October 1, 2000

Sheesh. This is the first weekend since June that we haven't been going somewhere or had someone visiting us. Now, for all of you who visited us this summer, we loved having you here--don't get the wrong idea! We're just grateful for the quiet time spent inside our own house.

September was busy, which is why I haven't updated the site all month. We were in Seattle for Labor Day weekend, and then Kathy was here for ten days. We had a lot of fun doing a lot of nothing, but enjoyed the times we cleaned ourselves up and actually left the house too. Got to see "Auntie" Lori a couple times, and the infamous Martin of the message board.

The day after Kathy left we drove to Seattle, dropped Katie at Grandpa & Grandma's, and flew to Las Vegas. We met Kathy and her family there (you might think we'd had enough of each other, but NOOOO!) and spent four days avoiding the outdoors, as it was over 100°. Pictures will be posted when Kathy gets them developed and sends me copies. Vic and I video-taped the exciting parts: Kathy pretending she didn't know the camera was on her, Kathy dancing in front of Paris, Kathy eating my cheesecake, Kathy using profanity, Kathy embarrassing her husband and children...

Anyway, the hotels that have come up since we were last there in early 1999 were incredible! Our favorite was the Venetian, where we took a gondola ride on a canal... down the middle of a shopping mall. OK, so maybe it wasn't completely authentic. We also enjoyed Paris, the new Aladdin, and Mandalay Bay. Spent WAY too much time at the Krispy Kreme in our hotel (Excalibur), but we did celebrate my birthday at The Cheesecake Factory and Spago.

Stephen had his picture taken as The Terminator at one of those booths where they put your face into another picture. Sean got to put his hands on the butt of a lion cub and have his picture taken at the Lion Habitat at MGM Grand. Hopefully Kathy will scan and send the photos so I can proudly display them on Sean and Stephen's page.

The day we got back home, Deanna came to visit for a long weekend of sitting around. Since we were all fighting colds there was barely energy for shopping, although we did do some. Also watched a great movie: The Big Tease, starring Craig Ferguson as a Scottish hairdresser who's invited to a Hair-Off in Los Angeles. Antics abound, as you can imagine. We also watched--Ed, don't read this part--the new Little Mermaid movie. Anyway, I loved having Deanna here because she's one of those friends who's just fun to be with, even when we're all sickies and grouchy.

I've started contract training at Kinetic Computer Solutions. I taught JavaScript last week, and have some more classes scheduled in October. It's fun being back in the classroom for full-day classes, although I still love what I'm doing for the Lake Oswego School District. I'm also taking on some consulting projects here and there; just enough to keep me busy. Our wonderful neighbor Cheri is caring for Katie when I have daytime work.

I'll be working a lot in October, but otherwise we don't have too many plans. With Vic on vacation for a couple weeks we'll probably try to get out of town for a few days, but right now we don't even want to think about leaving the house.

Happy Birthday to Ted (10/1), Jenna (10/2), Judi (10/3), Brianna (10/10), Jim and Erin (10/13), Ron (10/19), Alex (10/24), and Uncle Paul (10/31). Happy Anniversary to Ted and Jocelyn (10/8)!

New stuff on the site: pretty much nothing. Note our new e-mail addresses on our home page. Hopefully I'll be able to add some new pictures soon.