HAROLD & CHIQUI BAHR's 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Harold & Chiqui recently celebrated their 50th anniversary in Anchorage. This is a link to the Anchorage Daily News Together story on their marriage.


Source: Anchorage Daily News

For fun, I Googled some of the locations in the Philippines. Here are a couple of photos of the church where they were married 50 years ago, the Malate Catholic Church in Manila.


Source: VirtualTourist.com

Congratulations on a Well-Lived Life Together!

MAJOR UPDATE PLANNED.. SOON

It's been an extremely busy few weeks.. much to write about, and very soon.

HAPPY EASTER!

It was for Gabriel until his cold relapsed in the evening. Below is a photo of him with his Easter basket from Gramma Judy and Grampa Koke. He's ready to dive right in.


Gabriel's First Easter 

We enjoyed dinner with his grandparents - leg of lamb and steak (for Jill). Very tasty food.. cute animals are the best. Gabriel was a pretty good sport and enjoyed himself, but then started coughing more and began to run a fever... even with the house like a furnace with all the cooking going on.

He was up every hour or so last night coughing and restless. I slept dead to the world while Jill woke up every hour or so... even after she moved him into our bed later in the night. All we can do now is comfort him, get him to eat and wait it out.

GABRIEL'S AIRPLANE TRIP A SMASH

I have several photos and narrative to write.. I'll get to that tomorrow hopefully. I've been a bit busy.

More later...

TRYING OUT "HELLO" PHOTO POSTING PROGRAM

Below is a photo of Gabriel on the day he turned 7 months. I posted the photo with a new program called "Hello" (click the quotation box icon below the photo for details) and I'm pleased. The photo is hosted for free, they resize it for me and when anyone clicks on it, a larger version comes up that you can print yourself.

The program also has a messenger service intalled so that people can share photos instantly. I also recommend another program in Google's empire, Picasa2. It's free and a really nice way to store, organize and edit/enhace any photos you have on your machine. Anyway, enjoy!


Gabriel at 7 Months 

WATER BABY

Mom generously contributed these photos of Gabriel and Jill enjoying swim lessons recently. Apparently, her digital camera has a better flash.

I'd say they were enjoying themselves!

7 MONTHS OLD

This past Sunday, Gabriel turned 7 months old. It's astonishing that it's already been 7 months.. I'm going to blink and he'll be asking me for keys to the car.

But his seventh month was indeed a busy one. I already wrote about his first meal of rice cereal. Here's a bit of an update of latest developments:

-He enjoys a variety of fruit and vegetables now, including pears, apples, bananas, peas, sweet potato and avodado. He's not a big fan of squash.

-He now has his two bottom teeth. They're still emerging, but they flash when he smiles really big. He touches them and has started to get used to them.

-He sits up marvelously, though isn't able to pull himself upright from laying down yet.

-He enjoys time on his tummy far more now, propping his head and shoulders up high off the ground. He's not yet figured out how to move his knees up under himself to crawl - all in good time.

-He's presently in swim classes twice each week. No underwater swimming, but he's learned how to kick his legs and enjoy floating around in the water, even submerging his eyes. He's also learned how to keep his mouth shut under water and not gulp. I hope to have photos of this soon.. mine were all too dark as my flash is weak.

-He's babbling more and more now, copying noises and sounds. The other night, Great Grandma Charlotte was over playing cards and exchanging noises with Gabriel. Her oxygen unit makes an occasional puffing sound and he began imitating it.

-He's now sleeping for 7 or so hours each night reliably, though he does occasionally wake up hungry.

-He enjoys going outside and playing on his blanket when it's sunny.

And finally, he's grown to have an interest in the cats. Here's a succession of shots of Gabriel sitting next to Sundaye. He sat there for a while clinching her hair with slobbery hands - and she remained pretty calm. But clearly here, she gets a bit tired of his enthusiatic affection.

ME-MA UPDATE

Me-Ma has been out of the hospital and back in Pahrump for a while. She is able to take new heart medication and apparently is gaining strength every day. She still gets tired more frequently, but with a new wheelchair, she's getting around and feeling better about each day.

