because Christian won’t stop growing.  But partly because almost all food is significantly more expensive here.   A can of store brand peaches in the Winco equivalent here is $1.39.  Sam’s Club is $1.25.  Wal-Mart is $0.99.  Shredded cheese is best at Sam’s club.  Spaghetti sauce I just found at a local supermarket, usually $2.39 per bottle, was on sale for $1 each this morning.  So our cost for non-sale items takes more care to control, and we have to spend time to research and go to stores that have worthwhile sales.  And we have to roll that stop into a trip we’re already making.  So it’s complicated.  And in the end, it’s still more expensive than Winco as a one-stop shop. 

Another key is gas cost.  I was burning effectively no gas in Oregon, but here I have a car commute that is 2 gallons a day at minimum.  It’s usually more like 3.5 gallons.  So we’re discussing buying a 3^rd car to reduce our total transportation cost.  Without a 3^rd driver, insurance is nearly free for the 3^rd vehicle, and the decrease in gas cost more than covers the additional car payment.  Which is weird but true. 

We have seen an increase in utilities as well.  Electricity is comparable we think (needs more analysis), water and sewer come with electricity, garbage and broadband/phone are the same.  Heat is the one big question mark.  We’ve been through 2 months using less than ¼ of our oil tank, using none for home heating. 

Thankfully, clothing cost is not that different overall.  And most of the other things we buy are either a similar price here, or similarly priced at Amazon + sales tax.  And frankly, if it’s not food, transportation, shelter, or clothing, we don’t need it anyway.

So we’re starting the rebalance – it’ll take a year before we’re fully there, but the process has started.  I’m hopeful that the situation does turn out to be better than we had in Oregon.  Initially on paper, it certainly was much better.  We’ll know for certain early in the new year, once we’ve seen the heating oil usage in December. 

Fall has arrived.  This forested area is between my
office and the customer site.  Trees are losing
leaves, and aggressively turning colors.

The other big thing today was that Aria went to call-backs for the school play, Unplugged.  She said about 50 7-8 graders auditioned, and we’re guessing another 20 or so 6^th graders.  She made the call-back list of about 20 kids.  She’s either very talented or very lucky – she’s gotten nearly everything she’s auditioned for in her young life.  This is her first dramatic audition, which is significantly newer for her than music.  She said it went well. 

And because I’m writing this out of order (on the 21^st), I’ll give you the spoiler: she got a role with a name!  She’s ecstatic.  The cast list was posted Thursday night.  She plays an adult, a Mrs Bartlett.  She has a readthrough on the 24^th, at which point she’ll have a good idea of how large of a role she got.

#111 –A day for scouting and Oregon wins! - September 22, 2012

Saturday.

Woke up not many hours after going to sleep.  Thank goodness for a good sleeping pad to make sleeping in a tent possible!

I slept until I had to wake up.  Christian and our new scout were talking in the next tent over, sunlight poured through the trees, and it was 7:30.  So I meandered over to the substantial campfire.  I don’t do well with milk, so I skipped our breakfast of Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but I watched the other scouts cook up hash browns.  Then I took care of my tent and things, and sat down to finish “Darth Paper Strikes Back”, the 2^nd book in the Origami Yoda series.  I had read 90 pages yesterday, and I figured today I would finish.

We started the orienteering activity at 9.  The scouts broke into groups of 3, each had a compass.  One of the other leaders had hidden cans around the camp and marked their locations on a map.  Each can location had a letter or number on the can, and directions to follow.  The group was to mark their map with the instructions from the can to prove they were there.  Then it was off.  The groups split quickly, fanning over the campground.

I was asked to head to the water and supervise the canoes, so I took my book and headed down there.  One of the cans was on the island, so they had to use canoes to finish the course. 

At the same time, there was a daddy-daughter campout from Westchester.  We helped them get their canoes in the water as well.  By 11, the hunt was over.  Christian had decided he wanted to participate, and his group came in second by a slim margin.  The last group was 20 minutes late, and hadn’t done 30% of the course.  We ate lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches,  cleaned up the rest of the camp, and left.

Never before have we had the TV on during dinner.  This
was the exciting conclusion to OSU's beat-down of UCLA.

Aria can never stop finding ways to celebrate the O.  tonight,
she melted a ring of cheese on her baked potato.  Then
she baked a lemon cake and frosted it with green frosting.
Go Ducks!

I took a nap when we got home, then made dinner and did some laundry.  While checking the news, I saw that the Beavers were playing No 19 UCLA.  And it was on TV!  And we have cable!  So I turned on the game and we rooted for the Beavs.  They beat UCLA more than the score says, and ended up winning by a touchdown.  I posted on Tim’s Facebook page when the Beavs were 2 TDs ahead.  His response?  “Shaddap.” 

Then some more laundry and blogging, and then the Ducks took on Arizona in the PAC12 opener.  The first half was a defensive show, the score 13-0 at halftime.  Oregon broke apart Arizona’s offense in the 3^rd quarter.  Arizona threw 3 interceptions in the last 21 minutes of the game, 2 of them went for touchdowns.  In the end, Number 3 Oregon beat No 20 Arizona 49-0.

The game ended at 2am.

#110 – Patience 1, Sleep 0 - September 21, 2012

Another normal day at work today.  Did not get some analysis done that I was hoping for, but did get a few other things fixed. 

