WE MAY LIKELY HAVE BEEN KILLED

Images and news from the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami have been horrific as I've witnessed them. Devastation in Thailand has particularly hit home due to the fact that Railay, Ao Nang and Hat Pra Nang on the Andaman coastline were places we visited in August of 2003. We stayed in bungalows not five feet above sea level, all near the beach. If the waves had hit when we were there, we were particularly vunerable at Railay because there isn't really a road back to Ao Nang, the biggest nearby town with highway access. Railay and Hat Pra-Nang are at the end of a roadless peninsula flanked by towering, verdant limestone cliffs.

The most wrenching testimonial I have read is from an Anchorage, AK college student vacationing at Railay with a friend. They were rock climbing in the area when the waves headed for the shore. His friend snapped some photos, both posted at the Anchorage Daily News website.

Below are three photos from our own vacation 16 months ago, each of places mentioned in the Alaskan's account, followed by two photos of the tsunami taken by his friend.

Railay/Hat Pra-Nang


Jill at Railay/Hat Pra-Nang


Beach at Ao Nang


Railay Tsunami (Anchorage Daily News)


Yachts Enduring Railay Tsunami (Anchorage Daily News)


The best updates about how to help tsunami victims everywhere around the Indian Ocean are found at The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog.

The American Red Cross is also taking donations via Amazon.com. To date, they've raised over $2.6 million with no overhead costs reducing the amount actually helping those in need.

Sue Frye, frequent contributor at the Johnson Gardner office, came in to say that a friend of hers that lives in Thailand half of the year to teach diving was unscathed by the tsunami due to his higher elevation home on the coast. However, his diving skills are being called upon to help extract the numerous bodies trapped underwater in coral reefs lining the Thai Andaman coastline.

Prayers and money are all most of us can do for them now.

(IT WAS A) MERRY CHRISTMAS!

...Until about 8pm, that is, when Gabriel had a complete meltdown, which then triggered an acid reflux attack.

But before that, Christmas was quite pleasant and Gabriel clearly enjoyed his nearly five-month-old self. Below is a photo similar to our Christmas card this year, but Gabriel is fidgeting, though smirking. It was a close second.



The plan was to have breakfast ready for everyone by 9:30-10am.. but we have an infant, so what were we thinking? We were up until after 3am overnight Christmas eve wrapping presents once Gabriel finally fell asleep and we were able to get to work.

9:30am came very early. We didn't even notice Tom and Kate knock at the door, having just arrived from PDX with a sweet Volvo rental (heated seats!). We later found out they went to Shari's for coffee and a snack before swinging back by.

By 10am, we did hear the doorbell ring and through the front window noticed nearly everyone gathered outside the front door - include Charlotte.. even she was up and ready to go - and we weren't. So, we let everyone in - many wearing Hawaiian shirts in anticipation of the Hawaiian Christmas dinner - and fired up the stove for pancakes and bacon. By 11am, everyone was eating.

By 11:30am, Gabriel was ready for his pre-noon nap (he's getting quite regular about it), so we handed out everyone else's presents and began to open them. By 12:30, he was up and the major work was to begin.

Gabriel received all sorts of neat toys and other gifts, too many to comprehensively list here. But the immediately big hits were:

-A plush palomino rocking horse that makes galloping sounds and whinneys from Uncle Tom & Aunt Kate;

-A musical train with flashing lights from Gramma Judy and Grampa Koke; and

-A toy aquarium with moving fish, bubbles and soothing music (link goes to a demo - play with the aquarium on the internet!) from Great Aunt Suebee and Great Uncle George.

Presents for Gabriel that Mom and Dad especially look forward to are a cd/clock/radio with a soothing nature sounds CD from Gramma Dianne and Grampa Dave, and some lullabye CDs from (Great Gramma) Me-Ma.

But that isn't to say gifts from everyone else weren't appreciated or enjoyed; we just listed the ones Gabriel took an immediate shining to and those that we hope will help coax Gabriel into sleeping. All three of us thank everyone for their generosity in making Gabriel's first Christmas exciting for him and memorable for us. Thank you all!

Everyone able to be here:
Uncle Tom & Aunt Kate
Gramma Judy and Grampa Koke
Gramma Dianne and Grampa Dave
Great Gramma Charlotte
Gabriel & his Mom and Dad.

POST CHRISTMAS STRESS DISORDER

All the well-meaning stimulation definitely took a toll on poor Gabriel. He didn't show signs of problems during the afternoon while the Hawaiian dinner was being prepared. But by 8pm, right after I left for Judy & John's (?!) to finish preparing the Kahlua pork and get the ribs going, Gabriel apparently snapped. Nobody could console him, including his mommy.

Deciding to give him some peace and quiet, all but Jill and Gabriel arrived at John & Judy's for dinner. But the tempest continued, so I left for home to help calm him. By nearly 9:30pm, Gabriel had calmed down enough to eat, so I spun back by to grab some food for Jill and myself. They were waiting for us - and they didn't eat until 10:30pm (!!). The food was a hit, and apparently they all had a great time, though it was late and fatigue had set in for everyone.

Sunday the 26th was low-key to get Gabriel back into a normal pattern. In between naps, he played on the floor with me for quite a while, I helped him walk around the living room, and he went for a walk with his Mom, Dad, Gramma Dianne and Grampa Dave. All was well.

TRIP TO TILLAMOOK

On Monday, while Gabriel and his Mom stayed home to rest, everyone else piled into the Volvo and we headed to Tillamook for a visit to the cheese factory. Everyone stocked up on curds, ice cream, cheese and other goods after a hearty round of samples.

But after that, we visited the Blue Heron cheese factory, which has many more samples of foods and is, in my opinion, a more fun place to visit as a result. Cheeses, sauses, jams, jellies, spreads, and wine are among the many things you can try. Plus, they have a cafe where they serve everything and they have a large collection of farm animals that are quite entertaining in and of themselves. I picked up a jar of sugar-free black raspberry preserves and a small stilton with cranberries, sealed in red wax.

The weather was most agreeable, and the evening was only sullied by the surprise closure of the Bavarian Sausage & Delicatessen in Metzger between Christmas and the New Year. Oh, well Tom, better luck on the next trip!

HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS

I never understood the desire to have a photo with Santa. I didn't enjoy the experience, really, so my parents were wise enough not to put us through it more than once. Besides, I never really got a satisfactory answer to the question "why are there so many Santas at the different malls?"

Looking at the photo below, you can see what happens with Santa more often than not. Carefully note the look on Santa's face.. No doubt about where his paycheck goes when he's off the clock!


(Source: Chicago Tribune)

Enjoy this link, which provides a nice slideshow of other photos in the same spirit as the pic above. Happy shopping!

FOUR MORE SHOPPING DAYS…

Oh, my does time fly when you’re so busy you have to stay up all night working. Well, it is December again, after all. And, unfortunately for me as I gather my thoughts for finally updating this website, much in fact has happened.

So, without further ado..

CAN I HILLS-BORO A CUP OF SUGAR?

Mom and Dad did find a home they liked here in Hillsboro, Orygun. I was at the house when it was inspected, and it is indeed a good find. Below is a photo, but to sum up it was built in 1995, over 1,500 square feet in floor area, 5,000+ square foot lot and right near one of Hillsboro’s better natural area parks with trails.

But after the extensive search for a home with some acreage, it is a bit surprising to see that they’ve purchased something where you might see what your neighbor is eating for dinner. A few walls or hedges and all should be better, though. I’ll have the exact address on here after they take possession of the home on December 31st.



Good news for Gabriel: he has two cookie-baking grammas to run away to when he gets mad at us! But, here’s Gramma Reid’s off-the-cuff take on all of the nearby family: ”Bill, you sure have a tough row to plow.” I told her that if it doesn’t work out well, we’re moving to Hawaii! Why not?!

CHARLOTTE IN OREGON

Gram Charlotte Wachdorf arrived in Portland on the evening of Thursday the 16th escorted by her second daughter, Sandy Nemeth, who resides in Connecticut with her husband Jack. Char and Sandy both flew in from San Antonio where Charlotte is staying with her youngest son, former Air Force Colonel Art Wachdorf. I posted a photo of the two of them on here before.. here’s the link.

Sandy had to leave for Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon where her eldest son Mark and his wife are expecting their first child, a daughter, with a due date of Christmas day. Beware the low pressure system – it has a tendency to cause early labor! Here’s a photo of Sandy and wee Gabriel on Saturday.



Charlotte will be in Oregon for several weeks, or until she gets absolutely sick of all of us. So far, however, it seems Gabriel has charmed her as well, so she’s not likely going anywhere soon. We’re very happy she can be here to visit and see G.F.