I haven't reached her yet, but we'll be visiting her in Pahrump from March 17th to 19th. I'm sure she'll enjoy seeing Gabriel - he certainly enjoys visiting.

GRAMMA UPDATE

I talked to Gramma Reid yesterday and she sounded like she was feeling better. She does get more exhausted during the day, but she seemed happy and we had a good conversation. We'll be visiting Farmington from March 19th through the 21st.

Tom and Kate will be joining us on that leg of the journey apparently.

TOM & KATE: NOT TOO EXTREME MAKEOVER-HOME EDITION

It looks like Tom and Kate will soon be proud homeowners. After shopping around in the Sacramento area for a house, they found one in an established Fair Oaks neighborhood and made a slightly low-ball offer. Here's a link to the listing. A photo of the house with the pool and spa is found below.



The current owners are going through a divorce and wanted to sell quickly and it looks like they're getting their wish. Interestingly, the house is just a few blocks away from Kate's parents' home.

It apparently will have fixer-upper projects, mostly updating, but they're excited to get in and make it their own.

Congratulations on the big step!

*SPOILER* (highlight after the dash with you mouse) - I predict a cousin for Gabriel within two years.. there's just something about owning a house. Nesting is inevitable!

MARGAUX JOHNSON ARRIVES

The Johnson True family welcomed their third addition on Monday, February 21st. A roughly 7 lb. baby girl, Margaux Johnson is happy, healthy, and apparently sleeping much better than Gabriel did at that age. Here are a couple of photos of Margaux, the first with her big sister Emma and the second with her big brother Henry.

Congratulations! It looks like the balance of power has shifted back to the ladies.

PASS THE MAALOX TO MT. ST. HELENS

Mt. St. Helens put on quite a show yesterday afternoon around 5:30. After several months of small steam plumes barely escaping its lava dome (see the VolcanoCam in the left margin), the mountain emitted a rather grand "ash burst" - an apparent vulcanology term (link goes to a photo of a fascinating team of French vulcanologists).

The plume reached over 36,000 feet.. or roughly 6 miles high! Photos of the event are below. Both are from viewers of the local TV station KATU via their website. Viewer descriptions of the shots are included in the .jpg.





As you can see, it was quite an ash burst. I guess this means St. Helens is currently the biggest ash hole in North America. Sorry - I couldn't help myself.

TOM TAKES THE CALIFORNIA BAR EXAM

Tom took the California bar exam last week, beginning on Monday the 2nd I believe.

Good luck, Tom! Sounds like you were more confident this time based on your studying.

WORD FROM BRYAN MOORE

I heard from Bryan Moore, my old Baylor friend and roommate. As poor graduate students, we managed to attend each others weddings in Dallas, Texas and Eugene, Oregon, respectively. I'll quote him directly:

We (Bryan and Renee -ed) have a 2.5 year old little girl named Sydney. She was born in Chicago and since then we have lived in many states like Maryland, California, and now Indiana. I took a new job last year with Roche Diagnostics and it is going very well. I think we will be here for a number of years. We like the town, our house, and my job...a rare combination.

Sounds like things are going well for him. I did some digging and he has a website. Pictures aren't up (yet).

LEANER, MEANER ME

After two-and-a-half weeks on the Atkins diet, induction phase, I've managed to lose 13 pounds. I still haven't reached my target weight yet (195 lbs.) but I'm only five pounds away.

I work out in the exercise room in this building every day for an hour to an hour and a half. Most of it is aerobic training on a machine that looks a little bit like a stairmaster crossed with an x-country ski machine. It works is the bottom line.

PAUL THEROUX: 1994 EYEWITNESS TO GERMAN VIOLATION OF IRAQ SANCTIONS

I'll admit that I'm a big fan of Paul Theroux's non-fiction writing about travels in various parts of the world. Many who are not familiar with him might be familiar with movies made from at least two of his fictional works: The Mosquito Coast and Half Moon Street.

