Disneyland photos added

The last of the photos needing to be added, or at least decent enough to add, can be found here.

Lots More Photos

Okay, I managed to add quite a few photos with more on the way. Our trip to Sacramento and our recent trip to Los Angeles are largely featured. I still have to add Disneyland pics, though.

Here's the link.

Disneyland!

He had a great time, though I think the Casey Jr. Circus Train won out as the favorite... even more than the Finding Nemo Submarine Ride or the Winnie the Pooh Ride. If I get these new, larger photos from our new camera figured out, I'll get more loaded onto our family photos page.

More Photos Uploaded

Gabriel & Ina, Waimanalo, Oahu, Hawaii October 2007

I've added quite a few new photos to our flickr.com photo album, mostly from this summer, New Orleans, and a few from Hawaii. More from the Hawaii trip will be added in the next couple of days.

He Had a Blast

Gabriel at Waimanalo Beach, Oahu, Hawaii on October 3.

More photos will be available in good time at our Flickr page soon enough. It's kinda hectic around here right now.

Big Easy - Not Really

We returned from our trip to New Orleans late Wednesday night. There are photos and stories galore and I hope to write about what I saw, and the adventures Gabriel and Jill had while I was working and eating at the Commander's Palace. Wow.

And another Wow for the hotel we stayed at: Hotel Monteleone, the fabled birthplace of Truman Capote and hotel home of Tennessee Williams when he wrote A Streetcare Named Desire. Wow.

More after I finish this economic impact study of a $3.7 billion nuclear power plant proposed in Idaho. Can that be considered familial betrayal?

Sorry!

Much To Blog, Little Time

We returned from Sacramento yesterday after our visit with Tom, Kate and Baby Hayes. It was a great visit, Hayes was remarkably mellow and content, Gabriel couldn't kiss him enough, and we visited what must be one of the best choo-choo museums in the world.

Lots of photos, lots of info I hope to get to soon. Check back regularly.

When We Can't Be There

Listening to the music will just have to do.

I don't listen all the time, but traditional Hawaiian music has a special place in my heart. Like mariachi, little else transports me to travel memories like Hawaiian music.

So today, I've been listening to AM 940 based out of Honolulu. All Traditional Hawaiian, All The Time!

I distinctly remember listening to AM 940 when driving at night on Kaua'i. On the meandering road from Anini to Kilauea to pick up an occasional smoked ono pizza at Pau Hana Pizza, I could hear lapping ocean waves through the driver's side window, AM 940 gently playing in the car, Kilauea Lighthouse beaming in the distance, and oh the moon and stars in the glare-free night sky.

Until we can return, a live music feed on the internet will suffice.

Gabriel Downtown

Yesterday, Gabriel spent the morning with me downtown. After singing his little heart out to his favorite Raffi CD,

we got into my office and watched Wallace & Gromit for a little while.

I set up the big screen and hooked the movie up to the projector, so the picture was pretty big ("Big TV, DADA!) And he thoroughly enjoyed a Starbucks berry/yogurt parfait while he watched.

After that, we walked over to Pioneer Place, hopped on a Max train,

and rode all the way to Sunset Station through the big tunnel. He clearly had a blast, because when we pulled out of Washington Park station, he joyfully declared "I love Choo-Choos!"

Afterward, we met Mama for lunch at Todai and Gabriel chowed down on teriyaki, tomato salad, sushi, about eight orange wedges and my peach crepe.

Easter Dinner

Easter Dinner, originally uploaded by korynasz.

Here's a shot of Easter dinner with Gabriel working on eating all of the crust off the bread. Jack Nemeth is in the red shirt, Memo and Grandma on the left, Papa and Nana on the right, and Dada in the foreground in the blue shirt.

Mama is snapping the photo. Also visible is our new dining room set that barely made it in time for Sunday. I had to rent a U-Haul at the last minute to go pick up the set from Consignments Northwest because they called and canceled our already-delayed delivery.