GABRIEL ENCHANTED BY THE GROTTO

The Grotto Festival of Lights has come to be a family Christmas tradition with us over the past seven years. The Grotto is actually the Our Lady of Sorrow retreat center, among other things. It’s a beautiful sanctuary in Northeast Portland that at Christmastime decorates their trees and paths with all sorts of lights, the main of which has a decorated narrative of Christ’s birth. It’s like walking through Linus’s answer to Charlie Brown’s famous question.

We all met for early dinner at Gustav’s, but Charlotte wasn’t feeling well so she and Judy went home. That left Gabriel, his Gramma Dianne, Jill and me. So, the three of us took Gabriel to the Grotto, where the poor little boy was overwhelmed with lights to look at. He had a wonderful time, even talking to some of the lights – a very good sign. He even enjoyed sitting still in the church listening to both the St. Stanislaus Polish Choir and another local, high school choir. Though, during the latter, he fell asleep during a song and would be startled awake by everyone's applause.

We especially enjoyed returning to the Grotto since last year. It was there, though earlier in December, that we learned that Jill's pregnancy would continue all the way through to August. And now we have Gabriel. That's what inspired his name.. the Archangel Gabriel.. deliverer of the most joyous news.

SAD NEWS FROM NEW MEXICO

We recently learned that Marge Proffitt, Terry's octegenarian mother in Farmington, passed away. She was able to attend Terry's wedding earlier in the Fall and reportedly had a wonderful time seeing much of her family.

Jill and I pass along our heartfelt condolences.

QT-P2T

Okay, I've waited long enough. Here are a few photos of Gabriel that I personally find to be among my favorites, all taken quite recently.

CHRIS BLAKNEY ENGAGED

My co-worker Chris Blakney recently proposed marriage to his girlfriend Jessica and was greeted with a resounding yes. Congratulations, you two!

JOHN'S SURGERY A SUCCESS

John (Koke) Korynasz's hernia operation went well this past week. A 1.5 hour procedure and a three-day stay in the hospital was successfully endured. John got to go home yesterday (22nd) and he's much happier, of course. The doctors found no signs of a return of his colon cancer, so he's a happy fellow.

The Demerol he was taking did cause some odd side-effects (mild hallucinations), but nothing harmful to him by any stretch. Welcome Home!

ANITA BUTCH GETS HITCHED

Anita's wedding was in Tempe this past weekend, where she tied the knot with Mr. Sam Means. Sam's daytime (and nighttime) job is with the duo rock group The Format. Here's a link to MTV's website with a bit more information. Apparently, attendance at the wedding was considerable.. many family members made it, though Gabriel, Jill and I were unable to attend.

Congratulations, you two. Here's to many happy years of royalty checks!

HAPPY TO BE WHEAT-FREE

Gabriel (and Jill, of course) is wheat-free for a couple of weeks now and it appears to be helping with his acid reflux. Jill's naturopath recommended the change in diet given that wheat can be a huge allergy problem for some people. Well, it seems both Jill and Gabriel have enjoyed improvements. It can be a bit inconvenient planning for meals sometimes, but it is definitely worth it given Gabriel's general improvement in demeanor and disposition in the evenings.

NEWPORT TRIP A SUCCESS

I was holed up in Newport, Oregon for the second half of last week. I'm working on the City's economic development strategy. Regular readers will recall a photo and newspaper article link a couple of months ago.

Well, now I'm nearly done with the project and I gave a presentation of findings to date last Wednesday. This link goes to the article itself.. I'm quoted quite a bit in the second half of it. Tom thought I actually sounded professional after he read it

The photo is of Al Benkendorf of The Benkendorf Associates, a frequent collaborator on projects like these. We're about to kick off another similar, though smaller, study in LaGrande, Oregon.

TOM AND KATE TO VISIT FOR CHRISTMAS

Tom and Kate are arranging for a Christmas morning arrival to the Portland area for a roughly three-day stay. Should be fun. This is Gabriel's first Christmas, so he'll be happy to see his only uncle and aunt!

UPDATE: GMAIL SUCCESS WITH FIREFOX

Wow.. I can do all three now in a consolidated manner and I don't have to use Microsoft Explorer ever again! Amen!

UPDATE: SUCCESS WITH FIREFOX

There, I reported. It worked like a charm. Now on to see if Gmail works with it as well...

ANOTHER EXTREMELY QUICK UPDATE

I'm creating this post with Mozilla's new Firefox 1.0 web browser. It seems a lot like Opera, except I can edit this blog with it (or so it seems) while Opera won't let me.

I'll report soon enough on its success...

EXTREMELY QUICK UPDATE

The website World66.com allows you to map the countries of the world you've visited as well as map out all the U.S. states and Canadian provinces you've visited.

Here's my world map:



Here's my U.S. map:



Here's my Canadian province map:



Here's Gabriel's U.S. map.. he's off to a good start:

BUSH EASILY WINS NASCAR NATION

Websites are tracking actual votes and called races now, so exit poll results are winnowing. I'm finished with reporting poll results as a result. It's not looking good for Bush at this point. But then again, it didn't look good for him last time, either.

More news in the morning. Good night!

ELECTION SPOILER SPOILER **5:25pm Pacific UPDATE**

I'm updating the following list of States all day, so check for the time stamp above for the latest updates. Anything in italics denotes the change or new information since the last post.

As of 5:25pm Pacific Standard Time, Exit Poll results...
Bush - 108 Votes Kerry - 77 Votes
Bush States: West Virginia (5), Georgia (15), Kentucky (8), Indiana (11), Oklahoma (7), Alabama (9), Tennessee (11), Mississippi (6), South Carolina (8), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13)
Kerry States: Vermont (3), Illinois (21), Maine (3), Massachusetts (12), Connecticut (7), New Jersey (15), Delaware (3), Maryland (10), DC (3)

Arizona: Bush 55%, Kerry 45%
Colorado: Bush 50%, Kerry 49%
Louisiana: Bush 56%, Kerry 43%
Michigan: Bush 46%, Kerry 52%
Pennsylvania: Bush 46%, Kerry 53%
Ohio: Bush 46%, Kerry 48% Bush Up 2%
Florida: Bush 49%, Kerry 51%
New Mexico: Bush 48%, Kerry 50%
Minnesota: Bush 46%, Kerry 52%
Wisconsin: Bush 47%, Kerry 52%
Iowa: Bush 49%, Kerry 50%
New Hampshire: Bush 44%, Kerry 53%
Nevada: Bush 48%, Kerry 49%
North Carolina: Bush 52%, Kerry 48%
Missouri: Bush 52%, Kerry 47%
Arkansas: Bush 54%, Kerry 45%
New York: Bush 36%, Kerry 62%

GABRIEL'S FIRST HALLOWEEN

Gabriel looked smart in his Tigger costume for Halloween Sunday night. However, due to a bad bout with reflux, we got a late start and only made it over to Grandma and Grampa Korynasz's house. His photo is posted in the left margin of the page.

Grandma and Grampa Reid visited last night (Monday) and Gabriel donned his orange and black costume just for them to everyone's delight. We went to the Helvetia Tavern for dinner and had cheeseburgers and onion rings. Yum!

His lazy father didn't carve his pumpkins, so we'll just have to have Mexican pumpkin soup or something like that.

ELECTION SPOILER SPOILER

To the extent that I can, I'll post Associated Press exit poll results for different states and territories today BEFORE the networks report the results tonight. But I won't use the invisible font type, so you're just going to have to avert your eyes if you don't want to see the results.

First Up: GUAM
George W. Bush - 64%
John F. Kerry - 36%

CECILIA WACHDORF VISITS PORTLAND

Cecilia, Judy's cousin from Florida, was in Portland for the better part of last week for a Midwifery convention. Cecilia recently earned her Ph.D. in public health with focus on midwifery practices nationally and internationally. She's been delivering babies for a few score now, including in ABQ and Papua-New Guinea, and her research has been well received in various speaking engagements she's had nationwide.



After the conference, she stayed at John and Judy's for a couple of nights visiting and touring the area. Apparently, a visit to a historical graveyard was a part of the tour, interestingly enough. Gabriel got to meet his third cousin that was an invaluable source of advice to his Mom and Dad during the pregnancy.

Thank you, Cecilia, we all very much enjoyed your visit and look forward to another chance in the future.

ACID REFLUX AND EVIL ZANTAC

Sweet Gabriel boy, whose photo was updated in the left margin as you can see, has been diagnosed as having infant acid reflux. He's creating too much stomach acid and can't keep it all down sometimes, so it irritates his little system and interrupted his sleep - not to mention Mom and Dad's sleep.