I've read nearly all of his travel books, starting with The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific. His body of nonfiction work basically starts with The Great Railway Bazaar: through Asia by train, chronicling his journey by train, ship and caravan round trip from London over to Japan via India and Southeast Asia and then return through Russia. His most recent, Dark Star Safari, is about his travels from Cairo, Egypt to Capetown, South Africa by any means available except airplanes.

I got the latter from Jill for Christmas and I just cracked it - he's wandering through Cairo waiting for a visa to Sudan at the present moment.

But in the The Pillars of Hercules, his tour of most of the Mediterranean in the early 1990s - foreigners were being robbed and executed in Algeria at the time - Mr. Theroux makes an interesting observation while held up at the Syrian/Turkish border while trying to get into Syria.

The delay at the border today was caused by a group of Syrians smuggling shirts and pants in large suitcases. The absurdity of it was that while these smugglers opened their cases, revealing stacks of shirts in plastic bags, huge trucks rumbled past. They were German, and they were loaded with crates of German machinery, from a firm called Mannesmann. The crates were stamped For the Ministry of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq. Six of these vast flatbed trucks. They were headed towards Iraq, through Syria-and they were waved through by Syrian soldiers. It seemed to make little difference to anyone that Iraq was subject to U.N. sanctions and such a shipment of German machine parts was illegal. In the meantime the shirt smugglers were bullied and denounced.

Theroux is a stickler for honest observation - if sometimes characterized as cranky. But I'd say this is extremely reliable documentation of German and Syrian complicity in Saddam Hussein's abuse of the U.N. Oil-for-Food program. I suppose it isn't if you dine on military telecommunications equipment.

The book was particularly fascinating for these observations, as well as others as he sees activities and hears reports along his travels that provide foreshadowing of the names and events all too familiar since September 11, 2001. His account of travel through Croatia, Slovakia and Albania during the Serbian war is worth the price of the book alone.

SERVER BACK UP - PHOTOS BACK ON LINE

Jerry got the server online this afternoon, so as you can see, Gabriel's photos are also back on line again. Huzzah!

I'll update with more info and photos at my earliest opportunity.

JOHNSON GARDNER SERVER DOWN

My company's server crashed yesterday, Tuesday. Why is that notable? Well, all of our personal photos that are posted on this website are hosted on the company server. As you can see, the photos are temporarily gone. Things will hopefully be back to normal soon.

ME-MA UPDATE 2/16

Me-Ma was moved out of the intensive care wing of the Spring Valley Hospital yesterday and is now in the normal care wing of the hospital. She's still recovering slowly, but making progress and the doctors are satisfied with her condition that she doesn't need constant monitoring. Any progress, even slow, is greeted happily. The doctors continue to discuss her ability to go back to Pahrump after she's stabilized a bit more and her heart treatment details are worked out.

Everyone will be happy about that, but certainly no one more than her.

JOHN KORYNASZ'S EYE SURGERY TODAY

John, or Koke to many of you, will be having eye surgery today to continue to improve his eyesight. His vision hasn't quite been the same after his cancer treatment, but good doctors in Medford, and seemingly here in the Portland area, seem to have helped his vision with various surgeries over the past few years.

Prayers for success and a quick recovery are with him.

BIG SEATTLE PRESENTATION: ECONOMICS & HOUSING BUBBLES

I'm headed to Seattle to co-host a major presentation tomorrow morning at 7:30am. I'm starting off, to be followed by my employer Jerry Johnson and then Seattle partner Matthew Gardner will finish up. I'm to talk about the national and Seattle regional economies, current and outlook.

One of the points I will be making tomorrow has to do with whether or not we have a housing bubble. By housing bubble, I mean whether or not housing prices nationwide have escalated due to normal market forces or by a bubble - "irrational exhuberance" by homebuyers and speculators - sort of like the internet firm stock market bubble that "burst" in 2000.

The issue has been of much interest in the press off and on, really for no better reason than a irrational prices driven by irrational buyers, seems to be one of the few concepts journalists seem to think they understand.. they don't. The following link is to a .pdf copy of an economic research paper out of Harvard University's Institute of Economic Research, which basically finds that when you control for land values, one of the major recent drivers of higher home prices is actually regulation, zoning and other government hurdles to development and construction - only making housing affordability for first-timers and lower income people all the worse.