I read the company owner the Riot Act but the best he could do was "help us load it if you bring a truck yourselves." I got this news on Saturday afternoon - how I managed to rent a truck that late in the day on Saturday is a milagro. With several strokes of luck I got the dining set back to the house and Jill and I unloaded it ourselves.

Unfortunately, because of the ordeal we didn't have time to dye Easter eggs with Gabriel, but honestly he had so much fun running up and down the U-haul truck ramp that he clearly had a great time anyway (REALLY BIG TRUCK, DADA!!)

But all in all, it was a happy Easter.

The Day is Still Interesting

So I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my 11:40 Boise flight and who should also be waiting not 20 feet from me?

Jerome Kersey, former star of the Portland Trailblazers.

I hope I don't sit next to him; Horizon airplanes have only so much room for people over 6'3".

Not A Good Morning

Did this happen to you this morning?

You woke up an hour too late for a 6am flight?

-and-

In your rush to get to the airport anyway after only eight hours of sleep in the previous two days, hoping the flight will be delayed, you hit a seemingly invisible freeway off-ramp divider curb at about 50 mph and burst your front driver-side (and, therefore, freeway side) tire at about the location in the webcam below?



-and-

You got sprayed over and over again - in your sport coat and slacks - by cars speeding by a little too closely on their way to work as you changed your tire on the right-side pullout?

-and-

When you attempted to loosen the nuts on the tire in the pre-6am darkness, you somehow didn't get the jack perfectly under the car and the car slides off of the jack back to the ground?

-and-

When finally - tired, wet, and grubby - you go to the back of the car to get the spare that you leaned on the bumper, you look and see that the spare disappeared?

-and-

When you looked around you realized that when the car slipped off the jack, the tire managed to slip off of the bumper and roll 100 feet across three lanes of interstate freeway to rest in the middle median?

-and-

You had to run across the three lanes of traffic, admittedly not peak rush hour because its only 6am, fetch the tire and when there were few enough approaching cars you ran it back across the freeway to your car?

-and-

After you got everything put back in place and drove off you heard the brakes - which needed work anyway - grinding even worse than before indicating something possibly more serious?

-and-

Finally, when you got to a phone and called the airline about missing the flight, the agent states that the airplane was delayed for more than 30 minutes and you realize you would have made the flight if it wasn't for having extraordinarily unlucky tire trouble?

If you did, your morning was as bad as mine. Trust me when I say I hope you said no to the above questions.

Gabriel's New Big Truck

Well, not really that big or a truck, but Gabriel is now a happy passenger in a 2002 Toyota Highlander we bought on Friday evening. We got it used on Craigslist and it was quite a find for us.



Below is a photo from the listing. So far we've taken it out to see the horse and back, went to the park to see geese and throw rocks, and done a few odd chores. It's great fun to drive and Gabriel loves the keyless entry remote, of course.




That means I get to get rid of the chickenmobile!

Seattle to Portland Ride Photos

This link will take you to the Post Falls Recumbant Active Unofficial Group (PFRAUG - guess what the animal mascot is!) website.



There you can find various photos of the groups's bicycle journey from Seattle to Portland a couple of weekends ago. Here's a shot I took at the finish line along with some action shots of Gramma Dianne, Andrea and Jim Ed.





Congratulations Again!

Eventful Weekend

Part I

This past weekend was rather eventful for Hillsboro, Oregon and/or its residents.. at least the ones that get press on this website.

First, Mom and Jim Ed completed, and Andrea went over half way on, the Seattle to Portland (STP) Bike Classic. It's a two-day bicycle ride (over 100 miles each leg) from the University of Washington in north Seattle to the Lloyd District in Portland.

I don't have photos, but I can vouch for the fact that they were both rather sunburnt and exhausted when I picked them up near the finish line. Follow the link above for more information about the event.

Congratulations to All Three of You for Your Foolhardiness Bravery!

Part II

This weekend marked the annual Oregon Airshow held at the Hillsboro Airport, a couple of miles from where we live. Past years have been enjoyable because the different plans have a flight pattern that goes somewhat near where we live.. fly-bys, not acrobatics.