But Dr. Snyder figured it was likely acid reflux which is surprisingly common in infants. So now, Gabriel gets a 1.5ml of mint-scented Zantac twice a day. The stuff is horrid and Gabriel's shrieking reaction to its flavor is completely understandable. I tried the stuff and it'll be a miracle if he doesn't develop a phobia for mint because of it.

It also turns out that Jerry and Sue's son Henry also has acid reflux, though he's better than four years old and likely takes the meds a bit better. Poor fellow.

But, things are better and the future's so bright, Gabriel's gotta wear shades.


OFFER MADE ON YAMHILL COUNTY RESIDENCE

Mom and Dad made a lower-ball offer on the house and five acres, but we'll see if it's received and accepted. Meanwhile, Dad is now on a three week-on/one week-off schedule in Tulsa. Mom has been in Las Vegas & Gallup over the past 10 or so days and will be back up here this weekend with Me-ma.

PACKERS-'SKINS GAME TO DETERMINE PRESIDENT

I've been beating this drum a bit too much lately, but whoever wins the Oct. 31st game between the Packers and the Redskins will determine the presidential election.

Madness! you say?! Well, it's true that for every presidential election since 1936, the outcome of the last Redskins home game before the election determines who wins the White House. It goes like this:

Redskins Win = Incumbent Party Wins White House
Redskins Lose = Challenging Party Wins

So, if you're a Democrat, you're a Cheesehead on Halloween. But if you're honest with yourself, is this really what you want to align yourself with?


TRIUMPH AT THE THIRD DEBATE

You have to have a slightly crude sense of humor to appreciate Triumph the Insult Comic Dog - he can be inconsistently funny/crude - but every now and then he scores dramatically on assignment for Conan O'Brien.

This link is to Triumph's appearance in the "Spin" Room after the third presidential debate in Arizona. He actually gets to encounter and provoke actual pundits and party hacks, some of them with serious political power.

It's a big download, but very much worth the wait. Warning: Marginally SFW... keep the volume low Just click on the photo of Triumph, wait and enjoy!

UPDATE: ERUPTION PHOTO

Here's a still-shot of Mount St. Helens from the USFS VolcanoCam I've linked to the left. It was off for a while, but back on now.. for a while.



To clarify, Mount St. Helens is apparently blowing off steam according to this article in the Seattle P.I.

I suppose this proves that volcanos release tension with methods other than those recommended by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as reported by The Guardian UK newspaper.
Warning: Link NSFW, apparently unless you work for the Supreme Court.

UPDATE: MOUNT ST. HELENS ERUPTS

You wouldn't know it from my live WebCam link because traffic to the original USFS site is so heavy, but Mount St. Helens indeed has erupted. I'd guess that the eruption is a "medium" one given the fact that a sizeable plume of ash extended a few thousand feet straight up (by my estimate) and then drifted west and then south.

The four of us here in the office headed up to the roof of the building and got a pretty decent view of the volcano, though visibility is marred by haziness despite a beautiful, sunny day. No loud explosions or anything else to report. Local traffic helicopters were taking off and flying towards the crater when we arrived to the top of our 12-story building.

I don't think air traffic will be too affected, though commuter flights between Seattle and Portland are the most likely affected. Winds are pretty calm, though if they pick up, Portland International Airport is right along the south bank of the Columbia River and could get a faint dusting.

As soon as I get a good webcam photo, if possible, I'll perma-post it and update with more info.

UPDATE: MT. ST. HELENS LIKELY TO ERUPT

This story from CNN.com indicates that U.S. Forest Service geologists believe there is a 70% chance that Mt. St. Helens, located 40 miles north of Portland, will have a small or medium eruption.

That's far more likely than I originally heard, so in the left-hand margin of this blog, I have posted a live feed to the US Forest Service VolcanoCam at Mt. St. Helens. To update the photo, all you have to do is click your "Refresh" button in your browser tool bar every so often and the most recent photo will appear.

Ah, will miracles of the internet never cease?

DANGER WARNING: MOUNT ST. HELENS

There's been considerable news lately about how the frequency and intensity of earthquakes under Mount St. Helens have picked up. Volcanic activity warnings have been issued, particularly since the lava dome inside the crater has grown. These are all classic signs of pending activity.

But today, on the US Forest Service's Mount St. Helens webcam, the true threat at the mountain was discovered:

Giant Fly Attack!

GABRIEL'S DAD IN THE NEWPORT PRESS

Last week I was in Newport, Oregon giving a presentation to the City about the local economy as part of a larger economic development strategy and planning study we are conducting. A newspaper reporter was there to do a story on the study process, but when giving my talk, I didn't even notice that the guy had a camera. If I had, I would have kept my top chin up higher so as to not reveal my second one.

Well, it turns out that Al Benkendorf and I were in Newport's News Times September 24th edition. Al is President of The Benkendorf Associates Corp., a planning firm that we work with frequently on assignments throughout the State. Immediately below is the photo.



The story itself can be found here. A different client pointed out that an associate saw me in the paper, so I figured there was only one possibility... my mugshot from this weekend likely won't be printed.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO JILL AND ME

Jill and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary over the weekend. We enjoyed a nice dinner at Monteaux's Public House. Jill liked the Nicaraguan food (ropa vieja) so well a few nights before that we returned for an encore. Again, all was exceptional. Gabriel barely lasted to the end of dinner before registering his displeasure with having to wait for his meal. Jill slipped out with him while I waited on the check.

A bottle of Broadley Vineyard's 2002 Pinot Noir and new wedding bands will be enjoyed in the many days to come. I love you Jill.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MOM

Yesterday was also yet another 39th birthday for Mom. How many is that now? 16? We took her and Jill's parents out to dinner at Newport Bay restaurant for fish.. South Beach dieters in the group, after all. Everyone enjoyed their meals, except Gabriel. Well, Judy's oysters were fried in oil that tasted too strongly of fish. They remedied with pan fried oysters that were met with her happy endorsement. Gabriel, however, decided he was hungry not too long after we sat down. But then he changed his mind, preferring to fuss and stare at the parking lot lights rather than actually eat. Little stinker.

We returned home to enjoy a brownie cake made by Judy for the occasion. Thank you!

AUNT KATE AND UNCLE TOM VISIT

Tom and Kate were in town from Thursday night to Sunday evening. While they were here, they visited with Gabriel (while he and Jill were awake), went out for dim sum, looked around the area and went wine tasting with Kate's friend Meika (sp? sorry if I misspelt). Kate started her visit here with a meeting with one of her law firm's clients in Portland.

Since Gabriel's sleep schedule is still so irregular, our waking hours made it feel like their visit was incredibly brief. But we had a good time and all three of us look forward to their return.. before Gabriel's 6' tall - you two better hurry and book new tickets!.

CHRISTMAS IN SEPTEMBER

Well, our clothes dryer finally keeled over this weekend. Tom and I tried to disassemble it to see what was the cause of the burning smell (the duct was clean as it was new). Well, Amana dryers are not built for repair as we soon found out. So, it's kaput.

But Mom & Dad generously agreed to give us a new washer and dryer combo for our Christmas gift(s) this year, so we went shopping with her and found stackable front-load washer and dryer at Best Buy. Great deal and Consumer Reports rated the models as Very Good quality. In return, she gets from us the slightly used Kenmore washer and dryer we so very much love, but have had to store in the garage since we moved into our house. The space for the washer and dryer is too narrow for both of those wonderful high-capacity machines to fit.

Win-win for everyone! Particularly Gabriel, who goes through clothes like nobody's business. Thanks, Mom & Dad.

SPOILER SPOILER: THE FORGOTTEN

No, I haven't forgotten I had this blog. Yes, I've been rather busy. I'll update more substantively soon enough.

But really quickly, I managed to track down the Suprise Ending to the upcoming movie, The Forgotten, starring Julianne Moore. It's the spooky mystery movie about a mother who grieves her dead son that everyone else claims she never had. So she tries to find the truth behind the big charade.

So here's my Spoiler Spoiler* (highlight the invisible text below with your mouse to read it):

After spending most of the movie trying to uncover the conspiracy theory behind why no one remembers her dead child, it turns out she never did. Aliens, interested in studying human behavior, have toyed with her reality and memory until she discovers the truth in the last few minutes.

*This is a slightly speculative spoiler. Unlike other movies, this one has kept a pretty tight lid on the surprise ending. But between bitter reviewers (bad reviews) flirting with letting the cat out of the bag AND some reliable website forums I scan, I'm confident that 2+2=4. If I'm wrong, so what.