In other words, planning, smart growth and growth management polices have become a larger and larger tax on actual construction costs, thus making home prices escalate nationwide, substantially in some areas known for aggressive land use policies.

Oddly enough, Seattle is one of the worst according to some of the statistics they employ, and I plan to make the point tomorrow!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Don't forget to give your sweety a big smooch!



ME-MA UPDATE

Me-Ma has had a series of good days lately and has made progress, though quite gradually. The doctors are now talking of her being able to leave the hospital fairly soon as her systems are stabilizing to their satisfaction.

On the fun side, she's had her sodium-restricted diet ended so that she can raise her sodium levels. She now gets to salt all her food, so the enhanced flavor has definitely helped increase her appetite.

All in all, she's progressing and gaining strength, so that's great news.

GRAMMA REID UPDATE

I spoke to Gramma and she's feeling better and, in her words, "behaving herself." She's taking it easy, putting her feet up and feeling alright. Betty went to Farmington for a week to help out - I got to speak with her for a while. It was good to catch up.

Steve and Jim are expected to visit soon, as are Kathleen and my father. That should be a shindig if they all visit at the same time.

SOLID FOOD

Well, after a 6-month Well Baby checkup at his pediatrician's office, Gabriel was given the green light to try solid foods. Here are a couple of the photos of his first non-milk meal: rice cereal.

He started off a little awkwardly thinking the spoon was something to just chew on for relief of his gums; he has two little bumps from growing front teeth on his bottom jaw.

But once he tasted the rice cereal, he quickly got the idea and ended up eating quite a lot of his food. Some dribbled onto his bib, but surprisingly little actually. As you can see in the second picture, he got a bit impatient with his mom, grabbed the spoon and sucked the food off all by himself.

He's now eating two to three tablespoons of cereal at a time. He's tried little bits of banana mashed up, so we'll do that soon in larger quantities with the spoon. He's sure to love it.

So begins the gradual snowball effect on our grocery bill. It's a good thing Costco is building their largest store ever about three minutes from our house!

ME-MA UPDATE 2/3

Dad called today and reported that the doctors are getting a better idea of the various issues keeping Me-ma's recovery on the slow side. Apparently, she is having complications with low blood pressure, weak heart rate, and low sodium levels.

Different combinations of treatment are being used, though she's been taken off of the heart medication because it was having advere effects on her blood pressure.

Meanwhile, she's visiting with family that have made it to Las Vegas as she rests when not prodded by the doctors.

GRAMMA REID UPDATE 2/3

Gramma Reid is home from the hospital, since Monday as I am aware, and seems to be doing alright. She's more comfortable at home, but is still being monitored carefully by her nurse for any sudden changes in her heart rate or other systems.

We keep both of them and their recovery in our prayers.

GABRIEL AN INTERNET PHENOMENON

It seems Les Hardison has posted a photo of Gabriel and his great-grandmother Charlotte on his estimable website. Scroll halfway down for the entry if you click the link.

It seems Gabriel's penchant for singing has raised Les's eyebrow - and while Gabriel's not yet following in the footsteps of his grandmother Judy in ably singing Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod, not Schubert), he certainly impresses us with his jazzy riffs on melodies whose identity only he knows. Here's a copy of the photo on Les's site.

ME-MA UPDATE

Leigh (Marquez) emailed with an update about Me Ma:

Rick and Libby called me last night after getting an update from Sue on how Me-ma is doing. As of 10pm last night when Sue was leaving the hospital she said that Me-ma was feeling better, the nausia is easing up a little as well. She found out that the reason Me-ma's cardiologist hasn't made an appearance is because he doesn't have a contract to practice at that hospital, but has been contacted by the cardiologist that is currently treating Me-ma and the two of them are working together to care for her. They feel that her heart rate is a little slow so they have given her a medication that will increase her heart rate to help the blood flow a little faster to carry the much needed fluids and help bring her sodium level up. They are going to monitor this closely as they don't want to over work her heart or cause any other problems.