Well, this year was a great time to not be home. It turns out that on Sunday, one of the planes crashed into a residential area, killing the pilot and destroying at least four homes. We were visiting a garden in Forest Grove when it occurred, but on the way back home we noticed a large plume of black smoke billowing upward in the distance from where the airport is located. As we got closer, the smoke was coming from a slightly different direction than the airport. It turned out it was coming from a neighborhood just east of the airport.

The Hawker-Siddeley Hunter MK-58A


It was apparently part of the static display of planes parked on the ground. At the end of the show, as the pilot took off to head back home to California, the engine apparently had an all-out failure. The story reports the engine was silent when it hit the ground. Luckily, the house was vacant and the pilot managed to stear the plane from hitting the always busy Orenco New Seasons grocery store we visit often.

Here's video caught by people in the area and rebroadcast on a local TV station.


A sad day for Hillsboro. Now the whole airshow is being questioned, led (not surprisingly) by Intel. The company has two of its largest facilities in the world located right near the airport and could easily have suffered a major catastrophe compared to a few homes, still tragically, destroyed.

Part III

Tom and Kate were in town to ferry folks around for the STP bicycle event and to visit Gabriel and us, but they ended up mostly ferrying people around. Gabriel got to see them for a couple of hours or so. Maybe next time!

THE COWLITZ TRIBAL CASINO - IN THE NEWS AGAIN

I recently provided testimony before a Clark County, Washington Board of Commissioners work session regarding the impacts of a major, new tribal casino proposed along I-5 at the northern end of the county. I wrote a memorandum for the County summarizing our comments about the Casino Environmental Impact Statement and was there to answer questions.

The Columbian, the paper of record for Southwest Washington, had a couple of stories including information about the memo I wrote, one of of which includes a misquote of something I said.

First story
Second story with misquote

I like the press, but I'm not dumb enough to actually believe (much less say) that a small casino could work at a warehouse/distribution center. I have to wonder what the reporter was smoking thinking.

Day At The Beach

There are now a couple of photos I promised showing Gabriel's grand day at Cannon Beach, to the left and below. Enjoy.. but not as much as he enjoyed the water! Yes, that's his mussel shell he's throwing in the water.



We returned to the beach on Saturday with the rental car I had: a Sebring Touring. It was a grand drive to the coast on a sunny day. But Gabriel didn't so much like the wind in his hair when we got on the freeway. All in all, it was a great time, though. We capped the afternoon off with a great pizza at the beach.

JOHN RECOVERING FROM EYE SURGERY

John Korynasz had surgery last week on his left eye to relieve symptoms of glaucoma. Lucky for him the surgery was done by the head of the department at the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU).

So far, the surgery seems to have been a success with his symptoms, primarily fluid pressure within his eye, being alleviated along with gradually improving eyesight. Good News.

ME-MA TO BECOME AN OREGONIAN

The 4th of July Weekend move for Me-Ma to Hillsboro is now in the furniture rearranging stage as she settles into Gramma Dianne's house. The cooler weather compared to Pahrump, NV must be a relief. We welcome her to town and hope she finds the new digs comfortable! Gabriel enjoys it over there, anyway.. particularly when the waterhose is on.

Toni and Taryn are also in town for a few weeks to pick berries and enjoy the summer up here. Gabriel had fun playing with them the other day, particularly when Gramma turned on the lawn sprinkler.

Welcome!

WAWA & HOT

Those two words were officially added to the Gabriel vocabulary this week. We now count over twenty words, some recognizable and some not. To qualify, they must be specific words for specific things, even though they may not necessarily be English.

mama dadda baby gabri bubble bee hi bye baaa moo choo-choo nana (no) deedah (diaper) nena (Nino) ummy-ngummy (food) wawa (water) hot mo (more) ngigh-ngigh (night-night) ball peepee bath uh-oh wow

I'm sure I forgot something.. I'll go back and revise when I remember something else.