More photos and more news around the corner.

SELF-PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN

Gabriel wasn't too pleased that I posted photos of his bare self last time, so he insisted that I hold him while he snapped some of his own photos. Whichever one you, dear readers, like the best (email me with your vote), I'll put in the left margin on Friday.

Classical, Avant Garde, & Blue Period

EYE CONTACT

After many attempts, Gabriel finally allowed me a photo of him with eye contact.. here it is, the cute little devil. Enjoy.

QUICK UPDATE

I've made some modifications to the website that I'll call out:

New Links (In Link-O-Rama)
Snopes.com - The definitive source for debunking urban legends, annoying chain emails, etc.
National Review - This conservative magazine replaces The Weekly Standard, which I feel has slouched in quality since David Brooks migrated to the New York Times editorial page.

Babel Fish Translator
In the left margin, I've added the Babel Fish translator from Altavista. If it works correctly, you should be able to click the flag of the representative country's language and this page will be translated - rather roughly - into the desired tongue.

GABRIEL WITH GRAMMA JUDY

It seems Les Hardison linked us again with the news of Gabriel's arrival, so here's a photo of Judy with her precious, new grandson Gabriel for any family members that stumble into our page. HI! from the three of us.



Les and Dolores have had quite a trying few weeks with Hurrican Charlie, Dolores' sudden illness - and gradual recovery, the purchase of a new winter home in Carefree, Arizona, and the discovery that someone had charged thousands of dollars to Les' credit card in Turkey. He put a stop to it quickly, thank goodness.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

CHARLOTTE AND SANDY TO VISIT

Charlotte Wachdorf and Sandy Nemeth, Gabriel's great grandmother and great aunt, respectively, are slated to come to Portland in about a month to see Gabriel. Once some health care issues are sorted out for Charlotte, they'll be headed over to enjoy the baby and Oregon's lovely Autumn weather.

AUNT KATE AND UNCLE TOM TO VISIT

Kate emailed to say that she and Tom are eager to return to Portland to visit Gabriel, likely at the end of September or early October - the date is not yet cast.

CLOUD FAMILY GENEOLOGY HOMEWORK ALREADY DONE

While MeMa was here, I asked her questions about the origins of the Hays, Chambers, Harris and Cloud families for the purpose of making a family tree for Gabriel. I won't go into all of the the juicy details here now, but maybe later.

However, I will say that there is a website out there, Cloudweb, that has already traced the geneology of the Cloud family. As a reminder, Lela Harris, the mother of my grandfather J.C. Harris, was Lela Cloud before marrying James Lester Harris.

Well, at this website link, you can trace Cloud family geneology from her (my great grandmother - you have to scroll to nearly the bottom of the page for Lela's entry) all the way back to William Cloud, born in July of 1621 in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. It seems he was the first family member to cross the Atlantic and begin life in the New World. He died in August of 1702 in Chester Co., Pennsylvania Province.

It's rather fascinating what a few simple questions and Google can do!

BACK TO WORK

Starting today, the 25th, I'm back to work full time after taking some time off to be with Jill and Gabriel in the daytime during this fun but challenging transition we're going through. Gabriel (see the new picture in the margin to the left) is getting better about sleeping each night.. marginally.. and so Jill is better able to get along by herself. Judy has come over a few times with either cooked meals or just to help with some chores, though, and it's been greatly appreciated.

HEALTHY BABY - FATIGUED MOM

Gabriel passed his two-week check-up with flying colors at Dr. Snyder's office. He's better than birth weight - gaining nearly a pound in ten days - and everything else checks out fine, including the slight irritation in his left eye that likely occurred during birth. The appointment ended with a handshake from Dr. Snyder and a congratulations on a healthy son.

Jill, on the other hand, did not fare quite as well at her own two-week medical check-up with her midwife. Physically, she seems to be healing just fine. But Mary Popkes, her nurse midwife, said she was not getting enough rest given the stress and adjustment that a new mom must undergo, particularly after an unmedicated birth. So, Jill's now doing a better job of spending more time trying to sleep during the day when Gabriel is napping.

GABRIEL MEETS MORE FAMILY

I apologize right now for not having photos prepared to go with Gabriel's introduction to other family members.. hopefully when I get some time...?

Grandpa Dave got to meet Gabriel on Thursday the 19th. Both enjoyed the visit very much it seems. Dad returned to Oklahoma on the following Sunday.

Last week, Leigh and Teri flew up to Portland to visit, take a short vacation and meet Gabriel. They returned to New Mexico on Saturday. Friday they all went on a trip to the coast, which included stops in Astoria and Tillamook.

Jim Ed, Andrea, Jim, Laurie, Tyler and Drew drove down from the Spokane area over the weekend to visit everyone. They came to the house on Saturday for a few hours and got to meet Gabriel. It was a very enjoyable visit. And I nearly sold our 1950's dinette set.

I do have a photo of our own family.. mom, dad and Gabriel altogether:


THANK YOU FOR THE GIFTS

Gabriel has received a number of thoughtful gifts recently for which he and we are very grateful. Just as soon as we get a bit of a break, Thank Yous and/or birth announcements will be sent. Thanks again!

We're also grateful for hot meals prepared by our very generous neighbors Greg & Sandy and Vassam & Sahar (and Grandma Judy already mentioned), as well as a bounty of local farm produce from Mom.

Thank You All!

BABY BOOM AT JOHNSON GARDNER

Something very clearly is in the water here as a new announcement was made this week. My employer Jerry and his wife Sue announced that they are expecting their third child in the Spring of 2005. Emma, their oldest, was overjoyed with the news and apparently lost sleep over her excitement. Henry, their four-year-old, was happy also, but he's all new to this; Emma is a veteran.

Congratulations Johnson True Family!

HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL

We were officially discharged from the hospital on Sunday the 8th, so we've been home for some time. But our departure was a day late due to a mild case of jaundice he exhibited shortly after birth. The carotin color extended from the top of his head to his belly button. On all of his early pictures, including the one in the left index of this page, he has a tan color with a slightly orange hugh - note how his hands have a normal color and his face is tan in his first-bath-at-home photo. With exposure to indirect sunlight, much eating and, well, getting rid of what he ate, the billirubin is gone and his color is now normal.

Gabriel had his first visit to the pediatrician - Dr. Kelvin Snyder - on Tuesday the 10th, where he checked out quite healthy and beginning to gain wait due to his growing appetite. His jaundice was confirmed to be on the mend.

Saturday the 14th, we visited the postpartum care center at St. Vincent's hospital. Gabriel has been a bit fussy when it comes to beginning a meal and every now and then he expels the majority of what he did consume. But after checking him out and seeing his eating technique, Gabriel is actually a voracious eater who is prone to overfilling himself and triggering reflux. His initial fussiness was deemed normal and, it does seem, it has gotten better over time. Our own theory now is that he's not too keen on the foremilk (the skim milk that he gets at first) but strongly prefers the whole milk that follows. I wonder how he got to be so finicky...

All in all, he's a healthy little guy with a mild and sweet disposition. His mentioned fussiness is gradually waning, he's gaining weight, beginning to fill out and as all the nurses at St. Vincent's said, true to his name Gabriel. We couldn't agree more.


GABRIEL'S VISITORS

It almost goes without saying that Gabriel has had frequent visits from both of his grandmothers lately. But in addition, he's also gotten to meet other family and friends.

Since Thursday night, his great-grandmother MeMa, great aunt Sue, Toni and Terran have been in town to have some fun and visit. Below is a photo of Granny Reid (is that the name you want to go with?), Sue, Toni, Terran and Gabriel.



MeMa has enjoyed the gliding rocker, particularly when she gets to hold Gabriel. He seems to enjoy it very much as well.



Earlier in the week, Gabriel got to meet Davon, his first friend and playdate buddy. Davon and his mother Diana are in the photo with Jill and Gabriel below. Interestingly, Diana is a fellow alum of Robert Service High School in Anchorage, but graduated four years after me. She, her husband and Davon just returned from visiting their family in Anchorage and brought us back some frozen red salmon.. very thoughtful of them.


Note the beautiful basket of flowers in the table from my colleagues at Johnson Gardner. Thank you!

LARRYMOBILE RECOVERED

As part of the birth story last week, I noted that the Larrymobile, our backup car ('89 Toyota Camry) was stolen the night Jill's water broke. Well, last week, the Portland and Hillsboro police departments sent John and Judy a letter informing them that the car was recovered and towed to storage in the Gateway area of Portland - as if that was a safe place for it.