I left about 4:30, and picked up my newest boy scout.  He was a little shocked to see me, I think, and there had not been great communication between his family and me.  But he put together his stuff and we left.   We picked up Christian, loaded the car, and headed out to camp Liahona.  We set up camp, the boys cooked dinner (steaks on the fire, mashed potatoes made without a colander, canned soup, and powdered lemonade, and cinnamon apples for dessert).  It took a few hours, but was pretty good. 

Then it was time to try to sleep. 

This is my first Boy Scout campout since I was a Boy Scout – maybe 14 years old.  I didn’t camp after that because I was busy and the other boys were jerks.  And I remember staying up all night talking in my tent with John Griesen.  I don’t recall us being particularly quiet, nor do I recall anybody telling us to be quiet.  But I do recall seeing the sunlight creep into the tent and being surprised it was already daylight.  That was a very good memory.

But tonight we had 1 tent of boys where one boy was particularly sensitive, and the other boy was particularly obnoxious.  The sensitive boy screams all the time – he seems to have lost his inside voice completely – so we had a screaming 13 year-old boy.  Until midnight, when the pair of them were finally threatened enough to calm down and sleep. 

I don’t recall if this was normal when I was a kid.  I know I didn’t grind my teeth or have to build my patience back then.  I certainly did tonight.  So I’m either going to have to get tougher on the boys or learn to relax.  Either way, it’s a good adventure.

#109 – Revenge is a dish best served on a football field in South Carolina - September 20, 2012

Woke up this morning and went outside.  It was a little chilly – the first time I’ve been chilly outside here in 5 months, I think.  The summer is relentless.  Weird to have the AC not kick on much any more, enough so that the house feels a little stagnant sometimes.  And then I noticed that I could see my breath.  That has also been a while.

That cloudy fuzzy thing in the middle of the picture
 is my condensed breath.  The trees are part of our property.

I took the kids to the bus stop, and then headed in to work.  I was expecting a slow day, a day where I could spend a few hours staring at numbers and making graphs.  Instead I walked into the office, found 3 emails that required immediate attention, and that took me to lunch.  Then I had meetings from 1-2:30, then 1 hour of working on something else that came up today, and then another meeting from 4-5.

The evening was yet another packed one.  Katrina made shepherd’s pie (with fresh NY shepherds), and I worked the kids through their homework.  After dinner I filled the garbage can with sheetrock from the old pantry walls.  It didn’t take as long as I thought it would, and it filled the garbage can more quickly than I thought it would.  Then I sat down to watch the Giants. 

Please understand – I have never before in my life watch an NFL game on my TV.  Not once.  I saw a game on the hotel TV when I first got here, but I’m generally not a sports TV watcher.  One of the things I’m trying to do here (in this house) is to do more things that more people participate in.  Libby and Jakers weren’t interested in the game, but Christian was.  So he came over to the living room and watched with me for a bit.  Then he found a book on wolves and read that while the game played on.  Aria went to bed.  Katrina finished cleaning up the kitchen, and came to join me for a bit.  Christian went to bed.  Katrina went to bed.  And then the game ended.  36-7, Giants beat the Panthers, and I got to see a team I care about beat Cam Newton.  Retribution for the Ducks-Auburn national title game 2 years ago when Cam’s team beat the Ducks.  The Giants look great this year.  They dominated the Panthers from the beginning to the end.

So this fall we’ll watch some football – the Ducks are on again Saturday night on ESPN, the Giants games we’ll catch every once in a while when it works with our schedule.  And then we’ll switch to the NBA and watch some Knicks.  I don’t expect them to be great, and I’m disappointed they lost Jeremy Lin, but they’re my team, I think.  

#108 - Back on the writing horse - September 19, 2012

So I know I’m behind by about a month.  I’m back on the daily writing routine, and I’ll provide backfill days as I go.  I hope to be caught up in a few weeks here, we’ll see how fast I can actually do it.   So once again, if things seem out of order, they probably are.

Today was a fun one at work.  I have arrived at a place where I can drive interesting and different changes.  The change to our safety habits was one.  Today I sat down with my comanager and boss and we discussed changes to the data we report to our customer on a monthly basis.  The data has had its useful day, but there are other opportunities for improvement that are not highlighted by our current data set.  So I’ve started working with our analyst to build some more useful data sets, more to explore what it might tell us than to change anything up front.  It’s time for me to understand the data better so I can help to drive improvements.

This morning was one of my late work mornings, and I took the kids to the bus stop for the first time.  There were 2 other parents there, and it was nice to meet my neighbors.  The kids are fun to get ready for school.  They forget things, and they are focused on having fun as soon as they wake up.  So they need some redirection, some personal grooming advice, and then they’re ready to go.

This evening was scouts.  We had 3 different places to be: a school open house for Libby and Jake that they were not invited to (parents only), Scouts for Christian and me, and Aria was supposed to be at Camp Liahona for iceblocking.  Camp Liahona has a literally killer hill for iceblocking.  I would expect injuries to be par for the course there.

In the end, Katrina skipped the open house, Aria had a blast iceblocking, and I had a good time with my boy scouts.  We planned an upcoming camping trip.  Should be a good time.

Then home and sleep – it was a non-stop great day.

Libby is on the steps, Jakers is next.  Christian has the black hoodie over his head.