Sounds like things are slowly improving - good news - despite hospital red tape.

ME-MA ADMITTED TO LAS VEGAS HOSPITAL

Me-Ma has been admitted to a Las Vegas hospital due to serious health complications resulting from flu-like symptoms over the past several days. Upon arriving, it was determined that her fluid and sodium levels were shockingly low, apparently to the extent that she had a mild heart attack.

I'll just post the contents of the email Mother sent earlier today. She and Jim Ed are driving down to Las Vegas beginning this evening.

hi, just heard from sue. here is the latest.
they did a ct scan on her stomach this morning. seems they were able to get the dye to stay down for 15 minutes. no results back yet.
her urinalysis came back okay.
dr. seems to think her infection is in her lungs, but not certain, as no tests have been taken to confirm. meanwhile he is treating her with an antibiotic that takes care of pretty much all infections.
her sodium level is up to a whopping 115, from a 102. remember that the lowest level is a 139. this new count is after two days,(of a faster drip, not enough to cause any brain problems). they have since slowed it down today. before they can run an angiogram on her heart, the count has to be up to 140 at the lowest. has a ways to go in my opinion, unless this last day really adds up.
she is talking, but rests most of the time. i did get to say a quick hi to her this a.m. on the cell phone.(and i mean a quick HI)
seems cell phones are allowed in her room.Sue monitors that pretty good.
according to the doctor that sue talked to this a.m. the heart attack was brought on from dehydration, and not the low sodium count. guess those two dont go hand in hand. now, on the other hand, the cardiologist that told sue the heart attack was brought on by the low sodium count. sue will be seeing him later on today, and will tell him what the other dr said, and get to the bottom of the difference of opinion. she is also going to contact mom's cardiologist and find out why he is not making an appearance. seems he just wants to take her money in his office, and not make hospital calls. will keep you posted on that attempt.
they are waiting till they get mom's blood count stable before attempting to put in the central artery "tap". dont want her to bleed profusely. guess they have to numb the area before inserting the needle.
sue has an appointment tomorrow with kilpatrick. she will be asking him to have mom's file pulled so she can go over all of the misdiagnosises with him, and ask why fremont hires incompetent drs.
will keep you posted as soon as i hear from sue. hope this is clear enough for all to understand.
love, dianne

Our prayers for a speedy recovery are with you, Me-ma.

UPDATE: GRAMMA REID NOT YET RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL

My information the other day was not accurate; doctors in Farmington had not yet released Gramma as her heart rate did not stabilize as soon as I originally thought. She is expected to be released today. I have heard that Jim, Betty and Kathleen will be making visits to Farmington in the next few weeks.

GRAMMA REID HAS EMERGENCY TRIP TO THE HOSPITAL

An accelerated heart rate was alarming enough to Gramma's nurse that she was escorted to a clinic (incorrectly it later turned out) and then to the local emergency room. She stayed there for a couple of nights to be monitored, but now all seems to be doing better.

We're glad to hear that things are going better and keep your health in our prayers.

NOISY NEIGHBORS

Well, it's odd, but my boss Jerry was right about becoming a father. One suddently gets an incredible protective instinct that causes one to be more bold than expected.

Take just ten minutes ago. It's 12:20am Saturday morning (Letterman's on and I'm also surfing websites about the TV show LOST - two new episodes we've missed due to baby massage classes). The neighbor across the street, the one that bought the two-story that Glenn lived in, has thrown a party and his friends are outside drinking and smoking and being entirely too loud.

Now, before I would likely have sat inside and groused about the noise knowing that they'd eventually go home or be quiet. Not this time. I put my shoes on, walked over into his yard and confronted a group of about 8 of them about their noise being inappropriate for the neighborhood. I didn't want Gabriel and Jill to wake up.. Gabriel for obvious reasons, but Jill because she suffered a headache most of the day and she really needs her rest.

Anyway, goofy little experience. Funny.. the information St. Vincent's hospital sent home with us didn't say anything about testosterone surges. But then again, there's a lot that it didn't say anything about.