No one called us, so the storage fees racked up over the weekend.. turns out they knew of its whereabouts since Saturday the 7th. How on earth is a towing company going to make money if everyone is informed on time? Of course we have no recourse in the matter. Anyway, we went to inspect and drive the car home, John, mom and me. And for the first time, I got to see what car-stealing cretins leave behind in stolen cars once the fuel tank is emptied.. mind you this has been in the middle of a 90 to 100 degree heat wave:

1. Empty beer bottles and bottle caps;
2. Cigarette butts and a lovely cigarette aroma;
3. Empty chip bags;
4. Dog hair in the back seat; and the clincher,
5. A bag full of raw chicken meat and half-eaten polish sausage.

Remember, the car was stolen and abandoned in the mentioned heat wave apparently with the windows up. So, count your blessings that the internet cannot yet transmit neither aromas nor odors. The flies were in heaven, though, I can assure you. I nearly emptied a can of Lysol in the car before rolling down all the windows for the drive home. In my travels, I have slept in some very interesting places.. In Guatemala alone I've slept in flea-infested shanty towns that miraculously hug the walls of ravines and rat-infested government housing "colonies." But never there did I feel even remotely as filthy and disgusting as I did for the 40 minutes driving that car home. I took a shower immediately upon return.

The car continues to air out in the driveway a week later.

HURRICANE CHARLIE AND THE HARDISONS

Les and Dolores Hardison, Judy Korynasz's uncle and aunt, have a winter home on the Gulf side of Florida. Well, it turns out that Hurricane Charlie did indeed cause some damage to their home, but apparently not as devastating as Les had initially feared. I won't go into it in full detail but I invite readers to check out his accounting of the story at his website: Hardison.info. (Click either Current Newsletter or Work In Progress on the main page).

We all wish you both a quick return to normalcy - and more importantly, a competent, efficient contractor.

GABRIEL FRANCIS KORYNASZ REID

At 4:17am, Friday August 6th 2004, Gabriel Francis was born in maternity room 21 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. And Jill and I (and Gabriel and many relatives) could not be any happier. There could be no better 32nd birthday present for me!

Vital Stats
Term: 39 weeks, one day.
Weight: 7 lbs. 14 oz.
Length: 21.25"
Head: 13.5" circumference

Visitors on Pins & Needles in the Waiting Room
New Grandmother Dianne
New Grandmother Judy
New Grandfather John
New Aunt Kate
New Uncle Tom

We would both like to thank everyone for their prayers, good wishes, gifts and flowers.

OFFICIAL BIRTH STORY (How it went!)

At this point, the following is how we best understand how & why everything occurred.

At 10:20pm Tuesday (August 3rd), I arrived at the Orenco Station MAX parking lot to discover that the Larrymobile (Larry Wachdorf's old '89 white Toyota Camry) had disappeared. I suspected the car had been towed because I left it overnight, unintentionally, at the seemingly safe MAX parking lot in the newer part of Hillsboro. I was also aware that Tri-Met (the local transit authority) was trying to discourage park & ride lots from becoming long-distance free parking for airport passengers via the MAX Red Line.

Jill, after I got home, fretted that the car was likely stolen and that we should report it as such. We did, Hillsboro police verified that they had not gotten a report that the car was towed by Tri-Met, and at midnight at John and Judy's, an officer took down our information for a stolen car claim and report. We have still not heard anything of it.

Needless to say, everyone was pretty rattled by the theft, particularly Jill given the importance of our back-up car with Baby on the way. But by 1am, we were able to go to bed.

"Bill...Bill...Wake up...My water broke" was what I heard Jill say before groggily glancing at the alarm clock: 2am. And indeed, it unmistakably had. Not only that, she began a series of surprisingly intense contractions thereafter for more than an hour before they began to subside. So, figuring active labor would start within 24 hours as is normal, we anticipated the arrival of Baby one week early.

But that's not exactly how it happened. Jill's contractions slowed down to be irregularly timed and lacking intensity. For the better part of Wednesday, Jill was in early labor as both of us fully anticipated active (hard) labor to start up at any time. On top of that, we were pleasantly surprised on Wednesday to find that Tom and Kate had flown up from Sacramento at a moment's notice to be here for the birth.

Early labor seemingly ended at 11:30pm Wednesday when Jill began getting more intense contractions at closer intervals.. 10 minutes, 8 minutes, 5 minutes.. and every now and again, 3 minutes. Things progressed and Jill began to have a mild ache in the back of her pelvis which required pressure during each each contraction - all positive signs that we would be heading to the hospital before or at the crack of dawn.

But by 5:30am, the contractions waned back to 10 minutes, 20 minutes and 30 minutes apart with diminished intensity. Somewhat discouraged, we went to bed and Jill was able to get fair rest in between each. A noon visit to her nurse-midwife Mary Popkes helped us to understand that we were technically still in early labor - active labor does not regress - and that the hormone oxytocin that passed through Jill's cervix when her bag of waters broke was the culprit for the more intense but temporary contractions.

For the remainder of the day, we tried pretty much every trick in the book to naturally induce labor based on Jill's frequent conversations with her cousin Cecilia Wachdorf

Cecelia Wachdorf

(Credit: Les Hardison's www.hardison.info website)

and what we learned in our Bradley birth class. But ultimately, nothing really worked. So we made a series of three phone calls. We contacted the nurse-midwife on call at Jill's women's clinic and she advised that we head to the hospital ASAP to have the baby monitored given the duration of time that passed since Jill's water broke and the resulting increased risk of infection for the baby. We called Kerennsa Brougham, our Bradley instructor, and she recommended a couple of other strategies for kick-starting labor, then encouraged us by saying we were doing everything right under the circumstances and that given the odd events, a trip to the hospital was likely in order if the last strategies didn't work AND Baby was not behaving irregularly. We called Cecilia and she essentially reinforced both our own instincts and what Kerennsa said.

But nothing worked. So, by 2:30pm, we were ready to head to the hospital. But as we were leaving, we noticed that Sundaye was behaving funny, even for an older cat, and showed possible signs of a kidney infection - great timing! Jill had to make last minute arrangements for Tom & Kate to take Sundaye to the vet and have her checked out while we headed to the hospital to check in.

By 4pm, we were at St. Vincent's maternity ward. We checked in, were sent to triage, reviewed our birth plan with the nurse(s), and were assigned room 21. Shortly thereafter, we met Katie Raetz, the attending nurse-midwife. Mary Popkes, Jill's own nurse-midwife, was surprisingly not on call as she said she would be the day before. We were a bit disappointed, to say the least. Katie examined Jill and found that she was at 3cm, fully effaced and at zero station. All very good signs. Plus, she confirmed that the baby had a full head of hair!

With Katie, we then decided that Jill should try a very low dose of Pitocin to kick-start her contractions. Pitocin, as you probably know, is a manufactured hormone that mimics oxytocin, the natural hormone that induces labor, among other things. After Jill received an IV, she was put on a 6 ml/hr dosage. Along with Katie, BJ was our outstanding attendant nurse. She, we learned, is the chairperson of the St. Vincent's low intervention birth Task Force. We were encouraged and very much appreciated her presence and care.

But the pitocin didn't quite do the trick, so the dosage was doubled to 12 ml/hr after a couple of hours. That DID do the trick and at 8pm, Jill began what most would consider active labor. Contractions began to occur every five minutes with growing frequency and greater intensity as the night went on. Nothing overly intense, but certainly active labor that we had expected Wednesday morning. So Jill labored through it with my coaching - encouragement and massage.

By 11pm, an examination revealed that Jill was at 4 cm. BJ and Katie were encouraged that the Pitocin had done it's job, so they took Jill off of the IV and let her use the birthing ball in the shower. Jill gladly did so. So, she and I went into the shower and I sprayed her lower back with warm water as she went through contrations. But as time passed, her contractions reduced in frequence and duration again. By midnight, BJ let us know it was a good idea to go back on the Pitocin given that labor was slowing down as fast as it was. Jill was examined and she measured 5cm dilated.

Jill was discouraged. She was exhausted, she was uncomfortable with being on the IV again, and she wasn't as dilated as she thought she would be... not only that, but the contractions returned with greater intensity. And between midnight and 1am, she became very distraught, feared the yet-to-be-reached transition period, and was very tempted to get medication to reduce the pain. We got some alone time to discuss what to do. We talked and decided that her fatigue was not so bad that she was losing control and no matter how much she hated being on the fetal monitor and the IV, she did not want drugs that would make her groggy and the baby drugged. So, I strongly coached her to look at each contraction individually and to take them as they come. At 1:30, her exam revealed she was at 6cm dilated - on the verge of transition. This scared her but clearly also encouraged Jill to keep going without the pain medication. By 2:30pm, she was at 7 cm dilated.. clearly on the doorstep of transition.

Contractions then became very rapid and very intense - as they should. Jill's controled her breathing like a pro through wave after wave of increasingly intense labor. Jill didn't see it, but the fetal monitor revealed that she was definitely in transition. She was getting so close that for the last hour of first stage labor, she spent most of her effort controling exhales in short breaths to stave off a strong impulse to bear down and push. I pretty much bear-hugged and held her, sitting on the bed, and guided her through deep inhales and short rapid-fire exhales, all while encouraging her.

By 2:30am, I noticed that the new attending nurse paged the attending nurse-midwife Katie and had fired up the baby warmer table for delivery. I consciously pointed both out to Jill to make sure she knew.. they expected Jill to be pushing VERY shortly. By 2:45am, she was 9.5cm dilated; Jill couldn't have been more encouraged nor more fatigued.. well yes she could as she would find out. Five short but overwhelming contractions later she was at 10 cm and given the greenlight to begin pushing.

And as fatigued as she was, she did so.. reclined at roughly 45-50 degrees. She was way too tired, in my opinion, to squat to deliver and I was way to tired to support her in a squat. We had slept very little Tuesday night, had only a slight nap Wednesday, very little sleep Wednesday night due to the "false" labor and didn't get to sleep Thursday as we tried all sorts of things to get her labor going again. We were both completely exhausted and now Jill had to push the baby out.

But she did it and afterwards stated that pushing was the hardest part of it all. After an hour of pushing, the Baby was fully crowned but couldn't move forward anymore. Jill pushed and pushed, but was exhausted. With the fetal monitor showing Baby's heart rate beginning to drop, Katie performed an episiotomy to help delivery. 17 minutes later, our BOY was born and immediately placed on Jill's chest. We looked at him and easily decided that he was indeed a Gabriel.

After a couple of hours, the nurse returned and I got to help bathe Gabriel. Shortly after that, we learned that the whole family had lost patience and were standing outside (apparently another family in the waiting room learned that their relative in maternity had a tragic emergency - she delivered a part of her uterus for some strange reason). The nurse asked if they could come in and we said yes. I greeted them at the door, but I was so tired I don't know how much of a greeting they got.

But it was the hardest and most rewarding twelve hours we've either experienced (except for maybe my birth.. maybe I'll write about that later). Jill's whole body, from forehead to feet and my back and arms from pushing on Jill's lower pelvis with every contraction, were sore and fatigued. Except for the Pitocin, which we both view as having been a necessary evil under the circumstances, the birth was natural and most importantly, avoided an epidural and the resulting introduction of strong narcotics to our baby. Gabriel responded by being very alert, active and immediatley latched on for an hour-long feeding. Jill and I had to work hard, diligently and constantly the whole 8+ hours... anything short and the outcome may have been very different.

Friday morning, we were congratulated by attendant nurses like heroes for going drug-free through, effectively, 50 hours of on-and-off-and-on labor. They were particularly congratulatory that we managed to do it given the use of Pitocin during labor, which most people know can make contractions much more intense than naturally. I was very proud, and still am of Jill and her strength and resolve to avoid Baby from feeling the effects of strong pain medication.

If he doesn't yet know it, he has a very strong and very loving mother.

Well, that's our birth story. I'll do my best tomorrow to post what happened after that. Until then, here's another photo of our Angel Gabriel (or Saint Francis as I like to call him when I'm trying to pacify him).

SURPRISE ENDING TO THE VILLAGE

One of the most annoying aspects of entertainment journalism today is the public conspiracy by movie reviewers of nearly every stripe to avoid Spoilers in their reviews. To the uninitiated, Spoilers are details of a movie's plot that are meant to be a surprise to the viewer and are frequently integral to the movie's success. The Sixth Sense, by M. Night Shyamalan, is perhaps the best example.

Well, his new movie, The Village, promises to have a surprise twist at the end of this gothic tale and no one seems to have the intestinal fortitude to come right out and reveal the ending, or even hint at it, in the name of professional critical integrity. HOGWASH.

Because I personally think that studios are leading critics around by the nose, I've decided to research for you, dear reader, the ending of this movie and post it on this website. I call it The Spoiler Spoiler(tm). You'll find it by holding the button down on your mouse and scrolling over the blank space immediately below. Remember, It's a surprise ending, so don't view my Spoiler Spoiler(tm) if you think you'll complain to me that I ruined it for you.

**The End of the Movie Spoiler Spoiler(tm)**
You get up and leave the theater wondering why you wasted $8 on such an awful piece of garbage... Wait, there's more:

The monsters are not real, but rather the village elders posing as monsters to keep the villagers scared and pent up inside the village. The Village is nothing but an elaborate false construct by the William Hurt character in the year 2004. He inherits his murdered brother's billions and buys a wildlife refuge, in the middle of which he has devised a village for people whose family members have also been killed by violent crimes. He wants to protect them from the evils of the outside world by keeping them in a 19th century hamlet. They have grown up knowing nothing of the modern, outside world. The surprise is revealed when the blind lead character ventures out into the woods in search of a town for medicine and after climbing over a wall, is nearly run over by an SUV.

Clever, huh?! Not really.

There's plenty of things you can do for $8 - entrance to a museum, fee for a State park hiking trail, a good meal at a cheap Thai restaurant, a month's sponsorship of a needy child.. plenty of stuff. If you can't figure out something else to do with your money, send me a tip for helping you save your hard-earned income!

UPDATE: MORE FALSE CONTRACTIONS
 
They're still irregular and not very frequent, but they are varying in intensity. Jill's still doing alright, but having more difficulty sleeping due to general, not contraction-ralated, discomfort.
 
UPDATE: A TRUCK FULL OF VISITORS?
 
Leigh emailed with greater detail about their pending visit to the Portland area. I couldn't sum it up any better than she has:
 
Wanted to let you know that Teri is going to be heading up there with us as well.  I believe Toni and Taryn are going up with Sue...not sure though so don't quote me (oops, I did quote her-ed.).   Teri and I aren't sure if we are going to drive or fly...depends on how much time she can get off.... Both girls are excited about going.  They want to camp, pick berries, play with Elle and Toni said she wants to go fishing. 
 
Looks like Me-ma will have to charge up the batteries on her scooter as the girls will be keeping her and the rest of us on the go.  As for my take on the berry canning....it's gonna be cruel, simply cruel.  I'm still on the good 'ol South Beach Diet and won't be able to enjoy the fruits of my labors. LOL

I thought South Beach allowed you to eat darker fruits like berries and such because of the Vitamin C and antioxident content compared to the pure carbohydrate content.

Either way, sounds like great pun!

FALSE CONTRACTIONS 
 
Jill reported having Braxton-Hicks contractions for the first time on Friday. Apparently, she had them irregularly for the better part of the afternoon, including off and on at home and at Costco. Changes in her activity did indeed stop the contractions, so she knew they were false at the time.

We're approaching our 38th week and I'm not able to travel much further than an hour or so from home. Adding insult to injury, I've been working like a dog, unable to help Jill and we've been having a heatwave in the Portland area.

TOM TO GET SWORN IN

Unbeknownst to me, a State of California judge can swear in a freshly-minted attorney for another state (republic). So, Tom doesn't have to make the trek up here to a local county courthouse, stand behind a line of gay couples rehearsing their nuptuals, and get sworn in by an Orygun judge.

Mom and Dad will be in Sacramento next weekend for the ceremony. Tom, have you paid all of Kate's and your parking tickets? Probably not a great time to have that brought up.

We might have gone also, but we didn't want to take the risk of our baby being a Californian. (With apologies to Kate, of course.. we love you anyway)

VISITORS EXPECTED SOON
 
Looks like Portland/Vancouver will be a crossroads for quite a few people in the next few weeks.
 
Sue will be driving Me-ma, possibly Leigh, Toni and Terran (sp?) up here in the near future. She's on her way to Sheena Flowers' wedding in Anchorage. Jeff Bahr will be flying to Portland, switching planes, and then heading to Anchorage himself for the same reason.
 
The girls and Me-ma will likely stay in the area for a while, the former enjoying various entertainment and recreational opportunities afforded up here.. like mowing my lawn. Just kidding! I think Mom has some bright ideas for them, including berry picking. Weigh them before they pick.
 
Leigh, I am told, may come up to also pick berries, vegetables and fruit in the local orchards along with Mom. I don't know what army they plan on feeding, but I expect our Christmas stockings this year will be rather heavy and clink like glass.
 