BABY MASSAGE - YEAH RIGHT!

For the past three weeks, we've taken Gabriel to a baby massage class Wednesday nights. The class is sponsored by Providence Health Systems and is taught by an occupational and physical therapist named Ruthanne.

We and eleven other babies and family sit in a circle and learn different massage techniques for different parts of our littel bundles of joy. Some help with relaxation, all help with circulation, some help with digestion and cholic. Gabriel truly enjoys the class, but only because he's the class clown. He's the oldest by two days, though all the rest but little Ian are fewer than 12 weeks old. They lay there like rag dolls and submit to their parents awkward massage techniques.

Well, not Gabriel of course. He's too busy squirming, wiggling, turning, trying to sit up, fussing, cooing, yelling, laughing, staring, grunting and smiling to be bothered with lying quietly and being massaged.. oh, no, indeed. The rest of the parents, and the instructor, chuckle at him and his boundless energy. He's just very stimulated during the process, even though he's supposed to relax.

Well, the class ends at 8pm and all the stimulation keeps him up until well after 10pm those nights. But this past week, he slept all night Wednesday night and we're hopeful the class helped.

One interesting aspect of the class is getting to meet Melanie & Karl and their son Ian. He's just four days younger than Gabriel, born August 10th. The truly fascinating thing is that she's from Indonesia (Jakarta - family were unaffected by the big earthquake) and he is from the Czech Republic.. and teaches tai chi. They met here and romance blossomed. ONLY in America. They're a very nice family.

LOTSA GOOD FAMILY DINNERS

There have been some very good meals had lately. Mom started it off a couple of weeks ago with Moroccan Halibut at her place. We were joined by John, Judy and Charlotte. Then, when Dad got into town, we went to Jin Wah for more great Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. Last night, Mom and Dad came over for Alaska Coho salmon filets on the grill. And tonight, we went to John and Judy's for pork chops and rice.

I'm never going to lose weight.

ISLAND AT WAR

I know most folks out there aren't quite the PBS fiends that Jill and I are, but I encourage everyone that remembers to catch "Island at War" on Masterpiece Theater Sunday nights to do so. It's a five-part fictionalized account of the Nazi occupation of Britain's Channel Islands, the only British territory to fall under German control during WWII. As can be seen in the map below, the Channel Islands are actually far to the southwest of the English Channel and look more like they should be (and were) French territory. Jersey and Guernsey are major islands there.



The movie is not gratuitoiusly violent, but it certainly doesn't pull punches about attacks on civilians by the Nazi Luftwaffe prior to invasion. The locals are also particularly upset about the fact that Britain left them high and dry before the Germans overran the place.

Anyway, the first episode was exceptionally good.. check it out.

BIRTHDAY & WEDDING CONFLICT?

It's rumored but unconfirmed that Chrissie Happe has set her wedding date for August 6, 2005. Congratulations, Chrissie. But that makes it likely that Tom and Kate will not be able to be up here for Gabriel's first birthday party. I would think, unless Ron hands her a check upon condition of eloping, that Tom and Kate would figure prominently in the ceremony.

So, we'll see how things evolve. How much does teleconferencing cost?

HOW DEAD IS HE?

I personally think Carson would have liked that joke. I like this cartoon, as well.


(By Daryl Cagle of Slate.com)

UPDATE - COMMENTS WORK, THOUGH NOT AS EXPECTED

If you care to make a comment, you need to go to the end of the post in question to the data stamp and "Posted by Bill." Click the pound sign - # - and it will take you to a page with that post alone. You can then add a comment on that page, which will display later.

Good luck!

UPDATE - NO COMMENT FUNCTION YET

I guess we'll get it figured out. All in good time..

UPDATE - OKAY, NOW COMMENTS ARE WORKING

I think comments are working.. are they?

SUSPICIOUS HACK JOB

It seems that yesterday, someone - Jeff K? (warning: site frequently NSFW) - hacked my blog, though didn't do any damage. I think I might have left access to the blog editing function open by accident and someone had fun.

COMMENT FUNCTION ADDED

Assuming things go correctly, I've added a comment function to my posts. From now on, one should be able to add a comment to one of my posts.

Comments must be SFW-Safe For Work/Family Friendly and appropriate. I'll delete anything I deem profane or inappropriate.

So, if you stop by, say hello and make any comments you like.. such as how cute Gabriel is!

OREGON ICE STORM

We're in the middle of a big ice storm in the Portland area, but nothing as severe as last year.

Local news is all over it - to excess, as usual. Here in Hillsboro, the ground isn't cold enough to have allowed much of an ice glaze, but a lot of objects such as outdoor furniture, cars and other cold objects have a slight layer of ice. Apparently, closer to the Columbia Gorge, ice has been far more severe with major traffic closures.

But, with the National Figure Skating championships here in Portland tonight, the show must go on. Maybe there'll be coverage during the show. It's always fun seeing how clueless most Oregon drivers are.. or stoned, rather.

WELL WELL WELL, IT SEEMS AS IF A CERTAIN SMARYTY MAN DID NOT PROTECT HIS COMPUTAR MACHENE FROM A CLEVAR HACX0R, ADN NOW SI PLAYING TEH PRICE!!! HELO MY NAEM SI JEFF K. AND YUO MAY REMAMABAR ME AS A INTARNET CELEBRIDY BECUASE MY AWARD WINNIING WEDBSITE HAS WON MANEY AWARDS FOR QUALIETY IN A FIELD OF EXAMPLES!

I GOT TIRED OF WRITEING FOR MY WEBPAEG SO NOW I HACKED INTO THIS WEBSITE AND DECIDED TO WRITE HEAR BECAUSE I AM A RENISANCE MAN!!!

UPDATE: NOT HEADED FOR ORANGE COUNTY

I just learned that I will not, in fact, be headed to Orange County tomorrow AM. The project had the plug pulled, though I may have to go at a later time when the client decides the new format and scope of analysis they'll need.

In N Out will just have to wait.

(IT'S NOW A) HAPPY NEW YEAR

Though things are now going well, the new year did not have an auspicious start. Jill, Gabriel and I all contracted a strain of the Norwalk virus on New Year's Day. We're not completely sure of how we got it, but we have theories. The critical issue is how frighteningly quickly and stealthily it passed on to others. I can see how this virus would wreak serious havoc on a cruise ship, the commonly associated venue for infections.

Gramma Judy, Gramma Dianne, Andrea and Jim Ed all contracted the illness due to their contact with us, most likely Gabriel, immediately after our New Year's Day exposure. The virus is passed through vomit or feces and, well, Gabriel is quite the manufacturer of both. Contact with him and his spit-up is what likely passed the virus onto others. Luckily, Charlotte and John were spared the malady.

In all, it took roughly three days to near-fully recover from most symptoms. Dehydration was the longest-lasting problem with associated headaches and weakness. Some have reported residual intestinal distress several days following, but mildly so. I missed two (and a half) days of work and worked from home another full day just so I wouldn't possibly pass it on to coworkers, particularly Jerry because Sue is in her third trimester, plus Emma and Henry are particularly vulnerable.

All is much better now, though, and things seem to be normalizing. We're now hand-washing Nazis when it comes to contact with food (we were that way before - 3rd world travel!) but particularly before and after playing with Gabriel.

Happy New Year!

MOM & DAD MOVE INTO HILLSBORO

The move from the Vancouver apartment was quite a success and a day early to boot. The biggest bonus, however, was the fact that Jim Ed and Andrea volunteered to help with the move and contributed greatly to its speed and ease.

Between 9am and 3pm, about 95% was loaded and moved to Hillsboro, though we did run into heavy rain during the drive over. Unloaded was a cinch, but we did get the tail end of the showers moving through. The wettest part was loading our nice, Tigard washer and dryer set into the UHaul. All in all, it was a great success. We had a barbecue dinner (Reo's Ribs - good pork ribs, shoe leather chicken) that night, but unfortunately, that is likely when the virus was passed. Sorry!

Mom's still moving in, just got her Dish Network yesterday and is waiting on Dad's return for more heavy lifting. Congrats on the new home!

I still don't have the new address (SE Maple in Hillsboro, OR 97123) and neither have I their new phone number immediately handy.

FAMILY DINNERS

We had a very nice dinner Monday night at Jin Wah in Beaverton courtesy of Charlotte Wachdorf. Jin Wah is our favorite Chinese restaurant.. The owners are an ethnically Chinese couple from Vietnam, so fresh Vietnamese and Cantonese style food, particularly seafood and all day dim sum (yum cha, actually), is on the menu in addition to standard Szechuan and Hunan cuisine. Their dim sum is the closest in quality and variety to what we enjoyed on our trip to Hong Kong last year.

After dinner, we returned to our house for a game of Rummy Dum-Dum (Wachdorf tradition). Koke managed to win, apparently his second in a row "Boston Redsox win again!"

We'll likely all return to Jin Wah in the near future: Charlotte admitted that even though they didn't have Egg Fu Young on the menu, she enjoyed everything about her meal. That's saying something.

Last night, Gramma Dianne came over for Shepherd's Pie (Cottage Pie, technically) and to visit little Gabriel. She had endured an all-day satellite TV installation - was he union?

We had a nice dinner and Gabriel enjoyed his Gramma's visit. He giggled and laughed quite a bit for her, so that was fun.

HEADED TO THE O.C.:
MAKE THAT A 2X2 ANIMAL STYLE WITH A SHAKE

I've been given a quick job to do in Santa Ana, Orange County and will be down there at the end of the week. I'll overnight Thursday and head back on Friday evening. I'm looking at the residential market in Santa Ana. Should be fun, though I'm interested to see how many stops at In N Out I can make.

JILL HEARS FROM VANESSA

Jill's old friend and matron of honor Vanessa called last week to chat and catch up. She's starting a new career in Los Angeles working her way up to do make-up and fashion design, a long-time ambition. Jill was quite excited and hopes to talk to her more in the future and do more catching up. They go way back, the extent to which there are photos from high school that Jill won't even let me see.

Congratulations and best of luck on your new endeavors, Vanessa.

ANOTHER ROOT CANAL

Tom emailed to say that pain and suffering have not been monopolized in Hillsboro. He had to have a root canal redone because of infection risk to his jaw. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say he's happy it's all over with and recovery is ensured.

GAY MARRIAGE AND PARENTING

Although Mass. and San Francisco get a lot of gay marriage press, the fact is that Oregon, specifically Multnomah County (Portland) issued many gay marriage licenses prior to the November election. Our own Measure 36 abolished the practice. People flew in from all over the country to take part in the County's politically corrupt experiment.

Who marries whom is an important debate, but I find it a bit of a distraction from the real issue: children and child-rearing. I firmly believe that a male father and a female mother is the God-ordained and biologically-intended family structure for reproduction of our species. Arguments to the contrary are, in my opinion, nothing more than self-absorbed claptrap disguised as a humanist, egalitarian civil rights movement (ask the Black community what they think of the civil rights comparisons!) that has nothing to do with the welfare of children and everything to do with the politics of homosexual self-esteem.

But aren't there studies that suggest homosexual parents are either just as good or better than heterosexual parents you say?

Why yes, but as this article so ably explains, those studies have come under harsh criticism from not only conservative critics of homosexual family structures but also noted social scientists that support alternative family structures.

The bottom line is that respected social scientists from both camps on the issue find previous research on welfare of children with gay parents to have no real scientific merit (read: not objective, not reliable, likely designed to have a pre-determined outcome) and must be viewed with strong skepticism.

In fact, "research" to date has focused on male-female parents where one was actually gay and pursued that sexuality after marriage and the children came along. Disclosure, participant bias, absence of control groups, unreliable data and unreliable resulting analysis predominate. There is also little to no real study of the effects of out-and-out same-sex couples, the hot topic of the marriage debate.

Check out the article and decide for yourself.. at the very least, the real debate is in extremely early stages and pro- arguments have extremely little merit even in the eyes of sympathetic scientists.