Alternatively, Charlotte Wachdorf insists she'll be headed our way in time for the birth of the baby of undetermined gender. For her, it's simply a matter of getting someone to accompany her all the way from Illinois (or is that Texas?) to Portland.
 
HOME IMPROVEMENT IN ABSENTIA
 
While I've had my hands full with work, there have been many nice volunteers helping with sanding, priming and painting of doors in the house before the baby arrives. Specifically, I wish to thank:
Jill, John, Mom and Dad.
Thank you!
 
GAMES
 
If you're looking for addictive on-line amusement to fill some time or reduce some stress, check out Orisinal.com. The games there are all free, amusing, suitable for the whole family but a little too cutesy for my taste. The best of the few I've tried is Floats. 

UPDATE: TOM PASSES THE BAR!

Tom called today around 4pm to say that he passed the Oregon Bar exam on appeal. As I referred to many days ago on this blog, Tom's initial grade on his first Oregon bar exam was below "passing" by the narrowest of margins. But he appealed some questionable scoring on a few essay questions and they granted him enough additional points to get him through.



Congratulations!! Hopefully he and Kate get to celebrate tonight in addition to ceasing his (re)study of Oregon law. Now he can look for a job in this direction and/or prepare for the California bar exam.

WHERE DID THE MONTH GO?!

I looked at the website and realized it's been a month since my last entry.. that's how busy it's been. Much has been going on, so here's my attempt to fill in the gaps.

OUR LAST HURRAH, EH!

Realizing that Jill is not going to be able to travel anywhere after her 34th week, we decided to take a long weekend in our favorite long weekend destination, British Columbia.

It was pretty much a garden tour:

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver's Chinatown


Classical chinese gardens are highly manicured and controlled to achieve full balance of textures and structures very much in line with the balance of Yin and Yang. Unlike English gardening style, every square inch of a classical chinese garden is planned and controlled for that reason. It's not our favorite because we enjoy nature taking its course in the garden.

Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island


I like this shot of Jill enjoying the rose garden, then at peak bloom. We spent the entire day there (2pm to close at 10:30pm). We first enjoyed High Tea overlooking the rose garden and the Italian garden. A full pot of wonderful, loose-leaf tea and then all sorts of finger sandwiches, cakes and other good stuff to thoroughly sate your appetite. We then spent the rest of our visit enjoying the gardens - which are always different when we visit because of the different plants in peak.

Van Dusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver


Van Dusen Gardens is a former golf course that was purchased by Vancouver for a questionable princely sum "rescued" from housing development and is now a remarkable botanical garden, displaying a wide variety of species from all over the world. It's a definite must-see while you're in Vancouver.

UBC Botanical Garden in Vancouver


The University of British Columbia garden is great because half of it is a large woodlands garden with all sorts of native cedar, spruce and fir trees with all sorts of large plant species from Asia. The above photo was taken by Jill. It shows a pink peony-headed or heroin poppy, a purple poppy and some red cape fuchsia. We have the red cape fuchsia in our garden and the hummingbirds love it.

When we weren't at gardens, we were eating at Hon's House of Wun-Tun... the best place in town for cheap, outstanding Cantonese food.

Who knows when we'll be back again, but we look forward to photographing the baby at all of these favorite places when it's old enough.

ME-MA INJURES HER HIP

Me-Ma fell and cracked her hip - barely avoiding a full break - in Tempe while we were in Canada. She was in the hospital for a couple of days, but she's been on the mend in Las Vegas at Sue & George's. They haven't yet moved to Pahrump as their house hasn't been finished yet as I am told (here's a link to info on their new neighbor). Her recovery is in our prayers.

PROFFITT SHIN-DIG IN GALLUP

Because she got hurt, Mom and Me-Ma both missed Terry's reception dinner after his recent wedding in Kansas. Tom, Kate, Sue, George and a host of others attended and reported it was a nice event, though Terry was working the room and wasn't able to visit people for an overly long time. But that's what you do at an event like that held in your honor. Susan, I believe, is the name of his new bride and we wish them both much happiness. I understand they're now in Hawaii enjoying a nice honeymoon. Good for them.

NEW KITTEN FOR MOM

Chance (or Tuesday as she was formerly known) was formally adopted by Mom when she was in Tempe. The five-week old kitten - long on black and white hair but short on common sense - was a nearly-dead orphan before Melissa and Miranda spotted her on a bicycle outing not long ago. The kitten was clearly abandoned by its mother, so it's been nursed back to health and now happily residing in Vancouver USA. She apparently is rather fond of Ellie and plays non-stop with her. That's a good thing as Ellie's so quick and jerky in her movements that she freaks out Nino and forget about Sundaye entirely.

BIRTHING CLASSES Q&A

And finally, we're in full swing with birthing classes. Right now, we're taking two of them: the hospital (mandatory) classes and the Bradley classes.

Q: What are the Bradley classes?
A: The Bradley(tm) method of birth is a natural childbirth approach that is notable because the husband is the coach.

Q: What do you mean by natural?
A: By natural, we mean with little or no medical intervention, i.e. drugs that induce, accelerate or deaden the pain of pregnancy.

Q: Are you completely insane?
A: Maybe, but that has nothing to do with our decision to have a natural birth. The whole idea is that medical births as they are commonly practiced in hospitals in the U.S. are flawed in ways that potentially harm the mother and the baby. They pose harm to the baby via the potential effects of labor pain-killing drugs and use of devices to extract the baby because epidurals (administration of drugs to epidural area near mom's spinal chord) actually slow and delay labor. They pose harm to the mom because the use of medical devices and procedures - episiotomies, etc. - are more common if inducement drugs and epidurals are administered, which in turn significantly increase the chances of need for a far more tramatic cesarean section birth.

Q: That's great, but does Jill have any idea what she's in for?
A: No, but then no first-time mother does. Yet natural childbirth is what the body was designed to do. It's a matter of physical preparation through exercise and relaxation techniques as well as education about the whole process that helps get through the inevitable difficult parts and avoids unnecessary difficult parts.

Q: What do you mean by unnecessary difficult parts?
A: Many things that uninformed couples do, before and during the hospital birth, can serve to complicate or make the birth far more miserable than it should be. Going in to the hospital too soon, not knowing what can be done pre-admittance to get baby into the best position possible, the mom not knowing all of the therapies that are available to her instead of drugs, the mom being allowed to lie flat on her back during labor, limited amounts of time for various stages of natural labor before inducement is required, inducement drugs administered at too-high dosage causing far more painful labor, artificially painful labor that then requires the mom to get an epidural, the epidural slowing labor and increasing the chance of a cesarean section, the rate of which are on the rise nationwide. All of these things can be avoided with education about the woman's body, labor stages and strategies for different parts of those stages to get through them without drugs.

Alternatively, a fully natural birth has many benefits, including a fully healthy and alert baby that is immediately ready to feed, an alert and healthy mom that is able to immediately begin breastfeeding and will have a higher success rate of sustaining breastfeeding through infancy, and a hormone surge that serves to reduce the size of the uterus more quickly as well as return the mother to her healthy normal weight sooner.

Q: But what if there are complications you can't control?
A: I didn't say we were militant, I just mean that we want to do everything we can to avoid medical intervention. If the baby is breach (butt/legs first), the chord is around the baby in a complicated manner or anything else, we are prepared to allow the doctors to intervene for the health of Jill and baby. But if all is normal, then a natural birth it shall be.

Q: So what does the dad do during all of this?
A: He's the coach. He is the anchor while Mom goes through labor, works with the hospital (nurse-midwife in our case) personnel on behalf of the laboring Mom, massages and comforts Mom in any way necessary and helps her to rest, relax and position herself however (soaking tub, labor bar, pregnancy ball, however!) so that labor passes as well as possible. His presence is particularly important through Transition - the short 45-minute to hour window of time when the Mom is insistent upon pain relief. Transition is immediately before the less painful Pushing stage begins and with Dad there to encourage her, she can get through the short Transition and begin delivery with less discomfort. Most women can get through late-stage labor without pain medication, but for whatever reason turn 180-degrees and psychologically demand it in the short, final transition stage, even though things will get much better very quickly soon after.

MORE LATER!

MORE NEW BABY PHOTOS

Well, not of our baby, but of a couple of new arrivals over the past few months.

First up, William Gardner, son of Matthew and Dana Gardner, Seattle Principal of my company and his wife. William was born a premie, but he's adding weight and growing quite quickly every day. Here's a shot of him sleeping quite soundly and happily based on his smile.

William Gardner


Second, Noah Chow-Monreal of Waco, Texas. His mother, Inga Chow, is an old friend from Baylor and his father is another alum, Richard Monreal. Looks like little Noah is excited about getting teeth!

Noah Chow-Monreal


IS THIS LINE OF QUESTIONING GOING ANYWHERE?

Yesterday, I had the privelage of testifying before a hearings examiner in Seattle as an expert witness regarding negative economic impacts of construction activities on nearby business.. noise, closed lanes, etc. It was a bit stressful, but it was a great experience. In fact, it was my first time to be an expert witness like that.

I apparently did an okay job because opposing counsel got a bit flustered.. rubbing his eyes and red-faced in frustration. I didn't stonewall, but he just wasn't able poke many holes in my study, his primary job. At one point, counsel for my clients while leaning back in his chair, turned to the hearings examiner and asked if the opposition's line of questioning was going anywhere. It's a question that comes as close to a slam of opposing counsel as one can get in such a formal setting.

I haven't heard how the rest of it went, but all should be well.

NEW BABY PHOTOS

Well, not of the baby itself per se, but it's certainly part of the picture. Here's a shot with a happy mommy and daddy.


And check out the fantastic job the daddy did on replacing the old window trim!

Turns out it's not necessarily the baby's head I was rubbing and poking as I previously discussed. It might very well have been the baby's backside. According to Jill's nurse-midwife, the baby is turning upside down and rightside up, so nobody knows. We still think it was the baby's head based on the shape.

Yesterday we went through a litany of possible names.. I'm the only one that likes Rufus... and spoke them to the baby. I figured the baby had a right to input on a name, so we felt for response after saying each name a few times. Only two got a response:

William and Charlotte

But I'm not inclined to name my own son, if it is a boy, after myself - plus, William is a little too popular of a name right now. What about Ronald Wilson?

By the way, I forgot to mention that we registered the baby at Babies R Us. You are welcome to check out the registery if you care to, but please feel no pressure to do so. I'm not very crazy about when people send announcements and invitations to absolutely everyone in hopes of casting a wide net for gifts. The news is then cheapened, in my opinion, amounting to nothing more than an invoice. So there it is: all is appreciated but nothing is expected.

JUDY HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL

I didn't get to post it Friday, but Judy did actually get to go home on Thursday rather than Friday. They still expect her to have a speedy recovery. She's pretty well confined to her bed with her foot in a cast, elevated with a pillow. Unfortuntely, she has to use her crutches more than she cares to because the halls in their home are to narrow for their wheelchair with the leg support fully extended. Otherwise, all is going well over there.

MOM AND DAD CHANGE REAL ESTATE GEARS

Jill and I had dinner with them at the Raccoon Lodge Friday night.



They let us know they backed out of the five-acre deal, feeling that the general contractor was trying to rip them off and would likely do so no matter where they purchased up there because there wasn't much competition. So, they're looking for a home more like ours.. smaller, likely 30 years or so in age, and with a bit more land than the typical new home these days. All in all, I think this is a good strategy, also.

RONALD REAGAN

I'm not going to bother writing a lot about President Reagan. You'll find tributes on TV - it's times like this I'm grateful we don't have cable TV and its monotonous, redundant news channels - and all over the web, among the best of which is this one by Peggy Noonan, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a former speechwriter for him.

But I've been impressed with the resonance his death has had in the minds of most Americans across most of the political spectrum. It seems that to those who are Democrats/liberals/members of the press, Reagan was a "great leader" whose legacy was chiefly "the restoration of American spirit and confidence" but little else - what incentive do they have to canonize him? To those who are Republicans/conservatives/libertarians, he walked on water... and even Jesus didn't get to personally vanquished the great hobgoblins of the 1970s: Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, union contract-driven stagflation and the Soviet Union.

Somewhere in the middle is the the truth about Reagan and his legacy, though I have to admit that I lean towards the latter category of inclination: major change in the world is a very complicated thing, but there's no doubt in my mind that his rhetoric, decisiveness, charisma and ability to stare down the Soviet Union and force them to blink will and should be most remembered. A negative legacy is there as well: I have seen firsthand the human toll his militarization of Latin America has taken. All too many women and children south of Mexico are widows and orphans - and their peace, that comes only with justice, is just now beginning to take shape. We might not have pulled triggers, but we gave aid and comfort to those who deserved the exact opposite.

But on the balance, the world is a better place because of him, no matter what some bitter opponents might say. Who but the malevolently self-loathing would prefer the Soviet Union's health? He was like everyone's favorite feisty but good-natured grandfather; a welcome member of the family. And just in case you forget how much like family he was received, here's the 1984 Electoral College map. As you can see, nearly the entire country was blue - and, so it seems, it has been since Saturday when the sad but long-expected news broke.



Rest in peace, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

YES - STILL ALIVE

To say that the past several weeks have not been extremely busy would be a lie. So, updates have been non-existent. But much has gone on - and I'm still committed to describing the rest of our Kaua'i trip among other things, so I'm taking a quick breather and doing some posting.

JUDY HAS FOOT SURGERY

Tuesday morning, Judy Korynasz had reconstructive foot surgery at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital in Portland. Instead of having artificial reconstruction, the doctors utilized bone tissue from her hip to rebuild depleted structure in her foot. The surgery went very well, though Judy took a bit longer than expected to wake up afterward. We have since learned that mildly low blood pressure was to blame.. nothing too serious.

She should be home tomorrow, Friday the 4th. They originally expected her to be home today, Thursday, but several factors may be contributing to the delay. First, foot reconstruction requires a longer healing period before she gets to begin walking in physical therapy. The healing process is more delicate and unlike her knee replacements, she will not get to begin walking immediately after her surgery. She is more than likely going to have to wait at least two months. You have your work cut out for you, John!

Second, her care at Legacy Emmanuel is apparently not as diligent as she received at Medford, Oregon's Providence Hospital. The doctors and nurses rarely come by and, when she presses the call button for nurse assistance, they take up to a half hour to check in on her. I have to say that Providence is, indeed, a superior health care provider. Finally, her occasional low blood pressure might also be contributing to her day-longer stay. Again, it's nothing serious but remember: hospitals make more money the more time you spend in them.

We look forward to her returning home for the remainder of her recuperation (how's that for alliteration? - and a rhyme to boot).

MOM AND DAD UPDATE

It looks like they've found five acres of land overlooking the Columbia River in Woodland, Washington. They plan to have a Lindal cedar home built, with a central "great room" full of tall, large windows to maximize views. Sounds great to me. I did a walk-through of the property a couple of weeks ago, Dad with his machete in hand. It's a nice piece of dirt, no improvements whatsoever, but plenty of privacy, a small seasonal creek on the periphery, and plenty of space for a nice woodlands garden and a pottager, to say the least. I'm excited for them. And apparently, the home will only take six months to build.

This weekend, Mom was in Montana at some big antique fair. I'm sure I'll get the full report soon and when I do, I'll provide details. Apparently, she and Jim Ed picked up some sort of Vegas-bound hitchhiker. We'll see what that's all about soon enough.

And regarding the Washington State car registration fiasco. Mother went in to the Washington DMV to register her truck. Because she listed the date of her permanent relocation to the beginning of her apartment lease, April 1, State law requires that she pay the balance of sales tax on her new truck because she purchased it in a different state and moved within two months of that date. Well, the WA sales tax rate is 2% higher than the New Mexico rate, so she was charged $1,200!

I told her to go back and tell them that because you had not yet decided to actually make Washington your permanent residence until you purchased land - anyone can rent an apartment anywhere on a temporary basis - she should not list April 1 as her new residency date. She did just that and they gave her money back. Moneygrubbers. And the fact is, if Washington didn't work out for them, it's not their primary residence.. both of them are on the move most of the time and Dad could just as well claim Tulsa as their primary residence because he's there more consistently than than she is up here for longer periods of time due to his job.

BABY UPDATE

I can honestly say that there is little news about the baby other than the fact that it's growing like a weed. We figure it's now over three pounds and adding half a pound every week or so for the next few weeks. Jill is in her third trimester now and is definitely getting a bigger belly, but she's still comfortably mobile. Gardening has become a problem as she can't bend over to pull weeds, plant things, etc. so easily, however.

Each night we talk to the baby some and we're able to feel its little head pressing against the top of Jill's belly. We play with it a bit.. pressing here and there and usually getting a reaction of different movement. If it could speak, I suppose it would say "Cut that out, will ya?!" Or something along those lines. It apparently has a developed sense of hearing and can identify bright light, so we're going to be a bit more diligent about talking to it, reading to it and playing music - Vivaldi, precisely.

Since I don't have any ultrasound pics yet scanned, here's a 3D ultrasound image of a 30-week fetus for everyone to see.. the kid should look something like this: